For the next half month, Tamura Zairo didn't go out to train at all. He even went to the academy to request a half-month leave, staying home the entire time to write manuscripts, train his chakra control, and practice monstrous strength techniques.
Half a month passed quickly.
After using the Transformation Technique to deliver his manuscripts to the publishing house—arranging for scheduled printing and sales—Tamura Zairo returned home to prepare for today's "battle."
First, he put on an inner armor that had cost one hundred million ryō to make.
The core was a mesh garment forged from special metals. There were vambraces and greaves on his forearms and calves, armor plates protecting his chest and back, and pauldrons covering his shoulders.
According to the craftsman, not only was this armor lightweight—less than ten jin in total—but its hardness and toughness were extremely high. It could withstand attacks from C-rank ninjutsu, and its excellent flexibility could buffer impact force to a certain extent.
After that came a set of leather clothing.
It was said to be made from the hide of a certain ninja beast, offering decent resistance against elemental ninjutsu—at the very least, he wouldn't have to worry about a single Fire Release leaving him embarrassingly exposed.
"Kind of has that teenage Sasuke vibe… too bad I'm not as handsome."
He looked himself over in the mirror and was quite satisfied with his current appearance—especially the boots.
He truly couldn't get used to those open-toe ninja sandals.
Didn't it hurt your toes when kicking people?
What if you messed up and tore off a toenail—wouldn't that be agonizing?
Because of this, he had replaced the standard ninja footwear with fully enclosed leather boots. He even reinforced the toe caps and heels with the same alloy used in his armor plates—just so that kicking someone would feel extra refreshing.
After moving his limbs a bit, Tamura Zairo felt extremely satisfied.
He then picked up the twin blades resting on the rack and sealed them into the left and right forearm guards. In the center of each sealing formula was an extra character:
"Meow."
That's right—this pair of arm guards were ninja tools as well, capable of sealing items inside them, similar to the wrist guards Sasuke and Uchiha Itachi used during their "Pacific Ocean naval battle."
Fully prepared, Tamura Zairo finally left home and headed to the Ninja Academy.
His arrival didn't stir much reaction among his classmates.
Even his unusual attire only earned him a few extra glances—no one said anything.
Tamura Zairo had always been low-key in class, with no close friends, appearing perfectly ordinary and unremarkable.
Before long, the teacher arrived, gave a speech, then took out a list and began assigning teams.
Each academy class had a standard number of students, aiming to form three-man squads.
Unfortunately, last year, two students from this class had fought over romantic jealousy. One blinded the other, resulting in both being expelled—the injured one naturally couldn't become a ninja either.
What a prematurely mature world.
That meant one person would be left without a team.
In such cases, the options were to be added to another squad, be assigned to a single-person team, or be grouped with students from another class that also lacked numbers.
Tamura Zairo was that odd one out.
And his arrangement was a single-person team—a benefit that had been planned long in advance.
After all the other squad leaders arrived and took their teams away, a young man entered the classroom and looked at Tamura Zairo, who was the only one left.
"Tamura Zairo?"
"Teacher, I'm Tamura Zairo!"
Tamura Zairo stood up and bowed.
Only then did he carefully observe the newcomer. Seeing the man's long, flowing hair—half white, half green—he had a rough guess at his identity.
This should be the previous generation's Eight-Tails Jinchūriki—Killer B's teacher.
Of course, not yet an Eight-Tails Jinchūriki. Whether Killer B had even been born yet was still unknown.
Fukai was also observing Tamura Zairo. Looking at the calm and steady少年 before him, he was quite satisfied with his first impression.
"Sit down. Let's talk."
Fukai was very mild-mannered. He walked over and sat down at the desk directly in front of Tamura Zairo.
"My name is Fukai. I'm a jōnin of the village. I specialize in Lightning Release ninjutsu, Lightning Release taijutsu, and Lightning Release swordsmanship…"
He began with an introduction, while inwardly feeling curious about this boy.
