He had no power to change the Shinobi World's deep-seated prejudice against outsiders. All he could do was go along with it and make the most of it. Otherwise, he'd soon be branded an oddity and erased.
He wasn't a Child of Prophecy like Naruto. He had to tread carefully at every step, because the slightest mistake could get him killed.
He couldn't help asking himself: Had he been getting a little carried away lately?
Did he really think having the advantage of foreknowledge meant he could do whatever he wanted?
Didn't he know how dangerous the Chunin Ninja Exams were? Why was he acting as if he could do whatever he liked with the Magic Modification Points as soon as he entered, treating the exams like a playground for earning them?
Orochimaru was there, disguised as a candidate. Gaara could go berserk at any moment. Either one could kill him with ease.
"Let's say I owe you another favor. I'll repay you sooner or later." Seeing Keiichi lost in thought, Kakashi left him with those words and took his leave.
"Lord Kakashi, can you tell me when I'll get to meet my Jonin leader?" Keiichi called after him.
"Soon!"
Kakashi had been right. It was soon indeed. Just an hour later, Keiichi received orders to report to Training Ground 15, where he met his Jonin leader.
"You must be Keiichi, right? Let me introduce myself. I'm... ahem... Gekko Hayate..."
Looking at the pale, sickly man standing before him, Keiichi felt awful.
Could he... get a refund?
What? A Special Jonin counted as a Jonin?
Wasn't that a rank you got by taking drugs—no, by receiving special approval from the Hokage?
A Jonin like that usually only had the strength of a Chunin. They just happened to stand out in one particular area.
The ones with real strength were called full-fledged Jonin, all right?
And the ones who'd made a name for themselves in the Shinobi World were Elite Jonin. Take the Copy Ninja, Kakashi, for example.
The name Gekko Hayate sounded a little familiar, but only a little. He was one of those walk-on characters who vanished after the beginning of the Shippuden era.
Yamato and Mitaraishi Anko had suffered the same fate. They were both still alive, but no one knew where they'd gone to play bit parts afterward.
There was usually only one reason for that: they weren't strong enough to hold the stage and had fallen out of the spotlight.
So Keiichi had no expectations of Gekko Hayate. What could an underwhelming Jonin with only a few episodes' worth of screen time teach him?
"Teacher Hayate, I heard that people usually have to take a test when they first meet. Why don't you test me? I'm worried I might not be qualified," Keiichi said with a humble look.
Believe it or not, if you even tried to lift a hand, I'd hit the floor!
Sorry, I'm the one who's not qualified to be your student!
"No, no. Ahem... I'm very satisfied with your performance. Completing an A-rank mission has already proved your strength."
Damn it, he hadn't taken the bait!
"You don't look well, Teacher. Why don't you rest for a while? Don't wear yourself out. Training a new student is hard work." Keiichi looked at him with concern.
"It's... ahem... it's fine. This... ahem, this is an old problem... ahem..." At Hayate's words, Gekko Hayate's coughing grew even more vigorous. It sounded as though he was about to cough up a lung.
Good grief, did he really have to get saddled with a teacher like this? He'd better not catch the illness! Keiichi kept a straight face, but he couldn't help feeling disgusted inside.
"So, what are you planning to teach me?" Keiichi asked listlessly, trying to hide his disappointment.
"What do you want to learn?"
"Spiraling Flash Super Round Dance Howl Style Three!"
"What the hell is that?"
"Light Wheel Cold Fruit Launch Whorl Jiraiya Double Style!"
"I've never even heard of that!"
"Light Wheel Hayate Pitch-Black Arrow Zero Style!"
"Ahem... ahem..."
"Fine, fine. What about a Kekkei Genkai like Ice Style? Can you teach me that?" Keiichi compromised.
"Kekkei Genkai are inherited through bloodlines. I can't teach you that." Hayate gave a wry smile.
Seeing Keiichi look even more disappointed, Hayate suddenly felt as though he'd taken the job only to quit right away. He couldn't just let everyone laugh at him, could he?
