Time passed and Natsuo's fourth year at the academy began.
Although he was busy for a few days, Natsuo's training time was not reduced because the medical class produced more medical ninjas and the medical ninjas on the frontiers gradually began to return.
After all, there were only occasional skirmishes on the borders and a large-scale war had not yet begun.
In that way, Natsuo was able to hand over his job to the new doctors and he stopped going to the hospital so often.
What Natsuo didn't know was that Hiruzen could no longer afford to support the medical program.
The village's money was limited and was already being used in different departments, departments that are in the hands of his clan and those of his friends and who did not want to part with much of the money they used.
While the idea of having medical ninjas on every team and other ideas for the medical department was becoming popular, Hiruzen and his friends did the calculations and realized the amount of money needed for such tasks.
Between wanting to keep a child occupied and parting with the money his clan used 'for the good of the village', Hiruzen preferred to let Natsuo return to the Senju compound rather than part with the money his clan secretly used to support more ninjas.
As for keeping Natsuo away from Kushina?
Hiruzen stopped worrying about that for a while since he had his disciple and others angry about him because he suddenly stopped supporting the medical department.
Unaware of Hiruzen's concerns, Natsuo arrived at the Senju compound.
"Natsuo!" Kushina shouted when she saw him arrive.
During the holidays, Natsuo hardly ever came to the Senju compound, and since starting the academy I only saw him in class, so I was happy to see him.
"Hello," said Natsuo, greeting Mito and Minato who were standing next to Kushina.
To Kushina's delight, Natsuo joined her training.
During the rest of the afternoon, Natsuo trained alongside Kushina and Minato, and also demonstrated his fuinjutsu skills to Mito.
Flash tags and explosive tags were basic seals that overloaded other seals, causing them to explode. Natsuo could easily perform these, and now he was learning paralysis and storage seals.
Mito was satisfied with her performance and began teaching her barrier seals and some other chakra seals and elemental chakra seals.
Barrier seals were very important for defense.
Chakra seals could absorb chakra from an enemy to weaken them, and elemental chakra seals could absorb the chakra of elemental Ninjutsu.
The difficulty with these final seals was that one first had to be skilled with that element. Otherwise, the seal wouldn't work, and the enemy's Ninjutsu would strike you head-on.
After training all afternoon at the Senju compound, Natsuo returned to the orphanage.
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Year 34 since the founding of the Leaf Village
Two years passed quickly and Natsuo was about to graduate from the academy.
Since entering the academy at age 6, 5 years had passed in the academy and this year would be the last.
While he was sitting, the difference in his height compared to the other students was noticeable.
While chakra caused young ninjas to develop faster, Natsuo was significantly taller after stimulating his growth gradually over the past two years without rushing.
While the other children looked about 12 or 13 years old, Natsuo looked about 14 or 15 years old.
Natsuo was happy he had decided to go through accelerated growth, otherwise he would not have been able to open the fifth inner door, the door of closure.
At just 10 years old, almost 11 soon, Natsuo had already achieved what Rock Lee was able to accomplish at 14 or 15. Even better, Rock Lee was able to open up to 5 internal gates, but at a great cost to his body.
Natsuo, on the other hand, was already getting used to opening 5 doors and would soon try to open the sixth.
Of course, these 2 years did not pass without changes in the world.
While Natsuo was happy with the results of his training, the same feeling didn't fill the Senju compound. And seeing the empty seat where Kushina usually sat, Natsuo could only sigh.
In the last year, tragic things had happened to the 3 women at the Senju compound, and Natsuo felt a little guilty.
Although he knew this would happen, Natsuo couldn't explain how he had this knowledge.
If he is unlucky, he will be caught and all his knowledge will be taken from his mind and he will become a vegetable.
With people like Danzo around, Natsuo couldn't take any chances.
So Natsuo remained silent and let out a guilty sigh when Nawaki died and the Uzumaki clan was attacked.
Tsunade spent several months depressed and Mito couldn't do much when they received news about the attack on the Uzumaki clan.
While Nawaki's death could be considered an accident since the boy was reckless in following an enemy and stepping on an explosive tag, the attack on the Uzumaki clan was a plan by the Cloud Village and the Mist Village.
Of course, these two villages did not emerge unscathed, as thousands of their ninjas were reported dead.
The reason for so many losses in these two villages at the hands of a single clan with far fewer numbers was that the Uzumaki clan had placed countless traps in their seas and coasts, and along with their suicide jutsus, they took with them most of the armies of both villages.
As the bell rang, signaling the end of classes for the day, Natsuo left the classroom while the other children discussed who they wanted to be on their future teams.
Upon arriving at the orphanage, Natsuo greeted everyone and left his things in his room before going downstairs for lunch.
After eating, Natsuo went up to his room under the pretext of studying for his final exams and closed the door behind him.
Placing a hand on the wall of the room, a pulse of chakra caused lines of seals to appear and surround the room, protecting the place while Natsuo was busy.
Activating the barriers, which he had learned from Mito over the past few years, he turned back towards the 3 shadow clones who were in a corner of the room.
While one sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, the other two had their hands on the head of this first clone.
Natsuo took a deep breath before creating another shadow clone.
"You know what to do," Natsuo said as he sat cross-legged in the middle of the room and the shadow clone stood beside him.
As Natsuo closed his eyes and meditated, the shadow clone placed its hands on his head and introduced its chakra into Natsuo's brain and eyes.
With great care, the shadow clone manipulated his chakra with nanometric precision, and a 3D image appeared in his mind.
Once again, Natsuo was amazed at how incredible chakra was.
Without the need for a microscope, a sufficiently skilled ninja could see at a cellular level or smaller scales what his chakra came into contact with.
A ninja used this skill a lot in the study of diseases and poisons.
"I'm ready," said the shadow clone.
Taking a deep breath, Natsuo said.
"I'm ready too"
Upon hearing Natsuo's confirmation, the shadow clone began to count.
"10,9,8…3,2,1"
When the clone was on number 3, Natsuo made the shadow clone sitting in the corner of the room disappear and all his memories returned to him.
"0"
When Natsuo was flooded with the memories of this shadow clone, the shadow clone standing beside him with its hands on its head began to act.
Immediately, the shadow clone's chakra trapped Natsuo in his mind and prevented him from knowing that what he was seeing right now in his mind was not real.
While preventing Natsuo from knowing that his memories were false, the clone was also tasked with recording all the changes in his eyes and brain.
Inside Natsuo's mind, happy memories from his current and past lives flashed through his mind. And many of them were exaggerated and enhanced to bring him the greatest possible happiness.
Without knowing that all of this was false, Natsuo was trapped in this dream where everything he experienced brought him happiness and joy.
Meanwhile, the shadow clone recorded all the changes in its brain and eyes.
The shadow clone didn't have to wait long before seeing changes in the 3D image in his mind.
A strange chakra was born in his brain and traveled to his eyes for almost a full minute.
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Meanwhile, in the village of rain, Hanzo began preparing his village for war.