Systematic Shinobi - Chapter 13.1 (Patreon)

'How do your eyes feel?' Isobu asked.

A full half an hour had passed since he'd finished. It was, actually a lot easier than he thought it was going to be. Though, that was partly due to Isobu's chakra than his own efforts.

All he'd had to do was connect the nerves in his eye socket, and within minutes he was done.

'When you've been around as long as I have, it's simple to get a template of your body using my chakra,' Isobu input, 'So?' he prompted.

"Itchy." Daiki answered simply.

He couldn't tell if that was because if the nerves were still a bit tender, or because of his new visual prowess.

Even without trying to activate any of the abilities of his new eyes, his vision was still massively enhanced. Before, he had twenty-twenty vision, his eyes were pretty damn good already, and could see most things clearly for a good forty-fifty feet before they started getting blurry at all.

…Now, if he focused, he could clearly see things and focus his vision on them, and see them as if he were standing right next to them, from hundreds of feet away, and the sheer scope of his vision, which had topped out before at a few miles as was normal for human eyes, could see over ten miles away.

He'd checked with a clone.

'That'll fade I'm sure, from what I can feel of your chakra, there is no signs of rejection,' Isobu mused, 'Now you just need to figure out how these abilities work.'

He didn't really have time to work on that himself, he had things to do after all, he still had a mission to complete.

Thankfully, he had access to this handy dandy little dimension and he could just leave a bunch of clones here to work on the abilities together and pass on the information to him by dispelling while he made his way to the Village of Artisans.

'About the clones, you realise you could have had one of them do the procedure, correct?' Isobu asked.

…Yes, yes he did.

He hadn't been thinking when he started though. He just wanted to get the eyes out and in his sockets, so he didn't have to look at the kid he murdered for his eyes any longer.

Stupid of him, but already done and he couldn't change that.

Also, 'You could have let me know.' he pointed out.

'I didn't want to startle you when you were plucking your eyes.' Isobu retorted.

How annoying, why did he have to be so logical?

'It comes with thinking about things other than the 'grind'.' Isobu chuckled.

As far as the eyes went, there was a constant drain from them now that they were connected to his chakra network and he couldn't de-activate their base passive form.

But, it was honestly a miniscule amount and stopped whenever he shut his eyes and cut off his vision from seeing anything.

Which he didn't even need to do because of Isobu, because his chakra regenerated far faster than the eyes drained.

Their only passive power without focusing any more chakra into his eyes was enhanced vision, unlike the Sharingan that when active in the base, non Mangekyou forms, had all abilities passively activated at once, which was probably why it was such a major chakra drain on Kakashi.

'It's a good thing, like you thought it would be. With my chakra mixing with yours and a constant strain, your paltry chakra capacity will indeed grow passively and quickly,' Isobu hummed, 'Give it a few months and I may even be able to submerge myself in your chakra in here and go for a relaxing swim.'

….Paltry.

Again with the small chakra capacity jokes.

'No, it has nothing to do with your genitalia, I'm being literal.' Isobu deadpanned.

It still hurt his pride though.

Shaking his head, Daiki pushed himself up from where he was resting on the marble ground and stood up. It was about time to get a move on.

His eyes drifted over to the corpses of Raiga and Ranmaru, before he slowly ran through a few hand seals and inhaled, before exhaling out a white hot sphere of flame that enveloped both bodies.

Riaga's head was one thing, he could just turn it in at any bounty station before going back to Konoha. Ranmaru on the other hand…while it was possible his genes could have been put to use by the village, there was also the fact that Yamanaka could even read the lingering memories of the dead from their corpses.

He didn't want to even leave a hint of a possibility of anyone finding out what he was up to. And there was a good chance a Yamanaka would be forced to mind walk the corpse just to see if there was any information the kid had about his bloodline or a clan.

Better safe than sorry.

Ignoring the smell of burning flesh, Daiki brought his hands together in a familiar hand seal.

A moment later, there was a series of puffs of smoke and five identical clones of him appeared.

"You know what to do?" he asked.

In response, his own identical copies, crossed their arms and gave him five smirks, "We grind, what else?" the one in the centre retorted.

There could be no other answer.

Nodding, Daiki called upon Isobu's chakra and focused, 'Sunpo.' he thought, shadows of black and green warping over his form and he found himself standing once again in the ruins of a large building within the Katabami Gold Nine.

There was a bunch of people out and about, but before they even realised he was there, Daiki disappeared in a blur of speed.

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The village of Artisans, thankfully wasn't very far from the Katabami Gold Mine. It was directly north actually, and was only a days walk away, but running there at a steady pace, only took a few hours.

It was actually near the northern border of the Land of Rivers, which lead into the Land of Rain.

Spooky to think he was so close to the Akatsuki Headquarters, 'Maybe I should see if I can find their little cave safe house here in the Land of Rivers while I'm here?' Daiki mused.

That could come in handy later.

It seemed the most likely place any Jinchuuriki caught in the Land of Fire or Land of Wind would be taken to at least, and it actually wasn't that far from the Waterfall Village either, a direct line, so it was probably where Fu got sealed in the other timeline as well.

