If Isamu had known who Nawaki was when he first encountered him, he would never have gone out of his way to save him.
The trouble that followed was only part of the reason.
More importantly, Isamu simply had no fondness for Konoha.
In fact, his dislike extended beyond Konoha itself.
He had little affection for any of the shinobi villages—or for the shinobi they trained as weapons of war.
His experience after arriving in this world had given him plenty of reasons.
He had become an orphan at only five years old because of the small-scale conflicts between shinobi.
Had his talent not awakened when he was six, Isamu would probably have died somewhere in an unknown corner of the world, becoming nothing more than an anonymous corpse.
And when he traced the cause back far enough, everything ultimately led to the wars between the great nations.
To ordinary civilians, conflicts between shinobi were disasters beyond description.
In Isamu’s mind, Konohagakure was simply the world’s largest gathering of “terrorists.”
Naturally, he had no particular affection for the so-called “prince” of such an organization.
If he had known Nawaki’s identity back then, he might not have attacked an already helpless person.
But he certainly wouldn’t have saved him either.
He might even have spat beside him before walking away.
For the moment, however, Isamu kept one crucial fact hidden.
He did not reveal that he possessed the ability to determine whether Nawaki lived or died.
“I used my own chakra to create a cellular interface with a low rejection response at the points where Nawaki’s body came into contact with the transplanted tissue”
“With my abilities as they are now, I can’t reverse the process.
The residual chakra will probably only disappear naturally as Nawaki’s own cells undergo metabolism.”
As a powerful and experienced shinobi, Tsunade naturally understood how dangerous it was to have someone else’s chakra remaining inside Nawaki’s body.
She couldn’t possibly accept Isamu’s explanation so easily.
The chakra was embedded at a level even finer than individual cells, and with her current abilities, she had no way of removing it
Human cells were said to completely renew themselves within seven years at most.
In other words, this hidden danger could potentially persist for as long as seven years.
Tsunade couldn’t wait that long.
Until she found a way to eliminate the problem, she absolutely wasn’t going to let Isamu leave Konoha’s territory.
Of course, she had no intention of telling Isamu that directly.
Just as she was preparing to find an excuse to keep him in the village, Isamu spoke first.
“Don’t worry.
I don’t intend to leave Konoha before the chakra inside Nawaki completely disappears.”
Seeing how cooperative he was being, Tsunade wasn’t stingy with her offer.
“What do you want?”
“I heard Konoha has a Ninja Academy I hope that before I leave Konoha, I can learn some means of defending myself.”
Learning was merely a pretext.
For Isamu, his greatest reliance was the Cheat he possessed.
A Ninja Academy, huh?
Naturally, it would only accept people with the aptitude to become shinobi.
Surely that meant it was a place where ninjutsu was taught
To Isamu, those students were like freshly grown chives waiting to be harvested.
If he simply built good relationships with them and used his Action Points every day to observe what they did, he should be able to acquire quite a few ninjutsu before long.
Perhaps he could even obtain some secret techniques!
That was what Isamu was thinking.
Of course, if he knew the plot a little better, he would have realized that the Ninja Academy only taught basic knowledge.
It generally didn’t teach additional ninjutsu.
Even the graduation examination only tested techniques the students had already learned, such as the Three Basic Techniques.
With the prestige of the Senju clan in Konoha, it wouldn’t be difficult for Tsunade to vouch for an outsider and arrange for him to study at the Ninja Academy.
After all, the Academy only covered basic material.
But
She had already heard a brief description from Orochimaru of what had happened when he went looking for Nawaki and captured Isamu alive.
This was a young man with considerable ability.
“But with your current strength, you’ve already met the graduation requirements of the Ninja Academy.”
“Huh?”
Isamu had never expected his carefully laid plans to end like this.
Isamu had spent three years struggling to survive in the outside world, and he had accumulated a little strength along the way.
But he had always lacked systematic knowledge.
He had no idea how strong he actually was.
Whenever he encountered battles between shinobi, he usually relied on the Sensory Perception passive skill he had obtained two years ago from a red-haired female medic named Fuso and simply avoided them.
