Naruto- Secret Sage

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"That's not how that works. S rank isn't just one level of power for jutsu but a sort of spectrum with weaker and stronger jutsu all having it but not being necessarily the same in terms of danger." I said correcting his mistaken thoughts.

"If it's all the same rank despite some being way stronger then how are you supposed to know if it's better or worse than the others?" Naruto asked confused.

"S rank jutsu are all dangerous so it doesn't matter really. How you react to them might change depending on the jutsu but that is true for all jutsu so it doesn't matter." I said and he nodded in understanding.

After that Karin and I stayed in a room at the local inn for the night before leaving town the next day. We reached the end of the land of hotsprings without much trouble a couple of weeks later with us only stopping to relaxing in the different types of hotsprings we found. Some of them had high mineral concentrations and others even medicinal oils. By the end of the country however we were both rather tired with hotsprings.-

Not to say there was anything wrong with it occasionally but by this point the intrigue had pretty much vanished and it was just hot water to us.

"You want to skip the return trip and just go straight home?" I asked while we sat in a small ramen shop in a small town.

"Yeah, the return trip might be a bit of a drag at this point." She said with a sigh.

With that settled we went home and I couldn't help but sigh in relief as the abundance of natural energy soothed me and flowed around me. While the wilderness had a greater concentration of natural energy than the village it was still not even close to my home and I missed it. I couldn't help but find it ironic how my home practically tempted me to stay there at all times.-

I almost couldn't believe how little jiraiya minded being away from a natural energy hotspot like mount Myoboku since he was also a sage. It was only after remembering that he rarely used the transformation and even then only an imperfect version that it made sense. He clearly saw the mode as a trump card rather than a lifestyle which was fine I guess but he misses out on all the benefits that come with the lifestyle as a result.-

Even Kakashi had understood that the lifestyle offered the most permanent benefits given how strong his presence in the villages natural energy was. While I doubted he was fully committed like me he still at least meditated in sage mode once a day from what I could tell. I wouldn't be surprised if his body and chakra had improved drastically in the last two months Karin and I were on vacation. Kakashi was not like me whose body was nearing perfection from constant refinement under the natural energy since birth and so his growth should be very noticeable.-

'Something for later I suppose.' I thought as I sat in my chamber and breathed in the abundant natural energy.

I let my suppressed senses go fully and the entire village and several miles around it exploded into my perception. Every ant, grain of sand and object within this range was all laid clear to me as though I was everywhere at once. There was some awkwardness with this as it meant I saw the people doing sexual acts in the red light district as well but I was calm and treated it as little more than another piece of information.-

I saw at least three spies send messages out of the village during this time however. Or rather they TRIED to send them out but a flex of my control over natural energy caused blades of wind to cut down the birds they used once they lost sight of them. I also created a shadow clone that drew the images of the spies and sent them to my sensei. Through my senses I saw her receive the images and send out three Anbu to capture the spies. I saw Kakashi meditating in his house near the crystal I gave him in sage mode.-

I decided to mess with him and made a bit of natural energy buzz next to his ear. He ignored it at first but soon sighed and swatted at it only to grimace as he recognized the prank for what it was. It was almost funny watching him trying to figure out where I was with his own rather sloppy sage sensory technique. He of course was getting very impossible responses as he was likely picking up traces of me literally everywhere around him for a good distance.