First Mission.

[1 year later]

It was the first day of the sixth moon. More precisely, it was the first dawn. The sun slowly rose over the horizon highlighting the ceramic buildings of the fire temple.

"HAAH! HAAH!"

The sound of the monks screaming at the top of their lungs as they trained reverberated through the fields, causing the nearby wildlife to scurry away in fear.

Master Chiriku stood at the forefront of the monks, watching as they trained diligently in the morning sun. As he calmly inspected them, he thought, 'Most of the monks haven't made much progress in their training over this past year. The older ones seemed to have hit a mental block but the younger ones blossomed well. It was a good choice to let my personal student lead them.'

Master Chiriku turned his head sideways, causing his gaze to land upon a young man training in swordsmanship by himself. The tall young man had long waist-length spiky black hair that swung gracefully in the air with every swing of his sword. His shirtless muscular body glistened in the morning sun with every precise movement of his arms.

SHWINGGG!

The young man smoothly sheathed his sword with the same motion he drew it with as the head of a bronze statue fell to the ground.

"Good strike, Tendo. Keep this up and don't slack off in your training."

Tendo calmly nodded and removed the sword from his waist as he closed his eyes. Inhaling deeply, Tendo took a stance with his left hand making a half-ram seal and his right palm facing down parallel to the ground.

A low peaceful gong sounded out as the spirit of Kannon(Guanyin) appeared behind Tendo.

'Welcoming Approach: Thousand Armed Murder.'

Golden fists made of spiritual energy shot out from behind Tendo and assaulted the bronze statue with multiple hits. Each fist was blindingly fast and attacked from completely unpredictable positions, reducing the statue to scrap in moments.

"Ahem!"

Tendo's eyes jolted open to find Chiriku and all the students weirdly looking at him. Realizing that he had distracted everyone from their training, Tendo just slightly bowed and said calmly, "Sorry."

"It's fine, Brother Tendo!"

"Brother Tendo, you need to tell us how you progressed in your training so fast!"

"Show us again, Brother!"

The younger students took no offense to his distraction as they enjoyed seeing Tendo train. It was always a miraculous sight when someone so young pulled off moves that monks three times his age could only dream of.

Master Chiriku thought to himself as he saw Tendo's rendition of the technique, 'Although his technique is not as strong as mine yet, he has achieved incredible progress in the span of a mere year. I wonder how strong he would be if he applied himself like this before his accident? Sigh, it's no use thinking about such things. I should probably reward him for his achievement...'

Chiriku thought to himself for a bit before the perfect idea popped into his head.

'I'll take him to the final round of the chunin exams in the village next month! Maybe that way he would listen to me and try to enter the Academy there...'

Although he wanted to tell Tendo about it immediately, Chiriku decided that it wasn't the right time. Training the students took precedence over personal affairs.

"All of you, stop wasting time! Continue your training!"

[A few hours later]

Tendo arrived back at his house in the residential area of the temple and sat down on his bed, deep in thought.

'It's been a year now and I haven't discovered anything about Kazuma neither any clues about his whereabouts. It's making me uneasy knowing that there's an enemy out there lurking in the shadows. But even if I did find him, I doubt I could defeat him with my level of strength. I need to get stronger. My sage transformation isn't strong enough yet, nor am I skilled enough with it...'

Tendo picked up a white towel that laid next to him and wiped his face. After he was done, he looked up at the ceiling as a determined expression appeared on his face.

'I need the power of the 9 tails and the DNA of someone from the Uchiha Clan. With those, I should be able to grow exponentially. I'll tackle the problem of the 9 tails first as that is the most immediate and the most difficult. Phew... let's begin.'

Tendo went to take a bath and changed into a fresh set of robes before setting out to the main hall of the temple. He had planned to take on a mission with Sora to deal with a band of rogue ninja from the Land Of Rivers; ninja that were all chunin level or above. It was sent directly from the fire daimyo.

Tendo had already told Sora to meet him at the main hall the day before so when he entered it...

"Brother Tendo!"

'As expected.', Tendo thought. Sora was extremely excited to go on his first major mission with a small group. Although reading about the dangers was nerve-racking, he had faith in both his and Tendo's ability to succeed.

"Brother Tendo, are you ready?"

Tendo nodded and picked up the mission slip from the board next to Sora. He then carried to the monk at the desk who approved missions only for the monk to immediately question why only two chunin level monks were taking on such a hard mission. They required at least 1 jonin with them.

The monk glanced at Sora and then looked back at Tendo as he said, "Besides Brother Tendo, we can't have you dying on us. You need protection and that boy can only serve as a shield."

Sora, who was universally hated by the monks for destroying the temple when he lost control of his 9 tails power many years ago, immediately lowered his head. The monks never acknowledged his skills no matter how strong he got nor how much promise he showed. They treated him as if they wanted him dead and by the comment the monk just made, that wasn't too far off the mark.

Tendo paid no attention to the monk's comments and reassured him that they would be fine regardless. The monk eventually agreed to let them go on the mission but he made sure that Tendo took two extra monks with him for extra protection.

'Those two are weaker than me anyways so I can kill them with ease when it's time for me to act.'

As they were about to leave the temple, Tendo noticed Sora's sad expression and thought to himself, 'Good. The more distracted he is, the easier it'll be to catch him off guard. That monk really helped me back there...'

Tendo then turned his attention to the monks slowly opening the gate.

'This is my first step out of the temple since I got into this world. I can't help but wonder how things will turn out.'

The four of them immediately ran out of the gate and into the forest, heading to where the band of rogue ninjas were last spotted. It was finally time for Tendo's plans to bear fruit. In his mind, everything should go smoothly if he played his cards right.

In his mind, everything should be fine unless he makes a mistake or something out of the ordinary happens, which the chances of that happening were basically null. Or was it?