Chakra, All-Killing Ash Bones!

The next day, at the Ninja Academy.

Inside the teaching building, Furuya Daisuke pushed open the door to the sixth-year Elite Class.

The children who had been roughhousing in the classroom instantly fell silent and properly returned to their seats.

Furuya Daisuke carried a stack of test papers as he steadily walked to the podium, apparently intending to conduct a theoretical mock exam.

Sure enough!

The next moment, Furuya Daisuke's deep voice rang out.

"Today, we're having a test!"

The many students below erupted into an uproar.

Furuya Daisuke swept them with a sharp glare, and everyone he looked at immediately shut their mouths.

One by one, they fell silent like ducks with their necks wrung.

"What's this? Does it seem like someone's missing?"

Furuya Daisuke gave the room a cursory glance. All the usual students were there, yet he felt as though something was missing...

Suddenly, realization dawned on Furuya Daisuke's face.

That six-year-old brat wasn't here?!

"Good grief, he dared to be late on the first day of class!" Furuya Daisuke's expression darkened, and the bloody aura around him erupted at once.

Everyone buried their heads in their books, pretending to be ostriches.

Rin, seated in the front row, wore a conflicted expression. In the end, she braced herself and slowly raised her little hand.

"D-Daisuke-sensei..."

"Hmm?" Furuya Daisuke narrowed his eyes at her.

When he saw that it was Rin, one of his usually obedient students, the sharpness in his gaze softened considerably.

That did not mean Furuya Daisuke was no longer angry!

Once that brat showed up, he would definitely make him understand why flowers were so red!!

"Th-this is from Tōka. He asked me to give it to you." Rin handed over a sheet of paper.

Yesterday after school, Tōka had suddenly approached her and told her that if the teacher asked about him the next day, she should hand this over.

Rin had a gentle nature and treated others kindly, so naturally she had not refused Tōka's request.

With a smack, Furuya Daisuke snatched the paper and flicked it open with a finger.

He skimmed through it at a glance...

Only to see...

Several neat lines of handwriting, youthful yet grand, lacking strength but retaining spirit.

Beyond the hills lie books, beyond the books rise towers; when will the teacher ever stop lecturing?

Spittle flies as everyone sleeps, waiting only for the bell to ring so they can run away.

The view outside the window is endlessly fine, yet here I am, a Caged Bird.

I've brought all my books and materials; please allow this boy to study on his own.

Holy shit, what literary talent!!

Furuya Daisuke's eyes lit up, and he could not help praising it inwardly.

Then he abruptly came to his senses, and his expression darkened even further.

"Peh, peh, peh... That little bastard!!"

The veins at Furuya Daisuke's temple throbbed like blue worms, making everyone's scalps tingle.

He crushed the paper into powder in one hand, his knuckles cracking loudly.

For a moment, everyone in the classroom was silent as cicadas in winter, not daring to even breathe.

"The test begins now!!"

Furuya Daisuke decided to report Tōka's "misdeeds" to the Third Hokage. A brat who skipped school on his first day of class.

Even the Third Hokage would have no face left to let Tōka remain at the academy!

Even if Tōka could continue attending school, Furuya Daisuke could not care less as long as he was no longer in his class!

Furuya Daisuke temporarily set aside the matter of Tōka skipping class, intending to settle the score later!

In a forest somewhere in the back mountains of Konoha, Tōka ran through the woods with dark circles under his eyes, looking exceedingly excited.

That was right. He had been so excited all night that he had not slept at all.

After obtaining the chakra extraction method at the Ninja Academy yesterday, Tōka had spent the entire night caught up in excitement rather than sleeping.

Feeling that faint mass of energy within his body, Tōka could not stop grinning.

He did not stop until his facial muscles cramped.

In short, too much joy led to sorrow.

"Let's try this first." Tōka walked beneath a large tree and held out his small palm.

There was no need for hand seals. Chakra gathered directly in his palm.

Thought guided it, and will came first.

Creak, creak...

A strange sound, like bones growing, rang out.

A grayish-white bone resembling dead wood grew from the center of Tōka's palm.

It was less than two inches long and thinner than a little finger.

Yet it gave off a sense of time's decay, life's end, and extreme danger.

Even heaven and earth would have shuddered before this tiny, short bone!

"All-Killing Ash Bones!!"

Tōka shouted softly and slammed his palm against the tree.

The bone looked dead, grayish-white, and fragile enough to crumble at a touch, yet it pierced straight into the trunk.

"Scatter beyond time and space, and decay along with the bone!"

As Tōka's voice fell, the entire tree turned into scraps of paper from the point where the bone had entered.

The aura of death and decay enveloped the whole tree.

Crack, crack, crack!!

In less than a minute, a massive tree that would have taken three people to encircle with their arms withered into sheets of shredded paper.

It turned into ash...

A light breeze blew by, and it vanished between heaven and earth.

Dust returned to dust, earth to earth. Life would eventually die, and souls would eventually perish.

Tōka collapsed onto the ground, his fair little face turning even paler.

Though the All-Killing Ash Bone was no longer than a little finger, it had consumed all of his chakra.

