Meeting the Third Hokage

"Congratulations, Host. You have received the following rewards:"

"15 Magic Modification Points, Simple Ninja Tool Pack, Explosive Tags ×10, Kunai ×3, Shuriken ×100, Military Ration Pills ×100, Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu (Beginner), Spirit: Sure-Hit (3 uses remaining), [Uzumaki Clan Bloodline] (5% purity)."

Keiichi leaned back in a tactical maneuver. Now that was what you called a veteran mobile-game player!

He'd hit the jackpot!

A huge jackpot!

Not only had he exchanged 10 Magic Modification Points for 15, netting himself 5 free points, but he'd also gotten a large supply of ninja tools.

They might all be the most common, lowest-grade tools, but for a Commoner Ninja who could only make ends meet through D-rank missions, they were still luxury goods. For Keiichi, who was strapped for cash, they were a veritable fortune!

What Commoner Ninja could afford to use something as extravagant as Explosive Tags?

And that wasn't all. The pack had even included a bloodline with a purity of 5%, which amounted to a net gain of 50 Magic Modification Points!

The Uzumaki Bloodline wasn't especially powerful, and didn't even count as a Kekkei Genkai. But the moment Keiichi activated it, he noticed a change in his stats.

His [Stamina] had gone straight from 3 to 4!

Sure enough, a seemingly inexhaustible well of energy welled up inside him. He felt so full of energy that he wanted to go out and run ten laps.

No wonder Naruto seemed to have a hyperactivity disorder. It turned out his bloodline was to blame.

The Uzumaki Bloodline really lived up to its name. Its effect on physical stamina was obvious, and since chakra was essentially a mixture of physical and spiritual energy, it also noticeably increased his chakra reserves. And that was with only 5% of the bloodline activated!

The only thing in the pack that Keiichi couldn't quite understand was [Spirit: Sure-Hit].

The system helpfully provided an explanation right away: after using this Spirit, the next ninjutsu he cast would hit its target with 100% accuracy, ignoring any evasion skills.

Well, that explained why it had come with Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!

Anyone who had been a ninja in his past life knew that Fireball Jutsu was great in every way: powerful, cheap to use, and easy to learn. Its only flaw was its absurdly low accuracy. More often than not, it could only be used to keep an opponent at bay.

He'd never seen Fireball Jutsu actually kill anyone.

But if he activated [Spirit: Sure-Hit] before casting Fireball Jutsu, things could get very interesting.

He also discovered that something as ridiculously overpowered as this wasn't available in the Exchange Shop. It seemed he could only get it from a pack, so he'd have to use it sparingly.

After getting 15 Magic Modification Points, Keiichi didn't hesitate to spend them on the [Land of Waves Arc Limited Pack]. He no longer had any doubts about the pack's value.

"Congratulations, Host. You have received the following rewards:"

"C-rank Mission [Protect Tazuna]: The master bridge builder Tazuna is going to the Land of Waves to complete the bridge. Along the way, Gato's subordinates will try to stop him. Stake your ninja pride and your life on protecting him as he fulfills his final dream."

"Spirit: Destruction (1 use remaining), Shadow Clone Technique (Elite), Water Clone (3-minute time limit)"

At the very moment Keiichi opened the pack, Hiruzen had just seen off Tazuna, who had traveled a great distance to request a mission, at the Hokage Building.

As he gazed out the window at the village, Hiruzen puffed on his pipe and considered who to assign to the mission.

It looked like an ordinary escort mission, but according to reports from the Anbu, Gato had long since marked Tazuna as a thorn in his side. The journey would be anything but peaceful.

With the Chunin Ninja Exams approaching, however, most ninja were rushing to wrap up their current missions, and everyone had suddenly become very busy.

The only team he could spare was Team 7. After all, they usually handled day-to-day work and had barely left the village.

But he still had reservations about sending Team 7 on the mission.

The team was special. It included the sole surviving heir of the Uchiha Clan as well as a Jinchuriki weapon meant to maintain the strategic balance. The slightest misstep could lead to disaster.

That was why he had assigned Kakashi to be their teacher.

He kept a close eye on Naruto's growth. A Jinchuriki wasn't merely a means of preventing a Tailed Beast from wreaking havoc on the village; he was also a bargaining chip in the military balance between nations.

Keeping Naruto on missions within the village would be safe, but his growth would suffer. If war suddenly broke out, how could he be of any use?

Hiruzen had assigned Kakashi, the village's most precious combat asset, to teach him. He hadn't done so just to have him catch cats and deliver messages.

Perhaps Tazuna's mission would be just the right level of difficulty—a good opportunity for them to gain experience.

