In the Naruto world, Kazama’s parents had both been ordinary people.
Well, perhaps calling them completely ordinary wasn’t quite accurate.
They were wealthy merchants whose family business specialized in brewing and selling alcohol throughout the various nations.
It was precisely because of that business that Kazama’s father in this life had been attacked by bandits while transporting a shipment and killed.
As for his mother, Kazama had only seen her once—when he was born.
She had been a beautiful and gentle woman, but she passed away not long after giving birth to him.
Fortunately, after Kazama made his first wish, his enhanced mental strength allowed him to remember a brewing method from his previous life.
He passed the method on to Uncle Gen, who improved it further.
Now, the Kazama family practically made money while sitting at home.
They only handled the brewing and wholesale side of the business.
Merchant caravans from outside Konoha came directly to purchase their alcohol.
The liquor produced using Kazama’s improved method was exceptionally strong yet rich and fragrant.
They also produced fruit wines, which had become extremely popular throughout the various nations.
By now, Kazama had been in the Naruto world for three years.
He was three years old, but his body was already comparable to that of an ordinary four- or five-year-old.
Kazama could sense that his body’s internal pathways had developed enough that, as long as he did not train excessively, there should be no problem.
That was why he had decided to begin refining chakra.
It was currently Year 37 of Konoha.
By his calculations, Kazama belonged to roughly the same generation as Kakashi Hatake.
By the time he reached his early teens, the Third Shinobi World War would break out.
Before that day arrived, he absolutely needed enough strength to protect himself.
If not for the Dragon Ball Wish System, Kazama would probably have chosen to live a peaceful and comfortable life.
He could have married a few wives, had a couple of healthy sons, and simply enjoyed his wealth until old age.
But the arrival of the Dragon Ball Wish System had made Kazama unwilling to settle for mediocrity.
He had already been given a second life.
He even possessed such an extraordinary cheat.
How could he possibly remain ordinary?
Kazama wanted to become stronger.
He wanted to live a life exciting enough to make this transmigration worthwhile!
Besides, considering just how wealthy he was, once war broke out, that wealth itself might become a source of danger.
He could very well end up being quietly eliminated.
So becoming stronger was essential.
If he wanted to survive, strength was what truly mattered.
The Dragon Ball Wish System Kazama had obtained possessed neither a system spirit nor any kind of intelligent assistant.
It only handled the accumulation of Wish Power and the granting of wishes.
Whenever a wish could not be granted, however, the System would provide an explanation.
To Kazama, the entire thing felt more like a computer program.
It did not seem advanced enough to possess genuine artificial intelligence.
For example, Kazama had previously attempted to wish for the Sharingan bloodline, only for the wish to fail.
The Sharingan was something his body did not naturally possess.
Granting it would essentially mean creating a bloodline from nothing.
Because of that, he would need at least Level 3 Wish Power before the System could fulfill such a wish.
In other words, Kazama still needed to accumulate another two years’ worth of Wish Power before he could obtain a completely foreign kekkei genkai.
However, when Kazama had tried wishing for the Wood Release kekkei genkai, the System had responded with: [Confirm wish?] That response proved something astonishing.
His body actually contained the bloodline necessary for Wood Release!
Looking at the Naruto world as a whole, Kazama knew very well that as the story progressed, dōjutsu and kekkei genkai would become increasingly dominant.
Without some exceptional bloodline or special ability, an ordinary shinobi would eventually be reduced to little more than a background character.
Even so, Kazama had no intention of awakening Wood Release right now.
Wood Release was simply too conspicuous.
What if he awakened it and accidentally caused some obvious disturbance?
Besides, he was still far too young.
He would eventually have to attend the Ninja Academy and later be assigned to a jōnin instructor.
If word got out that he possessed Wood Release, the consequences could be disastrous.
Orochimaru—the research fanatic—was still in Konoha at this point.
And Danzō Shimura was hardly someone Kazama wanted anywhere near him.
Even if the Third Hokage learned about Kazama’s Wood Release, there was a good chance Kazama would be summoned and investigated from head to toe.
So Kazama had no intention of awakening Wood Release immediately.
That could wait until he was older.
At the very least, he first needed chakra.
Otherwise, even if he awakened Wood Release, what use would it be without chakra?
And even if he had Wood Release, he did not possess any Wood Release ninjutsu.
What was he supposed to do?
Create his own techniques?
He had not even properly learned how to use chakra yet.