It was not merely the chakra expenditure; the drain on his mental energy was even more terrifying.

Waves of dizziness washed over him. It felt as though a pair of hands covered his eyes, darkening his vision.

Perhaps it was because he had not rested well last night, or perhaps Tōka himself was not strong enough to wield the All-Killing Ash Bones.

Using this move now had utterly drained him.

At this moment, Tōka only wanted to lie down and sleep. He did not want to think about anything anymore; sleep had become the most important thing.

However, he knew he had to persist.

All-Killing Ash Bones was a technique that altered the composition of one's bones, turning them into hardened weapons.

Usually, sharp bones were fired from the palms, and the body of anyone struck by them would gradually collapse.

"Anyone hit by this move would be beyond saving, even with Yang Release healing."

Tōka stared excitedly at his hands. He had thought he had inherited none of his mother's abilities.

At this moment, it felt as though he had ascended from hell to heaven.

"Even the bodies of the dead resurrected through Impure World Reincarnation would collapse." Tōka grinned, the smile reaching his eyes.

In a human life of a hundred years, who could remain eternal and indestructible? At the end of days, terror could be heard, yet time passed in but an instant.

Time's decay lay within the ash bones.

A figure suddenly appeared in Tōka's mind—Kaguya Kimimaro!

"The Kaguya Clan's Shikotsumyaku most likely originated from the All-Killing Ash Bones." Tōka murmured.

In other words, did that mean the All-Killing Ash Bones could create other techniques as well?

When Kaguya Otsutsuki used the All-Killing Ash Bones in battle, her moves were far too simple and direct—one could even call them crude.

Moreover, she had to grow ash bones from her back before she could fire the ash bones in her palms.

To Tōka, that seemed idiotic. Wasn't that the same as telling the enemy that a big move was coming and they should hurry up and dodge?

Tōka shook his head and cast aside the jumble of thoughts.

"I can think about techniques later. Right now, the most important thing is the amount of chakra I have."

One had to walk the road step by step, and eat one bite at a time.

His physique was quite good, but he lacked training. He had only just begun cultivating chakra, so having little of it was perfectly normal.

Besides, Tōka only had the body of a six-year-old.

"Decided. I'll practice taijutsu first!"

Konoha's taijutsu broadly fell into two categories: Gentle Fist and Steel Fist!

Tōka did not possess the Byakugan, so Gentle Fist was immediately ruled out. That left only one Steel Fist master!

"Am I doomed to wear green spandex?"

Thinking of that godlike existence, Tōka could not help twitching at the corner of his mouth.

"The Eight Inner Gates is a technique that hurts yourself nearly as much as it hurts the enemy."

Though its power was immense, the aftereffects were no small matter.

Tōka possessed the All-Killing Ash Bones. Anyone who touched them would collapse, so there seemed to be no need for him to learn such a life-for-life Forbidden Jutsu.

"Unless I train into some hulking brute with eight abdominal muscles, using the Eight Inner Gates is completely unrealistic."

Youth? Sweat?

To hell with that. Sleeping was better...

Tōka was not particularly enthusiastic about taijutsu training. He was the relatively "lazy" sort.

Lazy in body, not in personality.

In other words, Tōka's motto was: if he could use his brain, he would never use his hands!

"Ugh... What a troublesome form of taijutsu!"

Being strong in taijutsu did not necessarily make someone a true powerhouse, but every true powerhouse was strong in taijutsu.

Tōka exhaled a breath of stale air and slowly stood up.

After resting for a while, he felt somewhat recovered.

Tōka decided he still needed to find Might Duy. Whether or not he trained in the Eight Inner Gates, he had to properly practice the basics of taijutsu.

At the very least, he needed to draw out his body's potential. He did not seek to open all Eight Gates and kill Uchiha Madara with one kick.

He only wanted taijutsu not to become a weakness others could deliberately exploit.

And once his taijutsu improved, he could make better use of his ability—the All-Killing Ash Bones.

The Third Shinobi War was imminent. Who knew whether that old man, the Third Hokage, might try to screw him over?

The thought flashed through his mind, and he immediately acted on it.

"Where would Might Duy be at this time?" With that question in mind, Tōka slowly wandered through the woods.

Whoosh, whoosh!!

Just after Tōka left, two dark figures descended beside the decayed tree.

The large tree had suddenly vanished, leaving behind an incongruous patch of empty ground.

One of them wore a cat-faced animal mask. He approached the clearing, crouched down, and examined the exposed earth.

Then...

The visible pupils behind the cat-faced mask suddenly contracted!

"It vanished completely?!" the Cat-Faced Anbu cried out. He could not find the tree's roots!

It was as though the tree had never existed. There was not a single trace to prove it had ever been there!

"He made a huge tree disappear in an instant? What kind of ability was that?" The other Dog-Faced Anbu rubbed his chin and muttered.

"The Hokage was right to have us monitor this brat!"

"You keep following him. I'll report to the Third Hokage."

"No problem. Go and come back quickly!"

"Be careful."

Whoosh, whoosh!!

