Under Hiruzen Sarutobi’s guidance, Kazan devoted himself fully to mastering Chakra Enhanced Strength.
He no longer attended the Ninja Academy.
Some of his classmates didn’t understand and were rather confused.
The chūnin instructor’s explanation was simple:
Kazan had graduated early from the Ninja Academy.
Compared to Kakashi, who had graduated several years earlier—and was already a chūnin now—Kazan’s early graduation didn’t seem particularly remarkable.
But he was still only the second student of their class to become a genin.
And his combat strength was exceptionally high.
Even now, Hyūga Asuka still couldn’t let go of what had happened.
After thinking it over later, Asuka realized he might not even be capable of defeating one of Kazan’s Shadow Clones.
More importantly…
Many of the students came from Konoha’s shinobi clans and belonged to the village’s core social circles.
Through their parents, they learned that Kazan appeared to be receiving one-on-one instruction from the Third Hokage himself!
The Hokage’s fourth disciple!
It was an extraordinary honor.
Plenty of people were green with envy!
Obito was especially jealous.
Lately, the intensity of his training had nearly reached Might Guy’s level.
Rain or shine, he stubbornly completed his training every single day.
He refused to be left behind!
But Obito was hardly the only one who felt that way.
When Asuma heard the news, he was furious!
He had already been dissatisfied with his Hokage father.
Work, work, work.
His father was always working, constantly neglecting both his son and his family.
And now he would rather spend time teaching someone else’s child than pay attention to his own.
Because of that, Asuma had also been training extremely hard lately.
He wanted to defeat Kazan and make his Hokage father regret overlooking him.
All in all, the atmosphere at the Ninja Academy had become fiercely competitive.
So competitive that Might Guy spent every day shouting—
“This is youth!!!”
And so, some time passed.
During those days, Kazan created more than a dozen Shadow Clones every day to train in all sorts of things.
The Six Powers.
Chakra Enhanced Strength.
The various Fist Bone techniques.
As for the two basic types of Haki—and eventually all three types—those were things Kazan could only explore himself.
Every time he dispelled his clones, the enormous flood of training memories would leave him feeling miserable and mentally dazed for a while.
Whenever that happened, Kazan would eat a huge meal, get a good night’s sleep, wake up refreshed, and resume his training.
He loved the feeling of becoming stronger!
As someone who had once lived in a modern world without supernatural powers, the sensation of possessing the ability to soar through the air and perform superhuman feats was utterly intoxicating.
One day…
As usual, Kazan went to the Forest of Death for breakfast before heading to the mountain behind the Hokage Building to train.
His strength had improved rapidly during this period.
The tree-climbing, water-walking, and Chakra Enhanced Strength training had allowed him to begin merging the combat systems of the Naruto and One Piece worlds.
Even so, Kazan remained calm and didn’t let it go to his head.
After all, he still couldn’t punch apart a mountain.
The day he could smash two mountains apart like Garp, then most of the shinobi world would be open to him.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Kazan drove punch after punch into the surface of the mountain.
Broken rocks littered the ground around him.
Every one of them had been shattered by his fists, reduced piece by piece from massive boulders into smaller fragments.
Whoosh!
An ANBU shinobi wearing an animal mask suddenly appeared nearby.
“Lord Hokage wants to see you!”
The moment he finished speaking, he vanished without a trace.
Classic ANBU behavior!
“Tch. What a poser.”
Kazan decided to give these show-offs from the ANBU a small taste of shock.
Chakra surged through his body and rapidly gathered in both legs.
The next instant, within just 0.36 seconds, his feet stomped against the ground so many times that even he didn’t bother counting.
The resulting explosive force propelled him forward like a bolt of lightning.
“Shave!”
Whoosh!
The ANBU shinobi, who had been speeding back toward the Hokage Building, suddenly saw his vision blur.
The next moment, Kazan flashed past him and disappeared. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“What was that?!”
The ANBU was stunned.
