[You have awakened the Conan Template.]
What did that even mean?
Don’t open your eyes.
Please let this be a hallucination.
Natsuki’s face stiffened.
What use was Conan supposed to be in the world of Naruto?
Did his dad also teach him ninjutsu in Hawaii?
[Name: Edogawa Conan.]
[Stage: Final.]
[World: Detective Conan.]
[Rank: D-rank.]
[Ability 1: There Is Only One Truth — Unlocked.]
[Effect: Exceptional deduction and observation skills.
Able to notice anomalies within your field of vision.]
[Ability 2: Anesthetic Needle — Locked.]
[Effect: When using a ninja tool coated with anesthetic, you will never miss a stationary target, and your hit rate against moving targets will increase significantly.]
[Unlock Condition: Successfully prepare anesthetic once.]
[Ability 3: Golden Right Leg — Locked.]
[Effect: Powerful soccer technique, tempered into a devastating kick.]
[Unlock Condition: Rank in the top ten in a physical fitness test.]
Natsuki could not help falling into thought.
Although Conan’s abilities came from Detective Conan, they had clearly been adapted to fit the Naruto world.
After he and Yakushi Nono found two empty seats and sat down, he began studying the system.
“Stage” referred to the character’s point in time within their original story.
A character’s strength could vary quite a bit depending on the stage.
To use the Naruto game as an example, Namikaze Minato could be divided into his youth version and his Edo Tensei version.
Conan was listed as the final version, which meant he would not get a second Conan template later on, or in other words, the Conan template would not evolve any further.
Template ranks were divided into D, C, B, A, and S.
The higher the rank, the stronger the abilities granted.
In the world of Naruto, the rank of a jutsu represented how difficult it was to learn, not necessarily its raw power.
But in general, the harder a jutsu was to learn, the more powerful or effective it tended to be.
Since the Conan template was set as D-rank, its abilities were probably somewhere between D-rank and C-rank jutsu.
Ability One, There Is Only One Truth—judging by the effect, it was probably equivalent to a C-rank sensory ninjutsu.
Ability Two, Anesthetic Needle, was basically a ninja tool throwing technique, so D-rank sounded fair.
Sure, it guaranteed a hit, but the conditions were restrictive: the ninja tool had to be coated with anesthetic, and it worked best on stationary targets.
Ability Three, Golden Right Leg, was probably C-rank like Ability One, but it fell under taijutsu.
Natsuki could not help shaking his head.
If you asked him, the system was still too conservative.
It did not truly respect Conan logic.
After all, Conan could kick satellites and trucks with a soccer ball.
To awaken a template, he had to complete a specific action.
The condition for awakening the Conan template had been enrolling in the Ninja Academy.
He was an elementary schooler, and the Ninja Academy was basically elementary school.
Natsuki more or less understood how these so-called “specific actions” were triggered.
It meant imitating a signature behavior of that character, or going through a special experience similar to theirs.
Which raised a question: could he awaken templates for Naruto characters too?
He was already in the world of Naruto, so imitating its characters would be the easiest thing to do.
Based on the system’s rules, it should theoretically be possible.
He could test it when he got the chance.
At that thought, Natsuki finally let out a long breath.
He had been in this world for six years, and he had survived for six years.
This year was without question the most hopeful year of his life so far, because now he had a cheat.
At last, he no longer needed to prepare for his next reincarnation.
Just by fusing with the Conan template, he could already be considered half a chunin.
After all, most genin struggled to master even two C-rank jutsu.
Natsuki steadied himself and looked back at the Conan template.
Ability One was already unlocked, but there were still two locked abilities left.
He had seen the first-year class schedule.
Physical fitness testing was one of the listed activities.
Placing in the top ten would be a little difficult, but not impossible.
At this point in time, there were not many geniuses around—probably only Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.
Nawaki counted too, but he was in a different class, so there was no direct competition.
It was nothing like Naruto’s class, which was overflowing with prodigies.
Nine of the Konoha Twelve had been in that one class alone.
The only slightly troublesome part was preparing the anesthetic.
This was still before the Second Great Ninja War, and the medical ninja system had not yet been established.
