---Third POV---
Hiruzen woke up to find that the sky had fallen. The Uchiha clan had produced yet another pair of Mangekyō Sharingan. If he had known, he would never have let the Uchiha onto the battlefield.
Good grief, he had only opened two battlefronts for the Uchiha, and they somehow managed to give him two Mangekyō in return. There was still the Kusa front near Iwa coming up. He absolutely couldn't let the Uchiha take that one too. Maybe they could handle it, but he really couldn't.
Ryouma couldn't do anything to change the mindset Hiruzen had developed since childhood, so he could only shift the topic.
"Hokage-sama, I'd like this child to attend the Ninja Academy."
"This child is named Hidan, right? Of course he can."
Hiruzen smiled warmly and nodded. His favorite thing was sending all kinds of troublesome kids to the Ninja Academy.
"Huh? I don't wanna go to school!" Hidan shouted, eyes wide and neck stiff.
Ryouma chopped him lightly on the head with the side of his hand and declared as Hidan winced in pain. "How can a child your age not go to school? Kids should act like kids."
With a recommendation letter from Hiruzen in hand, he pulled a reluctant Hidan out of the Hokage's office.
---
Returning to the Konoha Ninja Academy once again, Ryouma couldn't help but feel a wave of nostalgia. To use the oldest cliché in the book: that period of time was one of the happiest since he came to this world.
It was worth noting that because the group he graduated with, after performed so brilliantly on the battlefield, and the war was now progressing favorably for Konoha, many students who would've graduated early and been sent to war were still peacefully studying at the Academy.
Ryouma glanced at the sulking Hidan beside him. If nothing went wrong, Hidan would probably finish the full six years and graduate at age twelve too.
Hopefully, he'd be able to find his own bonds here.
Inside the school, Kosuke was sitting in his office, reviewing the results of his students' recent combat assessment, occasionally jotting down notes in the margin.
"Uchiha Itachi: First in written test, first in shuriken assessment, first in ninjutsu assessment, first in combat."
Sigh~
Kato, sitting nearby, heard him sigh and asked curiously, "He ranked first in the second-year group again. With someone like that, your class will probably come first every time. Why the sigh?"
"It's nothing, just thinking about some things from the past." Kosuke leaned back in his chair and took a sip of the tea on his desk.
Even though Itachi was top in all assessments, he still felt something was missing.
Itachi was a genius, no doubt, but he was also the son of the Uchiha clan leader. His upbringing already gave him a huge head start over most other Konoha ninjas. Of course, having such a background was just good fortune at birth, nothing to be envious of. Besides, with grades and strength like that, he clearly worked very hard too.
"Aotsuki Ryouma."
A surname more ordinary than Uchiha, Hyūga, Yamanaka, or Nara, and yet he was the one who left the entire new generation of the shinobi world in the dust. His string of battlefield feats that followed was so outrageous they would be ridiculed if written in a novel.
Kosuke shook his head slightly. He needed to fix this habit of comparing other students to Ryouma, it was too unfair to them.
Clatter. Clatter.
A commotion sounded from the hallway outside, accompanied by the excited cries of several boys and girls.
"Ahhh! I just saw the real Leaf's Gale!"
"It really is him!"
"Hey! Stop hogging all the spots!"
"He once saved my father, of course I want to see him too!"
Kosuke opened the office door and saw the hallway packed with students from all grades, all pressed up against the windows, nearly jumping out of them. As luck would have it, the two students standing right outside his door were from his own class.
"Who's that kid next to him?"
"Who cares, as long as it's not his child, because he can only be mine!"
Hearing those words from his students, Kosuke cleared his throat loudly. "Ahem! Aoi, Reika! Your main task right now is to work on your taijutsu. You were both dead last in the last exam, are you proud of that?"
Upon hearing the familiar voice behind them, Aoi and Reika shivered, quickly turned around, bowed in apology, and ran off all in one fluid motion. The other students nearby were also startled and scattered like birds and beasts, hurrying away to other places.
Watching the backs of the two girls as they fled, he slowly walked over to the window where they had just been leaning.
"Can't see anything from here, huh?" He muttered quietly.
"Kosuke-sensei?"
Like déjà vu, he suddenly heard a familiar voice behind him. He turned around, and there was Ryouma, just as the students had shouted earlier. Sitting across from him at his office desk, Ryouma pulled out a rectangular box from behind him and handed it over.
"I bought this tea from the Land of Hot Water. I hope you'll like it."
"You're too kind." Kosuke accepted the tea with a broad smile.
Then, Ryouma explained the matter of Hidan's enrollment. Back at the Hokage's office, he and Hiruzen had discussed it and decided that, given Hidan's age, it would be best for him to join as a transfer student in the second-year class. That was how Kushina had been enrolled back in the day as well.
Kosuke accepted the handwritten recommendation letter from the Third Hokage without even glancing at it and agreed on the spot.
After a warm conversation, all matters were settled, and he personally escorted them out of the academy.
---Ryouma's POV---
Thanks to my "iron fist" education, Hidan behaved politely, bowed to his future teacher, and then followed me out of the school. Today was just for introductions, his actual classes would start the next morning.
Next, I planned to take Hidan to where he'd be staying. I had decided to temporarily let him live in the house that the Hyūga clan had gifted me. Technically, a child like him, who was brought in from outside the village, should be placed in the Konoha Orphanage.
