Sarutobi Hiruzen waved a hand, his expression grandfatherly and warm. "Would everyone mind stepping back a bit?"
The crowd of students and parents shuffled backward, clearing a wide stretch of open ground.
Once satisfied with the space, the old Hokage began forming hand seals, deliberately slowing each motion so Makoto Nishikado could follow along.
Makoto recognized those seals instantly. His pulse quickened.
And then, exactly as expected:
Sarutobi Hiruzen's lips parted. A low shout rumbled from his throat.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
Boom.
A fireball erupted from his mouth, swelling to the size of a basketball court. Scorching air blasted across the training ground. The temperature spiked by what felt like ten degrees, painting every face in the crowd a deep, flickering red.
The sight left everyone speechless. Not just the newcomers like Tomoya Aki and Utaha Kasumigaoka, who'd barely spent two days inside the game.
Even the "veterans" who'd begun learning Chakra condensation, players like Eriri and Yukinoshita Yukino, stood slack-jawed.
This... this is what real ninjutsu looks like?
The Great Fireball gradually dissipated. The training ground settled back into stillness.
Sarutobi Hiruzen turned to Makoto, encouragement threading through his voice. "That's the foundational fire ninjutsu: the Great Fireball Technique. Since you possess fire-attribute Chakra, you should be able to learn it. Want to give it a try?"
"So that's what they mean by 'the strongest in the village,'" Ran Mouri whispered under her breath.
Sonoko Suzuki bit her lip, eyes bright. "Could... could we learn something like that too?"
As the second daughter of the Suzuki family, she'd already tasted luxuries most people couldn't dream of in a lifetime.
But this kind of power? Even a girl born into that level of wealth had never possessed anything like it.
Hachiman Hikigaya, though, thought further than the starry-eyed Sonoko. He swept his gaze across the crowd, taking in the fervent gleam in every player's eyes, and a weight settled in his chest.
If everyone here masters this kind of power, and then we all go back to the real world...
The thought barely formed before he shook his head hard.
Forget it. Not like I can stop it.
Then all eyes locked on Makoto as he raised his hands and began replicating Sarutobi Hiruzen's hand seals.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A second massive fireball roared into existence.
The crowd went silent again.
Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at Makoto, shock and delight warring across his weathered face.
He learned it in a single attempt?
He recalled hearing that Itachi Uchiha had also mastered the Great Fireball Technique after seeing it performed just once.
Which meant this boy's talent... was on par with Itachi's.
The other players were even more stunned. Kinoshita Kazuya, Megumi Katou, and the rest of the newcomers hadn't even managed to condense their Chakra yet. Meanwhile, Makoto had already mastered a jutsu this devastating.
"I knew it! Makoto's the best!"
Akizuki Airi was the first to cheer.
Beside her, Marina and Kayoko Akizuki wore gentle, proud smiles.
But the one more excited than even the Akizuki women was Mrs. Yukinoshita.
The beautiful woman in her modest clothes had her fists clenched tight, staring at Makoto with the intensity of a starving fox that had just spotted a plump hen.
She knew it. She knew it!
Makoto Nishikado was the one who could catapult the Yukinoshita family to the top!
Yukino, watching her mother's reaction from behind, silently gripped the hem of her sleeve.
Her gaze lingered on Makoto's back as he stood in the training ground. "I'll catch up," she murmured. "Soon."
"Makoto, would you be willing to become my disciple?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's sudden announcement hit like a thunderclap.
Even the instructors watching from the sidelines, Iruka and Mizuki among them, flinched.
Makoto blinked. As a transmigrator who knew this world inside and out, even he hadn't seen this coming.
But after a moment's thought, it made sense.
The Konoha Elder Council had spent the better part of half a century squandering everything Hashirama and Tobirama Senju had built.
At this point, if you took away Kakashi with his Mangekyou Sharingan and Might Guy with his Eight Gates, both of them walking cheat codes, the only shinobi in the entire village who truly qualified as Kage-level was Sarutobi Hiruzen himself.
