After the monthly exam, the Advance Class slipped back into its usual rhythm.
Classes were classes, missions were missions. The only lingering question was whether Uchiha Sasuke could make it back before finals.
This semester was only three months long. Two had already passed, and the last "monthly exam" would be the final.
Two days later, after school on Wednesday, Kitazawa met Konan.
"Kitazawa," Konan said first. "Our Akatsuki members are in position."
"I'll have a shadow clone go with you," Kitazawa replied. He stayed cautious. He and Konan were on decent terms now, but that didn't mean he and Nagato were. And the Nagato of today had gone dark—he saw Konoha as a thorn in his eye.
Konan nodded. "Thank you."
Kitazawa formed the seals and produced a clone. Once the clone left with Konan and vanished from sight, he turned and headed for the Forest of Death.
School had just let out and it wasn't dinnertime yet; he figured he'd squeeze in more practice. After learning Wood Release: Four-Pillar House, he'd decided to learn Wood Release: Serial Pillar Houses alongside it. The two were basically the same at their core, so they'd come quickly—one or two weeks at most.
An hour and a half later, Kitazawa stopped, and three lines floated before his eyes.
[Current Mission: Help Nagato restore his legs.]
[Mission Reward: Improved One's Own Life Reincarnation Jutsu.]
[Mission Completed. Reward Granted.]
He stood there, absorbing the flood of information that had suddenly been crammed into his head.
The original One's Own Life Reincarnation Jutsu converts all of the user's chakra into life force to resurrect the dead—put simply, a one-for-one trade. It can also bestow life force on human puppets. Chiyo created it to revive her son and daughter-in-law. She never used it for them, but she did use it to save Gaara after Shukaku was extracted.
What Kitazawa got was an improved version. He'd assumed the "improvement" would mean using someone else's life force while the caster acted as a conduit—but no. In hindsight, that would be too broken for the difficulty of this mission's reward.
The improvement turned it into a life-force sharing technique.
Everyone's life force isn't the same—Senju and Uzumaki are born with much more. The original jutsu didn't care how much life force the user had; you could still only save one person. Now it's different: if the caster has enough life force, they can save a lot of people.
In that sense, it's similar to the Rinnegan's Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life.
But there's one critical difference: you can stop. If the target has already been revived and the user still has life force left, the caster lives; no need to pay with your life.
All in all, not bad.
Since the jutsu converts chakra into life force, Kitazawa estimated that with his current reserves he could save two people and live; try for three and he'd probably keel over. Back when Chiyo saved Gaara, she didn't have enough chakra—Uzumaki Naruto had to help. Who knows how much he poured in, but it wasn't small.
"I still need more chakra," Kitazawa muttered, rubbing his chin.
He'd noticed a problem. Only Wood Release: Nativity of a World of Trees had triggered a system task—and that one rewarded two cards of chakra. Neither Four-Pillar House nor Serial Pillar Houses had triggered anything.
Did he have to learn high-level Wood Release like Advent of a World of Flowering Trees, Wood Dragon, or Wood Human to trigger rewards? The trouble was, with his current chakra, those were hard to learn. Not being pessimistic—those techniques really are busted.
Wood Dragon pinned the Nine-Tails in the original, leaving it unable to move. Wood Human stood toe-to-toe with Madara's complete Susanoo.
A dead loop, then: high-level Wood Release yields chakra rewards, but without the chakra first, he couldn't learn them.
He thought of Uzumaki Naruto—maybe Sasuke's return could pressure him. But probably not. Naruto wasn't afraid of genjutsu, which stripped Sasuke of his biggest edge.
Kitazawa clicked his tongue softly. A new exam format flashed into his mind: bring in active-duty ninja.
It sounded wild, but the more he thought about it, the more plausible it felt. The top eighteen in the Advance Class were generally at or above chūnin level. What they lacked was experience—something you only get by fighting. Sparring with active-duty ninja would build that experience.
No—that wasn't the point.
Kitazawa smacked his palm, eyes lighting up. He'd remembered his "new Legendary Sannin" system task. To crown a new trio, you need power—but more importantly, you need fame.
If the Advance Class started beating active-duty ninja, their names would spread like wildfire. Give it time and new Sannin would appear—and then he'd get Sage Art: Wood Release: True Several Thousand Hands.