He put that out of mind for the most, he was currently at his destination, taking a stroll through the village towards the main square, where a helpful nice lady running a stall told him, the leader of the village's residence and main office was located.

Besides, it had been a fruitful few hours. His clones had put in a lot of work, with the help and advice of Isobu…and his chakra making sure they constantly had enough to train as they pleased.

He had gotten a handle on the abilities of his new eyes. Granted, it was made much easier by the fact he knew exactly what they could do and only had to puzzle out how to activate them, but still.

'Gotta admit though, this place is amazing.' Daiki mused, head going from side to side as he walked through the village, idly taking in all the shops and stalls he could see.

It really was a village of artisans, everywhere he went he could see stores selling paintings, stalls selling elaborate pottery, tons of weapon shops and he'd counted dozens of smithey's.

It was a place entirely dedicated to the trade. He could respect the grind-set.

It wasn't long later that Daiki arrived at the Village Leader's main residence and entered. He was directed to a large office area, with a small waiting room outside, a secretary waiting behind a small desk.

"Hello, may I help you?" she asked, a slender, rather petite and short, pretty lady, looking to be in her mid-twenties with brown bob-cut hair, light brown eyes and a kind smile.

"Hey, I'm from the Leaf Village," Daiki greeted her with a friendly smile of his own, "I've got a delivery for your leader."

"Ah, I see," she nodded in understanding, "The fire alignment ore. If you'd like to take a seat and wait, I'll let Tomio-sama know you're here once he's done speaking to his current visitor."

Just as she finished, he heard a loud bang come from within the office, followed by a shout, "When will you see sense you old fool! This is our sacred duty!" a man shouted angrily.

The secretary winced, giving him a shaky smile and not commenting.

He decided to do her a solid and not ask about it, "Fire alignment ore? What's what?" he asked instead.

Her smile turned a little bit more genuine, and a tinge thankful for the topic change, "It's a special type of ore that reacts very well to fire type chakra," she was happy to explain, "Do you know about chakra blades?"

"Yeah," Daiki nodded, "I'm wanting to take a look at some while I'm here, get a feel for the prices."

"Good, good, I can recommend you some shops that have good deals then," she beamed, "But anyway, I'm sure you know about elemental affinities, the ore your delivering is a type of ore that for all intents and purposes has its own affinity and will make for for forging fire alignment chakra blades. The reason why this is, is because the Land of Fire is known for the fact that the vast majority of the common population have an innate fire affinity and it in a sense, resonates with the land itself, and the land absorbs this chakra, and in turn produces this ore."

Huh, so that was how chakra blades had their unique properties then? That was really interesting to know.

"So does that mean you import lightning alignment ore for instance, from the Land of Lightning?" Daiki asked, curious.

"For the most part, yes," she confirmed, "Though, it's not like you can't find water alignment ore in the Land of Fire, it's just much more common where the Water Affinity is much more prevalent such as the Land of Water."

"I see," Daiki stroked his chin, "Then what about chakra blades that aren't aligned to any specific element?" he wondered, he knew those were a thing after all.

"The ore for those are a bit rarer," the secretary shrugged, "We generally only get those from the Land of Iron, and chakra blades from them usually cost a lot more as well."

That did make sense to him.

"Thanks a bunch for explaining this to me, you've cleared up quite a bit for me," he grinned at her, leaning lightly on her desk, "I'm Daiki, and you?"

She smiled prettily at him, "Ochako," she introduced herself, "And thanks for not asking about…that." she trailed off, glancing slightly over her shoulder at the office, where he could still faintly make out a pair of male voices arguing.

"Eh, I'm much more interested in you," he winked, "How about once I'm done here, I take you out to dinner and you can show me the best shops to check out for chakra blades?"

She giggled lightly, cheeks flushing, "Well, I do finish for the night in less than an hour," she revealed, looking him him over, lingering particularly on his muscular arms, revealed fully by the black tank top he as wearing, he had to show off the gains the grind had bestowed upon him after all. Her gaze drifted to his face and she studied him a bit, cheeks darkening as he wiggled his eyebrows…only to suddenly frown, "Wait, how old are you Daiki?"

"…13?" he revealed hesitantly, once he graduated and got his headband, he was legal after all.

Ochako winced, "…Ah, let's shelve that dinner, I can still show you some weapon shops if you want though."

Well, that sucked, "If it's about the age, I'm a shinobi you know." he pointed out, but, he wouldn't push beyond that.

"We're not a shinobi village, haven't been for over fifty years, Civilians aren't of legal age until sixteen here," she replied, "Sorry, you're just a bit too young for me."

Lame, but understandable, "Fair enough, don't want to make you uncomfortable." he shrugged and let the matter drop.

Just because they lived on the same continent, and not really that far from each other, didn't mean their culture would be the same after all. And the world looked very different to a civilian, than it did to a shinobi or kunoichi who had to be prepared to die young, or die even the first time they ever left their village.