The next day.
Kazan got up and headed straight back to the Forest of Death to practice his punches.
He specifically sought out the thickest trees he could find, pounding them over and over to temper his pair of iron fists!
His Shadow Clones, meanwhile, continued training in the Six Powers.
Fortunately, the Forest of Death was far from the village.
Otherwise, there was no way all this commotion could have remained hidden.
Hiruzen Sarutobi quickly learned that Kazan had gone back to the Forest of Death to punch trees.
Kazan’s talent for taijutsu—or rather, his physical aptitude—had exceeded Hiruzen’s expectations.
For all his years and experience, Hiruzen had never seen a child under ten temper his body to such an extent.
On top of that, the techniques Kazan’s Shadow Clones were practicing were extremely unusual.
At the very least, Hiruzen had never seen anything like them before.
They were clearly taijutsu Kazan had developed himself.
That alone demonstrated just how gifted the boy was when it came to taijutsu.
Hiruzen had spent quite some time thinking about Kazan lately and felt that Tsunade would be an excellent choice to mentor him.
Unfortunately, after witnessing the deaths of both her younger brother and her lover during and after the Second Shinobi World War, Tsunade had suffered severe psychological trauma.
Despite being a shinobi—and arguably the greatest medical-nin in the entire shinobi world—Tsunade had developed hemophobia!
By now, she had already left Konoha and was wandering the shinobi world with Shizune Katō.
No one knew where she was.
“If Kazan could master Tsunade’s Chakra Enhanced Strength, Konoha might gain another top-tier combatant.”
Kazan had already proven the strength of his fists.
They were fast enough.
And hard enough!
But they could become even harder.
If he managed to master the Senju Clan’s Chakra Enhanced Strength, his fists would become more terrifying than most ninjutsu.
“For now, I’ll leave things as they are. If Tsunade refuses when the time comes, I’ll give Kazan the technique myself.”
As Hokage, Hiruzen believed he had that much authority.
After all, everything he did was for the future of the village.
Chakra Enhanced Strength?
Naturally, Kazan had his eyes on that technique as well.
Otherwise, there would’ve been no reason for him to play along with Hiruzen’s little performance.
Unlike Tsunade, who treated her monstrous strength as a finishing move, for Hashirama Senju it was practically just a basic attack.
There was a fundamental difference between the two.
Garp’s Template had given Kazan an astonishing physique and enormous chakra reserves.
And as he continued growing stronger, the cells throughout his body would keep producing more and more chakra.
Leaving that much chakra unused would be an outrageous waste.
He absolutely had to obtain Chakra Enhanced Strength.
Otherwise, how was he supposed to deal with the Six Paths-level monsters who appeared during the Fourth Shinobi World War, not to mention the Ōtsutsuki who would show up in Boruto?
Besides that, he also needed to get his hands on the Eight Gates.
Among Garp’s memories was another technique—
Life Return.
This technique would allow Kazan to freely control every part of his body, including his internal organs.
Quite a few One Piece fans had theorized that Luffy had actually mastered something similar.
As long as enough food was available, Luffy could digest it rapidly and absorb life energy from it within an extremely short period of time.
“Worth trying.”
Once Kazan grew tired from punching, he sat down, picked up a roasted deer leg, and took a huge bite.
He could probably obtain Chakra Enhanced Strength through Hiruzen Sarutobi.
But how was he supposed to acquire the Eight Gates?
That required some serious thought.
“Guy, Duy, and I get along pretty well, but in the end, the Eight Gates are still the secret technique Duy spent decades training…”
Kazan wasn’t certain whether Might Duy would be willing to teach it to him.
“I’ll deal with things one step at a time. This afternoon, I’ll beat up Hyūga Asuka and see if I can complete another achievement. Then I’ll worry about everything else.”
Hyūga Asuka was getting beaten today.
Jesus himself couldn’t stop it.
Kazan had spoken.
“Full stomach. Time to sleep.”
Kazan leaned back against Hakimi and promptly fell asleep.
By the time he woke up, classes at the Ninja Academy were almost over.
Kazan arrived ahead of time and waited along the road Hyūga Asuka always took home.
It wasn’t long before Asuka appeared in his field of view.
These geniuses hadn’t earned their reputations for nothing.
Besides possessing outstanding natural talent, they were also remarkably diligent.
People like Uchiha Jō and Hyūga Asuka would continue training on their own after returning home from school every day.
“You’ve come, Kazan!”
Hyūga Asuka didn’t seem surprised to see him.
“Oh? You knew I’d come?”
“Naturally. Kakashi and Uchiha Jō have both been defeated by you. It only stands to reason that I, Hyūga Asuka, would become your next target.”
Asuka had no idea what Kazan’s purpose was.
But if both Kakashi and Uchiha Jō had been challenged, then as one of the strongest members of their generation, Hyūga Asuka naturally assumed Kazan would come for him as well.
That was simply how confident he was!
In fact, Asuka was delighted that Kazan had sought him out.
Otherwise, people might start thinking he was inferior to that Uchiha. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“However, don’t lump me together with Kakashi and Uchiha Jō. The Hyūga Clan’s kekkei genkai is the strongest!”
People always said arrogance ran through the Uchiha’s bones, but the Hyūga were hardly any better.
These great shinobi clans were born possessing kekkei genkai, giving them an innate advantage over ordinary people.
Naturally, every one of them was proud.
“Whether it’s the strongest or not, we’ll know after we fight.”
Kazan grinned and flexed his fists.
Then he suddenly exploded into motion.
“Shave!”
His feet stamped against the ground dozens of times within 0.36 seconds.
The resulting explosive counterforce propelled him forward, carrying him directly in front of Asuka in the blink of an eye.
“So fast!!!”
Hyūga Asuka wore exactly the same stunned expression Uchiha Jō had before him.
Kazan’s speed was simply too astonishing.
“Body Flicker Technique? But I didn’t see him form any hand seals!”
The situation gave Asuka no time to think.
Kazan’s fist was already crashing toward him with tremendous force.
He hurriedly crossed both arms in front of himself to block.
BOOM!
Kazan’s punch landed and blasted Hyūga Asuka backward.
“So heavy!”
Both of Asuka’s arms went numb.
The sheer force of that punch immediately reminded him of Princess Tsunade’s Chakra Enhanced Strength.
If he hadn’t reinforced himself with chakra, both his arms might have been crippled on the spot.
Before he had time to process what had happened, Kazan’s next fist was already tearing through the air toward him.
“Byakugan!”
Asuka screamed the word inwardly.
Veins bulged around the corners of his eyes, twisting beneath his skin like worms.
In an instant, the blind spots in his vision vanished.
His sight penetrated through Kazan’s skin, allowing him to see the flow of chakra within Kazan’s body.
And then—
He was stunned all over again.
“Pure physical strength… There isn’t any chakra reinforcing that punch?!”
Asuka could hardly believe what he was seeing.
Even while moving at such terrifying speeds, Kazan wasn’t using chakra to enhance his movements at all.
Everything came from pure physical strength.
How was this human?
He was practically a ferocious beast!