Time flew by, and during the period Naruto was away on his journey, nothing major happened in the entire ninja world.

Konoha Village had been very peaceful for the past two years or so. Tsunade had finally sorted out the internal affairs of the village and had become the Hokage in both name and fact. While her control over the village might not have reached the level of the First or Second Hokage, it wasn't far off. It definitely surpassed the Third's time in office.

Without Danzo causing trouble behind the scenes, Konoha's development proceeded smoothly. With Ethan's presence as a powerful deterrent, the major clans in the village no longer dared to outwardly comply while secretly defying the Hokage's orders.

Of course, there's never a shortage of fools in any era or place, but those few individuals who were dissatisfied with the Hokage's absolute authority were eliminated by the Anbu before they even had a chance to act.

Having lost much standing with the Hokage previously, the Anbu were eager to redeem themselves in her eyes. Over the past two years, they had been very proactive. As a result, many potential crises were eliminated in their early stages before they could escalate.

In other words, the Hokage didn't even need to deploy Ethan, the powerful weapon, to suppress the few dissenting voices. This strong display completely extinguished their desire for further power struggles, and they began to sincerely contribute to Konoha's development, quietly waiting for the next Hokage to take the position.

Although Tsunade could guess what these people were thinking, she didn't have a good solution. She even called Ethan over and asked him to fulfill his duty as Hokage's Advisor.

Ethan's answer was always simple and direct: "If they're not causing trouble, don't worry about them. If they do, just kill them."

"..."

So Ethan went as far away as possible again.

Tsunade could see that Ethan had no interest in power. An average person in his position, even without holding real authority, would at least show some presence. Considering his age, it wouldn't be impossible for him to naturally succeed as Hokage after the Fifth retired.

Yet he seemed completely disinterested in the position. Unless the Hokage specifically summoned him, he wouldn't appear at the office. He collected his salary every month and did nothing. If it weren't for his diligence in training, everyone would've thought he'd already started his retirement life early.

"You can't be like this. You're still so young. Why are you acting like me, an old man?"

He was holding a thermos cup, the aroma of goji berries, red dates, longan, and brown sugar wafting from it. He sat there lazily basking in the sun, happily watching Sasuke and Sakura spar as if it were an action movie with special effects.

As for the voice that suddenly came from beside him, Ethan didn't bother turning his head. He simply raised his hand and pointed to a wooden chair that materialized beside him. "Lord Third, have a seat. Why did you suddenly come to the training ground?"

This training ground was almost exclusively used by Sasuke. Ever since Ethan moved out of the Uchiha compound, Sasuke had preferred practicing here with him instead of using the private training area back home.

Anyway, what Sasuke was working on now wasn't something he needed to keep secret. He had already completed the foundational and theoretical learning long ago.

Hiruzen carefully examined the wooden chair Ethan had summoned.

He had seen things created with Wood Release before. Yamato from the Anbu could use it to create houses and even furniture.

But compared to the square and rigid chairs Yamato made, the one Ethan produced looked like it was handcrafted by a top artisan from fine ancient wood.

Whether it was the armrests, the backrest, or the seat, every part had a subtle curve, making it more comfortable.

To achieve this level of detail, one needed very refined chakra control. But considering Ethan could knock out everyone in Konoha with ease and even accurately distinguish who to spare and who to kill, this wasn't surprising.

However...

Looking at Ethan's increasingly handsome young face, only sixteen this year and seemingly not even at his peak yet, it was impossible to imagine what heights he might reach in the future.

"Just wandering around. Staying at home all the time gets boring too."

Hiruzen put away his thoughts, sat down, and looked at the two young people in the training ground.

Sasuke and Sakura were both prominent among the younger generation. Compared to Sakura, who was being trained by Tsunade, Hiruzen was more curious about Sasuke.

For the past two years, Sasuke hadn't continued to receive guidance from Kakashi, only occasionally teaming up with him for missions.

He knew Itachi had returned to the village and was now serving as Tsunade's bodyguard under the identity of a "mysterious bodyguard," but the techniques Sasuke was using clearly hadn't been learned from Itachi.

Especially the one Sasuke was using now... should it even be called a jutsu?

Sasuke, who was sparring with Sakura, noticed Hiruzen's arrival but continued the session, neither of them intending to stop.

