The Ninja Academy has three terms in a year:
The first term starts on April 1st and ends in mid-July;
The second term runs from early September to the end of December;
The third and final term starts in early January and ends in late March.
April 1st, Year 54 of the Hidden Leaf.
The Ninja Academy once again welcomes the first term of a new academic year.
Sixth-year students had already graduated at the end of March—
some became official Genin,
some returned to repeat the year,
some were specially recruited by certain departments,
and others dropped out and left the path of the ninja altogether.
As for the other grades, they were officially promoted to the next level today.
The first-year classrooms that had been vacated were now ready to receive a fresh batch of students who passed the entrance assessment.
Izayoi was one of them.
Unlike the other new students who arrived with parents or older siblings,
Izayoi was among the few who came alone.
Also unlike those new students who gazed with envy at classmates accompanied by family,
Izayoi looked at them not with jealousy, but with scrutiny.
And it wasn't their appearance he was observing—
but something only he could see.
[Ninja Aptitude (White)]
[Chakra Control (Green)]
[Chunin Aptitude (Green)]
Whenever Izayoi focused his attention and stared at someone,
small floating bubbles would appear around them.
The colors of the bubbles sometimes matched, sometimes differed,
and each contained text in a color matching the bubble itself.
Of course, some people had no bubbles at all.
That could mean they had no innate talents, or that their talents didn't even meet the lowest threshold—
such as those related to civilian or life-skills professions, which were excluded from his system.
This was Izayoi's golden finger—his cheat.
Izayoi had no surname, only a given name.
According to the director of the orphanage, his name came from the night he was born: June 16th.
He lived in the orphanage until the age of three, where he learned to read, speak, and a few basic survival skills.
Then the director took him back to his home—
and brought him to the cemetery to meet the parents he would never know.
It turned out he came from a ninja family.
Both of his parents had no surnames either—they were orphans themselves.
His father had been a Chunin of the village,
but tragically, he and his entire squad, including their Jonin leader, were killed during a mission.
His mother died during childbirth.
With her final breath, she didn't entrust Izayoi to her husband or any friends, but instead begged the doctor to
place him in the orphanage's care.
The orphanage was backed by the village, so there was no risk they would covet his family's belongings.
And that proved true.
Izayoi was not surprised that he had to start learning to live independently at the age of three.
After realizing the kind of world he had transmigrated into,
he understood that the world's destined protagonist had also lived alone from the age of three.
That guy was even more hardcore—
taking midnight strolls in an empty snowfield at the age of three.
The world of Naruto—
also known as "The Tale of Five Villages in a Brawl Over Eyes"
or "Black Zetsu's Quest for Mom."
Coming to this world, where everything revolves around the drama of the Otsutsuki clan and an obsession with bloodlines,
Izayoi did not panic.
Nor did he despair over the fact that he was a nameless orphan with no clan or bloodline limit.
Because...
he had a cheat too!
The Talent Keyword System — this was the cheat that activated for Izayoi when he turned one year old.
In addition to being able to see the floating bubbles around others,
Izayoi could also see something within his own mind:
a glowing screen visible only to him.
Even if he summoned it in front of a mirror, its reflection would not appear.
On this screen was displayed his personal information—
and a newbie gift pack.
However, he had already used the gift pack when he was three.
Now, his personal information had become something entirely different—
utterly extravagant.
As Izayoi walked into the Ninja Academy, he summoned the screen in his mind.
[Host: Izayoi]
[Talent Keywords: Otsutsuki Bloodline (Red), Kage-Level Aptitude (Gold), Bloodline Limit – Byakugan (Purple), All-Attribute Physique (Purple), Medical Genius (Blue), Chakra Control (Blue)]
[Points: 25]
While most people had only one or two bubbles—some none at all—
Izayoi had an astonishing six talent keywords.
Yet, when he first received the Talent Keyword System, he had started with only one: Chunin Aptitude (Green).
But at age three, Izayoi defied destiny and rewrote his fate,
becoming the greatest talent monster of his generation.
When it came to talent, in this era, there were only those as gifted as him—none more gifted.
The rankings for talent keywords, from lowest to highest, were:
White, Green, Blue, Purple, Gold, Red.
This grading system wasn't something the Talent Keyword System provided—
Izayoi figured it out himself.
And he was certain that there were levels beyond red.
What those colors might be, he didn't yet know.
---
The function of the Talent Keyword System was to allow the host to obtain the talent keywords of others.
The methods of acquiring them were discovered by Izayoi through experimentation, and so far, two are known:
1. Defeating opponents
In an even match: high probability of obtaining a low-grade keyword, very low probability of obtaining a high-grade one.
When defeating someone stronger: very high probability of a high-grade keyword, guaranteed low-grade keyword.
When utterly overwhelming someone: very low chance of getting either low or high-grade keywords.
2. The Newbie Gift Pack
A one-time free reward,
Izayoi could copy one talent keyword from another person.
When Izayoi realized he had transmigrated into the Naruto world—the one he had been obsessed with during his school days—
and was born on June 16, Year 48 of the Hidden Leaf, in the same year as the Konoha Nine,
he almost immediately made up his mind:
He would use the newbie gift pack on Uzumaki Naruto.
After all, Naruto was not only the protagonist of this world,
but also of this entire generation.
He was the reincarnation of Asura, son of the Sage of Six Paths,
inheritor of the Sage's body,
a descendant of the Otsutsuki lineage.
Despite never having awakened his Uzumaki bloodline in the original story, he was also the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki.
With two nuclear reactors inside his body, even if Naruto didn't know how to mold chakra, his seal and lineage would cause his chakra to grow constantly.
As long as Naruto had any keyword related to Asura or the Sage's Body,
Izayoi only needed to copy it—
and he would instantly gain overwhelming potential.
Aside from Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke was also a strong candidate.
He, too, was the reincarnation of a Sage's son—inheritor of the Sage's Eye.
However, while Izayoi was searching for them, he happened to brush past a member of the Hyuga clan on the street.
In that moment, a sudden flash of insight made him abandon his original plan.
---
In this era, the most talented individuals in the ninja world
were undoubtedly Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha.
Just like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha before them,
they were the reincarnations of the Sage's sons.
They didn't just have Kage-level potential, they had the Sage of Six Paths watching over them.
As long as they fulfilled their potential, they were guaranteed to become super-Kage-class.
And if they inherited the Sage's power directly, they would surpass even Hashirama and Madara—
and become Six Paths-level powerhouses.
On Earth, no one had more potential than them.
But what about...
outside of Earth?