How was he supposed to invent ninjutsu from scratch?
Wish for Wood Release techniques?
That would be far too extravagant.
Kazama had no intention of wasting precious wishes like that.
The Third Shinobi World War was not all that far away.
Every wish needed to be used where it mattered most.
Still, one question continued to trouble Kazama.
Why did his body contain the bloodline of the Senju clan?
He slowly cleared his mind.
Focus.
Calm.
Kazama pushed all those distracting thoughts aside and recalled the chakra extraction method he had just memorized, along with every important detail and technique recorded in the scroll.
Then he began his first attempt at refining chakra.
Chakra was an energy produced by perfectly blending the physical energy contained within the body’s cells with spiritual energy.
It was essential for performing ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, secret techniques, kekkei genkai, and many other abilities.
However, possessing chakra alone was not enough.
To perform most techniques, a shinobi also needed to form the appropriate hand seals.
Kazama had already been practicing hand seals for quite some time.
…
Several minutes later, Kazama began combining his physical energy with his spiritual energy.
Thanks to his exceptionally powerful mental strength and his near-perfect body, he succeeded on his very first attempt.
Within only a few minutes— Kazama refined his first trace of chakra.
After that, everything became considerably easier.
Physical energy was continuously drawn from his cells and blended with spiritual energy, producing chakra that circulated through the pathways inside his body.
However, Kazama’s young age still imposed severe limitations.
He could not refine too much chakra.
If he pushed himself too far, he would essentially be squeezing energy out of his still-developing body, causing serious damage.
Kazama understood this very clearly.
His body was still growing.
There was no need to rush.
His chakra pathway system had not yet fully matured either.
Moderate training could strengthen his body and gradually expand those pathways.
Excessive training, however, would only harm him.
Now that he possessed chakra, Kazama could also spend slightly more time practicing taijutsu and hand seals.
When he became tired, he could even circulate chakra to help his body recover.
Everything seemed to be progressing in an extremely promising direction.
Unfortunately, Kazama was not a member of some prestigious shinobi clan.
He merely came from a wealthy civilian family.
Money was something he had in abundance.
What he lacked was foundation.
His family possessed no stockpile of ninjutsu, no secret techniques, and no generations of accumulated shinobi resources.
Even the Chakra Extraction Technique had been purchased by Uncle Gen on the black market.
Had Kazama been born into one of Konoha’s great clans, resources and ninjutsu would have been readily available to him.
That was yet another reason Kazama needed to become stronger.
The truly valuable resources of this world had always been controlled by the major clans.
And it was those clans that formed the real backbone of a shinobi village.
If Kazama remained weak, then when war eventually broke out and Konoha desperately needed money—or if the village suffered heavy destruction—someone would inevitably turn their attention toward his fortune.
If things went well, Konoha might simply ask him to make a generous donation.
If things went badly…
Kazama might simply disappear.
Therefore, over the following days, Kazama continued training while instructing Uncle Gen to spend money supporting Konoha’s poorer civilians.
They funded housing, distributed clothing, and provided other forms of assistance.
The exact method did not matter.
What mattered was building a favorable reputation while there was still time.
At the very least, Kazama wanted enough goodwill surrounding the Kazama family that no one could casually make him disappear when the situation became chaotic.
At the same time, Kazama instructed Uncle Gen to discreetly purchase ninjutsu from the black market.
Under no circumstances could their involvement be exposed.
When Uncle Gen learned that Kazama had successfully refined chakra, he was naturally delighted.
But after witnessing Kazama’s extraordinary behavior for three entire years, the old man had already developed a certain degree of immunity to his young master’s monstrous talent.
Uncle Gen carried out every instruction Kazama gave him.
He understood perfectly well that helping Konoha’s civilian population was a way to accumulate goodwill and prestige.
As for purchasing ninjutsu from the black market, Uncle Gen knew better than anyone that secrecy was essential.
If he was careless, he might be captured by bandits before even reaching the black market.
And even if he returned safely, Konoha might invite him in for a rather unpleasant interrogation.
For the time being, since Kazama possessed no ninjutsu, the only thing he could seriously practice was forming hand seals.
But hand-seal speed was extremely important in its own right.
Imagine two shinobi of roughly equal strength fighting one another.
One formed his seals rapidly and completed his ninjutsu— while the other was still halfway through his hand seals.
The advantage was obvious.
In a real battle, even a small difference in hand-seal speed could determine who struck first.
And sometimes— who survived.