After almost two weeks had passed, I had managed to get into the mountains. It was a journey that, had I been my old self from my old world, would have taken months to get here. I was currently trying to master wall walking with chakra control while I had the time, and it would also help me use some shortcuts.
“Come on. Almost there-” My focus slipped for just a second, and my control wavered as a result.
“Oh come on! I was almost there!” I yelled out in frustration as the path I had taken to get up this particular mountain came closer and closer until it reversed as I went down several dozen meters.
Much like when I first entered the Land of Lightning with its border at the edge of the nation, the mountains were deceptive. What appeared to be a simple mountain range was later revealed to be more than just a mountain range. The mountains, I came to find out from the locals, made up the vast majority of the country's landscape, to my complete shock.
The mountains were big. Bigger than the mountains I had seen pictures of back on Earth. They towered high up as natural sky scrapers. Several were even breaking past the ever-present clouds that rumbled with thunder in the distance. The clouds themselves, like the mountains, seemed to be permanently imprinted on the land itself, the clouds never once breaking apart to let more sunlight through and never budging away from the massive mountain range that was not natural.
Just as the edges of the nation's border were absurdly long, which might as well have been the length of Texas from its southernmost point to the edge of the far north of the state, so too did the mountain range extend to such an absurd distance. The mountains themselves may as well be stacked on top of each other like people in New York apartments. Where one mountain ended another immediately was after it, all surrounded by each other.
Feeling the cool wind of the mountains' breeze, not too cold and bringing with it refreshing relief as the smell of rain was carried with it. The chakra came as commanded, collecting into my lone hand and feet. Angling and reorienting myself midair before slamming my hand and feet into the mountainside.
After that battle, my skills and abilities had grown by leaps and bounds. My swordsmanship had improved so much that if I had been training to get there, it would have taken me numerous months of grueling work, if not well over a year. Even my chakra control had greatly improved. What I called the chakra blade was vastly better than what it was when I first used it against the monks.
Enough so that even with one arm, I could almost cut a massive limb off of a tree with it and increase its reach by a not so insignificant amount at an astonishing speed. My newfound growth not only helped with the chakra blade, it also helped me with chakra control in general. Just not as much as I would have liked. Unlike with the chakra blade, wall walking took me consciously thinking about it to get up a wall.
I need to be capable of doing it without thinking, like I did when I was on that slide of ice Fuyuko had made. I don’t know how I did that, but I did. It simply could have been the heat of the moment, and I just did it. But as things stand, I have noticed that if anything is associated with the sword, then I learn it and improve at absurd speeds.
Other things associated with fighting I can learn quickly enough, but it was nowhere close to even reaching my level of improvement with a sword. So it is nice to see that almost getting killed did help at least and brought something worthwhile to the table. Even if I would have preferred not to almost die.
Even the various supernatural energies had improved greatly in capacity. Before, I would have long since taken multiple breaks doing this much wall walking or chakra blades and running faster than most bullets. Now I can keep going for over an hour, maybe two if I pushed myself.
Gritting my teeth as my momentum is abruptly brought to a halt, but as the seconds pass on and I crawl my way back up looking like a famous wall-crawler, save for one arm, I hear, “You lost focus, my student.”
“NoOoOo~” I say in a manly tone that was in no way, shape, or form girly and desperate sounding as my teacher Kojirou simply smiles like the cat who got the canary as I slide back down, landing on my back. Most of the bruises across my journey had gone away, along with the cuts having long since scabbed over and mostly healed. If it weren't for Shimo treating me, it would have taken longer to heal.
“You did that on purpose!” My angry yell conveyed the frustration and agony of failing at something so simple yet could shave off so much time for me. I have been using it to walk up the sides of the mountains to shave off time for myself and help train me.
“An astute observation, pupil. What else have you discovered?” He rubs his chin as his eyes bore into my own, and despite me not seeing his mouth, I know he is smiling at me.
“That you are a screw-up that somehow managed to bungle his way into being the supposed best swordsman in all of Japan only to get killed by a doofus with an oar.” I responded back now, wanting to get back at him.
