The sound of birdsong that filled the early morning air went unnoticed by the boy sitting along with his thoughts in a clearing at the outer fringes of Konohagakure no Sato. Though he sat calmly, arms folded and his back against the trunk of one of the villages signature trees, the occasional twitch of his eyelids or shifting of his jaw would betray the churning of his mind to a close observer.

After handing over and discussing what he knew of the future with the Hokage and his student, they quickly broke apart. The trained shinobi were too professional, and the newfound knowledge too vital, for them to simply sit and wait. Information had to be gathered, plans had to be made, and logistics analyzed. As the odd man out with next to no first-hand knowledge on how their system worked, Kiseki found himself essentially shunted off to the side with a promise to meet in two days to discuss preliminary plans.

From the Hokage's office, Kiseki headed to a place he knew well: the library. While he had generally stuck to fiction as an easy way to learn the language, he now sought information like a drowning man sought safety. The revelation that Nagato was actually a girl named Heiwa here left him nervous. So, he sought to confirm his knowledge.

It did not take long to confirm what he knew. The 5 major villages? The warring clans era, followed by the founding of Konoha by the Uchiha and Senju clans? The order of the Hokage? All as he knew them to be, with seemingly no differences. Everything he could find an answer to fit with what he knew of the source material, which admittedly wasn't much; it wasn't a series that went out of it's way to give large amounts of setting history.

However, while skimming a history of the last several decades (boy, it felt weird to think that Konoha was only 55 years old) he came across a story about the end of the Second Ninja War, when the daimyo from the Land of Stone came to meet the daimyo of the Land of Fire to discuss the terms of peace. It was a journey that, according to the account, took a mere 7 days. Cross-referencing that with a map left him confused: How small was this continent that such a seemingly long journey could be completed so quickly?

It turns out, very. The distance between the capitals of Stone and Fire were only around 500 kilometers. While Kiseki still thought primarily using the old imperial system from his home world, he had enough rules of thumb for converting between them that he had managed to acclimate himself over the years he had been away. 500 kilometers: 300 some miles, or a mere 6 hours of driving, give or take.

It was an answer that threw his thoughts into a frenzy. It was a known fact, even here, that the world was round. He'd immediately went and grabbed an atlas, and learned that the map of the elemental nations was, truly, all there was aside from various islands scattered about the sea. The planet was estimated at 3300 kilometers. He recalled hearing that Earth rotated at roughly 1000 miles per hour, which would make his new planetary home around 13 times smaller. He was, admittedly, working with very rough numbers and math, but the answer seemed bizarre.

In truth, Kiseki thought it was impossible. He didn't know exactly how small a planet could be and sustain life, but this seemed too low. Maybe chakra had something to do with keeping things stable?

His thoughts were disrupted by the bulky, white-haired sannin arriving in the clearing. "Hello Jiraiya-san," Kiseki greeted.

"Hey gaki, you made it here early. You must be eager to hear our master plan for saving the world!"

His eyes widened at that proclamation. "You've got a plan to take care of things then?"

Jiraiya smirked. "Sure do! Track down the bad guys, take care of them, and then find some lovely ladies and celebrate!"

Kiseki laughed in a matter that he would adamantly deny was a giggle. "I suppose that would work, though you may need to improvise some of the details."

The older man lowered himself to the ground and leaned against a nearby tree. "Well, while the overall plan took most of the last few days, we did manage to work out a few details at the last minute, if you're interested."

"By all means, explain away," Kiseki proclaimed with an accompanying flourish of the hand.

"Well for starters, how would you like to be the official apprentice of the greatest of the sannin?" Jiraiya could tell he had the attention of his one-man audience.

"I highly doubt Tsunade is interested in taking on a new apprentice, so I might have to settle for you." Kiseki quipped. "That said, is that really such a good idea? Wouldn't that put a lot of unnecessary focus on me?"

