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Early the next morning.
New student enrollment day at the Ninja Academy.
Yagura Karatachi arrived at the Ninja Academy right on time, walking through the school gates with a distracted air.
He brushed past the other new students one by one—faces fearful, worried, or excited.
Yagura gave them a quick once-over.
Seeing no one particularly familiar or outstanding, his gaze swept past without lingering.
He didn’t take any of them to heart.
His mind was elsewhere.
He couldn’t figure out why Grandpa Karatachi hadn’t asked him this morning about Mangetsu Hozuki’s visit last night.
He didn’t believe his grandfather didn’t know.
Mangetsu Hozuki had come over to fight him!
One careless move, or if he’d been a bit weaker, that mutual-killing Ninja Academy graduation exam might have started six years early!
“Could it be that Grandpa and the Hozuki elders made some kind of backroom deal? They’re happy we two kids got together? So there’s nothing to ask, and they’re just letting us develop our relationship however we want?”
Yagura couldn’t rule out the possibility.
Kirigakure had many clans.
Those possessing Hiden techniques and Kekkei Genkai could go toe-to-toe with Konoha.
The Hydrification of the Hozuki, the Coral of the Karatachi, the Ice Release of the Yuki, the Shikotsumyaku of the Kaguya, the Lava Release of the Terumi, the Boil Release of the Ninmugi, the Dark Release of the Kizuma.
And then there were the Kime, whom Yagura had never seen in the original work, and the Maki of the Cloud Release.
These were all Kirigakure’s well-known great clans.
Given the current situation in Kirigakure, these clans possessing Kekkei Genkai and Hiden techniques stood in opposition to the Third Mizukage.
Gengetsu Hozuki had snatched the Second Mizukage position right out from under the Third’s nose.
The Second Mizukage Gengetsu Hozuki had only served a few years before taking a squad of Mist ninja and dying in battle at Iwagakure.
The moment the Third Mizukage took power, he kicked the Hozuki clan down.
And along with them, he kicked down any other clans with powerful ninja possessing Kekkei Genkai or Hiden techniques that might threaten his position.
Among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, the elite jonin squad directly under the Mizukage, only one came from the Hozuki clan: Senjin Hozuki, wielder of the Twin Swords Hiramekarei.
The rest were all from small, obscure clans.
That Senjin Hozuki had chosen to side with the Third Mizukage.
For this, the Hozuki clan regarded him as a traitor.
These hidden matters were never explicitly written into the Bloody Mist policy.
But in recent years, the upper echelons of Kirigakure had been cracking down on these great clans harder and harder.
Among the common folk of the Land of Water, rumors were spreading that Kekkei Genkai ninja were the root cause of the disasters and wars plaguing Kirigakure.
To bring it closer to home.
The Ninja Academy had placed Yagura Karatachi, Mangetsu Hozuki, and Kaede Kime, heirs of three great clans, into a single team.
According to the rules, six years from now, only one of these three would survive.
Arriving at the entrance of the teaching building, Yagura found his name and assigned class on the new student notice board.
Mangetsu Hozuki arrived a little late.
Spotting a familiar tuft of green hair in the crowd, he walked up and said casually, “Yo. My Lord Fourth Mizukage, here so early?”
Yesterday, calling him Mizukage had still been awkward.
Yagura didn’t pay much mind to the joking tease.
He nodded lightly in acknowledgment.
“Good morning, my Captain of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.”
At those words, Mangetsu snapped ramrod straight, as if jolted by electricity and frozen in place.
Awkward.
So awkward.
He wasn’t playing anymore!
He had someone he knew right here with him!
Let’s not mutually destroy each other like this!
“Heh.”
Is that all you’ve got?
Yagura curled the corner of his mouth in silent mockery.
Then he turned his gaze to the boy standing beside Mangetsu, who was scrutinizing the two of them with an odd look.
Orange hair.
A pair of gemstone-bright amber eyes beneath his bangs.
Over a ninja mesh shirt, he wore a black vest jacket.