Then an idea came to him, and he said with a smile, "I can't teach you that, but I do know a Kekkei Genkai. I can show it to you."
Huh?
What did he say?
He actually had a Kekkei Genkai?!
With something that impressive, how had he ended up in this state?
As he spoke, Gekko Hayate smiled faintly. His colors gradually faded until he disappeared completely.
[Transparent Style: Invisibility Technique]!
Chapter 28: Transparent Style: Invisibility Technique
By the time Keiichi returned home from the training ground, it was already evening. After completing his daily training, he lay in bed, but no matter what he did, he couldn't fall asleep.
His conversation with Gekko Hayate had gone on for quite a while, mostly about the ninjutsu they'd each learned. In the end, he'd realized that his teacher knew even less than he did.
Even when it came to ninjutsu everyone knew, Teacher Hayate wasn't particularly skilled. He couldn't teach Keiichi much.
The only thing that tempted him was Transparent Style, but it was a Kekkei Genkai and couldn't be taught.
No, other people couldn't learn it that way, but Keiichi was different. He could exchange points for 5% Gekko Bloodline, which would meet the most basic requirements for learning Transparent Style.
He'd checked the shop specifically. If he exchanged points directly, the entry-level Transparent Style: Invisibility Technique would cost 50 points—twice as much as the One-Tomoe Sharingan.
But if Gekko Hayate taught him the technique, he could save those 50 points.
The only thing making him hesitate was that, although the Invisibility Technique was considered the ultimate tracking and reconnaissance ninjutsu, with almost no chance of being detected, that was only in theory. The entry-level version still had some fatal weaknesses.
For instance, it couldn't hide sounds, smells, breathing, or his presence. The slightest slip could give him away.
And the moment he attacked, the invisibility would break.
He'd have to raise it beyond entry level to make up for those flaws one by one.
But even at Master level, it was still just a tracking and reconnaissance technique. He could occasionally use it to escape, but it wouldn't do much to improve his combat strength.
Besides, he'd have to increase the purity of his Gekko Bloodline. The cost-effectiveness wasn't great.
The Gekko Bloodline was mediocre, to say the least. Aside from Transparent Style, it didn't have much going for it.
He'd also asked around and learned that Gekko Hayate's grandfather had suffered from lung disease too. Maybe it was inherited through their bloodline.
What, the stronger the bloodline, the worse the illness?
Are you sure this isn't a Kekkei Genkai Disease?
Bloodlines also had their limits. The total purity of all bloodlines couldn't exceed 100%.
For instance, if he had 50% Uchiha and 50% Uzumaki, there'd be no room for a third bloodline.
Of course, bloodlines he'd already acquired could be replaced at any time. The Gekko Bloodline had cost him a few points, but it wouldn't keep occupying his purity limit.
As his strength grew, he'd inevitably have to choose from the very best bloodlines. He might even end up exchanging for a single bloodline with 100% purity, so he could bring its corresponding Kekkei Genkai to its full potential.
After thinking it over and over, Keiichi decided to exchange for it. If he grew strong enough that he no longer needed it, he could always discard it.
Otherwise, his bargain-bin teacher would be out of lessons on his very first day on the job.
Later, he also figured it out: Transparent Style wasn't meant for combat in the first place. When the time came to fight, couldn't he just switch back to another bloodline?
For the sake of getting these 50 Distortion Points for free, he was willing to go all in.
So the next day, when Gekko Hayate heard that Keiichi wanted to learn Transparent Style from him, he couldn't hide his surprise.
"You should know that Kekkei Genkai are passed down through bloodlines. Only members of the Gekko Clan can awaken Transparent Style. How could you possibly learn it?"
"If you don't teach me, how can you know I don't have Gekko blood in me?" Keiichi asked, looking eager to give it a try.
Gekko Hayate shook his head helplessly. How could that be possible? The odds were far too low.
Even if some twist of fate had made Keiichi a descendant of the Gekko Clan, separated from them for who knew how many generations, awakening a Kekkei Genkai would still be incredibly difficult.