"Oh, good one kid, you may actually make this fun! As for the focus bit, that's actually an upside. It can be used to explain away a lot of troublesome questions. 'Why was some random brat in a meeting with the Hokage?' 'Why does that kid seem so awesome and mature?' 'Who is that next to the handsome and gallant Jiraiya?' Besides, you asked for training, and unless you're completely braindead, you're probably going to learn a lot faster than the average five year-old, so any other trainer would start asking a lot of questions."

"Those are some good points..." Kiseki admitted. And they were; it was a solution to many problems. And yet, the idea sat uncomfortably in his head. He closed his eyes with a thoughtful hum and tried to figure out why.

Strategically, it seemed perfect. It gave him cover, training, and publicly allied him with a powerful figure. He wasn't too worried about it putting a target on him, as he would still remain an unknown, albeit a well-connected one. Logistically, he guessed he would probably end up traveling around a bunch, and the association of being "raised" by a renowned pervert may cause some issues down the road, but those were extremely minor issues and they hadn't seemed to affect Naruto.

And then it clicked. He opened his mouth to speak, and then stopped. He needed to word his properly.

"There is one problem I can think of, and it's a big one." Kiseki glanced at Jiraiya to see he had his attention, then focused his gaze on the treeline, "I don't want to tread where I shouldn't, but aren't you Naruto's godfather? I'm sure there's a good reason you haven't been raising him directly, but couldn't it cause problems later on if he learned that you were training someone else instead of him?" It was a question that could be considered a low blow; he didn't want to see the impact It might have.

"I don't know how it works where you came from, but here godparents are meant to help raise the godchild, not to raise them alone. While his father may not have minded, his mother would hate the idea of me raising her kid. Besides, when Orochimaru's treachery was discovered a few years later, I was in no position to do so. Besides, I'm terrible with kids; thankfully, you're not a real one." The clearing fell silent save for the ambient buzz of cicadas and birdsong.

After a moment, the boy broke the silence. "Perhaps you're right; it's not my place to judge. If you are willing, then I would be honored to learn from a master like you."

The toad sage preened at the compliment. "Glad you recognize how lucky you are kid! Sensei and I will take care of all the official stuff, so soon you'll be my problem instead of the matrons'." The man paused, before continuing more seriously. "I'm going to be gone briefly. I need to check on the Ame kids, keep them on the right track if I can. If all goes well, I'll be back within a week."

Kiseki winced lightly. "Be careful. Nagato - that is, Heiwa - was supposed to be absurdly strong. I've told you what little I know about the Rinnegan, but who knows what I'm missing."

"Don't worry, I've got an escape plan ready. I've got to come back and keep you from blowing yourself up after all. Now tell me, how does your knowledge of chakra compare to your knowledge of future events?"

"Hm. Not very well I guess. I know it's a mix of physical and spiritual energy, that it flows through the body, and that the tenketsu can be blocked, but that's about it. I can do the leaf exercise for the five elements with it and use it to walk on trees and water, but I don't know much else about how it actually works."

The sannin blinked. Then he blinked a few more times for good measure. "What."

The boy, seeing his disbelief, stood up, and walked up the tree he had been seated against. Grabbing a handful of leaves from a low-hanging branch, he walked back down and demonstrated.

"Fire." The first leaf lit up in a small flame, and he dropped it when it started to approach his fingers. "Water." The second leaf bloated slightly and began to drip lightly with cool water. "Earth." The third leaf he grabbed crumbled into dirt as though it had composted on the spot. "Wind." This leaf suddenly split vertically down the middle, with a second horizontal cut leaving the leaf in 4 pieces. "Lightning." The leaf dried and wrinkled, like a sheet of paper that had been crumpled into a ball and then tried to flatten out. The older man was visibly stunned. "Should I not be able to do that?"

The sannin finally managed to snap himself out of his disbelief at the question. "No! Well, not at your age anyway. I can count on one hand the number of people alive who have mastered all five elements. Completing the first stage of an element as an academy student would be impressive. To have all five down before even starting?"

