Naruto: The Kage of Kages

The next few days were truly torturous for poor little Shiki.

Now the shoulder and foot rubs, the excessive floor polishing standards, the overly meticulous dusting requirements, the endless talks over tea he had to brew to utter perfection, all those things, Shiki could deal with.

It was well deserved punishment and even he knew the experimenting he did with his jutsu was not exactly safe, especially considering his lack of experience.

However, the real punishment was that Mito engineered all of those requirements to ensure Shiki had almost no time for practice or experimenting.

Shiki knew it would not last that long and perhaps, though the boy refused to admit it, he could actually use the break but none of that made it any less frustrating.

Having all these ideas floating around his head, an entire library full of secret knowledge, and infinite possibilities of growth so tantalizingly close but not being able to take advantage.

"Perhaps learning this sort of temperance is why I must scrub the floor ten times per day." Shiki talked to himself while running across the wooden floor of Mito's mansion with a special cloth for the nth time on that day.

Fortunately, it did not last very long, even though the boy certainly felt like it did.

"I have some things to take care of in the village so you can practice by yourself these next few days." Mito suddenly informed after Shiki had completed his daily cleaning duties and was giving the redhead her daily shoulder massage.

Shiki pressed a little harder using his elbows to account for his smaller and weaker body.

"Hmmm . . ." Mito gave a muted sigh of satisfaction.

'His learning abilities are truly boundless, even in massaging he became as good as a professional after a few days of instruction.' The redhead thought to herself.

"Nothing to say?" She asked the boy.

"Oh!" As if suddenly awakened, Shiki quickly responded.

"I hope Mito-sama's matters are swift and pleasant."

In truth, after hearing his training period was reinstated, the boy's mind tuned out of reality as he rapidly started organizing the various training ideas he concocted while trapped by menial daily tasks.

"I doubt they will be pleasant but I don't expect them to take long." The Uzumaki matriarch declared.

'No like those brats have any choice other than to fulfill my requests. As the other matter, well, it shouldn't take long either.' She thought to herself.

Shiki wondered what his mistress was up to since she did not seem to be the type to go to the village for anything.

Usually, a servant was sent for minor errands or a representative for matters of greater importance but Mito had been nothing but accommodating to him so the boy did not intend to pry. It was quite disrespectful after all.

"Not curious?" Mito questioned.

"I am but Mito-sama's matters are not for me to learn. I know Mito-sama would share them with me otherwise." Shiki responded, prompting the redhead to rub his head with a smile, running her long fingers through his white locks and bringing a blush to the boy's face.

'How adorable!' She thought.

'Heh! Never thought you were a cradle thief you old ha-' A deep voice sounded within Mito's mind, but she quickly snuffed it out.

'He's getting more talkative lately.' The redhead though.

'To bad he never says anything worth listening to.' She figuratively shook her head.

"Mito-sama?" Shiki called out, his whole face red with embarrassment, after the head rubbing had gone on suspiciously long.

"Oh sorry, lost in thought." Mito replied and removed her hand.

Shiki kept looking at the hand with a feeling of loss.

'Maybe I shouldn't have called out?' He wondered with some embarrassment before violently shaking his head as if to disperse his thoughts.

Mito tilted her head in confusion at the sudden move.

'How can a woman with a grandson older than me still be this cute!?' The boy internally explained.

Physical contact was not that big a deal for him because he required others to clean, dress and feed him in his past life but Mito's care seemed to flow through an unspeakable connection to directly touch his soul, leaving him flustered.

Not to mention that the redhead was still quite the beauty and did not look nearly as old as she did in the series during the time Kushina arrived in Konoha which Shiki did not think was far.

'Will Mito-sama age suddenly due to not being able to hold on much longer causing her body to lose its youthful vigor?' The boy wondered.

Thinking of the inevitable fate of Mito once the next jinchuriki arrives in Konoha, Shiki felt as if a knife was going through his heart.

'Heh . . .' He internally chuckled with some self reproach.

'To think I would grow attached to someone so quickly . . . Was I really that starved for genuine affection or something more special connects the two of us?'

Regardless, there was nothing he could do at the moment, so quickly sorting his thoughts, he turned his clear bright eyes towards Mito, his violet gaze pinning her in place, creating a strange yet intense sensation the redhead could not quite describe.

'I do not dislike it though.' She thought with a smile.

"Then Mito-sama, can I resume my training now?" The boy inquired.

