Chapter 19: Beyond the Screens: Aizen's Shift in Perspective

At the end of class, more people than usual asked for my advice on training. The reason was clear; all my advice had yielded positive results, and after being reminded by Professor Iruka that graduation was imminent, it was natural for them to want to perform well.

Many of them were confident of passing, yet it wasn't easy to shake off their insecurities, especially since this was the golden class.

The reason for such a name was because the standard of this year's students is several times higher than in previous years.

At last year's village cultural festival, we competed against students who were about to graduate and emerged victorious.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason. In various small events that the students of this class participated in, organized by the school, it was almost certain that someone from our class would come out with the prize.

"I know this is related to me, but..." I thought, "I only did this to increase my rewards..."

My achievements even caught the attention of the Hokage. He wanted me to graduate early and even promoted me, as well as putting a team under my command.

Initially, I found it tempting, but at the same time, I felt that if I accepted his proposal, I would feel a distress like never before, so I rejected it.

I could see the disappointment in his face, but to my surprise, Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, didn't bring up the subject again. He simply said that if I changed my mind, I could talk to him at any time. Furthermore, he asked me to continue giving advice to the students.

Of course, even without him asking, I would still continue doing so. Currently, if any student had any doubts, it was to me that they turned to instead of the teacher.

Once, Iruka told me, "Aizen, sometimes I feel like you are the teacher and not me."

Hearing that, I don't know why, but I didn't feel sorry, but rather, I felt like laughing, because the expression on his face was somehow quite funny.

Well, he didn't take it personally; he even laughed.

Thinking now, many of the things I believed, especially my opinions about certain people I saw in the anime, changed over time.

It was easy to judge someone through a screen. However, it was a totally different reality when I experienced everything personally. Not everything was black and white. Living through all this made me understand that it's not just seeing to believe...

I must have lost at least 2 hours just giving advice separately and sometimes together with my classmates.

"In the end, I lost a bit of my training time," I thought.

However, it wasn't really a big loss.

It was more like, losing one thing, but gaining two.

With what I did today, I was sure it would yield several weekly coins. It would be enough to exchange for some talismans and create more clones. That should make up for the lack of hours training by using the clones to train in my place.

Of course, there were also the Nutritional Pills. Depending on how many coins I receive, it's worth buying some.

The Nutritional Pills are nothing more than rewards I received after finally completing the mission to invite Chouji to barbecue. Although it seems simple, the Nutritional Pills that became available are practically a weakened version of the Dragon Ball gods' seeds.

The pills are classified into three: Green Nutritional Pill, Red Nutritional Pill, and Golden Nutritional Pill. The size is the same for all, only the color of each one changes, and although the function is identical, as the grade increases, with green being the lowest and gold the highest, the amount of nutrient in the pills increases.

The green one costs 5 coins and has nutrients for five days. The red one costs 10 coins and has nutrients for ten days. The golden one costs 20 coins with nutrients for 20 days.

Quite simple to understand, but if I had to say something, it was that I needed to be careful when consuming this. Excessive consumption can even make my body explode.

If I consume one, I must be careful and only consume the next one after digesting all the nutrients from the pill, and the fastest way is by training.

This is also the secret to my development being so fast. If I hadn't gotten these pills, maybe I wouldn't have progressed so much.

In short, a green pill is able to practically double my training session. The red one practically quadruples it, and the golden one makes it 8 times more productive.

When I finally got home, I changed into something more comfortable for training and immediately took a green nutritional pill, swallowing it before arriving at the Dojo.

On the way, I noticed the absence of my mother, as well as Kumo.

Upon opening the door, I was greeted by Kumo, Hanabi, and Hinata.

"Big Brother, you're late!" Although she said this while making expressive gestures of discontent, leaning forward slightly with her arms extended downwards, her voice sounded excited.

Looking at her, then at Hanabi and... at Hinata, who blushed a little under my gaze. Honestly, I expected Hanabi's presence, since she had become close friends with Kumo, but Hinata was a big surprise, as it was the first time I saw her come along with the two.

"Sorry, little sister," I said with a gentle smile. "I took a little longer giving some tips to my classmates."

