Time flew. It was now the first day of Konoha's 47th year, and Taiichi had just turned eleven. He was officially in the middle of his growth spurt.
His chakra had been growing noticeably faster lately. Combined with nonstop physical training, both his Strength and Agility had each gone up by another point.
But the real win came today. After more than a month of grinding, he finally maxed out Chunin Lv10 and met every requirement for jonin promotion.
The panel popped up immediately.
[Occupation: Chunin Lv10 (Max). All job change conditions met: Constitution 20+, Strength or Agility 25+, Spirit 20+, Chakra reserves 10,000+, Official jonin title from the village. Begin promotion?]
Taiichi didn't hesitate. He accepted.
[Promotion successful. Occupation: Jonin Lv1 (1/100)]
[Constitution +1, Strength +1, Agility +1, Spirit +2]
[Attribute Points +1, Skill Points +1]
[Potency talent further enhanced: Ninjutsu power increased by 100%]
The jump in rank hit like a truck. Raw power flooded his body. Chakra exploded outward in a brilliant flare, slamming against the training ground's barrier hard enough to make the whole thing ripple.
Taiichi sat cross-legged in the center, forcing the surge back under control. It took ten full minutes before the light died down and the pressure eased.
He felt… strong. Stupidly strong. For a brief, ridiculous second he was convinced he could drag Uchiha Madara out of whatever hole he was hiding in and beat the man into the dirt.
He knew it was just the rush talking. The feeling would fade once he adjusted. Still, he couldn't stop the grin as he pulled up his updated panel.
Name: Matsushita Taiichi
Occupation: Jonin Lv1 (1/100)
Talents: Hard Work Compensates, Top Student, Potency (Ninjutsu power +100%)
Age: 11
Constitution: 29
Strength: 28
Agility: 28
Spirit: 32
Chakra: 69,000 (82,600)
Attribute Points: 27
Skill Points: 12
Fire Nature Transformation Lv13 (943/5000)
Wind Nature Transformation Lv12 (1832/4000)
Water Nature Transformation Lv12 (1523/4000)
Earth Nature Transformation Lv9 (223/1600)
Lightning Nature Transformation Lv9 (168/1600)
Yang Nature Transformation Lv11 (2502/3000)
Yin Nature Transformation Lv9 (1133/1600)
Chakra Shape Transformation Lv11 (2316/3000)
Chakra Control Lv12 (2344/4000)
Ice Nature Transformation Lv8 (1208/1400)
Skills: Advanced Taijutsu Lv7 (613/8000), Advanced Meditation Lv7 (606/8000), Advanced Kenjutsu Lv7 (625/8000), Sealing Technique Lv12 (1011/4000), Shadow Clone Lv9 (1401/1600), Flying Thunder God Lv7 (231/1200), Spirit Transformation Lv4 (11/600)
Evaluation: You can already dominate the ninja world. Thinking about cutting loose and trying a different kind of life?
A lot of the old clutter had been cleaned up. Skills were now grouped under their nature transformations. Genjutsu sat under Yin Release. Rasengan showed up under both Shape Transformation and Chakra Control. Much cleaner.
Taiichi ignored the usual unhinged evaluation. The ninja world was still too deep for him to go wild. He was staying put in Konoha and growing quietly until the day he could actually punch Kaguya in the face.
Just as he was enjoying the new power, the barrier at the front gate triggered.
He glanced up at the sun. Noon. Who the hell was visiting in the middle of the day?
He walked toward the gate while spreading his senses and immediately recognized the two signatures. Kurenai and Asuma.
His brow furrowed. They were here to say goodbye. He could already tell from the way their chakra felt.
He opened the gate and found both of them standing there with the same reluctant, almost mournful expressions.
"Standing out there like you're waiting for an invitation? Get inside."
They followed him into the courtyard and sat around the stone table. A shadow clone brought tea, poured for everyone, then vanished.
Taiichi took a slow sip and watched them. Neither spoke.
"You two planning to sit here in silence all day, or did you actually come here for something? If it's nothing, we might as well train."
