Kaede Kitahara had completed the initial stage of Sage Mode training.
He still couldn't enter Sage Mode instantly, but that didn't mean it lacked practical value.
At this point, he could already enter Sage Mode as quickly as Jiraiya could after years of training.
Better yet, his body hadn't developed any strange mutations.
"You're going back already?"
When Kaede came to say goodbye, Kazahana Koyuki looked reluctant to see him leave. Her lips parted as though she wanted to say something, but the words never came.
"Yeah. My vacation's over. I'll come visit again when I have time."
Kaede waved and flashed her a grin.
Kazahana Koyuki watched him vanish before her eyes, her emotions tangled with reluctance.
"Idiot."
Inside an office in the Hokage Building, Kaede sat in a chair and filled out two application forms.
He was writing recommendations for his two subordinates, Hyuga Keiko and Amakusa Ryuji, so they could participate in the Chunin Exams.
As their squad leader, this was one of his responsibilities.
Their team only had two members, however, so they would still need to find a third person before they could participate.
Konoha had plenty of unaffiliated Genin like that.
Not far away, Hatake Kakashi was also carefully filling out application forms.
Every member of Team 7 would be taking part in the upcoming Chunin Exams.
With Team 7's current strength, becoming Chunin should be effortless.
This year's Chunin Exams were somewhat unusual because several villages would be participating together. Otherwise, the average Chunin Exams weren't especially strict, and there would be almost no chance of anything going wrong.
This was also Kakashi's first time recommending anyone for promotion to Chunin.
After all, none of the teams he had led before had ever passed his test.
He glanced at Kaede.
So he's back now?
Through Kaede's diary, Kakashi had learned that Kaede had been training Sage Mode at the Rainbow Ice Wall in the Land of Snow.
The entries had been sparse and perfunctory, but they had still revealed enough for Kakashi to understand the basic situation.
Had Kaede finished his training and returned?
Kakashi had plenty of questions, but he didn't ask any of them.
Officially, Kaede had been secluded somewhere inside the village the entire time.
"Kakashi-senpai, is all of Team 7 participating in the Chunin Exams this time?"
Kaede asked after finishing the forms.
"Yeah. They may still be young, but they already have what it takes to become Chunin. They're all excellent subordinates."
Kakashi smiled.
With Team 7's current strength, becoming Chunin shouldn't be difficult.
During wartime, it would have been even easier. Kakashi could have simply submitted a recommendation, and once their mission records and abilities were verified, they would have been promoted directly.
"Are your team members participating too?"
Kakashi asked.
"Yeah."
Kaede nodded.
Unlike Team 7, whose members were taking the Chunin Exams during their first year after graduation, Kaede's team had truly grown stronger one step at a time.
"I still have something to take care of, so I'll head out."
Kaede stood.
"Sure."
Kakashi nodded.
Outside the Hokage Building, Hyuga Keiko and Amakusa Ryuji were already waiting for him.
"I've finished your recommendation forms. All you need to do now is fill out the registration paperwork yourselves. The Chunin Exams require teams of three, though, and you're still missing one person. You'll have to find someone."
Kaede explained.
"I've already contacted someone. My clan arranged for a Genin from the Branch House to join us," Hyuga Keiko replied.
Kaede smiled.
"Sounds like you two are pretty confident."
"Relax. You've nearly trained us to death over the past six months. If we still can't pass the Chunin Exams after all that, I might as well kill myself right now."
Amakusa Ryuji spoke casually with both hands behind his head.
He was brimming with confidence.
Kaede had certainly put them through plenty of training lately.
Their talent might not have been exceptional, but other Genin didn't receive anything close to this level of attention.
Most squads formed after graduation consisted of ordinary Genin and a Chunin or Jonin leader. Their relationship was primarily that of subordinates and a superior, though it sometimes included an element of teacher and student.
With luck, a kind squad leader might be willing to teach them a little more.
Without that luck, it was perfectly normal for a team to disband without its members ever learning a single worthwhile Ninjutsu.
That was one of the main reasons Civilian Ninja found it so difficult to compete with Clan Ninja.
Other than their squad leaders, they rarely had any opportunity to learn Ninjutsu.
Kaede smiled.
He knew exactly how much effort he had poured into those two.
They had every reason to possess this kind of strength and confidence.
"Come on. Time for more training."
Kaede grabbed Amakusa Ryuji and began dragging him away.
The confidence instantly vanished from Ryuji's face, replaced by utter misery.
Late that night, the lights were still burning brightly inside Kaede's room.
He leaned over his desk with the diary lying open in front of him.
"Seriously, who still writes diaries these days? What kind of normal person writes a diary? Who puts their honest thoughts in one? Can anything written in a diary even be called honest?"
"What kind of normal person writes a diary? Me? Oh. Never mind, then."
Kaede chewed on the end of his pen as he mocked himself.
It wasn't as if he were keeping a diary for fun.
