Trouble

After sneaking all the way home with the Mayfly Technique, Kanna sat meditating before the calligraphy in the main hall: "Only by being in the center." She stayed there for hours, until the sun sank in the west and Morishita Mai and Tokiomi came home.

Morishita Mai saw Kanna's back and paused in surprise before looking at Tokiomi.

"Get dinner ready first," Tokiomi said evenly. Then he turned to Kanna. "Come to my room."

Kanna rose silently and followed Tokiomi into his study.

"What happened?" Tokiomi asked bluntly.

"I finished the exam early, so they let me leave. I'm supposed to go back and stand by in seven days."

Tokiomi nodded. "What else?"

"And..." Kanna gave a wry smile. "I think I got you into trouble."

"Hm?" Tokiomi frowned, his expression changing. The words slipped out before he could stop them. "Did you kill someone? A lot of people?"

What Tokiomi feared most about this exam was that Kanna would be killed. His second-greatest fear was that Kanna would kill too many other candidates.

During this period, the Third Hokage and Tokiomi, the Mizukage Aide, had both been pushing for reforms. The first step had been changing the ninja exams. In the past, Kirigakure's exams had placed no restrictions on fighting. Candidates could live or die, and though the system was cruel, everyone had grown used to it and regarded it as the best way to train elite ninja for Kirigakure.

Lately, the village had been rife with complaints about the reforms. Kirigakure was already weaker than villages like Konohagakure and Kumogakure. If it blindly followed Konohagakure's route of widespread education and mass training, it might end up with a system that suited neither one thing nor the other—and lose its only advantage: having stronger mid- and low-ranking ninja than Konohagakure and the other villages.

Tokiomi had faith in his son. After that great upheaval, Kanna had seemed like a different person. He had become even more hardworking than before, and it was as if he had suddenly found his stride. His training had improved by leaps and bounds, which filled Tokiomi with pride.

Ordinary trouble, like getting into fights or causing a scene, didn't matter. It was just childish mischief. The only thing that could truly count as trouble was if Kanna had gone on a killing spree during the exam and slaughtered the other candidates.

The Mizukage and his aide were pushing a new system, and now the aide's son had become the first to break it, killing helpless candidates just as before. Would people think that even the Mizukage Aide's own son refused to follow his father's policies?

What would people think if the Mizukage Aide's son led the way in defying the new system?

Though the new rules did not explicitly forbid killing, public opinion was a powerful thing. Once the first example had been set, others would follow, and the reforms might well come to nothing.

"Yes, I killed a lot of people," Kanna said helplessly. "I think I was too strong and couldn't control my power. I messed up..."

Tokiomi cut him off. "How many? What exactly happened?"

Kanna didn't dare hide anything. He told the truth. "There were twelve candidates on the other side, and I was alone. After I broke through their defensive line, they surrounded me. I was going to finish the fight quickly, but my ninjutsu was too powerful, so..."

Tokiomi's brow furrowed. "One strike, one kill?"

"Yes." Kanna lowered his head and murmured, "One strike."

Tokiomi fell silent, staring at Kanna with a complicated expression.

Kanna had crushed twelve candidates his own age, which undoubtedly made Tokiomi proud. His son had finally reached the same level Zabuza had once attained, far surpassing his peers. But, just as Kanna had said, he really had gotten Tokiomi into serious trouble.

"What ninjutsu was it? I don't remember teaching you anything that advanced. Who taught it to you?" Tokiomi asked, getting to the crux of the matter.

Fortunately, Kanna had foreseen this situation as soon as he obtained the Highland on the first day. He apologized inwardly before answering, "Honestly, I don't know where that power came from either. But I think it must be a kekkei genkai..."

Tokiomi considered this. "A kekkei genkai? No, neither your mother nor I have one. If it's a special power, then it must be some inherited ability."

At this point, it was worth mentioning how kekkei genkai worked in Kirigakure. The village was unusual. Because it had long been cut off from outsiders, people often married within the village. There was no clan prohibition against marrying outsiders, either. As a result, many parents had no kekkei genkai, yet their children would inexplicably awaken one. Such an awakened power might not technically be called a kekkei genkai, but it was no different in practice. This contrasted sharply with Konohagakure, where kekkei genkai and secret techniques were concentrated in individual clans, and marriage outside the clan was absolutely forbidden.

The Hozuki Clan was the best example of this. The powers awakened by members of the clan were generally all different, which did not fit the Shinobi World's definition of a kekkei genkai: a specific ability that, under normal circumstances, could only be inherited through blood ties and genes. Kirigakure's explanation was that these abilities were the products of cross-inheritance or genetic mutation.

That was what Tokiomi thought had happened to Kanna. Neither parent had a kekkei genkai or any special ability, but Kanna had awakened one. And the power he had awakened seemed terrifying...

"What is that power? Show it to me. Use it on me," Tokiomi said.

