Learning Too Fast Is a Bit Strange

"Lord Hokage, this is the preliminary draft Tenten and I designed. We would like to give it a try."

"Hahaha, as expected of young geniuses. Since you've already drawn it up, go ahead and give it a try."

The Third Hokage smiled as he took the paper, gave it a careful look, and then narrowed his eyes slightly.

This blueprint.

"This kind of design shouldn't be what you originally had in mind, right?"

Just how well did the Third understand Chiba?

This kid always designed multiple options and then progressed them layer by layer.

What was in front of him was likely the most rudimentary version.

"Well, yes, but it's the most practical. If we followed my original intention entirely, it would require a massive investment of chakra steel. Does our Konoha even have that much?"

Chiba didn't bother to hide it.

The Third pondered for a moment, gave a light cough, and said, "We do have some..."

"..."

Chiba was momentarily at a loss for words.

"Ahem, ahem. That's the village's chakra steel. What I gave you before was my personal stash; you can't lump them together."

The Third's old face turned slightly red, and he couldn't help coughing a few times to mask his embarrassment.

Chiba rolled his eyes and simply let out a dry chuckle.

The Third smiled and said, "You two go ahead and try it out. If it succeeds, we can talk about the higher-end version."

"Alright."

Chiba nodded.

The best version was unimaginably precious, but its effects would likewise be far greater.

He understood this, and the Third understood it even better.

The stored chakra could be that of an ordinary person, or it could be that of a Tailed Beast.

If it were the latter...

"By the way, have Kakashi lead your squad on this trip. There happens to be a mission. Besides, the Village of Artisans has recently sent a letter of apology."

"Understood."

Chiba stepped out of the Hokage's office, his heart burning with anticipation.

When he reached downstairs, Tenten was waiting with an anxious look on her face.

"How did it go?"

"It's a success!"

Chiba nodded heavily.

Two heads are better than one.

With the Third's approval, they could forge this item at Konoha's ninja tool factory.

Only by producing a batch of materials and conducting various tests could they make step-by-step improvements.

As for Tenten,

the important thing was the training and experience, not necessarily having to forge the item with her own hands.

If she had to forge every single piece herself, Tenten lacked that capability, and frankly, it was completely unnecessary—

Just like how Chiba handed over certain creative concepts for others to bring to life.

Though the benefits would be slightly less, he didn't have to rack his brains or exhaust his own effort, freeing his energy from those trivial chores.

Tenten was the same.

Chiba led her away from the Hokage building, and after arriving at a relatively secluded spot, he took out a mirror.

He formed hand seals, wiped the surface, and an image materialized.

On it, Gekkō Kazusa was practicing swordsmanship. Judging by the surrounding environment, it should be within the Gekkō clan's grounds.

"Kazusa is at her home. You go find Gekkō Kazusa, and I'll go find Teacher Kakashi."

"Huh?"

Tenten was puzzled.

Why go find them?

"It's been a long time since we went on a mission."

Chiba reminded her.

"Understood!"

Tenten instantly brightened up.

A trip to the ninja tool factory combined with having them handle a mission along the way—the Third was clearly finding a way to pad their record of achievements.

Chiba changed his target in the mirror.

Before long, Kakashi appeared in the reflection.

His location...

Hmm?

Chiba was somewhat surprised, because Kakashi was observing his shadow clone.

This wasn't particularly strange, though.

With Kakashi's wandering and observation skills, discovering the anomalies with Jinin, Asuma, and himself was a trivial matter.

Besides,

given his own personality, intentionally leaving a shadow clone sitting motionless in the forest—even an ordinary Chunin would know something was fishy.

He thought for a moment and dispelled the shadow clone.

The next instant—

Chiba's vision darkened, and a massive wave of fatigue flooded into his mind, almost causing him to faint.

Fortunately, his spiritual energy was formidable, and he managed to forcefully endure the backlash of exhaustion from the shadow clone.

"Whew!"

No wonder the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique was a forbidden jutsu.

Only a freak like Naruto could endure the overwhelming fatigue accumulated by numerous shadow clones once they were dispelled.

The reincarnation of Asura's chakra...

Chiba truly envied it to the extreme, but unfortunately, ordinary people could never attain that kind of power, and lurking behind it all was the lingering presence of the Sage of Six Paths who simply refused to stay dead.

The risks were far too high.

The Forest of Death.

Kakashi looked at the shadow clone that had suddenly vanished and couldn't help standing in a daze.

Gone?

What on earth was that kid Chiba up to?

Could it be...

Did Jinin really teach him the Talent of the Immortals?

"Forget it, I'll just go ask directly."

Kakashi pulled down his forehead protector to cover his Sharingan, then hurried from the Forest of Death back toward the village.

Upon returning to Konoha, he quickly spotted Chiba.

"Were you waiting for me?"

"Yes."

Chiba recounted the mission entrusted by the Third.

Kakashi chuckled dryly: "Lord Hokage really..."

The Third's mission was very simple.

They just needed to head to the ninja tool factory and escort a batch of ninja tools back along the way—it belonged to a C-rank mission.

Its primary purpose...

was still to pad their stats and make their squad's mission record look more impressive.

Kakashi couldn't help but smile.

"Fine, we haven't taken on a mission in a while anyway, so we might as well make the trip."

"That's what I thought too, and besides, the new ninja tools will require Teacher Kakashi's cooperation."

"You actually made it? I see. So going there is to manufacture the ninja tools."

Kakashi's eyes lit up.

Chiba had mentioned the new ninja tools to him before, and at the time, he had been quite thrilled, itching to see the physical prototype immediately.

He hadn't expected that in just over two months, Tenten and Chiba would have already cobbled it together.

Impressive!

"By the way, what was your shadow clone up to earlier?"

Kakashi voiced the doubt lingering in his heart.

Chiba smiled and said, "I thought Teacher would figure out the answer on your own."

"I'm not that bored."

"The Talent of the Immortals."

Chiba revealed in a low voice.

Kakashi's single visible eye widened slightly.

Good grief!

He actually managed to snag the Talent of the Immortals from the Fire Temple?

What kind of deal did Chiba make with Jinin?

Kakashi silently clicked his tongue in amazement.

"You... mastered it?"

"Yeah, I mastered it. It felt like I picked it up way too fast, which is kind of weird."

"Heh."

Kakashi gave him a side-eye, assuming he was just flexing.

Chiba really wasn't flexing, though.

Natural energy was unlike ordinary chakra; it couldn't be absorbed and integrated simply through strong chakra control or high spiritual energy.

A genius like the Fourth Hokage had only managed to learn a half-finished version.

As for Orochimaru, it was even more absurd—despite reaching Ryūchi Cave, he failed to learn Sage Mode, while Jiraiya likewise had to rely on the assistance of the two Great Toad Sages to barely activate Sage Mode.

This showed just how high the barrier of entry was, yet he had absorbed the natural energy gathered by his clone with ridiculous ease.

As for the strange part...

The cultivation of the Talent of the Immortals wasn't quite like Sage Mode or senjutsu chakra; it seemed to exist in a form integrated directly into the body, somewhat resembling ancient exorcism techniques.

This was an existence somewhere between natural energy and senjutsu chakra.

Actually, he had a hypothesis—

His ability to effortlessly contain natural energy was probably related to the Bodhi seed glowing once again.

Every transformation brought benefits.

This latest change might well be an evolution of his physical constitution.

However, it was still just a hypothesis at this stage, lacking actual data to substantiate it.

"Let's go, time to rendezvous with Tenten and the others."

Kakashi felt mentally exhausted and didn't want to speak any further.