But I knew all too well: sending someone to the orphanage was basically no different from handing them over to Danzō. Just like how Hiruzen liked stuffing kids into the Ninja Academy, as his old teammate, Danzō also liked stuffing kids into Root.
A match made in heaven, really.
"We're here," I suddenly stopped and said.
Hidan didn't have time to stop and bumped right into me. Rubbing his forehead, he poked half his head out from behind me. Looking at the grand mansion in front of him, his eyes lit up with excitement as if something clicked in his head.
"Don't tell me this is the headquarters of the Jashin cult?"
"Nope." I pushed open the door and stepped into the living room. "Also, stop mentioning Jashin so casually, you'll be taken for a lunatic."
Hidan followed closely behind me, nodding seriously.
"I get it. So basically, we need to lay low for now, right?"
"Go pick a room for yourself."
"Yay! Then I'll pick the one next to yours!" Hidan said excitedly.
I casually pointed to where my room was. "Sure, but I mostly stay at Tsunade's place. I only come back here occasionally."
Hidan scratched his head, then suddenly stood at attention and said seriously, "Don't worry. Even if it's just me, I'll protect the headquarters of the Jashin cult with my life!"
"No one's going to invade the headquarters in Konoha, no, wait, this isn't the Jashin cult headquarters!"
Whew, that was close. Almost let this brat lead me off track.
Seeing how much I cared about terminology, Hidan clapped his hands and said, "I see, I get it now."
I had no idea what he "got," and just casually tossed him a thick envelope. Hidan deftly caught it, opened it, and his eyes lit up at the sight of all the cash inside.
"Is this my operating budget?"
"Uh... something like that."
Honestly, I wasn't worried about whether Hidan could take care of himself. After all, this kid had been living alone even before I brought him back. Not to mention, he was immortal now. What I was worried about was that Hidan might use the money to play pranks promoting the Jashin cult, so I decided to lay down the rules ahead of time.
"From now on, I'll give you a monthly allowance. You're responsible for budgeting it properly. Don't use it for any activities related to the cult, got it?"
"Got it!"
Looking at the serious expression on his face, I suddenly wondered if I was overthinking things.
"As long as you understand." My eyes swept over his somewhat tattered clothes, then I glanced out the window at the setting sun.
"It's still not too late. I'll take you shopping for some daily necessities and help you get familiar with the neighborhood."
---
"Hey granny, wanna consider joining the Jashin cult? If you do, you'll always find young people willing to help you out, ow!"
"Stop harassing the villagers."
With a blank expression, I lowered the fist I had just smacked onto Hidan's head. I immediately took back what I thought earlier about over-worrying. After buying clothes and daily necessities for him, I didn't stay much longer. I gave him directions to where I currently lived, then left.
Don't be fooled by how he seemed just as dumb as Obito.
He really was that dumb. But still, for an orphan to survive up to this point, he must at least be able to take care of himself in daily life.
As his guide, all I needed to do was offer direction and protection.
A Flying Thunder God kunai hanging in the corner of my room swayed gently.
Whoosh.
With a puff of smoke, I appeared beside the kunai. My room was quite simple: a double bed just for myself, though that was just how beds were sized in the household, nothing to be done about it.
A desk cluttered with materials and research notes on the Spirit Transformation Technique, though, to be honest, progress had been slow. And then there were four large bookshelves taking up most of the room.
Don't ask, I just really liked reading.
I sat down at the desk and extended my right hand. A mass of black chakra formed in my palm.
This was an ability that mysteriously appeared on my system panel after I returned from that dark world. Should I call that world... Abyss World or just Dark World...?
Anyway, it was also the reason Hidan became convinced that I was Jashin himself.
My system interface was pretty minimal, but each function was practical, especially the panel display.
---
Dark Factor:
Belongs to the individual Aotsuki Ryouma; a special passive skill used to generate dark energy.
---
This was the new ability listed on my panel. Just by the name, dark energy didn't sound like anything good. It stood in direct contrast to something like natural energy, which screamed righteousness.
I still had to spend time researching what this energy was actually good for.
From what I could tell so far, it powered and enhanced Full Counter, even modifying its effects significantly.
---
Revenge Counter:
Reflects all damage taken over a period of time back at a designated target in the form of an amplified energy wave.
---
Pretty much the kind of do-or-die move a hot-blooded shonen protagonist would have. That said, I sincerely hoped I'd never have to actually use it.
"This energy… it is a bit like natural energy, isn't it?" Shukaku asked quietly.
"You're right. I somehow gained control of this after coming back from... the Dark World? Might have something to do with the ritual on that altar."
I pulled out a scroll and unrolled it on the desk, it contained the array pattern I had recreated from memory, the one that had covered the underground space. This unknown power… I had to get to the bottom of it.
Shukaku lightly hopped onto the desk, raised a paw into a fist, and said seriously. "For my sake, and for your own, become a jinchūriki."
I knew why he was saying this. He absolutely did not want to go through another experience like when I was suddenly teleported away. Sure, Obito had helped that time, but they couldn't always count on someone else to show up. That wasn't Shukaku's style.
I gave him a complicated look as he held out a fist for a bump. This scene felt… oddly familiar. Should I try making that weird expression too?
On second thought, better not, no normal person could pull off a face like that.
"Dream on. My body's not exactly the best real estate. No vacancies for rent, sorry."