"So comfortable…"
In Konohagakure, Kitagawa Gen slowly stirred from bed, groggy and disoriented. When he glanced at the time, it was already midday.
He hadn't taken part in the talks between Konoha and Kumogakure at all.
Partly because he just didn't care much about such matters… but more importantly—
"Kakashi-sensei, seriously… All I did was offer a good plan. Did you really have to go and report everything word-for-word to Sarutobi Hiruzen?"
Thinking back to that day, he had leisurely followed Kakashi to the ANBU base outside the village, helping remove the Flying Thunder God seal from the Fourth Raikage.
Kakashi had reported his "plan" to the Third Hokage exactly as it was, which immediately caused Hiruzen's face to go pale. If Tsunade hadn't been there, he might have ended up in the hospital—again.
"I mean, come on—you were hailed as a hero of the shinobi world once. Why lose your nerve now?"
Kitagawa Gen muttered the complaint to himself as he washed up, though he understood the situation clearly.
What he came up with—well, there was a good chance Kumogakure had already guessed parts of it too. Especially since the Fourth Raikage's distrust toward him was dialed up to the maximum.
Even after removing the seal, the Raikage had looked at him like his eyes were saying: "You're full of shit."
"Whatever. No point wasting time on an idiot like him."
Kitagawa Gen dismissed the thought and refocused. He had far more important things to worry about now.
The recent enhancement of his eyes had once again boosted his power—and with it came a host of new abilities.
He needed to seriously think about how best to use them.
He didn't want to be like Nagato—someone who only knew how to brute-force everything at max output.
"All that power, sure. But if your tactics and technique suck, then what's the point?"
Aside from his ocular powers, his chakra had also skyrocketed. Still, to him, that growth mostly just represented a higher upper limit.
"Even with tailed beast chakra—or Jinchūriki chakra that's practically infinite—you still get your ass beat if you can't use it properly. It's the same for the Ōtsutsuki. I've got a long way to go."
Keep a steady mindset—only then can you see the path ahead.
Kitagawa Gen knew exactly where he fell short. And he wasn't the type to slack off.
"Well then, time to find Kakashi and see what he's lined up for me today."
After finishing his morning routine, Kitagawa Gen was ready to head out—but something suddenly came to mind.
He reached into his ninja tool pouch and pulled out a scroll.
"Obito's right arm…"
Looking at the scroll, an odd expression crept onto his face.
This thing—how many "peers" of his had made a fortune off it?
It wasn't like he hadn't considered acquiring it himself. But now that he had it in hand… he realized he didn't really need it anymore.
"Still, it's a valuable item. If I use it well, it might have some unexpected effects."
The tricky part was just… finding the right moment to bring it out. And then something else occurred to him.
"Yahiko's chakra was scrambled by my Rasengan, and the black rod was pulled out. Nagato couldn't retrieve him in time, and Black Zetsu took the body instead."
"That body—could it be repaired using the Naraka Path?"
"But more importantly… if I were to use this thing on Yahiko's body, could it withstand the full power of the Rinnegan?"
...
The contact between Konohagakure and Kumogakure stirred no small amount of commotion across the shinobi world.
But the ones truly exhausted by it were the ANBU intelligence agents. For Kitagawa Gen and the others, things weren't nearly as bad.
After all, he wasn't ANBU. And at the moment, he didn't even have any missions to take on.
Maybe it was because Hiruzen thought he needed a proper break… or maybe it was because every mission he went on somehow spiraled into ridiculous situations.
Either way, he had no assignments for the time being. So his days were split between serious training… and aimlessly wandering the streets of Konoha like a drifter.
Just like that, the days slipped by, and the shinobi world welcomed the New Year.
"Finally! Vacation! Hell yeah!"
Walking down the main street of Konoha, Naruto couldn't help but leap into the air with joy—prompting Kitagawa Gen to shake his head.
"I'm serious, could you calm down a little? Aren't you embarrassed acting like that in public?"
"Pfft, that's because you've got no idea how much hell we've been through lately!"
Naruto, clearly annoyed, immediately started counting off on his fingers as he spoke.
"Iruka-sensei was already strict enough as it was, but for some reason, he's gotten even scarier this past semester!"
"How so?"
"Like yeah, he already didn't let us skip class or sleep through lectures before, but back then you could still get away with stuff if you were sneaky. Now? It's like he's glued to our backs 24/7!"
"…"
"I don't even know how many times I got caught! Total bad luck! I mean, just hearing stuff like 'calculate the flight distance of a shuriken' puts me to sleep—and every single time, boom, busted!"
"…"
"And if that wasn't enough, now we've gotta memorize the 'Shinobi Code' every day! Not just read it—memorize it! And don't even get me started on the Will of Fire textbook! We've gotta learn the whole thing!"
