章 39: A Standard Mizukage Workday
Shigure's massive mammaries jiggled as I put my all into a perilous thrust, which she stepped on and looked at me like my efforts meant nothing before her. I'll be straight, that hurt my ego, but I can respect that clean Mikiri Counter. Keep stylin, girl.
"Strength good, speed acceptable, technique... mediocre. Who taught you that weak thrust?" Shigure instructed me verbally as we dueled, the combination of which played deliciously with our Talents.
Shigure's sword descended, but I whipped my sword out from under her stomp and took a covering guard to arrest her strike, then reached under and around to snatch her blade, seizing it with my chakra and superior strength to lock the sword down.
"Foolish." Shigure muttered and then lit her weapon up with Lightning Chakra Flow.
I'd already released it from sensing the movement of her limited chakra, but still felt surprised by the application. Just a brief little shock to get my hand off, with just the right amount of energy to pull it off, then perfectly shut down. Hardly any waste in the technique, and if she times it right, like I know she can, then she can effectively fight with Lighting Chakra Flow without wasting energy keeping the tech running.
As we dueled, hundreds of my clones trained other shinobi throughout the village, the benefit of throttling the memory feedback. From the academy students to the jonin, no one's right to below averageness is safe while great teacher Zabuza prowled these streets. Each level in the system received instruction appropriate to their security clearance, education in a hidden village is not an elevator to the limit of your potential (outside of ANBU), academy students should not be taught the techniques of genin, let alone chunin or jonin. To do so puts a target on their backs, systematic ignorance stifles geniuses, but it raises the safety conditions for everyone else. Knowledge is power and I know, everyone else obeys.
Despite purposefully level gating all information, the standard of shinobi and kunoichi in Kirigakure rose rapidly. In any endeavor, eighty percent of the success is produced by twenty percent of the participants, but with Inculcation and Education Talent that harsh power curve levels out. I don't gimp the talented any more than the old system, but instead through the powers of mind control and the magic of learning I raise up the bottom performers to a more complete standard.
I can't make those born to be weak strong, Neji Hyuga had to die so he couldn't deliver the world's harshest 'I told you so.', but I can make them skilled. It's hard to beat someone with no holes in their game, and competence can weaponize the worthless masses, those who will never wield chakra at the highest levels. Power may rain supreme, but numbers, tactics, and skill can make it a slog for all but the most powerful to achieve their goals. Ten thousand solid chunin may mean nothing to an amped up Almighty Push, but all of Pain's other homies can suffer the steel hurricane like the B team they are.
Shirgure and I reached the end of our session, and the genin teams training around us formed ranks three bodies deep. More than anyone else, the genin teams I trained embraced the black kimono life, the squashing of individualism and the uniformly rounded skill sets gave them a dehumanized quality. My genin are an organization, a movement, not the special snowflakes of Konoha. Let their talent delineate between them. Plus I think they look pretty fly. The only thing separating us from a good Bleach cosplay group is the footwear, this world moved on from straw sandals long ago. My guys wear thick, tightly meshed, ergonomic sandals with Kirigakure pinstriped leg warmers. It's a sleek look, very professional.
I took my place in front of them and took out a scroll, "When I call your name, come forth…"
I called out nine names from the thirty six teams and from the seals on the scroll presented them with black belts. These kids earned it, coming into my training with mild swordsmanship and leaving with solid swordsmanship. I'm proud of them, they have talent.
"This black belt is embroidered with both your name, and mine." I announced loud enough for all the assembled shinobi to hear me clearly, "It symbolizes your knowledge of the basics of kenjutsu completed under my instruction. From now on, if you get beaten in a sword fight, it better be by someone else wearing one of these, or a complete mismatch."
The kids looked nervous. Chill. It's not like I said to seppuku if you take an L.
With the belt ceremony completed, Shigure and I left for our next project, returning from the outskirts training grounds to the heart of the city, where my purchased woman now operated our best forge and furnaces. Here, civilians worked tirelessly to produce high quality steel for the shinobi forces, the metal industry being the largest form of civilian employment in the village. I gave Shirgure carte blanche to do as she pleases with this entire industry, and a blank check too. I didn't care about the details, that's what I have the woman for, but I'm savvy enough to recognize the rapid movement to more advanced tools and practices.
In Shigure's large personal workspace the pair of us took out the Company Device and tabbed over to the Patron's section, the listing of the executive members of The Company, specifically to the Merchant, the man at the head of The Company's market, and boy does he want everyone to know it as we have to pass by his image any time we want to access the nigh infinite resources available. Here infinite demand meets nigh infinite supply. Technically I work for the guy, but I'm not someone special he'd personally taken interest in, meaning no freebies and beni's and a whole lotta people between me and him on the totem pole. My Grand Mission: Village Hidden in the Waifu has the strategic objective of generating new combat ready Extra clones for the endless conflicts across the endless dimensions. I technically work for the Entertainment branch of The Company too, but more in the everything is entertainment to someone in the vastness of the infinite sort of way.
Though I wished for that twenty percent discount available to the Merchant's chosen, raw resources are usually cheap as hell on market. There are infinite failed world states that The Company can harvest completely without any bother by anything else out there, and as such raw mats, even seemingly exotic materials, are commodities. Even here though, my restrictions held true, and I can only make purchases on the market from settings that are primarily known for their ninja.
