Systematic Shinobi - Chapter 18.1

"You sure this will work?" Daiki asked, standing in front of his pond. The clone he'd left behind yesterday while he went and played with Hanabi, had taken the time to finish up the renovations on the pond that Isobu desired.

Well, beyond the other inhabitants. Finding some frogs shouldn't be too hard, but he wasn't sure about where to find some Koi.

…Maybe he could ask Fu to summon him some?

'Yes, it may not be blood, but my chakra is more in tune with my essence, because I am chakra itself given form.' Isobu assured.

He'd drawn up another summoning contract now that he knew it worked, had imbued it with Isobu's chakra, forming a link. He just wasn't sure if it would work since it wasn't blood.

'Kurama was forced into a contract with Madara Uchiha, remember? And I know from experience, blood from us will not work, many have tried to force the issue with myself over the centuries. Do not worry, it will work.' the huge turtle Bijuu expounded.

Well, he was the one with more experience, so Daiki would trust in his words. He drew upon a tiny amount of Isobu's chakra, before focusing and running through a few hand seals, then slammed his hand down on the ground, "Summoning Jutsu: Isobu!" he declared.

He'd found in the process, that beyond his main contract, he had to focus on Isobu specifically as well, which was kind of interesting as well and brought so many questions about the mental aspect of things and how it linked those who were connected to the contract.

There was a puff of smoke and Daiki's chest, where his seal was located, gave a small thrumming throb, though not an uncomfortable feeling, and then when the smoke cleared, there was a small, tiny looking Isobu on the ground, barely bigger than his palm.

"Ah, fresh air, how I-" Isobu began basking in his newfound freedom, only to yelp as the tiny bijuu found himself snatched up by Daiki.

"Holy shit you're so cute buddy!" Daiki exclaimed, grinning massively.

Like seriously, he could carry him around on his shoulder like this, then if anyone wanted to fight he could be like, 'Go Isobu, I choose you! Use Bijuudama!'

"I am not doing that." the tiny Isobu remarked dryly.

Spoilsport.

"Hey wait, you can still hear my thoughts?" Daiki realised and asked.

"This body is merely an extension of my main one, like the clones you can make," Isobu replied, "And I can freely share my consciousness between these bodies I create."

Huh.

Wait, that was just like one of the abilities of the Rinnegan, at least as far as Nagato went. He couldn't remember if Obito could do it with his paths, but he assumed so considering how coordinated they were. Then again, who knew with that, they were reanimated edo tensei's after all.

Then again, Kaguya had the Rinnegan herself, or was it the Rinnesharingan she had? Either way, she had it, so it may have been an ability inherited from her.

"Quite possibly," Isobu nodded his tiny head in agreement, "Now, put me down."

"Fine, fine." Daiki pouted, doing as told and lowering the tiny bijuu to the ground. Who promptly, wasted no time in hopping into the pond and disappearing beneath the water.

Well, hopefully he enjoyed it.

"I should try and look into some barrier seals." Daiki mused. He had managed to learn something vaguely like a barrier seal, but it was more like a perimeter type thing that absorbed raw chakra from jutsu within its specific range.

Something he picked up from studying the Infinite Armour he had on his shoulder. Which reminded him, 'I should probably convert the chakra I have in this into life force.' he mused, looking at it on his shoulder.

Hmm, no, wait, he'd do it come the chunin exams, give it a little bit more to build up.

What to do now though? His clones were training away in Isobu's dimension out of sight, getting those jutsu down through the grind.

He supposed that left him physical conditioning to do.

'Or, I could look into some more loot or upgrading.' he thought. There were still many, many things out there to get his hands on to power up with.

He hadn't been able to narrow down the travelling clan with Nerugui, the ferret that had part of the Stone of Gelel.

Maybe it was about time to call in some help.

And he had the perfect spy network to do the looking for him actually.

He eyed the pond for a moment, before moving on, making his way around his large shiny new house and god did he love his epic new pad and stopped in his wide backyard.

Then he ran through some hand seals again, "Summoning Jutsu." he focused quite a decent chunk of his chakra and slammed his hand down on the ground.

There was a massive puff of smoke and from it, emerged an incredibly large pink chameleon that towered above him.

"Oh, Daiki," Toka peered down at him, "Finally decided to stop relying on those eyes of yours as a crutch and work on your sensing abilities properly?"

His eye almost twitched. The annoying thing about her insults like this, were the fact that she wasn't even trying to insult him, she was just blunt as shit and very matter of fact.

"Maybe later," Daiki rolled his eyes and replied, "I've got a job for you and your clan if you're up for it. A few actually, but two specifically."

"Oh?" Toka hummed with interest and crouched down so she was eye level with him, "How odd, despite having the contract for months now, you have yet to summon any us for any important task or to aid you in a proper fight, even when we would have been great aide, such as during your mission to Waterfall."

Daiki winced, "Sorry, I'll call you guys out more often," he promised, "Like now, I have a totally important set of job for you guys."

"I am listening." Toka nodded once.

"How good are you guys at gathering intel?" he asked.

"We are the best of course," Toka proudly replied, "Do you need us to gather information on someone then?"

"Pretty much," Daiki nodded, "I need you guys to track down a clan for me. They're pretty much a civilian clan and they're constantly on the move. I don't have a name for them, but I know they have an elder called Kahiko and they're travelling with a specific ferret, yellow fur, red eyes."

"Hmm," Toka hummed, "A challenge at the very least, but, we'll find them for you."

Good, she was confident in their ability at least.

"And the other one?" she asked, "You said there was a pair."

"Well, that one is easier, but you'll have to head to the Land of Snow for it," Daiki replied, "And I don't know how good you guys are with the cold and all, being reptiles."