Half a month ago, an order had come directly from the Third Raikage, instructing him to abandon his scheduled missions and take on a squad leader role—only for a single child.
Afterward, his cousin had even come personally to remind him to take especially good care of this boy.
Neither of them explained the reason, but Fukai understood one thing clearly:
This child was definitely not simple.
Over the past few days, he had quietly inquired about him and learned that this boy had accidentally discovered a spy—someone who had stolen funds meant for Kumogakure to purchase supplies from the Land of Iron.
One billion ryō.
This boy had found and handed over the hidden money to the Raikage, saving the village from an enormous loss.
He was a benefactor of the village.
Moreover, being able to uncover a spy and track down the hidden funds was itself proof of ability.
"Teacher Fukai, my name is Tamura Zairo. You can call me Zai-rat. I specialize in taijutsu and swordsmanship. I have a single chakra attribute—Lightning. My chakra quantity has an inherent bottleneck. I hope you can guide me more in this regard in the future…"
Tamura Zairo also introduced himself, speaking in great detail.
He even explained his progress with chakra threads.
After half a month of training, he could now maintain six chakra threads simultaneously, extend them to three meters, and manipulate them flexibly.
That alone might not seem special, but it represented a significant improvement in control.
"You've already reached that level?!"
Fukai was genuinely shocked.
Under normal circumstances, a child who had just graduated from the academy being able to climb trees and walk on water was already considered excellent. After all, the academy's focus was primarily on theoretical knowledge.
Very few students dedicated themselves to practical techniques—let alone advanced chakra control techniques like chakra threads.
That technique was most common in Sunagakure, where it was the specialty of puppet masters. In Kumogakure, almost no one trained in it.
And chakra threads were already considered chakra shape transformation training.
Successfully cultivating them meant that one's chakra control had reached at least chūnin level.
What shocked Fukai even more was that this child had already begun training in Lightning Release nature transformation.
Although the lack of proper methods made his training crude, from Tamura Zairo's description, he was already close to entry level.
A ten-year-old child reaching this stage—
It was astonishing.
"My chakra talent is very average. In the future, it'll be hard for me to achieve much in terms of quantity. I can only put in more effort on control, using my limited chakra as efficiently as possible."
Tamura Zairo's expression carried a hint of helplessness.
He truly hated worlds and cultivation systems that judged everything by bloodline.
Parents' achievements largely determined their children's ceiling. There was almost no such thing as mutation or transcendence.
Trying to surpass those limits through sheer effort was nearly impossible.
Even those three famous "grind maniacs" from Konoha, despite their incredible achievements, likely possessed extraordinary innate talent just to survive that level of training without crippling themselves.
That wasn't something effort alone could overcome.
Tamura Zairo had initially tried that extreme, self-destructive style of training.
The result?
His muscles nearly dissolved.
Even after reducing the intensity, he still had to spend money every single day hiring medical ninja to heal his body with medical ninjutsu, supplemented with precious medicinal herbs to avoid leaving hidden injuries—or outright overdrawing his vitality.
It consumed vast amounts of money.
He genuinely couldn't imagine the bodily potential and recovery ability of those three grind maniacs.
He even suspected that all three were related to the Senju clan in some way, possessing fragments of the legendary Senju Sage Body.
That was why, over the past few years, his focus had shifted toward improving chakra control.
And the gains had been substantial.
"Your path is the right one."
Fukai nodded in approval.
"Improving chakra quantity depends too heavily on innate talent. Forcing over-refinement only damages the body.
"At present, there are no good solutions. Focusing on improving chakra control is the best route."
He fully affirmed his student's choice.
Chakra quantity was notoriously difficult to increase, and the village currently had no effective methods.
Although there were rumors that the village was secretly conducting experiments involving the consumption of Eight-Tails flesh, the results didn't seem promising.
They hadn't produced another case like Kinkaku and Ginkaku.