Night fell.
Bang, bang, bang!
Someone knocked on the front door.
Shinsei had not gone to bed yet and heard the knocking downstairs.
"Coming." Wearing wooden clogs, Nobita clattered downstairs and opened the door. "Oh, Iruka-sensei. Are you here for Shinsei?"
"My deepest apologies!" Iruka bowed. "I have something to ask Shinsei."
"Of course, just a moment." Nobita turned and called upstairs, knowing his son was usually still awake at this hour. "Shinsei! Iruka-sensei is here to see you!"
"Iruka-sensei, please come in. Nobita, invite him in for tea. Don't be so rude," Riya said, poking her head out from the second-floor staircase.
"I'm terribly sorry to disturb you, Shinsei's mom and dad. I won't come in. I'll just ask my question and leave." Iruka looked somewhat flustered.
"Coming!" Shinsei hurried downstairs.
"Iruka-sensei, what is it?"
"Sorry to disturb you, Shinsei." Iruka looked worried. "Do you know where Naruto usually goes when he isn't home?"
"Huh?" Shinsei scratched his head. "Have you checked the little grove where we hang out? Did something happen?"
"Nothing. Naruto hasn't gone home, so I thought I'd ask."
"Oh, I see. If he isn't in the village, you should probably check the woods. I'll come with you."
"No, no, no!" Iruka hurriedly waved his hands. "There's no need to trouble you, Shinsei. I can look for him myself."
"Oh, all right. If you can't find him, let me know and I'll help." Out of the corner of his eye, Shinsei saw black figures leaping back and forth across the rooftops beneath the dim streetlights.
"All right. Sorry to disturb everyone. I can look for him myself." With that, Iruka dashed toward the woods.
Shinsei guessed what had happened. Naruto had probably stolen the Scroll of Seals.
Only Naruto would dare pull something like this and get away completely unscathed. Besides being the Fourth's son, his status as the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki played no small part. Who knew whether the Fourth had considered this when he sealed the Nine-Tails inside his son?
Anyone else who had done the things Naruto had done would have had grass growing over their grave long ago.
Tsk, tsk. The Scroll of Seals. It contained a wealth of high-level and even forbidden techniques. Supposedly, these ninjutsu had been sealed away because practicing them caused too much harm.
That sort of talk would only fool children. This was the Naruto world, where human lives were worth no more than weeds. How could they seal away ninjutsu because they harmed their users too much? They were afraid the ninjutsu were too powerful, weren't they?
Who knew whether the little preparations I made beforehand would work? If I miss this chance, I probably won't see the Scroll of Seals again until Tsunade takes charge.
Sigh. If Tsunade had taken charge earlier, as a Senju descendant, why would I have to live so cautiously? Third, you don't have much longer to live, so I won't hold it against you. Danzo, you'll have to take the blame for this grudge.
Danzo was the main reason Shinsei, a bona fide transmigrator, was so cautious. Although Danzo might never have done anything to Shinsei, the Uchiha Clan Massacre had certainly frightened him.
Without living in Konoha, it was difficult to understand how those involved felt.
In any case, in the original story, when the Third, Hiruzen Sarutobi, was surrounded and attacked during the Konoha Crush Plan, no one seemed to lend a hand. Might Guy had wanted to help, only for Kakashi Hatake to hold him back.
Living in Konoha, Shinsei found it hard not to read into things.
At the Ninja Academy, Shinsei's strength clearly surpassed his classmates by a wide margin, yet he received no additional training. Although he had been able to grow up safely, that was what the Hokage ought to ensure in the first place. In any case, Shinsei felt no gratitude toward Hiruzen Sarutobi.
In the woods, Iruka held out his hand.
"Naruto, hurry up and give me the Scroll of Seals!"
Naruto kicked Iruka away with such force that Mizuki flipped over and fell to the ground.
"Naruto, how did you know I wasn't Iruka?" Iruka looked astonished, then suddenly transformed into Mizuki.
"Heh, heh." Naruto chuckled coldly twice, then turned into Iruka as a cloud of smoke dispersed. "Because I'm Iruka."
Hiding behind a tree, Naruto watched the two fight and tugged open the scroll behind him, unrolling two feet of it.
A ninjutsu was recorded at the beginning of the scroll before him.
Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!
Naruto read carefully, not noticing a tiny spider in his hair bite his scalp before quickly jumping away.
"Ow!" Naruto reached up to swat his head. The scroll fell to the ground and rolled open.
"Naruto!" Hearing Naruto's voice, Iruka hurriedly called out.
Mizuki seized the opportunity and kicked Iruka away.
Iruka rolled to the ground and strained to prop himself up.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted anxiously.
"Naruto! Get out of the way, or I'll kill your teacher!" Mizuki stared at Naruto, making as if to hurt Iruka.