"Goodness, you're so kind, Big Brother!" She pouted as she spoke.

I saw Hinata beside her, nodding in agreement with her words.

Hanabi, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the situation, with a slightly mischievous smile on her face.

I didn't respond, just smiled gently.

"Hinata, Hanabi, welcome, make yourselves at home, don't worry about my presence," I said, passing by them and heading to the Dojo's shared room.

"Big Brother is right, while he goes to change his hidden weights, let's train," Yakumo said.

"Yes." The sisters replied in unison.

Not long after, I returned and saw that the three of them were sparring.

It was basically every man for himself, while the sisters Hanabi and Hinata were more dominant in hand-to-hand combat, Yakumo was more versatile in using the Kurama Clan's Genjutsu in a controlled manner.

It was a style that I thought suited her best; using a brush, she would create illusory images that seemed almost real.

Of course, she was capable of creating real illusions, but she hadn't fully mastered it yet, so she was limited to the almost real illusion for now.

Even so, an almost real illusion was something that the two sisters were having a hard time dealing with, after all, it wasn't a normal genjutsu that could be easily broken by using Chakra Release (Kai).

The almost real illusion works by directly manipulating the victim's nervous system and senses, creating a complete sensory experience that feels real. This can include images, sounds, smells, and tactile sensations that are all fabricated by the illusion. Even experienced shinobi can be caught by this type of genjutsu, as it is difficult to distinguish between the illusion and reality.

Because they possessed the Byakugan, even though normally Kumo's genjutsu was difficult to discern as real or fake, it was difficult to completely deceive the two, and knowing what was real and fake, they were still able to use 'Chakra Release (Kai)' to dispel the genjutsu.

Yakumo knew this; she trained with me daily, learning to disguise the real with the fake, especially when throwing ninja stars.

"This won't keep working on me, Kumo," Hinata said, manifesting her aura in the form of chakra. She then slightly bent her knees and extended one hand downward, while the other was raised backward, pointing upwards.

As a spectator, I stood with my arms crossed, watching.

An excited smile appeared on Hanabi's face. I could see the pride she felt for her older sister.

This was a technique that I knew she hadn't perfected yet, but Hinata could already use it with a certain degree of mastery.

"Not so fast," Yakumo said, then with her 50cm brush, she brushed the air, creating an image of the ground erupting with magma.

It was an obvious illusion, but because it was made from a real illusion, even though she knew it was an illusion, Hinata lost her balance, 'breaking' her preparation to use the Eight Trigrams: Rotating Palm.

At the same time, Kumo took advantage and threw more ninja stars while disguising hundreds of real ninja star illusions in the process, attacking both Hinata and Hanabi.

However, to their surprise, Hinata was pretending to lose her balance; her eyes sharpened, and she immediately used the Rotating Palm.

"Bang! Bang! Bang...!"

Both the illusions and the real ones were dissipated by the Rotating Palm jutsu.

"Clap, clap, clap!"

I applauded, intervening as I walked between them: "Well done, girls, each of you was excellent. Especially you, Hinata. Although I noticed you were pretending to lose your balance, it was still good enough to deceive Kumo and Hanabi."

"Big Brother, I haven't lost yet!" Kumo seemed upset with my intervention.

"Kumo, I understand you hate losing, but if you had continued, even if the result didn't come as quickly, Hinata would still be the victor among the three. Do you know why?"

"Because she's older?" Kumo crossed her arms as she asked.

"No." Hanabi shook her head, saying, "My older sister would win because she is more hardworking and talented!"

If it were a few years ago, Hanabi wouldn't have said the same, but time proved even her father wrong about Hinata.

I knew that essentially her father labeled her as untalented for ninja work.

However, he couldn't have been more wrong. All Hinata needed was to be pointed in the right direction and have someone believe in her, not to mention my book was the X factor in her change for the better.

Roughly speaking, her father tried to teach her in a way that she couldn't progress, similar to trying to teach a child with dyslexia to read like other children. It simply didn't work.

Feeling Kumo's gaze, I said: "Kumo, Hanabi is right."

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Chapter 27 is already released on Pa treon!

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