The morning sun rose on schedule—while far above, Konoha's leadership quietly decided a child's future.
The next morning, the sun clocked in right on time.
On the roof, Adrian Voss sat cross-legged facing the newborn light, maintaining his daily breathing practice.
With each steady inhale and exhale, a warm current flowed into his body, circulating through pathways he couldn't fully explain—nourishing every part of him before sinking into a dense reservoir deep in his lower abdomen.
Three years.
Day after day, he'd kept at it.
If someone with the Byakugan could peer inside him, they might notice something strange: a misty, high-quality chakra accumulation swirling within his core, thick and steady like fog.
Even Adrian didn't completely understand it.
The first time he successfully refined chakra, he'd also sensed another faint stream of energy—small and slippery like a mouse—darting through his body's channels on its own. He'd tried controlling it, guiding it, breathing in as if drawing something from the air around him.
And slowly, it grew.
Now, that "breath" had become a hazy sea inside him—endless and persistent, as if it were waiting for a tipping point… waiting for a day when quantity would become something else entirely.
Adrian didn't know if this world had "spiritual energy," or if he was simply tapping into the shinobi world's natural energy in an unfamiliar way.
The only thing he did know was this:
Whenever he used ninjutsu, what drained was the chakra he refined the normal way.
But this other presence—this misty reservoir—never seemed to diminish. It only quietly accumulated, day after day, thicker than before.
Even without understanding the benefit, Adrian spent half an hour every morning and every night maintaining it.
He exhaled a long, impure breath.
Instantly, his mind felt clear. His spirit sharp. His body didn't feel noticeably stronger—but that crisp clarity alone made it worth the effort.
With one hand, Adrian pushed himself up and hopped down from the roof. Seven or eight meters was nothing for a shinobi—especially not for him.
"Shizune, ready?" he called as he headed toward the kitchen.
Shizune was packing their lunches. Adrian did most of the cooking, and she mostly helped—though his flower clones could do plenty too. They could eat, train, even handle basic errands. They saved him a lot of time.
"I'm done," Shizune said, stepping out with two lunch boxes—one large, one small.
Adrian took them from her hands, then casually ruffled her hair.
"Let's go. We'll be late."
"Mm." Shizune nodded obediently, then hesitated. "Tsunade-sama's been gone for days… I wonder when she'll be back."
Adrian thought for a moment. "Probably in the next day or two."
…
In Konoha, there were two female shinobi you absolutely did not provoke.
One was Tsunade—granddaughter of the First Hokage, princess of the Senju, legendary medical ninja, notorious gambler… and famously incapable of winning a bet.
The other had a lower official status, but her destructive power and sheer ferocity dwarfed even Tsunade's.
The Nine-Tails jinchūriki.
Kushina Uzumaki—the "Red-Hot Habanero."
That day, as usual, the Hokage Tower was nearly demolished.
After a long chain of compromises and careful word choices, the building survived. As Kushina stormed out of the office—each step making the floor tremble—her crimson hair whipping like it had a will of its own, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi finally released a slow breath.
He had managed to stop her from leaving the village.
But now came the harder problem: how to "assign her new toys" so she could burn off her restless energy—without endangering Konoha's most sensitive asset.
Hiruzen rubbed his temple and began flipping through this year's graduation files.
One card after another.
Until he selected three.
Shizune — related to Dan Katō. Her background was as solid as it got.
Yuanhai — a civilian-born child from an old Konoha family line; his father had died on the Sand front during the Second Shinobi World War. No issues there.
And finally—
Adrian Voss — a war orphan from the Rain front, cleared by ANBU observation, currently living in Tsunade's household, with outstanding shinobi aptitude.
That profile was clean enough. Konoha took in countless war orphans every year. And being raised under Tsunade's roof only strengthened the legitimacy.
The one thing that annoyed Hiruzen was something he couldn't ignore.
Adrian's grades in The Will of Fire and Bonds of the Ninja—the most "important" ideological courses in the academy—were hovering around the passing line.
That alone wouldn't be unheard of.
Talented shinobi sometimes had uneven academics.
But then Hiruzen looked at the rest of Adrian's scores—
Perfect marks in difficult subjects like advanced mathematics, applied physics, and applied chemistry—
…and then failed to excel in a course where memorization alone could earn top scores.
That wasn't "weakness."
That was an attitude problem.
On the academy training grounds, where students were preparing for their practical exam, Adrian had no idea his little academic rebellion had already reached the Hokage's desk.
He wanted to stay hidden—but he refused to score well in something that felt like propaganda. It was childish, sure. But it was also stubbornly him, like refusing to "play nice" in subjects he disliked back in school.
In his mind, Konoha's leadership wasn't as gentle as it pretended to be. Too many things in this world reeked of controlled narratives and quiet sacrifices.
Adrian didn't care about titles or fame.
He cared about living well.
Earning money.
Staying out of the village's political swamp.
And if he wanted to do that, there was only one real solution:
Become so strong that plots and schemes didn't matter.
That was why he kept his head down, avoided attention, and even deliberately held back in practical exams.
While Hiruzen weighed whether Adrian could be placed under Kushina's supervision, a knock sounded at the office door.
"Come in."
A woman entered.
Long blonde hair tied in a high ponytail, a violet diamond-shaped mark on her forehead, a striking face, and a long dark-green coat with a bold kanji on the back.
Gamble.
"Tsunade," Hiruzen said, blinking in surprise. "When did you get back?"
"Just now," Tsunade replied flatly. "I came to report in."
There was no warmth in her voice—no affection. Whatever bond teacher and student once had, it had long since been worn thin.
Hiruzen didn't react to her coldness. "Did things go smoothly?"
"Mm. No issues."
He nodded, then suddenly remembered the report he'd read earlier.
"Oh. Last night—Konoha's back mountain. The Sand infiltrator you killed. Did you get any information?"
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "Back mountain? Sand infiltrator?"
She didn't understand what he meant at first.
Then something clicked.
That brat… Adrian trained in the back mountain late all the time.
Tsunade knew exactly what kind of child he was. Three years of growth had made one thing painfully clear: the boy was absurdly talented, frighteningly steady, and far more dangerous than he ever looked. If she didn't take him seriously, even she could be caught off guard at times.
But in the academy, he kept a low profile. Nothing like Kakashi's early fame.
On Adrian, Tsunade saw only one word:
"Cautious."
And honestly… after losing her brother and Dan to war, she didn't blame him for it.
She paused briefly, then raised an eyebrow and countered without missing a beat.
"Last night? Oh, that. I called my kid home for dinner and gave him a smack. Wasn't it handled already?"
Hiruzen didn't doubt her.
"It's been handed to ANBU."
Then he glanced back at the three selected files and asked, "What do you think about Shizune and Adrian becoming Kushina's students? She's been storming in here every day lately…"
At the mention of Kushina, Hiruzen could only sigh.
Tsunade's expression shifted.
Adrian's calm, careful nature… paired with Kushina's explosive, relentless personality…
A slow, wicked amusement rose in her eyes.
That brat always complained about her.
Now he'd get a taste of something even worse.
Tsunade's lips curved.
"Sure," she said cheerfully. "No problem."
Hiruzen hesitated anyway. "And Adrian… there's nothing concerning him?"
Tsunade's smile vanished.
Her voice went cold.
"He's someone I brought back. If you don't trust him, choose someone else."
Hiruzen fell silent for a moment, then nodded.
Meanwhile, on the academy grounds, Adrian stood among the students preparing for combat evaluation, completely unaware that his fate had already been decided—
—and that he was about to be placed under the supervision of Konoha's infamous Red-Hot Habanero.
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