"How dare you hurt my Iruka-sensei!" Naruto gritted his teeth and formed hand seals.
Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!
Densely packed Naruto clones filled the woods.
"I'm going to kill you!" Dozens upon dozens of Narutos shouted in unison and charged at Mizuki.
A short while later, Mizuki lay on the ground, barely breathing.
Iruka looked at Naruto with gratification.
"Naruto! Where's the Scroll of Seals?"
"Uh, back there!" Naruto scratched his head.
A tiny spider suddenly dissolved into a small puff of smoke and vanished.
In his bedroom, Shinsei sat beside a desk covered with sheets of white paper, idly twirling a pencil in his hand.
Suddenly, the pencil stopped, and Shinsei abruptly closed his eyes. A moment later, the pencil began rapidly writing something on the paper.
At first, the pencil flew across the page. Gradually, it slowed, until Shinsei scratched his head and could write no more.
If only I had a photographic memory. Shinjō sighed.
The haul this time was quite good. Sure enough, he had found Lightning Release: Chidori and its follow-up, Lightning Blade, in the Scroll of Seals. He had also found the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Chidori and its follow-up, Lightning Blade, were both important and unimportant to Shinsei. If he missed this opportunity, he would probably have to wait until Tsunade took over to get his hands on them. What mattered to Shinsei was not the Chidori and Lightning Blade ninjutsu themselves, but the principles behind advanced Lightning Release and the secret method of using Lightning Release to increase speed.
Shinsei already had a foundation in Lightning Release, so he memorized this ninjutsu quickly.
The Flying Thunder God Technique involved Space-Time Ninjutsu. Shinsei had no foundation in that, so he could only memorize it by rote.
As someone who suffered from persecution paranoia, Shinsei had coveted this ninjutsu for a long time. If he could master Flying Thunder God, even dying would be difficult.
The two previous Hokage who had mastered Flying Thunder God had both died for others. Flying Thunder God could not be blamed for that.
As for other people's ninjutsu, such as the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique, although it was Naruto's core ninjutsu, Shinsei did not want it at all and skipped straight past it.
There was no hurry to obtain the other ninjutsu, either. Getting them would be best, but he would not feel bad if he could not.
As long as he got Flying Thunder God and Lightning Blade, tonight's haul would count as perfect.
He carefully hid the two sheets of white paper recording the ninjutsu. Now was not the time to study them.
Suppressing his joy, Shinsei climbed onto the bed and began his daily seated meditation.
As his breathing gradually grew even and slow, the qi in his dantian became active again, slowly flowing through meridians large and small.
The facts proved that seated meditation had greatly increased Shinsei's chakra reserves. His current reserves were considerable even among Jonin, amounting to roughly four to five Kakashis. And he had not yet reached adulthood. He was only twelve, and his chakra reserves were still increasing rapidly.
If things continued at the current rate, even without further improvements from meditation, normal growth and training alone could increase his chakra another two to three times.
He did not know the standard for Kage Level chakra reserves, but Shinsei estimated that he should be able to reach the threshold of Kage Level around fifteen.
In truth, his meditation cultivation was nearing Foundation Establishment. In fact, he was already undergoing Foundation Establishment, but his body was not fully developed, so the process was rather drawn out.
Unfortunately, he could not remember any spells from his previous life.
It was not exactly that he could not remember. In fact, while practicing seated meditation in his previous life, he had fantasized about learning spells or divine abilities. But the contents of the supposed spell books he had read were mostly nonsense. They focused on being mysterious, to the point that even someone like him, who practiced seated meditation and had consulted elderly Taoist priests, found them absurd.
And true cultivation masters never spoke of divine abilities or spells. In his previous life, Shinsei had never heard of anyone successfully cultivating spells, though some fortune-tellers and diviners really were impressive. But books like the Book of Changes demanded too much talent. Reading them made him feel as if he understood, only to leave him utterly bewildered when he tried to put them into practice.
Apart from the Book of Changes, seated meditation was the only practice Shinsei had personally verified, so he had never forgotten it after transmigrating, and it had indeed brought him considerable benefits.
If, later on, the Macrocosmic Orbit's circulation connected him to heaven and earth and allowed Shinsei to come into contact with the energy of heaven and earth, then he could secure a place for himself in this Naruto world.
In the later stages, Sage Art was the only ninjutsu that could harm those at Six Paths level and above. Shinsei was not the reincarnation of a son of the Six Paths, so he would not be receiving any handouts. If he did not want to yearn for Naruto and Sasuke's protection during the Fourth Shinobi World War, this was essentially the only path he could take.
He had only his terrible biology skills to blame. Otherwise, researching Hashirama cells would have been another way forward.