The last part did quite a bit of emotional damage as his posture subtly tensed up as he raised an unimpressed brow. "Hell, you weren’t even good enough to die by a sword!” Giving him my best and most sincere smile that looked so sugary and sweet it may as well give anyone who looked upon it diabetes.
Yet Kojirou only saw the mouth of a serpent with a far too sharp tongue for his liking. He remained quiet at my insults about his past. The only reason I even know about it is my dad would read me the story of my namesake. He was rather obsessed with Kojirou to an unhealthy degree. What Mom saw in him I will never know.
Getting up off the ground and brushing myself before placing one foot on the sheer rock wall and then the next as both stick to it firmly. Slowly but surely I walk back up the side of the mountain as I move faster.
Not exactly anything to write home about since before it was like walking on a frozen lake, super slow so you don’t crack the ice. The still-broken arm made itself known across the entirety of this journey as it ached and protested anything physical I did, but I ignored it as best I could.
Now it’s more like a normal walk, but despite how simple it may look, it’s taking a lot of concentration to even do this. So if I ever have to fight someone, I won’t be using this unless I can do what I did before. It would be incredibly stupid to do so when I need all of my concentration on my enemy instead of keeping my feet to whatever they are stuck to so I don’t just plummet to my death.
The edge to the top became much closer, making me excited. Bending over, my fingers almost grasp the edge before I flinch back at the face of Kojirou popping over the edge.
“You know, if I am such a fool, then why did your father think so highly of me that he named his firstborn son after me? In fact, how are you not a screw-up since you are me?” He said it while looking like he bit into a lemon.
…
“Are you pouting?”
“… no. And you haven’t answered my questions.”
Letting out an annoyed huff as my feet slide a little on the wall as I swipe the edge and miss because of it. A twitching eye looked at Kojirou while my feet firmly stopped and held onto the wall.
“I am not you. I merely have your template.” Step by step I grew closer.
“Yes, you are since you look rather like me. Not completely, and the fact you have my capabilities, though to a far lesser degree." My movements paused when I looked up at him. An idea of what he was doing soon came, and with it came anger.
You motherfu-
“Almost as if you are an even greater screw-up than me since you can’t even fully do what I could.”
My feet are not sticking as well to the wall. They slid and began to lose the adhesion that kept me firmly attached to it. My body wobbled before I lay flat against it, pressing my hand against the wall, keeping myself firmly rooted. My broken arms' pain grew in intensity, like millions of ants biting and stinging under the skin.
It made me grit my teeth because I instinctively tried to use it, and it’s in a sling, stopping it with a wooden splint. “Knock it off, Kojirou!”
I crawled forward no longer caring if I was cheating by using my hand. I am not falling again! With newfound determination, I pushed on, closing the gap once again. Kojirou floated lazily next to me. “So you are named after me, yet you are not as good as me even if I was this supposed screwup. You are an even greater failure!” He said with a happy smile as he pointed his finger at my face.
Despite him not being physically here or capable of interacting with anything, me included to an extent, I still instinctively closed my eye out of a fear of not letting something touch and gouge it out. “Knock it off, dammit."
In response, he does not knock it off. Instead, he doubles down on being a colossal asshole when his hands hover over my eyes, blocking my view entirely.
“Will you-” Raising a hand to swat at him as my emotions got the better of me when I knew full well I can’t do anything to him, “-knock it ooooofffff!”
With that outburst, my concentration finally broke, and my hand moved to slap him, and instead of harmlessly phasing through his body, I whiffed and plummeted back to the walkway below. The wind whipped and rushed past me, my hair fluttering in front of me as ki circulated across my body. Yet despite the distance I was falling and how anyone else would be freaking out, my eyes bored into Kojirou’s smug face that was framed by my dark lavender hair.
The pathway rushed to meet me, and in no time at all, my body slammed into the stone path. The ki that flowed across my form helped brush off the worst of the damage, making what would have been something that could kill or cripple into a cough and air forced out of my lungs.
Instead of breaking my back and cracking my skull open, it felt more like a massive fist punching me across the back of my body. The ground cracked and fractured, a minor crater formed around me as I coughed and sputtered. My arm still in the sling made me want to scream and cry, the pain bad but not blinding.
Despite falling a distance that would cripple, if not outright kill, most people from the physical damage, even the pain they would be in would be enough to keep them lying on the ground. Yet, besides my arm, the rest of me was sore but surprisingly fine, all things considered.
“Have you had enough?” Kojirou asked. His voice was close before his face came into view. I stared emotionlessly up into the sky past him.
A grudging nod came from me.
“Then apologize and ask for my forgiveness.” He turned away from me with eyes closed and arms crossed.
Are you for real right now?
… Fuck it.
“Alright, fine! I am sorry about what I said, and I didn’t mean any of it. You are hands down the best swordsman in the world. I only said it because I knew it was a touchy subject, especially the part about the oar, and just wanted to mess with you. Now can you stop trying to sabotage me?” I trailed off, exasperated at all of this.
He slowly turned and looked at me with a soft smile on his face. “Of course, I will, Andrew.”
Letting the part of him not apologize for making me fall that far, I was at least a little thankful that my arm wasn’t any worse for what happened. That and significant gratitude towards Senjumaru for introducing me to ki. Ki was rather absurd considering it made most forms of physical damage either useless or reduced enough that something that could kill would instead just cause major or minor harm.
Rolling my shoulder and moving my neck from side to side, hearing the satisfying pops come from it before getting back up the wall and this time walking far easier than I had before up it. It still took some focus on my part, but it was less strenuous compared to before.
To think that after this I am going to have to learn how to walk on water. No choice despite how annoying that was going to be since if I ever fought against an enemy near or on a body of water, it would be necessary, otherwise, I would be incapable of fighting back or simply just drown. I could try using ki or chi, but I didn’t even know what those two could do beyond the obvious things I had learned.
I finally reached the top and walked over it. I grinned excitedly at finally getting up and over this shortcut. Looking back at how far I had come, I saw the numerous paths and bridges that dotted the mountains.
The mountains had their winding paths that were both old and maintained with little to no hazard across them. I would give the country this, they took keeping these things clear and clean rather seriously. They would have to if they wanted traders or people who are not superhuman to be capable of entering and leaving their country safely.
Despite the numerous mountains, it’s not that hard traversing the landscape on my own. Even encountered the occasional mountain village built into and on the sides of the mountains, which are mostly just mining towns. Occasionally sharing the path with men in dirty clothes smudged black with dirt and debris as they haul sacks filled with ores and minerals of value on their backs, with others pulling along wheelbarrows filled with the stuff.
They mostly kept to themselves as I used what supplies I had while occasionally practicing my stealth by sneaking up on animals and taking what I could from them before journeying into these mountains.
My original plans are ruined now with the knowledge that those who seek the headband are on my trail, and if it hadn’t been for me facing those two monks from before, I would have never known they were on my tail. Having that dishonorable dog that Kojirou refers to and his one remaining student attack me further spurred me on in both getting as much distance as possible in this country and training.
I was wary of the day he would come for me again, and thankfully I haven’t seen him since that day. Except, unlike last time, I will be ready for him. My thoughts drifted to the two monks. My hand trembled at the sight of the older one's last moments of life, how my thoughts drifted towards how he may have been a decent person, but he changed when he and his younger friend lost everything. The thought of what befell their monastery. Red clouds.
Knowing the Akatsuki was also hunting for me… That filled me with dread.
This world was already different from the one I knew originally, and despite not watching much of Shippuden, I did know about the Akatsuki members when it came to how some of them looked. So what are the odds they would also be different from what they originally were?
Then the battle against that dog and his students could have ended in me and Fuyuko both dying. Yet the boy's eyes before I took his life. Letting out a shaky breath and shaking my head of such thoughts. It was self-defense in both cases, but that didn’t mean my emotions would make this easy on me.
It feels like I am Guts from Berserk right now with the constant paranoia that my enemies are just around the next corner and, regardless of if I am injured or sick, they will kill me.
Ignoring that way of thinking simply because having too much paranoia would get me killed just as much as too little. It’s the same reason despite having plenty of motivation to train, I don’t overdo it because that energy will be needed if I get attacked.
I moved on, humming whatever song came to mind. That so happened to be Death Rides A Horse from Kill Bill. Moving along a particular path before a hand immediately went to my sword when the sound of fighting greeted me.
Immediately merging with my surroundings, it still is not perfect but should be good enough if I keep my distance. The sight that greeted me was three young children who wore the lightning shinobi headband fighting for their lives against a lone woman with a red uniform with mesh wiring under it.
She flipped out of the way of a barrage of kunai, and the stone headband was shown briefly. Noting the three dead bodies on the side of the mountain they were fighting on. Two of whom, judging by the colors of their clothes, were friends of the woman, while the third may have been the sensei of the genin.
Speaking of them, they were putting up one hell of a fight, but it was a forlorn conclusion when the woman weaved through any of their attempts to keep her back as she slammed a vicious kick into a boy's gut, sending him tumbling ass over teakettle with the air knocked out of him and spit flying from his mouth. I winced when that happened.
I know I am probably going to regret this, but I stepped in before a child got killed before my eyes. It probably didn’t help I was going through survivor's remorse or whatever you wanted to call it after killing the kid from before.
The woman grabbed a kunai out of the air and sent it back at one of the three young boys, who had platinum blonde hair and dark tanned skin, just like the other two. Grabbing the handle of my blade and pulling it out with my chakra, heeding the call, a solid purple blade halfway up the sword came out far faster than any other time. A crescent-shaped gust of wind surged out and cut through the kunai.
The two pieces of metal clattered to the ground with a shallow gouge forming on the mountain pass between both parties, making them stop. All of them looked at me, with two of the boys staring at me in shock as they glanced at the gouge that, had my aim been slightly off, would have seen one of them get cut.
“That’s enough. All of you knock this off now or face the consequences.”
At my arrival and the warning, everyone became tense but made no sudden movements as they all eyed each other and me. "Well, thank you, handsome~” The woman tried to sashay up to me with a noticeable sway in her hips before a slash of wind and click of my sword entering its sheath made her stop when a small tuft of her black hair fell to the ground.
She broke out in a cold sweat and soon became nervous when her eyes met my own and saw just how serious I am. I noticed her glance at my arm in a sling and narrowed my eyes when she looked into my own. Her posture relaxed, accepting that she won’t easily be rid of me.
"Does anyone else want to try and test me?”
“Of course, just my luck things would get worse. Now a samurai to add to my pile of troubles…” She muttered under her breath, yet I and the kids heard her all the same. The kids give her their best glares, but she doesn’t even pay them any mind. Don’t blame her since they were soldiers by all means, but they were also ultimately still children at the end of the day.
“What happened and why were you all trying to kill each other?”
The kids all speak over one another in a chaotic jumble of words I can’t even make out. Even the woman looked annoyed and gave me a sympathetic look. Not even giving her any ideas since as far as I am concerned she is doing it to try and get in my good graces before sinking a blade into my back.
My hand was raised, silencing them, before my finger pointed at the middle one of their group with his close-shaven head. “You. What happened, speak slowly and calmly so I can understand you.”
The boy took a deep breath before exhaling and speaking far more calmly than before. “We were doing a C-rank mission with our Jonin sensei checking on the pathways around here and checking on the local villages around this sector. Then our sensei saw some people acting suspiciously, and we found her."
He pointed at the woman and stared daggers at her. She simply smiled softly back, cupping her hand under her cheek. The kids bristled at the disregard. “And her squad mates from the Hidden Stone. From what sensei had said, they were scouting and gathering information on the landscape along with the patrols. He managed to kill the other two before he was overwhelmed, and he ordered us to keep the scroll he got from the first one he killed away from them. We’re supposed to go to a designated location where we knew help would be.”
Turning to look at the woman keeping the children in my field of view, “Is this true?”
She pouted for a moment before answering as my eyes narrowed, making her flinch, “Mostly.”
She stayed silent, not giving anything else away. A sigh escaped me at this casual and senseless act of violence that cost three people their lives over information that in the long run may as well be useless. “Here is what is going to happen. Do you have any means to transport your fallen comrades?”
My question at the kunoichi earned me a few blinks before she registered the words and gave me a nod. “Yes, I do. You are going to let me go?”
“Gather their bodies and leave this country. If you can’t make it out alive after this, then that’s on you. Don’t waste the chance I am giving you.”
“But the scroll.” She interjected before I could speak with the kids.
“Is off the table. Three people died over something so stupid, especially when you and your comrades were doing a clandestine operation in another country that could lead to a potential war. Don’t throw your life away over it.”
She looked ready to argue but seemed to think better of it before the children looked like they just bit into a lemon. One of them started wiggling before exploding and pointing a finger at me. “Why are you letting her go after what she and the rest of them did?!”
The kunoichi moved past them as he gave her a heated glare. She ignored him and instead focused on gathering up her dead comrades. She kneeled and took out a scroll, and in a puff of smoke, the bodies were gone. Her eyes trailed over to the fallen lightning shinobi before she stopped after I cleared my throat. Her head snapped towards me, and she waved and smiled nervously.
“Because this isn’t my fight and I am being as fair as I can be between two groups of people whose job occupation involves deception, lying, and murder. I do not want anyone else throwing their lives away over whatever is in that damn scroll. You get to keep the scroll, and I will accompany you three to wherever you need to go.” With me calmly explaining things to them, the one who was the most irate about this settled down. He still was not happy when I could see a hint of defiance in his eyes.
“Well, I take it that everything is settled now?” The kunoichi walked up with her hand on her hip.
“For the most part. You can leave, and good luck on your journey back home.”
"Well, thank you, handsome!” She says in a flirty tone, waving daintily to me before running off and leaving us be. Waiting for a moment to make sure no tricks were going to happen. After waiting for a brief moment, nothing happened.
“Alright, where is the meeting point?” I gave the three genin my full attention.
“So you are really going to escort us to where we need to go?” One asked as we began to walk over to the body of their fallen Jonin before one of them pulled out a scroll. Just like with the stone kunoichi, a hand sign and some smoke later, and the body was gone.
“Of course I am. Wouldn’t be right leaving you all to fend for yourselves, especially if she decided to come back.” I awkwardly scratched the back of my head.
“What did you do to cut the kunai in half?” One of the three little gremlins asked as their fear and nervousness faded away only to be replaced with excitement and so much energy that only a child could ever hope to contain.
The loss of their teacher remained, but they were likely trying to distract themselves from it. Hard to tell with kids because children tend to be more intelligent than most adults give them credit for. Yet at other times they end up being how the adults viewed them in other cases.
Walking ahead stoically as they led me on while keeping my senses trained for anyone waiting to pounce on us, I thought, “A quickdraw technique I had been working on in my travels.”
It was the truth, funnily enough. Realizing that despite how capable Kojirou’s moves and skills were, some of the higher-end ones would be out of my reach for the foreseeable future, and all of them were close-range attacks.
That’s not even broaching the subject of Tsubame Gaeshi. That is a long way off for me.
But one thing I can do is borrow ideas and techniques from other works of fiction. Since I now know that things associated with the sword are the fastest and easiest for me to learn, it made making and utilizing them far easier.
In this case, a movie I watched had a character by the name of Jubei that aired on AniMondays on the old Sci-Fi channel. Taking inspiration from one of his attacks being a more iconic moment from the film. The idea was to pull my sword out of the sheath so fast with enough power that I could turn the wind into a blade and attack at range. So far it’s proven to be rather effective with cutting through the kunai, but I doubt that knife was made of any incredible materials or created by a master smith.
I will admit that even with my physique being enhanced by Kojirou as my base template and having the advantage of a servant's capabilities enhancing my body, it took no small amount of effort to do the attack. Even more so knowing I did it with only one hand, with ki further bolstering me. Though it being sheathed helped in that regard, I have prioritized a great deal of training in quick drawing after all.
“Cool!” One of them said to my side as they kept their eyes peeled after one of them nudged the other two, noting how I was keeping an eye out for trouble. The group, despite their best efforts to try and conceal the emotional weight of what they saw and went through, I can see the sadness that clings to them. It's safe to assume they were close with their teacher, and even if they weren't, they are still children, and seeing someone that they considered one of them die is a traumatizing thing, especially for children.
