Chapter 108 – Return to Konoha
〖Year Five〗
Once you enter Konoha, you'll be leaving the desert region—and with it, the immense buffs granted by your title. To make up for this sudden loss in strength, you decide to seal a Tailed Beast within yourself.
You spend a fortune to buy the complete sealing technique archives of the Uzumaki Clan from the ninja cats.
Beyond steadily increasing your own power, you also put a great deal of effort into joining the team heading to Takigakure.
First, you train a team of sensory-type ninja and use them to build an intelligence network. With it, you confirm the most likely candidate to be assigned as the jōnin squad leader for Takigakure's Chūnin Exam team. Then, after identifying the right timing, you use your Sharingan to put him under hypnosis—pressuring and tempting him until he's completely brainwashed and loyal to you.
You pull a few strings to ensure his appointment as squad leader is finalized.
Then, you have him kill a genin who bears a strong resemblance to you.
Just like that, without anyone realizing, you slip into Takigakure's genin squad unnoticed.
With your puppet squad leader backing you, you're able to silence all opposition and successfully gain a spot on the team heading to Konoha for the Chūnin Exams.
After requesting leave from Ōnoki, you remain in Takigakure for the long term. On the one hand, this lets you familiarize yourself with the local environment. On the other, you use the opportunity to fine-tune your cover as a ninja who keeps to himself and conceals his strength.
During this time, you completely master the Four Symbols Seal and the Five Elements Seal—techniques that grant you full control over a Tailed Beast. Combined with your somewhat unconventional three-tomoe Sharingan, you're confident that even directly subduing the Nine-Tails is within reach.
Although Takigakure has plenty of valuable treasures like the "Hero Water" and "Chōmei the Seven-Tails," Konoha's resources, especially during the Chūnin Exams, are far richer. You're not eager to risk an early confrontation with a potential perfect Seven-Tails jinchūriki and suffer a major loss over something minor.
Still, through your connections with the manipulated squad leader, you manage to get your hands on one of Kakuzu's techniques—Earth Style: Earth Spear. Studying its core principles lets you significantly improve the defensive capabilities of your Lava Release.
You also take advantage of Takigakure's many rivers and lakes to swap out the natural energy on your skin for water-natured chakra, and you hone a few basic Water Style jutsu in the process.
Water Style, Wind Style, and your powerful taijutsu—these form the core of your combat abilities as a genin.
With this disguise, once you deactivate your Sharingan, you're essentially a completely different person from your identity in Iwagakure!
...
〖Year Six〗
Another year passes in a flash. With everything set in place, there's now less than a month until the Chūnin Exams begin. Takigakure, located far from Konoha, has finally assembled its team to begin the trek across mountains to the exam site.
Before departing, you summon Boss Black-Cat out of habit—only to find that a lot of his fur has turned white.
You can't help but feel the weight of time passing. Even Boss Black-Cat, who's accompanied you since the start of this one-way journey, is starting to show his age...
"You're the one who's getting old, not me! Cough cough~ This great cat just got a little sun-bleached from staying in hot places too long, nya!"
Who would've thought that the jet-black, charcoal-colored Boss Black-Cat was actually a Siamese?
But turning white might be a good thing—he looks like a completely different cat now, making him even harder to recognize.
...
On the way to Konoha, the squad leader—hoping to give the participating genin a little extra field experience—casually accepts a few missions to wipe out mountain bandits.
Of course, you're not the one in need of "experience," so while the other five teammates fight tooth and nail to complete the missions, you lie comfortably in the cart, resting.
The two genin assigned to your team grow especially resentful.
You've long since moved past the phase of proving yourself through petty contests, and this kind of childish sparring doesn't interest you at all.
Still, to ensure your mission proceeds smoothly, you decide to give them a little taste of your strength.
During the next mission, before anyone else can move, you casually fling a handful of shuriken from your seat in the cart.
With a single-hand sign, the airborne shuriken form into circular blades of wind.
You close your eyes and, relying solely on the sensory abilities granted by the ninja cat clan's senjutsu and your own innate chakra control, guide the Wind-Style-enhanced shuriken through midair.
Invisible Wind Release is the sharpest of blades—within a blink, the mission's targets are completely annihilated.
You recreated Danzo's "Wind Style: Manipulated Shuriken Technique" using both Iwagakure's archives and intel you personally gathered.
And you didn't stop there—you refined the jutsu significantly. Now, it only requires a pre-injected dose of chakra and a throw. The wind blades can be activated anytime with a hand seal.
Compared to the original, your version has less startup time, greater stealth, and more flexibility!
After that one performance, not a single ninja in the squad dares question you again.
...
Before entering Konoha, you use the ninja cats' senjutsu to cover your body in natural energy, completely masking your massive chakra reserves.
You then wrap your eyes with white cloth, disguising yourself as a non-visual sensory ninja. The Chūnin Exams are low-risk, so you use them as a chance to train your control over the ninja cat clan's sensory abilities.
During the checkpoint into Konoha, a Hyūga branch family ninja appears before your squad.
As his Byakugan scans you, you suddenly feel like he's about to see right through you. Fortunately, while the ninja cats' senjutsu is a bit primitive, its concealment abilities are nearly flawless.
Your hidden chakra remains undetected.
Still, if it had been a Hyūga from the main family with a purer Byakugan, things might've gone differently...
...
Even though you keep your eyes wrapped, as you walk through Konoha's streets relying solely on your sensory perception, you can still feel the lingering sense of desolation.
It's been six years since the Uchiha Clan Massacre, but whether it's the villagers or the ninja, everyone still moves with a kind of restless unease—like there's something they're all holding back.
From somewhere in the distance, you faintly hear Naruto and Gaara fighting over Konohamaru.
You sigh at the relentless inertia of fate...
...
Soon, the first phase of the Chūnin Exams—the written test—begins. You remove the cloth from your eyes and casually glance around the exam hall.
Many of the Konoha ninja still bear varying degrees of burn scars. Even Tsunade's early return couldn't fully heal the damage...
The sight fills you with joy—after all, this is your masterpiece from six years ago!
After breezing through the exam's simple questions, you casually flick a few controlled Wind-Style bursts toward the two genin on your team—just enough force to clue them in and help them pass.
Their scores now safely above the cutoff, you turn to watch the hotheaded Naruto yelling at Ibiki—who's still cosplaying the Second Tsuchikage due to severe burn injuries—shouting things like:
"Don't underestimate me! I won't give up! Courage! Bonds! Hokage!"
...all while eagerly jumping into the trap carefully set just for him.
Just like that, the first exam ends in a chaotic farce.
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