Chapter 49.3- Gamer of the Desert

The sharingan was the ultimate cheat code. Like it was just so easy. Learning, fighting, thinking, it made everything that would have previously been hard, or even slightly difficult, almost playfully easy. For example, learning techniques. The sharingan was known as the copy wheel eye for a reason, but what I’d learned was that it wasn’t just a copier. Like the doujutsu had two basic abilities when it came to understanding techniques or movements. First of all, there was the basic copying ability. It came as a result of adding the sharingan’s photographic memory with the preternatural chakra control the eyes could enable. Just by witnessing a technique being performed once, the sharingan would let its user use it with the same level of proficiency that it had witnessed. Of course, it had limits. I couldn’t do something to copy a technique that required more chakra than I had. It wouldn’t work or would just kill me. I also couldn’t copy a technique that required more chakra control than I had available.

The sharingan enabled preternatural control but only in certain ways. For example, when I copied the mud bullet jutsu, I didn’t have to concentrate to manipulate my chakra to carry it out. The sharingan did it for me. But it didn’t give me better chakra control on its own. When I watched Chiyo perform the mystical palm, I didn’t automatically gain the ability to perform it with the same level of expertise since the reason her version of the jutsu was so good was because of her highly trained chakra control. The moment my control would get good enough, however, I’d get to skip the years of trial and error and small iterative improvements to being able to use the jutsu at her level.

The second way the sharingan enabled copying was even arguably the more broken form of the ability. Understanding. The Sharingan allowed its wielders to understand things. With this eye, the workings of the universe became clear to me. I saw how chakra flowed to cast genjutsu on a target- how it moved to trigger ninjutsu- and even how it leaped from end to end to enhance certain taijutsu styles. Every part pf it was laid bare before me and that meant I could understand it. It didn’t do shit for kekkei genkai, but for every other form of ninjutsu, I could understand how the jutsu themselves worked, and even alter them as needed. That was why my skill with genjutsu grew so quickly. The Hidden Sand village had a strong population of genjutsu users, and having the experts ply their craft before my eyes made it ridiculously easy for me to learn the tricks they used. With how powerful the sharingan itself was when it came to illusions, having the expertise of people who had spent decades learning the craft to rely on meant that I grew by leaps and bounds. So quickly, in fact, that genjutsu had gone from that ninja art I never bothered with ,to forming an essential part of my arsenal- especially when it came to fights against those weaker than me.

“Kazekage-sama. A message from the barrier corps” Mebuki said as she walked in. I turned away from the scroll I was ravishing with my eyes to look up at her. She’d changed a lot in the past year. Just as I’d grown, so had she. The only difference being that where my growth was accelerated by drugs and supplements, hers was mostly in terms of behaviour and not physical. She now wore proper office clothes instead of the scrubs favoured by off-duty doctors at the hospital. Appointing her as my right hand woman years ago had been the right choice. The only choice that had made any sense, and it showed. She was loyal to me- helped me keep the factions in the village in line- and did all that while being one hell of a secretary. She was basically half of what kept Suna running even as I devoted hours every day to my projects.

I would probably have faced a coup for my less than outstanding leadership skills if I hadn’t been such a great kage where it counted. The money from Iwa had gone to erasing much of the poverty in Suna. Social programs funded by Iwa’s war chest had been uplifting the economy. The best part was that I could control a lot of the adverse effects of splashing cash everywhere. Inflation for one, was easy to control. I just had to implement some reckless economic policy that was easy to make in a dictatorship where I had absolute control over what was made, how it was made, and where it was made. Buying all the food brought into the village and selling it at chosen prices was just one prong of a comprehensive social welfare program funded by Iwa’s immense wealth, grants from the Daimyo, and income from bounties.

I opened the scroll and ran through it with my eyes before smiling. A year ago, I’d have hesitated at what the message could have implied. Conflict against two of the legendary sannin and the Kyuubi jinchuriki at the same time. The thought filled me with excitement. I didn’t know why they’d be picking a fight or what they hoped to achieve with it, but I hoped to have fun and see how far I’d come.

XXXXXX

They were good, he thought to himself, watching them tranverse the desert. It was obvious that Naruto was the first timer in their bunch, but even still his movements were practiced and smooth. None of them were as good as those who saw the desert as their home, but their attempt was passable. He flexed his chakra and dispersed in a rush of sand, only to coalesce into his physical form right in front of them.

Naruto was the only one to react, jumping backwards and lifting his hands warily. His stance was clean and polished. Definitely better than what Temari could remember from when he fought her at the chunin exams but that had been almost two years ago at this point. He had to be much stronger. Maybe even strong enough to present a threat.

“Jiraiya-san, I assumed that freeing you from your Kage’s genjutsu would be enough to guarantee that you’d never attempt to attack me and mine, again” I said, projecting my voice while maintaining a light and airy tone. I couldn’t care less for his motivations or what particular brand of insanity had infected him with the desire to face me in the desert.

“That’s not what we’re hear for” Tsunade was the one to reply.

A/N; Finally moving and moving and moving