Mito watched in awe as Shiki's counterattack came.
The fire and wind chakra infused into the boy's body from the Nirvana Art: Elemental fused and swelled as the water chakra moved to protect him from the jutsu he himself was about to unleash.
'Fire Wind Release: Flaming Breakthrough'
A masterful simultaneous use of two jutsu made possible by the active Nirvana Art: Elemental which also enhanced both of them separately, resulting in an exponentially more powerful end result.
And so it was, that two measly D rank jutsu were unleashed as a massive white hot torrent of flames.
'Truly an artful and ingenious use of ninjutsu . . .' Mito thought as she felt the oncoming attack.
'But enough raw power can outmatch any level of skill.' She savagely grinned, showing her wilder side, unknowing Shiki could "see" her through the flame with his Kukyo sensory abilities.
'Wind Style: Great Breakthrough'
A mere C rank jutsu, one with elemental disadvantage at that. . .
But even then . . .
It did not matter.
A massive blast of wind was unleashed from Mito's lungs, extinguishing Shiki's fire nearly instantly and uprooting dozens of the sparring ground's trees in its path.
Moments after it hit, Shiki popped up from the ground, he had not even tried to compete in jutsu power and simply hid with the Hiding in Surface jutsu before the wind blast hit him.
Seeing the devastation behind him through his sensory abilities while maintaining his focus on the Uzumaki matriarch, the boy wondered how to proceed.
Keeping Dragon Heart and Elemental active at the same time while using enhanced modes and elemental jutsu drained most of his chakra.
'My degree of mastery is still insufficient for regular combat use.' Shiki determined.
So he decided to switch to a more chakra conservative approach.
Dropping advanced modes and keeping up just the basic Dragon Heart for the overall boost, the boy deactivated Elemental that still had a very low degree of mastery and then launched into motion.
'Flicker Phantom'
Shiki split into multiple images that surrounded Mito but still kept their distance.
'Back to earlier tactics?' Mito internally questioned but immediately dismissed it.
'He's not looking for an opening to jump into close quarters at all.' She realized.
The boy's plan of attack soon materialized, solving her doubts.
Each after image, with a wave of their arms, unleashed a massive storm of chakra enhanced shuriken.
That's right, Shiki was finally able to upgrade his Assault Storage Seal to fire Shadow Shuriken Jutsu projectiles itself, removing the delay between taking out the weapon, throwing it and only then activating the jutsu.
They were even chakra enhanced with the Hidden Hand Jutsu, increasing their power and allowing the boy to manipulate their flight path.
'Wind Release: Gale Barrier'
With a single hand seal, violent winds sprung to life, coiling around Mito and blowing away any shuriken before it could get close.
'Hidden Hand can enhance shuriken to go through even water release defenses . . .' Shiki thought to himself as he watched his mistress' defensive "tactics".
'Raw can just fix anything apparently,' The boy internally complained.
Oh your jutsu is not effective?
You are simply not putting enough chakra into it.
Having a jutsu for every situation is something only losers need to resort to.
Any jutsu can do the job with enough chakra behind it.
Regardless of Shiki's feelings on the matter however, it was clear to him the third plan of attack he came up with was also a bust.
'I burned too much chakra with my initial assault and fire wind release. Fighting efficiently and trying to win by attrition is no longer an option.' He thought.
'I can continuously replenish my reserves by metabolizing nature energy but that won't be enough to offset the expenditure from fighting someone on Mito-sama's level.'
'Out of options I guess . . .' The boy concluded.
*
The spar had, predictably, ended in Shiki's defeat.
That said, it still provided valuable insights such as the awareness of how inefficient his new Nirvana Arts were at this early stage.
But it was a new day and the final negotiations with the Hokage and his cohorts had been settled already with the boy now being cleared to get back to work.
He had been using Shadow Clones to get the number of cleared D rank missions up to that nice and even 500 on his shinobi record.
But now he could finally go on real missions with his team.
Much like the boy had told his sensei previously, with the mentality of "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.", Team 6 remained intact with the same roster.
That was even sold by Mito as magnanimity, earning her the right to ask for more compensation in other areas.
After discussing things with Shiki to know what he wanted, two main requests were made to the Hokage.
More like demands rather than requests.
First, Mito would get the right to pick and choose which missions Team 6 would go on.
If the village leadership wished to send Team 6 or just Shiki on a particular mission, then she had to be given every bit of information regarding said mission and only with her approval would the boy's participation be allowed.
Second, several sealed records and jutsu, that only Hokage and those with direct authorization could peruse, would be made available for Shiki under the condition that he could not discuss anything he learned with anyone other than Mito herself.
In order to reduce the likelihood of information leakage and prevent Shiki from being targeted for information extraction, the second request/demand was to remain confidential.
Thus, when the whole proceedings from the incident to the following negotiations were leaked by certain individuals, the presented image was perfectly arranged for a specific purpose.
Mito gave the impression of authority, being able to influence the village's operations to manage Shiki's missions directly but considering the nature of the leadership's blunder, that singular, at least as far as everyone knew, request, felt quite understandable.
Since the second demand was not made public, the Uzumaki matriarch appeared to have had no intent of pursuing personal gain, reinforcing the image of a powerful but fai woman thinking of the village and protecting her ward.
The contrast between her and the Hokage who seemingly schemed against the geniuses of his village only made him look even worse.
Certain smart individuals noticed the power play of course, but they were also smart enough to know they were better off not getting involved.
The loss of trust in the village leadership from this leak was significant.
No one wanted their children to be put in such a position and compared to the clans that were significantly more accepting of the harshness of battle, for the first time, it was the less hardened civilian population that showed the most discontent.
That said, the fact that the daughter of the head of Konoha's most powerful clan was involved in the incident made every clan afraid that the village leadership might target their prodigies.
The spreading internal division was dangerous, especially with war on the horizon.
It was no wonder that the Hokage and his advisors were scrambling to find a solution.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -