Naruto: Tango with Death

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[Sukaina's POV]

Well, that's quite the problem we got. Always people ready for some drama. But for now, I'm relaxing. I can't efficiently investigate without breaking a shit ton of rules than would create even more chaos anyway, so I'm relaxing for now.

Last year wasn't exactly intensive for my body, I did fight, but it was mostly nobodies. There was one time, when three of the Seven Swordsmen faced me, but I was forced to retreat to deal a larger blow to their army.

But last year was productive. While I did not completely get over from my reticence of working with other people, I did make a lot of progress. And I got to admit, I did like training them, even more so considering I was training myself doing so.

As for personal development, I made even greater progress.

First, in terms of techniques, I have reached what I believe to be the peak of Expert level for both Taijutsu and Kenjutsu, only a shred away from Master level for both.

This is quite the achievement as Master level is reserved for the elite. As far as I know, in Konoha, the only Taijutsu Masters were Guy, obviously, as well as Hiashi and Hizashi.

Guy specialized in the Strong Fist, while the Hyuuga Twins specialized in the Gentle Fist. But that's it. The strongest village in the world only has three Taijutsu Masters. I think that's enough to testify how rare a Taijutsu Master is, and how hard it is to become one.

As for Kenjutsu Master, Konoha does not have a single one. Actually, most Kenjutsu Masters are from the Land of Iron, and are Samurai, but there's been a few Shinobi through history.

And the reason for this little number of Masters is because to become one, one has to sublimate their art to near perfection.

For Taijutsu, I don't strictly follow either Strong Fist or Gentle Fist, I created my very own deadly art, and I will become a Master when I feel like my art has become unmatched.

For my Kenjutsu, it is a little different. I believe that my pure techniques have already reached Master level, but I am still missing something.

I have found myself a new sword in the past year, after my old one broke, and while I did go for a sword of good quality, I also didn't get one that was too good.

This was a conscious choice I made after learning some of the Samurai's arts. Shinobis have made some legendary weapons, like the Seven Swords of Kiri, but those swords were merely external objects.

The Samurai held a different philosophy, regarding the blade. Every Samurai would be given a regular blade, and it would be their job to strengthen it on their own.

They have a particular way of sharpening their blade, using their chakra as a whetstone, and through time, the blade would grow stronger. This would also create a special link between the blade and the user, which would help the blade grow according to the user's needs.

This made for some of the strongest blades ever, but on the other end, they would also become unusable for anyone else, as the blade would only be swung by its companion.

I had made the choice to follow this path, and because of my large chakra reserves, my sword had not only gotten quite sharp, it had also gained its first attribute.

My sword was a long katana, much longer than other blades, and any injury it made would bleed out much faster than usual. Moreover, it wouldn't only be their blood that would leave their body, but also a small amount of both their Yin and Yang chakra, meaning that with every injury I dealt to my opponents, they would get weaker.

This was also why my fight with Yagura was so easy. Although I had missed his heart on the first attack, I still hit his left lung, and such a large injury had been sucking a lot of his blood and chakra out, making him weaker. That's the 'poison' he thought I had applied on my blade.

On the physical side, I had also grown much stronger. That had been quite useful against Yagura, coupled with the fact that I was now able to use the 5th Gate, the Gate of Limit. Using it used all of my healing factor though, so while the five gates were active, I wouldn't heal from my injuries, at all.

Still, this was a lot better than Guy, who would fracture his bones if he used it for too long. As for my chakra reserves, they were getting more and more absurd, allowing me to cast that Hidden in the Mist jutsu over the entirety of Kiri.

Finally, research wise, I had mastered a great deal of Jutsus. I had mastered every E, D and C Rank Suiton Jutsus. This was huge, as not only did I have an incredibly large choice for my attacks, I was also getting closer to the peak.

The larger the chain of Tenketsu, the less different combinations there are. Although I still have B, A and S Rank jutsus left, which would look like I'm only halfway there, I actually am very close to mastering every Suiton Jutsu possible.

My estimation is that in less than year, I will have mastered them all. Moreover, this will clear out a lot of wrong combinations for the other natures, so they too will take less and less time to figure out.

So overall, I would say that I have reached the general S Rank, or Kage Level, in terms of strength. Before, I had only reached that when I was in stealth, but today, even in a face to face fight, I am as strong as a Kage.

At 11 years old.

Ha, take that OP fuckers with systems. I don't need any cheat!

Well, time to hit the baths.

And so I got to enjoy a nice, hot bath all the way to evening. It had been more than a year since I had been to any kind of hot spring, or felt any really comfort really, so it felt heavenly.

After that I returned home, cooked myself something quick and started meditating. Yes, not to sleep. It's been a long time since I last slept, meditation has basically replaced my sleep.

But it's nothing bad, I empty my mind when I meditate anyway, and allow my body to recover, so it is even better than sleeping.