Tobirama had completely overthought Sora’s decision to move into a seaside villa.
There really wasn’t some complicated political motive behind it.
Over the past hundred years, Sora had watched his parents die.
His brothers and sisters.
The nephews and nieces he’d personally watched grow up.
One after another…
everyone from his generation had disappeared.
The current Hatake clan no longer had anyone Sora was deeply attached to.
Since he had unexpectedly gained a new lease on life, and Hashirama had offered to repay him anyway…
why not change his surroundings and enjoy himself for a few years?
There was another reason as well.
Sora could finally refine chakra.
As someone who had watched Naruto in his previous life, wouldn’t it be a complete waste of his knowledge if he didn’t try developing a few ninjutsu of his own?
And inside the Hatake compound, there simply wasn’t enough room for him to experiment freely.
Sora had only asked Hashirama for a large house.
Hashirama, however, didn’t do things halfway.
He personally found someone to design it.
Then, together with several elite jōnin skilled in Earth Release, Hashirama used his Wood Release to help construct an enormous villa near the coast.
The entire project took a week.
Afterward, Sora spent another five hundred thousand ryō buying furniture, kitchenware, and everything else he needed.
Once the place was fully furnished—
he happily moved in.
The Naruto world wasn’t particularly large.
Even the Land of Fire wasn’t nearly as vast as Sora had once imagined.
Hashirama and Madara had started their battle not far from Konoha and ended up fighting all the way toward the coast.
That alone said plenty about the distances involved.
Over the next several days, Sora frequently found excuses to wander back into Konoha.
Whenever he passed the Hokage Building, he would casually lock the 50/50 System onto Hashirama, Tobirama, or Mito and activate it.
Through those experiments, Sora temporarily received the abilities of countless people from countless worlds.
But every single time the ten-minute duration ended—
nothing was retained.
Not one ability.
Eventually, Sora understood why.
The 50/50 System had another rule.
If he locked onto a target and actually fought that same person, the probability of permanently retaining an ability was the highest.
Not only that—
the ability retained also tended to be better.
If he locked onto one person but fought someone else, the retention probability dropped considerably, and the quality of the potential reward also seemed worse.
But if he activated the system…
and didn’t fight anyone at all?
The retention probability was—
zero.
Sora finally understood.
So there really is no free lunch.
…
On the very day he moved into his new villa, Sora began developing his first ninjutsu.
The Rasengan.
He had already tested his chakra nature.
He possessed two affinities—
Wind Release and Lightning Release.
Coincidentally, the technique Sora understood best from the anime was one Naruto himself would eventually learn.
The Rasengan.
A technique originally developed by the Fourth Hokage after studying the Tailed Beast Ball.
It required no hand seals.
Its attack was direct.
Its destructive power was excellent.
In principle, the technique sounded simple.
Gather chakra into the palm.
Make that chakra rotate chaotically in multiple directions.
Then compress it into an extremely dense sphere of spinning chakra.
Simple enough to explain.
Actually doing it?
That was another matter entirely.
If the chakra went out of control, Sora could potentially tear apart his own hand.
Standing inside his training room, Sora stared at his palm.
Threads of Wind-nature chakra slowly appeared above it.
“The first stage is gathering chakra into the palm…”
He muttered to himself.
“Then you hold a water balloon and release chakra inside it, forcing the water to rotate irregularly until the balloon bursts.”
“And the third stage…”
Sora continued practicing.
Only after he genuinely began training did he realize something.
Naruto wasn’t stupid at all.
If anything—
that kid was a damn genius.
Naruto had learned the Rasengan in a remarkably short amount of time.
Sora?
He practiced for three entire months…
and only managed to complete the second stage.
In other words—
he had finally learned how to burst a water balloon using chakra.
It was humbling.
…
During those three months, little Sakumo also became a regular visitor.
His mother brought him to Sora’s villa every morning.
Sora taught him for around two hours each day.
Members of the Hatake clan naturally possessed smaller chakra reserves than many other shinobi clans.
But they also had an advantage—
their physiques were generally excellent.
Sakumo was only around four years old, yet his body was already capable of beginning chakra training without harming his development.
Still, he was too young for intense chakra-refinement exercises.
So Sora focused mainly on swordsmanship.
From the Dugu Nine Swords inheritance he’d received through his beginner’s gift pack, Sora began teaching Sakumo the—
Sword-Breaking Stance.
Because Sakumo was still so young, Sora didn’t make him perform intense sword training.
Instead, he started with simple movements and foundational techniques.
The essence of the Dugu Nine Swords was—
formlessness overcoming form.
