Chapter 5: Senju Clan Joint Training

The next day, Seimei finished his breakfast quickly and continued to grind the Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame all morning. The Senju clan's joint training for youths up to 12 years old will be held at 3 PM. So, he decided to use the morning productively and level up this Ninjutsu to Lv.2. Fortunately, his Lv.5 Fire Affinity made it easier for him to master even B-rank Fire Release Ninjutsu with ease. According to his experience, Lv.5 Fire affinity was akin to developing his fire release to the second stage of nature transformation. This level of mastery over fire nature transformation was similar to Naruto's wind nature affinity being developed enough to create the S-rank Ninjutsu, Wind Release: Rasenshuriken, in the original anime. Don't be fooled by how quickly Naruto pushed his wind nature transformation to the second stage within a few months. He had the chakra of Nine-tails and thousands of shadow clones to help him do that. For most ordinary Shinobi, reaching a similar stage of nature transformation mastery for even one element would take years of hard work and dedication. It's no wonder that there were countless Chunins and Special Jonins, but Konoha only had a few hundred full-fledged Jonins in the original Narutoverse. After all, to become a Jonin, a Shinobi must develop at least two elemental natures to a very high level. Fortunately, Seimei had his Otsutsuki lineage and system to speed up the process. [Fire Affinity Lv.5 (18,917 /20,000)] "A few more months of grinding and my fire release affinity will reach Lv.6." "When this happens, my fire-release Ninjutsu will become even more powerful. I will be able to master Fire Style Jutsu even faster." "And finally..." Seimei looked at another row of his system panel. [Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame Lv.2 (3 /500)] 'This Ninjutsu's proficiency finally reached the intermediate level. I can now use it practically during actual combat.' 'However, to reduce the number of hand seals to one, I need to level up this jutsu to at least Lv.4. Plus, I can't slack off my chakra control training either.' After a while, he looked at his remaining chakra. [Chakra: 12,936 /20,068 (19,860 → 20,068)] "The joint training is still more than 3 hours away. Right now, my passive chakra recovery speed is around 2,000 points per hour." "Even if I don't extract chakra actively, it will still be nearly full by the time the joint training starts." "Okay. It's time to take a bath, eat something tasty, and join Uncle Hashirama to listen to some of his childhood stories while I'm at it." As he kept muttering his thoughts, he made his way to his house to dump himself into the bathtub. ------------------- It was already 2:40 PM when Seimei finally entered the main training ground of the Senju clan. The place was filled with clansmen, from 5-year-old children to senior Senju veterans who had spent their entire lives fighting on the front lines during the Warring States Era. His father wasn't here today as he had to handle Hokage duties; his Uncle, Hashirama, pushed onto him. However, he can clearly see his uncle chilling and chatting away with other clansmen. 'I see you really deserved the beating from Father yesterday, Uncle.' 'But still, you can't hate him. My uncle is genuinely a kind person. Though he has a few screws loose.' 'Then again, in this cruel Ninja World, staying completely sane without a few quirks is impossible.' 'To become someone worthy enough to be known as God of Shinobi, you need fierce, obsessive determination.' 'After all, chakra is a unique combination of spiritual and physical energy. It resonates with your mental state and will. Without an obsessive desire to fulfill your goals, it's impossible to truly achieve growth and become strong.' 'In the original Naruto series, even Tsunade, a bona fide Kage-level powerhouse, became weak enough to be defeated by an average Jonin when her mental state was weakened.' 'But once she bounced back, she went toe-to-toe against reanimated Madara.' 'This is the power of chakra.' 'As long as you stay strong, have a fierce determination to fulfill your goals, and set your hesitations aside, your growth speed will truly skyrocket.' As Seimei was lampooning inwardly, Hashirama finally noticed him enter the training ground and called out to him. "Hey Seimei. Over here." The call from his uncle finally interrupted his inner monologue, and he trotted to Hashirama, who still had the signature goofy smile on his face. "So, are you nervous? This is your first time joining the joint training session after all." "Not really. Father trained me well." "Nice!" Hashirama winked and gave him a thumbs up. Soon, it was 3 PM, and a middle-aged Shinobi in a standard Konoha Jonin outfit came to the middle of the training field. He scanned the young Senju kids present here and then commanded with a booming voice, "Alright, kids, listen up." "Everyone from 6 to 12 years old who plans to join this training session, come forward." The surrounding chatter stopped as his voice echoed. The kids who came to join the training session, including Seimei, came forward. Seimei looked around curiously and thought, 'Wow! There are at least 60 kids who came to join this unofficial evaluation.' The middle-aged Jonin waited for a minute for everyone to come forward. Once he saw every relevant young Senju lined up, he started speaking again. "Good." "My name is Senju Haruto. And I'm your instructor for today's joint training evaluation." "As always, we will divide this training into several sections to test your Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, Shurikenjutsu, and actual combat skills." According to him, the young Senju will participate in the following events: • Chakra control exercises like tree climbing and water walking. • Shurikenjutsu or simply Ninja Tool Throwing. • Basic Ninjutsu evaluation (Three body techniques, plus checking D and C-rank Ninjutsu proficiency for older participants.) • Basic Taijutsu evaluation by sparring with other instructors who are Elite Chunin and Special Jonin. • Finally, one bout of one-on-one combat. The match-up will be selected by Instructor Senju Haruto based on the participants' overall evaluation. The clan organized such evaluations for every young Senju between 6-12 years old at least once every 6 months to decide how much resource to invest in each of them. Of course, for Senju kids who had a rich household, such as Seimei, this evaluation might not mean much. But kids who were already orphans or whose parents didn't have a significant amount of money or influence heavily rely on these evaluations to secure resources. After all, Shinobi training was expensive. Outrageously expensive. Medicine baths, soldier pills, Ninjutsu scrolls, nutritional foods—all of them needed a substantial amount of funds, contributions, or privileges to acquire. So, if your family wasn't rich and influential or if you didn't have much inheritance, you needed to demonstrate your talent and worth. Only by doing this would you get enough resources and clan support to grow up to be a true powerhouse. 'Of course, if your uncle is a clan leader and you have a cheat, that's even better.' 'In this Shinobi world, bloodline reigns supreme.' 'Talent? Even the least talented Senju, who has the lowest amount of resources, can become more powerful than 80% of civilian Ninja with no bloodline or secret techniques.' 'An exceptionally talented civilian Ninja with no bloodline limit or secret techniques will become an Elite Jonin or low-level Kage Shinobi at most.' 'But that's their limit.' 'To surpass this limit, you need a strong bloodline or secret techniques .' After a moment, Seimei finally stopped musing. The Joint Training Evaluation was about to begin. -------------------------- Release Schedule: 7 regular chapters/ week For every 300 Power Stones, you will get one extra chapter. (Limit: 3 Extra chapters/ week) It means that by voting on this story with power stones, you can read up to 10 chapters every week!????