What Kind of Protagonist Dies Again in Chapter Two?

That evening, Uncle Ichite Ki came home, and so did Tamaki's older cousin, Isshu Hikari.

Uncle was a quiet middle-aged man who didn't say much and spent most of his time reading in his study.

His cousin Hikari was seven this year. She was lucky enough to have enrolled only after the Second Shinobi World War ended. Although she also aimed to become a medical-nin, how much Chakra a Genin kid could have was anyone's guess. Medical Ninjutsu was high-level to begin with, and if she went to the battlefield, there was no telling whether she would survive.

Besides, one couldn't become a medical-nin right after graduation. At the very least, one had to wait until either one of the three members of one's team or oneself became a Chunin. Usually, only then would one be qualified to choose a path of development.

Generally speaking, only upon reaching Chunin could a ninja be considered capable of standing on their own.

"Little bro, you're going to the Ninja Academy tomorrow. Are you excited?"

Hikari put one hand on her hip and asked Tamaki, thinking she looked heroic and dashing.

"I guess. Not really."

Hikari ruffled Tamaki's hair. "Precocious little brat."

You're no different. Tamaki thought it, but didn't say it aloud.

"Tamaki's already memorized a third of the basic theory. He's faster than you," Auntie said with a smile from the side.

Hikari pursed her lips at that. Without a word, she reached out with both hands and vigorously rubbed Tamaki's head.

"Dinner's ready," Tamaki's mother, Futate Shizuka, called out to the group.

At her call, the others came to the dining table. Uncle always gave himself a quick wash when he got home. As he put it, he had to wash off the smell of blood from surgery.

The meal itself was unremarkable. The only point of note was Uncle once again stressing the need to stay safe. Quite a few people had been arrested in the village lately, supposedly spies or something of the sort. When the conversation turned to whether that was actually true, Uncle clammed up.

Well, looks like my uncle really understands what being a ninja means. Whether you know anything or not, keeping your mouth shut can't be wrong.

After dinner, Tamaki went with Futate Shizuka to pay their respects at Nishu Hayashi's small shrine.

Tamaki had hardly any impression of Nishu Hayashi, the man who could be called his ready-made father, but Futate Shizuka, his mother in this life, was a woman much like Old Madam Wang.

His uncle Ichite Ki, his aunt Isshu Haruna, his older cousin Isshu Hikari, and his third uncle Sanshu Mori, whom he rarely saw—he liked this big family very much. Though he had come to this dangerous Shinobi World, fortunately, he still had plenty of family.

"Since I can't go back, I'll have to live well in this world. Let's set a small goal: become a ninja first."

Early the next morning, on the Ninja Academy's large training field.

"Where the leaves dance, the fire burns on without end..."

It was the usual scene at ninja enrollment: the Third's speech.

As a young man with 29 years and 69 months of memories, Tamaki still couldn't understand why these leaders loved giving speeches so much. Fortunately, he could shift around a little. After all, it was practically impossible to make a bunch of five- and six-year-olds stand straight and still for hours.

Come to think of it, there wasn't a single guy here today with long, straight black hair, the Yuki bloodline, the surname Mitarashi, and the given name Duke. It felt like something was missing.

Turning his head, Tamaki spotted a guy whose life could be summed up by the character "井"—after all, he was two both horizontally and vertically. Obi-two Uchiha. Oops, no, Obito Uchiha.

Obito Uchiha, male, hobby: Rin Nohara. He had no great ambition, just wanted to resurrect Rin Nohara, and then became the first phase of a certain big boss.

It was thanks to him that Lord Madara, the second phase of that boss, could be reliably resurrected to carry out Infinite Tsukuyomi. And it was because Lord Madara carried out Infinite Tsukuyomi that Otsutsuki Kaguya, the boss's third phase, could be reliably resurrected, only to be sent back to the moon by Naruto and Sasuke.

Wait, he's looking over here. Obi-two Uchiha is looking over here. He smiled, he smiled.

Tamaki panicked a little and quickly turned to look the other way. Being noticed by a boss like that was no good.

Huh, a wild thirty-five million ryo over here. Too bad I can't cash it in for another decade or so.

Tamaki wore a look of regret. If he had thirty-five million ryo, he could find some remote place to lie low for twenty years and safely live to see the original story's grand finale. As long as it didn't continue straight into Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, his life would be secure. Just thinking about it made him happy, and Tamaki, who hadn't bothered to control his expression, was practically beaming.

Asuma looked at the classmate beside him, puzzled by the spectacular array of expressions passing over his face like a face-changing performance.

Coming back to his senses and noticing Asuma's puzzled expression, Tamaki coughed softly twice and focused his attention on the Third's speech at the front.

Speaking of the Third, what exactly caused Naruto to end up drinking spoiled milk more than a decade later? Was the Third kind-faced but black-hearted, or had he simply never personally taken charge of the matter?

If he had really been deliberately suppressing Naruto, then things like making Kakashi his Jonin instructor, allowing Jiraiya to meet Naruto, and letting him teach Naruto the Rasengan shouldn't have happened. At the very least, he should have made sure Naruto knew it was on the Third's orders, so he could win the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki over for his own use.

Was it because the Konoha Crush Plan had already begun, so he stopped caring since he was going to die anyway?

Probably not. If the Third really were that dark, he would definitely have made preparations for something like that. Who knew what might happen after he died?

He couldn't figure it out, couldn't figure it out. Surely the Fourth hadn't said before he died that he wanted Naruto to be an ordinary person? In that case, why seal the Nine-Tails at all?

