Kazan had most likely completed this achievement because the Uchiha and Hyūga were direct descendants of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki and Hamura Ōtsutsuki, allowing them to count toward the same achievement.
Once again, the achievement increased his Garp Template Integration by 10%.
Kazan felt as though his pair of iron fists had become virtually indestructible!
The only unfortunate part was that even after reaching 20% Template Integration, he still hadn’t awakened Haki.
“Logically speaking, twenty percent of Garp’s strength should already meet the requirements for training Haki, right?”
Twenty percent of Garp would have absolutely no problem beating Luffy during the Summit War.
After all, even Garp in the anime, despite already being seventy-six to seventy-eight years old, still possessed Admiral-level combat strength.
“So there’s no question that I meet the requirements for training Haki now.”
Once Kazan made up his mind, he acted.
Starting tomorrow, he would begin training Haki.
After the house was repaired, Kurenai once again followed Kazan to the Forest of Death for another unusual dinner.
Even though the Forest of Death was eerie at night, with the roars of ferocious beasts occasionally echoing through the darkness, Kurenai no longer felt afraid.
Watching Kazan devour mouthful after mouthful of meat, Kurenai quietly moved a little closer to him.
It would be nice if life could always stay like this.
Unfortunately, the shinobi world seemed increasingly unstable lately.
From the recent conversations between her father and mother, she could sense the calm before an approaching storm.
“Full?”
“Mm. I’m full.”
“All right. I’ll take you home.”
“Okay!”
Kazan dusted himself off, picked up a pile of enormous deer antlers, and left the Forest of Death with Kurenai.
“Did it hurt a lot?”
During today’s hunt, Kazan’s clothes had been torn open.
Finding them annoying, he had simply ripped them off, exposing scars of various sizes all across his body.
They were all injuries left behind from fighting wild beasts in the Forest of Death since childhood.
They actually looked pretty impressive.
Like Luffy, Kazan even had a large cross-shaped scar across his chest.
But to Kurenai, the sight was rather shocking.
“Probably. I don’t really remember how it felt anymore.”
Kazan genuinely couldn’t remember.
Back then, he’d been seeing red and only knew that his opponent had been a lion.
“I’m home. See you tomorrow, Kazan.”
“Mm.”
Kazan left as soon as he had escorted her home.
Kurenai remained there watching his back until he completely disappeared from view.
Only then did she turn around—
And find her parents standing at the doorway, watching her with knowing smiles.
“Dad? Mom?”
“Was that the boy who defeated the Uchiha and Hyūga geniuses?”
“He looks strong and energetic. Not bad at all. Our Kurenai has excellent taste. That boy’s going to be very handsome when he grows up.”
Kurenai’s mother openly evaluated Kazan, almost tempted to call him back for a proper conversation.
Strength aside, he certainly looked vigorous and healthy.
And according to her husband, the boy specialized in taijutsu.
That alone made him seem remarkably dependable.
“Mom! What are you talking about? I’m ignoring you!”
Kurenai’s cheeks flushed red.
She squeezed between her parents, ran into the house, and shut herself in her room.
“Ah, youth really is wonderful.”
“Mm.”
“So, tonight, should we…”
“Ahem. I’ve got a mission tomorrow. Let’s talk about that after I get back.”
Shinku Yūhi tried to use his mission as an excuse to escape his wife’s clutches.
Unfortunately, he still failed to evade her iron grip.
….
The next day.
Hokage Building.
As usual, Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived at his office early in the morning to handle government affairs.
Today, however, things were somewhat different.
The normally peaceful surroundings sounded as though a demolition crew had moved in nearby.
Heavy impacts repeatedly thundered in his ears.
At first, Hiruzen remained perfectly calm, keeping his eyes on his work.
But as the pounding continued without pause, a vein gradually began throbbing on his forehead.
Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore.
“Has that brat Kazan still not finished training?!”
“Yes, Lord Hokage…”
Cold sweat ran down the ANBU shinobi’s forehead.
“He’s… still punching the mountain behind the Hokage Building.”
It was Kazan.
After increasing his Garp Template Integration by another 10%, punching trees was no longer enough for him.
So he had gone behind the Hokage Building and started using the mountain itself as a punching bag.
What level of strength did twenty percent of Garp represent?
At the very least, Kazan had definitely reached jōnin-level combat strength.
His fighting style was simply too direct, relying heavily on his iron fists and lacking the strange and unpredictable methods commonly used by shinobi.
Two hours!
He had already been doing this for two full hours!
Wasn’t he worried about destroying his own body?
Even Hiruzen Sarutobi had never seen such an outrageous method of training.
“Lord Hokage, should I stop him?”
“No. Let him continue.”
He was genuinely worried the boy might cripple himself training like this.
Putting down his pen, Hiruzen returned to one of his old habits.
He used the Telescope Technique to spy on him.
Within the image, Kazan was repeatedly punching the mountainside with everything he had.
Every punch was thrown at exactly the same frequency and with exactly the same amount of force.
Hiruzen could hardly imagine what Kazan might become if he were allowed to continue growing like this.
Could Konoha eventually produce an ultimate powerhouse comparable to the Third Raikage?
Konoha might not possess the Lightning Release Chakra Mode or its related techniques.
Those were secret arts belonging to Kumogakure.
But Konoha was the strongest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
It had other techniques that could serve as substitutes.
The Senju Clan’s Chakra Enhanced Strength.
And the forbidden Eight Gates!
With those techniques, cultivating someone who could rival the Third Raikage might not be impossible.
The Sannin were all Hiruzen’s disciples.
When it came to nurturing talent, Hiruzen Sarutobi had his own unique understanding.
There was no need to force everyone down the path of ninjutsu.
Teaching according to a person’s individual talents was the only way to fully realize their potential.
“I should go see the boy.”
Hiruzen put down his work and decided to visit Kazan personally to see whether he could offer him some guidance.
When it came to winning people’s hearts, Hiruzen had always possessed his own methods.
In the original story, he hadn’t prevented Naruto’s identity as the Nine-Tails’ jinchūriki from becoming public knowledge, while simultaneously concealing the fact that Naruto was the only son of the heroic Fourth Hokage.
Because of that, Naruto had grown up surrounded by cold stares and ridicule.
At only a few years old, he had already experienced much of the darkness the world had to offer.
And Hiruzen Sarutobi became the only light in Naruto’s life.
No matter how much trouble Naruto caused, Hiruzen tolerated him like a kindly grandfather.
There were plenty of similar examples.
With Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi, he invoked the greater good of the village to bind them to his cause and have them work for him.
With Kakashi, he eventually made him a jōnin instructor, allowing him to resolve the knot that had remained in his heart for years.
And now, Hiruzen intended to become that same grandfather-like figure for Kazan—
The person closest to him in all of Konoha.
However…
Before he could leave, a shinobi from the Intelligence Division brought a scroll into his office.
“Lord Third, intelligence from the front lines!”
Hiruzen immediately took it.
Konoha’s intelligence network used specialized codes when transmitting information, requiring specially trained shinobi to decipher them.
The report now in Hiruzen’s hands had already been decoded.
He could read it directly.