Now it was Kiseki's turn to be shocked. "Is it really that hard? I mean, it took a few weeks to get each one down, but that was with having to wait on chakra to recover and practicing in secret."

"It generally takes around six months of consistent practice for a chunin to reach that stage for their nature affinity. Though, I suppose that unlike a chunin, you're not having to work around missions and other responsibilities."

"Six months?" To Kiseki, a 6 month learning process sounded rather like a semester long class. Assuming most chunin were somewhere in the 14-20 range when they learned, that would probably put it at the high school range. And Kiseki knew from experience that a university would teach the same material two to four times faster. Add on his greater life experience and theoretical knowledge, and it sounded about right. "Yeah, I can see that."

"One thing I don't get though kid. What exactly do you mean by waiting on your chakra to refill?"

Kiseki furrowed his brow. "Isn't it obvious? Physically, I'm a kid, and not a particularly fit one. I don't have a lot of chakra, so I had to take a lot of breaks."

The sannin hummed in thought. "You figured out how to use chakra on your own right? Let's try something. Make this sign, and then try channeling chakra." He placed his hands together, raised up the index and middle fingers on both hands, and placed the left hand on top of the right.

East enough. A moment of study later and Kiseki imitated his hand gesture… "Bwuh! That feels weird!"

Jiraiya nodded as though in profound thought. "As I thought. That's the ram seal, and one of it's properties is to help force your chakra to an even mix of yin and yang." Seeing that his new student was about to ask a question, he continued. "Chakra is made up of a mixture of spiritual energy, or yin, and physical energy, or yang. For the vast majority of applications, it's best to use an even mixture of the two, as this dramatically increases the effective strength of your chakra. Normally, students are taught that from the beginning and learn to mess with the balance later."

Shaking off the different feel of channeling chakra, Kiseki hummed in thought. "I knew about the two energies, but didn't know the balance between them. Yin and yang, huh? I suppose those are fitting names. Very zen. Anyway, I figured I had a bunch of extra spiritual energy - yin, right? - tried to practice somewhat with using it alone, but I couldn't get anything to happen."

"Unsurprising. Yin release and yang release are tricky subjects, and not ones that are commonly used. Genjutsu and medical ninjutsu are associated with yin and yang release, respectively, but neither is particularly common. And even when done properly, you need both yin and yang to actually do anything."

"Why is that?"

"Well, yin comes from the mind and spirit, while yang comes from the body's cells. On its own, yin is just thought; less than a shadow. It has no ability to affect anything. Yang, on the other hand, is physical, but this goes against it. Without the yin to add control, it just sits in the cells and can't move."

Kiseki was greatly enjoying having an actual source of information again. "So I was mixing my yin and yang inefficiently, and my attempts to use yin alone after using up my chakra were a waste. Good to know."

The white-haired author nodded. "Proper yin-yang balance will greatly improve how far your chakra goes, though we should check a couple other things just in case. Try this seal, and again channel chakra. No need to worry about the yin-yang stuff for this."

This seal was even easier. Both palms clasped, with fingers laced together as though in prayer. This time, when Kiseki put his hands together and pulled on his chakra, he found the sensation across his entire body rather than coming from his gut. He stated his observation to the sannin.

"That's the snake seal, and it aids in pulling large amounts of chakra evenly from across the body. You were only pulling chakra from your abdominal region? That would severely limit how much you could use. The heart alone produces close to 30% of a person's chakra. I suppose I can maybe see why you would think that way. A common way of representing chakra is to show it in the center of the body. That's just for diagram purposes though."

Jiraiya raises a hand to his jawline in thought. "I wouldn't normally think to ask this, but given the other issues I probably should. Which way do you spin your chakra?"

"Spin? What do you… wait, I think I remember hearing something about this. Something about hair rotation like? I remember that being mentioned in relation to something, but I don't rotate my chakra. I just kind of make it flow outward."

