In a dimly lit, secluded room, Onnen, son of the second Raikage, convened a secret meeting with a group of Cloud ninjas loyal to his cause.
Onnen recounted the details of the recent Cloud Council meeting, emphasising the threat posed by Dan Hamura and the revolutionary seals attributed to him, which were speculated to possess unprecedented power and capabilities by the grandmasters of Cloud Village.
Onnen expressed his frustration visibly and explained, "I wanted to place a bounty on the kid's head immediately, but the Raikage insisted on waiting until he becomes a genin. However, I cannot afford to wait that long considering the potential risks involved."
One of his supporters nodded in agreement and said, "This brat is too well-protected to be ignored. Have you ever heard of the ANBU protecting a boy of this age without any background?"
Onnen's expression turned better on receiving support, and he added, "Yes, the Fourth Hokage showed similar brilliance at his age, but even he didn't receive such protection from the Third Hokage. Neither did Kakashi Hatake in the next generation."
Another ninja spoke up, his voice tinged with concern. "Raikage may refuse to act now, but we must. If we let him live, he could become a formidable enemy in the future."
Onnen nodded gravely. "You are right. However, we must proceed with caution.
Our previous attempt to kidnap the Hyuga girl failed, and it ended the new alliance. We were fortunate to escape punishment then, thanks to our contributions in the Third Ninja War and public sentiment. But the situation is different now."
A third ninja added, "Even then, if we had succeeded, it might have sparked another war."
Onnen's gaze hardened. "The brat is someone important to the Hokage. That old Hokage may seem like a pacifist, but he isn't, and neither are the others in the village. You all know the reputation of Danzo and his emotionless ninjas."
Another supporter chimed in, "Even if we face repercussions later, we must act in the best interest of the village and eliminate this threat before it grows too strong. You've heard he's top of his class and already a medical apprentice under the ninja who trained Tsunade, one of the Legendary Sannin."
Onnen's resolve solidified. "Very well, instruct our spies to look for an opportunity."
A supporter replied, "My sources indicate he's also a skilled businessman, seeking land to establish a new factory. He'll likely inspect potential sites soon. That will be our chance to act."
Onnen nodded and said, "Alright, Send a message to our spies and keep me updated. We will send a team to handle Ryu whenever a good opportunity arises. We need to account for the ANBU teams tasked to protect him, but even they would not be expecting an elite team to target this kid who is not even a ninja."
The room fell silent as the weight of their decision settled in. Unbeknownst to the world, a target had been placed on Ryu's head, even without an official bounty.
Back in the Leaf Village, Ryu was engrossed in his workshop, designing a prototype for his Game Boy. Circuit layouts and designs littered his workbench, and he had already decided on a list of games that needed simpler coding and that could run on limited hardware.
He summoned his secretary, Enjomi Kaori, who appeared promptly to assist with his tasks. "Please arrange a meeting with the research team tomorrow to discuss the prototype."
Kaori nodded and left to carry out his instructions, while Ryu turned his attention to his next goal.
Ryu said, "Designs are done. Now, training. Ok. I need to determine my best secondary chakra affinity. I hope it's earth affinity. I need that for my current project."
Ryu sought out his grandfather for guidance on his chakra affinity. Without delay, Dan looked up, gestured for Ryu to wait, and retrieved a specific Fuinjutsu seal—the Chakra Affinity-Suppressing Seal.
"This is a Chakra Affinity-Suppressing Seal," Dan explained, holding up the seal. "It suppresses your primary affinity, allowing us to test your secondary ones. This one suppresses Lightning Affinity, to be precise."
Ryu's curiosity piqued, he asked, "That's why you mentioned needing a grandmaster to test more affinities?"
Dan nodded. "Correct. The chakra paper detects your primary affinity. To identify secondary affinities, we must suppress the primary one. This is why this is needed, or else you will be training blindly. Ninja prisons use a stronger version of this seal to detain criminals effectively."
Ryu nodded in understanding and said, "That makes sense. Without such seals, it would be challenging to keep ninja criminals imprisoned."