Seeing Sakura's heavy punch coming at him, Sasuke, already familiar with its terrifying power, didn't meet it head-on. He dodged, and flames surged up his arm as he counterattacked, aiming for the opening revealed by her punch.

An elbow strike, followed by a hook punch. Two heavy strikes in a row, each carrying added fire damage. Just learning how to freely maintain the fire-nature chakra for this boxing technique had taken him over half a year.

It hadn't been wasted time. Now that he could use this boxing style effectively, his combat ability had increased again.

Sasuke's fighting style naturally leaned toward head-on combat, relying heavily on taijutsu and ninjutsu. This boxing set perfectly combined the two and reduced chakra consumption. Although maintaining the flames required chakra, the cost wasn't high. If he could perfectly time the flame bursts to occur only during attacks, the consumption would be even lower.

In other words, this boxing style was ideal for drawn-out battles, gradually wearing down the opponent and tipping the scales of victory over time.

Moreover, according to Ethan's teachings, these fire-chakra-infused attacks weren't just nature transformations. They also involved special chakra circulation techniques, allowing seemingly ordinary attacks to burst with enhanced killing power. Some techniques emphasized explosive force, others piercing power, and so on.

To master this, Sasuke still needed to improve his chakra control.

Most importantly, this boxing style looked cool and flashy. It suited Sasuke's taste perfectly, so he trained with great dedication, aiming to fully master it soon.

The sparring between Sasuke and Sakura continued.

Sakura found it increasingly difficult to deal with Sasuke's boxing. Because of the flames, she couldn't block his attacks directly and had to dodge. Her evasive movements couldn't be small either. It wouldn't matter if an ordinary fist grazed her, but one wrapped in flames would burn even from a graze.

Fighting such an opponent consumed more energy than fighting a regular taijutsu user. That was another advantage of this boxing style.

"Alright, let's stop here!"

After fighting for a while longer, Sakura was the first to call it. The more she fought, the more frustrated she became. She suddenly felt that this boxing technique was more troublesome than Sasuke's kenjutsu combined with speed. It wasn't that he was harder to fight, but that the battle felt extremely suffocating.

Sasuke didn't object. This time, he had asked Sakura to help him test his mastery of the boxing. After the real battle, he had already identified his shortcomings and would continue working on improving them until this boxing style truly became one of his weapons.

Lightning Release, Fire Release, kenjutsu, this special type of taijutsu, and the Mangekyo Sharingan's dōjutsu. Sasuke felt his toolkit was well-rounded. His strength, combined with the numerous missions he had completed over the past two years, made him a formidable presence among Konoha's Jonin. He had been promoted not long ago.

As for the younger generation? Excluding the cheat-like Ethan, he should be the strongest.

No, I can't let that go to my head.

Stealing a glance at Ethan, who was sitting not far away, Sasuke reminded himself not to become arrogant. Compared to Ethan, his current strength was still nothing.

In fact, Sasuke now was already much stronger than his counterpart at the same point in the original story. He was even stronger than the Sasuke who had obtained the Eternal Mangekyo in the later stages.

He didn't lack combat experience either. Over the past two years, he had completed many dangerous missions that had contributed to his growth.

"That set of boxing Sasuke is using, you taught him, didn't you?"

"I think this fighting style suits him well."

It wasn't just the boxing. As Sasuke grew older, his appearance also changed. Ethan, once again indulging his wicked sense of humor, had given Sasuke quite a few ideas.

Now Sasuke wore a deep blue kimono that looked somewhat like Neji's current attire. Aside from the color, the lack of the sun symbol on the sleeves, and the long sword at his waist, Ethan felt Sasuke's appearance resembled Saishu Kusanagi more.

Ethan had originally wanted him to wear a jacket, but Sasuke wasn't interested in that, so he settled for this look.

Compared to Sasuke's notable change, Sakura's attire remained the same as in the original story. As for Ethan, his clothing was always casual. He often threw on a loose garment and wandered around.

Anyway, he was the Hokage's Advisor now and didn't need to wear the Jonin vest all the time.

"You're very good at teaching others how to train. Have you thought about taking on more students?"

Ethan had been wondering why Hiruzen came to find him. He had considered a few possibilities, but he really hadn't expected this one. "You want me to take on students?"

Who does he want me to teach? Could it be Konohamaru?

(To be continued.)