For one thing, the Land of Waves was not far from the Land of Fire, and there were no reports of any elite ninja operating there. Even if Tazuna's enemy was Gato, the man was nothing more than a local thug. What kind of capable fighters could he possibly hire?

Kakashi was a Jonin with real strength. As long as they didn't encounter an elite Jonin, he could handle any situation.

But the sense of danger lingering in Hiruzen's heart still made him feel uneasy. He couldn't shake the feeling that he hadn't considered everything.

Then he noticed the file on his desk. A name caught his eye—

Keiichi.

A kid who had learned [Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet] by pure chance had killed a Sunagakure spy nearly as strong as a Jonin while still a Genin. His teammates had either been killed or injured, but he had come through unscathed. He'd certainly been lucky.

Hiruzen didn't know how Keiichi had learned Fire Dragon Flame Bullet, but ever since becoming Hokage, he had put his clan's interests behind him. All he cared about was the village's future.

So Hiruzen didn't dislike the boy named Keiichi. If anything, he admired him a little.

It was a B-rank ninjutsu, and Keiichi had learned it despite having graduated from the Ninja Academy only a short time ago.

He clearly had some talent, but how much potential he had remained to be seen.

Hiruzen knew better than anyone how limited the prospects were for a Commoner Ninja. To catch his eye, Keiichi needed both skill and luck.

He couldn't help thinking of someone else: a brilliant hero who had saved the Leaf Village from the brink of defeat in the Third Shinobi World War. It was a shame that...

Looking at the name, Hiruzen nodded slightly. The Anbu had investigated the boy's background thoroughly. His parents had been civilians from the Land of Fire and had died after being caught in the crossfire of war. He had been brought to the Leaf Village as a one-year-old war orphan and raised there. He had grown up under the light of the Will of Fire, so there was no chance he would betray the village.

Now that his teammates had been killed or injured, he was temporarily unassigned. Hiruzen could add him to the escort mission for the time being. That would provide an extra layer of security.

Of course, in addition to the escort mission, Keiichi had another secret task: protecting Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha, as well as...

keeping an eye on them.

The two boys knew nothing about any of this and seemed utterly loyal to the Leaf Village. The chances of them defecting were almost nonexistent. But once they left the Land of Fire, anything could happen. No matter how strong Kakashi was, he was still only one person and couldn't keep an eye on everything.

Adding Keiichi to the team would give them an extra safeguard.

And so Hiruzen changed his mind at the last moment and decided to add one more person to the mission, never suspecting that anything was amiss.

Chapter 5: Meeting the Third Hokage

Keiichi had never imagined he'd be crossing paths with the main cast so soon. It made him feel as though someone had set this up for him.

But after thinking it over, he accepted it. The pack had given him the [Protect Tazuna] mission, so it made sense that he'd been summoned to the Hokage's office and was standing with the legendary Team 7, right?

Was this the moment he was supposed to get emotional?

Was he making his dazzling debut in a manga panel for the first time as a mere background character?

If he casually said a couple of lines now, would speech bubbles appear in the empty space?

And if so, could he change the story however he wanted and earn Magic Modification Points?

As for how many he could earn, that probably depended on how good he was at forcing himself into the plot, right?

While Keiichi's imagination ran wild, the others were sizing up this stranger they'd never seen before.

They were all the same age, but interestingly, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had never exchanged a single word with Keiichi. The reason was simple: they hadn't been assigned to the same class.

Naruto was always complaining that he had no friends, but he seemed never to have noticed how special his circumstances were. Look at the students around him. Almost all of them came from powerful ninja clans. Even those who weren't born into a prestigious clan were among the most promising children of fallen noble families. The class they attended was privately known as the Elite Class.

As for Keiichi's class, more than a hundred students were crammed into one small classroom. Every last one came from an ordinary family, had poor aptitude for being a ninja, and received an education that was worlds apart from the Elite Class. As a result, fewer than half passed the graduation exam. It wasn't like the Elite Class, where practically everyone passed.

And that was with the examiners deliberately turning a blind eye. After all, there were people on the battlefield who could make a name for themselves at the cost of countless lives. Someone had to be the countless lives. Did anyone really think those powerful clans were willing to send their own children to die on the battlefield?

That was why Keiichi's class was also known as the Cannon Fodder Class.

And there were six or seven other Cannon Fodder Classes just like it.

Although they attended the same school, the two kinds of classes might as well have belonged to separate worlds. They had never had any contact. The clan-born students had long since absorbed the idea of social hierarchy into their bones. They avoided Naruto and treated students from the Cannon Fodder Classes as if they didn't exist.

The only thing the two kinds of classes had in common was that they both had a homeroom teacher named Iruka.

Naruto was too young to understand any of this. Keiichi only looked vaguely familiar to him. After all, they'd attended the same school for years and had crossed paths now and then. They just weren't in the same class, so they'd never talked.

