Chapter 192: Another Get-Together

Renjiro replied, "Sure. Right after you show me what you are hiding under your home."

Fujin wasn't surprised. He nodded and replied casually, "Sure. That sounds like a fair deal."

He walked to the staircase and made a hand seal. Renjiro followed thinking, 'Meaning that it's not a fair deal.'

The stairways to the basement appeared. Fujin and Renjiro entered the basement. Fujin showed him the Meditation room, Gravity room and Dodging Practice room.

Renjiro was impressed with his student. He said, "You have done a great job with the seals. These are among the best training rooms I have seen. That said, no one puts so much effort into training rooms either."

Fujin said, "To be honest, the advantages they provide aren't very significant. I just had a lot of time on my hands and needed to practice inscribing seals."

Renjiro replied, "Though the benefits provided by the rooms are very small, they will add up over time."

Fujin nodded, "Yeah."

Renjiro asked, "Why are the other rooms empty?"

Fujin replied, "I don't have any ideas regarding any more training rooms. If I get my hands on some elemental stones, I can make a few elemental training rooms like in the Tower in the Forest of Death. But that doesn't seem like an option for now. I'll just set up what I want in those rooms if I have any good ideas."

Renjiro nodded. He realized that Fujin had left a lot of space for any future use he might have. Both headed down to the lowest level. A weird expression formed on Renjiro's face once again. He asked in a confused voice, "Why is this entire floor empty?"

Fujin had already cleared all the mannequins. He said, "I designed this place to try new jutsus and have some space to move around freely."

Renjiro looked at Fujin and asked, "Is this all you were hiding?"

Fujin looked back at him and asked, "What were you expecting Sensei? An elemental stone mine?"

Renjiro's face went dark because of Fujin's question. He thought, 'His tongue sure has gotten sharper.'

He commented, "Nothing much, just something worth hiding."

Fujin smirked in his mind while thinking, 'Who'd hide something worth hiding in their home? That's the first place anyone would look for in case they are ever suspected.'

Fujin ignored his comment and asked, "Anyways sensei, you promised to teach me the Multi Shadow Clone jutsu!"

Renjiro replied, "I am tired. I'll just show you the hand signs and how it is done. You can practice by yourself."

Renjiro made the hand signs. Soon, 5 shadow clones appeared around him. Renjiro explained to Fujin how the Shadow Clone and Multi Shadow Clone jutsus were different.

Fujin followed his instructions and weaved the hand signs.

'Multi Shadow Clone jutsu'

Immediately, 5 shadow clones appeared around him. Fujin smiled, 'Another jutsu down. This one will be very helpful.'

Renjiro said, "That's good. Just practice until you have it down. Also, this is a forbidden jutsu as it can lower your chakra to dangerous levels. So be careful of how many shadow clones you try to make."

Having taught Fujin for almost a year, Renjiro wasn't concerned about him messing up as long as he knew how cautious Fujin was.

Fujin nodded, "Alright Sensei."

He dispersed his clones.

The two began leaving the basement. Fujin asked, "By the way Sensei, where were you for so long?"

Renjiro replied, "I was assigned a rather long and difficult mission. I returned yesterday. What about you? How many missions did you go on and anything interesting?"

Fujin and Renjiro began chatting. Fujin filled him in on his missions. Fujin's mission experience was as he expected. He was surprised just twice. The first time was when Fujin told him about the 13 million Ryo bounty he claimed. The second time was when he talked about the Jashinists.

During the conversation, Fujin asked, "Are you aware of them sensei?"

Renjiro nodded and answered, "Yeah, I had encountered one of their factions before the 3rd Great Ninja War. But they weren't very strong. I remember them because they had sacrificed all the young children from a village to their god and slaughtered all the adults. Unfortunately, they didn't have any information on where other Jashinists would be. Otherwise, we would have wiped all of their branches."

Fujin said, "Now that I think about it, even these guys never mentioned any other Jashinists. I wonder if their Grand Priest had any details though."

Renjiro replied, "No point in thinking about him. It's been a long time since we ate together. Let's go to Yakiniku. My treat."

