Chapter 8.15- Oak

The exams were slated to be held in Kusa, so that meant I had to deal with lessons on how to fight in the grassland, as well as even more brutal training sessions with The Bastard. The good part was that every single one of my stats had seen visible, measurable improvement. The downside was that every day, I tested the limits of my natural healing factor and endurance. I still had not been cleared to use medical ninjutsu on myself, so I had to deal with the pain for the few minutes it took my natural healing to deal with the bruises and light cuts.

The bastard always lived up to his name, but at least he had the good sense to avoid causing any damage that would impair me for considerable lengths of time. After all, I was essentially taking on the role of two different people: studying dozens of medical textbooks and journals while training to become the youngest Chunin in Suna history. I was more than strong enough to beat virtually any Chunin out there, but we still trained because Baki was a bastard, and I would never turn down an opportunity to improve.

‘God will descend in 10 years.’ That was the phrase I repeated to myself whenever I was tempted to quit, slow down, or take care of myself instead of charging full speed ahead in self-improvement. Whenever the temptation arose, the knowledge that I was nowhere near strong enough to even be a blip on Madara’s radar was enough for me to throw myself back into my training. Sure, it might have been nice to be knocking on the door of Jounin level, but Madara had cut through hundreds of Jounin with no difficulty. Maybe one day, I’d be strong enough to match up to a Kage, but Madara had taken all five of them without breaking a sweat. Hashirama was even worse. I had virtually all the benefits of being a perfect jinchuriki for the One-tails, but Hashirama had beaten nine of them and sealed them up. He’d taken on the strongest one while still fighting Madara at the same time.

Madara and Hashirama. Those were the monsters I aspired to match and surpass, and I had just ten years to do it. I had even less than that before Pein would come for me. The entire Hidden Leaf could not stand against him. Naruto with sage mode could not stand against him. Naruto with Kurama’s chakra still couldn’t defeat him in battle. Pein could only be beaten when he was talked down. Madara, Hashirama, and Pein. All three of them. I needed to surpass them in a decade. With that knowledge in my head, I was much less tempted to consider the idea of resting on my laurels.

A/N; Here’s the bit of the new chapter I was able to right today.