Chapter 89: Time Begins to Accelerate (Patreon)

Ninja Academy, Ninjutsu training field.

Because a certain red-haired heartthrob had become a teacher, the school's funding had gotten easier and easier to approve these past few years.

As a result, the schoolyard that used to be good for nothing but basic drills had gradually expanded, even growing an honest-to-goodness training field—

—the kind of facility where Chunin and Jonin could practice Release techniques. Genshin had even gone out of his way to set an explosion-proof, leak-proof barrier over the field; once activated, shinobi could throw around any technique inside without it touching the world outside. It got popular enough that on weekends with no classes, village shinobi would specifically come rent out the field to train.

At the very center of the field, two small figures stood facing each other, ten meters apart, squared off in confrontation.

The children watching from the sidelines already had experience with this and retreated at least twenty meters, wary of getting caught in some unpredictable shockwave. After all, over the past two years, anyone reckless enough to get too close while these two fought had come away with a swollen head.

"Ninja combat exhibition, semifinal round! Karin versus Hinata! Match — begin!"

Genshin, serving as referee, swung his arm down sharply. The now nine-year-old Karin and Hinata made the exact same motion — planting their stance, sinking their weight, then driving a punch forward with all their might!

Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!

Hinata opened with her signature move — a massive Chakra fist rushed forward along the ground, plowing a trench straight toward Karin. Compared to three years ago, the fist looked considerably larger, but the Chakra inside was compressed even tighter; the extra size came purely from her pouring in more Chakra.

Facing the incoming giant fist, Karin's response was brutally simple — eight Adamantine Sealing Chains burst from her back, tangling and combining midair before forming two enormous chain fists!

Adamantine — Heavy Punch!

The two fists collided head-on. A violent sonic boom tore through the air, and the shockwave surged outward in every direction.

"Go, Onee-chan!" a small figure nearby cheered, pumping her fists with all her might — this was six-year-old Hanabi, already enrolled at the Ninja Academy.

The gifted Hanabi had long since finished the first three years of academy coursework, and through some backroom maneuvering by Genshin, had been placed into Hinata's class — sticking to her beloved big sister every single day. Hanabi's old short bob was nowhere to be seen anymore; her hair had grown out quite a bit, bouncing along with her excited shouting and making her look especially adorable.

Counting it up, three years had flown by since that high-level council meeting where Genshin cleared the Uchiha of suspicion tied to the masked man.

Three years. Three years! Do you have any idea how I've spent these three years!?

Do you know how satisfying it's been, watching the Uchiha crew pound bully after bully into the ground, every single day!?

The changes to the village over these three years were plain to see — foremost among them, the Uchiha crew, brimming with martial spirit, throwing their fists into bullying with everything they had!

Honestly, plenty of Uchiha in the Military Police Force had wanted to teach those unreasonable troublemakers a lesson for ages. But back when the Uchiha Clan and Konoha's upper echelons were still tangled in tension, Fugaku had ordered them to keep a low profile and hold back no matter what. Everyone had to grit their teeth and endure it, itchy fists or not.

But now... what? They had official paperwork backing them up? Not throwing a punch would practically be inhuman!

So this bunch of bloodthirsty red-eyed hotheads turned into unleashed dogs in an instant.

Mocked someone for being short? Beat 'em up and haul 'em in!

Mocked someone for not owning a horse? Beat 'em up and haul 'em in!

Mocked someone for being fat? Beat 'em up and haul 'em in!

What — you dare laugh at my red eyes? Boys, take turns beating him up and haul him in!

Of course, the Military Police Force wasn't all Uchiha these days — half its ranks were civilian shinobi now, and with a member who happened to be the Third Hokage's own son leading the charge, they all threw themselves wholeheartedly into this grand anti-bullying campaign.

Running alongside it, in plain sight, was the Third Hokage's own Will of Fire campaign — 'Everyone in the village is a comrade' — and, behind the scenes, the side project Genshin had privately talked Jiraiya into slipping into his Little Liu Bei serials: material like 'bully someone and your wife is guaranteed to get cuckolded,' the kind of thing that made every villager who read it break into a cold sweat, terrified that enough wrongdoing would earn them a cuckold's horns.

