Yamanaka Yogi was in a good mood today.
Naturally, he wouldn't send his team to raid a bandit hideout for the first time without supervision. Problems could arise unexpectedly and there was always the possibility of rogue shinobi getting involved.
So he had followed them from a distance through a shadow clone.
'Their performance today was impressive.'
Other than Inumaki's small overlook during the planning phase, the operation had gone almost perfectly.
'Still, I'll wait until the clone's memories return before making a final judgment.'
A while later, Hyori and Inumaki reunited with the real Yogi, who was still escorting the caravan.
Hyori carried an unconscious woman over her shoulder while Inumaki dragged a battered man by the collar. Yoshimaru followed closely behind them.
Yogi glanced around.
"Where's Shinra?"
"Looting the bandits' stash."
Inumaki answered so casually that Yogi almost thought he had misheard him. A flood of memories rushed into his mind, the shadow clone had dispelled itself.
"…"
For a brief moment, he simply stood there processing the memories.
He smiled and nodded his head. Although he had to observe from some distance, otherwise they might've realised he was following them, this was a step they would eventually have to take. Yogi might not always be present on their future missions.
Inumaki glanced at Yogi, who had gone silent, confused as to whether he was surprised by Shinra being late due to looting the bandit's hidden stash.
A few minutes later, rustling leaves echoed from the forest.
Shinra emerged carrying a storage scroll and a smile that immediately made the entire team suspicious. The smile widened when he noticed everyone looking at him.
"Good news."
"The bandits had a huge stash of money hidden in the woods, elevating the payout of this mission to roughly the same rank as a high B-rank mission and I only had to lightly threaten their leader."
Daiki, who was lying on the ground, glanced at Shinra nervously, to which Shinra replied with a smile, causing the former leader of the bandits to look away immediately.
The caravan resumed its journey towards its destination. With the hard part of the mission done, the remainder of the escort mission passed without incident.
Most of the merchants never even learned that Team Eight had wiped out an entire bandit group and made it back before anyone could notice their disappearance.
By late afternoon the caravan successfully reached Karakura town. After collecting signatures and confirming the completion of both missions, Team Eight finally began their journey back toward Konoha.
The atmosphere was considerably more relaxed than before.
Several hours into the journey Shinra finally spoke.
"Sensei."
"Hm?"
"Since there's still some time, can you start teaching me how to channel elemental chakra into a weapon?"
Shinra already possessed the C-rank Lightning release: Lightning Flow jutsu which he uses to augment his kunai in lightning chakra and throw them at the opponent, the problem lies in the fact that the kunai is unable to withstand the lightning chakra and becomes damaged, thus it is unusable after a single use.
Yogi thought for several moments, before drawing his short sword and coating it in wind chakra, elongating the blade into a long chakra sword.
Yogi explained as he showcased his weapon to his three students, "This process is called chakra flow. The technique is completely dependent on chakra control. It is mostly used by samurai from the Land of Iron and is considered a sign of a competent swordsman."
The chakra sword in Yogi's hand transformed into a wind nature chakra blade, "This is the second stage of this technique, changing the nature of your chakra into your element and coating your blade with it. Each element has its own properties so keep that in mind when augmenting your weapon."
Inumaki looked a bit curious towards them. If he were able to obtain such a technique, he would become far more lethal to his opponents.
Hyori looked mildly curious but not nearly as attentive as Inumaki. The Hyuga fighting style didn't revolve much around kenjutsu, but mostly taijutsu and nin-taijutsu.
Yogi moved a bit away and picked up a nearby branch.
Chakra flowed from his hand into the branch instantly coating it in wind chakra, but before the wind chakra could envelop the entire branch it broke in half, "Although chakra control is the main requirement, the reason most ninja don't use such a technique is that to coat your entire weapon with elemental chakra you would want your sword to be made from a unique metal only formed in the Land of Iron, the more the concentration of that chakra conductive metal the longer it would endure and you would be able to coat it with much more elemental chakra."
Shinra's excitement faded slightly.
Yogi noticed that picked another branch and used a flimsy amount to augment the branch, this time it didn't break, "Don't worry about such a thing for now, if you don't have a chakra blade you can just decrease the amount of chakra you embed into your sword so that it doesn't break."
Yogi gathered three more branches and handed one to each of his team members, "Since there is still some time before we return to Konoha, your current objective will be to coat a branch with chakra without breaking it and maintain that output for at least five minutes."
Shinra proceeded to channel his chakra into the branch, a thin flimsy chakra coated the entire branch for less than three seconds then the branch broke into two. Shinra was currently focusing on identifying the limit of the amount of chakra the branch can handle, 'If I think about it, it is very similar to the tree climbing exercise, but instead of me sticking to the tree it's how much chakra the branch can endure.'
