I Won't Regret It

The Taotie Technique had undoubtedly helped Denji, too.

Akimichi Denji looked at the panel. His greatly increased digestive capacity had directly doubled his efficiency at absorbing energy.

Before, he could barely store up a little energy from a single meal. With the Taotie Technique and Military Ration Pills, he could now store up 10 points per meal.

Now the system panel showed:

[Energy: 26]

At this rate, he would have enough energy by the third day.

A glint flickered in Akimichi Denji's eyes.

With a constitution of just 7, he was already close to the threshold of Chunin. If he could keep improving...

And the Multi-Size Technique should help him grow, too.

But Denji realized that this touched on something fundamental: the Multi-Size Technique consumed fat to produce chakra. In essence, it converted life energy into chakra.

That transformation already involved the very nature of chakra.

If he could take this a step further, could chakra strengthen life energy at its source? If so, he wouldn't have to rely solely on energy points to improve his constitution...

Akimichi Denji knew it might sound like a pipe dream, but he had Wish Points. If he trained until he reached Transcendent Mastery...

Perhaps it really was possible!

He had to thank the top supporter for the Wish Points she'd given him!

Akimichi Denji's gaze softened as he looked at Yamanaka Ino.

Yamanaka Ino's heart thumped wildly. Her demonstration of how to throw a shuriken remained steady, but her voice had grown a little flustered. "When you do it like this, remember to snap your wrist."

Seeing that Akimichi Denji was still just a little off from getting the angle right, Yamanaka Ino grew anxious. She came up with an idea and reached over to adjust his hand, touching his fingers.

"Bend your fingers and use your forearm to drive the movement of your wrist," Yamanaka Ino said.

"Ah, we're touching! We're touching!"

"Is this right?" Akimichi Denji asked, demonstrating the motion.

"Mm-hmm. Much better."

"Your fingers are so long and slender..."

"Are you all right? Why's your face so red?" Akimichi Denji asked.

"Huh!? Is it?" Yamanaka Ino touched her face, then forced herself to act composed. "I'm fine. Maybe it's just too hot."

"Is that so? Want to take a break?"

"No. As a ninja, how could I let a little difficulty get the better of me?"

"Okay. Thanks for all your effort," Akimichi Denji said sincerely, gazing at Yamanaka Ino.

"It's no trouble."

Yamanaka Ino turned her head away, unable to meet Denji's gaze.

Denji shifted his attention to the shuriken. Unfortunately, he didn't have any extra Wish Points.

Still, he was already quite content to have earned another Wish Point from Ino. She refreshed one for him every day.

He was genuinely grateful to Ino.

Wait, was there something I'd forgotten?

In the distance, Hinata lowered her head. Her pale eyes kept stealing glances toward Denji, and she looked dejected. "It Was Me Who Came First."

The Hokage's office.

The heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans had gathered together.

Across from them sat a one-eyed man wrapped in bandages. Sarutobi Hiruzen silently puffed on his pipe, watching the farce unfold.

Feeling the oppressive atmosphere in the room, Shimura Danzō snorted and got to the point. "Denji of the Akimichi Clan is almost certainly a spy! He should be handed over to my Root immediately. That's the only way to prevent him from causing losses for Konoha!"

"A spy? What a serious accusation!" The speaker was the Hokage's adviser, head of the Nara Clan, and commander of the Third Ninja World War—Nara Shikaku. He didn't show the slightest deference to this "Darkness of the Shinobi." "You need evidence for an accusation like that. You say Denji is a spy! Where's your proof?"

"The proof is that he successfully learned to extract chakra in just two days, then mastered the Transformation Technique on the very day he began learning it. How could that be possible?" Shimura Danzō retorted furiously.

"Denji is a genius. So what if he learns quickly? Lord Danzō, don't try to understand geniuses from the perspective of ordinary people!" Protecting Akimichi Denji was a decision the three clans had made together, and Yamanaka Inoichi now spoke up to oppose him as well.

Danzō had forced the Yamanaka Clan's ninja to leave earlier, and Yamanaka Inoichi had been simmering with anger ever since. Now, he didn't even bother to spare Danzō's dignity; he was practically calling him an ordinary man to his face.

"You!" Danzō's gaze turned sinister. "Denji has also displayed a Kekkei Genkai we've never seen before! How do you explain that?"

"It's just a mutated Kekkei Genkai from the Akimichi Clan. It's not impossible for a genius to develop a new Kekkei Genkai. The wisdom of the First blessed Konoha with this very Kekkei Genkai!"

Though Akimichi Choza was usually a big, thick-browed man who barely said a word, he was sharp when it mattered. He'd just pinned the high-sounding "blessing of the First" on Denji. And the truth was, it really was possible. Kekkei Genkai sometimes appeared among civilian ninja, though so rarely that the numbers were negligible.

"Watch your tongue! Don't use the Hokage as a pretext," Shimura Danzō snapped viciously.

When it came to disputes over interests, the discussions among the upper echelons were hardly any different from arguments at a market.

Once the three clans had argued enough, Sarutobi Hiruzen spoke, settling the matter with a single decisive word. "That's enough, Danzō. Denji really doesn't seem like a spy to me. Give up on this."

"Hiruzen, you..."

"Were you going to say I'd regret it?" Before Shimura Danzō could finish, Sarutobi Hiruzen cut him off. Looking him in the eye, he said calmly, "I won't regret it."

His whole buildup had been cut off before he could even get started. Shimura Danzō was so furious that he could barely form a coherent thought. He stood up and stormed out, slamming the door with a loud bang.

After finishing their throwing practice, Denji and the others walked home from school.

Hyuga Hinata still kept to the edge of the group. Clutching the corner of her sleeve, she watched Denji surrounded by his friends and couldn't help feeling envious. "I wish I could become someone like Denji. I wish I had friends around me, too, so we could laugh and talk together."

"I'm so hungry..." Naruto Uzumaki murmured.

"Why don't you come eat at our place?" Thinking about the expired food Naruto Uzumaki usually ate, Akimichi Denji felt sorry for the kid and wanted to help out the future Seventh Hokage.

He was a full-blooded Eastern University man. Even the fitness meals he'd eaten while working out in his previous life were better than Naruto's three meals a day now. His Eastern University blood couldn't stand by and watch, so he'd made the offer.

If Naruto kept up the fine tradition of "when I get rich, I won't forget my friends," the meal Denji gave him today might someday be worth ten thousand ryo.

Maybe Naruto could even appoint him a general someday. Then he could hear, "I can never repay General Akimichi's kindness..."—

"Really?!" Naruto Uzumaki had been a little embarrassed, but the moment he remembered the delicious lunch Akimichi Denji had brought before, he started drooling and asked excitedly.

"We've got plenty of food at home. We're the Akimichi Clan, after all. You're welcome to come eat with us," Akimichi Denji replied with a grin.