Danzo frowned as he looked at the reports on his table.
Apparently, the being really took the role of a teacher seriously… Almost too seriously.
The class that was under its care over time showed better and better results, until it has reached the point where it could contend easily with any class of gifted children. Of course, it might be better to use it while it is possible to raise a generation of powerful shinobi that could ensure village's safety once Danzo and Hiruzen retire, right? And if it was any other situation, Danzo and Hiruzen would easily come to a rare agreement; however, the teacher in question was the strange being that certainly was not loyal to Konoha, and thus could brainwash children for its own profit. It was one thing to give mostly untalented kids just to assess its character and capabilities; it would be piercing your own heart with kunai if you gave the being full access to village's future.
And so, Danzo was conflicted. Up to this point, being didn't even show a single shred of hostility outside of first interaction between Uzumaki Naruto and citizen; it has been six months since that moment. However, they couldn't just consider it a normal summon, either; normal summons use summoner's chakra to stay in the human realm and disappear once it runs out or they force reverse summon to go back, neither of which happened with being.
Moreover, upon taking teacher's role it somehow managed to fully mimic the human form. It was as if being was familiar with human body to the point of being capable to ensure even the smallest movements possible looked absolutely humane. That… was concerning.
Danzo looked over at another paper. What if it was not alone? What if their enemies are beings from another plane? They do know that summons live in their separate worlds… What if they got greedy and decided to invade human world? Of course, Danzo had heard from Sages — people who were able to learn from summons on usage of nature's chakra — that summons require a specific environment to live, and thus rarely leave their places unless summoned… But apparently some could bypass this requirement. This Shadow being.
Concerning.
Too concerning.
Danzo thought it over and took a blank list.
It is too dangerous. This does not only concern Konoha itself, but other villages, too. This is why Danzo decided to prepare a report with concerns about summons, which will then be conveniently placed in a place where other villages' spies will be able to pick them up. At the same time, he will discuss the potential problem of Shadow and beings like him with Hiruzen. Should he succeed, they will write a secret letter to others Kages and ask for Kages meeting.
He might also need to hasten his plans on Uchiha's annihilation even further. Their eyes may play the most crucial role in fighting against these beings.
Of course, Danzo also needs to increase village's defenses. This is top priority.
You may never know where someone like Shadow can hide. 'Lurk in the shadows', as it said…
Poof!
Another clone, another failure.
Cid sighed in frustration. Apparently, you cannot train taijutsu at all with Shadow Clones… Kinda obvious, considering that taijutsu is the training of physical body, while almost all other fields are more reliant on your knowledge. That's why he sent them out to practice juinjutsu and fuinjutsu, which are available for clones, while he himself focused on taijutsu. Yeah, once again only hard work allows you to break through your limits…
Anyway, juinjutsu and fuinjutsu. Cid really, really, really wanted to try using juinjutsu like runecrafting, but it was simply not as versatile. Like, sure, it was cool and all, but his runes and Will Inscription are simply superior.
And that's when Hams suddenly came up with an idea…
Yes, chakra is not as versatile as runecrafting due to being more material energy, but those ways that are available to it last for a long time without any need for additional charge, plus it allows easier manipulations once you get a hang of it. Magic is jack of all trades, allows you to use practically anything from the start, but unfortunately, the further you go, the more knowledge you are required to have in order to use it proficiently. Of course, considering how much Cid trained in practically all fields, that was more like a positive thing for him…
So yeah, Cid had to train a lot get a hang of magic. Now he can use both these energies and combine them to create… something cool! What? Who said that combining energies is a sure way to blow up? It's gonna be alright!
The only problem is that Shadow Clones are made out of chakra only, so he can't actually use them as helpers in combining magic and chakra. Boomer.
Fortunately, he has such amazing Inner Beasts as Hams (Hamster) and Todd (Toad)!… Oh, and Diva flew somewhere, too… Anyway, these two guys were as manic about magic and wealth (both material and informational) as he is. In short, he was cool and ready for it. Clones can study juinjutsu, fuinjutsu, and ninjutsu (like, if he can, why not?), Beasts will theorize on making it into one system, and he himself? Well, he will train physical body!
Muh-ha-ha!… Auch, where do these flies even come from?…
Hiruzen sighed.
Of course, everything Danzo said could be truth. Moreover, it is the only logical assumption anyone can make after witnessing what Shadow can do. There was just one problem…
Naruto was still at his hands. Even if Shadow is indeed what Danzo makes him out to be, that doesn't change the fact Hiruzen would rather not risk child's life. Of course, if worst comes to worst, he would not hesitate to place his own life if it means that village would stand, and he knows Danzo thinks the same.
Unfortunately, as of now, his hands were tied.
However, as a Hokage, he has to appraise all options possible.
And that means…
"Your assumptions may prove correct, old friend," he sighed once again.