The Uzumaki matriarch shook her head with exasperation realizing Shiki meant "now" quite literally.

But she still sent him off with a gentle smile.

"Go ahead then."

'As for me, time to abandon my passive stance and get some things done.' The Uzumaki matriarch's eyes narrowed with the focus of a predator.

She was about to get more things done in a few days than she had in the past few years.

As Mito made a momentous decision that would change the history of the world, making it deviate from its originally intended path, Shiki was already settled in the Senju Secret Library with a plan for his training.

*

'Alright then, let's do this . . .' Shiki thought with a certain jutsu scroll opened in front of him.

Now what jutsu other than the world famous Shadow Clone Jutsu would Shiki be in a rush to learn.

'Since the forbidden jutsu are in a sealed section I can't get the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu but with my chakra reserves I wouldn't be able to take advantage of it anyway.'

While the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu could make hundreds or even thousands of clones, the regular Shadow Clone Jutsu could only make a few dozen clones max but if Shiki wanted to train effectiveness, even that would stretch his chakra reserves to thin.

'I can learn fast so even if I just use one or two clones the jump in training speed will be great. I think two clones to work through the massive amount of recorded knowledge in this place and one clone to work on my jutsu while the real body works on physical training.'

With his course set, Shiki looked at his status to see his current state before he began the next phase of his training.

*

Ryumon Shiki

Traits

Trikaya

Titles

None

Rank

Civilian

Stats

Strength: E>D Rank

Agility: D>B Rank

Endurance: E>D Rank

Chakra Capacity: C>B Rank

Chakra Potency: B Rank

Chakra Control: (60%>80%)

Hand Seal Mastery: (0%>1%)

Affinities

Lightning Affinity: (30%)

Wind Affinity: (20%)

Fire Affinity: (40%)

Water Affinity: (10%)

Earth Affinity: (40%)

Yin Affinity: (50%)

Yang Affinity: (50%)

Taijutsu

General Mastery: (10%>27%)

Ninjutsu

General Mastery: (0%>13%)

Body Flicker: (50%)

-Flicker Flash: (30%) 

Substitution Jutsu: (10%)

Clone Jutsu: (10%)

Transformation Jutsu: (10%)

Genjutsu

General Mastery: (0%>9%)

Bukijutsu

General Mastery: (0%)

Fuinjutsu

General Mastery: (0%)

Senjutsu

General Mastery: (0%)

Hidden Jutsu

Nirvana Art: Three Bodies Breathing Method: (9%>40%)

Nirvana Art: Kukyo: (7%)

Kekkei Genkai

None

*

Looking over the invisible panel, the boy could see the fruits of his efforts and he also learned a few things about how the shown values worked.

First of all, they didn't account for special states. Under Kukyo, Shiki's chakra control was as perfect as humanly possible so the 80% was his usual skill level which showed he still had a lot of work to do in that area.

Second, each 10% seemed like a barrier marking a significant improvement once broken, he measured this using his Three Bodies Breathing Method.

Creating and mastering the basic concept was the first 10%, perfecting the Breath of Yang was another ten, developing the Breath of Yin was another ten, making the second part of the technique as the Breath of Yin-Yang allowed him to push it another ten once refined.

This made the total progress 40% and without another significant improvement like the planned constant breathing, it would be impossible to push it further.

Kukyo was only just created and Shiki was still perfecting the basic foundation of the Jutsu so it did not even hit the first barrier.

To develop the technique he studied the basics of genjutsu so despite not learning any basic genjutsu, he still had enough of a grasp to earn 9%. He figured learning any real genjutsu would push to ten or further immediately.

Since Shiki started to learn actual taijutsu, the values were still increasing quite rapidly but he did not think the pace would be maintained for much longer.

The boy was not surprised by his ninjutsu progress much with the only noteworthy thing being that Body Flicker and his Flicker Flash had a lot more developmental potential than he thought.

As for stats, the improvement came from his use of the Three Bodies Breathing Method that slowly but permanently improved his physical and spiritual energies the more it was used.

Predictably however, his chakra potency remained the same. It represented the quality and density of his chakra so it was much harder to increase, nearly impossible for normal shinobi to do it.

"Alright. With the pleasure of seeing numbers go up, the grind will be even more satisfying." Shiki said to himself before taking a deep breath and starting to learn the shadow clone jutsu.

+++++

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