Konoha's Sword Saint [59]

The speech from Hiruzen and the others had Jiraiya and the rest burning with excitement. After all, they'd grown up under the ideals of the Will of Fire, taught from an early age that the village's strength came first. So when they were told their performance in the Chūnin Exams would directly impact Konoha's future—

each of them was practically ready to tear out their hearts for the village on the spot.

They wanted nothing more than to charge into the exams right now and shed blood for the honor of the Leaf.

Hoshiyomi was fired up too, but for a different reason. He wasn't particularly moved by lofty talk about village pride. He simply understood one thing: now that this "S-Rank mission" was official, they would receive resources far beyond anything they'd ever had before.

S-Rank mission? No—this was practically a direct line to free benefits!

Even without this new arrangement, Hoshiyomi and the others would've gone all-out for the Chūnin Exams anyway. They only came around once every three years—Tsunade and the others were too proud to stay genin that long.

With their natural talent, they already had strength on par with chūnin. And now, they were being granted a full year of elite training and Konoha's full support. In a word?

Takeoff.

Don't underestimate what a year's worth of concentrated resources from the Hidden Leaf Village meant. This was the strongest shinobi village in the world, backing them with everything short of classified techniques.

If before, Hiruzen had been sneaking them a few jutsu on the side to give them a small advantage—

Now, it meant they could freely enter the village's jutsu archive (minus the Sealed Scroll section), and no one could say a word against it.

Frankly, if they went to ask one of the clans for a secret technique now, as long as they could actually learn it, the higher-ups would probably hand it over without hesitation.

And it didn't stop there—tools, equipment, facilities, all of it would be prioritized for them. According to Mito and the others, they were even arranging a private training ground specifically for Hoshiyomi's group to use during their closed-door training year.

For Hoshiyomi, jutsu and tools didn't matter nearly as much as getting past the wall he'd hit in swordsmanship. He was stuck just shy of the next tier—and he needed a breakthrough

Lately, even training like crazy for a whole month only netted him a measly three to five points of experience. Back when he graduated, he already had over 40 points. And now? After all this time, he'd just reached:

65/100.

Technically, it had been 63. He only reached 65 thanks to the white wolf, which earned him 2 EXP for the kill.

That just reinforced his understanding of how his system worked—it rewarded battles against strong opponents. But most missions rarely involved enemies like that.

And when you did meet a strong opponent? Most of the time, it was a matter of survival—not gaining XP.

So where could he find someone strong enough to give him experience… but not so strong they'd kill him?

This mission.

To help them improve fast, the village would definitely assign elite chūnin and jōnin as sparring partners to sharpen their skills. That was the perfect chance.

White Wolf had been somewhere between elite chūnin and low jōnin. And defeating it gave him 2 EXP.

If he could keep fighting people at that level—2 points at a time—it might take less than two weeks to break through.

And if he trained like that for a whole year…?

Forget mid-level. I'll break into advanced swordsmanship for sure.

Just thinking about it made him feel giddy. After all, even now, with just beginner-level kenjutsu, he could go head-to-head with a tokubetsu jōnin.

If he could reach mid-level, he might already be at jōnin-level combat ability.

It's worth explaining how Hoshiyomi's "Sword Heart" system mapped to standard shinobi rankings:

Beginner-level Swordsmanship≈ Tokubetsu Jōnin

Intermediate-level ≈ Jōnin

Advanced-level ≈ Elite Jōnin

Master-level ≈ Kage

Grandmaster-level ≈ Super Kage

(Super Kage meaning people stronger than standard Kage—like the full Six Paths of Pain, Obito, or Ōnoki at his peak. Still weaker than Hashirama or Madara.)

Beyond that was the final tier:

Sword Saint—the pinnacle of the Sword Heart system. Equivalent to Six Paths-tier power. According to Hoshiyomi's theory, reaching that level would allow him to face even Six Paths Madara without being at a disadvantage.

Whether he'd ever get there in this lifetime… was another story. At his current pace, it still felt far off.

But Hoshiyomi wasn't aiming that high yet. If he could become a Kage-tier shinobi like Tsunade someday, he'd already be satisfied.

Once you hit Kage-level strength, surviving to the end of the Fourth Great Ninja War was basically guaranteed. Sure, the war was intense—but not many Kage actually died. If he could just hang on until Naruto and Sasuke's hacks kicked in, he'd coast through the rest.

After receiving the mission, Hoshiyomi and the others left the Hokage's office.

According to Hiruzen, their "training" hadn't started yet. In fact, he told them they were on vacation. They had seven days of free time to relax before their year-long training regimen would officially begin.

Tsunade and the others, while excited, couldn't help feeling a little intimidated by the idea of brutal training. So they immediately made plans to enjoy themselves for a couple of days first.

Sure enough, the moment they left the Hokage building, Tsunade shouted that she wanted to go back to that fried chicken shop they visited last time.

Born into a noble clan, Tsunade had grown tired of elegant pastries and sweets. Instead, she'd developed a huge love for "commoner food" like ramen and fried chicken.

Fried chicken was her favorite. The first time she snuck out from her bodyguards and joined Hoshiyomi and the others for a meal, that's what she ate. From that moment on, she was hooked.

The rest of them had no choice but to go along. Tsunade was the princess, after all.

As they neared the chicken shop, Lobo started getting restless in Hoshiyomi's arms. He wriggled and sniffed frantically, yipping non-stop. Hoshiyomi could only sigh in exasperation.

Your dad was this majestic beast—and you turned out like this?

Lobo's excitement caught Tsunade's attention. She'd already noticed him earlier in the Hokage's office, tucked in Hoshiyomi's arms.

But back then, Lobo had been trembling under the pressure of people like Hiruzen and Danzō. He didn't even dare show his face, let alone move around. Tsunade never got a good look.

She wasn't about to act too playful in front of Konoha's bigshots, either. So she'd waited until now to finally get a closer look.

When she saw Lobo's fluffy little face, she couldn't resist. She activated her Secret Technique: Pat the Puppy and leaned in with sparkling eyes.

As she rubbed Robo's head, she asked curiously, "Where'd you find such a cute little dog? I wanted to get a puppy too, but Grandma Mito wouldn't let me."

Robo, despite being small, had clearly inherited his father's sharp instincts. The moment he heard Tsunade call him a "dog," he got offended.

He raised his head and bared his tiny teeth, pretending to bite her hand. Tsunade yelped and pulled back in a panic.

Lobo proudly lifted his head and let out two yips, trying very hard to display a wolf's dignity that his size clearly couldn't support.

Hoshiyomi scratched his ears and looked at Tsunade with an apologetic smile.

"Bet you didn't expect this—he's a wolf."