In the blink of an eye, nearly half a month passed.
Every morning was devoted to theoretical lessons, while every afternoon was reserved for practical combat training.
The schedule never changed.
Kuroda Ren gradually became familiar with all of his classmates.
Through observing them during one practical combat session after another, he also gained a clear understanding of the general strength of most of them.
Overall, both in terms of strength and talent, students such as Hatake Kakashi—who had received a fair amount of screen time in the original story—were considerably stronger than the other civilian students.
Even Mizuki, perhaps the most insignificant background character among them, was still relatively outstanding compared with the other students from the same generation who never appeared in the original story.
Of course, he was still quite far from qualifying as a “genius.”
Compared with students from previous generations of the Ninja Academy, if Mizuki didn’t encounter any major opportunities in the future, his ceiling would probably be that of a Chūnin.
During this period, aside from absorbing the knowledge taught at the Ninja Academy, Kuroda Ren had also been considering his future path.
There were quite a few specialized fields within the shinobi world, but if they were divided in the simplest way possible, there were essentially three major paths:
Ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu.
The upper limit of any one of these paths was extremely high if cultivated to its peak.
Of course, if someone wanted to have no obvious weaknesses, advancing along all three paths simultaneously would be the optimal solution.
But a person’s energy was limited.
In the beginning, concentrating one’s efforts on a single direction was the fastest way to improve.
Once a certain level of strength had been reached, one could then consider studying the other paths to make up for one’s weaknesses.
That was the best approach.
As for Kuroda Ren himself, with the Ryze Emperor Template, there was no doubt that the path most compatible with him was ninjutsu, followed by taijutsu.
With his enormous chakra reserves, even the weakest D-rank ninjutsu could unleash considerable destructive power in Kuroda Ren’s hands.
Furthermore, as his equipment gradually took shape and his chakra reserves continued to increase, the power of his ninjutsu would become increasingly terrifying.
Taking the path of a ninjutsu-oriented shinobi would allow Kuroda Ren to maximize his natural advantages.
Moreover, with the assistance of the [Mind to Matter] Hextech augment, Kuroda Ren’s maximum chakra could also be converted into Constitution.
So his potential in taijutsu was not low either.
As for genjutsu…
Although Kuroda Ren had lived two lives and therefore possessed unusually strong innate mental power, that advantage only existed when compared with ordinary shinobi.
Compared with true genjutsu prodigies, his slight advantage in mental power was nothing special.
Genjutsu was therefore the least suitable path for him.
However, knowing which direction suited him best didn’t mean Kuroda Ren could easily decide how to proceed.
In this shinobi world where people guarded their techniques jealously, the threshold for learning ninjutsu was quite high.
The Ninja Academy only taught basic taijutsu and the Three Basic Jutsu.
There were no offensive or defensive ninjutsu available for students to learn.
In theory, there were only three ways for a shinobi to learn ninjutsu:
Inherited techniques, master-to-student transmission, and exchanging merits for techniques from the village.
As for developing ninjutsu independently, not everyone possessed the necessary talent.
And even those who did first needed to learn enough existing ninjutsu and establish a solid foundation.
From the original story, Kuroda Ren knew the hand seals for quite a few ninjutsu.
But merely knowing the hand seals wasn’t enough to learn a technique.
The only technique Kuroda Ren had successfully learned was the Rasengan, whose complete training process had been shown in the original story.
But because its origin was “unknown,” Kuroda Ren had no way to openly use the technique.
As for the other ninjutsu, he had tried many times but had never succeeded in performing them.
If he couldn’t even teach himself techniques whose hand seals he already knew, then developing a brand-new ninjutsu from scratch was naturally nothing more than a pipe dream.
Kuroda Ren was an orphan.
So naturally, inherited clan techniques were out of the question.
As for exchanging merit for techniques, at least until he graduated from the Ninja Academy and became an official shinobi, it was completely impossible.
Even after becoming a full-fledged ninja, obtaining ninjutsu through merits wasn’t easy.
That left only one path:
Find a suitable teacher and become their disciple.
But…
Kuroda Ren searched through his memories of Konoha’s shinobi during this period, considering which ones would be suitable for him.
First were the shinobi who had recently made a name for themselves during the Second Great Ninja War.
Among the Legendary Sannin, Tsunade was primarily a medical ninja with a focus on taijutsu.