It is time to write a letter.
He just hopes Danzo's paranoia is just that, paranoia.
Green Serpent was in depression.
After their wonderful adventure it was a long time since it had a good companion, let alone three.
The guys it went with were the most fun it had in its life, and now it couldn't even talk with them. The thousand faces guy went back into their (?) domain, uncle with two-colored coat decided to lie down for a moment because someone powerful from his world got really angry at their antics, and human kid… Well, it has never seen him ever since.
A shame, to be honest…
All the things they did together… Though it is no less fun to watch over whatever was left after kid's departure.
Especially these living ships they created together. They were now conquering their fifth galaxy and didn't show any signs of stopping. They are also really close to Imperium; Serpent wonders what happens once they meet…
Or dragons that turned out to be mice! At first Serpent thought kid was too drunk, but in the end theory proved to be correct: dragons were, indeed, mice in disguise. How did he even know that?
Or special bears. It just said about special bears as a joke, but kid got fired up in the task to find them. At some point Serpent wanted to just say to not take it seriously, but… Kid somehow managed to make bears special. Now they come to Serpent every two days to get a bottle or two.
In short, it was insanity. But that insanity was very fun. And Serpent was getting bored.
However, it could not find him anywhere.
Apparently, he disappeared somewhere.
That's why Serpent just decided to give out a Call. Maybe at some point he will pick it up…
"Achoo!"
Guh, probably someone remembered him…
Anyway, taijutsu. Eight Battle Style.
He has finally managed to procure results with Fire Stance that he deemed acceptable. And by his standards, that means it's cool and effective! Now he can make a coat of flames around himself! Though the time he spent on calibrating the technique to make sure it doesn't burn both him and his reserves like crazy… Yeah, he doesn't want to remember that.
He also learned that there was a clan on shinobi that specialized on using… shadows. Yeah, literal shadows. Though their abilities were kinda… lame. Just using their shadow to stop people in their tracks. However, that unlocked another way for Cid.
Yes, he knew about Elements… But who said you can't use shadows? Though the way that clan used them was… interesting. Basically they just heavily relied on spiritual part of chakra for their techniques. That simple. Though such imbalance in chakra made them very lazy and very intelligent… Is it worth trade? Cid thinks yes.
Anyway, shadows. Considering how much he traversed Shadow Realm and refined his Shadow Mana until it was of the same quality as Realm, his affinity with it was very high. Hell, even now part of Shadow Mana still lingered in his body! In short, an attempt to make a technique based on shadows… ended up in literally the same technique that he created with magic. But on chakra. As in, covering yourself in shadows. Yeah…
That, of course, opened up other possibilities, but as of now Cid still needed to finish all the Stances that would allow him to feel Elemental Transformation properly before going further into it. As of now, he managed to almost finish the Wind (one of the easiest if not counting how he cheated it with Fire Realm), then comes Lightning (obviously, duh; it's cool!), after that both Earth and Water (which he didn't even start properly, only making the basics to ensure it actually works).
In the meantime, clones actually managed to somewhat crack the code of juinjutsu and fuinjutsu. And, yes, while not requiring the actual symbols just like Will Inscription, it still made some kind of a drawing on the object unlike Will Inscription which just forcefully infused the object with concept… Which, on one hand, was quite dangerous, since anyone could decipher the drawing, but on the other hand, it was way less taxing on the object itself, unlike Will Inscription which, when used with larger concepts, could destroy the object completely.
Plus Will Inscription as it is was impossible; you still had to make contact and make attempt at drawing so your chakra starts flowing through. Strange stuff, but it is what it is…
Also Hams attempted to create first magic and chakra combination product, which exploded immediately in his snout and dispelled the clone he was working in. Beast had to take over another one. And yeah, they could do it in Soul Space, but… Soul Space was Soul Space. It was not material. Theoretically possible. In practice? Cid had legitimate worries that the moment he brings out a large chakra-magic construct it blows up in his face.
And yes, Hams, unlike other clones, had access to magic. Probably because he was part of his soul and not a copy of consciousness. However, that still didn't remove fragility of clones, which resulted in quite a lot of accidents.
But by his words it was possible! And Cid upon checking it out himself has confirmed that it was, in fact, possible! The only problem would be stability, however Cid calculated that already.
By his research (89 pages by the way) it was theoretically possible to combine them if chakra was used as the main framework and magic as the supporting. To cut it short, chakra symbols would be giving the direction of their magic-chakra circle, while runes would support it and give more instructions. Of course, that is the easiest way, considering chakra is more material of an energy than mana. Ideally, Cid would want them to be on equal footing, but that would require even more extensive research, and her runs out of paper… kidding, of course, but it was a lot of work.
And that not even to mention it's almost 200 days since he has come here! He is missing Shades!
More research! More cool stuff!