On New Year's night, Kakashi met Sasuke and Naruto earlier than he was ever meant to.
With paper strips fluttering all over his face, his dead-fish eyes rolling white in resignation, he finally spoke that famous line:
"My first impression of you guys? Yeah… I kind of hate you."
"That's useless. Slap it on him!" Konome Taketori, her own face already plastered with strips, didn't buy his act for a second. She waved at the two broom-haired brats, Naruto and Sasuke, and ordered them to dunk the strip straight into the water cup.
Only half the cold water remained.
Once the paper was soaked through, the two of them pressed it down hard onto Kakashi's chin. The white strip drooped and tangled like a beard, while Might Guy snickered at his best friend's misery from the side.
None of the five had parents. None of them had anyone watching over them.
So what did they do?
They threw holiday traditions, silly rules, and even blood-soaked grudges right out the window. They stayed up all night, playing like lunatics, talking about everything under the sun, until the sky turned clear and washed clean, and the world outside lay buried in silver. Only then did Naruto and Sasuke crunch away through the snow, each returning to his own home.
After New Year, life settled back into calm.
Winter was never a great season for missions. After several long assignments, Might Guy and Kakashi had saved up a decent pile of money, so they ended up following Konome's example and "hibernating" at home too.
Of course, the two of them weren't "lazy" the way she was.
Guy's daily training plan never stopped. When he sprinted around the village carrying heavy stones, a blond little tail often trailed behind him.
A few days later, Konome saw Naruto wearing that same green jumpsuit. When he squat-jumped behind Guy, the two of them looked like a big and a small green frog.
A few days after that, another "frog" joined them, this one with a shiny head: Rock Lee.
A family of three hopping around Konoha like frogs was… a uniquely cursed sight.
Konome had assumed Naruto would become Lee's senior under Guy, but she soon learned that Guy wasn't teaching Naruto the Eight Gates at all, only the taijutsu style of Konoha's Strong Fist.
When she pressed for the reason, Guy explained.
The Eight Gates required brutal training, pushing the body to its limit, until you could force open the Gate of Life.
Konome herself had once been stuck on that step. Back then, she'd relied on "Body Manipulation" to open and close the gates as easily as drinking water.
But Naruto was different.
His chakra was practically endless. Even if he used Shadow Clone spam to burn through his reserves, before he could even "open a gate," that vast chakra would somehow surge back on its own, bottomless and inexhaustible.
Guy had never fought a war with someone this rich. He could teach Lee, whose chakra was also thin and scarce, but faced with Naruto's abnormal case, he was helpless. All he could do was drill the basics with him.
With a true master like Guy guiding him, Naruto's taijutsu improved by the day. Backed by the "gang-beating" power of his Shadow Clones, even Sasuke with an activated Sharingan was no longer his match.
After losing to Naruto, Sasuke trained even harder.
But he didn't have a good teacher. He could only fumble his way forward using his clan scrolls, and his progress was painfully slow. The distance between him and Naruto only grew.
Being defeated by the "dead last" he'd always looked down on hit Sasuke hard.
The worst part was that everyone else was moving forward, while he alone was stuck in place, wasting time. For someone as proud as Sasuke, that reality was unbearable.
To become strong enough, like Konome had said, and then slam Itachi to the ground and force him to answer what really happened the night of the massacre, Sasuke's hunger for strength finally crushed his pride.
He stopped caring about saving face. He ran to the Hatake compound whenever he could, hoping Konome would give him guidance.
Konome was surprised that Sasuke could lower his head at all. Still, she wasn't stingy with what she knew.
A lot of the jutsu scrolls she'd read in Root had come from the Uchiha anyway. Teaching Sasuke shouldn't have been hard.
Then she regretted it.
Talent didn't mean you could teach.
Hand seals too slow. Chakra control messy when casting. Taijutsu movements awkward and stiff.
These were problems she had never once experienced. She didn't even know how to begin explaining them.
Hand seals too slow?
Then don't use seals.
What do you mean your chakra and muscle control are lacking? Isn't it obvious? You control it however you want. How can you not control it?
Because she'd never struggled the way he did, the obstacles Sasuke hit made no sense to her. And if she couldn't even understand the problem, how could she teach him to solve it?
All she could do, in her spare time, was answer a few questions about Fire and Lightning nature transformation. Even that was limited.
Because for her, learning jutsu really was not hard.
Once she'd mastered seven nature transformations, her Byakugan's absurd level of chakra control meant that, as long as it wasn't Yin Yang secret arts, every elemental ninjutsu was just a combination of shape transformation and nature transformation.
