...Easy?
Xue Ge paused, then nodded.
Anyone else who had watched Naruto would probably have wondered whether Danzo had lost his mind, but Xue Ge was a complete novice who knew nothing about the original series.
As far as he was concerned, those four nightmarish years had been terrifying enough. This task of graduating early should not be all that difficult-at least, that was how it sounded for now.
There was nothing left to be afraid of.
"Good." Seeing Xue Ge nod, Danzo finally showed a trace of approval in his eyes.
A moment later, Xue Ge asked, "Elder Danzo, where are we going?"
"My home," Danzo said.
"Huh?" Xue Ge froze, then turned to look at Danzo.
Danzo did not even glance at him. "What? Is there something strange about that?"
"..."
Yes. Quite a lot, actually.
Xue Ge wore a complicated expression. You made me sleep in a laboratory for four years, and now you're suddenly bringing me home to sleep?
"Your foundations are more or less solid now. At least, they meet my requirements." Danzo seemed to have noticed Xue Ge's confusion. "Starting today, you'll live in my home. Of course, if you still need to maintain your previous training intensity, I can have Orochimaru install a set of his equipment here."
"What do you think?"
"...Let's talk about that later." Xue Ge shook his head.
Having suddenly climbed out of his previous hell mode, Xue Ge still had trouble adjusting. "I'll...draw up a training plan for you later. I'd appreciate it if you could look it over."
"Of course." Danzo nodded.
Before long, they reached a secluded residence. Through the courtyard gate stood a distinctly Japanese-style two-story house.
Sharp-eyed as he was, Xue Ge immediately noticed a thin layer of dust on quite a few windows.
Did hardly anyone live here? Or did Danzo live here alone? Probably the latter. He didn't look like someone who would bother with housekeeping.
Xue Ge pondered this as he followed Danzo into the house.
They stopped outside a room on the first floor. When the door opened, a clean but rather empty room appeared before Xue Ge.
"This will be your room from now on. Make a list of whatever furniture you need and submit it along with your training plan."
Danzo pointed to the desk and the packed bookshelf in the corner. "Graduating from the Ninja Academy also requires passing the academic examinations. Remember to read regularly. There's paper and pens here too. Any other questions?"
"No." Xue Ge shook his head. The room was already better than he had expected. He had thought he might end up sleeping in a woodshed or somewhere similar.
So Danzo really was raising me as his stepson...?
Danzo turned and headed for the stairs; his room was upstairs. Xue Ge entered his room, closed the door, and sat at the desk, setting his walking stick beside the bookshelf.
He scanned the shelves, found the section devoted to textbooks, and pulled one out to read. A moment later, he put it back. He took down several more books in succession, repeating the same process each time.
Good. The academic exams would be a breeze.
Xue Ge thought this with a blank expression as he returned the last textbook he had taken out.
None of the textbooks covered anything beyond high-school-level knowledge. Even the hardest subjects, ninja physics and ninja trap design, fell within the scope of high school physics. The only mildly interesting subject was ninja cryptography, but even that textbook's contents were less difficult than elementary magic squares.
Perhaps an adult who had been working for years, and who had also endured four years of brutal conditioning after transmigrating, would have forgotten all this knowledge.
Unfortunately, Xue Ge had been a teacher working in poverty alleviation in the southwestern region in his previous life. He had died after losing his footing while traversing a mountain path.
As a teacher, even if he had only taught primary school, he still remembered what he needed to know quite clearly.
After getting a rough idea of the academic difficulty, Xue Ge searched the drawers for paper and a pen, then tapped the pen tip against the desk as he sank into thought. He was considering his training plan for the coming year.
Since he would have to attend the Ninja Academy-or at least maintain an acceptable attendance rate-his previous round-the-clock training regimen would need adjusting. Danzo did not intend to help this time, so Xue Ge would have to work out the broad outline himself.
First, his training hours could not decrease. With Orochimaru's equipment available, Xue Ge was not worried about rest. Besides, he had already grown used to high-intensity training. There was no need to ease off.
He did not know exactly how difficult it would be to graduate early from the Ninja Academy, but to be safe, he still needed to maintain a considerable training intensity to improve his combat strength.
That meant the question now was how to allocate his time.
Morning classes at the Ninja Academy began at eight, while he woke at two. Allowing for the trip to the academy, he would leave a ten-minute buffer and use the rest of that time to study ninjutsu. His progress in ninjutsu was far too slow, and the limitations were too severe. He needed to spend time overcoming them.
Morning classes ran from eight until noon. Xue Ge intended to devote all of that time to training his chakra control. For a ninja, chakra was the foundation of everything. He absolutely could not neglect it.
The academy's lunch break ran from noon until two. The sun was strongest during those hours, making them suitable for physical conditioning from an efficiency standpoint. The main purpose of physical conditioning was no longer to unlock his potential-that had probably been squeezed dry long ago, and anything left would have to wait until his body grew. At this stage, his main goal was to build his body's tolerance.
At that thought, Xue Ge clenched his fist. A stabbing pain ran through his flesh, as though needles were piercing it.
What almost no one knew was that Xue Ge was actually enduring severe pain every moment of the day. It was not life-threatening, but it was enough to badly shake even a seasoned ninja, spreading throughout his body with his blood. It was a side effect of the drugs Orochimaru had concocted.
At first, the pain had made Xue Ge wish he were dead. Now that it filled his entire body and coursed through him without pause, he had gradually grown accustomed to it instead.
Pulling his thoughts away from his body, Xue Ge continued planning his schedule on paper.
Afternoon classes at the Ninja Academy ran from two until four. Xue Ge intended to spend those hours practicing chakra shape transformation, chakra nature transformation, and chakra control. All three involved advanced control over chakra and shared common ground. Training them to-
gether might allow progress in one to carry over to the others.
After school ended at four, Xue Ge planned to leave the hours until midnight open for flexible use. If any aspect of his training needed more time that day, he would use this period to make up the difference.
In addition, if possible, Xue Ge intended to use this time to seek out experienced ninja for sparring. He had previously sparred with Tenten and En, and occasionally fought a couple of rounds with Sakumo. Speaking from firsthand experience, actual combat improved his taijutsu far more than training alone.
But En seemed to have vanished completely. Danzo had probably sent him on another assignment. Perhaps following Kakashi home to find Sakumo one day would be a good option.
With his daily schedule more or less settled, Xue Ge set the paper aside, then looked around the room as he wrote down the furniture he needed. Once he finished, he put both documents in order and took them upstairs to Danzo.