It took Kudo a week to realize that he did not have a passion or a goal, and the only one he chased was to be a better shinobi than Tobirama Senju.
At some point, it felt like he sought only strength because he was unfamiliar with Tobirama, the kind of man he was, his core values, and the strides towards his goals.Kudo was familiar with Tobirama's intellect, his self-created ninjutsu that torments the world, and his mastery of water ninjutsu.
Over the past week, he would stay up at night asking himself whether he would become a better man than Tobirama. Kudo was aware of how the Uchiha were treated and how it stemmed from Tobirama. He would ask himself, is it right to hate an entire clan just because of one man, Madara Uchiha?
While he thought Tobirama to be afraid and petty, he also recognized his lack of familiarity with the Uchiha; the only person he interacted with was Uchiha Ito, and he gave a feeling of a deep abyss, as his strength lay further, much further than you could imagine.
With recent news about the Uchiha leader having a m
Mangekyo Sharingan, perhaps they would be obstacles, but to what he didn't know, surely not to his goals. He had declared it on his father's grave, he would drown entire villages if it came to it, he had sworn it. At the back of his mind, he feared that he would not become the man his father envisioned him to be, that he would become selfish and a murderer. To that, he pursued more strength, perhaps if he were stronger, then others would not stand in his way, so he didn't slaughter unnecessarily.
One thing he learned in the academy was that innocents were always casualties of the shinobi world, but he at least wished not kill them.
As Kudo drifted through the village, taking in sight of the people, their laughter, their peace, and often not their darkness, he found himself oscillating between extremities of darkness and virtue. His recent encounter had stirred him from a fantasy to the real world, the shinobi world.With a heavy sigh, he left for a building to resume his training. He did not know the end of his pursuit, but at least he felt that his pursuit was worth it for the time being.
The next two weeks soon went by, and it was now July. The academy had restarted, and Iruka focused on close combat efficiency and effectiveness. The students had at most average levels of genin-level chakra, enough for one or two mid-range ninjutsu, but that's it. Iruka had changed; he was more overbearing when it came to Naruto and took a patient approach. He stopped ignoring him and started pushing him like the other students. In his sensor training, he had moved on from loss of sight to loss of hearing. Instead of a dark room, it was dimly lit, and with his sight returned, he did better, and he had developed a sharper sense of smell, for wood, metal, etc.
Some of his visits to local restaurants and stalls were to sharpen his sense of smell, his vision, and his hearing. He started training to observe and assess things, others. From then on, he realized a lot about the people around, Sarutobi Ai, how her disgruntled gazes at Sasuke had lessened, and for some reason, she paid attention to him. How Naruto started paying attention to at least 33% of the lectures, their study sessions went from 100% Kudo to at least 80%Kudo-20% Naruto.
On his first visit to Naruto's place, he had almost vomited up his lunch, but Naruto had at last started taking care of his mess. It was still disorganized, just less messy. It also didn't help that he couldn't manage his allowance; his stipend of 1500 Ryo went mostly to instant ramen. Kudo started teaching how to make basic meals. As Kudo transitioned his focus to genjutsu, he focused on two D-rank genjutsu, Swallowing Dark Ocean Jutsu and Hollow Waves Jutsu. Swallowing dark ocean put someone in a deep, dark ocean where they felt like they were sinking eternally, nothing but darkness and overwhelming pressure of the water. It made one lose their will to fight, stay still, and become mindless amidst a battle, opening killing opportunities.
Hollow waves genjutsu was a hypnotic kind of genjutsu that acted through sound. Through rhythmic water wave sounds, one can be trapped on a cliff watching the waves slamming against the cliff with rhythmic forces and grace. It immobilized the enemy and made them defenseless through sereness. The shinobi world is a world of constant hatred and killing, tension and grief. Questioning one's path or actions leads to doubts in movement, attacks, and hesitation when about to kill.
With these two genjutsu, his basics were covered: ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. The only thing that left him not satisfied was the force of his water jutsus, his moon blades, and water bullet for attacks were lacking for one hit kills, the water bullet jutsu could take chunks of the enemy, but it would take 2 or 3 hits to kill them unless the target was the head. His moon blades needed to be sharpened and smaller for hidden strikes; he also, like the last mission, needed a jutsu to wipe out a large enemy unit, but there was no such D-rank jutsu.Academy students were allowed to access E and D rank jutsus for free until they graduate; from then on, any jutsu would need mission points to redeem.
Village missions awarded both mission points and money, money for living, and mission points for shinobi to strengthen themselves. For academy graduates who pass a jonin or an elite jonin's test, they can take more missions and therefore grow stronger under the tutelage of the jonin, but those who fail or are not assigned to a jonin sensei, which includes most from the normal batch. They join the Genin corps, and they rise through the ranks much harder compared to having a Jonin sensei.
Administrative tasks are usually done by Genin corps, and it takes them years to become a chunin if they ever choose to after years of suffering. Most lose their urge to advance and remain genin for life, settle in the village, and live a quiet life of 1 or 2 missions per year.