Sasuke glanced at Keiichi and turned away, looking rather arrogant. He was proud, after all. What could he possibly have to say to someone from the Cannon Fodder Class? It wasn't as if Keiichi could help him kill his brother and fulfill his wish.

As for Sakura, most of the time her eyes were on Sasuke. She might not even have noticed that someone named Keiichi had entered the Hokage's office.

"This is Keiichi from Team 25. He graduated in the same year as the rest of you. He'll be temporarily joining Team 7 for this mission. Be sure to get along, all right?"

After explaining the mission at length, Hiruzen said sternly.

"Yes!" everyone answered in unison.

This was the first time Keiichi had been so close to the Third Hokage. In the past, he'd only heard him give speeches from the front of the classroom at the academy. Hiruzen occasionally visited the Cannon Fodder Class for an inspection, but Keiichi had kept his distance.

After all, if you already knew what kind of person the Third Hokage was—and knew he wouldn't live much longer—you'd probably keep your distance too.

Even as a student in the Cannon Fodder Class, he didn't want to end up as actual cannon fodder.

"Keiichi, it's a pleasure to work with you." Kakashi smiled warmly and offered his hand.

Flattered, Keiichi hurried forward and shook it, saying that he was hardly worthy.

Although Kakashi was currently known as the Copy Ninja and hadn't yet shown his full strength, he would become the Sixth one day. Surely it couldn't hurt to get on his good side?

What Keiichi didn't know was that Kakashi had already taken an interest in him.

He might look carefree, but anyone who had risen to the position of Anbu Captain had to be sharp-eyed and well-informed. How could he not know what was going on in the village?

A child from the Cannon Fodder Class had killed an enemy of upper-Chunin strength less than half a year after graduation. The enemy had been a Sand Ninja, and hardly the strongest, but it was still remarkable.

More noteworthy was that out of all the members of Team 25, who had either been killed or injured, the one who had landed the final blow had come away without a scratch.

If it was only good luck, then how could he explain Keiichi learning the B-rank ninjutsu [Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet]?

The most likely explanation was that the boy really was exceptionally talented. He'd been wasted in the Cannon Fodder Class.

That also explained why the Hokage had added him to the mission and assigned him to travel with Team 7. The implications behind that decision were certainly worth pondering.

But Kakashi wasn't in a hurry. He could watch the boy closely during the journey and figure out what made him special.

Less than half an hour after leaving the Hokage's office, Keiichi was summoned back by an Anbu ninja who appeared out of nowhere. This time, there weren't many people in the room. It was a private meeting between the two of them.

"Do you know why I called you here alone?" Hiruzen asked, his back to Keiichi as he gazed into the distance. His tone carried the authority of the Hokage.

"I don't," Keiichi replied honestly, kneeling on one knee.

Hiruzen turned around and looked at Keiichi, who had his head bowed and hadn't moved an inch. He nodded slightly.

The boy seemed obedient.

"No one will hold what happened before against you. Fire Dragon Flame Bullet is a secret technique of my Sarutobi Clan, but since you've already learned it, consider it a reward from me for killing the Sunagakure spy and protecting the village. Just remember, this should have taught you that not every ninjutsu can be learned at will."

As he spoke, Hiruzen tossed a scroll in front of Keiichi. The words [Fire Dragon Flame Bullet Technique] were written on it.

This meant Hiruzen was formally passing the secret technique on to Keiichi. From then on, he could use it freely without anyone questioning him.

"Thank you, Lord Hokage! I swear to protect the village with my life!" Keiichi raised his head excitedly and clutched the scroll tightly, his eyes burning with fervor.

But inwardly, he couldn't help grumbling. So it was a reward when it came to him, huh? Naruto had picked up a forbidden technique just like that, and Hiruzen hadn't punished him at all.

If Keiichi hadn't read the original story, he'd never have known he was being treated differently!

Keep spinning your story!

"What do you think of Team 7?" After a long pause, Hiruzen asked, as if he'd just remembered something.

"Lord Kakashi has been my idol for a long time!" Keiichi immediately made his stance clear.

"I wasn't asking about Kakashi. I meant Naruto and Sasuke!" Hiruzen nearly choked on his words.

Perhaps it was his age, but he hadn't even noticed that he'd forgotten to mention Sakura.

"I... don't have an opinion."

"Hmm?"

"I don't even know them. How could I have an opinion?" Keiichi spread his hands helplessly.

Hiruzen paused, then quickly understood. Keiichi had come from the Cannon Fodder Class, so it was only natural that he'd had no contact with Naruto and the others.

That answer... pleased him even more.

"For this mission, whether it succeeds or fails, there's only one thing you need to do..."

Keiichi pricked up his ears.