Naruto: Reborn as an Otsutsuki

The competition concluded, and everyone returned to their regular lives.

The civilians, after watching the ninjas clash against each other, simply savored the moment and returned to their daily, monotonous lives.

Official ninjas began taking various missions and training in their free time to improve their combat skills while protecting their home, Konoha.

As for the students who participated in the competition, they resumed attending the academy. 

And under the guidance of their homeroom teachers and clan elders, they had to endure intense training regimens every day until they literally dropped to the ground from exhaustion.

Well, at least, the training bore fruit, and their strength was increasing visibly.

Otherwise, many of these young prodigies might have darkened and started acting emo from sheer mental stress.

Fortunately…fortunately, having access to chakra passively increased their mental resilience. They gritted their teeth and pushed through it with sheer willpower.

Truly, the intensity of training was just too much.

Pure torture, even by this world's standard.

Even Seimei, a friendly neighborhood kid from Earth, felt as if his life had turned dark, devoid of any hope.

Of course, that was just his imagination.

After feeling emo for a few seconds, he quickly snapped back and went back to train and grind his ninja skills.

He was still growing, and it was the best time to build a solid foundation for his future power-ups.

Being emo wouldn't help. Even if it helped, as a fully grown adult (mentally), it would be too embarrassing for him to behave like that.

Sure, living and training as a ninja might have made his morals a bit more flexible and twisted his emotions a little, but acting emo was out of the question.

But hey…that's the world of Shinobi for ya!

A little twisted emotion and flexible morals were actually helpful.

Who would have thought that he, who couldn't even muster the courage to see a chicken die (Though he ate it with relish after it was cooked), would hold a blade to turn chakra beasts into a gory mess without even flinching?

Ah! The environment truly brings change in people.

Amidst all this chaos, time kept flowing without waiting for anyone.

And within the blink of an eye, one and a half years passed.

A lot of shifts happened in the village during these times.

But the most notable one was the inauguration ceremony for the Second Hokage.

Yes, as the second-year interclass tournament concluded one and a half years ago, Hashirama, the First Hokage, expressed his desire to retire and subtly advertised his brother, Tobirama's name for the next Hokage.

And after one year of consolidation, deals with various major Shinobi clans in Konoha, Jonin Meet, and Daimyo's approval, his father, Senju Tobirama, finally became the Second Hokage with massive support.

It had already been six months since then.

Seimei had also turned 10 and just started his fourth year in the Ninja Academy.

And after entering the fourth year, his homeroom teacher gave him and all his classmates a huge surprise.

Starting from their fourth academic year, all S-class students were required to accomplish at least two official ninja missions every month.

The missions had to be at least C-rank ones, which often involved killing bandits or exterminating D-rank or lower-ranked chakra beasts.

Of course, the C-rank escort missions were off-limits. For a promising batch like S-class, giving them escort missions that could take up to a month or two was simply a waste of time.

For the very same reason, intel-gathering missions were also off-limits for the academy students.

It was better to give them other C-rank missions, especially the extermination ones.

It would hone their combat instincts, make them accustomed to taking lives and witnessing blood and gore, and boost their willpower.

Plus, their missions wouldn't take more than a week to complete, leaving the students with three weeks every month to train and study various ninja tactics.

By the end of the fifth year, when the S-class students would graduate from the academy, they would join the official Shinobi ranks as Chunin who had gone through countless real-life-and-death battles.

True battle-hardened prodigies.

But graduation was still far away.

Right now, Seimei was focused on completing his first official mission outside of the bounds of Konoha.

He, a class 1-S student, would party with a group of three other official Genin.

Their mission: Bandit Extermination

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In a rocky region in the Land of Fire, approximately 90 kilometers away from Konoha…

Bandit Hideout

The whole cave that housed more than 60 bandits had collapsed. The cave collapsed using a simple Earth Release Jutsu to make the earth tremble.

This collapsing cave alone had killed at least 25 bandits.

As for the remaining 35+ bandits, some of them were outside of the cave to guard its entrance, some went out to hunt for food, and the remaining surviving bandits had successfully come out of the cave, battered and bruised, before it completely collapsed.

Of course, they didn't live for long.