She genuinely couldn't understand why Sasuke couldn't learn "simple" Fire Release. Worse, she couldn't even pinpoint what he didn't understand.
Since she couldn't fix his problems and didn't want Sasuke bothering her every other day, she pointed him toward Kakashi, who was reading picture books.
From then on, Konome finally got her peace.
Winter passed. Spring arrived. The Ninja Academy officially started a new term.
The Academy's headmaster, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood on stage to give another Will of Fire speech, welcoming the new students. Because Konome was a transfer student and had missed a semester compared to Naruto's group, their class had already advanced to second year.
Konome sent a Shadow Clone back to the Academy. She didn't see any familiar faces among the new intake.
The Academy's instruction had nothing left to offer her. Attending was mostly an excuse to spar with the Ino Shika Chō trio, watch their clan techniques in real combat, and see what could be borrowed.
After Reverse Eight Gates devoured life, her body underwent a qualitative change from the inside out.
Her body had grown so heavy that she rarely used taijutsu. When she beat up little kids at the Academy, she mostly stood still and used Water Release and Earth Release to fight.
Her appearance had changed a lot too.
Her soul continuously absorbed life force, so every day she looked radiant, like a bright morning sun.
Her facial features didn't change, but her skin grew healthier and more luminous. The sharp, blade-like aura that once kept people at a distance softened into something gentle and warm. With the mysterious "key" mark at her forehead, her popularity at the Academy skyrocketed.
She even carried the faint presence of a former-life idol superstar.
Her fan club exploded until it nearly swallowed the entire school, students and teachers alike.
Worse, the fans even formed factions and fought each other. The new students hadn't even seen Konome yet, but the fan club leaders, desperate for manpower, recruited them by any means necessary, forcing them to wave banners and shout support for their "senpai and senpai."
The banner itself was a photo of Konome.
And judging by the angle, it was definitely taken in secret.
Konome's clone watched them having the time of their lives and realized they didn't actually need her to do anything. That was when she finally understood that "stanning" was more about a feeling than real worship.
She hung Chōji Akimichi upside down with Water Release at the Academy gate as a warning for taking a sneak photo just for a bag of snacks, then let the chaos continue.
Meanwhile, the Yang Release clone stayed in Root's gloomy underground base.
Her task was to research the Sharingan and replicate Mangekyō techniques.
Originally she wanted to coordinate with the main body and kill Danzō immediately. But the main body's abilities were still evolving, and Aburame Ryūma needed time to integrate Root and ANBU personnel and hollow out Danzō's authority.
On top of that, she'd promised the Third Hokage to avoid needless bloodshed if possible, ideally killing only Danzō.
So the Yang Release clone remained undercover.
Of course, she wasn't being mistreated.
Danzō was busy experimenting with his new arm, training his Sharingan and Wood Release secret arts, and he didn't come out to stir trouble for a long time.
As "Danzō's disciple," her status inside Root stabilized further.
She frequently displayed her power in Root's training grounds too. Worship of strength was the norm there, and with help from Aburame Ryūma and others, she effectively became Root's number two.
Beyond the Academy and the Yang Release clone, Konome's now abundant chakra allowed her to create even more clones.
She split off Wind, Water, Fire, and Earth clones, nearly a dozen in total, to research nature transformation and elemental fusion.
The Wind and Fire clones trained the combined techniques Hiruzen had taught her, aiming to develop high-speed, high-pressure jutsu like "water blades."
The Water and Earth clones studied the Wood Release chakra within Hashirama cells together, attempting to recreate the bloodline limit that once shook the world.
The main body devoured plants and animals in the Forest of Death while using the Lightning Stones she'd obtained from Thunder Drum Mountain to temper her Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Naturally, Yin and Lightning fusion, Black Lightning, was also on her research list.
Right now she had no foundation in nature fusion at all. She could only start by studying Kumogakure's Black Lightning method, then use it as a base to infer other fusions.
Progress wasn't fast, but it wasn't slow either. Every half month to month, she gained something.
She wasn't in a hurry.
With the God Tree seed already in hand, even if she couldn't freely fuse a Kekkei Mōra on her own, she could later go to the moon, activate the God Tree, absorb the Tailed Beasts' power, and condense a "chakra fruit," using the ancient method to obtain the power of all creation and enter Six Paths.
With Reverse Eight Gates accelerating her growth, all she needed was to keep devouring life force and wait as her body digested and absorbed it, nourishing the development of her Sage Body.