Of course, he had encountered battles that he couldn’t avoid.
But Isamu had survived all of them through his own abilities.
The only time he had truly failed was a few days ago, when Orochimaru captured him.
The difference in their strength was enormous, leaving Isamu with almost no time to react.
The two of them had exchanged only two moves before Isamu was captured on the spot.
The general sequence of events had been simple.
Orochimaru burst through the door.
Isamu drew his sword.
Then Orochimaru kicked him away.
Isamu attempted to fight back.
A giant snake slithered out of Orochimaru’s sleeve, wrapped around him, and slammed him into the ground.
If Orochimaru hadn’t noticed that Nawaki was still breathing on the bed, Isamu suspected that the snake might have squeezed hard enough to snap his ribs.
“What kind of ninjutsu does Konoha’s Ninja Academy teach?”
Just name a few.
Then I’d have a reason to study there.
“The Three Basic Techniques, kunai-throwing techniques, and some basic taijutsu training.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
So this enormous terrorist base has such low standards for its new recruits?
Isamu looked at the skills on his system panel and couldn’t help shaking his head.
In that case, there didn’t seem to be any reason for him to attend the Ninja Academy after all.
He had originally planned to acquire ninjutsu continuously through his “future classmates.”
Who would have thought they wouldn’t be teaching those things at all?
Apparently noticing Isamu’s disappointment, Tsunade added,
“As payment for saving Nawaki, I’ll personally guide you in your training for as long as you’re in Konoha.”
Tsunade’s offer clearly caught Isamu off guard.
“But the things I’m best at require fairly impressive chakra control, and they mainly involve medical ninjutsu and taijutsu.
They may not necessarily suit you.”
Chakra control?
Isamu’s eyes lit up.
Wasn’t that precisely what he was good at?
For the past three years, he had used his Modification talent every single day.
He was extremely confident in his chakra control.
“Deal.”
Since Tsunade intended to keep Isamu in Konoha, she naturally still needed to communicate with the village authorities.
Before leaving, Tsunade instructed Isamu not to leave the Senju compound.
Isamu readily agreed.
After she left, Isamu began wandering around the compound.
After his parents died, he had spent years wandering from place to place as a refugee.
It wasn’t until his Cheat appeared that he had finally managed to establish some semblance of stability.
Before transmigrating, Isamu hadn’t been particularly interested in anime.
He had only heard other people talk about it in his spare time.
But he vaguely remembered that Konoha’s overall strength was supposed to be the greatest in this world.
From conversations he’d overheard from his friends, he remembered them saying that Konoha shinobi could routinely fight several opponents at once, and that even their genin could take on other villages’ chūnin or even jōnin
Naturally, Isamu assumed that staying in Konoha Village would be the safest option.
Unfortunately, the Land of Fire had little sympathy for refugees like him.
After losing his parents, he had once tried to sneak into the Land of Fire.
He had personally witnessed refugees attempting to enter the country being killed by shinobi, their severed heads hung along the border as a warning.
That was when he truly understood how cruel this world was.
To ordinary people in this world, life was as worthless as grass.
Survive.
Then become stronger.
That was what Isamu wanted to do and, for now, it was the only thing he could do.
Of course, now that he had arrived in the “safest” place in the world, Konohagakure, Isamu felt that he should be able to relax a little over the next few years
Even so, there were still some things he needed to take care of.
Over the years, Isamu had been extremely careful about how he dealt with the organisms he modified, precisely to avoid anyone discovering anything abnormal.
For living creatures whose cells carried his chakra, Isamu had developed his own method of dealing with them
Only cells that had completely lost their vitality would no longer retain any residual chakra.
Isamu carried the trembling rabbits into the kitchen at the back of the compound.
Looking at the dust-covered kitchen, he couldn’t help shaking his head.
After giving it a simple cleaning, he dragged a grill that hadn’t been used in who knew how long out from the corner.
He expertly prepared the rabbits, skewered them, and placed them over the fire to roast.
Although this household apparently didn’t cook much, the kitchen was surprisingly well stocked with seasonings.
There were even quite a few expensive spices.