I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 176 If the holiday is too long, I'll miss going to school or work.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique!"

On the training field, as Minato leaped backward, he unleashed a series of small fireballs, which hurtled toward Tatsuma who was coming towards him.

"Bang bang bang~"

Tatsuma neither retaliated with ninjutsu nor dodged. His hands, wrapped in chakra, met the fireball head-on. The moment his palms collided with the fireball, the chakra in his hands exploded, shattering the fireball.

By combining superhuman strength with the skill of empty palm, he rendered these low-powered ninjutsu completely ineffective, allowing Tatsuma to quickly close the distance between himself and Minato.

At such a short distance, Minato didn't even have time to form hand seals. He swept his hands across the outside of his thighs and threw out two shuriken.

Faced with the shuriken, Tatsuma slowed down slightly before knocking it away. After all, Minato's ninja tool throwing skills were extremely high, and one could easily be injured by a ninja tool with an ever-changing trajectory if one was not careful.

He opened up a little more space in the water gate and quickly landed. He couldn't adjust his posture in the air or exert force again, which meant that he couldn't make full use of his speed advantage.

Seeing that Minato was about to slip away again, Tatsuma's face darkened. He now loathed Minato's amazing speed talent. He threw ninja tools to block Minato's path, forcing him to constantly change speed and thus slow him down.

With his other hand, he began to form a hand seal, a technique he rarely used in actual combat.

"Ninja Art! Dark Travel Technique!"

In an instant, Minato felt as if his vision was being slowly closed by two curtains, and all he could see was darkness. He quickly released his chakra to sense the changes in the chakra around him.

However, he dared not use the genjutsu: Dispel the stalemate, since that would disrupt his own chakra. Tatsuma knew him too well; if his chakra was disrupted, Tatsuma would seize the opportunity to defeat him during the recovery time.

Although it was dark, Minato's chakra perception kept him at a distance from Tatsuma. Suddenly, Minato sensed chakra in front of him, traces of ninjutsu.

"This chakra is Earth Release: Earth Wall!"

Minato quickly assessed the situation and then veered sharply to the right, attempting to evade the earthen wall's obstruction.

"Duang~"

Suddenly, Minato felt dizzy and the darkness before his eyes gradually disappeared. He could also vaguely see a towering tree next to the earthen wall.

At this point, a not-so-shallow dent remained on the tree trunk, clearly caused by Minato's Iron Head technique.

Chakra perception can sense chakra, thereby determining the number and movement of enemies, but it cannot sense naturally existing matter. Perhaps there are more advanced sensory techniques that can do this, but Minato clearly did not possess them.

"Minato, this is the fifth time you've fallen for this, isn't it?"

"Ding~"

Tatsuma, who had a kunai held to Minato's neck, laughed as he spoke, and Minato responded with a helpless smile.

Indeed, he has fallen for the same trick five times.

No matter which way he went, he would crash into it. On the third attempt, he even jumped to avoid it, but who would have thought that the earthen wall was topped with the canopy of a large tree, and he crashed headfirst into a horizontal branch.

Once his vision returned, Minato rubbed his head and said, "How did you predict the direction I would change direction?"

Having acquired the talent, Tatsuma put away his kunai, shrugged, and said, "The moment your vision is blocked, your brain will remember the surrounding terrain, and you will unconsciously dodge in the direction where there are no obstacles in your memory."

But we're in the woods, it's impossible for there to be an open space in any one direction all the time, you see."

Tatsuma pointed behind him. There was open space to the right for dozens of meters behind him, which Minato could easily dodge. The big tree in front of him was the first obstacle that appeared.

Minato, realizing what was happening, sighed helplessly and said, "I understand now. It seems my memory of the terrain isn't fast enough. I overlooked the location of the obstacles and didn't calculate it."

Tatsuma stretched his back and legs and asked, "Have you received any conscription notices from the village?"

Tatsuma changed the subject, and Minato followed suit, shaking his head and saying, "No, what about you?"

"I don't have any either."

Shrug helplessly. More than four months had passed since he returned last time, and he and Minato hadn't received any new missions. To be honest, they were starving.

The two, who already had little savings, hadn't converted their merits—that is, the number of missions they completed—into money, and had no new missions to take on. Even though they kept eating at Mito Uzumaki's house, they were running out of money.

Fortunately, because it was wartime, Minato's apartment was exempt from all utilities and rent; otherwise, he probably would have had to move to the Senju clan's territory.

Even though food and lodging were free, the two still had expenses. For example, Minato would occasionally bring breakfast to the Senju clan's territory, and Tatsuma would sometimes treat Minato, Nawaki, Kushina, and others to desserts.

Furthermore, they also need to buy clothes. Although as Chunin they can receive uniforms for free, they can't wear them every day. And the village doesn't provide underwear; they have to pay for it themselves.

In fact, Kushina has started treating people to meals these past few days because Tatsuma and Minato are completely broke.

Tatsuma scratched his head and sighed inwardly. His hair had grown long, and it was time to go see Tony the hairdresser. But Tony also had to earn money to support his family.

I thought that becoming a ninja would free me from the worries about money that plagued my previous life as a corporate slave, but now it seems...

With the savings completely emptied, the joy of unlocking two additional growth opportunities vanished as well.