Was that really the kind of speed a genin should possess?
Kazan reveled in the sensation of tearing through the air.
This was the result of combining the Naruto and One Piece combat systems.
By reinforcing Shave with chakra, Kazan had pushed its speed even further.
It was now faster than the Body Flicker Technique.
Crash!
The sound of shattering glass rang through the office.
“What’d you call me for, Old Man Third?”
Kazan arrived quickly since the distance wasn’t far.
He had developed the excellent habit of never using the front door.
Starting from the mountain behind the Hokage Building, he’d headed straight for the Hokage’s office and casually smashed through Hiruzen Sarutobi’s window on the way in.
“You really need to change this habit. Rooms need proper ventilation, especially when you smoke.”
Kazan’s reasoning sounded perfectly justified.
Hiruzen, however, currently wanted nothing more than to kick him straight back out through the window.
He had been Hokage for all these years, and no one had ever dared smash the windows of his office.
“This is what comes from indulging him, Hiruzen.”
At that moment, Danzō emerged from the shadows.
Kazan had already noticed him.
Although his Observation Haki had yet to fully awaken, Kazan could feel that he was extremely close to mastering it.
His senses had become exceptionally sharp, almost as though he constantly had some sort of chakra-based detection technique active.
“You’re here, Kazan.”
Hiruzen ignored Danzō and instead looked at Kazan with concern.
“How has your training been lately?”
“Pretty smooth. My chakra control has improved a lot.”
He’s ignoring me?
How irritating.
Danzō’s opinion of Kazan dropped another notch.
A reckless brat like this was completely incompatible with Root.
They were Konoha’s heroes who walked through the darkness.
Not clowns who showed off for attention!
“Hiruzen, this isn’t the time for idle conversation.”
Danzō interrupted them.
Hiruzen glanced sideways at him before turning back to Kazan.
“This is rather sudden, but I have a mission for you.”
A mission?
Kazan was immediately surprised.
Was Hiruzen planning to send him out of the village with Danzō for some practical experience?
“You want me to leave the village for a mission?”
“No. You won’t need to leave the village.”
Hiruzen continued,
“Konoha will be holding a Chūnin Exam soon. I intend to have you participate.”
Huh?
A Chūnin Exam?
At a sensitive time like this?
The conflicts along the borders of the various nations were rapidly escalating.
Full-scale war could break out at any moment.
And Hiruzen Sarutobi had chosen now to hold a Chūnin Exam?
What was he thinking?
Was it simply meant to deter Konoha’s enemies?
To show the other hidden villages that even though Konoha had lost a killing machine like Sakumo Hatake, its next generation had already arrived?
But wouldn’t that expose the village’s geniuses to the other hidden villages?
Once the Third Shinobi World War fully erupted, Kazan would inevitably be singled out by the enemy.
Wasn’t this basically putting him directly in danger?
Hiruzen didn’t explain.
Even so, Kazan accepted the mission.
If he performed exceptionally well during the Chūnin Exam, maybe he could complete another achievement or two.
Besides, judging from Hiruzen’s expression, the old man seemed to be hinting that he would explain things later.
Sure enough…
After Kazan returned to the mountain to continue training, Hiruzen appeared before him once he had finished handling his official duties.
“You’re wondering why I’d have a shinobi with no mission experience participate in the Chūnin Exam at a time like this, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I don’t really understand it.”
Kazan nodded.
“Kakashi has already been placed on the kill lists of the other hidden villages. What exactly do you gain by sending me to the Chūnin Exam too? Is it meant to intimidate the other villages?”
But he still wasn’t thinking far enough ahead.
Of course, being able to consider this much at his age was already exceptional.
“You’ve only guessed part of it.”
Hiruzen calmly lit the tobacco in his pipe.
“Alliances between hidden villages are extremely fragile. Especially alliances involving the Five Great Shinobi Villages.”
Hiruzen had learned that lesson when he was very young.
