As usual, old Tazuna left early in the morning for the bridge under construction. This bridge, which was supposed to connect the Land of Waves to the rest of the world, was clearly Tazuna's reason for living, as he saw it as a way to bring prosperity to his small, isolated island country.
The old carpenter was being escorted by Sasuke, who made no secret of his displeasure at having to accompany the old man for the day. Initially, this task was supposed to fall to Sakura, but the kunoichi had asked Sasuke to take her place.
Following this, Tsunami suggested that Naruto and Sakura visit her country, an idea that was quickly accepted by Sakura. The two girls had to convince Naruto to go with them, however, as the blond boy wanted to spend his day with Kakashi.
"They're right, Naruto. You should get out a bit and look around. Ever since we arrived, you've been cooped up in their house," said Kakashi, continuing to read his book. "Fine..." Naruto sighed. He then went off to get dressed properly.
Meanwhile, Sakura helped the housewife, who was preparing some quick snacks for their trip. But before leaving, Tsunami asked the white-haired shinobi to feed her son, who was going to be back in an hour or two to eat. "I'll leave you to look after my son; we'll definitely be back before dinner time."
"No worries, you can leave with peace of mind. Your house is in good hands," said Kakashi. The shinobi, who never stopped wearing his mask, was finally able to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet of the home.
He didn't waste a second, lying down on the living room sofa with his book resting on his head. Kakashi could finally enjoy a quiet day. But just as he began to doze off, he sensed a presence around him and, without warning, felt kicks against his leg.
"Hey! Stupid ninja, where did my mom go? I'm hungry!" Tsunami's son had returned home earlier than expected.
Tsunami's son had come home earlier than expected, while he continued to kick Kakashi.
"What kind of mess have I gotten myself into..." In a forest a few tens of minutes' walk from Tsunami's house, Naruto summoned three clones.
Two of his clones took on the appearance of the two girls, while they were going to pose as them. And while these clones were going to go around the surrounding dwellings, Naruto and the girls would be able to explore their first dungeon.
"Ahahaha! We're finally going on an adventure!" Naruto hopped with excitement. Since last night, he hadn't stopped thinking about exploring this dungeon. He had almost gone there all by himself.
"Can you calm down, Naruto?" Sighed Sakura, still finding it hard to put up with her partner's overly energetic personality. The group briefly discussed the plan to follow when they explored this dungeon.
This discussion served mainly to warn Tsunami, who had no combat background. The housewife received shurikens from Sakura, while she even taught her how to start using them.
"Alright system, send us into the [Crab Beach] dungeon." Exclaimed Naruto. [DING]
[Select a Dungeon] [Select the people in your group] [DING]
[Dungeon: Crab Beach] [Player: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Tsunami] [You have entered the dungeon: Crab Beach] [You can leave the dungeon at any time]
The environment around the trio changed abruptly; in an instant, they had gone from their interior dimension to this dungeon. Around them was a stretch of yellow sand bordered by a vast azure blue sea.
Exotic palm trees dotted the place, while the strong rays of the sun beat down on their bodies. The ambient air seemed almost as pure as inside their dimension; the only thing that prevented one from describing this place as a paradisiacal vacation spot was the strange blue crabs wandering on the fine sand.
"Magnificent! This is the first time I've seen such a beautiful and bright environment." Exclaimed Sakura, who like Naruto, had never left her village before this trip to the Land of Waves.
"This warm sand and this gentle breeze... It's clearly a magnificent place, too bad my country doesn't possess this kind of scenery." Commented Tsunami, taking a handful of fine sand in her hand.
"This place is very pretty, but those critters seem to spoil the place a bit." Said Naruto, pointing to the huge crabs wandering on this beach. He then pointed to another crab isolated from the others.
"Get ready girls, we are going to hunt our first monster."
"This is the first time I've seen such a big crab; I wonder where they come from." Commented Sakura. "I hope I won't be a burden to you." Muttered Tsunami.
Naruto was the first to arrive near the monster, but before approaching it, he summoned a clone. This clone was then sent toward the solitary crab, wanting to test the reaction and the abilities of this mysterious creature.
This crab with a brown shell measured about a meter high. It possessed colossal claws for its body; its legs were nothing special. The creature quickly noticed the human intruders, leaping fiercely toward Naruto's clone, which had gotten much too close to it. The clone subsequently received a few fierce pinches from this crab before disappearing.
