Fujin spent the next couple of days practicing Vacuum Slash and Hurricane Sword to get used to them. Normally, getting used to such jutsus would take a lot of time. Fortunately, the jutsus suited Fujin a lot and quickly became his second nature. Fujin quickly got used to performing them as comfortably as their normal versions.
Because a week passed, Fujin consumed the soldier pill and shifted back to his previous routine with his focus divided between the Vacuum Gatling jutsu and the Four Symbols Seal.
On the evening of the 2nd day, Fujin stood in the training ground. His chakra was low to continue training further.
He extended his arms and pointed his fingers at 10 human-sized rocks. In an instant, 10 Vacuum Bullets were launched. Each hit their target on the mark and travelled a long distance behind them.
Approximately 0.23 seconds later, Fujin shot another round of 10 Vacuum Bullets. They hit their target as well. Approximately 0.76 seconds after shooting the 2nd round, Fujin shot the 3rd round of the Vacuum Bullets.
Fujin nodded and thought, 'Good. This now looks like a Gatling. However, I still need to improve this more. It'll be great if I can fire 5 rounds within one second and 10 rounds in around 2.5 to 3 seconds. Only then it'll live up to its name.'
Fujin extended his index finger once again and pointed at a rock. He fired a Vacuum Bullet. However, instead of hitting the rock he was pointing to, the bullet hit a hole in the rock adjacent to it.
Fujin muttered to himself, 'This has reached partial mastery as well. I can aim my target around 20° away in any direction from what I'm pointing at. I guess I'll be able to go up to 60° max by the time I'm done tra...'
Fujin suddenly stopped his analysis as he received a memory. Immediately, an elated expression appeared on his face. He screamed in his mind, 'FINALLY! It feels like I have been working on this for fucking centuries!'
Had Fujin been as emotional and reactive as someone like Naruto, he might have screamed and jumped for joy. The memory he received was from a shadow clone who dispelled himself. He was the first and the only shadow clone so far to successfully create the Four Symbols Seal!
Fujin decided, 'I will meditate later. Time to visit my basement. Since this clone passed on his memories, the other clones should be getting it done soon as well.'
Fujin immediately flickered towards his home. In his basement, 79 Shadow Clones were sitting, each and every last one of them in deep thought. Just like the clone who dispelled himself, the remaining 79 clones were very close as well. It was just that they were stuck at some level or the other.
After receiving his memories, they compared their results with those memories and immediately had a breakthrough. By the time Fujin reached his home, they continued working on their seals.
Fujin observed his clones sitting while making seals. He thought, 'No point in disturbing them. I'll take this opportunity to get a third person's perspective.'
Fujin sat on one side of the room and observed his clones closely. Within 15 minutes, a second clone managed to complete the seal. As soon as he did, he dispelled himself as well. The remaining clones received his memories as well and increased their speed of creating the seal.
Fujin observed, 'Using Shadow Clones for learning is crazy good. Normally, even after learning a seal, I will have to practice several times to be more comfortable with it. But with clones, when one succeeds, they dispel themselves. Due to this, the knowledge is transferred to the remaining clones.
This has two advantages. The more obvious one is that every clone learns the same method. And the hidden and the more fearsome one is that every clone can think of methods to improve the seal.
So by the time the last clone successfully manages to create the seal, I will have improved the seal slightly 79 times!
But, that will still not be enough. The current time needed to create this seal is too high. The first clone who succeeded was at it for 5 hours straight. The second clone had started working on it 6 hours 8 minutes before he succeeded.
Even if I create a more optimized version, I will need at least an hour to create a Four Symbols Seal… But I remember that the likes of Minato, Orochimaru and Jiraiya were very quick with the seals…'
Fujin thought for a while as his clones kept completing the seals one by one. A few minutes later, Fujin shook his head and concluded, 'I can't think of any way to decrease the creation time of this seal to a few seconds. The only way will be if I create the seal beforehand and use it in battle. But how do I do that?'
Fujin analyzed but once again, he couldn't come up with any solution. He sighed and decided, 'I will ask Hiruzen. Though I could come up with a way eventually, it will take a lot of time. The wait has no benefits.'
Though Fujin didn't ask Hiruzen for help in increasing the speed of his Vacuum Gatling, that was because he was creating a new jutsu. Creating a dependency on Hiruzen for matters he could resolve could be detrimental to him in the future.
But, the matter with Fuinjutsu was different. It could be applied to all seals and Fujin wouldn't have to improve it. So he didn't mind asking Hiruzen.
Fujin kept waiting in his room while observing his clones. In 2 hours, all 80 clones had successfully created the Four Symbol Seal. On receiving the last clone's information, Fujin realized, 'Not bad. I think I can create this seal within an hour already. Of course, that's still too slow.'
Fujin created a shadow clone who left his home and flickered towards the Hokage's Building. Fujin's clone thought, 'It's kinda late. I hope the old fox is still in the office. Otherwise, I'll have to wait till tomorrow.'
He reached the building in a few seconds. Fortunately, the lights of his office were still on. Fujin's clone wasted no time in flickering to the office.
Inside his office, Hiruzen was writing on a scroll. There were a couple of dozen more scrolls on his desk. Konoha's decision to withdraw the majority of their forces was conveyed to Takigakure who immediately became worried. They tried making the Konoha ninjas stay, however, they didn't have anything to convince them.
Iwa had left no clues in the Ito Family's territory. So Taki refused to blame them openly. They had also been unsuccessful in curbing the rumors that were spreading. These two points caused dissatisfaction among Konoha leaders. So Hiruzen didn't intend to keep the army deployed for any longer.
The only way Taki could make the Konoha ninjas stay was by issuing them all missions. Unfortunately, they didn't have that kind of budget to splurge money. So they couldn't stop Konoha from retreating.
Hiruzen had concluded his negotiations with Takigakure. The scrolls he was writing on were for the Noble families in the Land of Waterfall that supported Konoha. He assured them of Konoha's support and stated that they were retreating because the chances of Iwa attacking were very low. Hiruzen also assured them that if Iwa attacked them, Konoha would send an even bigger army.
Hiruzen had just started writing the 2nd scroll when he heard a knock. He looked up to see Fujin's clone entering. A smile formed on his face. He said, "Fujin. Why are you here?"
Hiruzen had always been fond of Fujin. However, he had been more fond of him than ever for the last couple of weeks since Fujin stopped visiting the Wind Training Room.
Fujin's clone wondered, 'Why is he so happy to see me? Wait! Does he know that I'm here to ask for help and he is so enthusiastic to help me? Yup, that must be it. Sigh, we have such a benevolent Kage!'
Fujin asked, "Grandpa, are you done with your work?"
Hiruzen, who was in a happy mood a few seconds ago, suddenly became alert. He thought, 'I know that tone! He is here to ask me for something that would cost me a lot.'
He put up an exhausted expression and replied, "Unfortunately I had some extra work today. I will be busy here for another couple of hours."
He thought, 'Sigh, I thought I'd leave in 20 minutes. Now I'll have to keep waiting here for another couple of hours in case he tries to check where I am.'
Meanwhile, Fujin's clone wondered, 'Really? Or is this old fox faking?'
He said, "That's rough on you Grandpa. I'm here because I need your help. I was hoping you'd come with me. But since you are busy, you can send a Shadow Clone with me.'
Hiruzen was speechless. He thought, 'Despite being Hokage for so long and having helped so many young ninjas over decades, this is the first time someone directly asked me to send a clone to help him. Wait! He isn't even asking! He is directly giving me a choice!'
