After Uchiha Itachi graduated, Kamikawa's life returned to peace once more.
Aside from training, he often went out with Uchiha Izumi—strolling through the streets, exchanging small gifts.
Well… most of the time, it was Izumi giving him gifts.
For example, most of the clothes he wore were from her.
He couldn't help it—Kamikawa was broke.
Living off Konoha's barely-sufficient stipend, he was practically on the verge of starvation. If not for Izumi, this "little rich girl," helping him out, his household would've been empty long ago.
As time passed, their relationship grew closer and closer.
Kamikawa could clearly feel that Izumi had begun to develop a special kind of affection for him.
He didn't dislike it.
In fact, he found himself thinking—maybe living like this in the future wouldn't be so bad.
Before he knew it, Shimizu Kamikawa had turned eleven.
He was nearing graduation from the Ninja Academy.
He had grown much taller, and his Tiangang Art had reached the fourth level.
He could now store a vast amount of senjutsu chakra within his body.
In all other aspects, he had improved significantly as well.
Over five years at the Academy, he used shadow clones to fully master the various martial techniques recorded in the Tiangang Art.
He also bought chakra test paper from a ninja tool shop and discovered that he possessed both Fire and Lightning attributes.
Through persistent persuasion, he managed to obtain various ninjutsu scrolls from Izumi's home.
As he put it:
"What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine. Worst case, I just won't use Uchiha-exclusive techniques until I'm of age."
That statement had scared Izumi so much that she blushed and ran off on the spot.
But the next day, she still brought him the scrolls.
Unfortunately, her family's collection mostly contained Fire Release techniques, notes on fire-nature transformation, and some genjutsu and summoning techniques that required the Sharingan.
There was no Lightning Release.
Left with no choice, Kamikawa began by studying fire-nature transformation.
At the same time, he refined the Body Flicker Technique, combining it with the teleportation-like ability from the Tiangang Art to create an entirely new movement technique.
Fortunately, fate still had something in store for him.
At the age of nine, Kamikawa encountered a little girl—and through a system mission, obtained perfect mastery of Lightning-nature transformation.
It was a snowy winter day.
The streets were empty under the heavy snowfall.
That day, after celebrating the New Year with Izumi and escorting her home, Kamikawa was heading back when he passed a snow-covered corner of Konoha.
There, he saw a delicate girl with pale white eyes.
She wore dark clothing, stumbling through the snow in panic, her face filled with fear and confusion.
She fell, struggled to get up, then finally sat trembling in the snow, covering her face as she cried.
Kamikawa didn't think much of it at the time.
He simply carried her on his back and took her home.
Only when he saw the words "Hyūga" on the gate did he realize—
This girl was Hyūga Hinata.
And that day… was the funeral of her uncle, Hyūga Hizashi—Neji's father.
Thinking back, Kamikawa recalled the peace treaty Konoha had recently signed with Kumogakure.
As the one who facilitated the agreement, Hiruzen Sarutobi had even arranged a grand स्वागत ceremony.
The whole village had been lively and celebratory.
But to Kumo, that display had been seen as a weakness.
That very night, they attempted to kidnap the three-year-old Hinata to seize the Byakugan.
The result was obvious—the intruder was killed by the Hyūga clan head, Hyūga Hiashi.
Even in failure, however, Kumo had judged correctly.
Hiruzen was weak.
When Kumo not only denied everything but also demanded compensation—threatening war unless Konoha handed over Hiashi—
Hiruzen compromised once again.
And so came the tragedy of Hizashi dying in his brother's place.
Today was another cold winter day.
Snow drifted endlessly from the sky, covering Konoha in a thick white blanket.
Dusk was approaching.
After a full day of training, Kamikawa took a bath and changed into clean clothes.
Like every year, he planned to spend the New Year with Izumi.
But as he passed a snow-covered corner of the village—
something unexpected made him stop.
Not far ahead, three children—two boys and one girl—were bullying a small girl about five or six years old.
"I heard you're from the Hyūga clan. Show us your Byakugan!"
"If you won't, then stop looking this way!"
"Those creepy eyes… you're basically a monster. A white-eyed monster!"
The girl had short, pale purple hair and pure white eyes—delicate and pretty.
Under the barrage of mockery, her eyes filled with tears as she covered her face and cried.
"Hinata…"
Kamikawa murmured softly.
At that moment, a long-absent system notification rang in his mind:
[Ding. As the strongest protagonist, how can you stand by while a young girl is being bullied? Go help her.]
[1. Step in and help, preventing the girl from being bullied. Reward: Earth-nature chakra transformation.]
[2. Do nothing. Reward: Danzō's favor.]
"…Again with Danzō? What is this obsession with him?"
Kamikawa felt speechless.
He immediately chose option one.
After all, more abilities never hurt—even if he didn't yet have Earth Release techniques, he could always learn them later.
But simply stepping in directly wouldn't solve the problem.
He was older than them. Even if he scared them off this time, they'd likely return to bullying later.
This would only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.
Hinata needed to learn to stand up for herself.
With that in mind, Kamikawa formed hand seals.
Transformation Jutsu.
Poof!
As the smoke cleared, he had transformed into his six-year-old self.
"Hey… is it fun bullying someone?"
The three kids, used to being domineering, immediately felt annoyed.
Seeing that Kamikawa looked small and unimposing, they burst into laughter.
"Where'd this shrimp come from? Trying to play hero?"
"Haha, a shrimp monster trying to save the white-eyed monster!"
"Well, monsters should stick together, right?"
As they finished laughing, one of them stepped forward and threw a punch at Kamikawa.
The other two watched with amused expressions.
They weren't ordinary kids—their parents were ninja, and they had already begun basic training.
Fighting came naturally to them.
But very quickly—
their smiles vanished.
Facing the incoming punch, Kamikawa simply raised his right hand and blocked it effortlessly.
Then, with a swift counter, he drove a straight punch into the boy's face.
Before the other two could react, he dashed forward—
Left punch. Right punch.
In an instant, all three children were crouched on the ground, clutching their bleeding noses, crying loudly.