But at the same time, Naruto received a sudden notification from his system, and before his surprised eyes appeared the information about the monster. [DING] [Giant Crab]
Description: A crab that has absorbed large amounts of chakra to enhance its shell; beware of its immense claws capable of easily crushing skulls. Its greatest weakness is its low mobility. Ability:
-[Claw Strike]: A fast and powerful attack that tears through its enemies.
-[Armored Shell]: Reinforces your shell, reflecting a portion of the damage.
"I wasn't expecting to receive this kind of information," said Naruto, stepping back.
Meanwhile, Sakura analyzed the monster's capabilities. She quickly considered this crab to be a good target
for them, as they could easily exploit its slowness to defeat it. They simply had to be careful of its powerful strikes.
Tsunami trembled slightly with fear; she had mentally prepared herself to fight, but her negative emotions resurfaced, especially upon seeing this massive creature a few meters away from her. There was no excitement in her, only fear and apprehension.
"Don't worry, we are here to support you. And with Sakura's intelligence, you will greatly improve." Naruto easily noticed his partner's state, and he kissed her on the forehead to try to calm her down.
"That idiot is flirting even in this situation," Sakura grimaced while searching for a solution to deal with the monster. After a few moments, the pink-haired kunoichi explained the plan she had concocted.
She wasn't used to commanding a team, but her teammates made the job easy for her. Surprisingly, Naruto listened to her plan without trying to charge in like an idiot.
"Tsunami will stay in the back and throw her shurikens at the crab's legs when she finds an opportunity. This will allow you to get used to combat; it's okay if you miss your target." Sakura then turned to her teammate.
"Naruto, I will serve as a decoy while you and your clones try to flip it onto its back. Understood?"
"I will try to do my best," said the housewife, taking a shuriken out of her bag.
"No reason to be afraid, we can defeat any enemy together!" Sakura advanced first, immediately attracting the attention of the monster, which rushed toward her.
The crab's claws sought to rip the legs off the human standing before it. However, the crab was slightly destabilized by the projectiles thrown by Tsunami, who was hiding behind a rock.
These throws had missed, but it had still shaken the crab, which hesitated to change targets. Suddenly, a dozen of Naruto's clones leaped onto the crab's back, while they used a rope to bring it down. The crab could barely destroy two or three clones before it found itself on its back. Its pincers and legs were moving fiercely while it desperately tried to flip over.
Currently, it was completely weakened and vulnerable. While his remaining clones sought to immobilize the crab's pincers, Naruto had thrown himself onto its white underbelly, which was much softer compared to the rest of its body. He did not hesitate for a moment before taking out a kunai and stabbing it.
"Aaah! That jerk used his hardening skill!" exclaimed Naruto as he failed to stab it. Especially since the crab's pincers were moving dangerously around him.
But the blonde boy did not give up, and after several blows, he managed to penetrate its flesh. After all, its defensive skill did not make it an invincible being. And the monster eventually succumbed to Naruto's fierce blows. Its large body began to disappear into a trail of luminous particles, leaving behind a small pile of items.
Sakura took advantage of her new skill to heal the minor wounds Naruto had sustained, causing a water jellyfish to appear and attach itself to her companion.
After this clash, Naruto and the girls gathered around the items dropped following the monster's death. The blonde boy touched one of the items, causing a new system interface to appear.
[Congratulations, you have obtained: 5 Crab Meat, 1 Crab Egg, 1 Sea Pearl] [Crab Meat]: Increases strength after consumption. [Crab Egg]: Increases HP after consumption. [Sea Pearl]: Absorb the chakra inside to improve your Suiton mastery and slightly increase your amount of chakra.
"Killing monsters really gets us rewards," exclaimed Naruto.
"These things are real treasures, I wonder if other people can also consume them." Sakura looked at the items with stars in her eyes.
"And how should we distribute them?" It was up to Sakura to distribute the rewards, so she decided to give Tsunami two pieces of crab meat and the pearl. It was important that she improve quickly.
She reluctantly considered Naruto to be the most powerful among them, and she let him take the egg and the two pieces of crab meat. As for Sakura, she simply took the last remaining piece of meat.
"This is far too much, I don't need this much. It would be a waste to give me so much. It would be better to strengthen yourselves first." Tsunami declined politely. She felt far too ashamed and embarrassed to accept this.
"No, Sakura is right. We are now a team, and we will have to move forward together. The priority is that everyone can improve properly."
