The next day, in the Hokage's Office, an intelligence report detailing the Ninja Academy enrollment situation was delivered to the Third Hokage's desk.
In the short span of just over two years, Hiruzen Sarutobi's body had begun to show visible signs of aging. His eyes were more sunken, and the wrinkles on his face had multiplied. As his gaze quickly scanned the report scroll, the Third's brow gradually smoothed out.
Where leaves dance, flames burn eternally.
These children of the new generation would all be inheritors of the Will of Fire. After reading the enrollment report, the Third put down the scroll. Taking a few puffs from the pipe he held in his mouth, the Third took out a crystal ball and began performing the Telescope Technique. A remote image immediately projected within the crystal ball.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
In a corner of Konoha, at the foot of a remote mountain forest, two figures flashed back and forth through the air, the fierce sounds of colliding fists and feet ringing out continuously. Not far from the two sparring figures, Kakashi stood engrossed in his book, seemingly completely indifferent to their intense battle.
Of the two combatants, one wore a blue ninja jumpsuit, while the other wore a grey flak jacket with a large '食' (Food) character emblazoned on the chest. They were precisely Guy and Tatsuya.
Over a year ago, thanks to Tatsuya continuously infusing large amounts of life energy, Guy's injuries had finally healed completely. After being bedridden for so long to recover, Guy had long since become restless. Shortly after recovering, Guy embarked on a path of frenzied training. To make up for the training he'd missed during his recovery, Guy had dragged Tatsuya and Kakashi into it as well. They became Guy's long-term sparring partners.
Of course, this sparring naturally benefited Tatsuya and Kakashi greatly too. After all, Guy's taijutsu represented the pinnacle of the shinobi world. Every three to five days, Tatsuya and Kakashi would be dragged out by Guy to spar individually. Most of the time, Tatsuya and Kakashi came together.
Nowadays, both Tatsuya and Kakashi were well-known loafers in Konoha Village. Since leaving the ANBU directly under the Hokage, Kakashi had settled into a leisurely, comfortable, lazy life. Apart from occasional missions, he was mostly idle. The Third had originally assigned him the task of being a Jōnin-sensei, but the man held extremely high standards for fresh Academy graduates, and to date, no one had managed to pass his test. His failure rate was one hundred percent.
Tatsuya, on the other hand, brazenly slacked off while supposedly working at the Military Police Force. At the Konoha Military Police Force headquarters, aside from seeing Tatsuya when he clocked in each day, he was basically nowhere to be found the rest of the time. The pet shop, the Medical Division, the Sealing Division, the library – Tatsuya might be spotted in any of these places, but he was chronically absent from his own office.
To this day, the village still hadn't reinstated Tatsuya's Jōnin status or his position as Vice-Captain of the Third Division. Tatsuya was quite happy with this state of affairs. He had many of his own matters to attend to; where would he find the time to handle Military Police business? For example, accompanying Kyoko shopping, watching the shop with Kyoko, helping train Kyoko and Anko, researching medical ninjutsu, and so on.
The Uchiha members of the Military Police Force were generally content with Tatsuya neglecting his duties. Some Uchiha who held dissatisfaction and hostility towards him even spread his "glorious exploits" of openly slacking off throughout the entire village. Because of this, Sakawa and Yuhi Teru were almost implicated. Left with no choice, Shisui had to personally take the two on missions to help them prove themselves.
BOOM!
Another violent collision echoed through the air. A powerful shockwave spread outwards from the epicenter of the two fighters, nearly uprooting the surrounding trees. The figures separated, Tatsuya and Guy landing apart from each other.
"Alright! That's enough for today. I'm heading back first," Tatsuya said, getting up and brushing himself off, looking a bit roughed up. He waved dismissively at Guy and Kakashi. Without waiting for their reaction, he turned and started walking back. After spending so much time together privately, the three had long since become close friends; false pleasantries were completely unnecessary between them.
"Kakashi, what's up with Tatsuya today? He seemed kind of distracted during the fight," Guy asked, walking over to Kakashi, his eyes filled with curiosity as he watched Tatsuya's retreating figure.
Kakashi, hands in his pockets, eyes half-lidded, looking completely drained, replied listlessly, "You know that guy. Who knows what's going on in his head all day."
"Hehe! True! Hey, Kakashi, how about we have another match filled with youthful passion?!" Guy scratched his head, then turned to Kakashi with fiery enthusiasm, declaring heroically.
Seeing this, Kakashi barely lifted an eyelid. Ignoring Guy, he turned and started walking away, already absorbed in his book.
"Hey! Kakashi!" Behind him, Guy started pestering Kakashi.
After parting ways with Guy and Kakashi, Tatsuya looked up towards the Hokage Tower for a moment, then flickered and vanished.
In the Hokage's Office, the Third watched the crystal ball projection where Tatsuya's image had disappeared, his brow slightly furrowed. Over the past two-plus years, he would occasionally use the Telescope Technique to observe Tatsuya. Sometimes, Tatsuya would indulge him, allowing the Third to watch. But other times, Tatsuya would simply vanish with a Body Flicker, making him impossible to track with the Telescope Technique. Sighing lightly, the Third ended the Telescope Technique. Even now, he couldn't fully see through Tatsuya. The man seemed easygoing and harmless on the surface, but underneath, he was fiercely independent and proud. This was someone the Third couldn't control!
Edge of the Forest of Death.
Swish!
With a sound cutting through the air, Tatsuya appeared inside the underground laboratory. Inside the lab, over ten large cultivation vats were all filled with pallid clone bodies. Among them, the clones in two of the vats were distinctly different from the others. These two clones were fully mature. Strikingly, one of them was the previous Jizo. At this moment, their closed eyes were trembling slightly.
Suddenly, both sets of eyes snapped open simultaneously. One pair, three-tomoe Sharingan. The other pair, Byakugan.
Seeing the two clones awaken simultaneously, an undisguised smile spread across Tatsuya's face. After more than two years of careful cultivation, his plan had finally taken a crucial step forward. By having clones endlessly devour each other regardless of cost, Tatsuya had successfully cultivated two "sacrificial bodies" whose hearts could be taken. And the two clones in these vats were clone bunshin that had successfully taken the hearts of those sacrificial bodies – true bunshin capable of independently controlling the clone body and autonomously extracting chakra.
"Heh heh, looks like the plan over there can proceed on schedule!" Gazing at the successfully cultivated clone bunshin, Tatsuya beamed, murmuring softly to himself.