How To Be A Hero
He had died at the age of fifteen during a school shooting. Then he was reborn as Minato Namikaze. Needless to say, he wanted out. He didn't want to be a coldblooded murderer. He didn't want to die again, from a large hole through the stomach. He didn't want to be a shinobi, the hero, or even the Hokage. But life had other plans…
Disclaimer: This story is for entertainment purposes only. All rights belong to their respective owners.
2) Chakra Potential
His plan to not become a shinobi didn't last long. It ended when he was four. Both the manga and anime painted Konoha as some sort of holy haven. Even when the darker aspects of Konoha came out, it was still a holy haven.
But, the truth of the matter was that it was a shinobi village. A military village that needed human resources to fund the war that everyone predicted would breakout at any moment. So in order to recruit these extra shinobi, they had to advertise whether it be demonstrations to the civilian school kids, the orphanages, or forcing the kids.
He ended up being forced.
"No. No, you can't do this. He's a child. He's my son. I don't - we don't - you can't" His mother begged the shinobi sitting at their kitchen table.
His mother, Misaki Namikaze was a very proper lady with straight bright blond hair, bright green eyes, and an amazing figure. But the lady sitting in front of the shinobi was broken. Her hair had become disheveled. Her eyes were a puffy red and her body was hunched.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry, Namikaze-san," Asashi-sensei, the shinobi, sighs.
"He's four years old, Asashi-sensei," Misaki pleads. "He doesn't even know what chakra is. He's-my son. He's not a soldier."
Aaron met Asashi's gaze as he stared at him. He couldn't quite decipher what was going on in the shinobi's eyes as his face was carefully wiped black of emotion.
"Namikaze-san, you and your son are both citizens of Konoha," he explained in a tired tone as if he had said this many times before and Aaron didn't doubt that he had. "You both enjoy the benefits of that position. This is what is asked in return."
"This is barbaric," his mother hissed. "His father just died as a shinobi. Minato-chan - he's normal. He'll -"
Die? Aaron filled in the blanks.
"I can't lose him too."
Aaron could feel the dread that had been building up in him since Asashi had started talking about his requirement. It wasn't stated but everyone knew that civilian born shinobi had a much higher death rate than clan born ones. Sure he was Minato Namikaze, but he wasn't the Minato Namikaze and even if he was the Minato Namikaze, he didn't want to die.
His father had been a shinobi, a normal one that had never got further than chunin. He had died last year. Aaron was aware that other than the color of his hair, he was his father's carbon copy from the unruly, spiky hair to bright blue eyes. Every since he had died, his mother had become extremely overprotective.
"Ah," Asashi breathed as his mouth twisted into something that was either a very face frown or deranged grin. "You aren't quite correct, Namikaze-san."
Misaki stopped in the middle of her tirade, eyes flashing dangerously.
"Excuse me?"
"Your son," he elaborates, "is many things, but he is the furthest thing from normal." He grabbed a paper and pen from his pocket and jotted something down.
"This is for you, Namikaze-kun," Asashi said, passing over the paper.
Aaron took the piece of paper that had been placed in his hands. Eyes tracking right to left, he read Malignant Breast Cancer. Looking up from the paper in shock, Aaron shot Asashi a disturbed look. What kind of person wrote out breast cancer for a kid?
Misaki looked over her son's shoulder and promptly took away the paper. "You wrote out breast cancer for my son to read?" he asked incredulously, crumpling the sheet of paper.
Asashi smiled at her without humor. "I wanted to see if he could read kanji, uncommon kanji for his age at that. As I thought, Namikaze-kun here possesses a reading ability that is far above the level expected from his peers."
Misaki bristled. "What does that have to do with anything?"
Aaron felt the dread drop even more. His mother worked in the Civilian Library and he had often read things while waiting for her in boredom. He had learned the new language as fast as possible to try and cure his frustration on not being able to understand anyone, but he didn't think that it would cause…
"When a child gets check ups, their chakra is tested whether it be that they are civilian or shinobi for any abnormally. In order to examine the chakra in detail, a sorta blueprint like chart of the chakra is created and we call that the Chakra Potential." Asashi said. "Namikaze-kun's Chakra Potential was interesting. Not only does he have unnaturally high chakra levels for his age, but he also has a condition called a Yin-Yang Imbalance."
There was a long stretch of silence.
"... Is it dangerous?" Misaki finally asked, hesitant.
"No," Asashi answered. "In Namikaze-kun's case, his imbalance tips to favour the Yin half of his chakra- spiritual chakra, energy associated with mental development. As a child ages, they will usually gain more spiritual energy through experience in proportion to the amount they start out with. For your son however, it's also as if he started out with a huge chunk of extra Yin energy that doesn't increase in proportion to the large amount. But in relation to his unusually high chakra levels, his Yin still overshadowed his Yang by a good amount."
He paused. "The last recorded case similar to this was Orochimaru, the Sandaime's student. The case was a bit different, but it's similar enough. Orochimaru didn't have the large preset chunk of Yin chakra, but his Yin still overshadowed his Yang."
Misaki paled. "They're not going to let him go, are they?" she whispered.
Aaron was close to paling as well, but for other reasons. It didn't take much for him to link that his extra supply of Yin energy came from his past life.
"No," Asashi answered, solemn. "Not with the situation as turbulent as now."
Misaki took in a deep breath, steadying herself. "Okay," she said. "Okay. He's going to be a shinobi. Okay." She wrapped an arm around him. "How long do we have?"
"Until he's six" Asashi stated and when it was clear that no one would say anything else, he excused himself and made for the door of the apartment.
"I don't want to be a shinobi." Aaron finally spoke up.
Asashi froze and ruffled his hair in a solemn manner as if he would drop dead. He probably would soon. "You don't have a choice kid." He said quietly.
"What do I do?" he whispered quietly.
"Read mostly," Asashi says even if he hadn't expected an answer. "Read as much as possible and stay informed. You're really too young to do any sort of physical conditioning, and you're not from a clan so chakra training is out until you're able to do it under supervision. Other than that…" he hummed. "I'd advise picking up playing the flute or knitting."
Aaron nodded. It made sense. "Finger dexterity," he said. "For hand-seals."
Asashi smiled. "Exactly," he sighed. "Work hard, keep your skills sharp, trust your teammates, and you should be fine."
The only chance after that he had to not entering the Academy was if the political situation changed miraculously and all the countries were suddenly best buds. Too bad, a year later the Second Shinobi World War broke out officially.