Besides, having become Konoha's Fourth Hokage, the man in charge, his understanding of the Shinobi World could never have been that ordinary people had easy lives. Besides, Naruto had the bloodline of the Uzumaki Clan and possessed a Kekkei Genkai. With a little money to get a manual on Chakra extraction, he could have taken his first step as a ninja.

Speaking of Kekkei Genkai, Tamaki let his thoughts wander further. He couldn't help it; the Third's speech was just too boring.

A Kekkei Genkai was formed by combining two Chakra Nature Transformations and could only be passed down through bloodlines. Even then, inheritance didn't guarantee Awakening.

Konoha's best-known Kekkei Genkai were the Uchiha's Sharingan and the Hyuga's Byakugan, famous throughout the Shinobi World. Presumably, some minor clans had inherited less powerful Kekkei Genkai as well, such as Gekko Hayate's Transparent Release.

Konoha also had quite a few powerful clans with secret techniques: the Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi clans, codenamed "Ino-Shika-Cho"; the Inuzuka Clan, known for their Ninja Dogs; and the Aburame Clan, famous for their Kikaichū and the insect swarms derived from them. There were also those who specialized in particular types of Ninjutsu. The Sarutobi Clan, for example, excelled at Fire Style, while the Shimura Clan excelled at Wind Release.

Come to think of it, Konoha actually had two more Kekkei Genkai: the Uzumaki and the Senju. The Uzumaki Clan was born with vast Chakra and long lifespans, and passed down sealing Ninjutsu.

The Senju Clan had Wood Release, though at present Tsunade might be the only person in the entire Shinobi World to have inherited that bloodline, and she hadn't awakened it yet. The Senju Clan itself had more Chakra than ordinary ninja, though probably not to the same extent as the Uzumaki Clan. Aside from that, they had probably passed down some secret techniques and Ninjutsu, such as the Super Strength Fist.

Whenever Tamaki thought about these Kekkei Genkai and secret techniques, he nearly drooled. The Kekkei Genkai and secret techniques at Konoha's uppermost level were all top-notch. The Uzumaki, the Senju, the Sharingan, and the Byakugan all led straight back to the founder of Ninjutsu—the Sage of Six Paths.

The secret techniques of the three Ino-Shika-Cho clans were rooted in Yin-Yang Release. The remaining "ordinary" Kekkei Genkai and secret techniques could all be called specialized in their own fields and had developed their own unique qualities.

Faced with all this, Tamaki felt he wasn't asking for much. Just one would do. Even something like Transparent Release, which wasn't suited for combat, could greatly improve his ability to stay alive and explore secrets. After all, sensory ninja were still relatively scarce in the Shinobi World.

Unfortunately, he really had none of them, only a few family-inherited medical scrolls. He could only say that he was better off than most civilian ninja who had no inheritance at all.

Speaking of medicine and civilian ninja, Konoha currently had two "beautiful" green sights, and in their hands was a top-tier forbidden technique that stood at the pinnacle of Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. Once mastered and unleashed at full power, it was enough to look down on every ninja below Six Paths level—the Eight Gates Released Formation!

At the thought of this technique, Tamaki began looking around again.

Found you, Watermelon Head. No, that's not right. Found you, Might Guy.

The man who would one day be famous throughout the Shinobi World and nearly kick the story straight to its grand finale, Konoha's "Blue Beast," was still just a little boy. Come to think of it, there was no telling that this soft, rosy-cheeked boy would grow up to have a face so much like Wang Baoqiang's.

Might Guy was his classmate, and his own goal was to become a medical-nin. So could he use medicine to obtain the Eight Gates Released Formation from Might Duy and Might Guy? Opening the Eight Gates meant dropping dead, so couldn't he just open the Seventh Gate?

Honestly, Tamaki would thank heaven and earth if he could open four or five gates. This technique wasn't so easy to master, and its effects also varied somewhat from person to person.

Even after opening the Eight Gates, Might Duy had only killed a few of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, not wiped them all out. Although that feat was already enough to prove the technique's worth, compared with the kick Lord Guy would later deliver to Madara Uchiha, Might Duy's Eight Gates fell a little short. It was also possible that Might Duy had proven the worth of the Eight Gates Released Formation, leading the village to invest more resources in Guy and raise his ceiling.

But there was something else that became more frightening the more he thought about it. Throughout the entire Naruto story, Might Guy had no obvious progression in combat strength. In other words, Guy at the start of the story could already deliver the kick he would later use against Madara Uchiha!

Unfortunately, when Madara Uchiha found Obi-two, Guy hadn't yet grown to his complete form. By the time Obi-two and the Akatsuki surfaced, Guy had reached his complete form, but a small number of ninja were simply too mobile. Otherwise, one way or another, Madara would have gotten to see that kick which nearly brought about the grand finale some twenty years early.

"...And so I declare that, starting today, you are members of the Konoha Ninja Academy."

All right, the Third's speech was finally over. Tamaki stopped letting his thoughts run wild and tentatively settled on his path ahead: while learning Medical Ninjutsu, he would pay more attention to Might Guy and strengthen their friendship. Even if he died one day, at least there would be someone to look after his family a little. And even if he couldn't obtain the Eight Gates Released Formation, he could still befriend a future Kage Level powerhouse. However he looked at it, he wouldn't lose out. The Shinobi World was still too hard to get by in for an ordinary person like Tamaki.

In any case, Tamaki's career as a ninja had now officially begun.