Thud. Thud. Thud.
The sounds of flesh colliding rang again and again.
From the bustle of the street to the quiet of the forest, the scene shifted to an abandoned training ground long since swallowed by weeds, its battered wooden dummies rotting in place. In a patch of open earth the two of them had painstakingly cleared by hand, a boy and a girl were locked in a hand-to-hand duel so fierce it would have left any adult dumbfounded, let alone children their age.
Neither side cared about courtesy, gender, or holding back. They threw every ounce of physical strength and every scrap of cunning they had into the fight, and the moment either one seized the advantage, they pressed it mercilessly, beating at the other as though their only goal was to leave them bruised from head to toe.
The two children were, of course, Gojo Yoru and Uzumaki Kushina.
Of the pair, Kushina was naturally the one who looked worse off. Her round, lovely face was mottled with bruises, her red hair was full of dust, and even her clothes were stamped with footprints and smeared with dirt.
By contrast, Gojo Yoru only had some dust on his clothes. There was not a single bruise on his face.
But anyone who looked closely would have noticed one thing at once: Yoru's expression was unusually grave. Every muscle in his body was drawn tight, as if he were facing a real enemy.
Across from him, Kushina had already entered that berserk state of hers. The terrifying vitality and toughness of the Uzumaki bloodline had begun to show, letting her endure Yoru's blows while still trying to force a trade.
Faced with her wild punches and headlong bull-rushes, Yoru kept retreating, weaving aside again and again.
He had no choice but to dodge.
The last time he had underestimated her and taken one of her angry punches head-on, it had nearly made him spit up last night's dinner.
If he used the Body Flicker Technique, Gojo Yoru could toy with Kushina and beat her down with ease. Even without it, his superior reaction speed should have been enough to keep her firmly suppressed.
But the moment Kushina entered that pain-ignoring state, the entire rhythm of the fight flipped. The one being pushed back became him.
That was the difference in talent.
The Senju, the Uzumaki, the Kaguya, the Hyuga, the Uchiha. These five great bloodlines, all tied in one way or another to the Otsutsuki, truly possessed gifts that made other people envious to the point of despair.
Once the potential in their blood awakened, they could become prodigies in taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, sealing arts, perception, and medical ninjutsu almost as if it were only natural.
They were the kind of people who could become masters the instant they fully tapped what they had inherited.
Kushina Uzumaki had not yet awakened the truly unique abilities of the Uzumaki clan, but she had already shown the makings of a future steel-fist monster.
And that future monster had currently lost her mind.
"Aaaah! Stop dodging already! If you're so tough, then stand still and let me punch you!" Kushina bared her teeth, so furious that her red hair seemed ready to stand upright on its own.
Gojo Yoru sneered. "If you can't hit me, that just means you're weak. Go home and practice more."
Seeing the mocking look on his face, Kushina ground her teeth hard enough to creak.
Then, as if she had suddenly thought of something, she folded her arms across her chest and let out a cold little laugh. "Be arrogant while you can. You'll regret it later."
Yoru's brow twitched. He crooked a finger at her with a look of fake concern and said, "Come here. Let me check you. Sorry... I must have hit you too hard just now. I think I actually damaged your brain."
"Gojo Yoru, you bastard!"
Furious, Kushina lunged at him again—only to have her head pinned in place by Yoru's long arm, leaving her little fists flailing uselessly in the air, unable to reach him at all.
After a round of noisy scuffling and mutual pulling and shoving, Yoru finally treated Kushina's injuries again.
The ease of it, the way she no longer resisted his help and had already fallen into the habit of accepting it, made it obvious just how much time had passed since their first fight.
On the way back, Kushina asked, "Tomorrow's the final exam. What are you going to do during the break?"
There was a clear hint of expectation in her voice.
Gojo Yoru ignored all of it and answered with only two words. "Train."
"You training maniac. All you ever think about is training," Kushina complained, then quickly added, "Count me in."
Yoru stayed as cool and silent as ever.
But Kushina had already learned how to read him. That silence was as good as agreement.
At once, her anticipation for the holiday rose sharply. So did her drive to get stronger.
Seeing the change in her, Yoru smiled inwardly.
This entire way of interacting with Kushina had been deliberate on his part. One reason was to let the village higher-ups see how he had changed. But the more important reason was far simpler:
He wanted to push Kushina Uzumaki to become stronger.
No one understood this better than Gojo Yoru. As a transmigrator, he knew that once the Second Shinobi World War ended, the next era could almost be called the era of the Uzumaki.
Because in that era, there were two Uzumaki descendants with the potential to reach Kage level.
One was Nagato.
The other was Kushina Uzumaki.
One had the transplanted Rinnegan. The other would become the complete Nine-Tails jinchuriki.
If those two had not each, in their own way, chosen to become someone else's support and then suffered severe weakening because of it, the stars of the Third Shinobi World War would never have been Minato Namikaze and the A-B duo.
A healthy Nagato possessed at least six nature transformations. He had no need to split his power into six separate bodies. He could wield the Six Paths of Pain alone, summon the Gedo Statue, and release a chakra dragon that killed anything it touched.
Short of sealing arts or space-time abilities, there were almost no powers capable of checking him.
Kushina Uzumaki, meanwhile, lived in the Senju residence. She was fully qualified to learn Senju secret arts, and she also carried the Uzumaki clan's sealing inheritance in her blood.
