Chapter 18: Memories of Youth, Visions of the Future

Hiruzen genuinely carried zero airs of the Hokage.

Today, dressed in a navy blue training uniform without his conical hat or Hokage robes, sitting among a circle of kids, he truly looked like nothing more than an ordinary neighborhood elder who happened to be passing by, drawn in by the appetizing aroma.

Even so, the children couldn't possibly treat him as an ordinary elder.

Everyone in Konohagakure knew what the title of Hokage represented.

It was not merely the peak of political authority, but the ultimate symbol of strength.

While the kids didn't yet grasp the complex adult calculations and political weight behind the scenes, daily exposure and ingrained reverence meant that, aside from Nawaki, the rest of them appeared remarkably stiff.

Shikaku kept his eyes lowered, looking lost in thought while his spine instinctively straightened.

Inoichi still wore his polished, pleasant smile, but his movements were far more cautious than usual.

Chōza even slowed his eating pace, holding his wooden bowl and sipping his soup in tiny, measured mouthfuls.

As for Ruri and Ami, it went without saying. The two Uchiha girls sat there trying desperately to project calm, but the underlying tension remained unmistakable.

Shingo wasn't quite stiff, but with Hiruzen sitting right there, he couldn't remain entirely relaxed either.

Observing all this, Hiruzen didn't rush to break the ice.

He accepted the grilled fish handed to him by Shingo, took a thoughtful bite, and smiled approvingly.

"The timing is spot-on. The skin is nicely crisped and fragrant, while the meat inside is still tender."

"I'm glad you like it, Hiruzen-jichan," Shingo replied smoothly, the title slipping out entirely naturally.

The amusement in Hiruzen's eyes deepened.

This kid...

That knack for pushing his way right up the conversational ladder without coming off as obnoxious reminded him a great deal of Jiraiya.

"Speaking of which, back when I was your age, my comrades and I used to head out into the woods to train and cook our own meals."

Nawaki's eyes lit up instantly.

"Hiruzen-jichan used to do the exact same things we're doing?"

"Of course," Hiruzen chuckled, a wave of old memories stirred by the question.

"We were around your age then, too. Whenever training wore us out, we'd find a scenic spot, grab some food, and just talk."

He glanced down at the grilled fish in his hand, his tone turning reflective.

"I still remember our very first outing... Kagami and I built a stone hearth to start the fire, Koharu and Homura went off to catch fish, and Torifu hauled along a mountain of meat, promising the cooking was in his hands and swearing he wouldn't disappoint us."

Nawaki couldn't help asking:

"What about Danzō-jichan?"

"Danzō... well, that guy kept a poker face the entire time, insisting that sort of thing was a complete waste of time and that we'd be better off getting in extra training. Of course, the very next time we planned an outdoor cookout, he was the one who prepared the most thoroughly and packed the heaviest load. He didn't even care about the weight, he dragged an entire tent all the way out there on his back. Kagami asked him back then, 'Didn't you say this was a waste of time?' And Danzō just stubbornly insisted, 'I'm only here to keep you lot company.'"

Hiruzen deliberately lowered his voice, mimicking Danzō's stern cadence to perfection.

Nawaki burst into a brighter laugh:

"So Danzō-jichan was like that when he was young."

"He was. Quite amusing when you look back on it, isn't it?"

With that little anecdote breaking the ice, the lingering stiffness among the kids steadily dissolved.

Riding the momentum of the conversation, Hiruzen segued into stories of their first missions after graduation.

The world outside the village sounded both breathtakingly vast and perilous in his telling, leaving the young listeners wide-eyed and hanging on every word.

From there, he touched upon the First Great Ninja War.

This time, his words carried less levity and far more of the heavy, somber gravity unique to those who had walked through the fires of actual warfare.

Listening intently, the children completely shed their initial apprehension toward the Hokage.

"Well now, once an old man starts reminiscing, he forgets how to stop. It's your turn to share."

Hiruzen looked across the circle, his tone shifting back to one of easy warmth.

"You've all been training awfully hard lately. Must've taken a lot out of you."

Nawaki glanced down at the heavy weights strapped to his body.

