Itachi raised his hand, looking toward the statues, then brought it down like a king delivering a death sentence. All 25 fireballs descended upon the statues, destroying ten each, and spreading a sea of fire around.
There was no need to count this time. Everyone knew there wasn't a single statue left standing. Even if, by chance, one had remained, it would have long melted from the intense heat.
Afterward, Itachi didn't even wait for the dust to settle and slowly made his way back toward everyone else, with the sea of fire behind him.
"He learned an S-rank Jutsu in three weeks and to this extent. Truly worthy of the title 'once in a century genius,'" Hiruzen said with a smile.
Itachi's talent level was unmatched because the jutsu he used was Fire Release: Great Flame Flower. In this jutsu, the user can make many fireballs at once, firing them simultaneously toward the enemy.
The destructive power of this jutsu is unmatched—one could say this jutsu is the pride of the Uchiha clan, after the Sharingan, of course. It was mandatorily learned by every clan head.
But the destructive power of this jutsu comes at a cost—control. It is really difficult to control, and many times not only allies but even the caster can get injured if not used properly. But Itachi was not only able to control the jutsu, he even calculated the number of fireballs he would need, the destructive power of each one, and their aim. Everything was perfect, as if he had practiced this jutsu for years.
Hiruzen, however, knew Itachi had only learned it in three weeks. Why? Because as Hokage, learning something like an S-rank jutsu without his permission was impossible unless one wanted to become a rogue ninja, as it would be a direct challenge to his authority.
That's why, when Fugaku got the chance, he asked if he could teach Itachi this jutsu. If it were from the original timeline and one year later, Hiruzen would have said no.
Maintaining the power balance and keeping the Uchiha within a controllable range was more important, along with Danzo's strong disapproval. Itachi wouldn't have learned this jutsu. But now, with everything in its right place, Itachi learned this overpowered jutsu.
He showed his true talent in fire release—a top monster among the monstrous geniuses of Konoha.
"There's no need for counting, Itachi. You've destroyed most—no, all—of the statues. You'll be the captain of the team during this time," Jiraiya said as soon as the fire died down and the dust settled.
The ground where Itachi had used this jutsu had turned to glass in some places. For that, a temperature of 1800 degrees Celsius or 3270 degrees Fahrenheit is required. Normally, even achieving half of this is difficult for a jonin using fire release jutsu.
This showed just how powerful the jutsu was.
"Nice to meet you, Captain," Kaida said, smiling at Itachi.
"Hello, Captain," Kabuto chimed in as well.
"Hi," Itachi said.
"It's good to see that every single one of you is already overqualified for this mission, so there's no need for you to continue training your strength. What you need now is teamwork.
In our world, if the teamwork of a ninja team is perfect, their strength reaches much higher than the individual sum of their abilities. Since Jiraiya is going to be your sensei for the Chunin Exam, he will be responsible for training your teamwork," Hiruzen said.
"Sensei, I have something much more important to do in Mount Myoboku, so can you handle this task yourself, please?" Jiraiya said.
"Don't worry, Jiraiya. I already summoned Kousuke before coming here. According to him, there's no task for you three anymore, so you could focus on your students for the next week," Hiruzen said, maintaining his smile.
"Oh, come on, Sensei! I've been teaching this brat for two weeks straight. I need a break now," Jiraiya said.
"You can take a break for today. It's a day off for you guys as well. Take a rest because from tomorrow, you'll once again go back to training," Hiruzen said.
"Yes, Lord Third," everyone from the genin trio replied. Naturally, Fugaku had no objections with this setup. His son was going to be trained by Jiraiya, the figure he grew up hearing stories about.
With this, everyone went back to their respective destinations, enjoying a day of peace after gruesome hard work for weeks.
Naturally, Kaida went to his house—the only place he could truly rest, both physically and mentally. Though Shisui was curious about the progress Kaida had made, with Hae's 'gentle' reminder, he didn't ask Kaida to show him much of his progress.
But Kaida, who had been training continuously for two weeks, was in no condition to do any work and ended up sleeping for 14 hours. When he woke up, it was already nighttime, and he didn't want to disturb the neighbors.
Even though loud sounds from training weren't rare in a ninja village during the night, that didn't mean they weren't hated. People still loved their sleep.
But Kaida still told Shisui about the enhancements in his Mitotic Regeneration Jutsu and how he had to remodel his fighting style for when he used the seal.
Now he had two fighting styles—one using the Sharingan and his physical specs to perform precise, lethal attacks, and the other pure destruction: running headfirst into the enemy and destroying them with brute force.
If Kaida had to choose which one he liked more, he would undoubtedly choose the second one. Even though the first one was better and saved him from injury and entrapment, every boy naturally loved pure destruction, and Kaida was no different.
Because of the emotion-amplifying effect of the Sharingan, and that too a 3-tomoe Sharingan, his feelings had amplified to such a degree that Kaida had come to really love his new fighting style.
...
After a full day of rest, everyone was summoned to Training Area 6 by the Anbu. All three genins arrived 10 minutes before the time they were called.
"Hey, Captain, were you waiting for too long?" Kaida asked.
"Sorry for being late, Captain," Kabuto added, appearing right after Kaida.
"No, I just got here, and can you guys stop calling me Captain? It's awkward," Itachi said.
"Then what do you want us to call you? Oniisan? Ani?..." Kaida teased.
"Captain is fine," Itachi quickly interrupted before he could continue.
"Hahaha! It's nice to have such a lively team to teach," Jiraiya said, entering the training area with a bottle of liquor in his hand, clearly drunk.