Time passed after that and soon it was four weeks later and Narutos birthday was rapidly approaching. During this month the little one had grown much larger and had made an absolutely huge fan base in the village as it couldn’t fit in my pocket and thus sat on my shoulder curled up to my neck under a hood. During the day it would run around and flap it’s wings whenever I wasn’t feeding it. The thing looked silly since it was still a down covered thing and obviously couldn’t fly yet.-
I found out in the worst way possible what the little ones ability was when it got startled and turned the surrounding twenty meters into a frozen hellscape so cold that the gasses in the air turned to hail in an instant. If not for this I would have thought this to be some form of ice release like the Yuki clan used to have. But after comparing the two from records it became very clear that this was way way colder than what they could achieve. It took some work to get the little one to do it again with the Hokage watching this time since I figured if anyone could identify what was going on it’d be him.-
“I’ve only seen one other thing like this before but if this is indeed similar this matter needs to remain hidden at all costs. You are no doubt familiar with Kekkai Genkai, which is the fusion of two chakra natures to create a new and more powerful one but there is something beyond even that, Kekkai Tota. A fusing of three chakra natures with the only known example being the dust release created by the second Tsuchikage and currently used exclusively by the third.”-
“From what we know it is comprised of earth, fire and wind chakra but beyond that we know next to nothing. If I had to guess I’d say that this is a mix of wind and water like the standard ice release with something else added to it taking it to another level. As for what that last chakra nature is we can only speculate since it’s clear that this kekkai tota is heavily dominated by the wind and water natures with the last being very minutely involved. Perhaps fire assuming it takes the aspect of temperature from it. Whatever the case copying this ability is to be your top priority understood?” he said seriously.
I nodded “I don’t know if I can copy it but I will try my best.” I said firmly.
“Good but since this is a new ability we need a name for it.” he said with a frown.
“Why not Arctic release or Zero release?” I suggested and he thought about it for a moment before nodding with a smile.
“Lets go with Zero release. I’m looking forward to the future when I can rub it in that fence sitters face that Konoha has a kekkai tota as well!” the old man said with an excited smile.
After that I secretly worked with the little crane to help it master it’s ability while trying to copy it’s chakra movements when it used it. There was a rather large downside to the Zero release ability however that I reported to the Hokage but that he expected, it was a chakra hog. Even a small usage tore off a massive amount of the cranes chakra and left it tired afterwards. The results were well worth it in my opinion as the stuff was pretty much unstoppable and lethal just like dust release.-
Unlike dust release however we had noted that the effect lingered for quite a while which meant that even if you dodged the initial attack you still needed to stay out of the area of effect or you risked extreme danger. Besides this chakra training the crane was fairly normal during this time except that it was extremely smart and had already began to understand speech even when it wasn’t me speaking. I suppose it should also be mentioned that Teuchi was by far the little cranes favorite person other than me.-
I couldn’t exactly say that that was all that odd though as the man just had a way of getting on everyone’s good side. Soon though it was Narutos birthday and like usual it was a quiet affair with only myself and a few others being present including the Hokage. I got my friend the deed to his flat which cost me a few hundred thousand ryo but would let him save a whole bunch of money on rent each month. He tried to reject my gift as being worth way too much until I flat out told him how rich I actually was thanks to my gambling and constant medical missions.-
A few hundred thousand ryo was chump change to my just under hundred million ryo savings. I was getting close to being able to afford that parcel of land I wanted at the base of Hokage mountain that the clans had jacked up the price to stop people from buying. Would it likely piss them off when I did in fact purchase it, undoubtedly. Do I care? Not even a little. You may be wondering what would become of my tree house at that time and the answer was simply that I was going to take it with me more or less.-
It wouldn’t even be all that hard either since I knew exactly what was holding it in place and thus what to remove to take it apart without damaging it. Anyways Narutos birthday went off without a hitch and it was back to business as usual for everyone. I could tell however that this was merely the calm before the storm as my instincts were warning me that SOMETHING was coming but what exactly I wasn’t sure. Raising the little crane took up a large chunk of my time so I could only reluctantly create an additional clone to maintain progress.-
One clone took missions to rack up points and money, one focused on taking care of the crane and trying to copy it’s ability while my main body learnt normal ninjutsu and worked on improving my chakra projections. This was how things went for the next six months before the annual chunin exams started getting close. Over these six months the crane whom I named Shiro due to it’s solid pearlescent white feathers that it was now covered in had grown into a very young but otherwise mature adult.-
He stood at seven feet tall with a fifteen foot wingspan that was a marvel to look at in flight. He was a crowd favorite in the village as he had a sack of money tied to his neck to pay for his food as he ate at Ichiraku. Yes the crane ate ramen and yes it did strike many as odd at first. What few knew however in the village was that Shiro was a top tier elite jonin level chakra beast that was rapidly reaching S rank as it’s body grew for the final stretch.