Once her Sage Body developed far enough to contend with Ash Bones, she would let Ash Bones advance. She would naturally step into the realm beyond Kage.
The daily surge of energy from her cells didn't inflate her ego.
If anything, the stronger she became, the calmer and more composed her heart grew.
She never sought power to win glory or bully others.
She sought it for peace of mind.
Power gave a fierce sense of security. Even if another massive earthquake struck, she could protect her friends and loved ones now. She would never again be as helpless as she'd been in her previous life.
Her heart finally found a measure of stillness.
Unexpectedly, when Konome slowed her pace, it was as if she'd set down an invisible burden. The moment her tightly wound mind loosened, her mood lightened, and that comfort ended up stimulating her Byakugan's evolution.
The "fetal movement" reaction in both eyes grew more intense. It felt as if something blocked inside the eyeballs was being pierced open little by little with a steel needle. Her chakra pathways became smooth and unimpeded, while some strange chakra gathered and fermented within her pupils.
Konome could feel how much chakra her eyes absorbed and consumed each day.
Just the amount alone exceeded the total chakra reserves of a jōnin.
And considering the abnormal "quality" of her violet chakra, she knew one thing for certain.
Whatever her future dōjutsu would be, it would not be ordinary.
No wonder the Byakugan had never shown much miraculous power before. If the Byakugan had begun evolving first, its consumption would likely have been even more terrifying than Ash Bones.
Add them together, and Konome would have been drained into something like Nagato's gaunt, hollow frame long ago.
The Sage Body's evolution was no small matter either.
Her Sage Body was neither Senju nor Uzumaki. It was a special physique cultivated through Reverse Eight Gates, devouring the life of all things.
Konome still called it a "Sage Body," but the differences between the three were real.
According to Senju Tsubaki, the Uzumaki "Sage Body" leaned more toward support functions like sealing, sensing, and healing. Its representative abilities were Adamantine Sealing Chains, Kagura's Mind Eye, and vitality-based healing.
The Senju "Sage Body," on the other hand, excelled in combat: taijutsu, ninjutsu, and senjutsu. Its representative abilities were Wood Release, Sage Mode, and physical strengthening.
Konome didn't know the Uzumaki side well. As for the Senju, very few ever awakened Wood Release or Sage Mode. Those who did were monsters, the strongest of their generations.
From Tsubaki's information, Konome finally understood where Hashirama Senju's Sage Mode came from.
It was actually an innate skill attached to the Senju bloodline limit.
Konome reorganized the bloodline limits in her head and realized that, aside from the Byakugan, the Sage Body, Sharingan, and Shikotsumyaku also seemed to have three stages.
Stage one: physical strengthening (or vitality healing), the three-tomoe Sharingan, and crude body manipulation (the "corpse" level).
Stage two: Wood Release (or Adamantine Chains), Mangekyō Sharingan, and bone manipulation and reinforcement (the "bone" level).
Stage three: perfect Sage Mode (or Kagura's Mind Eye), Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, and Ash Bones.
Kagura's Mind Eye felt a little underpowered compared to the other stage-three equivalents, so Konome wasn't sure whether the Uzumaki had other hidden traits. That part remained uncertain.
But broadly speaking, the grading made sense.
By her system, her self-cultivated Sage Body was currently early stage one.
Shikotsumyaku was half a step into stage three.
Her pair of Sharingan were stage-one peak, perfected, but would never truly step into stage two.
Like someone who forced a breakthrough with pills when young and wasted their future potential.
Sharingan and Shikotsumyaku aside, Konome realized something unsettling.
Her Sage Body's stage one didn't seem to come with "physical strengthening" or "vitality healing" as a clear special feature.
If she had to name what changed after awakening…
Her mind immediately went to her ridiculously dense muscle tissue, and her tank-level weight.
Could her ability be…
"Weight Enhancement?" Or "Muscle Enhancement?"
The more she thought about it, the more plausible it felt.
Her self-cultivated Sage Body might have synchronized with Shikotsumyaku, creating a linked effect that increased bodily density. Otherwise, it was hard to explain how her frame hadn't changed, yet her weight had multiplied several times over.
At this rate, she could hardly imagine what her Sage Body's third stage would awaken as.
But it probably wouldn't be anything Senju or Uzumaki ever had.
It would be something new, something belonging to her alone.
There wasn't just one or two blind boxes waiting to be opened.
With that mindset, time flowed like water.
In the blink of an eye, five years had passed.
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