The rest of the journey was us simply walking while I got pestered with various random questions as the day went on.
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Orange.”
“Can I hold your sword and-”
“No.”
“You didn’t let me finish!”
“And the answer remains no.”
“Know any good jutsu?”
“I know a few of them. Which story would you like to hear?”
He turned and stumbled for a moment before catching himself. “I didn’t mean stories! I meant any jutsu you know and can use.” He grumbled while his two friends chuckled.
“Besides the most simple ones, no. Except maybe…”
“Yeah! What is it?” In his excitement he got closer to me.
“Hmmmm. I don’t know if you need to know it. It is one of the most powerful and devastating jutsus ever made.”
By this point, he had sparkles in his eyes while his two squad mates watched with suspicion and skepticism. “I need it! Please please please tell me?” He had his hands clasped together as he begged me.
“Are you prepared for a demonstration?” My eyes were half-lidded as a sly smile graced my lips.
“Yes!”
“Tickle jutsu go!” My hand quickly neared his sides, and the boy started laughing with tears streaming down his face. He tried and failed to get my hand away from his stomach while he swatted futilely at me. My hand slid towards his stomach, and he laughed harder and harder. His two friends were in shock at first before devious grins formed on their faces.
“Hahaha- guys plea- no no don’t help him!” His laughter increased tenfold when his friends tickled him alongside me, the two of them laughing and smiling, wiping away the dark cloud that clung to them even if it was only temporary. Eventually, we stopped the tickle torture and moved along before one of them slowed down enough to be by my side.
“So… Can we hear one of the stories?” He asked, looking like he wanted to hear one but was trying to hide it as the other two gave him looks, watching us over their shoulders.
I hum before nodding, getting a smile out of him. “How would you like to hear the story of the creation of the Rasengan?”
“What’s that?!” All three ask simultaneously.
Ignoring the impromptu synergy they all just simultaneously had before clearing my throat and getting them settled down. “That would be the signature jutsu of the Fourth Hokage.”
The boys made various faces like they bit into something bitter before they relaxed and gestured for me to continue. “I understand your dislike for a rival and a leader from a powerful nation like your own, but much can be learned from observing and learning from others.”
“But- but it’s the tree huggers…” One of them said it to me like that name should make it obvious.
"Soooo, you don’t want to hear the story? Well, too bad you're hearing it anyway!”
“What?!” One of them squawked out, “Did we ever have a choice?”
“No, you never did. Now it all began with a water balloon…” I began retelling what I remembered of Jiraiya showing Naruto the steps to learning the Rasengan.
At moments I had to scrounge around inside of my head for each part, courtesy of me having watched that particular part of the series back when I was still in middle school, and it’s been well over ten years after that. So stuff will be forgotten, especially when you have all kinds of shows and movies filling up the space in my head from the gap when I last watched Naruto.
The kids pay rapt attention, one of them even taking out a scroll and jotting down what he is hearing. By the time I finished the story, their enthusiasm and excitement had returned in full force.
“When we get back, that is the first thing I am going to do!” One excitedly spoke, and the other two vocally agreed with him on how cool and powerful the jutsu sounded.
"Kojirou, we are almost there. Just around this curve will be the meetup point.” The one further ahead was excited, yet a hint of nervousness and worry could be detected in his tone.
“It’s alright, just stay near me to be safe. Just in case, alright?” All three nodded their heads at my request.
As we rounded the curve of the mountain, a ledge that jutted out of the mountain further than the pathways so far had an inn along with a few other buildings. One of which looked like a blacksmith. Unfortunately, I doubted the smith was going to be capable of making a blade like the one Senjumaru lent me or repairing the broken one taken from the girl whose nose I broke.
Not that there's anything wrong with a simple sword considering Kojirou managed to go blow for blow against Artoria when she had Excalibur and the only reason she managed to win was because he purposefully let her win. All he had to use was a simple sword, not a noble phantasm.
If he could do that, then if given enough time and things play out just right for me, so can I. Maybe I could even one day surpass him. I swore I heard a hum of pride by my side, but a glance, and of course, no one was there. I guess Kojirou was happy to see me making some ambitious dreams.