The two dark figures suddenly leaped away and disappeared into the shadows of the trees. Before long, both their presences had vanished without a trace.

It was as though those two people had never appeared at all.

The Anbu, directly under the Hokage's command, were formally known as the Assassination Tactics Special Force.

Their members were outstanding ninja selected from throughout the village.

Their primary duties were protecting the Kage and preventing foreign enemies from invading ninja villages. Sometimes, they also handled missions such as enemy reconnaissance and assassination.

Due to the special nature of their missions, Anbu members wore white masks modeled after animals when carrying out operations.

And Konoha's White Fang, the god of slaughter Sakumo Hatake, was the Anbu commander!

Within the forest, Tōka wandered aimlessly. If he remembered correctly, Might Duy had always lived somewhere in the woods outside Konoha.

Unfortunately, there were forests everywhere outside Konoha.

Finding one person in such a vast forest was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"Huh? I've got it!" As Tōka walked, his eyes suddenly lit up.

Wasn't Gai still attending classes at the academy? If he followed Gai after school, wouldn't he be able to find Might Duy?

After hesitating between the green watermelon rind and taijutsu,

Tōka ultimately chose the latter.

Getting tangled up with Gai was a very troublesome thing; not having the strength to get tangled up with Gai was an even more painful thing.

Choosing the lesser of two evils, Tōka decided to find Might Duy first.

As for Gai?...

"When the time comes, I'll use a little trick..." Having made up his mind, Tōka turned and headed down the mountain toward the school.

At this time, the Ninja Academy had not yet let out.

Tōka had completely forgotten about the sheet of letter paper he had given Rin yesterday.

At the Ninja Academy, most of the students in the classroom were drenched in sweat.

Compared to a written exam, the vast majority would rather run ten laps around the field!

Furuya Daisuke sat on the lectern with his arms folded. He did not need to do anything to intimidate the petty troublemakers.

His presence was overwhelming, his tyranny earth-shaking.

The students wanted to cheat, but most of them did not have the nerve.

The most restless and "lively" student in the classroom was Obito.

He clutched his head in both hands and kept rubbing it. After venting for a while, he suddenly deflated like a flat ball.

In the end, Obito, with a bird's nest of hair on his head, stared blankly at his utterly empty test paper and once again entered a state of "possession."

"It's over, it's over. Everything's over now."

"It knows me, but I don't know it."

"I'm going to get a zero again..."

Suddenly!

Crack!

The crisp sound interrupted Obito's muttering.

It turned out that Gai, seated diagonally behind Obito, had snapped another pen shaft from squeezing too hard out of nervousness.

Why "another"?

Because this guy had already broken eight pen shafts!

Gai's face went pale, completely bloodless.

I'm done for... This was his last pen!

Most people had the desire to cheat but not the guts. Naturally, quite a few had both the desire and the guts.

A horse-faced brat in the back row darted his shifty eyes left and right. It was none other than Sarutobi Asuma.

Because of Asuma's status, Furuya Daisuke generally turned a blind eye to his behavior.

After all, cheating could be considered one method for a ninja to gather intelligence!

But kid, your cheating was just too painful to watch!!

Furuya Daisuke's eye twitched. Why did the shrewd Third Hokage have such a foolish son?

Look at the Yamanaka Clan's...

Forget it, that was a secret technique, so it did not count for now.

Even the little girl beside him, Kurenai Yuhi, knew to use genjutsu to conceal herself.

Although such childish genjutsu had no effect whatsoever on Furuya Daisuke.

Still, compared with Asuma's idiotic behavior, Furuya Daisuke was very satisfied with Kurenai Yuhi's performance.

The students in the classroom each showed off their own abilities, using all kinds of ninjutsu and genjutsu.

Suddenly!

Crash... bang!

The sliding wooden door was pulled open by a small hand, revealing Tōka standing in the doorway with a completely expressionless face.

Crack!

It was not Gai who had crushed a pen shaft, but Furuya Daisuke, who had snapped the armrest of his chair in half!!

"Brat, you actually dare show your face here!!"

Furuya Daisuke felt a blazing fire burn in his chest, as though it were about to devour the entire classroom!

Tōka's first reaction was to see what the students in the classroom were doing, then look for Might Guy's seat.

That green skintight suit paired with a watermelon haircut truly stood out like a crane among chickens.

Only then did he hear Furuya Daisuke's voice.

"Oh?" Tōka glanced at him indifferently. "It's Teacher Daisuke."

Damn it, you only noticed me now?!

Furuya Daisuke's whole face turned red. If Tōka had not looked so frail,

he truly would have liked to have a nice, intimate collision of flesh!

"Tōka, do you know what time it is?" Furuya Daisuke ground out through clenched teeth.

Tōka tilted his head and thought about it briefly. He really had not paid attention.

"What time?" he asked expressionlessly.

"Class is about to end!!" Furuya Daisuke roared furiously.

"Is that so? That's great. Class is ending right after I got here." At last, a hint of delight appeared on Tōka's expressionless little face.

Furuya Daisuke, "..."

Everyone, "..."

To be continued.