Asuma broke first. "Taiichi… we came to say goodbye. Starting today we can't keep coming to train with you."
Kurenai nodded beside him, eyes suspiciously shiny.
Taiichi raised an eyebrow. "What, you two running away from home? Quitting the ninja life? You're acting like someone died."
Kurenai let out a short laugh and quickly covered her mouth.
"Taiichi, seriously. We're just starting missions that take us outside the village. We won't have time to keep coming here every day."
"Oh. That's it?" Taiichi leaned back. "From the looks on your faces I thought someone was dead or you were getting married. We're still in the same village. We'll see each other plenty."
Kurenai visibly relaxed. She reached into her pouch and pulled out a scroll, placing it on the table.
"This is from my father. Some of his genjutsu insights. He's grateful for how much I've improved and wanted to give you something in return."
Taiichi picked it up without hesitation. A jonin-level genjutsu user's personal notes were worth keeping. He tucked it away carefully.
"Tell him thank you. I'll put this to good use."
He looked at Asuma next. The guy had shown up empty-handed the first time. Surely he wasn't leaving the same way.
Asuma caught the look and pulled something from his pouch. He set a silver-gray metal ingot on the table.
"Here. Took me a while to get this. I was going to use it for a weapon, but… take it."
Taiichi picked it up. The weight and faint chakra conductivity were unmistakable.
"Chakra metal?"
Asuma grinned, trying to look casual even though the corner of his eye kept twitching. "Damn right. Pretty generous of me, huh?"
Taiichi studied him for a second, then pushed the ingot back. "This is way too valuable. The Hokage already gave me a technique as payment. I can't take something like this on top of that."
Asuma's face twisted. "That's from the old man. This is from me. Don't mix them up. You're not looking down on me, are you?"
Taiichi sighed, picked the ingot up again, and formed a thin chakra scalpel on his fingertip. One clean slice cut off roughly a fifth of the metal. He pushed the larger piece back across the table.
"I'll take this much. Enough to make a new weapon."
Asuma looked relieved when Taiichi finally accepted something. He didn't notice until later just how cleanly that chakra scalpel had cut through the metal.
They talked a little longer. Asuma mentioned how he'd tried to bring Shino along for training too, but the Aburame had turned it down. Made sense—most of what they did revolved around their insects.
Eventually Kurenai and Asuma stood up. Tomorrow they would start real missions outside the village. The kid-gloves phase was over.
Taiichi saw them off, then returned to the courtyard with the small piece of chakra metal and the scroll from Kurenai's father.
He opened the scroll and spent the next hour reading. It wasn't just notes. There were two genjutsu he didn't know—Kōka no Jutsu and Jubaku Satsu—plus several practical techniques even some jonin would find useful.
When he finally rolled it shut he let out a slow breath. Yuhi Kurenai had given him something genuinely valuable.
With Kurenai and Asuma gone, his schedule opened up again. He had been spending a lot of time with the Barrier Team lately, helping maintain and repair Konoha's various barriers.
The outermost protective barrier hadn't changed much since the village was founded. Most of the others had been built with help from the Uzumaki clan. After Whirlpool Country fell, progress on new barriers basically stopped. Now they just patched the old ones.
Taiichi knew Konoha still held the most complete collection of Uzumaki sealing techniques outside of what was lost. The relationship between the two villages used to be that close.
But looking at the current state of the barriers made him want to sigh. They were full of holes. Backdoors everywhere. Root and Orochimaru had clearly added their own access points over the years.
A barrier with that many holes wasn't stable. It cost more chakra and effort just to keep functioning.
His first instinct had been to go straight to the Third Hokage and report it.
He stopped himself before he even left the house.
Hiruzen already knew. Root existed because of him. If he hadn't wanted those backdoors, they wouldn't be there.
Taiichi decided he wouldn't report it. Not to Hiruzen.
He would wait until Minato became Fourth Hokage and tell him then.
For now, he had a simpler plan.
If everyone else was already punching holes in the barriers for their own convenience, he might as well add a few of his own.
It would make moving around the village a lot easier.