Even in the Gekko Clan, Hayate was the only one of his generation to awaken Transparent Style.
But since Keiichi wanted to learn, he didn't plan to keep anything to himself. After all, yesterday's conversation had already made him realize that aside from Transparent Style, he didn't seem to have much else he could teach Keiichi.
It was a blow to his sense of accomplishment.
Whether Keiichi could learn it was none of his concern!
Before long, the number of visitors to the Leaf Village began to soar. The streets filled with unfamiliar faces.
No, they couldn't really be called visitors. To be precise, they were ninjas from other villages. Wasn't it obvious from the Forehead Protectors they wore?
They were anything but well-behaved in the Leaf Village, and there were plenty of physical altercations between them and the local ninjas.
It even made some people miss the days when the Uchiha Clan was still around. If the Military Police Force still existed, would these people dare to act so recklessly?
They'd sort you out in no time, and you wouldn't even have anywhere to complain.
But those days were gone. Everyone knew the Leaf Village was in decline.
So quite a few people had come to this Chunin exam with a mission: to make the Leaf Village look bad and show everyone how pathetic its new generation was. That way, when war broke out in the future, people wouldn't be afraid of the Leaf Village anymore.
Yes, everyone knew that war would come sooner or later. This time, the Leaf Village would be thoroughly ground into the dirt, and the ravenous neighboring nations would inevitably carve up the fertile Land of Fire.
The political significance of this Chunin exam far outweighed its practical importance. Put simply, it was a prelude to a war between the villages!
The most enthusiastic of them all were the people from Sunagakure. Nearly the entire next generation of talent had come, and they'd even sent out their most important "prince."
What kind of alliance was it if you didn't hold a knife to the other side's throat and force them to put their fingerprints on it?
The Sunagakure ninjas had not the slightest bit of goodwill toward the Leaf Village!
As the two nations that had fought the most wars, they had more than enough bad blood to call it a blood feud.
Of course, the Leaf Village wasn't going to take it lying down. Every clan had sent its best students to the Chunin exam. They weren't there for anything else but to prove themselves. They absolutely refused to be looked down on!
Though their internal divisions ran deep, the great clans never hesitated to stand together when it was time to face an outside threat.
Keiichi had been very busy over the past two days. He was not only learning Transparent Style from Hayate, but also wandering around the village whenever he had time. Wherever a scuffle broke out, he'd rush over like a gossip-hungry paparazzo, then...
Watch quietly from the sidelines.
Break up the fight? As if!
Wasn't it much more fun to sit back and enjoy the show?
Of course, Keiichi wasn't only there to enjoy the show. He also took notes as he watched, recording the other people's features and intel in a little notebook.
In fact, some of them had appeared in the manga, so he already knew a bit about them. By combining that with what he saw in person, he could put together the most detailed and reliable intelligence.
He wasn't the only one doing this. Plenty of others were sneaking around doing the same thing. Whenever they ran into each other, they exchanged knowing smiles.
Without exception, they were intelligence agents trained by the various clans. It was their specialty.
But even the most elite intelligence agent couldn't do a better job than Keiichi. Take that kid with the character for "love" tattooed on his forehead. Did you know what ninjutsu he specialized in? Did you know what his trump cards were?
No, you didn't, right?
Heh. I knew. And I wasn't telling you!
He made an intelligence card for every candidate taking part in the Chunin exam, sorting them by strength into N, R, SR, and SSR ranks.
Each card included the candidate's photograph and almost every detail about them. It was an exhaustive account.
Of course, it left out especially sensitive information, like Shukaku.
Keiichi had gone to great lengths to make these cards. He'd prepared well in advance, spending all the reward money from his last mission on printing them.
This time...
He was going to play big!
Chapter 29: A Little Card Full of Magic
Naruto felt as though he'd been incredibly lucky lately. He'd never had this much money in his life. After one mission, he'd actually received a hundred thousand ryo in payment—something he'd never even dared to dream of before.
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