"It definitely takes a toll, especially at the beginning. But the progress is completely real, too."

As he spoke, he shot a covert glance toward Ami, who was currently squinting like a contented little cat while sipping her soup in tiny, ladylike sips, utterly convinced her stealth was absolute.

Aside from Might Duy, whose gaze remained fixed on Hiruzen with unwavering adoration, and Chōza, whose attention stayed glued to his food, everyone else caught the look.

"The weights I'm carrying now are way heavier than when I started, and walking around with them doesn't even feel that annoying anymore. Don't worry, Hiruzen-jichan, I'm going to keep pushing. Hehe, give it a bit longer, and I might just catch up to Shingo."

Hearing that, Shingo couldn't help a dry chuckle.

Shingo's current total weight load was easily five times that of Nawaki's.

While the Senju bloodline was undeniably monstrous, Shingo had a cheat code.

The system.

Catch up to him?

Not in this lifetime.

Nawaki snapped his head toward him.

"What are you laughing at?"

Shingo answered with complete deadpan sincerity:

"I just remembered something funny."

"Oh, come off it!"

Nawaki's face flushed a rosy red as he cast another nervous glance toward Ami, then threw a punch straight at Shingo's shoulder.

Shingo simply shifted his shoulder by a fraction of an inch, letting the fist whistle harmlessly past empty air.

"Ah, missed."

"Shingo!"

Refusing to accept defeat, Nawaki lunged again.

Shingo remained seated right where he was, casually swaying his upper body side to side and effortlessly dodging every single strike.

Shikaku watched the commotion, thoroughly enjoying the show:

"Nawaki, left side. Go for the left."

Inoichi chimed in with a helpful correction:

"No, he's leaning right."

The training ground instantly bubbled with lively noise.

Watching the bickering boys, Shikaku and Inoichi stirring up the peanut gallery, Chōza munching away, and Ruri and Ami gradually letting their guards down, Hiruzen's gaze drifted into a momentary haze.

Danzō, Kagami, Homura, Koharu, Torifu... and Sensei...

It really is just like them...

It felt precisely like that fragment of youth locked away in his memory, an era he could never return to.

As his focus snapped back to the present, Hiruzen looked over the kids one by one.

His internal conviction grew firmer by the second.

These children are the future of Konoha.

Lunch finished, Hiruzen set aside his empty wooden ladle and brushed the dust from his knees.

"It's been ages since I had a meal that hit the spot quite like this."

Seeing him stand up and stretch his wrists, Nawaki's eyes lit up with renewed excitement:

"Hiruzen-jichan, are you going to teach us ninjutsu now?"

"Of course. But before we get to ninjutsu, let me see the fruits of your training over the past month."

Nawaki vaulted forward first, eager as could be, lunging with a punch that stirred up a gust of wind.

Before his fist could even close the distance, Hiruzen took a subtle half-step to the side, letting the blow skim past his robes into empty air.

With all of Nawaki's momentum driving his punch forward, missing completely threw his balance entirely out of whack, sending him stumbling headlong toward the dirt.

Hiruzen simply reached out and tapped Nawaki lightly between the shoulder blades, sending him face-first into the grass.

"Nawaki, your attacks are far too linear and entirely too easy to read. Worse still, you don't know how to pull your power. You put your entire body's force behind a single strike; the moment it misses, your opening is wide enough to drive a wagon through."

Nawaki picked himself up with a bewildered expression, nodding ruefully.

He had known he couldn't beat Hiruzen, but he hadn't expected to get dismantled quite this fast.

One by one, the others stepped up next: Shikaku, Inoichi, Chōza, Ami, and Ruri.

Hiruzen sparred briefly with each of them, offering tailored advice afterward.

Shikaku's intellect was obvious, but tactical strategizing in the middle of a live fight required time, time he couldn't buy without the physical stamina and self-preservation skills to survive until his plans bore fruit.

Inoichi's flaw lay elsewhere: he was overly cautious, tending to over-analyze and confirm before making a move. In combat, windows vanished in a fraction of a second; excessive hesitation meant missing every single opening.

Chōza possessed overwhelming physical power, but lacked agility. That stemmed partly from his natural physique and partly from the Akimichi clan's fighting style, which was difficult to completely overhaul through basic training alone.