This was one of the ways he steadily became stronger.
It counted as training.
Obviously.
[The Chunin Exams are almost here. How does that saying go again? The wheels of history have begun to turn?
[Still, the Chunin Exams always feel cursed. Every one is more dangerous than the last.
[This time, Orochimaru and Sunagakure join forces to invade Konoha. The next major one won't happen until the Boruto era, when an Otsutsuki launches a surprise attack right in everyone's face.
[Speaking of which, it's pretty funny. Everyone in the world knows Naruto is practically unbeatable, except his own son Boruto. The kid actually thinks Naruto bought his position as the Seventh Hokage.
[Even Naruto, a naturally energetic member of the Uzumaki Clan, can't withstand the Hokage's workload. It's terrifying.
[As expected, not even a dog would want to become Hokage. Tsunade, Kakashi, and Naruto can keep the job.]
The moment Kaede remembered how drained Uzumaki Naruto looked after becoming Hokage in the original story, he felt an instinctive aversion to the position.
Naruto's strength had failed to advance further in his later years.
Part of that was because regaining Six Paths Level power was extraordinarily difficult, but another major reason was that the Hokage's duties consumed most of his time and energy.
In the future timeline, the lights inside the Hokage's Office were still burning late into the night.
Uzumaki Naruto had just finished processing another stack of documents.
He sighed.
Even with his powerful constitution and seemingly endless stamina, he felt utterly exhausted.
Just as he prepared to catch his breath, he sensed the diary updating.
He immediately pulled it from the ninja tool pouch he always carried and opened it.
To his surprise, today's entry was no longer as dull as those from the past month.
Kaede had spent the entire month focusing on Sage Mode training, so his diary entries had been extremely careless.
Still, they had at least allowed Naruto to learn that Kaede was practicing Sage Mode.
"Looks like he finally finished his seclusion."
Uzumaki Naruto murmured.
He naturally felt a little more fondness toward someone who belonged to Sasuke's clan in a parallel timeline.
In fact, when Naruto first received the diary, he had already ordered someone to investigate Kaede Kitahara.
However, Konoha's archives contained no records of the Kitahara family.
In other words, neither the Kitahara family nor Kaede Kitahara existed in this version of Konoha.
That meant Kaede lived in a parallel world with a different timeline from Naruto's own.
Naruto found the idea of alternate timelines and parallel worlds easy enough to accept.
He had trained in Sage Mode himself.
His mastery of it ranked among the very best, second only to Senju Hashirama, so he naturally understood how difficult Sage Mode was to learn.
It also demanded a very particular kind of talent.
Sasuke, for example, couldn't train in Sage Mode at all.
Sasuke might have been incredibly powerful, but lacking the necessary talent was still lacking the necessary talent.
Naruto pushed those thoughts aside and continued reading.
He soon noticed that Kaede's diary appeared to be mentioning his own era.
When he read that Boruto didn't understand his strength and even believed he had bought the position of Seventh Hokage, Seventh Hokage Naruto didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
The worst part was that it was completely true.
Boruto had once asked him to his face whether he had bought his Hokage title because he didn't seem nearly as powerful as the Hokage described in textbooks.
Naruto had been utterly speechless.
He also couldn't deny anything Kaede had written about the Hokage's workload.
Even so, Naruto could never give up the position.
To him, the Hokage wasn't merely a job.
It was a responsibility.
It had been passed down from the Third Hokage, a position his father had once devoted his life to, and a role held by both his teacher Kakashi and Granny Tsunade.
It carried far too much meaning for him.
More importantly, Naruto had dreamed of becoming Hokage since childhood.
It was a goal he had pursued for his entire life.
So even if not a single dog would want the job, Naruto still had to do it.
And he had to do it well.
Still, Kaede Kitahara's mockery cut a little too sharply.
Even Naruto found it difficult to endure.
"But an Otsutsuki launching a surprise attack?"
Uzumaki Naruto frowned.
Unlike the other diary holders, whose knowledge of the Otsutsuki was limited, Naruto knew far more.
The final battle of the Fourth Great Ninja War had been against Otsutsuki Kaguya Hime.
The entire conflict had originated from Black Zetsu's attempt to resurrect his mother.
He had constructed layer after layer of conspiracy, manipulating even Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito as pawns.
Naruto still remembered the outcome of that battle vividly.
Even now, he didn't believe his strength had surpassed Otsutsuki Kaguya Hime's power from back then.
It was as though he had reached a ceiling.
No matter how hard he had trained over the years, he had never managed to break through it.
So which Otsutsuki would launch this surprise attack?
Would it be Otsutsuki Kaguya Hime, who was technically his distant ancestor?
Or would it be Otsutsuki Isshiki, the one Kaede had previously described as invincible?
According to Kaede's diary, even Naruto and Sasuke working together had been beaten helplessly.
The thought of such overwhelming strength was truly terrifying.