Seriously, burning through an inheritance that fast? Those four elders were talented in their own right.
Now a prodigy rivaling Itachi Uchiha had appeared out of nowhere. Of course the old man was going to grab hold and never let go.
Makoto didn't hesitate. He pressed his hands together and bowed. "Your disciple Makoto Nishikado greets you, Sarutobi-sensei."
He didn't care how many questionable things Sarutobi Hiruzen and the Elder Council had done.
What mattered was that this old man could drop loot for him. That was enough.
Though one thought did flicker through his mind.
Killing your master is practically a proud Konoha tradition... He wondered if history would repeat itself with him someday.
Sarutobi Hiruzen grinned so wide the wrinkles on his face could've crushed a mosquito
In this moment, he half-suspected he might be some secret, illegitimate child of the Sage of Six Paths wandering the mortal world.
No matter how many of Konoha's geniuses died young, new ones kept popping up like weeds.
Sakumo died, but the Sannin rose. The Sannin left, but Minato Namikaze appeared. Minato died, but Shisui Uchiha emerged. Shisui died, and now here was Makoto Nishikado.
Clearly, he, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was the one chosen by destiny.
Another twenty years as Hokage? No problem at all.
"Congratulations to Lord Hokage on gaining a fine disciple!"
Iruka started the applause, his voice ringing out across the grounds.
Others followed suit, and soon the field thundered with clapping. The players stood dazed for a beat, but seeing all the NPCs around them applauding, they awkwardly joined in.
What had started as Makoto's graduation exam had somehow transformed into a full-blown master-disciple ceremony.
Before the assembled crowd of natives and players alike, Makoto served tea to Sarutobi Hiruzen, formally completing the ritual.
The newer players might not yet fully grasp the weight behind the word "Hokage." But after today, they understood one thing: the Hokage was the strongest person in this village, and one of the five strongest in the entire world.
And now, Makoto Nishikado was that man's personal disciple.
A meteoric rise. No other words fit.
By the time the school's warning bell rang, Makoto was already wearing the forehead protector that marked him as a shinobi of Konohagakure.
That gleaming headband drove the reality home for every player watching. From this moment on, Makoto Nishikado existed in a different world from the rest of them.
Reactions varied.
Tomoya Aki and Kinoshita Kazuya clenched their teeth in silence. He can be replaced.
Ran Mouri, meanwhile, found her thoughts drifting to her very own deduction-freak of a childhood friend.
She'd heard that Shinichi Kudo had joined the special task force investigating Makoto Nishikado.
Having witnessed Makoto's power firsthand, only one thought consumed her: get back to the real world and convince Shinichi to stop sticking his nose where it didn't belong. Otherwise... he might not even know what killed him.
"Alright, alright, the bell's rung! Everyone back to class!" Iruka stepped forward, clapping his hands. "Don't forget, you're still students!"
Every player except Makoto filed into the classrooms.
Before she left, Akizuki Airi darted to Makoto's side, her sister Marina flanking the other. Each planted a quick kiss on one of his cheeks.
Half the guys watching ground their teeth, but honestly... this was nothing new.
Makoto left with the parents, heading off to report to Sarutobi... no, to his esteemed "Sarutobi-sensei."
"Makoto, would you have time to join me for dinner tonight?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita approached, her voice silky and warm.
Yukino, walking just ahead, went rigid at the sound of her mother's voice. Beside her, Haruno couldn't help but whisper:
"Well... Mom's completely fixated on him now."
Hayato Hayama overheard and grimaced. "Haruno, the way you put that..."
His family, the Hayamas, had served as retainers to the Yukinoshita family for generations. Though "family" was too grand a word for it, really.
They were more of an elite household, each generation filling the role of second-in-command at the Yukinoshita corporation. Nowhere close to a true dynasty.
And Yukinoshita Haruno happened to be the girl Hayato Hayama had been secretly in love with all along.
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*The Bonus Chapter*