At the exact moment Konome Taketori was fusing Wood Release chakra, to the east of Konoha, at Training Ground No. 12 near the daimyo's estate, a beautiful young girl in a kimono lounged with one leg crossed against a giant tree.
She held a radio in one hand, calmly feeding intelligence to her teammates far away. Her beauty was so captivating that even the enormous tree, one that would take more than a dozen people linking arms to hug, seemed to droop toward her in surrender.
Maybe it was not beauty.
Maybe it was fear.
Kakashi stared at the tree behind Konome, listening to it creak and crack as it bent under pressure, and he curled his lips, unable to look for too long.
He could not imagine who in the world could marry this elephant wearing human skin. Whoever it was would instantly become the person Kakashi respected most in his entire life, no exceptions.
"The target is southeast. About two kilometers from you."
Unaware of the slander happening inside Kakashi's head, Konome raised the radio and loudly gave Naruto and Sasuke the target's direction.
"Copy!" "Copy!"
Two replies snapped back instantly. A flash of white-blue and a streak of black-orange cut through the forest at high speed, chasing in the direction Konome indicated.
Her gaze followed the four-legged creature sprinting through the trees.
The Shadow Clone of Konome, now "Genin Konome" instead of "Academy Konome," opened her Byakugan. The eyes had nearly turned the color of dead ash, and the stabbing glow of her dojutsu was so sharp that even a black hood could not fully hide it.
The Grey Eyes were on the level of the Tenseigan, the Rinnegan, and other ultimate dojutsu. Even though the "gestation" was not fully complete, their power was already impossible to dismiss.
And no, the long gestation period was not strange.
The Tenseigan's gestation was short because the giant Tenseigan served as a bridge.
The Rinnegan was so slow that it dragged Madara Uchiha all the way to old age before it evolved into a half-finished form, and it only truly stabilized later, nourished by Nagato's special body.
For Konome's Grey Eyes to reach this stage in such a short time was largely thanks to the support of the Reversed Eight Gates. Even if her ultimate ocular technique had not yet manifested, the strengthened eye power had already pushed her long-range sight, x-ray perception, chakra manipulation, and other Byakugan abilities dozens of times beyond normal.
Her most terrifying long-range vision could see from the center of Konoha all the way to the outermost perimeter line. With a full 360-degree Byakugan active, everything in the village, excluding certain barrier-protected zones, lay within her sight.
In range, it rivaled Pain's Rain Tiger at Will technique. In precision, it far surpassed Hiruzen Sarutobi's crystal ball.
If this ability fell into the hands of someone like Jiraiya or Hiruzen, the women of Konoha would face an absolute catastrophe.
Of course, the price Konome paid to obtain such power was equally brutal.
Starting two years ago, as her Grey Eyes entered mid-gestation, they began absorbing massive amounts of chakra every day. The energy her main body had poured into them over the years was astronomical.
Without the rapid evolution of her Sage Body, and without the extreme abundance of resources in the Forest of Death, she could never have "fed" the Grey Eyes, much less maintain this invincible set of bloodlines.
Her chakra first had to sustain the Grey Eyes' gestation.
Her Sage Body needed to devour life to advance.
The Reversed Eight Gates consumed frightening amounts of energy.
Her bootleg Kotoamatsukami burned through Sharingan ocular power.
Her Shikotsumyaku-enhanced monstrous physique demanded enormous fuel just to keep metabolism stable.
And on top of that, there were the Shadow Clones researching every kind of nature transformation.
By the law of conservation of energy, the stronger the ability, the more terrifying the energy demand.
None of the bloodlines in her body were gentle. The least expensive among them was ironically that pair of three-tomoe Sharingan, which could still drain two Kakashis dry.
Someone once asked a fun question.
Since nature had creatures like electric eels, why did no animals evolve the ability to breathe fire?
Because fire-breathing costs too much energy. The energy expenditure far exceeds the energy gained from catching prey. The numbers never balance, so evolution does not "invest" in that stupidity.
Konome's growing laziness over the years came from the same reason.
If every time she acted, the reward did not even exceed the chakra she spent, then she was simply bleeding resources for nothing.
"Sasuke, the target is at your three o'clock. Seven hundred meters left! It spotted you, hurry!"
Genin Konome leaned against the giant tree, not moving an inch, simply barking into the radio.
Her Grey Eyes locked firmly onto the agile figure ahead of Sasuke. And the thing that made her so urgent was not some terrifying monster, nor an infiltrating Kage-level or beyond-Kage-level enemy.
It was a fat, brown-yellow cat.
Whoosh!
A small black shadow shot through the forest, skimming the ground like it was flying.
