If everything Rei had explained was actually true, his bloodline limit was practically the textbook definition of a perfectly balanced power system. Even if the two combat shadows he had mentioned weren't absurdly overpowered on their own—say, topping out somewhere around the Chunin rank—when you factored in everything else, alongside Rei's own personal growth potential, the kid was undeniably destined to grow up into a formidable monster on the battlefield.
Granted, reaching the absurd, god-like heights of Senju Hashirama was probably a pipedream. That man was less of a shinobi and more of a walking natural disaster who terraformed landscapes for fun. But reaching the absolute peak of Kage-level? Becoming outright invincible among standard Kage-rank warriors? That was practically a guaranteed outcome.
Then, completely out of nowhere, Rei opened his mouth.
"Why doesn't Mr. Hokage try it out himself?"
Hiruzen froze mid-puff, his pipe hanging loosely between his lips. A heavy silence settled over the room before an amused smile slowly spread across the old man's wrinkled face. "Oh? Are you showing me a bit of your dissatisfaction, little Rei? Very well. As you wish... let's test out this shadow of yours."
Before the Hokage could even finish his sentence, Tsunade violently nudged Rei with her elbow, nearly knocking the air out of his lungs. She leaned in close, her eyes wide as she hissed in a hurried whisper, "Rei, don't be so damn reckless! Look, I know my teacher is a perverted old bastard, but he's genuinely strong! Didn't you literally just say your shadows don't come back if they get destroyed?"
Rei maintained a completely casual face, rubbing his sore ribs. "I just want to test its strength, Tsunade-nee. And don't worry—that particular shadow has a crazy regeneration ability. He won't die easily."
In reality, Rei was practically dying to test Mahoraga's actual combat capability.
According to his understanding of the ability, the Eight-Handed Sword Divergent Sila Divine General Mahoraga should easily baseline at Kage-rank in terms of sheer physical stats, even without factoring in its broken adaptation trait.
When Megumi summoned Mahoraga in Shibuya, Sukuna swatted the beast through multiple skyscrapers at hypersonic speeds, smashing it into the pavement with enough kinetic force to level a city block. And Mahoraga barely even flinched, popping right back up like an unstoppable, muscle-bound tank.
In terms of pure physical durability, raw striking power, and speed, monster-tier entities like Sukuna and Gojo easily scaled to Kage-level threats in the Naruto world, if not higher.
Rei needed to confirm if his shadow was truly on that level. And if he verified that Mahoraga really was a solid Kage-rank juggernaut? Well, then there was nothing else to say.
He wouldn't have to give a single fuck about the dusty old Konoha elders anymore. If those politically decaying old coots ever got on his nerves or tried to pull some shady shit, he could literally just summon Mahoraga and slap them to death. Problem solved, permanently.
"Why don't you get some rest for now?" Hiruzen broke the silence, clearing his throat and tapping the ashes out of his pipe. "We can conduct the test tomorrow morning."
"Works for me," Rei agreed instantly.
Without dragging things out any further, Hiruzen turned around and directly left the hospital room.
The second the door clicked shut, Tsunade turned back to him, her brows deeply furrowed with concern. "Are you really sure about this, Rei?"
"Yeah, I just want to see my new shadow fight a bit. It's really not that serious," Rei replied with a nonchalant shrug. Then, his face suddenly darkened as a chilling thought struck him. "Oh, by the way... please don't tell my grandparents. If they find out I challenged the Hokage to a duel, they will literally skin me alive and eat me for dinner."
The next morning, Training Ground 2.
Even though it was early in the morning, the training field was already completely packed with people.
Looking at the massive, noisy crowd standing behind the barricades, Rei's mouth twitched violently.
A few minutes later, Hiruzen arrived at the field. The moment the Third Hokage saw the sheer density of the crowd, he froze in place, his face twitching in the exact same state of utter disbelief.
Yesterday, while the three of them were busy talking in the hospital, they had completely forgotten one critical factor: there was a fourth person in that room.
The nurse.
And this was the glorious, chaotic consequence of a hospital nurse possessing zero gossip filter.
As Rei walked toward the designated center ring, he could hear the surrounding crowd buzzing with wildly distorted rumors.
"Hey, did you hear about Rei?"
"Who the hell is Rei?"
"He's the kid who awakened a perfect bloodline ability! I heard it's way more broken than the Uchiha!"
"Are you serious?!" another passerby gasped, eyes popping out.
"Yeah! And get this—I heard Hokage-sama himself wanted to test it out, so he personally challenged Rei to a fight!"
"What?!" a nearby woman yelled, horrified. "Isn't Rei just a five-year-old kid?! Is Hokage-sama seriously flexing on a toddler?"
"Right?! That's what I said! Even if the kid's bloodline is super powerful, what can a six-year-old do against the Hokage? I didn't expect Hokage-sama to be this kind of person..."
"Me neither! I always thought he was a kind, gentle old man! Turns out he's a total bully!"
Rei listened to the crowd casually slandering the leader of the village, his left eye twitching like an active power line.
Obviously, a single nurse couldn't possibly spread a rumor across the entire village in less than twenty-four hours with this level of speed and detail. There was definitely someone else fanning the flames from the shadows, intentionally stirring up public outrage to back Hiruzen into a corner.
And the second Rei heard the crowd taking his side while smearing the Hokage, he instantly knew who was behind it.
Who else could it be besides Shimura Danzo?
Honestly, whenever something shady or chaotic happened in Konoha and you didn't know who did it, just blame Shimura Danzo. You'll be correct 99 times out of 100. As for that 1 remaining time? Danzo was probably just running a little late and couldn't do it himself.
So, thanks to that scheming old mummy fanning the flames behind the scenes, a private, low-key sparring session had instantly transformed into a massive village spectacle.
Which made Rei thoroughly, deeply annoyed.
To be completely honest, he didn't want to become a ninja at all.
Before all this drama, sure, he had thought about getting stronger—mostly because living in a world full of eyeball-stealing lunatics without power was a guaranteed death sentence. But he had also done the math. Without a broken bloodline or a cheat system, trying to grind your way past Kage-level through pure, honest effort was a nightmare.
Why sweat blood and tears trying to train like a dog when you could just mooch off absurdly overpowered cheats?
Grinding hand signs for twenty painful years just to reach Shadow level when guys like Kevin existed?! One single kick from a To'kustar could obliterate an entire shinobi continent! A hundred years of hard Ninja training was utterly meaningless in front of these cheat codes!
Rei's ideal life plan was simple: mooch off his overpowered alter-egos, relax, gamble away Tsunade's money, eat good food, and casually enjoy life until he passively became invincible!
"Work hard" was a scam; "mooch off god-tier cheat powers" was the true path to enlightenment.
But now?
Looking at the hundreds of eyes locked onto him and feeling the subtle political trap Danzo had set up, Rei realized his dream of living a peaceful, low-profile slacker life was officially ruined.
Whether he liked it or not, he was getting dragged kicking and screaming right into the center of the shinobi world's chaotic bullshit.
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