Sasuke hit the ground hard.
Not that hard. I pulled the throw. But hard enough to make a sound, and hard enough that the crowd reacted.
I held out the Seal of Reconciliation.
He stared at the dirt for a second, then pushed himself up. Same expression he always had after losing to me. Somewhere between furious and personally offiliated.
"Next time."
"You've gotten a lot better," I said. "Seriously."
"I know." He performed the seal. "Next time, I'm winning."
He says this every time.
He also means it every time, which is why he's actually terrifying.
Three years of having me one step ahead of him had done something interesting to Sasuke. In the original story, his drive came purely from Itachi — cold, singular, isolating. Here, it had a second edge. Me. A civilian kid who refused to stop being better than him.
He was stronger for it. Noticeably. The kind of improvement that only happens when you have someone specific to chase.
I made him better by existing. That's a fun legacy to have.
Iruka-sensei called the next pair up. I stepped off the training ground and grabbed my water bottle.
One year left until graduation.
That night I lay on my back in the courtyard and looked at the sky.
Three years.
It genuinely didn't feel like it. And also it felt like forty. Both at once.
I thought about the kid who'd been sleeping under a bridge with eighty fear points and a starter sharingan — wait, wrong story. The kid who'd been sitting in a classroom memorising chakra theory and performing the hardworking orphan persona for an audience of eleven-year-olds.
That felt far away.
"System. Status."
[Host: Saiki]
[Ninjutsu: 77 | Taijutsu: 72 | Genjutsu: 70]
[Chakra Cultivation (LV 79) | Shuriken (LV 70) | Hand Seals (LV 74) | Taijutsu (LV 78) | Spiritual Energy (LV 71) | Reading (LV 70)]
[Nature Transformation: Suiton (LV 56) | Doton (LV 53)]
[Skills: Chakra Burst Jutsu | Combat Intuition | Extreme Speed | One-Handed Hand Seals | Mental Confusion | Analysis and Comprehension]
All three combat stats were sitting deep in Jonin territory now.
The Spiritual Energy hitting level forty had unlocked Mental Confusion — basically the ability to hit someone's head with raw spiritual pressure until they felt sick. Disorientation, nausea, vertigo. Not flashy. Extremely useful.
Reading hitting level forty had given me Analysis and Comprehension, which had turned three years of library sessions into the single most efficient use of time I'd ever had. I'd burned through almost everything documented in Konoha's collection.
Almost everything. There's always more buried somewhere.
The nature transformations had both completed automatically at level forty, which was honestly hilarious. Jonin spent years working toward that. I'd done it by staying hydrated and carrying rocks in my pockets.
The ninjutsu situation was less satisfying.
Mostly C and D-ranks. One B-rank — Suiton: Daibakufu. That was it.
Not exactly an arsenal.
But I wasn't too bothered. Hiruzen played things close to his chest — always had. Even Minato hadn't gotten much out of the old man directly. Most of his kit came from Jiraiya. The Hiraishin was probably the same story — Jiraiya asking on his behalf, not Hiruzen handing it over out of generosity.
Warm grandfather energy on the outside. Moves like a chess player on the inside.
I respected it, honestly. Made him interesting.
The real ninjutsu would come later, from other sources. I had time.
What I didn't have yet was —
(999,997 / 1,000,000)
I glanced at the Chakra Cultivation counter.
(999,998 / 1,000,000)
Ah. There it is.
This was why I hadn't gone to sleep yet.
(999,999 / 1,000,000)
(1,000,000 / 1,000,000)
[Chakra Cultivation Method has reached LV 80.]
I waited.
The second derived skill was supposed to hit at one hundred. That was my assumption. The first one had come at fifty, so the next logical checkpoint was —
[New Skill Derived: Armor Transformation.]
I sat up.
...Eighty, apparently.
Armor Transformation.
Chakra shaped into a layer around the body. Full coverage. Functions as defense and as an attack amplifier. Power scales directly with the chakra you pump into it.
I stayed on my back for another minute just turning it over in my head.
Armor. Made of chakra. That I control.
At Jonin-level chakra reserves.
I looked back up at the stars.
One year until graduation.
I'm going to be very difficult to deal with by then.