A new week began.
Before class started, Ishida Yuu announced the rankings for the March monthly exam.
First place went to Namikaze Minato, second place to Onodera.
Natsuki ranked seventh, and Yakushi Nono ranked eighth, right behind him.
He was very satisfied with that result.
Above average, good enough to stand out a little, but not so good that he stood out too much.
For now, at least, there was no risk of catching Shimura Danzo’s attention.
What Natsuki cared about more was something else.
Had his shameless flattery—no, his explanation of the Will of Fire—managed to catch Hiruzen Sarutobi’s attention?
Unfortunately, he had no way to confirm it.
Still, he wasn’t in a hurry.
Sooner or later, Hiruzen would notice that he was an excellent inheritor of the Will of Fire.
The morning was still theory classes as usual.
By the afternoon, though, all the students in Class 1-A were excited.
Because Ishida Yuu was finally going to teach them their first ninjutsu: the Substitution Jutsu, one of the three basic academy techniques.
The Three Basic Techniques were the only ninjutsu tested in the Ninja Academy graduation exam.
In other words, unless you mastered them, you could not graduate and officially be called a ninja.
“The Substitution Jutsu is an E-rank technique.
When you’re attacked, it creates a cloud of smoke and swaps your body with a log to deceive the enemy.”
Once class began, Ishida Yuu started his explanation in detail.
The Three Basic Techniques were among the jutsu left behind by Natsuki’s parents.
But he had never learned them.
One reason was that he was still too young, and the other was that he had no one to teach him, so he was worried he might learn them wrong.
After finishing the explanation, Ishida Yuu demonstrated the technique himself once, and only then did he let the class try learning it.
Bang!
A puff of smoke exploded in front of Minato Namikaze.
He retreated instantly, leaving only a log where he had been standing.
Class 1-A fell silent.
“As expected of Minato!”
“That’s insane!
He actually pulled off the Substitution Jutsu on his first try!”
“What’s so special about that?
Show-off.”
The last comment came from Onodera, whose face was full of displeasure.
Most students took one or two years to learn the Substitution Jutsu.
Talented students could learn it in a semester.
A true genius, though, was someone like Minato Namikaze, who could grasp it after seeing it once.
“Well done.”
Ishida Yuu smiled broadly.
Then he looked at Natsuki, though unfortunately Natsuki’s Substitution Jutsu looked rather unpolished.
Ishida Yuu estimated that he would probably learn it within one semester.
In the end, he still wasn’t a true genius.
Very soon, Ishida Yuu’s thoughts had already shifted to how he should adjust Minato Namikaze’s curriculum.
Geniuses had privileges.
In the original story, Hatake Kakashi had already completed the Ninja Academy curriculum and become a genin by the age of five.
Why should he struggle with learning ninjutsu the normal way?
If he didn’t learn it, so be it.
Grok, add points for me!
Time quickly passed into May.
Natsuki stood in the training ground, surrounded by scattered kunai, shuriken, senbon, and caltrops.
Not far away, Yakushi Nono sat reading a book.
She looked up at him once, then lowered her head again and kept reading.
After two months of study, she had already mastered a fair amount of basic medical knowledge.
But it was still nowhere near enough.
No matter where you were, studying medicine was an incredibly tedious process.
Still, she had excellent patience.
Natsuki slowly let out a breath.
With a thought, he called up his status panel.
[Name: Natsuki.]
[Age: Six.]
[Fused Character Template: Conan.]
[Unfused Character Template: Shirou Emiya.]
Then Natsuki looked at the Shirou Emiya template.
Ability One, Cooking, and Ability Two, Reinforcement Magecraft, had already been unlocked.
As for Ability Three, Projection Magecraft, its progress was now displayed as four-fifths.
That was the result of all his effort over the past month.
He only needed to master one more ninja tool to unlock Ability Three.
Thinking that, Natsuki pulled out a ninja blade.
He had bought it from a ninja tool shop yesterday.
There were two main types of ninja blades.