He grabbed another branch from a tree and began experimenting with this new chakra control exercise. After breaking three more branches he was finally able to judge how much chakra he could coat this branch with. He thought, 'Now that I can coat the entire branch without breaking it, I just need to maintain this level of chakra output. Thankfully learning the Rasengan early on improved my chakra control by multiple levels, even though it took me four months to master it.'
Yogi noticed Shinra's advancement and then looked at Hyori as if to confirm something, 'It's as I expected. Shinra's chakra control is higher than even that of a main member of the Hyuga, is it due to him having low chakra reserves or is it talent?'
Every jutsu used requires a certain amount of chakra to work, when ninjas perform the jutsu there is a phenomenon known as chakra loss, decreasing the amount of chakra lost during each jutsu application is a sign of high chakra control and jutsu mastery. This allows even those with low chakra reserves to compete with ninjas with much higher chakra reserves.
In less than half an hour, Shinra was able to comfortably maintain the same chakra output on the branch without breaking it. He looked around and noticed that while Inumaki was still struggling, Hyori had already identified the threshold of chakra that the branch could handle, but was struggling in maintaining the same constant output.
Yogi looked at Shinra and said, "Now that you are done with the first step, we can move into the second step which is to imbue a kunai with elemental chakra not your regular chakra, and maintain it for a while."
Hyori and Inumaki not wanting to fall behind began to concentrate much harder than before.
Shinra picked up a kunai from his ninja pouch and looked at it for a second before closing his eyes, 'If I manage to complete this step it means that I will be able to use my lightning kunai without any hand seals anymore. I just need to remember the sensation and the amount of chakra that jutsu uses.'
Shinra began changing his chakra into lightning chakra and slowly channeling it into the kunai, 'The first step was to determine how much chakra the branch could withstand without breaking, the second step is to create an elemental coating around the weapon.'
'Wind should increase sharpness. Earth should reinforce durability. Fire would probably engulf the blade itself. Lightning… possesses the cutting ability of wind and also induces numbness in the enemy.'
The kunai was gradually coated in lightning, but the tip was gradually losing its shape. Shinra observed the kunai and thought, 'I am certain that the amount of chakra imbued into the kunai isn't the problem, it's the high frequency generated by the lightning chakra, so what I need to do is control the frequency generated to the point where the kunai can withstand it.'
Elemental manipulation was much harder than simple chakra control, causing Shinra to struggle in the second stage.
Hours passed and Hyori had joined Shinra in the second stage while Inumaki was on the verge of completing the first stage. Shinra had to take breaks in between to replenish his chakra and to process his progress.
The next day, Team Eight made it back to the village. Inumaki had managed to complete the first stage and Hyori had given up on the second stage, since it involved a heavy degree of elemental manipulation, something she wasn't proficient in.
Shinra looked at the kunai coated in Lightning release in his hands and smiled, 'It's about time, if I hadn't been able to learn it by now I would've had to push it till after the Chūnin Exams. I still need to learn the five elemental ninjutsu Yogi brought for me.'
Shinra had finally managed to adjust the frequency caused by his Lightning-release chakra and the kunai was now fully reusable after a single throw. He unsheathed his sword and began channeling lightning chakra into it and in less than two seconds the entire blade was coated in lightning chakra.
'Coating a sword or kunai isn't much different. I only need to identify the threshold of the weapon and make sure that my chakra flow is weaker than that.'
Yogi wasn't disappointed in Inumaki and Hyori for not being able to learn the second stage, since it wasn't something that should be learned in a day or two.
He looked at Shinra who was swinging his lightning-coated sword like a toy and was contemplating a tough decision, Talented civilian shinobi are usually given the chance to join a special unit that serves under the Hokage's command. There, he would likely advance much faster.
'No, having him join ANBU right now might lead him to a premature death. Although I won't report his talent currently, it will still be showcased in the Chūnin Exams, at that point the choice will be entirely up to him.'
Team Eight reported to the mission center and collected the rewards of both C-rank missions and handed over the captured leader of the bandits and the woman to the intelligence department.
Inumaki remained in the mission center to draft a mission report while Hyori and Yogi both went back to their clan compound.
Deep underground in the interrogation department, Morino Ibuki stood before the former leader of the bandits. Compared to the state he was in currently, being tormented by Team Eight was a much lighter sentence.
A man wearing a mask asked him, "Were there any leads on Orochimaru?"
"No, it is not even certain that the recent kidnappings in the land of fire were related to him. According to the memories of this guy it was masked ninjas who would exchange hostages for money, it could be ANBU of other nations."
The masked ninja wrote down the report and asked, "What about the money he gathered from the trafficking?"
Ibuki's smile turned awry and he said, "…Apparently it was discovered and recovered by Team Eight."
Ibuki had already read Daiki's memories and knew that the blue-haired kid from Team Eight had taken away the money Daiki had accumulated through human trafficking.