Fujin and Renjiro had food before leaving their separate ways. Fujin decided, 'Since I am here, I might as well see if Hoka and Teru are free.'

He made a few hand signs.

'Multi Shadow Clone jutsu'

Two shadow clones appeared next to him. Both flickered away.

Fujin analyzed, 'My chakra was divided equally... I'll have to learn how to control the amount of chakra I allot to this jutsu and distribute it among the clones. Though from my experience with the Shadow Clone jutsu, it'll be better to do so after I use this jutsu a few hundred times.'

Fujin's clones moved towards Teru and Hoka's houses. Unfortunately, Hoka wasn't home. Fujin's clone talked with Hoka's father and asked him to tell Hoka to come to visit him when he is back.

Fujin's other shadow clone met with Teru. Teru was intrigued by the idea. But he asked for a few days to answer. Fujin's clone replied, "Alright. Let's meet up at my home 5 days from now at 1 PM. Mieko should be completely healed by then."

Teru quickly replied, "Alright. We will have food at your home again in that case."

Fujin's clone nodded and said, "Sure."

He dispersed into smoke. Teru looked at the smoke and muttered, "Will he ever come to visit in person?"

Fujin received his clones' memories. He made a shadow clone and sent him to inform Mieko about the meeting. Fujin created another shadow clone which flickered towards the library. With all the tasks completed, Fujin returned to training his body with the Burst jutsu.

For the next 5 days, Fujin focused on physical training and conditioning his body with the Burst jutsu. His physique improved at a very rapid speed. He practiced Vacuum Cannon and Multi Shadow Clone jutsu a few times daily. In addition, one of his shadow clones stayed in the library for over 12 hours daily. During this time, he was visited by Hoka once. He too liked the idea and gave the same reply as Teru.

Finally, the day arrived. Fujin was training with his chakra field spread. He opened his eyes when he sensed Teru. He stopped training and left the basement and sealed it up in a few seconds.

A minute later, Teru rang the doorbell. Fujin opened the door. His eyes immediately focused on the bag in Teru's hands.

Teru noticed Fujin's gaze and said, "My mom felt bad that you cooked everything last time. So she sent some ready-to-fry prawns with me."

Fujin took the bag and said, "She is wiser than you."

Teru smirked and said, "Oh, I am so glad that you like that."

Fujin furrowed his eyebrows wondering what Teru was up to.

Teru continued, "She has invited you to have dinner at our home tonight."

Teru thought, 'I know he doesn't like socializing a lot. So I was worried I'd have to hear my mother nagging. Luckily he dug the pit himself.'

At the same time, Fujin thought, 'I was kept hanging for 2-3 months due to not having any connections. So it's better to accept the invitation. If I am lucky, I might get a mission invitation similar to how Mieko got me on a rank A mission.'

Fujin replied, "Alright. I'll show up."

Teru smiled but suddenly his smile froze. He suddenly had a weird expression as he asked, "Just to confirm, you are going to come yourself instead of sending a clone, right?"

Fujin looked at him with a deadpan expression. He asked, "Did you and Yori swap your brains?"

Teru chuckled awkwardly and said, "It's just that I only see your clones making a visit."

Fujin replied, "That's just for sending messages. Why would I send a clone to eat?"

As they were chatting, Mieko and Hoka showed up. Fujin invited them all in. Mieko asked, "What's in that bag?"

Fujin replied, "Teru's mom sent some prawns."

He made a shadow clone who grabbed the bag and said, "You guys continue discussing. I'll bring chicken and prawns in a few minutes."

Hoka replied, "Great!"

Mieko teased, "Fujin, your clones are much better at cooking than you!"

Suddenly, all three looked at Mieko without speaking a word. Realizing how stupid her sentence was, she immediately became embarrassed and quickly went into the circular room while saying, "Why are you three standing at the door? Let's go in and discuss what we will do quickly."

The boys followed her. Teru commented softly, "She is very quick to change subjects."

Fujin and Hoka nodded in agreement.