She wasn’t particularly proficient in ninjutsu outside the field of medical ninjutsu.
Jiraiya and Orochimaru, on the other hand, were both proficient in a wide variety of ninjutsu.
However, Jiraiya was obsessed with searching for the Child of Prophecy and spent most of his time away from Konoha.
As for Orochimaru…
If Kuroda Ren chose him as a teacher, there was a good chance he’d end up as a test subject instead.
Aside from the Legendary Sannin, other shinobi who had made a name for themselves during the Second Great Ninja War included Katō Dan, Uchiha Fugaku, and Hatake Sakumo.
But Katō Dan was already dead.
Hatake Sakumo specialized in swordsmanship rather than ninjutsu.
Uchiha Fugaku, meanwhile, would have been a suitable choice.
However, as a member of the Uchiha clan, he was naturally viewed with suspicion by Konoha’s leadership.
Trying to establish contact with him would carry no less risk than approaching Orochimaru.
Besides those who had risen to fame during the Second Great Ninja War, there were also Konoha’s established veteran powerhouses.
The current senior leadership of Konoha, headed by the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.
Kuroda Ren had no idea what Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura specialized in.
Akimichi Torifu was obviously proficient in the Akimichi clan’s secret techniques and taijutsu.
Clan shinobi like him rarely went out of their way to study things unrelated to their family’s secret techniques.
Uchiha Kagami was suspected to have already died.
At least during the several years since Kuroda Ren had arrived in this world, he had never heard anyone mention that name.
As for Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō , both were proficient in ninjutsu.
Sarutobi Hiruzen, in particular, was one of the rare shinobi capable of using all five basic nature transformations.
But there was still the same problem.
Putting aside the risks involved, the difficulty of becoming a disciple of either of these two men was extraordinarily high.
Even if Kuroda Ren demonstrated sufficiently monstrous talent, if Danzō took an interest in him, there was a high probability that he’d be dragged into Root, brainwashed, and controlled with a cursed seal rather than accepted as a disciple.
Even if Sarutobi Hiruzen took a liking to him, he’d most likely be handed over to one of Hiruzen’s disciples or subordinates for training rather than being personally taught by the Hokage.
After all, Sarutobi Hiruzen was no longer young.
Combined with his position as Hokage, it was unlikely that he would personally accept another disciple.
As for the younger generation of shinobi who would shine brilliantly in the future, such as Hatake Kakashi and the others, they either hadn’t grown up yet or hadn’t even been born.
There was no point considering them.
Among those who already possessed considerable strength but had yet to become famous, the only people Kuroda Ren could think of were the future Fourth Hokage and his wife, Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, Might Guy’s father Might Duy, and Konoha’s legendary “Eternal Genin,” Maruboshi Kosuke.
However, at this point, Minato and Kushina had only just graduated.
Regardless of how strong they actually were, they lacked the qualifications and experience necessary to take on disciples.
Moreover, Kushina was the Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
Approaching her recklessly would carry considerable risks.
Kuroda Ren looked at the names he had written down in his notebook.
He circled two names:
Might Duy.
Maruboshi Kosuke.
Maruboshi Kosuke’s Water Release was said to have been taught to him by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
In Konoha of this era, he was undoubtedly one of the foremost Water Release users.
He also possessed exceptional skill with the sword.
His only weakness was the narrowness of his abilities.
He specialized in Water Release and wasn’t particularly proficient in other nature transformations.
As for Might Duy…
If Kuroda Ren couldn’t find a suitable ninjutsu teacher, then taking a step back and learning taijutsu from Might Duy would also be a good option.
At the very least, it would allow him to increase his strength first.
As Might Guy’s classmate, combined with Might Duy’s straightforward personality, getting him to teach Kuroda Ren taijutsu shouldn’t be particularly difficult.
The only thing he’d have to endure was the somewhat eccentric personality shared by the father-and-son pair.
“First, I’ll test my chakra nature.”
“If I have Water Release affinity, I’ll prioritize finding a way to get in touch with Maruboshi Kosuke.”
“If I don’t have Water Release—or if I can’t get in contact with Maruboshi Kosuke—then I’ll go to Might Duy and learn taijutsu.”
Kuroda Ren made up his mind.
He tore the page from his notebook, struck a lighter, and burned the sheet of paper to ashes.