Land of Fire.
Border camp.
At the central tent, Orochimaru, Kaede, and several Jōnin from the vanguard forces were gathered.
After a brief wait, a small snake slithered out from Orochimaru's sleeve.
Gulp!
The little snake opened its mouth and spat out a scroll.
"It's here."
Orochimaru picked up the scroll and opened it. It contained orders from Hiruzen Sarutobi in Konoha. He skimmed through it briefly before reading it aloud.
The contents instructed Orochimaru to dispatch a squad to escort the seriously and lightly wounded ninjas back to the village, while the remaining forces were to stay at the Land of Grass border to monitor Iwagakure's movements.
Lastly, it concerned Kaede's promotion.
"Although it's only a Special Jōnin, it's still a Jōnin-level title. Becoming a Jōnin at ten years old, that's a first in Konoha's history, hehe..."
After reading the scroll, Orochimaru turned to glance at Kaede.
The other Jōnin in the tent exchanged glances. Although there was a ripple of emotion at the idea of someone becoming a Jōnin at ten, none of them expressed dissatisfaction or doubt.
Given Kaede's strength shown in the previous battle and the merits he had earned, no one in the vanguard would question or oppose his promotion to Special Jōnin.
Kaede smiled lightly and said, "It's just a wartime exception."
Orochimaru withdrew his gaze and, after a brief pause, said, "Next, we need to decide who will escort the wounded. Shikuro, let your team handle it."
There were only four severely injured ninja. The lightly wounded could still move normally and retained combat capabilities, so a single team was sufficient for escort duty.
"Understood."
Aburame Shikuro, ever quiet and reserved, responded with a word and immediately left the tent.
After some further discussion about camp arrangements and whether to advance into the Land of Grass for a cleanup operation, the rest of the ninja also dispersed.
...
Back in his own tent,
Kaede sat cross-legged and took out the White Fang short blade.
He could clearly see a crack running down the blade, extending from the center all the way to the hilt, extensive damage for any sword.
Holding the White Fang, Kaede closed his eyes, and in the darkness, a golden illusionary clock appeared before him. After trying a few things, he pressed his hand over the crack in the blade.
A few seconds passed.
Nothing changed.
The crack remained.
"As expected, it's no good."
Kaede opened his eyes and sighed.
After obtaining information about the Kusanagi Sword from Orochimaru, he hadn't gone to retrieve it immediately. Instead, he first studied his own abilities and tried to repair the White Fang using time reversal.
Unfortunately, no matter how he tried, he couldn't apply his time powers to external objects, neither time acceleration nor time reversal worked.
He had always thought that the White Fang was better off in his hands than Kakashi. His mastery of the Hatake sword style surpassed Kakashi, and it suited his techniques better. At least, he wouldn't damage it so easily.
And yet...
The White Fang had broken even earlier than it had in the original timeline.
"I'll see if I can find a craftsman to repair it. If it can be fixed, I'll give it back to Kakashi. It doesn't suit me anymore."
Kaede mused to himself and put the blade away.
It seemed Sunagakure had already launched a full-scale offensive, but Iwagakure's intentions were still unclear. If they remained inactive, he might take the opportunity to retrieve the Kusanagi Sword.
At his current level, the presence or absence of a suitable weapon didn't drastically affect his strength. He could still use Chidori without relying on a weapon. His close combat wouldn't suffer much, only his long-range attacks would be weakened.
This was because the Hatake sword style allowed for more concentrated force and could unleash ranged slash attacks, which were more destructive than the fireball punches of the "Morning Peacock."
"My current chakra reserves are already at the level of an elite Jōnin, but even that isn't enough for training Sage Mode or senjutsu."
Kaede began contemplating his future training path.
Normally, with a thirteen-year-old body, his chakra would at best be at Jōnin level. But thanks to the secret technique of cell activation, his chakra capacity had increased a tier.
It might seem like he had surpassed ninety percent of the ninja world, but in reality, it wasn't even enough to unleash a single Rasenshuriken.
"There's no need for me to train Rasenshuriken anyway, but this chakra level does make evolving Chidori into Raikiri a bit troublesome."
Chidori was an A-rank technique.
Its evolved form, Raikiri, was an S-rank Lightning Release jutsu, requiring even more chakra and greater precision.
Raikiri's power clearly surpassed Chidori. For Kaede, evolving Chidori into Raikiri was a clear direction, but he wasn't quite at the threshold yet.
"If only my chakra could go up one more level..."
Kaede murmured.
If his chakra increased by one more tier, it would reach Kage-level. Then he could not only train Raikiri, but also start learning senjutsu. His power would undergo a leap no less significant than when he opened the first of the Eight Gates.
Unfortunately, that step wasn't easy to achieve. Across the entire ninja world, those who had Kage-level chakra were few and far between, each village only had a handful.
"If I follow the usual path, I'd need to be at least sixteen years old to have Kage-level chakra. If I want to speed it up, I'd need alternative methods, like becoming a Jinchuriki, or absorbing the Dragon Vein energy from Roran..."
Becoming a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki wasn't ideal for now.
With his current physique, he couldn't handle the Nine Tails' chakra, at best, only a quarter of it. As for the one to Eight Tails, his body could bear them, but their chakra would constantly interfere with his mind. He'd need to build a good relationship with the Tailed Beast and give them a thorough dose of socialist ideology.
That wasn't something that could be accomplished quickly, it was too much trouble. Better to just train normally up to Kage level.
The Dragon Vein in Roran wasn't suitable either.
Though he could theoretically recover infinitely with time reversal, the energy density of the Dragon Vein was immense. It could reverse time itself. If he got flung thousands of years into the past or future and couldn't return, that'd be a serious problem.
As for other things, like Orochimaru's curse seal, or Hoshigakure's "Star," those kinds of shady chakra-enhancing tools, he had no interest in them.
Spending effort on those wasn't worth it. It would be better to use quadruple-speed time acceleration to train the right way.
"Focusing on the next Gate of the Eight Gates Technique still seems like the most suitable plan."
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