They were hit by multiple Fire and Wind Release Jutsu launched by Seimei and his temporary Genin teammates.

Those who were directly hit by the Ninjutsu either turned into ashes or were mutilated and killed by the sharp wind.

Other bandits also bore the brunt and suffered from lacerations and burns.

In the end, only four bandits remained alive. Severely injured but still alive.

Seimei decided that these four bandits weren't worth wasting any more Ninjutsu and immediately pulled out his ninjato from the storage seal of his thin, metallic, bracelet-like storage tool.

He approached the injured bandits, one step at a time.

His polished blade glinted, reflecting both the sunlight and the fire raging around him that was made by his own Fire Release Ninjutsu, the Great Fireball Technique.

A simple, low-chakra cost C-rank Ninjutsu.

Most ninjas wouldn't even bat an eye before dodging the fireball easily unless they were trapped, incapacitated, or paralyzed by poison or Genjutsu.

However, these bandits weren't ninjas.

The majority of them were ordinary people who hadn't even unlocked their chakra.

They couldn't move away in time and were burned to ashes.

As for the ten or so bandits who did, they could hardly use it well. At most, they reinforced their bodies using chakra, allowing them to gain physical strength, stamina, endurance, and speed beyond mortal limits.

But that was all they could do.

Still, their chakra reinforcement was so trashy that a freshly graduated average Genin-level ninja could pummel them all to the ground within minutes using pure Taijutsu.

Still, because of the unlocked chakra, the last four bandits evaded the blast range. 

They were only hit by the shockwave and the hot air produced by the fireball's explosion, sending them flying. 

Good News: The existence of the chakra saved their lives, preventing them from becoming charcoal corpses.

Bad News: It only made them suffer longer than their already dead companions.

Step! Step! Step! Step!

The remaining four bandits, who crashed into the ground after flying backward from the shockwave of the fireball's explosion, stared at the approaching kid.

Their eyes were filled with dread.

One of them pleaded, "Please spare us. We didn't want to become bandits. We were forced to do it. Otherwise, they would have killed us."

Seimei's ocean-blue eyes glared at them.

He responded, "Oh! Is that so?"

Bandit A, "Yes, yes."

Bandit B, "Please let us go. Now that we are free, we can start a fresh new life."

Bandit C and Bandit D also nodded vigorously.

Seimei was still a kid by this world's standards. Maybe he would take pity on them and let them go.

Of course, they were overthinking.

Wow! You bastards.

You have all unlocked your chakra.

Your average physical stats are far higher than regular bandits.

And yet you dare to lie to my face, a fucking ninja, whose entire profession revolves around utilizing chakra?

Consider me impressed, peabrains.

Seimei inwardly cursed the bandits, but he made a contemplative face on the outside.

He lifted his left hand and pinched his chin as he said, "I see."

"In that case…"

Looking at the contemplative expression of the boy in front of them and hearing his words, a small spark of hope ignited in their hearts.

Unfortunately, Seimei's next action decisively crushed their hopes and extinguished the tiny spark.

A sudden flash of metallic light passed through the bandits' necks. At the next moment, the expression on the bandits' faces changed as they tried to reach out for their throats.

But before their hands could even touch their necks, their heads separated from their bodies and rolled on the dirt.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Soon, deep red blood gushed out of their headless necks like fountains and painted the soil in an eerie red hue. 

"Tsk!"

Seeing this, Seimei clicked his tongue, flicked his blade to make the majority of the blood fly off his ninjato, used his chakra to vaporize the remaining blood, and stored the blade in the storage seal.

As he walked back to his teammates, one of them responded in admiration, "For a second, I thought that you went soft and were about to let those bandits leave."

"But I was wrong."

"Even though you are still in the academy, you did splendidly."

"Your composure after you made your first kill was also amazing."

"Honestly, when I killed a human for the first time, I couldn't take it. I froze, vomited on the spot, and couldn't eat well for the next few days."

"Compared to me, you handled the situation well."

"You're a natural-born ninja."

The Genin encouraged Seimei while giving him a thumbs-up.

Hearing this, Seimei went silent and thought…

A natural-born ninja, huh?

As if…

Suddenly, he let out a dry chuckle as he remembered the day he took the first human life.

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