In the future, she could become both a steel-fist powerhouse and a sealing master.
If her healing gift awakened as well, she would become a medical ninja even more frightening than Tsunade—someone who could drag back anyone who still had a single breath left in them.
And once the Adamantine Sealing Chains, the tailed-beast killer that seemed born to suppress bijuu, came into the picture, becoming a perfect jinchuriki would almost be inevitable.
Naruto Uzumaki, with only half of the Nine-Tails and Sage Mode added on top, still reached Kage level.
Kushina, as the complete Nine-Tails jinchuriki, would only be stronger.
If she also mastered Sage Mode, then her ceiling would not merely be Mito Uzumaki's level. It would be an even further enhanced version of it.
With that kind of potential, how could Gojo Yoru possibly let Kushina Uzumaki become nothing more than a pretty face?
No.
He intended to train Kushina Uzumaki into a true powerhouse.
Into the strongest aide at his side.
***
December 23, Konoha Year 33.
It was another special day for the Ninja Academy.
Because today was the last day of the second semester.
That also meant one thing: final exams.
From first years to sixth years, every student was facing the semester's assessments.
The morning session was for academic subjects.
The afternoon was practical training.
At the Ninja Academy, practical assessment was divided into three stages.
First and second years belonged to the first stage.
At that level, practical classes only included throwing and taijutsu. Even then, real shuriken only appeared in the final exam. At other times, the students still trained with pebbles instead.
Third and fourth years made up the second stage.
At this level, survival drills were added, and both throwing and close combat were upgraded.
Shuriken practice became shuriken and kunai practice.
Taijutsu sparring also changed. It was no longer a simple, limited duel. Instead, it became a pseudo no-rules match—something infinitely closer to the third stage.
What did "no rules" mean?
It meant exactly what it sounded like.
As long as you had it, you could use it.
The Three Body Techniques. Five Elements ninjutsu. Genjutsu. The Body Flicker Technique. Bloodline limits. Kunai. Tools. Tricks. Deception. Feints. Anything.
This was the harshest and most unfair kind of exam in the Ninja Academy, specifically designed to imitate the chaos and brutality of a real battlefield where life and death were decided in an instant.
In an ordinary taijutsu match, there would only be a regular medical ninja standing by at the side.
But in a truly no-rules match, that was far from enough. In addition to the teacher serving as referee, two medical ninjas proficient in the Mystical Palm Technique had to be present to ensure no one died or was crippled on the spot.
Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it—that standard only applied to fifth and sixth years.
The pseudo no-rules matches used for third and fourth years were still somewhat limited. Weapons were forbidden, and so were the Five Elements techniques.
Even so, for students their age, that level of freedom was already vicious enough.
The moment the afternoon practical session began, the atmosphere on the training grounds tightened.
Some students were excited. Some were anxious. Some were already pale.
For many of them, this was not just an exam. It was the clearest reminder yet of what the Ninja Academy truly existed for.
This place was not a school for ordinary children.
It was a furnace built to refine tools of war.
And among the fourth years, almost no one was more relaxed than Gojo Yoru.
He stood there with both hands in his pockets, expression cold and detached, his white hair and white brows making him stand out in the crowd like a piece of frost in winter.
The students around him instinctively widened the distance between them.
No one wanted to be too close to the demon king before the brackets were announced.
Kushina, however, stood near him without hesitation.
Over the past few months, that had become natural.
She had already long since grown used to Yoru's sharp tongue, his constant mockery, and even the way he used her as a living punching bag whenever he wanted to "help" her get stronger.
In return, she had become stronger at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Her attacks were still fierce and straightforward, but they were no longer as crude as before. She had learned to throw feints. She had learned to suppress pain. She had learned how to keep advancing even after taking a hit.
More importantly, she had learned not to lower her head in front of anyone.
The person who had pushed that change into existence was standing right beside her now.
Kushina stole a look at Yoru and puffed out her cheeks a little.
"Don't lose too badly later," she said.
Yoru didn't even look at her. "You should worry about yourself."
Kushina gritted her teeth at once. "Hah? Who are you looking down on?"
"Whoever gets matched with you."
"Gojo Yoru!"
Her low, furious growl made several students nearby jump where they stood.
Yoru still looked utterly calm.
Inside, though, his thoughts were moving very quickly.
The final exam mattered, but not because of the result itself. He had already secured his position among the top students.
What mattered was control.
How much should he show?
How much should he hide?
How much talent was enough to draw further attention from the Third Hokage and the others without crossing the line into "too dangerous to leave in the Academy" territory?
That line had to be handled carefully.
Too ordinary, and he would lose value.
Too dazzling, and he might be pushed toward early graduation, or worse, watched too closely.
He needed to be impressive.
But only in the right way.
A genius who could be cultivated was desirable. A monster beyond control was not.
That was the balance Gojo Yoru had been maintaining all this time.
And today, on this training ground, he intended to maintain it again.
He had already decided what to show.
Not everything.
Only enough.
Just enough for the right people to remember his name after today.
The winter air was cold. Voices rose and fell across the grounds as teachers sorted students, explained the rules again, and prepared each area for assessment.
Somewhere beyond the crowd, the next round of matches was about to begin.
Gojo Yoru lifted his eyes slightly.
Beside him, Kushina rolled her shoulders, visibly restraining her excitement and nerves.
The semester was ending.
The holiday was coming.
And once this exam was over, the next stage of their growth could truly begin.