He then asked, "May I take a look at the seal?"
Dan handed him the seal, enquiring, "Do you have bright ideas related to the suppression mechanism?"
Ryu replied, "I have a few general ideas but nothing concrete as of now. I will try to explore them later. may be sooner. Let's think about them after we test and train my secondary affinity."
Dan placed the seal on Ryu's chest and activated it, causing a strange sensation as his chakra was suppressed.
"Now, let's test your secondary affinity," Dan said.
Ryu focused his chakra as he had before, and the paper reacted by cutting into two.
"Wind, huh?" he thought, slightly disappointed.
Dan noticed his reaction. "Not the result you were expecting?"
Ryu shook his head. "No. Wind is good; I can think of many strategies around it. But I was hoping for earth and water affinities for my next project."
Dan reassured him, "Don't worry. Among secondary affinities, wind is the strongest. But you can have multiple secondary affinities. Let's test further. I have suppression seals for all different chakra natures."
Dan applied another seal, suppressing Ryu's wind affinity, and upon testing again, the chakra paper burnt, indicating fire affinity.
Ryu thought, "Fire this time. All the affinities up until now are offensive. I should be happy."
Dan then suppressed fire affinity using another Fire Chakra suppression seal, and the paper turned to dust, revealing earth affinity.
He again suppressed this fire affinity, and now there are four different chakra affinity suppression seals placed on Ryu's body. Dan gave another chakra-sensitive paper, and it became wet this time.
Dan explained, "So, this is the order of your affinities: lightning, wind, fire, earth, and lastly water. You are very fortunate; not everyone shows reactions to all secondary affinities using this method. Most people have faint reactions after just one secondary affinity. Few have three or four affinities, and having all five is extremely rare."
Ryu said, "You mean I can be an all-elemental expert?"
Dan smiled, impressed. "You think that it would come easy even if you have an affinity for all of them. You essentially have the potential to master all the elements, but it also comes with the necessity to complete the separate training for all of them. But I must say your talent in Ninjutsu is remarkable considering how fast you mastered lightning affinity."
Ryu asked, "Then, can I skip to Earth affinity first?"
Dan chuckled and said, "It wouldn't be much more difficult to skip the order of your affinity ranking. After all, the secondary affinities are not too far apart most of the time; they are all secondary compared to primary and generally have minor differences. You just had to put a little bit more effort into it."
Ryu grinned, confident. "That's my speciality."
Dan nodded with pride in his eyes and said, "Then it shouldn't be a problem for you."
Ryu had memorised all the affinity-suppressing seals for different elements.
Ryu thought, 'If suppressing affinity is possible, then the opposite must also be achievable. But I doubt that buffing my affinity with a seal will help me master it. Without the buff, I would be back to normal. I should keep the affinity buffing seal for already expert ninjas, and maybe I should look into the affinity suppression seal and try to increase the difficulty of training, much like resistance training.
Ryu enquired of Dan, "Grandpa, what would happen if we suppress our affinity while training it?"
Dan explained, "Training will be exponentially difficult even with this low-quality suppression seal active and will be almost impossible with the seal used by ANBU and Ninja Prisons."
Ryu then said, "What if we tweak the seal and increase affinity suppression gradually from almost zero? Will I be able to increase my affinity to heights if that suppression seal had little to no effect?"
Dan said, "It may work. Just like how our bodies adapt to weight training. Suppression may, in theory, work but only if starting weights are optimum. But even then, it would be making training very difficult. But if you want to make your life hard, who am I to stop you?"
Ryu thought, "Then it's final; I will create this new suppression seal."
Ryu was determined to push the boundaries of his affinity, even if it meant facing challenges along the way. At the same time, Dan thought, "If he is able to train while his affinity is being suppressed, then leave fuinjutsu; he can easily surpass most ninjas even in ninjutsu even before he graduates."
A/N: Thank you, Isala Pauu and SkyPoet05 for supporting me on Patreon.
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