His own teacher, the Second Hokage, had died on the journey home from Kumogakure.
Granted, that had been the result of the Gold and Silver Brothers launching a coup.
But from Kumogakure’s perspective, they certainly hadn’t minded seeing a figure as important as Senju Tobirama die.
“So?”
Kazan understood the principle.
He still didn’t understand Hiruzen’s reasoning.
“After the Second Shinobi World War ended, we formed strategic alliances with the Land of Lightning, Land of Wind, Land of Rice Fields, Land of Grass, and others. The alliance agreement with the Land of Lightning was originally signed by my teacher, the Second Hokage himself.”
“In peacetime, such alliances bring tremendous benefits to both sides. Trade creates wealth and promotes mutual development.”
“But during wartime, those agreements are no sturdier than a sheet of paper.”
“Once full-scale war breaks out, the Land of Lightning and Land of Wind may tear up those agreements without hesitation and attack us directly.”
There it was.
Kazan noticed that Hiruzen had specifically mentioned only the Land of Lightning and the Land of Wind.
“What about the other villages?”
“I wasn’t wrong about you, Kazan. You’re perceptive and intelligent.”
Appreciation showed in Hiruzen’s eyes as he slowly exhaled a breath.
“The other hidden villages are precisely why I want you to participate in the Chūnin Exam.”
“We need to demonstrate our strength and win their support.”
Now Kazan understood.
Basically, Hiruzen was worried that the cannon fodder wouldn’t be willing to serve Konoha.
Every Shinobi World War caused staggering casualties.
Even Kage-level powerhouses ran the risk of dying in battle.
The Second Mizukage and Second Tsuchikage had killed each other during the First Shinobi World War.
Shinobi who had been painstakingly cultivated for years entered the meat grinder of war, where their lives became as brief and fragile as flowers.
But victory in war could also bring unimaginable rewards.
Territory.
Reparations.
Or both.
Those gains could benefit an entire hidden village for decades, allowing the losses of war to be replenished in a comparatively short period of time.
Smaller hidden villages, however, lacked the power to dictate the course of a war.
Once they were dragged into one, their only option was to attach themselves to one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
That meant Konoha needed to display enough strength to convince those villages to willingly serve as cannon fodder and help Konoha win the war.
Konoha’s current generation already had Hiruzen Sarutobi himself, the Sannin—Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade—Danzō Shimura, the Uchiha and Hyūga Clans, and many others.
Among the younger generation were talents like Minato Namikaze, as well as brilliant strategists like Shikaku Nara.
But that still wasn’t enough.
Hiruzen also wanted to display Konoha’s prosperous future—the generation that would come after them.
He wanted those smaller villages to see that only by siding with Konoha would they have a future.
So that’s why this old bastard suddenly taught me Chakra Enhanced Strength.
Kazan became even more wary of Hiruzen.
This Hokage really never acted without a reason.
“I understand. I’ll complete the mission properly.”
“Good. That’s all I needed.”
Hiruzen thought highly of Kazan’s future.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have patiently explained so much to him.
“By the way, I’ve taken it upon myself to graduate you from the Ninja Academy ahead of schedule.”
“You are now officially a genin of Konoha.”
“Of course, you’ll still need this.”
Hiruzen reached into his clothing and handed something to Kazan.
A Konoha forehead protector.
“This forehead protector accompanied me for many years.”
“Now I’m giving it to you. I hope it brings you good fortune.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi’s own forehead protector?
Kazan was slightly startled.
It seemed the old man truly did think very highly of him.
But by accepting it, Kazan would also effectively be tying himself to the Hokage’s faction.
Kazan took the forehead protector and tied it around his forehead.
He had already made his decision.
For now, joining Hiruzen Sarutobi’s camp offered him nothing but benefits.
At the very least, it would keep Danzō Shimura from setting his sights on him.
More importantly, Kazan wouldn’t have to worry about getting stabbed in the back by his own side.