Chapter 104: A New Way to Improve

After the trio reached the first floor and found a place to sit, Hinata and Anko were curiously looking at Yuna, while Yuna was looking serious.

“Since the preliminarys of the chunin exam ended, did you two feel like something changed about you?”

Hinata and Anko frowned for a moment before nodding their head at the same time. Anko was the first to answer Yuna’s question.

“That is the case. I am not sure how to describe it though. It is like I am feeling much lighter or something like that.”

Hinata nodded her head in agreement.

“It is the same for me. I feel like a burden has been taken off my shoulders without me even realizing it.”

A happy smile appeared on Yuna’s face when she heard that.

“Haha, that’s great. I was hoping that was the case, but wasn’t totally certain.”

Hinata and Anko relaxed a little when they saw Yuna’s happy smile. Since Yuna was happy about it, whatever happened to them should have been something good at least, but the duo was still curious what this was about, so Anko was the first to ask a question.

“What exactly happened? I am not complaining or anything like that, but I would at least like to know what exactly is going on.”

“Hinata actually said it pretty well. A burden has been taken off your shoulders. Although all of us doubt that we actually killed Orochimaru, we still fought him and won. You would probably rather not admit it, Anko, but Orochimaru’s presence alone put quite a burden on you.”

Although Anko wasn’t happy about it, she still nodded her head in agreement. If someone else said that, she would vehemently deny it, but she didn’t mind if it was Yuna who said it.

‘She is probably right. No matter how often I told myself that I was fine, I could never completely shake off Orochimaru’s shadow. Now that I have personally cut off his head, I no longer feel like that. He might have survived, but even if he appears again, we can just kill him again as I did in the Forest of Death.’

Anko pondered the matter a while longer before answering Yuna.

“You are right. Previously, I dreaded the day I would have to face him again, now however I hope he appears before me as soon as possible so I can take his head again.”

After giving Anko a nod, Yuna put her attention on Hinata, who had an annoyed pout on her face. Before Yuna could say anything, Hinata started to speak.

“The Hyuga clan, huh?”

Yuna nodded in acknowledgment.

“Yes. You told me that after Neji got adopted into the main family due to his outstanding talent, you looked up to him as your big brother since he was nice to you. Despite being kicked out of the clan, you still had some hopes that he wasn’t happy with that decision or would at least show you some sympathy. After meeting and talking to him, however, those hopes were smashed apart. You lost the last smidgen of belonging you had to the Hyuga clan.”

Hinata couldn’t help but feel a little down when she heard that, but before Yuna could cheer her up, Anko started talking.

“Haha, what are you acting all depressed for Hinata. You don’t have to bother with those stuck-up blockheads anymore and instead, you became part of the crazy ride that is labeled with “Yuna’s harem”. Although I have no clue what it was like living inside the Hyuga compound, I can guarantee you that you will have much more fun in this house than you could have ever had there.”

Hinata couldn’t help but laugh after hearing that.

“Hahaha, that’s true. I am having more fun in a week than I had in my 5 years of living inside the Hyuga compound. Thanks for cheering me up, Anko.”

“Haha, don’t worry about it. As the main wife, I need to take care of the rest of the harem, after all.”

Hinata’s eyes immediately became sharp when she heard Anko call herself “main wife” and she started glaring at Anko.

“Who did you just call the main wife?”

Feeling Hinata’s killing intent and chakra washing over her and clashing with Anko’s, Yuna couldn’t help but enjoy herself.

‘Isn’t this nice, Kurama? Isn’t it cute how they are fighting over me?’

[You do realize that if you don’t stop Anko from egging on Hinata that this will end in a deathmatch, right?]

‘Oh, that’s right. I wanted to talk with them about something important after all. There is no time for a deathmatch right now.’

[No that’s not what I mea… You know what? Sure, whatever. That’s why I said that.]

Yuna stood up and before Hinata or Anko could react, Yuna had her hands around their waists and was hugging both of them.

“Hehe, calm down for now. I didn’t ask you to come here just to explain why you are feeling lighter.”

Hinata and Anko nodded their heads. Truth be told, Anko had absolutely no interest in something like being the “main wife”. As long as she was part of the fun she didn’t care at all. But she enjoyed teasing Hinata a lot, so she would occasionally bring it up.

‘Hehe, it’s really cute when she gets agitated about stuff like that. Especially when she gets all embarrassed for loudly proclaiming stuff like “I am the main wife”. It’s just adorable when the fierce demeanor she has while fighting falls apart and switches to total embarrassment after she realizes what she had said.’

Hinata, on the other hand, knew that Anko was trying to get her riled up as well, but couldn’t help but get agitated every time Anko said something like that. Also, she would never admit it to anyone, but she actually enjoyed the occasional fights she had with Anko.

‘Somehow I really enjoy these fights with Anko. I feel like every time we fight and make up afterwards, we get a little closer. There is, of course, no way I would ever tell that to anyone.’

“Well, before we start. Have you ever heard of natural energy?”

After a short while of thinking, Hinata shook her head in denial, Anko, however, nodded her head slowly.

“I think I have heard Orochimaru talk about it, but I am not sure.”

“I am not surprised Orochimaru knows about it since his cursed seal also contained some natural energy. Well, a pretty messed up type of natural energy.”

Anko nodded in understanding. Since Orochimaru has been working with it, it wasn’t weird that she heard the term previously.

“Anyway, natural energy can be considered energy that is produced by nature itself. It can be found anywhere, but certain places have more than others. Konoha’s forests, for example, have quite a lot of it, while there isn’t very much inside Konoha.”

Hinata and Anko both nodded in understanding. They could more or less guess where Yuna was going with this.

“There are, naturally, methods for shinobi to utilize it as well. One of them was Anko’s seal, which I won’t bother going into details with since it doesn’t matter.

The next method is absorbing a huge quantity of it, mixing it with your spiritual and physical energies in equal parts, and creating senjutsu chakra. This will give you a huge, temporary boost in strength, but will only last about five minutes. Learning this method is rather risky since absorbing too much could lead to someone becoming a statue. Or that is what Kurama told me at least. I, personally, never tried it and don’t plan to. Or at least I don’t plan to until I have a failsafe method to disperse the natural energy instantly.”

Hinata and Anko paled a little when they heard the risk involved and nodded in agreement.

“The last method is something I have come up with myself. It still involves absorbing natural energy, but only in small quantities at first. It involves taking a small quantity into your body, refining it for yourself and storing it inside your body. As long as you aren’t too hasty with the absorption this method is much safer. Instead of a short, powerful, burst of strength, this method allows continuous growth with, at least in theory, no limit to it. I call it…”

An insane glint appeared in Yuna’s eyes as she finished her explanation.

“…cultivation.”

*Author Note*

Here it is! After over 100 chapters cultivation has appeared. In the typical cultivation novel manner, I will spend the next 50 chapters spouting nonsense about the Dao, the Heavens, Meridians, and all that stuff, so have fun 🙂