"Way too expensive! Fifteen thousand Calmness Points!"
Even if Kumonaka Torikaze sold himself, he still couldn't scrape together that much.
Fortunately, the first purchase in the shop came with a 90% discount, bringing the price down to exactly 1,500 Calmness Points.
What? You're asking why I didn't save up to buy the Rinnegan or Mangekyō Sharingan? Then let me explain it to you.
Of course I can't afford them! Besides, even if I really did redeem one, would I dare use it?
Maybe the shop would add the Rinnegan or something like that in the future.
But that wasn't something Kumonaka Torikaze needed to worry about. He had to focus on the here and now.
"System, redeem [Genius]!"
A pale blue light flashed and vanished. Kumonaka Torikaze felt as if he'd just eaten Jinkela! His mind felt incredibly clear.
He immediately opened the scroll again to take another look.
The cultivation method that had seemed so obscure before now felt incredibly simple.
Many ideas for developing new jutsu also came to mind.
At that moment, Kumonaka Torikaze could sum it up in two words: Good stuff!
"Even though I've used every last point, this really is good stuff! This will greatly speed up my Cloud Release training."
There was still a month before the Ninja Academy opened for the year.
Kumonaka Torikaze hoped to master Cloud Release before then.
"With this Genius buff, mastering Cloud Release will be as easy as picking your nose!"
The First and Second Hokage placed great importance on the Ninja Academy.
It was the foundation of Konoha's future, and the two of them had poured a great deal of effort into it.
And their efforts had paid off. The first class of thirty-six Ninja Academy students
had already graduated and begun taking on safe missions.
The most outstanding among them—Hiruzen Sarutobi, Shimura Danzō, Utatane Koharu, Mitokado Homura, Torifu Akimichi, Kagami Uchiha, and others—had been taken on as students by Senju Tobirama.
They were being taught alongside Lord Hokage.
Anyone with a sharp eye could tell that these six had limitless potential.
So both ordinary people and the great clans sent their talented children to the Ninja Academy,
hoping the two lords would take notice of them and accept them as students.
That was his goal, too. He'd already made a small impression on the Hokage.
Next, he'd attend the Academy and make himself even more memorable. Then the Second Hokage would take him on as a student. What a seamless plan.
Once the Second Hokage stepped down, he'd help the Third Hokage. When the Third got old, he'd kick him out of office and keep helping Minato.
"Helping" mostly meant giving him a piece of his mind. Whether Minato listened was up to him. If he didn't, all the better—it would save Kumonaka Torikaze the trouble.
His main goal was to enjoy a peaceful life and, along the way, deal with any Chaos Events the system triggered.
As long as nothing went wrong in Konoha, then there'd be no problem at all.
Kumonaka Torikaze cheerfully planned out his future life.
But no one could say for sure whether the future would go as he wished.
A month passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, Kumonaka Torikaze had diligently trained in Cloud Release, but his progress was painfully slow.
Cloud Release was far harder to master than he'd imagined. Every time, he seemed just on the verge of success,
only to fail at the very last moment.
"I admit, I talked way too big back then."
Since he couldn't think of anything to buy with the Calmness Points he earned each day, he'd saved them up.
He now had three thousand points.
After finishing his training, Kumonaka Torikaze went to bed early. The Academy opened tomorrow, and he didn't want to be late on his very first day.
Early the next morning, the system's notification woke him up: [Spend one peaceful day in Konoha. Reward: 100 Calmness Points.]
Kumonaka Torikaze had long since started treating the system as a natural alarm clock.
He got up, dressed, washed, and ate in one smooth motion, then left the house.
The Ninja Academy was in the central district of Konoha, near Kage Rock and not too far from the Hokage Building.
On the way, Kumonaka Torikaze saw lots of children around his age.
Most were heading to the Academy with their parents, but some were on their own.
When they saw Kumonaka Torikaze, they all turned to stare at him.
"I'm dressed like a Sword Immortal. Of course everyone's going to stare! I don't fit the vibe at all, do I?"
He wore a white robe embroidered with the Kumonaka Clan crest on the back.
A few Cloud Cranes were stitched onto the sleeves, and the family heirloom, the Heming Sword, hung at his waist.
His white hair fluttered gently in the breeze. He looked every bit the Sword Immortal.
The other children were dressed either plainly or in their clans' matching uniforms.
But it was safe to say that not even among Konoha's great clans could you find an outfit more ethereal than Kumonaka Torikaze's.
"Could my ancestor, Yunzhong Huachen, have been an ancient Sword Immortal?"
After all, the paintings and clothes in his home were completely out of place in this world. But then he realized how ridiculous that idea sounded.
A Sword Immortal, having perfected his cultivation! One breath could shatter mountains and rivers; one laugh could change the color of the heavens and earth!
With a single strike, he'd tear through the void and flee to another world, only to end up in Naruto???
Even novels wouldn't dare write something like that!
Besides, if he really had been a Sword Immortal, the Kumonaka Clan would have conquered the Shinobi World long ago!
What Kaguya Otsutsuki? What Ōtsutsuki Isshiki? One slash and they wouldn't even recognize their own mothers!
Kumonaka Torikaze walked along, letting his imagination run wild, and before he knew it, he'd reached the Ninja Academy.
By then, around three or four hundred people had gathered outside the gates.
There were the Hyuga with their Byakugan disease, the evil Uchiha with their sour faces, and plenty of others.
But most of them were ordinary people.
Before long, the person in charge of the Academy split the children into several classes.
Each class had around fifty students, and Kumonaka Torikaze was assigned to Class One.
The classroom was newly built and spacious. Kumonaka Torikaze looked around.
He spotted a little girl from the Uchiha Clan with purple hair and an adorable face.
After asking her permission, he sat beside her.
Class hadn't started yet. The children were all around six years old, the perfect age for playing.
They barely knew one another, but it hadn't taken long for some of them to become fast friends.
Kumonaka Torikaze found it amusing to watch, but perhaps because he was a transmigrator,
he just couldn't bring himself to join in and play with them.
"Hello, I'm Maruboshi Kosuke. What's your name?"
Kumonaka Torikaze turned and saw a little boy with his hair tied up, smiling at him.
When he first heard the name, he froze for a moment, but then he remembered.
Wasn't this Konoha's 'real' perennial Genin? A veteran from four generations of Hokage!
So this was what he'd looked like as a kid. He seemed pretty honest and friendly.
At last, he'd met someone he recognized, even if the boy didn't know who he was.
Even so, Kumonaka Torikaze was delighted. "Hello, I'm Kumonaka Torikaze, head of the Kumonaka Clan."
When the girl sitting beside him heard Kumonaka Torikaze introduce himself, she seemed to want to say something too, but didn't.
Maruboshi Kosuke continued, "Then we're friends now! I have two other friends. I'll call them over." With that, he ran off.
Kumonaka Torikaze had been in this world for quite a while but still didn't have any friends, so he didn't mind Maruboshi Kosuke's enthusiasm.
In fact, he was kind of looking forward to seeing who the boy would bring over.
Just then, Kumonaka Torikaze remembered that he still didn't know the name of the girl sitting beside him, so he said, "Hello, I'm Kumonaka Torikaze. What's your name?"
The girl smiled sweetly. "Hello, Torikaze. I'm Izori Uchiha."
(A quick note: Izori is an anime-original character. She wears a Konoha Forehead Protector and is a member of the Konoha Military Police Force. For the sake of the plot, I may have made her a few years younger.)
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