Even though Tatsuma intentionally controlled his [Ninjutsu] and [Seal] talents and didn't farm them, but instead focused on consolidating his existing strength, he still reached 10,000 points in each day of matches.

Chenma naturally activated the additional boost when his talent level was met.

"Ninja: 3695/10007 [Additional Boost (To be unlocked)]"

Additional amplification direction options are available:

[Overturning the Sea]: When activated, it further amplifies the destructive power of area-of-effect ninjutsu. The amplification gradually increases as the talent is realized, allowing the host to input more chakra when performing area-of-effect ninjutsu. The effect depends on the chakra consumed by the host when performing the technique.

[Piercing Stone]: When activated, it additionally amplifies the damage of single-target ninjutsu. The amplification gradually increases as the talent is realized, allowing the host to accelerate the in-depth development and application of single-target ninjutsu. The effect depends on the host's proficiency with the ninjutsu at the time of casting.

"Seal: 4005/10004 [Additional Amplification (To be Unlocked)]"

Additional amplification direction options are available:

[Skillful Hands]: Once activated, it provides an additional boost to hand seal speed and rhythm, which gradually increases as the talent is realized, allowing for faster hand seal formation and significantly reducing the impact of external interference on the seal effect.

【Return to Simplicity】: Once activated, it provides an additional boost to the Hand Seal Simplification talent. This boost gradually as the talent progresses, allowing you to find hand seals that better suit your playstyle, replacing existing seals and achieving multi-seal fusion or even sealless spellcasting.

For the additional boost to [Ninjutsu], Tatsuma chose Overturning the Sea, since [Overturning the Sea] can match [Massive Quantity], allowing his mastery of area-of-effect ninjutsu to increase dramatically.

Just like how Naruto fans often joked in the past that "Uchiha Madara turned a B-rank Fire Release into an S-rank," although the ninjutsu rank represents the difficulty of learning, it also shows that Uchiha Madara was different from ordinary people.

Similarly, there are examples like Tobirama Senju's "turning Water Release into Ocean Release," which are area-of-effect ninjutsu that cannot be increased simply by adding more chakra.

Even if someone else had the same amount of chakra as Madara Uchiha, they still wouldn't be able to use Madara's Great Fire Annihilation Technique, because Madara's mastery of the entire technique was unmatched by anyone else.

Of course, most people, even if they spend the same or more time as Uchiha Madara throughout their lives, would not be able to reach Uchiha Madara's level. Therefore, this can be considered a kind of hidden talent.

Tatsuma, who already had plenty of chakra, naturally chose [Overturning the Sea], wanting to experience the feeling of "completing the Water Release as Sea Release".

Previously, Tatsuma might have been hesitant to squander chakra due to the slow chakra refining speed, but the extra boost to his [Wisdom] value has made up for this.

As for the seal, there's no need to choose; it's undoubtedly a return to simplicity.

In the ninja world, being an honest person leads nowhere. The truly powerful enemies are much faster than Mifune, who is said to be able to nullify ninjutsu. Honestly forming hand seals will only harm you.

The effect of [Overturning the Sea] is very obvious. Tatsuma could feel the change almost immediately after activating it. Now, when he throws a big fireball, the effect is no less than that of Jiraiya, the preacher.

It's just that the chakra is consumed a little too quickly, like a water pump drawing water.

The effects of "Returning to Simplicity" are not immediately apparent. Although inspiration occasionally flashes during the hand seal process, the sudden burst of inspiration makes Chenma unconsciously change his hand seals.

But for now, it's just a matter of modifying one seal to make it easier for him to use. To achieve the effect of combining multiple seals into one or even eliminating seals, he still needs to slowly find the way through training.

At this point, aside from [Illusion], Tatsuma's other talents have all reached the lower limit of Jonin level. Moreover, with the effects of various amplifications and their synergy, his strength is far greater than the numerical values ​​on the character panel.

Just like strength, in terms of regular strength, Tatsuma can only be considered above average among Chunin, but in terms of explosive power, he has already reached the requirements of Jonin. If you add his superhuman strength techniques, then he is even more terrifying.

Even if he trained himself in isolation, Tatsuma felt that in just two years, he would be considered by others to have the strength required to be assessed for the rank of Jonin, except, of course, if the assessment required genjutsu.

However, Jonin are not like Chunin or Genin, and there is no perfect assessment process. The assessment is based on three factors: recommendation from senior Jonin, evaluation of past battle records, and number of missions completed.

At most, they might add assessment items such as command skills or team leadership ability, but they wouldn't need to participate in specific tests.

Tatsuma speculated that Kakashi's later becoming a Jonin at the age of twelve might not have been due to him meeting all the requirements for Jonin in terms of skills, but rather because his performance and effectiveness were already comparable to that of a Jonin.

After all, Kakashi should also be someone with hidden talents, just like Minato's speed and Tobirama Senju's ninjutsu skills. Kakashi's hidden talents might be...50/50.

Because he was able to go toe-to-toe with the opposing Jonin, he was naturally considered a Jonin.

"唳~唳~"

Just as Minato and Tatsuma were taking a short rest on the grass, a deafening cry of an eagle suddenly came from the sky. The two exchanged a glance and immediately stood up.

Although the Ninja Hawk notified the Jonin, they all had a premonition.

The big one is coming!

(End of this chapter)