For years, the shadow of the future war and one looming disaster after another had pressed down on Kitahara Kaede until it felt like he could barely breathe. He had always known what was coming. What made it worse was that, until now, he had possessed no real way to resist it.
In the ninja world, the gap between people was wider than the gap between people and dogs. He had understood that truth for ten years already. He had seen it with his own eyes when Uchiha Itachi stunned the entire Ninja Academy back then. Forget his own classmates—even students older than Itachi had been left eating dust.
Before obtaining the standard Uchiha bloodline, Kitahara Kaede probably would not have been a match for the Itachi of ten years ago, let alone the Itachi of today, who was likely already standing near the peak of Kage-level power. If he ever ran into him head-on, it would probably be over in a single second.
It was obvious enough that Itachi Uchiha's talent, and the degree to which he had developed the Mangekyo Sharingan, far surpassed that of ordinary Uchiha. If not for his illness, reaching even greater heights in the future would not have been impossible.
And as for Kitahara Kaede? He had only just now received a ticket into the realm of the strong.
But that was fine. This had only been his first lottery draw. There would be more chances in the future—many more. Sooner or later, he would draw even stronger bloodlines, more powerful jutsu, and everything else he needed.
Why couldn't there be someone like him standing at the peak of the ninja world one day?
***
Nothing happened that night. The next morning, Kitahara Kaede woke up early, and though only a single night had passed, he could still clearly feel that his chakra had increased again.
That feeling was almost intoxicating. Growth without having to claw for it, scrape for it, force it out of his body through endless practice—it was enough to make a person feel spoiled after just one taste.
When he thought back to the days when he had to squeeze out even the tiniest thread of chakra and use it with absurd caution, he almost wanted to laugh. So this was how people from the great ninja clans lived. No wonder ordinary people could only stare.
Seen that way, leaving the Nine-Tails aside, it was downright ridiculous how much chakra Naruto Uzumaki had at just twelve years old. A monster among monsters.
People loved to mock Kakashi Hatake for having low chakra reserves, but that was only relative to his level of strength. Compared to normal jonin, Kakashi's reserves were definitely not small. Which only made Naruto's chakra feel even more outrageous by comparison.
Early that morning, Kitahara Kaede headed out to meet his teammates.
Inside a breakfast shop, he sat properly at the table. Across from him, a boy around his age with a center-part haircut was wolfing down breakfast without a shred of dignity.
That was Xiang Tianyuanlong, one of his teammates for the past three years.
A boy with much the same background as him, not famous in the slightest, with all the signs of a faceless cannon-fodder extra who probably would not even get a proper appearance in the original story.
Beside Kaede sat a beautiful girl of fifteen or sixteen. But her eyes were obviously different from ordinary people's, pale and strange, as though she had cataracts.
Anyone with the slightest knowledge of ninja clans would recognize it at once. She was from the Hyuga clan.
Yes, this girl was his other teammate—Hyuga Keiko. Though she came from a prestigious clan, her talent was only average. After all, even within famous ninja clans, not everyone was born a prodigy.
It was a standard three-man team. And when a scar-faced middle-aged man stepped into the shop, the last piece of the group arrived.
That was their leader, Akai Akimoto—an elite chunin with no particular fame to his name, one of the countless competent ninjas who kept Konoha running without ever entering the spotlight.
In the original story, it looked as though each of the Konoha Twelve had been assigned a jonin instructor. But in truth, that was treatment reserved for the academy's top students. Most graduates were led by an elite chunin instead.
During wartime, when manpower ran short, it was not unheard of for newly promoted chunin to be assigned as instructors. In other words, if this had been wartime, Kitahara Kaede himself would already have been qualified to lead a team.
Of course, he wanted no part of being born in wartime. If it had been wartime, his teammates might have been different, and he himself might already be dead.
Peacetime missions were boring, sure. But boring was good. Boring meant that the odds of dying dropped by a lot.
"Akai-sensei!"
The moment Kitahara Kaede and the others saw him, they stood up to greet him.
Akai Akimoto waved a hand, sat down, and said, "I'm here today to tell you something. I've been promoted to Special Jonin."
Everyone at the table froze for a beat.
A Special Jonin was a ninja who could stand shoulder to shoulder with a regular jonin in certain fields, even if their overall ability did not fully measure up. Despite the title's qualifier, it still meant stepping beyond the level of chunin and entering the ranks of true jonin, with the right to vote on Konoha's important matters.
"Akimoto-sensei is a jonin now? Then we're disciples of a jonin! That's incredible!" Xiang Tianyuanlong blurted dramatically.
He knew perfectly well how much difference there was between having a jonin teacher and having a chunin teacher. For their futures, that kind of backing mattered.
"Special jonin," Akai Akimoto corrected, patting Xiang Tianyuanlong on the head.
"Then, Sensei... does that mean you're leaving?" Kitahara Kaede asked suddenly, realizing the implication at once.
"Yes," Akai Akimoto replied. "All of you in this team are already chunin, and you can operate independently. I've fulfilled my duty as your mentor. Now I've been transferred to the Anbu. Today's mission will be led by Kaede alone. Take it as a chance to get used to acting as team leader first."
"Then we won't get to see Sensei anymore," Xiang Tianyuanlong said miserably, his face instantly falling.
"Idiot. Sensei's just been transferred to the Anbu. We'll still see him sooner or later," Hyuga Keiko snapped back. "Anyone who can enter the Anbu is an elite ninja. This is a good thing."
Kitahara Kaede gave a slight nod. The Anbu had looked unimpressive in the original story, but that did not mean they were weak.
Any ninja qualified to join the Anbu was at least elite chunin level. Many of them were Special Jonin or even full jonin, the Hokage's direct subordinates and one of the sharpest blades in Konoha's hand.
Still, becoming Anbu at this point in time might not be such a blessing. The first Chunin Exams after the Konoha Twelve graduated were not far off. If Akai Akimoto got too close to the Third Hokage and ended up caught in Orochimaru's strike, that would be the end of him.
Of course, there was no way Kaede could say something like that out loud. He could hardly announce that Orochimaru was plotting to attack Konoha, and that staying near the Hokage would make someone the easiest target to die. No one in their right mind would believe him.
"All right, I have to go report in now," Akai Akimoto said, rising to his feet. "As for mission arrangements, just follow Kaede's lead."
He did not say much more than that. He simply handed authority for the team over to Kitahara Kaede and then hurried away.