Its ultimate principle was to break every technique beneath the heavens.
But “formlessness” didn’t mean a beginner could simply swing a sword randomly and claim to have mastered it.
Because Sora possessed the complete inheritance of the Dugu Nine Swords, he understood its unique training progression.
A student first learned through structured forms.
Only after fully understanding those forms could they gradually discard them.
Eventually—
having form became having no form.
Interestingly, teaching the Dugu Nine Swords to an experienced swordsman might actually have been more difficult.
Someone who had practiced another sword style for years would already possess deeply ingrained habits and assumptions.
Sakumo, however, was still a child.
His understanding of swordsmanship was essentially a blank sheet.
That made him unexpectedly well suited to learning the Dugu Nine Swords from the beginning.
And so—
time quietly passed as Sora developed the Rasengan and taught Sakumo swordsmanship.
…
Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Sora finally completed the—
Rasengan.
During those months, the shinobi world remained surprisingly peaceful.
Most days, Sora simply fished by the sea and taught little Sakumo.
And as a truly accomplished slacker…
why would he personally handle all of his training?
One shadow clone stayed inside the training room practicing the Rasengan.
Another practiced the Dugu Nine Swords.
Meanwhile—
the original Sora went fishing.
A perfect arrangement.
At this point in history, the Land of Whirlpools still existed.
Sora frequently saw shinobi from the Land of Whirlpools escorting cargo toward Konoha.
Likewise, Konoha shinobi regularly transported supplies to ships heading across the sea toward the Land of Whirlpools.
After enough time passed, many of those travelers came to recognize the white-haired old man who spent nearly every day fishing beside the coast.
On this particular day—
Sora was sitting in his usual spot with a fishing rod in hand.
Suddenly, someone burst out of the forest behind him.
“You’re not getting away!”
A young voice rang out.
“As long as I’m here, Sarutobi Hiruzen, I’ll definitely catch you today!”
“Stop!”
Another voice followed.
“Danzō, use Earth Release!”
“Block him!”
Then—
“Damn it!”
“He’s heading toward that old man!”
Sora finally turned around.
A wounded shinobi in his twenties was sprinting straight toward him.
Behind the man were four teenagers—
three boys and one girl.
They looked around thirteen or fourteen years old.
Sora’s lips slowly curved upward.
Sarutobi Hiruzen.
The Third Hokage when he was young.
His gaze shifted.
And Danzō.
So I’ve finally met them.
The other two were—
Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane.
Sora didn’t activate the system.
Nor did he bother standing up.
The fleeing shinobi was only around chūnin level.
Although Sora’s chakra reserves currently made him appear no stronger than a genin, his permanent great dog yōkai bloodline was another matter entirely.
With its physical enhancement, Sora could already clash head-on with ordinary jōnin.
A mere chūnin wasn’t enough to frighten him.
WHOOSH!
The wounded shinobi suddenly appeared behind Sora.
A kunai immediately pressed against the old man’s throat.
“Stop!”
The man glared at the four teenagers.
“If any of you come closer, I’ll kill this old man!”
About ten meters away—
Hiruzen and the others immediately stopped.
“Damn it!”
Danzō glared at Hiruzen.
“I told you to kill him earlier!”
“You were too arrogant and insisted on capturing him alive.”
“You never think things through!”
Hiruzen ignored Danzō.
Instead, he stared anxiously at the wounded shinobi.
“Don’t do anything reckless!”
Homura and Koharu looked toward Hiruzen.
“What do we do?”
The fugitive tightened his grip on the kunai.
“Back away five hundred meters.”
“If you do that, I’ll release him immediately.”
“If you don’t…”
“I’ll kill him right now.”
Hiruzen hesitated.
Then his expression hardened.
“The old man is innocent.”
“We’ll back away.”
But Danzō immediately objected.
“Hmph!”
“Idiot.”
“He’s a Sunagakure shinobi disguised as one of ours.”
“He secretly murdered five Konoha genin.”
“And we don’t even know how much classified information he’s already gathered.”
Danzō’s eyes turned cold.
“Even if that old man’s life has to be sacrificed…”
“this man cannot be allowed to escape.”
“He must die.”
Hiruzen turned angrily toward him.
“But—”
“You—!”
Before either teenager could continue arguing—
Sora calmly placed his fishing rod onto its stand.
Then he finally spoke.
“Do you want him alive…”
“or dead?”
“…Huh?”
Hiruzen answered almost instinctively.
“Alive.”
The next instant—
SHNK!
BANG!
All four teenagers froze.
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