Sasuke chased close behind, lightning wrapped around his legs. His hair streamed backward, hands clasped behind him, and his scarlet Sharingan had already locked onto the cat's path, predicting its movements and cutting off its escape routes.
"Meow!"
The cat saw the lightning-flashing boy ahead and freaked out. Its fur exploded outward. It slammed its paws down, kicking up dust, spun a full three hundred and sixty degrees in midair, and tried to flee the other way.
"Naruto!"
"I'm here!"
At Sasuke's shout, Naruto dropped from above. He grabbed the collar of his orange jacket with both hands, turning himself into a human-shaped bird net, and slammed down, pinning the fleeing cat to the ground in one clean catch.
Two kilometers away, Genin Konome stood up, looked at the cat thrashing uselessly inside Naruto's jacket, then getting lifted by the scruff in Sasuke's hand, and gave Kakashi an OK sign.
She did not need to say a word.
As long as Kakashi heard the tree behind her creaking, he understood perfectly and calmly checked a box on his paper.
As one of Konoha's few elite jonin, Kakashi had already received the news that a joint Chunin Exam was about to be held.
But the matter was still classified. He could not speak about it casually.
The minimum requirement to enter the Chunin Exams was at least eight completed missions. Usually, once you moved to C-rank missions, you had to leave the village. A round trip often took one to two months.
Team 7 simply did not have that time.
So they had to grind fast D-rank missions to meet the quota first.
At this point, they had exactly seven D-rank missions done. One more D-rank mission and they could finally move on to a C-rank.
For a monster squad like this, even A-rank missions would not be much of a problem. But at least they would stop spending their days chasing cats and picking up trash.
"Meow! Meow!"
"Ah Hu!"
The first-floor hall of the Hokage Building echoed with a tragic howl. A fat man with a face full of meat grabbed the terrified cat and rubbed it against his cheek like his life depended on it.
Team 7 counted their pitiful payment, then looked at the even more pitiful Ah Hu, and felt a cold wind in their hearts.
D-rank mission: Assist Lady Shizumi, wife of the Fire Daimyo, in recovering her lost cat Ah Hu. Reward: 3,000 ryo.
After the village took its cut, the four of them split the remainder and each got roughly 700 ryo.
A bowl of Ichiraku ramen cost exactly 70 ryo.
Meaning four bloodline "jonin-level" monsters were deployed to catch a pet cat, each one effectively hired for ten bowls of ramen.
Konoha's economy was broken.
That was the only conclusion Sasuke could reach after doing the math.
"Is your sword still not repaired, Sasuke?" Naruto asked while pulling on his dust-covered orange jacket. His face was full of frustration.
The grand ninja life he imagined was nothing like this. They had caught this same cat three times already this month, and he had no idea how many more times they would be sent to do it again.
If his entire ninja career was going to be stuck in a loop of trash collecting, field planting, and cat catching, he was not even in the mood to train.
"It's repaired."
Sasuke did not say much, but impatience had been boiling in him for a long time. He patted the bandage-wrapped forearm. Hidden beneath the wraps were countless sealing formulas. His chakra-metal blade, wires, shuriken and more were all sealed inside, ready to be summoned at any time.
"Great! Kakashi-sensei, let's go ask Grandpa Third right now. I refuse to do these boring missions anymore!"
Naruto practically launched three feet into the air and grabbed Kakashi's arm, dragging him toward the stairs.
Naruto was far stronger than in canon, and the only reason he endured this long was because Sasuke's sword had been under repair. Now that the weapon was back, he was done with trash-tier missions.
"Hey, wait, Naruto. It'd be best to do one more D-rank first…" Kakashi tried to hint, unable to reveal the classified Chunin Exam.
But Sasuke had reached his limit too. He pushed Kakashi from behind, and with Naruto pulling in front, the two of them marched their struggling teacher up to the third floor.
Konome, who already knew what was coming, followed behind while looking down at the mission waiting area.
A nervous old man in a straw hat stood there.
He dressed like an ordinary farmer, but a pair of glasses sat on his nose, giving him a strangely scholarly air.
It could only be Bridge Builder Tazuna.
Konome considered the Land of Waves mission.
She also wondered whether the Zabuza she remembered, the one who had accidentally boarded that "Hell Ship" six years ago, would still appear as expected.
After the stair framework had been reinforced with Earth Release, she entered the Hokage's office as if stepping back into something familiar.
"We don't want missions like this! Give us something bigger! Change our mission!"
Before she even reached the door, Naruto's loud voice was already shaking the room.
When Konome stepped inside, the cracked floor and the hole in the ground were long since repaired, though the new patch of wall paint still looked awkwardly fresh.
Naruto stood there with both arms crossed in front of his chest, shaking his head like his life depended on it.