Me and Sakura have a teacher to learn how to become better ninjas." Naruto did not want Tsunami to step aside just because of her weakness. "Alright... thank you." The pieces of crab meat were entirely edible, requiring no preparation... Even though Naruto had put his portion into the sandwich made by Tsunami.
A delicious flavor spread through their mouths, while Naruto almost began to regret having refused Tsunami's crab meat. Tsunami was even more delighted after absorbing the small blue pearl.
"Aaaaah aaaah! I feel so good!" Tsunami had become a bit more energetic. The group did not feel any particular change in their bodies, except for Tsunami. The mature woman did not possess any chakra, and this slight improvement was greatly felt.
Conversely, if Naruto had been the one to consume this pearl, he would have felt absolutely nothing notable.
"We will have to collect more of these pearls for you," said Naruto, resisting the urge to cuddle his wife.
"Even with the acquisition of this chakra in you, we will also have to teach you how to use it." Sakura was happy seeing Tsunami smiling from ear to ear.
After this break, Naruto and the girls continued hunting for isolated [Giant Crabs]. During their clashes, Naruto and Sakura tried to give more space to Tsunami, letting her finish off several giant crabs. They were thus able to collect 8 pearls, 3 eggs, and 25 pieces of crab meat.
All the pearls were given to Tsunami, while everyone else received one egg each. The girls received 8 pieces of crab meat, while Naruto simply received one more. Tsunami felt much livelier after absorbing these five pearls, while she felt a sort of connection with the sea and the ambient humidity.
But the area around them was unfortunately emptied of any enemies, forcing Naruto to send clones to search for other targets. And one of his clones finally notified him of a new enemy.
This time the creature was much smaller. It was still larger than an ordinary crab, but it was clearly less impressive than the first monster they encountered.
The shell of this crab was light blue, close to the color of the sea. Its claws, however, were much smaller, not even frightening Tsunami.
And as Naruto's clone approached the monster to verify its capabilities, the blue crab suddenly projected a powerful jet of water from its small mouth. The clone disappeared immediately. [DING] [Blue Crab]
Description: A crab that has absorbed large quantities of chakra and uses Suiton to fire a destructive jet of water.
Ability:
-[Water Release - Raging Waves]: After kneading chakra in their body and converting it, the user expels a large quantity of water from their mouth.
"I didn't think animals could use jutsu," said Tsunami, who was greatly surprised and impressed by seeing this water attack. She then feared being useless again in the face of this monster.
"Even with a technique like that, this monster is still just a simple crab," declared Naruto, puffing out his chest.
"Naruto's clones aren't very resistant, and I strongly doubt that this could kill us in one hit like it did them. And it seems to take a lot of time before launching its attack, not to mention its reduced crab mobility. We just have to go behind it to dodge it." Sakura was impressed by its attack, but not at all frightened.
Sakura proposed simply sending Naruto's clones to circle the crab, so that it would exhaust all its chakra. She also asked Tsunami to personally finish off the monster.
"Is that really a good idea?" Tsunami was much less confident, clearly afraid of being hit by the monster's water jet.
But she was quickly reassured by her companions. Tsunami breathed deeply before taking out a kunai, which she gripped tightly.
"I will try to do my best not to disappoint you," said Tsunami, full of confidence.
"But, if I die because of you... you're going to have to forget about eating my cooking tonight, kids, understood?" threatened the mature woman with a smiling face, even though both ninjas felt like they saw the face of a demon behind her.
Naruto's clones immediately surrounded the small blue crab, which naturally tried to attack them with its water jet. Its aquatic attack worked well, and it was able to defeat one of the clones, which unfortunately was immediately replaced by another.
"Ahahahaha! We'll see who drains their chakra reserves first!" Naruto mercilessly taunted the poor creature, sending out clones in a loop. After a few minutes, the speed of the jets slowed down to finally stop after a moment.
The exhausted crab immediately tried to flee, but the clones quickly immobilized it. The poor creature, drained of its chakra, struggled wildly to survive while Tsunami stepped forward nervously. She subsequently stabbed the belly of the crab with difficulty, and it died, dropping a pile of items.
[Congratulations, you have obtained: 1 crab meat, 2 sea pearls, a jutsu scroll] [Crab Meat]: Increases strength upon consumption [Sea Pearl]: Absorb the chakra inside to improve your Water Release mastery and slightly increase your chakra reserves. [Water Release: Torrential Wave]: Produces a continuous jet of water from the hand to strike the enemy and disrupt their attack. This technique works particularly well against smoke-based attacks.
"Awesome, we got a jutsu!" Naruto was totally excited by the scroll on the ground and hopped around with his clones.