The self-proclaimed super-pervert winced. "That will waste a good amount of power as well. The best way to gather chakra is to spin it like a spiral. The amount and direction vary from person to person, but the way your hair twists is a good indicator for direction. Otherwise, you're fighting the natural rotation of the chakra network.

The extradimensional immigrant thought for a moment before sinking his face into his hand with a groan and an incomprehensible mutter.

"...say again?" Jiraiya asked.

"...coils." Kiseki responded. "Chakra coils. How many times did I hear that phrase used and not think it was literal? I should have KNOWN that you have to spin the chakra. The metaphor of chakra being like water in a pipe was common, and I never thought that the term coil might apply?" He dragged his hands down his face with another groan. It seemed so obvious in hindsight; trying to make it flow straight through a coil makes it waste energy by bouncing off the walls of the path. "Shit. I've been using chakra for 5 years now, and I've been doing it wrong this whole time." He sighed in frustration. "I shouldn't have been so worried about experimenting. But noooo, I was too worried about blowing myself up. Gah!"

After taking a moment to compose himself, Kiseki continued. "So I'm basically back at square one, aren't I?"

This time, the sannin had comforting news. "Hey now, it's not that bad. A couple weeks or so to adjust your habits of using chakra and you should be good. You've still got your experience with the elements, and your body is still used to producing chakra. Honestly, a little bit of practice adjusting your technique is well worth the amount of extra 'oomph' you'll get!" He laughed. "Besides, now I have a good story for the future! My genius student was molding chakra wrong for years!"

Kiseki shot him a mock glare. "Just try it old man. I'll show you how much taking care of a kid can interfere with your sex life."

Jiraiya froze, eyes slowly moving over to the kid who had just threatened him where it would hurt the most. "That… that…"

"That's genius," he cried. "I hadn't even considered how raising a kid would look to the ladies! A kind, handsome man raising a poor orphan with nowhere else to go. Teaching him the ways of the world! The ladies will be all over me!"

Kiseki blinked. "Uhh…"

The middle-aged man actually seemed like he was gonna cry tears of joy. He wasn't sure how to feel about that…

Finally, Jiraiya seemed to snap out of his daydreams and address him. "Okay kid, I'm fired up now! Here's a couple of scrolls, read them and practice those adjustments to your chakra. I'm going to Ame so I can get back and milk this sensei thing for everything it's worth!" With that, the grown man tossed him a small satchel and sprinted from the clearing.

Kiseki sat stock still in shock, surprised by the sudden change of pace, before looking between the satchel and where the sannin had ran from the clearing.

"Damn. I still had questions..."


A/N: Well. Writers block and procrastination certainly make writing difficult, don't they? On the bright side, I finished watching the series. Naruto and Shippuden, including movies and filler for extra details where it doesn't contradict. Lots of notes and theories generated, now I just need to keep writing.

I am writing this story as I go, and plans are subject to change. Case in point, the idea of Jiraiya training Kiseki was not planned until I realized that it actually does solve a ton of issues. Not just those listed in this chapter; it also makes it easy for them to keep an eye on Kiseki until they truly trust him. Someone will probably read about that apprenticeship and feel it's improbable/unrealistic, but I could actually see it being brainstormed at least. Moving forward, in addition to lots of guesses as to why the world works the way it does and boring old math, my plan is to include more of the supernatural than most stories. The first story to SCP-ify the Naruto-verse?

Now, on the subject of details. The world size is not something that is addressed often, and the numbers I have given are way smaller than most estimates online. They were obtained by using the stated three-day travel time from Suna-Konoha, converted to an estimated difference using the estimated speed of the messenger hawk used in the Gaara rescue arc (No "super chakra speed" there), and then mapped onto the image of the planet in The Last. In all, the entire world has a smaller area than the country of India. As for the bit of training Jiraiya gave Kiseki, all those details have canonical support from across the series.

Finally, I find myself blown away by how many people are following this story. Almost 100 combined favorites/follows? I was honestly expecting closer to 10, at best. As always, comment away to let me know your thoughts.