The Ninja Academy year is divided into three semesters.
The first semester begins on April 1st and ends in mid-July.
The second semester runs from early September to the end of December.
The third semester starts in early January and concludes at the end of March.
April 1st, Year 54 of Konoha.
The Ninja Academy welcomed the opening of the new semester.
Sixth-year students had already completed their studies at the end of March. Some officially became genin, some returned for remedial courses, others were specially recruited by certain village departments, and a few chose to drop out entirely, abandoning the path of the ninja.
Students in the remaining grades advanced as scheduled today.
And the now-vacant first-year classrooms were about to receive a new batch of children who had passed the entrance examination.
Izanami was one of them.
Unlike most of the newcomers, who arrived accompanied by parents, older siblings, or relatives, Izanami came alone—one of only a handful who did.
Likewise, unlike the children who looked at their classmates' families with envy, Izanami's gaze held neither jealousy nor longing.
Only scrutiny.
What he was observing wasn't their faces, but something only he could see.
[Ninja Aptitude (White)]
[Chakra Control (Green)]
[Chunin Aptitude (Green)]
Whenever Izanami focused his attention on someone, translucent bubbles would appear around them.
The bubbles varied in color and content, each displaying text that matched its hue.
Of course, some people had no bubbles at all.
Either they truly lacked talent, or their abilities hadn't even reached the lowest threshold—for example, certain civilian or lifestyle-related aptitudes that fell outside the system's scope.
This was Izanami's cheat.
He had no surname—only the name Izanami.
According to the orphanage director, he had been named after the night he was born: June 16th.
After living in the orphanage until the age of three—long enough to learn basic speech, reading, and simple survival skills—the director personally brought him to the cemetery to visit the parents of this life.
Only then did Izanami learn the truth.
He came from a ninja family, though both of his parents were also orphans without surnames.
His father had been a chunin of the village. Unfortunately, during a mission, his entire squad—including their supervising jonin—was wiped out.
His mother died in childbirth. With her final breath, instead of entrusting Izanami to her husband's comrades or friends, she asked the medical ninja to send him to the orphanage.
The orphanage was under the village's protection. They would never covet a fallen ninja's property.
And that was exactly what happened.
Izanami wasn't surprised that he had been forced to live independently from the age of three.
After realizing what kind of world he had transmigrated into, he understood that—aside from himself—the Child of Prophecy of this world had also lived alone from that same age.
That person was even more extreme.
At just three years old, he had wandered the village alone on snowy nights without fear.
The world of the ninja—also known as "The Five Great Nations' Eye War Chronicle" or "Black Zetsu's Lifelong Search for His Mother."
Having arrived in a world whose entire narrative revolved around Ōtsutsuki family drama and absolute bloodline supremacy, Izanami remained calm.
He felt no despair over being a nameless orphan without a Bloodline Limit.
Because… he had a cheat as well.
The Talent Trait System—the power Izanami awakened on his first birthday.
In addition to seeing the talent bubbles around others, Izanami could also perceive a light screen visible only to himself. Even mirrors could not reflect it.
The screen displayed his personal information, along with a Novice Gift Package.
That gift package, however, had already been used when he was three.
Now, Izanami's status panel was completely different—and extravagantly so.
As he stepped through the gates of the Ninja Academy, Izanami summoned the light screen in his mind.
[Host: Izanami]
[Talent Traits: Ōtsutsuki Bloodline (Red), Kage-Level Aptitude (Gold), Bloodline Limit · Byakugan (Purple), All-Element Constitution (Purple), Medical Genius (Blue), Chakra Control (Blue)]
[Points: 25]
While most people possessed one talent trait—two at most—or none at all…
Izanami had six.
Yet when he first awakened the system, he'd only had a single trait:
Chunin Aptitude (Green).
But at the age of three, Izanami had defied fate itself, becoming the most abnormal talent anomaly of this era.
When it came to raw potential, there were those who could match him—but none who surpassed him.
Through observation and experimentation, Izanami had deduced the hierarchy of talent traits:
White → Green → Blue → Purple → Gold → Red
These rankings were not provided by the system itself; they were conclusions Izanami reached on his own.
And he was certain that tiers even higher than Red existed.
As for what colors they were…
That remained unknown.
The Talent Trait System's core function was simple:
It allowed the host to acquire the talent traits of others.
So far, Izanami had confirmed two methods.
The first was defeating an opponent.
In an evenly matched fight, there was a high chance of gaining a low-tier trait, and a very small chance of acquiring a high-tier one.
If a weaker opponent defeated a stronger one, the chance of gaining a high-tier trait skyrocketed, with a guaranteed acquisition of a low-tier trait.
In an overwhelming, one-sided victory, however, the chance of obtaining any trait—high or low—was extremely low.
The second method was the Novice Gift Package.
A one-time benefit that allowed Izanami to directly copy a specific talent trait from another person.
After learning that he had transmigrated into the ninja world he'd once been obsessed with, and that he was born on June 16th of Konoha Year 48—the same age as Nara Shikamaru—Izanami had almost immediately decided how to use it.
Uzumaki Naruto.
The protagonist of this world and this era.
The reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths' son, bearer of Asura's chakra, inheritor of the Sage's Body from Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo.
The unawakened Uzumaki bloodline.
The Nine-Tails' jinchuriki.
A walking dual-core reactor.
Even if Naruto couldn't properly pronounce "chakra," and struggled to extract it, the seal and bloodline within him ensured his chakra reserves would grow endlessly.
As long as Izanami could copy a trait related to Asura or the Sage's Body, he would instantly possess terrifying potential.
Uchiha Sasuke was another excellent candidate.
He too was the reincarnation of the Sage's son, inheriting the Sage's Eyes from Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo.
However, while searching for them, Izanami brushed past a member of the Hyuga clan on the street—and inspiration struck.
He temporarily abandoned that plan.
There was no doubt that the strongest talent anomalies of this era were Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.
Like Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara before them, they were reincarnations of the Sage's sons—each possessing Kage-level aptitude and the protection of the Sage of Six Paths.
Once they awakened their potential, reaching the level of a Kage was inevitable.
And after receiving power directly from the Sage of Six Paths, they would surpass even Hashirama and Madara, breaking through into the realm of Six Paths-level beings.
On Earth, no one of this era possessed greater potential than them.
Then…
What about beyond Earth?