He'd need a plan, though.
With that in mind, he headed toward Kurenai's place.
Halfway there, his shadow clone dispelled on its own, feeding back the details of Nagato's treatment. In short, everything had gone smoothly. Nagato had used a fortune in rare medicinals, after all.
Konan, however, surprised him—she stayed in Konoha, saying Nagato's legs needed observation. If anything went wrong, she could come straight to Kitazawa.
The next day, Thursday.
After the morning classes, Kitazawa went to the Hokage's office. The moment he opened the door, a faint smell of food drifted out.
"Where's Shizune-senpai?" he asked, seeing Tsunade eating alone on the sofa. Leaning forward, her clothes looked like they were about to slip.
"She hasn't finished her work," Tsunade said around a bite of fried shrimp. "So, what's so urgent this time of day?"
"Not exactly urgent." Kitazawa sat across from her. "Finish lunch first."
He pulled out a bento. "Want a taste? I made it myself—should beat the cafeteria's."
"Let's share." Tsunade slid her own box to the middle of the table and reached her chopsticks into his.
"How do you rate the Advance Class's strength?" Kitazawa asked, lifting his chopsticks.
"Do you even have to ask?" Tsunade chuckled. "They could sit the chūnin exams no problem."
Especially Uzumaki Naruto, Kurama Yakumo, and Uchiha Sasuke. If they were adults already, she'd promote them straight to jōnin.
"Exactly why I want to change the monthly exam," Kitazawa said, nodding.
"How?" Tsunade frowned. The exams already included mission assessments—what else was there?
"They all know each other too well. To become truly strong, they need to fight different ninja." Kitazawa spoke evenly. "I think we should invite active-duty shinobi to spar with them—to broaden their horizons."
"...?" Tsunade was speechless. That didn't sound like a school exam—it sounded like a chūnin exam. No, more like a special-jōnin or even jōnin evaluation.
"You might as well graduate them early," she groused. "And the enemies you meet on missions are active-duty ninja anyway."
"They're still young, and there's no great war on. Let them stay in school a bit longer," Kitazawa coughed lightly. "Besides, mission fights are mostly melees. One-on-one spars are rare."
"Fine, do it your way," Tsunade said after a moment's thought.
The reason prodigies used to graduate early was that academy teachers couldn't keep up. Staying meant stagnation. But the Advance Class was different: their teachers were Sarutobi Hiruzen, Kitazawa, Hatake Kakashi, Maruboshi Kosuke, Chen, Kurenai, and Iruka Umino.
Graduating now would actually be a loss—no team leader out there could match that lineup.
Her thinking was simple: as long as it didn't hinder the kids' growth, she was fine with it.
"I plan to pilot it in the finals," Kitazawa said. "Have the top eighteen participate. No mission this time—switch to sparring with active-duty shinobi."
"Works for me," Tsunade said, taking another bite. "If it flops, cut it."
The Advance Class really was Konoha's future. As Hokage, she wouldn't let them be put at risk.
"I understand." Kitazawa finished speaking—then blinked as three lines flickered into view.
[Current Mission: Win ten matches against active-duty ninja in the final exam.]
[Mission Reward: Composite Ninjutsu: Gentle Step Tailed Beast Twin Lion Fists.]
[Accept?]
A pity it wasn't chakra, he thought—but the technique was strong enough: a Rasengan fused with Gentle Step Tailed Beast Twin Lion Fists. He'd already learned the Twin Lions through the system. Once he taught Hinata, the two of them could bust out a hot-blooded combo.
As for taking ten of eighteen, he was confident. After all, he got to choose the invitees. The system still had the gall to think he was a student.
"One more thing," Tsunade said, looking up. "You've learned a fair bit of Wood Release. Think about announcing it."
Wood Release had special meaning for Konoha, and no one had carried Hashirama's legacy since his death. Publicly revealing Kitazawa's Wood Release would have plenty of upside: declaring that the God of Shinobi's art had an heir; boosting morale and a sense of safety; and, third—raising Kitazawa's own prestige.
For Tsunade, number three mattered most. Once Kitazawa out-shone her, she could retire with honor—and hit the casino every day. She'd wanted to quit forever.