It would not be until Tsunade proposed assigning one medical ninja to every squad that Konoha would finally begin taking medical ninja training seriously.
Without a dedicated medical class, the only way to become a medical ninja at this point was through personal connections.
For example, getting involved with Tsunade or other medical ninja.
The difficulties outnumbered the solutions, but Natsuki still came up with one approach: money.
Shinobi might sound glamorous, but in the end, they were just mercenaries working for pay.
Even the Akatsuki, the criminal powerhouse of the ninja world, had to hustle for money before they could start collecting tailed beasts.
Sorry, but money really could do whatever it wanted.
Natsuki could simply post a commission and pay someone to teach him how to prepare anesthetic.
Just then, a little boy with golden hair walked into the classroom.
He took the seat in front of Natsuki and Yakushi Nono.
“Hello.
I’m Namikaze Minato.
Nice to meet you.”
After glancing around the room, the blond boy turned to Natsuki and Yakushi Nono.
He wore a sincere smile on his face.
“I’m Yakushi Nono.”
Yakushi Nono replied in a gentle voice.
“Natsuki.”
Suppressing the emotions in his heart, Natsuki answered.
This little boy was none other than the future Fourth Hokage, the fastest man in the ninja world, the one people would later call the Yellow Flash.
So that meant Uzumaki Kushina would be their classmate too?
Though at this point in time, she most likely had not yet been sent to Konoha.
Minato was very talkative.
Natsuki chatted with him as well.
The reason was simple.
Part of it was just his personality.
And the other part was that Minato was the kind of person worth befriending.
Soon it was nine in the morning.
All the students had arrived.
“Good morning, everyone.”
A young man walked in and said with a smile, “I’m your teacher, Ishida Yuu.”
After speaking, he picked up a piece of chalk and wrote his name on the blackboard.
“Before class begins, let’s start with self-introductions.”
Stepping aside, Ishida Yuu said, “We’ll begin with the first student on the left in the front row.”
A classic scene.
Before long, it was Minato’s turn.
“My name is Namikaze Minato.
I like reading, and my dream is to earn everyone’s recognition and become Hokage.”
His words did not cause much of a reaction.
Because nine out of ten kids sitting here dreamed of becoming Hokage.
“My name is Yakushi Nono.”
After a brief moment of thought, Yakushi Nono said, “I want to become a medical ninja.”
Quite a few people looked surprised.
At this time, medical ninja were not especially valued.
Besides, compared to playing support, a bunch of six- and seven-year-olds were naturally more interested in fighting and standing out in battle.
Natsuki smiled.
This was clearly his influence.
After Yakushi Nono finished her introduction, it was his turn.
“My name is Natsuki.”
Without hesitation, he said, “My dream is to become a great ninja like Lord Hokage.”
That was a lie.
But wanting to become Hokage was the politically correct answer in Konoha.
And he was pretty sure that old geezer Hiruzen was probably spying on them with his crystal ball right now.
Looking at Natsuki, Minato thought to himself that the competition was fierce.
Still, he was fairly confident in his own chances of becoming Hokage.
Before enrollment, they had taken an entrance test, and he had ranked first among this year’s students.
Of course, he also knew that entrance test results did not mean everything.
“Now let’s begin class.”
After the introductions ended, Ishida Yuu got started.
The first lesson was The Hokages Through History and the Will of Fire.
Natsuki had heard of it long ago in his previous life.
Wherever the leaves dance, the fire also burns on.
The fire will continue to illuminate the village and cause new leaves to sprout.
How to put it?
In a world where strength was everything, those words did not really mean much.
But Natsuki was not strong enough yet, so he had to learn them.
Not only that—he had to learn them well.
Because in Konoha, the Will of Fire was a pretty decent protective charm.
As long as his Will of Fire looked strong enough, then when Danzo set his sights on him, Hiruzen would naturally step in to protect him.
Thinking that, Natsuki opened The Hokages Through History and the Will of Fire.
The contents were simple enough: it used various little stories about the first three Hokage to explain the Will of Fire.
The Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, took up most of the pages.
Natsuki skimmed through it once.
At the very least, there was nothing absurd in there like Hiruzen knocking the moon out of the sky with a pebble.