"Calm down, Naruto, you risk alerting other enemies," said Tsunami, still a bit exhausted from her near-death experience. She turned to Sakura to ask for help, but noticed that the pink-haired girl also had her eyes fixed on the scroll in her hands.
"Sakura-san?"
".. Uh, sorry, Tsunami. But I am just as shocked and happy as Naruto." Sakura had bright stars in her eyes. She clearly didn't expect to obtain a ninjutsu.
"We're so lucky! We're clearly going to be the best shinobis in this world!" Naruto grinned from ear to ear.
"Yes, it's really a godsend for us." Tsunami simply nodded. She was clearly less enthusiastic than them, not really knowing the importance of jutsus.
"Let's distribute the rewards now. Naruto, come back here instead of dancing!" Sakura exclaimed. "Coming, Sakura!" said the blond boy, hopping around in a good mood.
"I already recently received a new jutsu, so it should go to one of you." said Sakura. Tsunami immediately declined, seeing no point in having her learn something so precious when she had barely just obtained chakra within her.
"Hmmm okay, I'll take it, but the next jutsu we get must go to Tsunami. You can't stay without a technique forever."
"Alright, Naruto will take the jutsu, I'll take the meat, and Tsunami, you'll take the pearls." "Understood."
"Yes."
[You have acquired [Water Style: Rushing Torrent]] After learning the jutsu, Naruto practiced with the help of his clones for a little while. The blond boy expelled a stream of water from his hands. It would take him some practice time before mastering it, but Naruto couldn't help but be happy. Aside from his clone technique, he finally had a real offensive jutsu.
They continued to hunt these blue crabs using the same method as before. This allowed them to obtain another jutsu scroll: [Water Style: Rushing Torrent].
This technique went, as agreed, to Tsunami, who thus learned her first technique. And after consuming the consumables obtained from the crabs, Naruto isolated himself in a corner with Tsunami to teach her how to wield her technique. Meanwhile, Sakura remained lying on the warm sand, quietly observing her two companions.
"I can't believe how lucky I am... Thanks to Naruto..." Sakura had a smile on her face that she hid with her arms. [DING]
[Your wife Tsunami has acquired [Water Style: Torrential Wave]] "Naruto is surprisingly good at using the torrential wave, even though he had trouble summoning a clone. Tsunami is doing pretty well for a civilian, but this performance would have branded her a failure at the ninja academy."
Sakura silently watched the two of them train. But as she watched Tsunami use her jutsu with a touch of pride, she realized they had overlooked something.
She immediately interrupted their training to explain the problem regarding Tsunami and the appearance of her chakra.
The pink-haired kunoichi pointed out that they would have to come up with a good explanation for Kakashi, who would certainly notice the clear change in this simple housewife.
They spent several long minutes thinking about a plan, with Sakura finally pushing Naruto out of the discussion after he suggested knocking out their teacher.
"Oh! I have one last solution... Put your fist down, Sakura, please! Let's just bring a [Sea Pearl] to Kakashi-sensei and tell him that Tsunami and I... I can thus reveal to him the reason behind my mastery of Water Style. It's killing two birds with one stone, half lie, half truth." Sakura, who was about to rush at the blonde to hit him, suddenly stopped and thought about the only plan that might work.
They debated the plan to follow before agreeing on the exact scenario to give Kakashi. Finally, they hunted down the last [Blue Crab] on the beach, collecting and storing in Naruto's inventory the pearls that would be used as evidence.
On the other hand, they consumed the remaining crab eggs and meat. Unfortunately, they did not obtain any other jutsu scrolls from these small blue crabs. And as they looked for their next target, they noticed that there were no more monsters on the beach. They had ended up killing all the creatures in the dungeon.
"Oh! Looks like we wiped out all the wildlife in this dungeon, poor creatures..." Tsunami muttered, a little ashamed of having exterminated all the dungeon's creatures.
"It's the method for us to become stronger. And anyway, we can't really know the nature of these monsters. They might just be puppets created by the system," Sakura retorted.
"Wait, girls! I have a bad feeling..." Naruto's instinct warned him that something was wrong. He then turned to his teammates, not understanding why their faces were so pale. He finally spotted a shadow on the beach that didn't belong to them, forcing him to turn around. And he could thus see the reason for their terror: behind him was a massive creature that was visibly channeling a water jutsu.
"Oh! It's just a giant crab that's creating a whirlpool... Wait?!?!"