Instead of forcing him to chase impossible speed, Hiruzen advised him to anchor his lower stance and master the art of countering faster opponents while minimizing unnecessary movement.

He also urged the Ino-Shika-Cho trio to coordinate their training sessions early to build intrinsic teamwork.

Ami shared a similar impulsiveness with Nawaki, but lacked his raw physical and stamina reserves, requiring an even sharper adjustment to her combat style.

Ruri's problem was an excessive, almost reckless leaning toward the offensive.

Even when trading injuries, she would instinctively force the issue and press the attack.

That sort of brutal tenacity looked impressive in training, but in a real, life-or-death battle, it meant she would bleed faster, and die younger, than anyone else.

Looking straight into her eyes, Hiruzen's tone turned stern, perhaps reminded of old friends from his past.

"Ruri, you need to learn to value your life. As long as you're breathing, there's a tomorrow. Once you're dead, there's nothing left."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

"Call me Hiruzen-jichan."

Feeling unaccustomed to the familiarity, Ruri hesitated before softly complying:

"Hiruzen-jichan."

Hiruzen smiled faintly, then turned his attention to Shingo.

Shingo peeled off his heavy weights, setting them down neatly in a row on the ground.

Even though he consciously kept his movements light, the heavy iron blocks produced a dull, heavy thud upon impact.

Hearing that sound, Ruri couldn't help stepping forward to test the weight of one of the pieces herself.

The moment her hand took the strain, her movements froze.

When Nawaki had helped her pick out her weights earlier, she had only asked what tier Nawaki was carrying.

She had assumed Shingo's weights would be heavier than Nawaki's, but not by an absurd margin.

She had never imagined it would be this heavy.

Shingo paid her reaction no mind, stretching his limbs and warming up thoroughly.

Once his body hummed with heat, he stepped smoothly into the center of the clearing.

"Please give me your guidance, Hiruzen-jichan."

The second the words left his mouth, Hiruzen felt a shift in Shingo's aura.

Laser-focused, icy calm, and razor-sharp.

In a flash, Shingo closed the distance.

"Leaf Piercing Wood."

A punch loaded with dense, heavy momentum drove straight for Hiruzen's chest.

Instead of retreating, Hiruzen took a deliberate half-step forward.

With precise timing, he batted Shingo's wrist aside with one hand while pressing his palm down onto Shingo's shoulder with the other.

Shingo instantly adapted, dropping his center of gravity, leveraging his core, and twisting his waist to launch a counter-strike.

Yet Hiruzen was faster.

Reacting second, he invariably arrived first.

After a few brief exchanges, Shingo found himself pressed into an agonizingly difficult corner.

While his Mind's Eye allowed him to track every single movement Hiruzen made, his physical body simply couldn't execute the adjustments fast enough. Hiruzen was operating on an entirely different tier of speed.

Combined with a lifetime of life-or-death battle experience honed across decades, Hiruzen reduced Shingo to a state of utter constraint where he had power but nowhere to spend it.

Time and again, just as Shingo initiated a move, Hiruzen was already standing squarely in his most awkward blind spot.

If he pushed the attack, he lacked the space to generate power; if he aborted to change tactics, he surrendered the initiative entirely.

That suffocating sensation of being completely manipulated gave Shingo his first visceral, eye-opening taste of the chasm between himself and a top-tier shinobi.

Inside, Hiruzen was equally stunned.

It wasn't just Shingo's physical stats and taijutsu foundations.

Mid-spar, Hiruzen had intentionally tried blind-side attacks from Shingo's natural optical dead zones, yet Shingo reacted instantly every single time.

That near-absolute combat intuition was genuinely startling.

Was it pure sensory perception?

Or had his other senses evolved to fill the void left by the missing Byakugan?

Just as Hiruzen prepared to push the limits of that intuitive defense a bit further, Shingo pulled back half a step.

Chakra surged from Shingo's palms, flowing outward along his fingers and knuckles.

Blue-white chakra condensed into sharp, vibrating chakra spikes capping his fists, the edges humming with high-frequency oscillation.

