With his Team suitably warned, all that was left was to approach Beni with the offer to join him in Konoha, at least for the time being.
"Yes!" A forceful, low but vigorous yes was thrown ShShiki's way before he could even finish his offer.
Clearly, Benihime had meant to follow him from the get go.
Despite her sharp grasp of circumstances and even politics, the girl had not even considered that it might not be possible to stick with him.
Even Tomoe and Ema seemed wholly prepared and unsurprised., the layered gently smiling while the former could only scowl but, with her elegance and sharp beauty, even a scowl looked good on the refined older woman's face.
*
From then on, things moved forward in a daze.
The caravan finally made its way back to the Land of Fire and, for all the troubles the group faced, the journey had ended up being a profitable one.
When the three ladies from the Land of Iron opted to leave the group afterwards to follow the Konoha shinobi back to their village, Tenma was not at all surprised as he had been previously informed.
Even then he was not surprised for only a Hidden Village would be able to provide adequate protection for the three.
Yamakaze Tenki on the other hand, was quite heartbroken that Ema would be parting from them but Rinha Maya, was immensely willing and happy to comfort and heal his broken heart.
The brown haired beauty from the Land of Iron even found the situation slightly amusing but was relieved that Tenki would have someone who could be there for him and sincerely love him as she simply had no heart for romance.
Once they arrived at the village, things went completely as expected.
Already aware of what was coming, everyone managed to keep their cool even when their achievements were somewhat downplayed and their just rewards were withheld.
It still didn't leave anyone feeling good though.
At the very least, an extra S rank mission was piled on top of their B rank escort which was also upgraded to A rank.
Monetarily, they were still very well compensated and their shinobi records were bolstered with their first S rank.
However, with the Uchiha and Aburame clans having a noble standing in the village and the wealth to match it, specially in the former's case while Shiki had the extremely wealthy Mito behind him, Inori was the only one for which the payday was truly meaningful.
As such, for the three younglings, only their improved shinobi records counted as something.
Beyond that, the Land of Iron ladies joined the Uzumaki Manor without any issue, mostly due to a glaring Mito daring the Hokage faction to try any sort of even minor complaint after all they had already done.
*
A new chapter of Shiki's life was about to begin.
He was now a Chunin, an Elite Chunin to be exact and, though the rank was still low enough to be a slight when compared to his achievements, it served for the time being.
The order to remain in the village and not take missions outside was irritating but ultimately without consequence as the boy planned to remain in the village for the foreseeable future anyways.
Shiki had accumulated plenty of information and material with this latest journey being the capstone so it was time for him to fully dedicate himself to training and digest what he had learned.
First however, there was a little something he had to deal with . . .
"Tell me, Shiki, why do I feel your vitality is quite damaged?" Mito inquired with a smile that chilled the boy's soul.
The Uzumaki matriarch eyed him up and down with a probing gaze.
"It's almost like you damaged it yourself in some sort of reckless training . . ." She calmly spoke.
But the more calm she was, the more terrified Shiki became.
"But you're such a smart boy . . . You wouldn't do something stupid like that . . . Would you?" Mito's eyes narrowed with the question.
The boy could only choose silence as any attempt at explanation would only make things worse for him.
"Hmph!" The Uzumaki matriarch forcefully snorted with a disappointed frown and tossed him a pillbox before walking away.
Shiki caught it with a guilty smile. The visible disappointment and lack of actual scolding only made him feel worse.
As for the pillbox, it held a single Sanguine Pill like the ones he had seen Mito take, pure refined lifeforce and vitality, enough to restore everything he lost and push him further beyond, probably enough to raise the physical limitations currently restraining his progress too.
'Seeing how there's no associated explanation for the pill, my unseen spying with Enlightened Mind's Eye was not nearly as unseen as I believed, at least when it came to Mito-sama.' Shiki realized.
'But if she didn't stop me, it is likely that Mito-sama determined no one else in the village would be able to detect me, which is a relief to be sure.' The boy internally sighed.
Still . . . The care shown made him feel quite warm.
And, seeing a new side of him was most entertaining for Benihime with even Tomoe and Ema showing some curiosity and endearment and how Shiki acted much closer to his actual age when around Mito.
Quickly extricating himself from the situation before he could be further embarrassed, Shiki carefully stored the pill, he wasn't going to use it just yet.
The boy judged that its energy would help accelerate the evolution that his Nirvana Seal: Transcendence ought to trigger.
For now though, Shiki intended to train himself to his current limits.
He was already there in terms of raw stats by his skill, his jutsu, his elemental affinities, his hand seals, there were plenty of things to improve even if the most important raw stats could not grow for the time being.
Only after sufficiently excavating his current potential could the evolutionary benefits of his seal be efficiently maximized.
And there was one more very important thing.
Shiki had damaged his vitality to generate the massive amounts of chakra required for mass Shadow Clone training, however, he now had a much better option for even more extreme training of that type.
A chakra battery by the name of Roen.
Indeed, while it was nowhere close to the Nine Tails, the beast still had enough chakra to match some of the weaker Tailed Beasts and thus, it could supply all of Shiki's chakra needs for this unreasonable training method.
As previously stated, while Naruto had more physical endurance, Shiki had better physical adaptability as well as mental and spiritual resistance for the training.
Chakra Capacity was the true barrier the boy faced, otherwise, he could abuse Shadow Clone Training even more egregiously than Naruto at the time of the Rasenshuriken's development could.
And with Roen, that barrier was pushed much further away.
'So it is time for power leveling!' Shiki excitedly thought.
First though, he had to decide how to split his clones for the different types of training.
Mastering the use of Roen's power and abilities was something the boy would rather do under Mito's supervision so he put it aside for the time being.
Shiki needed to perfect his current jutsu, further his mastery of fuinjutsu, train his five elemental releases while learning new jutsu to make use of them, train his Yin Release and genjutsu,also train his Yang Release and medical jutsu and finally, develop the Nirvana Seal.
Yin and Yang Releases as well as medical jutsu and fuinjutsu were the most complex and absolute requirements for the Nirvana Seal: Transcendence, as such, the boy decided to put most of his shadow clones on that.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
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 -