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Leo.
That name had been popping into Hiruzen Sarutobi's mind a lot lately. Along with it came an increasing amount of attention on the boy himself.
A promising kid.
Talented, sharp, and surprisingly mature.
If guided well, maybe—just like Minato—he could become one of Konoha's future pillars.
But then…
Tsunade had come by earlier that morning.
"Did something happen?" Hiruzen reached for his pipe out of habit, then forced himself to stop and pulled his hand back.
Tsunade said, "Aunt Momoko risked her life for my father back then. She never got anything in return. The least I can do is look after her only descendant."
Hiruzen almost choked.
For a moment, he felt like a whole crowd was standing behind Tsunade, pointing at him, scolding him for not doing enough.
After a long silence, he said, "I can at least give him some Water Release and genjutsu techniques…"
"No need."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow and immediately shut that down.
Hiruzen blinked."You don't want them?"
"He's only seven. What's he going to do with high-level jutsu? Leo's smart—once his fundamentals are solid, he'll pick things up naturally. He doesn't need to be spoon-fed."
"Oh… right."
Hiruzen suddenly snapped back to reality.
The kid was seven.
His behavior and attitude were so mature that Hiruzen subconsciously kept forgetting how young he actually was.
"Have someone send the books to me," Tsunade said, waving as she shut the door behind her.
Once outside, she let out a quiet sigh.
Leo didn't need more jutsu.What he needed was theory—solid, foundational knowledge.
…
"Leo, you don't need to train any powerful ninjutsu right now. Put the Rasengan aside for the moment."
"Sensei, I really need it!"
Leo grabbed Jiraiya's hand on instinct, politeness forgotten.
This was the Rasengan!
Jiraiya rolled his eyes at him."You even dared to try Tsunade's monstrous strength technique on your own. There's no way I'm teaching you something like the Rasengan right now. And don't go practicing it behind my back either. Build up your basics properly—once you can fully use that strength technique, the Rasengan will feel pointless to you."
"…Fine."
Leo sighed.
So much for negotiating his way through.
But—
Whatever.If no one taught him, he could always learn it himself.
That's what he thought… until Jiraiya leaned in and whispered,
"Tsunade swung by the Third's office and picked up the Second Hokage's old notebooks."
"???"
Leo froze.
Forget the Rasengan.
He could always whip up a ball of chakra later.
But notes from the Second Hokage?Those didn't show up every day.
He forced his excitement down.
"Seriously?"
"You managed to pull off monstrous strength on your first try and didn't even get seriously hurt. That means your fundamentals are pretty much there—you just need a stronger body."
Jiraiya explained, then pulled a small bag from inside his clothes.
"Got this for you. I'll deduct it gradually from your mission rewards."
He said it like it was nothing.
Leo looked inside.
It was something like weighted leg bands—but designed for the arms—specialized for building muscle strength in the hands and forearms.
"How much was it?"
"150,000."
Leo stared.
Jiraiya sighed. "Tsunade borrowed all my savings to pay off her debts. I'm broke just like you guys now."
"How much does Lady Tsunade even owe?" Kurenai couldn't help asking.
Jiraiya held up one finger.
"A million?" Kakashi guessed.
Jiraiya shot him a grief-stricken look.
"Ten million."
It didn't even start that high.
Her debt at Aohua Pavilion had been around three to four million. But the Matsuyama family owned more than one casino. Tsunade had visited all of them. And once word got around, the other gambling houses came knocking too.
After a thorough check… her debt had climbed to ten million.
A tragic tale indeed.
Everyone fell silent.
Leo did a quick mental comparison.
That was roughly one-third the cost of Land of Earth.
And that was only Tsunade's debt from a little over a year. If she kept going for a few more years…
Who knew how high it would go?
Thankfully, no one in the ninja world dared give Tsunade a loan with interest. If compound interest got involved, she might never be able to pay it off.
Actually… if it ever reached that point, the ones in danger wouldn't be Tsunade—it'd be the casinos.
Leo silently complained to himself.
"We've agreed to take a commission from the Matsuyama family. Best if none of you leave the village until they arrive. Good chance to train anyway. Let's start with a D-rank mission today."
Jiraiya pulled out a mission scroll.
Same old job.
Fetching water.
Leo strapped on the arm weights.
Now that both his arms and legs were weighted, moving wasn't nearly as easy as before. Even carrying water had become a struggle.
And he wasn't the only one.
Kakashi and Kurenai were just as weighed down.
All three had different levels of weights, and they actually had to use chakra just to carry the buckets and keep moving.
A slow, grinding form of training.
If they stuck with it, their bodies would strengthen fast.
By the afternoon, the three were exhausted. But instead of removing all the weights, they just took off part of them and went running in a lighter setup.
This continued for two days.
On the morning of the third day, Leo had barely gotten out of bed when someone knocked on his window.
"Who is it?"
He mumbled around a toothbrush as he opened the window.
Leo froze for half a second, then rushed to brush and rinse properly.
"Lady Tsunade…"
"Get dressed and meet me downstairs."
She vanished in a blink.
A few moments later, Leo came down to the courtyard, where Tsunade was already waiting.
In front of her was a stack of books.
"All these…?"
Leo was stunned.
Tsunade nodded. "I didn't take any full jutsu scrolls. Everything here is my great-uncle's research notes on Water Release, genjutsu, and a lot of basic theory. Read them. Absorb the ideas."
Leo nearly turned to stone.
Tsunade and Jiraiya were treating him like some top-tier prodigy.
But…
He knew perfectly well he wasn't that kind of genius. He was just standing on the shoulders of giants.
Still, these books were exactly what he needed.
He opened a few and was shocked at how valuable they were.
Some were diaries.Some were derivations and thought processes.Even the connection between Water Turbulence and Water Severing Wave was written out—the reasoning almost identical to what Leo had worked out himself.
Compression, concentration.
Use highly condensed Water Release chakra to create a high-pressure blade capable of cutting nearly anything.
"Thank you, Lady Tsunade!"
"....."