Naruto: Getting Stronger by Drinking

In the current Shinobi World, aside from Saiki Yuu, the strongest civilian shinobi were figures like Orochimaru, one of the Three Ninja, and Minato Namikaze, known as the Yellow Flash.

But it had to be said that they were all direct members of the Hokage faction—disciples and grand-disciples of the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Strictly speaking, once they had gained those identities, they were no longer civilian shinobi.

The resources they enjoyed were beyond even what some clan shinobi could obtain.

Take Minato Namikaze, for example. If he had not become the disciple of Jiraiya, one of the Three Ninja, how could he possibly have had the means to learn the Flying Thunder God Technique?

Forget learning the Flying Thunder God Technique—Minato Namikaze would not even have gotten the chance to see it.

Without the Flying Thunder God Technique, Minato Namikaze might still have shone in his own way, but at most, he would have reached the level of a jonin.

That was reality! True civilian shinobi could not become true powerhouses!

Any powerful shinobi whose name had been recorded in the Shinobi World either came from a great clan or had apprenticed under a core figure from one, gaining resources beyond those available to ordinary shinobi.

But Saiki Yuu had shattered all of that!

Saiki Yuu was a civilian shinobi in the truest sense!

No clan, no teacher, no resources...

Given Saiki Yuu's background, the only resource he could have enjoyed was the guidance of his jonin father. Yet Saiki Yuu's father had died on a mission before Saiki Yuu was even born.

All he had left Saiki Yuu was a house and a small inheritance.

Even so, Saiki Yuu had risen at a terrifying pace, using countless corpses and rivers of blood during the Third Shinobi World War