Toka shrugged her scaly shoulders, "A cold land is not ideal, but, there are of course members of our clan who have trained with fire chakra to ward off the cold effects, such as myself." she replied.

"Perfect then," Daiki grinned, "I want you guys to steal something for me. It's a piece of chest armour owned by a guy called Doto, he's the current leader of the Land of Snow, it's pitch black in colour with a bit of blue on it and can absorb chakra. The guy is a shinobi alongside his subordinates, but not very good ones, they rely on this armour of theirs instead of their actual skills, outside of their armour any jonin could mop them up."

"Hmph, is that all?" Toka snorted, "Such a pitiful target, not a challenge at all unlike the first."

"I'll think of other challenging jobs for you later then, okay?" Daiki snorted, such a proud lizard. No wonder it was the chameleons that were approached by the snakes to try and make a dragon clan.

They had the pride for it for sure.

Or Toka did at the very least.

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After Toka bid him goodbye to get started on the job he'd given her and her clan, Daiki decided, it was time for the daily grind.

His destination of course, was the ever epic training ground sixty-nine. His home, away from home.

'Maybe I should put a sign down claiming ownership of the place?' he wondered.

Could he even do that?

…Well, he could if he became Hokage he supposed. Training ground sixty-nine, personal training ground of the Hokage. Heh.

Daiki sighed, strolling leisurely along the pathway between the training grounds. The Sandaime hadn't brought the topic up at all, not even hinted at it to his clones that saw the man practically every morning.

All the man did was greet him, make small talk, ask how his training was going. It felt like the man was trying to give him space to think things through and not pressure him.

But that in of itself was pressuring Daiki and he was doing his best not to think about it.

'There is no rush'.

That was what old man third claimed, but he was wrong, Daiki knew that, which was the problem. If there really wasn't a rush, he'd have accepted, because the offer was on the table plain as day, personal instruction from the Sandaime Hokage himself and probably access to the Forbidden Scroll. He could learn all he wanted and then pass the pie to Naruto a few years down the road, or even Kakashi or something and let them become Hokage instead of him, step down for them.

But, that couldn't happen. Because, the Sandaime had a death timer counting down right now and Daiki had no idea if he would be able to stop it. And if he did actually manage to stop it, he would probably have to pull out every damn trick in the book to do so.

And if he failed, not only would his status as a jinchuuriki get revealed to pretty much everyone, he might actually be forced to take up the hat instead of Tsunade as the Sandaime's chosen successor.

Jiraiya wouldn't accept. Kakashi wouldn't accept. No way in hell would Danzo be allowed, and thus it would come down to either him or Tsunade.

He could be fucking Hokage in less than three months from now.

That was terrifying to think about.

It was why he decided to push up his timetable and have the chameleon clan search out that ferret so he could get his hands on a piece of the Stone of Gelel.

And while they were at it, stealing Doto's armour as well. He had to get his hands on what he could-

Because the thing was, he was actually very tempted to accept. Personal instruction from the legendary 'Professor' himself. The amount of jutsu he could get out of the man almost made him salivate.

And beyond that, again, the Forbidden Scroll. The Edo Tensei. It could be a viable backup plan. If he failed and died…with the Infinite Armour, his eyes and enough chakra converted into life force, he could probably revive himself.

Hell, Edo Tensei re-animations had pretty much infinite chakra. He could abuse the shit out of that with his eyes and his Infinite Armour.

A failsafe in case he failed to get strong enough to deal with the Akatsuki.

Plus beyond that, there were tons of powerful jutsu within that scroll, hell, if he wasn't wrong, the Hiraishin was in there as well.

"Daiki!" someone calling out his name broke him from his deep thoughts.

Looking over his shoulder, Daiki saw that it was a familiar bun haired girl, "Oh, hey Tenten." He waved to her.

Seemed she and her team had returned from their little month long training trip.

"I was just coming to look for you!" she grinned, jogging over to him, "How lucky. I was hoping we could train together a little bit."

"Fine with me, good to see you back," Daiki replied, "So, how'd the training trip go?"

Tenten froze and then grimaced, "…It went…" she trailed off, apparently having trouble finding a word to describe it.

"That bad huh?" he snorted.

"Like you wouldn't believe," she sighed, shoulders slumping, "We spent most of it doing physical training and sparring, well, me and Neji at least, Lee spent the entire month trying to get surface walking down."

"How'd he do?" Daiki asked, raising an eyebrow, he was actually quite curious.

"So so," she shrugged, "He managed to get it down enough to be usable in a fight, but that's about it."

"Well, at least there's that, he's getting there I suppose," Daiki shrugged, "How about you? Get the Mystical Palm down?"

She sighed again, "Not quite, I mean, I've managed to heal a few cuts with it, but it's nowhere close to perfect," she answered, "Gai-sensei didn't give me as much time to work on it as I would have liked, he wanted us to be in top physical condition for the chunin exams over just a single jutsu."

Well, Daiki could see where the man was coming from. As useful as the Mystical Palm Jutsu was and god was it useful, it was a utility and support type jutsu, raw physical ability would be better for the chunin exams.

Tenten clapped her hands together and bowed her head to him, "So, please help me out on perfecting the jutsu." the bun haired girl pleaded.

"Sure," Daiki shrugged, his usual eye candy was busy today, he wouldn't say no to another, especially one not heavily in love with someone else, "But we're getting this done today, I've got my own training to do after all."

Her head whipped up and she grinned brightly at him, "Aye aye Daiki-sensei!" she chirped happily, "Thanks a bunch!" she surprised him by wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

"Yeah, yeah." he smirked, rolling his eyes, though definitely not complaining about having a cute and curvy girl pressed up against him.

It helped him focus for now.

Again, it was the little things in life. Or, well, not quite so little in Tenten's case.