"Huh?" Kanna stared at him, dumbfounded.

"It's fine. Just control the force," Tokiomi said, pulling out a chair. "What kind of ability is your move?"

"Well..." Kanna hesitated. "Father, please promise to keep this secret. My ability is repulsion."

"Repulsion?" Tokiomi repeated in surprise. He crossed his arms over his chest. "All right. I'm ready. Go ahead."

"I'll go easy."

With that, Kanna used Shinra Tensei on Tokiomi.

With a bang, Tokiomi stumbled back three steps, his arms knocked apart. Seeing that something was wrong, Kanna hurriedly stopped.

"Impressive!" Tokiomi steadied himself and praised him. He rolled up his sleeves and saw that the skin on both arms had turned an unhealthy shade of red.

"Quite a few capillaries have burst..." Tokiomi murmured, assessing his injuries.

He had been exposed to the repulsive force for less than a second, and it had already penetrated his body. If that state had been maintained, a person would have been crushed into a pulp from the inside out.

No matter how much one trained, flesh and blood remained flesh and blood. Against Shinra Tensei, once the chakra defenses covering the body were breached, the repulsive force would surge straight through and crush the internal organs in an instant. Not even Tsunade could save someone from such injuries—unless Jugo replaced the victim's flesh with his own.

Tokiomi sat back down and rubbed his arms, frowning. "I'll keep your ability secret, but you should use this power as little as possible."

"I'm sorry for the trouble," Kanna sighed.

"What's done is done. There's no point regretting it now." Tokiomi's expression had returned to its usual calm. After a moment's thought, he said, "I'll handle this. For now, let's go eat."

That night, after dinner, Kanna began thinking about which ninjutsu to choose for the final exam.

Shinra Tensei had been far more powerful than he had expected. Mid- and low-ranking ninja who hadn't completed their chakra transformation training would die from so much as a glancing blow. Unless absolutely necessary, Kanna didn't plan to use it on his own people. People like Long and Yetsuki should have been his future comrades. The Third Shinobi World War would break out next year, and that was when he could afford to be as ruthless as possible. That would be the perfect time to unleash Shinra Tensei.

As for whether Madara Uchiha would see through Shinra Tensei, Kanna no longer cared. He refused to believe that the half-dead old man, clinging to life, could crawl out and kill him. Black Zetsu, White Zetsu, Obito, Nagato—Kanna didn't care about them either. If he couldn't win, he could always run.

Give him ten or twenty years, and he'd kill even the gods!

Kanna had always planned to equip himself with an S-rank skill from the Highland. So now, his choices were as follows:

Flying Thunder God Technique, Water Style: Great Shark Bullet Technique, Double Lariat, or Sage Art: Rasengan.

Kanna's Flying Thunder God Technique lacked several applications: Flying Thunder God: Second Stage, the high-speed combat movement technique Tobirama had used to kill fifty Iwa ninja; Space-Time Barrier, also known as Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder, the technique Minato had used to redirect the Nine-Tails' Tailed Beast Bomb; Flying Thunder God Slash; Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder; and Spiral Flash Super Round Dance Howl Style Three. So he would have to figure out how to use the technique himself. Of course, what he already had was enough to handle the Chunin Ninja Exams, and the risk of someone recognizing it was low. After all, it had been a long time since Tobirama, the technique's creator, had died.

But it remained to be seen whether Kanna's reflexes were fast enough to use the Flying Thunder God Technique in actual combat.

The Great Shark Bullet Technique was complete, with no alternate forms. Its only drawback was that its power depended entirely on the user's chakra reserves. Kanna estimated that if he went all out, he could defeat those two in an instant, but it would use up all his chakra. Winning that way would make him look a little pathetic, wouldn't it?

Double Lariat lacked its foundation, Lariat. Since it was essentially a cooperative variation of Lariat, Kanna couldn't learn it by himself without the core technique. Of course, he could have the Highland forcibly analyze it, but Kanna wanted knowledge, not just a single ninjutsu. This technique might help him fight, but it wouldn't help him improve.

Sage Art: Rasengan was even more incomplete. He had neither Sage Mode nor Rasengan. Just as when he had tried to learn the Water Body Flicker, he couldn't analyze it on his own and could only rely on the Highland. Besides, Kanna didn't think he would be chosen by the toads of Mount Myoboku to learn Sage Mode. That meant he could only use this technique, not learn it.

All things considered, Kanna realized that among all the S-rank ninjutsu he had drawn, the Great Shark Bullet Technique was the only complete one he could learn. The others either required a kekkei genkai or lacked necessary components. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, but looking back, his luck really hadn't been that great.

"If I use Sage Art: Rasengan or Double Lariat, those two will be killed outright. I really am too strong..." Kanna rubbed his nose and chuckled awkwardly. "Shinra Tensei doesn't use my own strength, so I can't control it. That leaves the Flying Thunder God Technique, I guess?"