With Shingo's chakra control having advanced to Level 6, his chakra spikes had grown visibly stable, denser in form, and sharper at the cutting edge.

"Leaf Barrage."

Shingo unleashed a flurry of high-speed punches, dense as a rainstorm. The razor-sharp chakra blades needed to land clean just once to inflict horrific trauma.

Hiruzen continued to evade effortlessly, but midway through the barrage, without warning, the chakra spikes extending from Shingo's fists suddenly elongated by several inches.

An attack that should have fallen short abruptly stretched out mid-air.

"Interesting."

Hiruzen kept his footing light, weaving through the sudden spike-extensions.

At the same time, his hands blurred through a sequence of seals.

"Earth Release: Earth Spear."

Hiruzen's hands instantly darkened, hardening as if coated in an unyielding suit of armor.

Shingo's next strike arrived.

This time, Hiruzen lifted his fist and met it head-on.

A large fist collided with a small one.

Bang!

The impact kicked up a swirling ring of dust from the ground beneath their feet.

Hiruzen stood his ground without a fraction of an inch of give, the Earth Release coating showing zero signs of cracking.

Shingo was knocked back several paces, the chakra spikes on his fists flickering unsteadily from the jarring shock.

A split-second later, fueled by a steady stream of chakra output, the spikes re-stabilized.

Hiruzen glanced down at his hand.

Shingo's chakra spikes hadn't pierced through his Earth Release armor.

Even so, he could distinctly feel the raw, concentrated sharpness of the attack.

Looking back at Shingo's uninjured fist, Hiruzen nodded with satisfaction.

By his standards, it was still rough around the edges, not quite a proper ninjutsu yet.

Even so, it was an exceptional piece of innovation.

Releasing the chakra from his hands, Hiruzen evaluated:

"That's enough. Excellent work. I have no critiques for your taijutsu; you've carved out your own training path and you have capable guidance. Just keep following this routine and accumulating battle experience step by step."

Hearing that, Might Duy snapped into a rigid posture.

Hiruzen turned toward him, raising a thumb in the gesture most familiar to Duy:

"Duy, you're doing a fantastic job, too. Training these kids so well... I can truly feel your youth burning bright."

Duy froze entirely.

A second later, tears gushed from his eyes like twin fountains.

"Hokage-sama!"

He clenched his fists, voice trembling so violently he could barely string a sentence together.

"I-I will continue to burn my youth with everything I've got!"

Hiruzen chuckled and nodded, then turned back to Shingo.

"What do you call this... ninjutsu of yours? How did you come up with it?"

"I call it Chakra Spike. I heard that medical ninja can condense chakra into a scalpel, so I wondered if I could do something similar for combat."

Hiruzen nodded in approval.

"Wonderful concept, and the variation mid-combat caught me off guard. That said, the destructive power isn't quite where it needs to be yet. More importantly, it relies too heavily on precise chakra control. Across all of Konoha, very few possess your level of natural aptitude for control. And for those who do, they usually have better options available. Whether it's the Earth Release I just used or Tsunade's Monster Strength, both are far more practical for real combat than a chakra spike."

Good medicine tastes bitter.

Faced with the Hokage's critique, Shingo eagerly absorbed every single word, wanting to carve them into his mind.

After all, how many people ever got one-on-one pointers on ninjutsu development from the Professor himself?

Seeing that Shingo took the critique without a trace of impatience, listening with even greater concentration, Hiruzen's approval grew warmer.

"Of course, your train of thought is sound, it's a very promising direction for research. To truly complete this technique, however, you'll need to learn more. How chakra circulates through the pathway system, nature transformation, shape transformation, maintaining stability after chakra emission... Those are all subjects you'll need to study."

Shingo nodded earnestly.

"Understood."

Hiruzen rubbed his chin, pondering for a moment before saying:

"How about this: I'll put in a word with the Konoha Library. Go pick up a library pass tomorrow, and you can drop by to read whenever you have free time. All the books related to chakra theory are kept there. If you're looking for something specific, just ask the librarian."

He added with a wave of his hand:

"In fact, everyone here can get one. You can all pick up passes."

The group chorused their thanks.