"Announcing it is fine, but words are cheap," Kitazawa said after a moment. "I'd rather pick the right moment to use it in person. That would hit harder."
What's life without a little flair? And it wasn't just for show—based on how the system worked, that would almost certainly trigger a related task. With any luck, the reward would be the chakra he craved.
"You're not wrong," Tsunade admitted, "but chances like that are hard to come by."
If the war with Kirigakure were still on, that would've been perfect. But the war was over, and she wasn't about to start one. Too risky. If Konoha lost, all its momentum would die. Kitazawa couldn't shoulder that risk either—not yet, not without being flat-out invincible.
"Hard doesn't mean impossible," Kitazawa said with a smile. "Let's wait. If nothing turns up, we go public."
"Mm." Tsunade let it drop.
After lunch, Kitazawa headed to the Anbu base. Resting his head on Konan's lap, he mapped out his Wood Release reveal.
The shinobi world was quiet; he wasn't about to pick a fight with Akatsuki for fun—especially since it wasn't just Nagato, but also Uchiha Obito and Black Zetsu.
If the main plot wasn't handing him a stage, maybe the movie arcs would. The Land of Demons—Mōryō—came to mind.
Of his four bows, only two currently had weapon spirits: Satori and the Zero-Tails. Mōryō would make a perfect third. In the original, its abilities resembled Satori's: an immortal monster. Because of that, the priestess of the Land of Demons had to seal it at the cost of their lives.
And the Land of Demons would be a perfect stage for Wood Release: strong opponent; neutral country; and, crucially, an audience. Priestess Miroku had once invited ninja from all five great villages to fight Mōryō's undead army—ideal spectators.
[Current Mission: Let the shinobi world learn your Wood Release's name.]
[Mission Reward: Five cards of chakra.]
[Accept?]
Kitazawa smiled. As expected—he was getting the hang of these triggers.
[Current Mission: Defeat Mōryō.]
[Mission Reward: Impure World Reincarnation.]
[Accept?]
He raised an eyebrow. Not surprised Mōryō triggered a task; surprised the reward was Edo Tensei. Maybe because of the "immortal army." That worked for him—he could always dig up the Second Mizukage, Hōzuki Gengetsu, in Kirigakure. Gato's shipping company had never managed to find his summoning, the mirage clam, Shin.
He closed his eyes and ran through the Land of Demons plot. No ninja there, but they had shrine maidens. The current one, Shion, could foresee others' deaths. She told Naruto he would die—he didn't—and broke her perfect record.
The "priestess power" was never fully explained, but it's said to share a source with Mōryō's power—hence its obsession with the Land of Demons and its maidens. It wanted to devour that power and become invincible.
From what it showed, Mōryō looked like a Yin-Release type—but he'd need to see it himself to be sure.
In the shinobi world, power mostly splits two ways: the chakra system descended from the alien Ōtsutsuki Kaguya, and the natural energy system native to this world.
The plot was simple: Mōryō led an immortal army to consume the priestess. In Miroku's day, she sealed it at the cost of her life. Notably, Mōryō was sealed in two parts—its soul in the Land of Demons, its body in the Land of Swamps.
Normally, it wouldn't break out again until Naruto was about fifteen or sixteen. The key figure was Yomi, Mōryō's follower, who formed the Yomi Sect. Through relentless effort, he found and unsealed Mōryō's soul, housed it in his own body, awakened the undead army, and marched for the Land of Swamps.
Priestess Shion then petitioned the Five Great Nations; Konoha sent Neji, Naruto, Sakura, and Rock Lee. The ending was cheerful enough: Shion lived, and with Team Naruto's help, Mōryō was defeated. Shion developed a crush on Naruto and, at the end, all but confessed—saying she would pass her power to the next priestess and asked Naruto to "lend her his strength." He didn't get it, and the moment passed.
Kitazawa sketched his plan. Step one: locate Yomi. Once Yomi unsealed Mōryō's soul, they'd simply wait for Shion's request for aid. Anbu could handle that part.
Before then, he needed to finalize which active-duty ninja to invite for finals. He'd split the top eighteen students into three tiers by strength and bring in chūnin, special jōnin, and jōnin to match.
And he could invite spectators. That way, the Advance Class's reputation would spread quickly through Konoha.
~~~
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