"…"
"Damn it! My brain's gonna explode just thinking about that stuff! Aaargh!!"
Watching Naruto go absolutely berserk, Kitagawa Gen couldn't help but feel a bit surprised.
What the hell?
Since when did Konoha get this intense about education?
He rubbed his chin and asked curiously, "I remember back when I was in school, nobody cared if you skipped class. I used to sneak off to train all the time. Are you sure you guys didn't mess something up?"
"I'm pretty sure you're the reason!"
Naruto shot him a look full of envy… which quickly turned into a deep, bitter glare.
"Why didn't you stop me from delivering that mushroom soup that time?!"
"Don't talk nonsense. That was ages ago. Besides, didn't the school already say they were strengthening the curriculum?"
Kitagawa Gen rolled his eyes, sounding rather unimpressed.
"They've changed it again? Sounds to me like the Hokage-sama just isn't happy with your performance."
"Hmph."
Naruto gave a snort, visibly frustrated.
"Well if that's the case, then he's annoying as hell."
"No kidding. Totally annoying."
Kitagawa Gen nodded in agreement. He found this whole thing irritating too.
At this rate, the way Konoha's handling education might actually become a problem.
"…By the way, what have you been up to lately?"
Even with all the academic misery, Naruto was still curious about Kitagawa Gen's situation.
"You've been hanging around the village a lot these days. What's going on—did you get into trouble or something? They not letting you leave?"
"What are you spacing out for?"
Kitagawa Gen chuckled and gave Naruto a light knock on the head before shaking his head and continuing.
"If nothing unexpected happens, I'll be taking the jōnin exam this September."
The jōnin exam—just thinking about it got Kitagawa Gen excited.
Ever since he became a genin, the damned system had assigned him a new main quest: become a jōnin.
Apparently, chūnin wasn't even worth the system's attention.
Gen had been working hard toward that goal, but the system alone couldn't override the actual rules. And if Hiruzen didn't give the green light, there was nothing Gen could do.
Luckily, after all this time, Hiruzen might finally think it's inappropriate to keep him stuck at chūnin level.
'I mean, come on. The strength I've shown is basically conceptual-tier, right? Flying Thunder God, Purple Lightning, even Sage Mode. Still calling me a chūnin is just disrespectful at this point.'
That said, the jōnin exam wasn't happening quite yet.
Even if Kakashi had hinted it'd be more of a formality, he still had to wait.
'Good thing I'm in no rush. Besides, I've been getting decent gains lately.'
Though he'd been "drifting around" a bit these days, Kitagawa Gen hadn't slowed down at all when it came to developing his own abilities.
Gravity and repulsion—he had no interest in using them the way Nagato did, just blasting them at full force.
What he wanted was the precision to shift gravity and repulsion in the heat of battle.
Of course, in a pinch, Kitagawa Gen was fully capable of brute-forcing things too. That was just basic functionality!
As for chakra control—which, in some sense, was akin to puppet technique—he'd tried his hand at it, but the results were… middling. Probably because he didn't have a good puppet to work with.
Maybe when he met Sasori, he'd finally get a real chance to test it out.
"Overall, things are going smoothly. Just… what's up with that Rasengan: Uzuhiko? And this 'planetary chakra' thing?"
There had been a lot of positive developments, but also a few puzzling ones.
The Rasengan: Uzuhiko technique in particular had left him feeling a bit stumped.
He'd tried hard to sense this so-called "planetary chakra," but ultimately got nothing substantial in return.
After thinking it through, he figured it might have to do with his bloodline not being fully awakened. After all, the system hadn't even changed his name yet.
'Meanwhile, that Boruto guy's already officially called Ōtsutsuki Boruto.'
Still, with his steady power growth and expanding abilities, Gen was in pretty good spirits.
Especially now that Naruto and the others were about to graduate. Once that happened, a whole wave of new opportunities would follow.
He could already taste it—the joy of stomping a pond full of minnows with a max-level account.
"Gen-senpai!"
Just as he was deep in thought, someone suddenly called out to him, prompting him to lift his head.
To his surprise, aside from Rock Lee and his group, all the other "Rookies" had shown up too.
Even Sasuke was trailing along, and Hinata stood quietly at the back of the group.
The sight left Kitagawa Gen momentarily stunned.
"It's you guys? What's going on?"
"Heh, I was the one who told everyone to come together."
Naruto grinned mischievously from the side and pulled out a gift box he had clearly prepared in advance, holding it out.
"Hey, Gen, even though you can be a real bastard sometimes—happy birthday!"
"Happy birthday, Gen-senpai."
The rest of the Rookie Nine all stepped forward with gifts of their own, leaving Kitagawa Gen a bit overwhelmed.
He honestly hadn't expected Naruto to pull something like this, but soon, a smile gradually spread across his face.
"Thanks, everyone."
"So today's... my birthday, huh?"
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---