Jiraiya agreed to Genshin's request without a moment's hesitation — after all, he'd been bullied plenty as a kid for always finishing last, so writing this sort of material came naturally to him. The one thing Jiraiya never saw coming was that the straight-laced, serious Genshin turned out to be a fan of his books.

Truth be told, Jiraiya's Little Liu Bei worked far better than the Will of Fire ever did. Compared to some lofty ideal floating high above everyone's heads, a story sitting right in front of your eyes was simply more effective.

After this one-two combination, overt bullying dropped considerably, at least on the surface — not every villager was some glutton for punishment like Ziri, willing to keep bullying others even knowing full well they'd get beaten for it.

As for actually rooting the phenomenon out for good, that would take a different approach entirely — bullying was baked into the underlying logic of the whole Shinobi World. Even the origin of the Hokage legend traced back to bullying that began after Kaguya's arrival.

In this twisted Shinobi World, an individual's worth was measured purely by combat strength. Every rule revolved around killing and survival. Until you had strength enough to back yourself up, anyone different from the crowd got treated as dead weight and pushed to the margins.

But changing all that was a problem for another day — Genshin wasn't thinking that far ahead right now. For the moment, it was enough that the people around him wouldn't get bullied. His attention drifted back to Hinata and Karin, still locked in their bout.

The wind pressure kicked up by the constantly clashing fists kept blowing Genshin's loose hair into disarray, forcing him to squint.

Watching two nine-year-old girls trading blows with fists the size of water vats, Genshin found the whole scene more than a little surreal. He could almost picture Star Platinum going toe-to-toe with some cut-rate knockoff of The World, the two of them trading ORA-ORA and MUDA-MUDA blows.

The children watching from the sidelines seemed long since used to a clash this far beyond ordinary Genin level — after three years, even the most jaw-dropping sights eventually became routine — and they were even placing eager bets on how long Karin could hold out this time.

Clearly, though, if Hinata was the invincible Star Platinum, then Karin was the fragile World. The Uzumaki bloodline might be a top-tier cheat code in its own right, but compared to the Tenseigan, it still fell far too short.

After ten straight minutes of trading blows, Karin's Chakra could no longer sustain the Adamantine Heavy Punch, and she was forced to raise her hand in surrender.

"Waaah — Niichan!"

The instant she conceded, Karin leaped straight onto Genshin, burying her face against his shoulder and shaking as though sobbing — except, where Genshin couldn't see, she was sticking her tongue out at Hinata behind his back. Losing had its perks: acting spoiled was a privilege reserved for the loser!

That sly little— she was faking the tears! Hinata's breath caught in her throat, her cheeks puffing up like steamed buns, and suddenly winning didn't taste quite so sweet.

Genshin had no idea about the little exchange between the two girls. In truth, he was already thoroughly satisfied with how Karin had performed.

In the original story, Karin never received any systematic Ninjutsu training given her circumstances — early on she'd been reduced to a walking blood bag, and later left to fend for herself, which was why she'd come across as so weak.

In truth, with Uzumaki Chakra as her foundation, her talent could never have actually been poor. During the Great Shinobi War, her bloodline potential was forced into a breakthrough under pressure, and the very first time she used the Adamantine Sealing Chains, her Chakra chains shattered a White Zetsu Wood Release construct outright.

These past three years, under Genshin's careful tutelage, Karin had actively trained to master the Adamantine Sealing Chains — unlike the passive awakening of the original timeline — though she used them somewhat differently. Where Genshin typically favored tying opponents up, Karin preferred simply smashing people with the chains, and had even pushed Genshin into developing the brutally violent Ninjutsu-Taijutsu hybrid technique known as the "Adamantine Heavy Punch."

With her Taijutsu shortfall now filled in, Karin's combat strength was already closing in fast on Naruto and Sasuke.