And as Tsunade expected, Natsuo's letter was full of jokes that involuntarily brought a smile to her face.
Although she was in the midst of war and still mourning the death of her younger brother, Tsunade increasingly awaited her disciple's letters because they were one of the few things that distracted her from her loss and the horrors of war.
In the solitude of her tent, Tsunade's laughter rang out, and only the privacy seals she herself had installed prevented anyone from hearing her temporary happiness.
After finishing reading the letter, Tsunade read it again before putting it away.
With her body tired after an exhausting day healing dozens of injured or poisoned ninjas, Tsunade lay down on her bed without bothering to bathe.
When she closed her eyes, it wasn't long before she fell asleep.
.
.
.
Meanwhile, at the Leaf Village camp in the land of grass, Natsuo entered his tent and activated the privacy seals.
Quickly, his hands formed some seals before pressing one hand into the ground and performing an invocation.
With a cloud of smoke, a square box half a meter high appeared.
Opening the box quickly, a rolled-up scroll appeared inside and Natsuo quickly pulled it out.
Opening the rolled-up scroll, Natsuo quickly activated the seal written on it and another cloud of smoke appeared.
And this time, it was a shadow clone of Natsuo who appeared before him.
Putting the scroll back in the box, Natsuo paid no attention to the square box that was summoned back seconds later, and focused on the shadow clone in front of him.
The shadow clone nodded, confirming that the plan was successful and that he was ready for the next part.
Without further delay, Natsuo formed several hand seals before pressing the palm of his hand onto the shadow clone, and several lines of seals formed over the clone's body.
While surrounded by lines of seals, the clone did not resist when he was sealed into Natsuo's body.
Minutes later, Natsuo was sitting cross-legged in the middle of his tent as he felt his chakra.
Inhale* Exhale*
While meditating, Natsuo was creating chakra, and this chakra was absorbed by the shadow clone sealed within him a few minutes ago.
And shortly after, the clone sent back a similar portion of chakra.
Natsuo received this portion of chakra and joined it to his chakra pathway system.
As this portion of chakra traveled through his chakra pathways, Natsuo remained vigilant, analyzing this chakra and attentive to the changes in his own chakra.
Throughout this entire process, Natsuo put all his concentration into it.
The reason Natsuo attached so much importance to this was because the shadow clone he sealed in his body a few minutes ago had copied the chakra of the White Zetsu he had recently captured.
Since that White Zetsu was captured, Natsuo's clones have been looking for a way to copy the chakra of this White Zetsu.
The wood element chakra.
Although Natsuo believed that Hashirama was the reason why the wood element was so amazing, it did not take away from the fact that the wood element was powerful.
Especially with its ability to restrict the chakra of its opponents.
With this last characteristic, the enormous bodies of the tailed beasts played a trick on them because it was easier to get trapped by Hashirama and his wood jutsus.
Knowing the importance of the wood element, Natsuo put all his efforts into gaining the ability to use the same element as Hashirama.
Of course, this was not easy, and their shadow clones only recently achieved it.
After so many failed attempts to copy the wood element chakra of the White Zetsu, the shadow clone team decided to seal a large portion of this White Zetsu's chakra into a shadow clone and have this shadow clone absorb it little by little.
Although at first the shadow clone's chakra showed no changes in its aura, it did in the following days.
When they realized that the shadow clone's chakra aura had gained the characteristics of wood, they knew they had succeeded.
Quickly, a shadow clone exploded, sending the information to Natsuo, who promptly ordered this shadow clone to be sent through the communication box.
And when the shadow clone arrived, Natsuo wasted no time before sealing it within his body and beginning the process.
On the round trip, his chakra was absorbed by the shadow clone sealed within him, and he received an equal portion of chakra that joined his system.
In that way, Natsuo spent several hours doing the same thing when he began to feel the change.
Previously, his affinity with chakra was fire and wind.
Then he trained the earth and water natures, leaving the thunder nature for last.
After that, Natsuo could sense the auras of those 5 natures in his chakra whenever he meditated.
Of course, fire and wind were his primary affinities, so his chakra displayed more auras of those two natures.
But now this was beginning to change.
The auras of earth and water nature were beginning to grow in his chakra, matching the fire and wind natures.
And that wasn't all.
He also felt an increase in his affinity for Yang chakra.
The chakra was made up of spiritual and physical energy.
But each person is different, and this is shown not only in chakra affinities, but also in affinities for Yin or Yang.
As an Uchiha, Natsuo had more affinity for Yin chakra.
It was due to his training as a medical ninja that his affinity for Yang was not far behind, in a 60-40 balance.
But now, Natsuo felt his affinity for Yang chakra begin to grow, and if things continued this way in the following days, that balance would soon be 50-50.
Thus, 3 days passed.
While during the day he spent his time in the medical tent healing any injured ninja, at night he continued the process of absorbing the chakra of the shadow clone sealed in his body.
And as Natsuo suspected, his affinity for Yang chakra soon equaled his affinity for Yin chakra.
And right at that moment, a big change occurred.
With a big smile on his face, Natsuo felt the aura of the wood element in his chakra.
Natsuo quickly pressed the palm of his right hand into the ground and expelled a small amount of chakra into the earth about a meter in front of him.
That chakra was not normal chakra.
It was the combination of the chakra natures of earth, water, and Yang.
And together, they formed the wood element.
One meter in front of Natsuo, a small wood sprout began to grow into a two-meter-tall tree, almost reaching the roof of his tent.
With a huge grin, Natsuo knew he could move on to the next part of his plans.
The creation of a spy organization.
Since Natsuo's shadow clones could absorb natural energy to gradually replenish spent chakra, they could serve as a spy organization for Natsuo.
The only problem was that they replenished spent chakra at a slow rate and took a long time to create more shadow clones.
During the war, Natsuo preferred to have his shadow clones training to absorb his experiences rather than having them travel the world gathering information for him.
The most they could obtain for him is information of little importance, since they cannot infiltrate villages or ninja facilities with their limited stealth and espionage skills.
But now, this has changed thanks to the existence of wood clones.
Like a wood clone, these clones could do the same as a White Zetsu and hide underground and in the flora.
As long as they remained hidden, almost no one could find them.
And because they could absorb natural energy, they could replenish spent chakra and remain infiltrating for a long time to obtain important information.
Of course, it wasn't that easy because I didn't know the hand seals of the Wood Clone Jutsu.
To that end, he ordered his shadow clones to quickly recreate the Wood Clone Jutsu and the White Zetsu Camouflage Jutsu.
Therefore, you will have to create them yourself.
Taking as a reference the clone jutsus of other elements, his shadow clones took 1 day to find the correct hand seals and another 2 days to perfect the jutsu.
When he went to sleep that night, a book containing the experiences of his shadow clones awaited him in his mind palace.