---
Just as Shin was about to continue training, he suddenly noticed something, looked up at the outer wall of the courtyard, and said,
"It seems you've gotten into the habit of not using the front door."
The familiar figure on the outer wall was none other than Kakashi Hatake, with the same silver-white hair and a mask.
"No, I just happened to be coming back from that direction."
Kakashi leaped down from the outer wall into the courtyard.
Standing close, the differences between Kakashi and Shin were still quite noticeable: Kakashi's hair was a bit longer, he wore a mask, and his height and build were clearly a bit smaller than Shin's.
Kakashi said to Shin, "As you judged, brother, the friction between villages has intensified. Recent missions have all been about mutual obstruction and investigation..."
"Is that so."
Shin wasn't surprised at all.
After all, since he transmigrated to this world, besides changing a small part of things in the Ninja Academy, he hadn't had any impact on the world's progression. Under the general trend, next year was destined to be the year the Third Great Ninja War erupted.
"Aren't you planning to graduate yet? You can't learn anything more by staying in the academy, can you?"
Kakashi looked at Shin.
Others might not know, but he was well aware of how strong his older brother Shin was. At least so far, he had never won a duel against Shin!
He had been promoted to Chunin last year and had challenged Shin after his promotion, but he still couldn't win against Shin. Shin's speed was almost abnormal!
Furthermore,
Shin was not only strong, but his inner self was equally strong. Although he was only one year older than Kakashi, his judgment on many situations was almost like that of an adult.
Shin looked at Kakashi and smiled, "Indeed, I can't learn much more from the teachers, but staying in the academy gives me more time to train myself... By the way, have you come across those few jutsu I told you about recently?"
Since Kakashi was already a Chunin, he had access to far more ninjutsu than Shin. Shin learned many ninjutsu from Kakashi, and also had Kakashi focus on two particular jutsu: Flying Thunder God and Eight Gates Release.
Eight Gates Release, naturally, was a jutsu he had to obtain no matter what. As for Flying Thunder God, he could try to train it. If he succeeded, it would be a life-saving divine jutsu. If not, it didn't matter. For him, who could control time, space ninjutsu wasn't that important.
"Those jutsu are in the Forbidden Scroll. They're not that easy to get to..."
Kakashi rolled his eyes.
Although he was already a Chunin and had access to many ninjutsu like the Shadow Clone, he still couldn't easily access jutsu like Flying Thunder God and Eight Gates Release, which belonged to the forbidden jutsu category.
"There will always be a chance."
Shin didn't care. It wouldn't be difficult to access them once Kakashi became a Jonin. But then again, Kakashi became a Jonin at twelve years old; Shin might even be faster than him.
After all, he would be forcibly graduated next year no matter what, and then the Shinobi World War would begin. In war, there was no possibility of holding back. Faced with countless dangers, he had to give his all.
Kakashi shook his head, "...It's impressive how patient you are."
After his father couldn't bear the villagers' criticism and committed suicide, he was greatly affected. He didn't want to be looked at with such strange eyes, so he revealed his extraordinary talent, graduating at five and becoming a Chunin at six. He did indeed manage to make sure no one looked at him strangely anymore.
But Shin, on the other hand, diligently continued his studies at the Ninja Academy, forming a stark contrast with him, who became a Chunin at six. During that time, discussions about it could be heard almost everywhere in the village.
Kakashi knew very well that Shin's strength was above his.
However, Shin remained unmoved, completely ignoring those criticisms. He still calmly went to school as usual and never mentioned graduating early or anything similar.
Shin sighed, "You still don't understand."
Sakumo Hatake, the White Fang of Hidden Leaf, famous throughout the ninja world for his brilliant achievements in the Second Great Ninja War, really committed suicide just because of one mission, pressured by the villagers?
Nonsense!
In his previous life, Shin might not have been sure, but having come to this world and experienced this event, Shin knew very well that the development of this matter must have had Hidden Leaf's higher-ups meddling in it.
At the very least, Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, never stepped forward for this from beginning to end. Otherwise, suppressing a failed mission incident would only take a few words, especially when it was a mission failure due to saving comrades.
Although Shin couldn't determine the exact situation, he could roughly deduce that Danzo must have been involved, because Sakumo Hatake had already threatened Danzo's position.
With his powerful strength and achievements, Sakumo would have been able to succeed as the Fourth Hokage if nothing unexpected happened. This might have been Danzo's reason for taking action.
Since Sakumo's death was inextricably linked to Danzo, then he and Kakashi were also under the scrutiny of the higher-ups. It might have been fine if Kakashi alone displayed extraordinary talent; even if Danzo wanted to absorb Kakashi into Root for training, Hiruzen would not agree.
But if he also displayed astonishing talent, that would be different.
Based on his understanding of Danzo's personality, that guy would definitely come up with ten thousand reasons to convince Hiruzen to make one of them, him or Kakashi, join Root.
Shin naturally couldn't join Root, and Kakashi was his younger brother, so he couldn't let Kakashi join Root to be brainwashed by Danzo either.
"Understand what?"
Kakashi looked at Shin in confusion.
Shin shook his head, not planning to explain these matters to Kakashi. Kakashi was too young now, and his personality was aggressive. It was better not to let him know about the darkness of Hidden Leaf.
"But it's almost time..."
Shin showed a thoughtful expression.
Now they had entered the tense situation before the outbreak of the Third Great Ninja War. In this situation, it didn't matter if he exposed his strength. Danzo wouldn't be idle enough at this time to expand his Root; his attention would definitely be on other villages.
The Third Great Ninja War was a crisis, but also an opportunity.
Kakashi would be promoted to Jonin during the war, and so would he. Once both of them were promoted to Jonin and had enough status, they could escape Danzo's shadow. Even after the war ended, Danzo would have no reason to casually deploy the village's official Jonin, and Hiruzen would not tolerate it.
As for thinking more, it was not impossible to train and improve during the Third Great Ninja War, surpass Jonin, and possess Kage-level strength. After all, he possessed the illusory clock and the power to manipulate time!
"By the way, I wonder how your recent training has been, big brother..."
Kakashi looked at the wooden dummy placed in the courtyard, then suddenly turned to Shin, a subtle glint in his eyes.
Although he had never won against Shin so far, he had never given up the idea of defeating him. Especially recently, after continuous battles, he felt that his strength had improved a lot. If Shin was slack in his training, he might not win this time!
After all, he had never been lazy since becoming a ninja, constantly striving to train, and he had gone through countless real battles and bloody battles. His strength had always been improving!
Shin raised his eyebrows.
Kakashi said half of that sentence, and he already knew what Kakashi meant.
"Hmm, I also want to see how much you've improved recently."
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