“That’s not how that works. S rank isn’t just one level of power for jutsu but a sort of spectrum with weaker and stronger jutsu all having it but not being necessarily the same in terms of danger.” I said correcting his mistaken thoughts.
“If it’s all the same rank despite some being way stronger then how are you supposed to know if it’s better or worse than the others?” Naruto asked confused.
“S rank jutsu are all dangerous so it doesn’t matter really. How you react to them might change depending on the jutsu but that is true for all jutsu so it doesn’t matter.” I said and he nodded in understanding.
After that Karin and I stayed in a room at the local inn for the night before leaving town the next day. We reached the end of the land of hotsprings without much trouble a couple of weeks later with us only stopping to relaxing in the different types of hotsprings we found. Some of them had high mineral concentrations and others even medicinal oils. By the end of the country however we were both rather tired with hotsprings.-
Not to say there was anything wrong with it occasionally but by this point the intrigue had pretty much vanished and it was just hot water to us.
“You want to skip the return trip and just go straight home?” I asked while we sat in a small ramen shop in a small town.
“Yeah, the return trip might be a bit of a drag at this point.” She said with a sigh.
“Chin up now it’s not like we didn’t have fun for most of the vacation.” I said and she smiled and nodded.
We ate and then I reverse summoned us back to the village by first summoning Kuma before canceling the summon with us hitching a ride. The village was not very different than when we left it to be honest save perhaps the clear sense of another sage in the village being much stronger now that Kakashi had been training in it during this time. He had clearly gotten considerably more familiar with the transformation which was good as it meant he wasn’t likely to disappoint me when I came to check on his progress. Anyways we headed over to my sensei’s office to let her know we were back.-
“You are a few months earlier than I expected, did something happen?” she asked with a raised eyebrow at the monkey on Karin’s shoulder.
“Not at all, we were just rather bored of hotsprings after going to so many. Oh also this is my newest chakra beast. He can use boil release.” I said pointing at the monkey.
“Boil release!?” she exclaimed in shock.
“Yeah he was living near one of the hotsprings and is actually quite good at using the Kekkai genkai, better than me at least.” I said honestly.
She sighed “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you’d find yet another monster to add to your collection. Not like it makes much difference given the ones you already have. Regardless I assume you both will be helping out at the hospital from now on?” she said and we nodded.
With that settled we went home and I couldn’t help but sigh in relief as the abundance of natural energy soothed me and flowed around me. While the wilderness had a greater concentration of natural energy than the village it was still not even close to my home and I missed it. I couldn’t help but find it ironic how my home practically tempted me to stay there at all times.-
I almost couldn’t believe how little jiraiya minded being away from a natural energy hotspot like mount Myoboku since he was also a sage. It was only after remembering that he rarely used the transformation and even then only an imperfect version that it made sense. He clearly saw the mode as a trump card rather than a lifestyle which was fine I guess but he misses out on all the benefits that come with the lifestyle as a result.-
Even Kakashi had understood that the lifestyle offered the most permanent benefits given how strong his presence in the villages natural energy was. While I doubted he was fully committed like me he still at least meditated in sage mode once a day from what I could tell. I wouldn’t be surprised if his body and chakra had improved drastically in the last two months Karin and I were on vacation. Kakashi was not like me whose body was nearing perfection from constant refinement under the natural energy since birth and so his growth should be very noticeable.-
‘Something for later I suppose.’ I thought as I sat in my chamber and breathed in the abundant natural energy.
I let my suppressed senses go fully and the entire village and several miles around it exploded into my perception. Every ant, grain of sand and object within this range was all laid clear to me as though I was everywhere at once. There was some awkwardness with this as it meant I saw the people doing sexual acts in the red light district as well but I was calm and treated it as little more than another piece of information.-
I saw at least three spies send messages out of the village during this time however. Or rather they TRIED to send them out but a flex of my control over natural energy caused blades of wind to cut down the birds they used once they lost sight of them. I also created a shadow clone that drew the images of the spies and sent them to my sensei. Through my senses I saw her receive the images and send out three Anbu to capture the spies. I saw Kakashi meditating in his house near the crystal I gave him in sage mode.-
I decided to mess with him and made a bit of natural energy buzz next to his ear. He ignored it at first but soon sighed and swatted at it only to grimace as he recognized the prank for what it was. It was almost funny watching him trying to figure out where I was with his own rather sloppy sage sensory technique. He of course was getting very impossible responses as he was likely picking up traces of me literally everywhere around him for a good distance.