“The technique I mentioned is in here.”
At Kakashi’s house.
Before they had even finished repairing the road, Kazan had talked Kakashi into taking him home.
Although Kakashi was helpless against his persistence, he still brought Kazan back with him.
Then he searched through his father’s belongings and took out a sealed scroll.
Recorded inside were all the techniques Sakumo Hatake had mastered during his lifetime, as well as those he had possessed but never mastered.
The collection was extremely comprehensive.
It included all kinds of techniques from the five basic nature transformations, along with the Shadow Clone Technique and the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Some of these techniques had been collected by Sakumo himself, some had been obtained from the village, and others were techniques he had created personally.
Under normal regulations, after Sakumo Hatake’s death, Konoha would most likely have reclaimed certain important techniques.
Especially a forbidden technique like the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
But perhaps out of guilt, Konoha had never come to “confiscate” Kakashi’s inheritance.
Everything Sakumo Hatake had left behind remained with his son and future descendants.
Kazan’s gaze immediately locked onto the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique.
Despite being an A-rank ninjutsu, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique was considerably easier to learn than most other A-rank techniques.
It required only a single hand seal.
It was so simple that even Naruto had been able to learn it after taking just one look.
Kazan committed all the information to memory, and it didn’t take long before he grasped the technique.
Poof!
Poof!
Poof!
In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen Shadow Clones identical to Kazan appeared inside the room.
Kazan’s talent for ninjutsu might not have been impressive, but his chakra reserves were enormous.
His body was fundamentally different from that of ordinary people in the Naruto world.
He wasn’t one of those glass cannons.
He possessed the Template of Marine Hero Garp.
The vitality of his body’s cells was many times greater than that of the shinobi in this world.
“That many?”
Even Kakashi stared in disbelief.
The Multiple Shadow Clone Technique certainly had its drawbacks.
One of them was that the user’s chakra had to be divided evenly among the clones.
Excessive chakra consumption could even kill the caster.
Even his father had only been able to create seven Shadow Clones at once before reaching his limit.
Yet Kazan casually produced more than ten.
And judging by his expression, he didn’t even seem strained.
“Pretty nice. Let’s go, Kakashi!”
Kazan turned around and marched out with his Shadow Clones in tow, looking exactly like the kind of heartless bastard who got what he wanted and immediately left.
Kakashi still hadn’t fully recovered from his shock.
“Such enormous chakra reserves, yet no matching talent for ninjutsu. What a cruel twist of fate.”
“Still, even without talent for ninjutsu, Kazan’s taijutsu is already astonishing enough.”
Kakashi touched his neck.
Just thinking about Kazan’s Blue Hole made his entire body ache again.
Yet despite being such a talented person, Kazan still hadn’t graduated from the Ninja Academy.
“Hey, Kazan. Why are you still staying at the Academy?”
Kakashi finally asked the question that had been bothering him.
Kazan didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he asked,
“Have you been happy since leaving the Academy, Kakashi?”
Happy?
Ever since his father’s suicide, Kakashi had almost forgotten what happiness felt like.
Even after graduating, he had repeatedly clashed with the other members of his teams.
His coldhearted attitude and obsession with missions and efficiency had made everyone around him unable to tolerate him.
They all thought he was far too ruthless.
“Judging by your face, I’m guessing things haven’t been going too well.”
Kazan could tell what had happened just from Kakashi’s expression.
In the original story, Kakashi wouldn’t truly return to normal until Team Seven came along.
After his father’s suicide, the sacrifice of his close friend, and then personally killing his own teammate, Kakashi had even displayed self-destructive tendencies for a time.
“Did you become a shinobi just to have fun?”
“Why else?”
Kazan answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“A person only gets a hundred years or so to live. And for a short-lived profession like being a shinobi, you might only get a few decades. Why spend every day making yourself miserable?”
Since Kakashi had just handed him such a valuable technique, Kazan even decided to offer him a little advice.
“What’s your dream, Kakashi?”
Dream…
Kakashi had never really thought about it.
At first, his dream had been to become an outstanding shinobi like his father.
Now…
He didn’t know.
So Kazan hadn’t been wrong.
He really was lost.
“Can’t answer?”
“Then why not do what I’m doing? First, work hard and become stronger. Then become the freest person in the entire shinobi world!”
“If you can reach that point, then from that day onward, nothing you don’t want to happen will ever happen again!”
Kakashi froze once more.
The talk about freedom was just an excuse.
What Kazan truly wanted was to become strong enough that tragedy would never happen to him again, wasn’t it?
Only then did Kakashi remember that Kazan, like him, had no one left.
In fact…
Kazan might not even know what his parents had looked like except from their memorial photographs.
This guy had it even worse than he did.
Yet he was far stronger inside.
Compared to losing their fight earlier, Kakashi felt that this was where he had truly lost completely.
Of course, the young Kakashi would never admit that out loud.
“And you accused me of bragging. You’re the one who talks the biggest, and you don’t even have any talent for ninjutsu.”
“Who decided someone without talent for ninjutsu can’t become the strongest?”
Kazan spoke without hesitation.
“The only reason no one in history has done it is because no one has ever walked in that direction. If nobody walks there, then naturally there won’t be a road.”
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those idiots who assumes that because there isn’t a road, it must be impossible to get through, Kakashi?”
Kakashi didn’t answer.
Logic told him it was impossible.
But Kazan’s eyes were bright.
Incredibly bright.
Before his death, Kakashi’s father had once told him that if he didn’t work hard, Kazan would definitely leave him behind someday.
At the time, Kakashi had dismissed the idea.
Someone who only knew taijutsu, someone who barely even had a chance of becoming a shinobi—how could a person like that possibly get ahead of him?
But after spending time with Kazan tonight…
He was beginning to believe it.
He still didn’t think Kazan would surpass him.
Even though Kazan had just beaten him earlier, that had only happened because Kakashi had underestimated him and lost his composure.
If they fought again, Kakashi might not necessarily lose.
Still…
With Kazan’s reckless personality, maybe he really would accomplish something earth-shattering one day.
“Stop bragging. You’re not even a genin yet, just an Academy student. Hurry up and finish repairing the road. I’m tired.”
“Fair enough.”
Kazan glanced at him.
“But speaking of which, why did you only make one Shadow Clone?”
Kakashi found that question rather difficult to answer.
Was he supposed to admit that his chakra reserves were pitifully small?
He was the genius who had graduated from the Ninja Academy at five and set a record in Konoha’s history, damn it.
Admitting something like that would be way too embarrassing…