For the first time in a long while, Konome was facing a scene that matched the canon story so closely that she felt an odd sensation, like she was back on Earth watching the anime.
Then the "anime character" turned and dragged her into the scene.
"Right, Konome?"
Naruto saw Hiruzen Sarutobi looking troubled and immediately ran to Konome for backup.
Konome, who had been mentally watching the episode, was suddenly forced to "interact" in real time. Confused, she could only nod.
"Sigh. I really can't do anything with you kids," Hiruzen said, sounding helpless. "Fine. There's a higher-level mission that just came in. I'll assign it to Team 7."
Hiruzen sighed again. With even Konome backing Naruto's stubbornness, he could only give them a mission that was relatively close by.
The joint Chunin Exams would showcase Konoha's strength, stabilize international tensions, and boost the village's mission flow.
A super-overpowered genin squad like Team 7 absolutely needed to participate.
But while the exam location was Konoha, the schedule was not fully up to Konoha alone.
The Sand shinobi had to travel from deep desert territory. They would arrive, rest briefly, and then begin registrations.
Because the travel time was unpredictable, Hiruzen did not want Team 7 going too far away.
Still, this mission was not ordinary at all.
Besides Team 7, he truly could not find a better fit. If Konome insisted, then so be it.
With her watching, nothing should go wrong.
"Bring Mr. Tazuna up."
Hiruzen handed the mission sheet to the ANBU at his side. The masked shinobi vanished in a puff of smoke.
Naruto and Sasuke instantly relaxed. Only Kakashi, watching Hiruzen flip so easily the moment Konome nodded, wore helpless resignation in his dead-fish eyes.
While waiting for Tazuna, Konome chatted with Hiruzen.
"How is Enma's injury?"
"He's healed," Hiruzen said, expression strange. "But he says he can't find a monkey that matches your level, so there's no way to sign a contract."
The memory of his old partner getting punched unconscious almost made Hiruzen lose his composure.
"He's mad?" Konome asked.
She was truly starving for Enma's adamantine body. If she could learn that technique, then at full power her taijutsu would reach the peak of the ninja world.
Even Eight Gates Guy might not be able to beat her.
"No," Hiruzen said, shaking his head. "Enma is fiercely competitive. This loss hit him hard. He said he's going to train at Mount Huaguo for a while, then come back and challenge your taijutsu again."
"Mount Huaguo?"
The moment she heard that name, so painfully familiar, Konome's expression turned complicated.
"It's the home of the monkey clan," Hiruzen explained casually. "They've lived there for generations."
Konome could only accept it with a grim sort of humor.
Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Adamantine body.
Mount Huaguo.
The set was complete.
Too bad Water Curtain Cave and the title of Sun Wukong belonged to the Four-Tails.
Wait.
Something felt wrong.
Mount Huaguo, Water Curtain Cave, Ruyi Jingu Bang.
These thunderous names flashed in her mind and connected like glowing lines, forming a guess she could not ignore.
Could the Four-Tails' Water Curtain Cave actually be on the monkey clan's Mount Huaguo?
And wasn't there a Lava Release technique called Mount Huaguo?
The names overlapped perfectly. The "myth elements" matched far too cleanly.
If it was all coincidence, the odds were absurd.
There had to be a connection.
What connection?
Konome pinched her chin, the answer hovering on her tongue, just out of reach, and it irritated her.
Irritation… Samehada.
Like lightning across her thoughts, she remembered the great blade in the Yang Release clone's hands.
Samehada had been the little "follower fish" stuck under the Three-Tails' belly, responsible for helping it digest food and refining chakra. Later, after the Three-Tails was sealed, the Mist turned Samehada into a ninja sword.
Could the monkey clan's relationship with the Four-Tails, Son Gokū, be similar to Samehada's relationship with Isobu?
The more she connected the dots, the brighter her eyes became.
The Four-Tails specialized in Lava Release.
The monkey clan seemed skilled with Fire Release.
What if they were the Four-Tails' companion species, with the special ability to transform into the Ruyi Jingu Bang and fight alongside it?
Then after the Four-Tails was sealed, the monkey clan remained on Mount Huaguo, multiplying and evolving into their own civilization.
Samehada was the wire that threaded everything together, turning scattered clues into a single chain.
With one sentence from Hiruzen and the shared weight of those names, Konome had already begun to glimpse the monkey clan's true origin.
If that was the truth, then the monkey clan and Mount Huaguo were ancient enough that they might genuinely possess a senjutsu lineage.
While Konome was thinking, the ANBU returned with the straw-hat old man.
"Third Hokage-sama," the ANBU said. "Mr. Tazuna has arrived."
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