Bonds

Hiruzen Sarutobi sent away the jonin squad leader who had complained about Kakashi, then picked up the files on the students about to graduate from the Ninja Academy.

The files recorded each student's abilities and traits in meticulous detail.

There were exceptions, of course. Kazan was one of them.

No one had expected the boy they had mocked for years—a dead-last student who practiced Taijutsu instead of Ninjutsu and barely passed his classes—to be a genius too.

No one except Hiruzen Sarutobi.

He knew Kazan had been hunting in the Forest of Death.

"Should I put Kazan on Kakashi's team?"

He had watched them for a long time last night through the Telescope Technique. To his surprise, Kakashi and Kazan got along well. Kakashi had even taught Kazan a Forbidden Technique.

A bond seemed to be taking root between the two young geniuses, born from their fight.

"Better keep them apart. Minato isn't suited to teaching a ninja who specializes in Taijutsu!"

Having Minato Namikaze teach Kazan would not be a good choice.

The Hokage had always selected Ninja Academy graduates' teams with care.

Drawing on his judgment and experience, he assembled squads with their own strengths.

Kakashi and Kazan were the two graduates he was watching most closely this year. Kakashi in particular needed a stronger bond with the village, rather than becoming a heartless machine that knew only how to carry out missions.

Then his thoughts turned to the conflicts across the Shinobi World.

The major ninja villages had clashed repeatedly over the past year. The Land of Fire and Konoha, situated at the center of the continent on its richest land, had become everyone's target.

If all-out war broke out, could he lead the village to victory as his teacher had?

The man once hailed as the Shinobi Hero no longer felt sure.

Elsewhere.

At the Ninja Academy.

When class ended, Kazan returned to his classroom.

The others surrounded him at once. They could not believe Kazan had knocked Kakashi down with his fists.

It was unbelievable—more absurd than Obito Uchiha coming first in an exam.

"Kazan, are those rumors going around the village true? Did you really beat Kakashi?"

Asuma was nervous. If the rumors were true, he had a lot to live up to.

Kazan looked at the kids around him, their faces full of uncertainty, hope, and anxiety, then nodded.

"It's actually true?!"

The classroom erupted.

Even so, they struggled to believe he could have beaten Kakashi with nothing but his fists.

It seemed too fantastical.

Only Might Guy had some inkling of how strong Kazan was. His father had always told him to make Kazan his goal.

He trusted his father and had worked hard because of it, but even he had never imagined Kazan was already stronger than Kakashi.

Kurenai alone was focused on something else.

"Why were you late today?"

"Huh? I told you. I overslept."

"You've never overslept once since you started school at five!"

Kurenai Yuhi remembered because she had always paid attention to him.

"Oh, that. The Third Hokage dragged me off last night to repair the street we damaged."

"With Kakashi?"

The question came from Rin Nohara, not Kurenai.

"Yeah."

"Then... how's Kakashi? Did the job go smoothly?"

"He's the same as ever. Doing fine."

"I see..."

Rin Nohara relaxed.

She had been born in Konoha and had never left the village.

Like the others, she longed to see the world beyond Konoha. But unlike hot-blooded boys such as Obito, she understood the dangers outside the village.

Hearing that Kakashi was fine put her at ease.

As for the claim that Kazan had beaten the crap out of Kakashi, Rin Nohara did not believe it. The boy she adored would never let that happen.

"Hey, Kazan! Fight me!"

Obito had not heard what they were talking about, but he had seen Rin Nohara chatting happily with Kazan.

Instinctively, he decided it was because Kazan had beaten Kakashi.

If that was the case, all he had to do was beat Kazan, right?

Kazan glanced at Obito, unable to reconcile the boy before him with the future mastermind.

"Next time."

"No need to wait. Let's do it now!"

Obito lunged, determined to prove he was as talented as anyone else.

Bam!

Kazan drove his right fist into Obito's cheek.

A dark blur streaked past everyone's eyes. The next thing they saw was Obito flying out the window from a single punch.

"Obito!" Rin Nohara cried, rushing out of the classroom to check on him.

What is this girl thinking, anyway? Kazan wondered.

Rin Nohara had always loved Kakashi.

Even at the moment of her death, the official record read, "Rin Nohara died at the hands of the one she loved."

Yet the way she cared for Obito went beyond friendship.

Forget it. It's none of my business.

Kazan lowered his fist.

At noon.

After lunch, Kazan went back to punching his wooden post.

Then—

Bang!

Before long, he smashed the post apart.

A ten-percent boost was enough to make this kind of post useless.

Kazan looked at his fist.

Garp's training method was brutally simple: keep punching with all his strength.

He had started with wooden posts, moved on to decommissioned warships, and eventually used mountains as punching bags.

Through blow after blow, he had forged fists of iron unmatched in the world.

Of course, Garp could do that because he was exceptionally gifted. How could an ordinary person reach the pinnacle of fighting strength by punching wooden posts?

The problem is, Konoha doesn't have any warships for me to hit. Kazan thought for a moment. I'll go to the Forest of Death instead.

With that, Kazan created another Shadow Clone.

"Take care of this afternoon's classes for me."

"Don't dump such a pain on me."

In a sense, the Shadow Clone was Kazan himself. It could speak and shared his thoughts.

Training my body through a Ghost Shadow Clone won't make me stronger. It'll only leave me feeling tired.

"Quit complaining. I'm off!"

After a few parting words, Kazan leaped away from the Ninja Academy, leaving the Shadow Clone to handle his classes.

Before long.

The sound of Kazan's punches—bam, bam, bam—rang through the Forest of Death.

He threw one punch after another, putting his full strength into every blow against the forest's enormous trees.

Hakimi caught his master's scent and came running, only to find Kazan pounding away at a tree.

He had no idea what Kazan was doing, but he did not interrupt. Instead, he stood guard.

Crash!

As a huge tree toppled, Kazan, drenched in sweat, finally stopped punching.

Then exhaustion washed over him.

It was not from the punching. The Shadow Clone he had sent out that morning to practice the Six Powers had run out of Chakra.

A flood of training memories rushed into Kazan's mind, leaving him so exhausted that he collapsed and fell asleep on the spot.

"Awooh?!" Hakimi jumped in fright. He licked Kazan a few times and, finding that his master was only asleep, went back to standing guard.