Chapter 40: Growth
Time slipped away, day by day. A week vanished in the blink of an eye—gone before it could even register.
Over the course of that week, Ryū had steadily drilled Soru and Tekkai until both felt like extensions of his body.
He'd also carved out significant time each day to practice Geppo.
The progress told him something simple: practice worked.
At the very least, it kept him from stagnating.
By now, both Soru and Tekkai had reached a level where he could activate and release them more or less at will. Each day brought greater proficiency, greater efficiency, less stamina drain.
As for Geppo—his training was rapidly approaching the Beginner threshold.
He could feel it. One thin layer of paper stood between him and a breakthrough.
Once he punched through it, Geppo would be fully learned.
By his estimate, that would take…
No more than a day.
The remaining three techniques—Shigan, Rankyaku, and Kami-e—he'd purchased outright with Points. Another week's savings, wiped clean.
The payoff: his combat power had shot up in a near-vertical line.
Meanwhile, he'd been experimenting with and developing his Paramecia-type Decompose-Decompose Fruit. He couldn't afford to fixate on physical arts and neglect an ability that broken. He wanted both watermelons, and he was keeping both.
Add in the Power Pill from Wolffy a week ago—which had boosted his raw strength by over twofold—
And Ryū honestly had no idea what tier he'd reached.
He'd never actually fought anyone.
But judging by the destruction various ninja displayed in the anime—
He should be able to handle a chūnin with ease.
Even certain tokubetsu jōnin—the specialists who excelled in a single discipline—might not be a match for him.
Of course, only an actual fight would confirm that. This was just his own estimate, and he'd deliberately lowballed it. Because his physical baseline was, at this point, genuinely inhuman.
Even without Tekkai active, he could shrug off a fair amount of punishment.
At minimum, mosquitoes could no longer breach his defenses. And that was good enough for now.
* * *
Ryū was up early—teeth brushed, face washed.
After putting away a sizable breakfast, he opened the Dimensional Chat Group.
Members were already chatting at what was, for him, the crack of dawn.
"Do these people not sleep? Or are they all on that 'cultivation hours' schedule where staying up all night is a lifestyle choice?"
Then again, other worlds probably ran on different timelines than the Naruto world.
It was early morning here. Yukari's side might be midday. Whitebeard's, afternoon. Kaguya's, evening.
Green Grasslands Wolf King: @Edward Newgate — Old Man Whitebeard, you there?
Green Grasslands Wolf King: Those 20 Atmospheric Energy Cannons you ordered—the great Wolf King finally ground them all out this week! [Image]
Green Grasslands Wolf King: Every unit's performance is excellent. I even redesigned the housing to fit your ship's layout, and simplified the controls so anyone can operate them.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara! Truly worthy of Wolffy!
Edward Newgate: Hold on—let this old man get the payment ready.
[Member "Edward Newgate" sent a Targeted Gift Package!]
[Edward Newgate's Gift Package has been claimed by "Green Grasslands Wolf King"]
Green Grasslands Wolf King: Received! Sending the cannons over now.
[Member "Green Grasslands Wolf King" sent a Targeted Gift Package!]
[Green Grasslands Wolf King's Gift Package has been claimed by "Edward Newgate"]
None of this surprised Ryū. He'd known about Whitebeard's order for twenty Atmospheric Energy Cannons since it was first discussed.
A week ago, Whitebeard had snagged one of Wolffy's Gift Packages—and inside was an Atmospheric Energy Cannon.
After testing its firepower, Whitebeard had approached Wolffy the very next day to negotiate a bulk order of twenty, originally offering a Zoan-type Devil Fruit in exchange.
Wolffy had turned down the Devil Fruit.
All he wanted was canned lamb.
And so Whitebeard had sailed across the New World, island-hopping until he'd bought out every single can of lamb meat he could find.
His Division Commanders had been thoroughly baffled.
Not one of them had any idea why Pops was suddenly stockpiling lamb.
Edward Newgate: Gurararara! The Atmospheric Energy Cannons Wolffy engineered completely outclass every piece of artillery currently on the Moby Dick.
Edward Newgate: Shame he won't become one of my sons.
Kaguya-sama: …Old Man Whitebeard is trying to adopt people again?
Edward Newgate: Of course! It's one of this old man's great pleasures! By the way… little Kaguya, would you like to take the Newgate name and become my daughter?
Kaguya-sama: Pffft! No. Nope. Not even a little.
Kaguya-sama: Triple rejection!
Whitebeard took Kaguya's refusal in stride. He'd been joking anyway.
Adopting sons in his own world was one thing.
Trying to adopt group members across dimensions was absurd.
Besides, Kaguya had parents of her own—even if those parents didn't seem particularly interested in caring about her, wealthy family or not.
Kaguya-sama: Huh? Hold on—something seems to be happening on my end.
Green Grasslands Wolf King: Is something wrong? Did you run into trouble?
Green Grasslands Wolf King: If there's a problem, just say the word. I can lend you a few inventions—transferring over in person isn't realistic since the great Wolf King only has around 200 Points right now.
Kaguya-sama: I'm reading the news online. Something huge seems to have happened.
RawrSoFierce: In a slice-of-life world? There shouldn't be anything major going on.
RawrSoFierce: Unless it's some kind of natural disaster?
RawrSoFierce: @Kaguya-sama — if there's actual danger, the group can pool Points and transfer you here for safety.
Kaguya-sama: [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image]…
Kaguya-sama: Admin-dono… is mine really a slice-of-life world? I just finished reading the news. My world… might actually be an apocalypse anime?!
RawrSoFierce: ???
Ryū's expression shifted as he opened the images Kaguya had sent.
Every single one was a screenshot of a news broadcast she'd photographed.
After skimming through the contents—
His face went strange.
A flicker of genuine uncertainty crossed his features.
Even someone as composed as Ryū couldn't help blurting out:
"What the hell?!"
☆☆☆
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