2 Chapter 2: Request For Early Graduation, Might Duy

Izuryu walked out from the Academy after a day of lessons. The black-haired boy was no different from the surrounding children other than his eyes that looked unusually mature.

'I need to increase my strength to Jonin level quickly. The Second Shinobi War will start in 7 or 8 years and the sheer amount of Kage-level people that'll be participating frightens me. Even though father will be fine as he has already retired from being a shinobi, I can't say the same for myself, who in my current state will only be cannon fodder.'

Having the bloodline of Uchiha Madara was both a blessing and a curse. He would be able to access all of Madara's abilities and have strength of equal amounts, yet with the amount of strength he would have, there'd be a very high chance of him being noticed by a certain Danzo Shimura to be recruited into Root.

He soon reached his father's shop Ichiraku and went in from the back-door.

"You're finally back son! Come, help me with the orders."

Teuchi instructed Izuryu while making a bowl of seafood-ramen at the same time.

"Got it, father."

Izuryu nodded and put on the chef's uniform, quickly helping him boil the broth add toppings and serve finished bowls to customers.

A few hours passed and it was 11 at night. Izuryu took off his uniform and while walking out, shouted at Teuchi.

"I'll be training for some time, father. Make me a bowl so that I can eat later please."

Teuchi nodded and made a bowl of extra-large ramen for his son, covered it and put it under the counter.

***

After running for 5 minutes Izuryu reached the mountain near the Forest of Death.

As he went deeper into the forest, a small clearing could be seen. It had a large stone in the middle of the forest.

"If only I could use Wood Release, making a secret base would be a piece of cake…" Izuryu murmured as he started making hand-seals.

"Doton: Tsuchi Kotai! (Earth Release: Soil Alteration)"

The soil around the rock shifted revealing a set of solid stairs. Izuryu once again performed earth release as he entered the base.

"Katon: Hakko-En (Fire Release: Luminescent Flame)"

A ball of white flames appeared next to Izuryu, lighting up the whole stairs and the subsequent training room.

Many weights, weapons and stocks of food were lying around the room.

He took off his upper clothes revealing a body way too well-built for a 4-year-old.

He started circulating his chakra around his body and his brain, trying his best to awaken his sharingan. Yet the rules of awaken the sharingan were already set. His body got stronger and chakra purer yet there was no sign of his sharingan awakening.

5 hours later, he exhaled a breath laced with slightly impure chakra and relaxed his body. After scanning his body and 361 chakra points, he started thinking about his strength.

"I've been stuck in chunin-level for quite some time now. I don't have access to higher level jutsu, a proper master other than Jiraiya teaching me a few of his genin and chunin level jutsu, father is no 'Otsutsuki Teuchi' and there's no sign of my sharingan awakening."

He couldn't reveal all of his nature types as he'd have a very high chance to be noticed by Danzo.

"Should I send in my graduation certificate? No…even if I do I'll still be noticed by that bastard…"

No matter what he did, everything came up to him being noticed by Danzo and perhaps forcefully recruited into Root.

"I guess I really do need to take a risk this time."

Izuryu nodded to himself with a stern expression and started training his body, starting with pushups.

***

Time passed with Izuryu waiting for the yearly assessment to hand over his academy graduation form.

As dawn rose, Izuryu who had already woken up walked out of his for his daily run.

As he was running around the village Izuryu suddenly stopped.

Bushy eyebrows, green tights and the continuously shouting "YOUTH!"

Who else but Might Duy, the father of Might Guy and the creator of The Eight Gates Technique.

As Izuryu marveled at the Eternal Genin's actions, he had an epiphany.

'If I can use the Eight Gates technique then I can make up for my Taijutsu deficiency.'

As a sense of happiness for the strength he would soon gain overcame him, Izuryu increased his running speed by a few folds.

"Eight Gates Technique~ Eight Gates Technique~ I'll soon learn the Eight Gates Technique~ La la la la la."

After his training Izuryu, went on to help his father for the preparation of the broth and toppings for the day until he went to the academy.

***

"Kids, today will be your yearly assessment. For this year, you'll have to be able to properly guide your chakra and use a simple jutsu. After that you'll have a theoretical test for the subjects you have been taught this year."

The students in Izuryu's class either showed nonchalant expressions or a very anxious expression with Izuryu having the former, in fact even looking like he was sleepy.

As the teacher walked out the class, Izuryu quickly caught up with the teacher.

"Sensei!"

The teacher looked back and walked towards Izuryu as he talked to him.

"Yes, Izuryu. What happened?"

Izuryu took a deep breath and voiced out his thoughts.

"I'd like to meet the Hokage to graduate from the Academy."

"What!? I am sorry but you should that graduating prematurely is very hard to do."