"Thank you, Hiruzen-jichan."

Shingo knew well that out of everyone present, he was the one who needed that library pass the most.

The others had clan archives and elder instruction backing them; they rarely needed to visit the public library.

Hiruzen waved his hand dismissively.

"I mentioned earlier that after testing you, I'd teach you a ninjutsu. Before we get to that, though, let's test your chakra affinities."

He reached to his waist, untied a small pouch, and extracted a stack of chakra test papers.

Distributing the slips to the children, he explained:

"There are five fundamental nature transformations: Wind, Lightning, Fire, Earth, and Water. Channel your chakra into the paper, and it will react according to your innate affinity. Cutting means Wind, wrinkling means Lightning, burning means Fire, crumbling means Earth, and dampening means Water."

The kids took their papers and, once Hiruzen finished the explanation, funneled their chakra in.

Nawaki's paper showed a three-way split: part of it sliced open, part crumbled into dust, and part grew damp.

Wind, Earth, and Water.

Inoichi's paper showed Earth and Water.

Shikaku and Chōza both displayed Fire and Earth.

Ruri and Ami both showed Lightning and Fire.

As for Shingo's test paper, all five reactions occurred simultaneously.

"All-nature affinity, eh?"

Hiruzen murmured in quiet awe.

Just like Orochimaru, a genuine natural-born genius.

"Alright, children. Remember your affinities, it will make learning nature transformation much easier down the line when you reach that stage. Next, I'm going to teach you the Three Basic Jutsu. The Transformation Technique, the Clone Technique, and the Substitution Technique. They are core components of the academy graduation exam, as well as the most fundamental and frequently used tools in a shinobi's arsenal."

Slowing his pace, Hiruzen demonstrated the hand seals one by one, meticulously breaking down how to circulate chakra for each technique, what pitfalls beginners tended to fall into, and the precise rhythmic timing required for activation.

Only after the step-by-step breakdown did he weave the seals together for a complete demonstration.

"Hiruzen-jichan, can't you teach us something a bit more flashy?" Nawaki complained, looking somewhat disappointed. "Aren't the Three Basic Jutsu a bit too simple?"

"Never underestimate these techniques. In live combat, the Three Basic Jutsu often create openings you wouldn't believe."

With that, he motioned for Nawaki to attack him.

Nawaki blinked in confusion, but threw a kick anyway.

The next instant, Hiruzen transformed into a wooden stump, while his real body materialized directly behind Nawaki.

Nawaki instantly halted his momentum and whirled around to strike back.

His fists swung right through thin air, passing straight through Hiruzen's body as the figure puffed into a cloud of smoke and vanished.

Simultaneously, the original wooden stump transformed back into Hiruzen, whose finger was tapping lightly against Nawaki's lower back.

"Well? Do you feel the value of the Three Basic Jutsu now?"

Nawaki nodded, finally understanding.

It was a combination of the Transformation Technique and the Clone Technique; Hiruzen hadn't even used the Substitution Technique at all.

Following the demonstration, the kids began trying the techniques themselves.

Stepping into ninjutsu for the first time, none of them found it smooth sailing.

Ultimately, only Shikaku put on a decent showing, managing to pull off roughly half of the Transformation Technique.

Hiruzen wasn't discouraged; this was entirely standard for a first attempt.

Even for kids like Shikaku and Inoichi, whose chakra control had reached the level required to walk on water, hand seals, unfamiliar chakra pathways, and operational timing remained foreign territory.

Once they grew accustomed to ninjutsu through repeated practice, picking up lower-ranked techniques would become second nature.

Watching the others dive eagerly into practice, Shingo formed his own seals.

While this was his first time casting a formal ninjutsu, his chakra control sat at an overwhelming Level 6, vastly superior to Shikaku's control, which is around Level 2.

After two brief trial attempts, Shingo successfully executed his very first ninja technique in this world: the Clone Technique.

Poof.

A puff of white smoke cleared.

An identical copy of Shingo stood steady at his side.

The moment the clone materialized, a crisp notification rang out within the Class System.

[Prerequisite condition fulfilled.]

[Transcendent Class: Sorcerer unlocked!]

The new class had finally arrived!