One was the short blade, basically the equivalent of a dagger.
The other was the long blade, usually a tachi or katana.
The blade in Natsuki’s hand was a short one.
Because he was still a child, long blades were too long for him and inconvenient for training.
There were plenty of famous sword and blade styles in the ninja world.
For example, Konoha-style swordsmanship, Uchiha-style swordsmanship, and Hatake blade techniques.
Naturally, Natsuki knew none of them, and he had no way to find someone to teach him.
These sword and blade arts were more or less the same as ninjutsu.
There were only three ways to learn them: family inheritance, instruction from a teacher, or a village reward.
Fortunately, what the Shirou Emiya template required was only beginner-level swordsmanship.
And beginner level simply meant mastering the most basic actions, like thrusting, chopping, and slicing.
Yesterday, Natsuki had also bought a copy of Basics of Swordsmanship.
The Ninja Academy would teach it eventually, but not until second year.
Naturally, he couldn’t wait that long, so he chose to teach himself.
If he really couldn’t learn it, then he’d just spend money to hire a ninja to teach him.
But right now he had no source of income, so saving money where he could was important.
Konoha entered June.
Minato Namikaze’s reputation as a genius began spreading throughout the Ninja Academy.
The reason was simple: aside from theory class, he was no longer attending practical lessons with the other students.
While the rest of the class was still learning the Substitution Jutsu, he was already being taught the second of the Three Basic Techniques: the Clone Jutsu.
[Congratulations, Host.
Shirou Emiya Template Ability Three, Projection Magecraft, has been unlocked.]
It’s here!
Natsuki, who had been swinging his ninja blade at the training ground, immediately stopped.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling a surge of excitement.
But just as he was about to test Projection Magecraft, the text before his eyes changed again.
[You have awakened the Roronoa Zoro Template.]
Natsuki’s eyes widened instantly.
This was Zoro from One Piece?
Zoro… truly a mark of kingship.
Ahem.
Natsuki forced the weird thought out of his head and quickly looked at the Zoro template.
[Name: Roronoa Zoro.]
[Stage: One-Sword Style.]
[World: One Piece.]
[Rank: B-rank.]
[Ability One: Swordsmanship Mastery — Unlocked.]
[Effect: Possesses unparalleled skill with the sword.]
[Ability Two: One-Sword Style: 36 Pound Phoenix — Locked.]
[Effect: Swing the blade at high speed to generate a sword wave slash, as powerful as cannon fire.]
[Unlock Condition: Obtain first place in one practical combat exam.]
[Ability Three: One-Sword Style: Demon Bear — Locked.]
[Effect: Draw the blade downward from above, powerful enough to split stone in two.]
[Unlock Condition: Master one Earth Release ninjutsu.]
[Ability Four: One-Sword Style Iaijutsu: Lion’s Song — Locked.]
[Effect: A quick-draw slash performed at extreme speed, powerful enough to cut through steel.]
[Unlock Condition: Possess a sword famous within the ninja world.]
So it was actually a B-rank character template?
It had to be said, the unlock requirements for a B-rank were far harder than for a C-rank.
But in exchange, it had one extra ability, and its power was clearly on another level.
Aside from Ability One, the other three were basically somewhere between C-rank and B-rank ninjutsu in strength.
If Natsuki managed to unlock all four abilities, his power would rise from genin to chunin level.
Too bad there was no Haki.
In One Piece, true powerhouses either had Haki or a powerful Devil Fruit.
But if Haki were included, this definitely wouldn’t be just a B-rank template.
Besides that, this character template had introduced a different kind of “stage.”
Natsuki had originally assumed Zoro’s stages would be split by story arcs, like East Blue or Skypiea.
He hadn’t expected them to be divided into categories like One-Sword Style and Three-Sword Style instead.
Zoro’s One-Sword Style was already very good, but his truly terrifying form was obviously Three-Sword Style.
Then again, Three-Sword Style Zoro definitely wouldn’t be only B-rank.