"Yes, But I still want to do it."

As Izuryu's teacher looked into the determined eyes of Izuryu, he sighed and nodded to Izuryu.

"Sigh, very well follow me."

Izuryu secretly shadow punch in happiness as he followed his teacher.

'It seems my premature Talk-No-Jutsu isn't that bad. Should I try to make Black Zetsu betray Kaguya? Haha!'

As Izuryu finished his marveling, the two of them reached the Hokage's Office.

"I'd like to meet Hokage-sama."

"Please state your reason." The guard outside the office asked.

"My student would like to have an early graduation from the Academy." He replied in a slow and awkward voice.

An awkward silence took over the conversation as the guard shinobi nodded.

He went into the office of the Hokage and came back out after a few minutes.

He opened the door of the Hokage's office and nodded at Izuryu and his teacher.

Izuryu took a deep breath as he readied himself to meet Hiruzen Sarutobi, the 3rd Hokage. He was a very important figure during the early life of Naruto and slight importance in the later parts of his life, being revived in the 4th Great Shinobi War alongside the 1st, 2nd and 4th.

'I didn't really care about him when I first started watching the anime but Hiruzen is a very important bigshot right now in Konoha. He and Danzo are the ones that I'll have to look for. Hiruzen is fine, he has morals but Danzo…That bastard is basically a blade that is hanging higher than my current height can reach. I'll be able to beat him later but right now he's much stronger than me and can kill me anytime he wants.'

As Izuryu's teacher opened the door, Izuryu had his first sight of the 3rd Hokage.

He looked like the older Hiruzen yet his hair wasn't grey, he didn't have age spots and his eyes didn't have a lot of wrinkles, yet he didn't look youthful like during the time he was the teacher of the Sannin.

"Is this the child that wishes to graduate early?" he asked gently with a smile.

Izuryu's teacher nodded as he walked backwards to let Izuryu talk with the 3rd Hokage by himself.

"What's your name, kid?"

Izuryu looked at Hiruzen and replied.

"Izuryu Tsukisumi."

"Whose child are you? I don't think we have a family named Tsukisumi in the village."

"My father named me."

"Your father? Who's your father?"

"Teuchi, the owner of Ichiraku Ramen shop."

"Oh! The famous ramen shop that opens a few years ago?"

"Mmhm!"

"I see… Now then child, why do you want to graduate early?"

"The Academy hasn't taught me anything new and I've been stuck in my current power and have no way to advance forward so I decided to graduate early to get access to more jutsu."

"I see…"

Hiruzen nodded and looked at Izuryu. As a silence came over the room, Hiruzen sighed and stood up, walking to the door, he replied to Izuryu.

"Meet me at the 5th training ground at tomorrow at 12:00 AM sharp."

"Yes sir!" Replied Izuryu with an excited expression, as he did a basic salute towards the Hokage.

After walking out of the Hokage Building, Izuryu quickly went to find Duy. He didn't have enough time as it was already 11 AM and there was only 25 hours until the assessment. He had to quickly reach the 1st or 2nd stage of Hachimon Tonkou.

Izuryu scoured the village for a few hours until he saw the familiar green tights and bushy eyebrows. A sense of relief came to Izuryu as he ran over to Duy's direction.

The direction Duy was moving was towards the forest. Izuryu quickly followed him without trying to make it too obvious. He quickly changed his direction but moved towards the direction Duy was heading but through another path. He had been practicing in these forests so he knew where he needed to go.

After 4 minutes, Duy finally reached his direction. Izuryu, who was following him stopped as well.

As though trying to scout if anyone was looking at him, Duy looked around but nobody was there.

Nobody but Izuryu.

After his 'scouting', Duy starting training. He started with basic exercises that were multiplied by a few hundred times.

Duy was training normal body exercises and had plenty of time but Izuryu didn't. He had an assessment with the Hokage at 12:00 PM and less than 10 hours were left.

'Come on…why don't you start practicing Hachimon Tonkou? Please, just start Duy, you're my last hope right now…'

But as Izuryu was anxiously waiting for Duy to start practicing the Hachimon Tonkou, Duy suddenly stopped training and moved his head in a certain direction.

He was looking straight at Izuryu.

'Oh shit-'

Just as Izuryu was about to escape, Duy had already come up behind him. Even if Duy didn't have chakra, he had trained his body to such a degree that he could move faster than many Chunin.

"Why have you been following me kid?" Duy asked with a frown. He had already noticed Izuryu since he was watching Duy train but didn't confront him. But his gaze was being so disturbing that Duy decided to ask Izuryu.

Izuryu looked at Duy with a nervous expression. He had some hesitation but eventually sighed and relented.

"I would like to learn the Hachimon Tonkou from you, Duy-san."