Both his waist and legs were strapped with ninja tool pouches.
“Hello.” The orange-haired boy took two serious steps back and said with extreme brevity, “Kaede Kime.”
Five words.
Self-introduction complete.
A little cool.
Yagura blinked and extended his hand.
“Hello, I’m Yagura Karatachi.”
Kaede Kime said nothing.
He gave Yagura’s hand a light shake, then withdrew it, his gaze drifting elsewhere.
Mangetsu stepped forward with a hearty laugh, filling most of Yagura’s field of view.
“Don’t mind him, don’t mind him. He’s just like that. A man of few words.”
“Yeah.”
Yagura stared at Kaede Kime’s eyes with curiosity.
This was the first time he’d met a member of the Kime clan face-to-face, a clan that had never appeared at all in the original work.
Kekkei Genkai generally fell into three categories.
One was nature transformation Kekkei Genkai, like Ice Release and Lava Release.
One was the special type, like Shikotsumyaku.
And the last, also the most overpowered type, was Dojutsu Kekkei Genkai.
The most representative, and in the original work the only two Dojutsu Kekkei Genkai, were the Sharingan and the Byakugan.
The Kime clan’s Kekkei Genkai was also a dojutsu, named Shigendo.
This Kekkei Genkai’s appearance matched its name.
Leaning in close and looking carefully, Yagura could see two white rings inside Kaede Kime’s eyes.
If a normal anime character’s eyes were like “Big Chubby,” then Kaede Kime’s eyes were like “Big-Big Chubby-Chubby.”
According to official Kirigakure records and Grandpa Karatachi’s explanation, this Kekkei Genkai enhanced dynamic observation and countered Genjutsu.
The Byakugan and Sharingan both had that.
But it could detect Genjutsu!
Obito Uchiha had controlled the original Yagura Karatachi using Genjutsu!
Could this resist Obito Uchiha’s Genjutsu?
“…”
This gaze was way too intense.
Kaede Kime awkwardly turned his head aside, pulled up his zipper, and raised his high collar to cover the lower half of his face.
Yagura also realized he’d been staring too long.
But he was thick-skinned and withdrew his gaze as if nothing had happened.
Mangetsu, who knew both of them, acted as middleman and suggested, “Let’s not crowd around here. Let’s head into the classroom first.”
“Yeah, we’re all in Class 1, Grade 1.” Yagura took the lead, saying as he walked.
After following behind Yagura for a stretch, Kaede Kime spoke up.
“You’re interested? In my dojutsu?”
Yagura nodded frankly.
“Yeah, I’m interested.”
Kaede Kime gave a light nod.
Shigendo, activate.
In the next instant, Yagura found his world had changed.
Clearer.
Slower.
More transparent.
Within a 360-degree space with no blind spots around him, the movement and stillness of all living and non-living things were clearly visible.
The flutter of a butterfly’s wings by the roadside.
The tremble of a flower as a bee landed on it.
The rise and fall of the chest of the person next to him as they breathed.
The changes in their muscles as they walked.
The flow of chakra within their bodies.
“Freaked out?”
Mangetsu, long accustomed to this, laughed loudly at the stunned Yagura.
“Pffthahahaha! Look at that dumb, never-seen-the-world look on your face! Hahahahaha!”
Kaede Kime put on a deadpan expression and roasted his childhood friend.
“Your first time, you were the same.”
“But no one saw me that time.”
Mangetsu raised an eyebrow at Yagura with an infuriatingly smug look of mockery.
Ignoring Mangetsu.
Whipping his head around to stare fixedly at Kaede Kime, Yagura’s expression broke in a rare display.
“This can be shared? This damn dojutsu can actually be shared?!”
His grandfather never told him about this!
“A normal Shigendo can’t do that.”
Mangetsu was brimming with pride, as proud as if he were describing his own ability.
“But Kaede’s different. He’s a once-in-a-century genius of the Kime clan! Only his eyes have the dojutsu Shared Vision!”
➤ Next: Teachers Vary Wildly, Yet Are All Much the Same