The Market accepts Points, but also any currency, so my stockpile of extra ryo went into purchasing more chakra metal from in house, but also precious azure lazulite (ah my heart bleeds from such expense!), fulminated mercury, magnetite, adamantite, and grave wax from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. For a far more dear sum, I purchased a Lazulite Axe and Lazulite Shuriken so Shigure had examples to work from. I paid out all my Company Salary and all currency in Kirigakure in need of decommissioning; waste not want not, and received caskets and crates full of goodies for my smith to work with.
Shigure's lighting shaped eyebrows furrowed as she examined the shining blue edged shuriken and axe, "Good." she complimented the tools then moved onto the materials purchased, finally holding a piece of Fountainhead Lapis Lazuli in her hand. Her face scrunched up as she sought to parse out its secrets before she finally nodded and proclaimed, "Mysterious."
"So, what's the prognosis, doc?" I asked after waiting patiently.
"I can reforge your sword with these, but the blade will be beyond you." She shook her head, "It is not the way, for a weapon to carry its wielder."
"Spare me the middle school level philosophy. This world stopped being a shonen the moment I entered it." I denied her flatly, "Fighting doesn't prove who is right, and who is wrong, just who's left. I don't give a damn about the schools of thought from your world. There is only winning and losing, the quick and the dead. So cut that loser shit out, and make the damn sword." I finished my monologue by handing Shorikimasu over to her.
"Yes, Lord Zabuza." Shigure agreed, but didn't hide the disappointment in her voice.
A shunshin executed out the nearest window soon brought me to my next appointment with Sonic.
"Finally pulled out of that slut, huh?" the villainous little shit smirked, continuing her long running (hehe) one sided rivalry with Shigure.
My speed coach felt rightfully marginalized among my Retinue, though she held a position of authority it only pertained to a very specific field. At all other times, no one needed Sonic for anything. Sonic had nothing on Shigure except raw speed, not her skills, not her tools, not her body, though no one actually had anything on the woman in that department. Shigure was designed for ecchi while Sonic and the rest of us come from chaste settings.
"Shut up and get to coaching." I spat out while limbering up for the oncoming torture.
"Of course, Mizukage-sama." Sonic simpered with bad intentions.
Good. The harder she pushes me the faster I'll catch up to her.
"Cut that weeb shit." I ordered, "It's Lord Mizukage, bitch."
"What you just said sounded weeb as fuck, but don't worry Lord Mizukage, your wish is my command." Sonic's hateful glare above her false sycophantic smile filled me with determination.
The bitch can torture me all she wants so long as I get faster every day, and soon a day will come when I no longer get faster under her tutelage, and I'll refund the bitch and her Added Potential to get 21 Points back. 4 Points and some pain and gain to get as fast as I need to survive against the whole cast? A bargain.
Sonic eventually got her victory against me, my body no longer able to continue the extreme output needed for her training. The best way to describe her grueling regime is to imagine sprinting as fast as you can, but now there is a mobile incinerator chasing you, and its gaining. Run faster and faster until cardiovascular failure, then keep running. It's a unique experience, but give me speed or give me death is not on the table. To train under Sonic is to take both and keep running.
My speed coach dropped me off at Haku's recovery center, the facility much improved since she received Sakura's Template, and my lovely concubine got to work resituating me. With Everlasting Talent, we didn't need to worry about the usual hang ups medical jutsu, and the Sakura Talent included things like experience gained in non-canon movies. Haku hit me with Sakura's understanding of the Body Revival Technique, the signature ability of Shinno from the Bonds movie. Even without Dark Chakra to maximize the power of the musculature's 'destruction and rebirth' cycles , Shigure's and Sonic's training provided ample destruction for Haku to bring me back stronger than yesterday. If Body Tune Up created a form perfectly sculpted by natural means, the Body Revival Technique adds true godlike strength to that Greek god bod.
I may be addicted to gains.
After the session, Haku still washed me in a medicinal bath and massaged me with medicated oil, leaving me completely refreshed and ready to do it all over again, so I did. It's good to be kage when you have someone else to handle all the boring shit. Only after burning my body out again did I move onto my third level of training for the day. Haku smiled the entire time she guided me towards the perfect chakra control she gained from Sakura Haruno. Hiruzen's template brought me close enough that I didn't need to spend long to make the leap from nigh perfect to perfect, but I enjoyed taking a break from my otherwise insanity inducing schedule.
After chakra control exercises, the pair of us explored the pink haired medic's knowledge of medical jutsu, focused on teaching me the Creation Rebirth and its parent technique the Strength of Hundred Seal. Sakura possessed a unique mastery of this technique that allowed her to continue her normal duties while forming the initial charge of the diamond shaped seal, her perfect control enabling her to transfer chakra in and out of the seal without damaging it during its delicate initial forming.
I have much much more chakra than Sakura did while forming the Strength of Hundred Seal. Sakura's reverse were bottom tier genin. Mine can be calculated using the following formula: take Zabuza's large reserves, add on prime Hiruzen's massive reserves, add on moderate gains from Body Tune Up, reset my chakra growth rate to its peak because of Everlasting Talent, use that rate to add on months of increasingly intense training with Soul Talent boosting everything to equal an order of magnitude more chakra than my fellow kage, Mei and Gengetsu. Yugura's closer, but she's got that former jinchuuriki shine and still takes a distant second.
TLDR, I'm forming the Strength of Hundred Seal over my heart and I'm almost done.
The world is not ready for someone with that seal who's hyper lethal without it.
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