Chapter 1-8
I was sitting in my living room slash bedroom slash dining room slash kitchen and stared out of the window. It was barely evening.
I explored my new home hours ago and while I was quite happy with everything, even its size because less space meant less cleaning for me, there was a distinct lack of amenities to fight boredom.
I knew I could just continue with Hifumi's book or do some chakra training, but I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be healthy in the long run.
Training all day every day probably wasn't without its drawbacks and I didn't want to risk growing weary of the novelty that was still chakra for me.
I needed a hobby, a distraction, something I could do to casually waste time whenever I felt like it.
The first full school day had continued with more basic information regarding our new life as orphans attending the shinobi academy.
Money makes the world go round, even if said world belonged to a six-year-old living in a tiny apartment. This was the gist of today's lesson.
The day had started with Suzume outlining the day that was going to follow and explaining the theoretical aspects of everything before we eventually did all that in practice.
"As you might already know by entering the academy the village grants children in your position a stipend to cover your expenditures until you finished or left your tuition."
'Does she know she's talking to little children?'
I chanced a glance at the other kids but couldn't guess their understanding behind their blanks stares and nods. Maybe they were just really good at hiding their boredom.
Suzumi paused meanwhile and pursed her lips.
"I expect you all to appreciate the effort Konoha is putting in your education and repay it with doing your absolute best!"
"Hai!" We automatically chorused, we all recognized this kind of back and forth from our time in the orphanage.
"The stipend automatically covers the apartments, which the village allocated to each of you. Further necessary expenses in your everyday life such as food, hygiene and clothes will have to be paid by yourselves with the money given to you at the administration building."
She went on and explained the process, which was going to follow next involving a student pass that we were going to make at the already mentioned administration.
Apparently every student was going to get such a pass, but ours would have a small mark identifying us as part of the orphan program.
I still didn't know if there was a special term for all this.
Said pass in our case would be our most important item since we would have to show it every time we wanted to collect "our" money to pay for even the most basic necessities as Suzume stressed.
That established we followed Suzume like ducklings out of the academy and made our way to the village administration we just talked about.
Let me tell you, up close the building was actually quite huge and the faces of the Hokage just behind it were properly impressive, too.
Unlike Hifumi Suzume didn't bother to give us any directions or landmarks on the way. If you failed to find the Hokage monument as a shinobi, even as a student, of Konoha you should probably quit right away.
Her words, not mine.
Speaking of shinobi, the closer we got to the building the more traffic we saw. I wouldn't consider it busy, but there was a constant stream of teams and individuals coming and going. Some seemingly vanishing in the middle of the street, probably the shunshin I was dying to learn, others lazily making their way down the streets and more than a handful taking to the rooftops.
Soon.
The photo for the student pass and the pass itself were done in quick succession and Suzume walked us through the process of withdrawing money while a bored-looking genin watched on from behind his counter.
Suzume was visibly annoyed by the display of the genin, probably fearing a bad influence on her students.
She handed each of us a money pouch filled with coins and notes. I had no idea how much and how far this was going to get me.
I would need to do a count when I was finally in my own four walls and start to keep track of everything.
A stiff nod to the genin, who gave a lazy wave in return and Suzume ushered us back outside.
We made our way back in near silence, Suzume leading the way, my three classmates walked together talking quietly with each other as I was trailing at the back.
I frowned, the dynamics between myself and the kids were already eerily similar to my time in the orphanage. There was no hostility, but I wondered if I was giving off some negative vibes that held the other kids back.
Yes, I had absolutely no intention to interact with them beyond the bare minimum, but I didn't want to build an unfavorable reputation among my peers.
Whatever, food for thought for later.
While I had no intention to get close to children, I did want to build a rapport with my teachers and that's why I made my way past the kids and fell into step with Suzume.
"Excuse me, Suzume-sensei?"
"Yes?"
"If I had money to spare, let's say if I had a job, would the process of depositing the money differ from withdrawing?"
She frowned.
"Why would you need a job?"
"Well, my old care-taker helped me a lot in the orphanage and she's fond of dango so I was hoping to give something back."
"I see, in that case, no, the process is the same."
"Thanky you." She nodded in return.
One step at the time.
In no time we were back at the academy and Suzume explained to us a few things about our apartments, which we would need to know until further in-depth stuff was covered in the future.
She basically told us, that the cabinets were filled with instant food, which could be prepared with hot water and would last us until we covered cooking. The same applied to hygiene equipment like soap.
That said we grabbed our bags and were on our way to the first apartment.
Luck was on my side as the first one was mine.
Just ten minutes from the academy we stood in front of a bleak but clean looking building with three stories, which bent around the nearest street corner in an L shape.
We went up the flight of stairs and on the top floor turned left. Following the hallway until the very end, we came to a stop at the last door on the left, the side facing the street we came from.
Suzume fished out a key, opened the door and made us step in. When we were all inside she closed the door behind us and to my surprise handed me the key.
I took a look around, unsure of what to think yet.
To my left the wall stretched straight and led to a small kitchenette, to my right the room opened and had a bed in the corner, at the foot of the bed was a small cabinet and then a small dining table with two chairs. I liked the big window which was smack in the middle of the right wall above the cabinet. At the far end of the room were two doors.
"This is the pantry" She opened one door, "and this is the bathroom." and then the next.
After pointing out the things that she covered in the academy like the food in the pantry Suzume and the kids left me to my own devices...and boredom.
The new exercise Hifumi gave me left me glad and frustrated.
Glad that I had a real challenge, which was going to keep me entertained for who knew how long.
Frustrated because I made barely, an almost nonexistent, progress so far.
I was at the point where I was ripping leaves into smaller and smaller pieces while trying to get each new piece to stick. I wasn't even thinking about extending my chakra yet.
My priority was to get used to minimizing the point where I used the chakra to keep the things sticking.
When I managed to reach the size of a single blade of grass, only then would I start worrying about the next step.
Thankfully there was something that kept my spirits high and that was my progress with the water walking.
Incidentally, I did most of my practice at first after learning something, which in my combined more than thirty years by now I never had to do and never thought I would have to do in the future.
I had to learn how to clean my clothes using a washboard.
A small metal bucket, a bar of soap and the wooden racket.
Every third day after school I would fill the bucket with water, put it in my small shower stall, take a stool and start to squeeze and rub my dirty clothes hunched over the small washboard.
Everything done I would hang out the laundry on a string across my window.
On my second time, when the novelty was already replaced by slight annoyance and boredom, I noticed how both of my tiny feet would fit perfectly in the bucket filled with water.
Unwilling to just dump the water away and having to look for a nice and quiet place to practice I just finished the laundry, sat back down on the stool and made my first tentative tests.
A week later I was standing on the water in my bucket while doing some stretches to simulate shifts in weight.
I knew it wasn't the real deal, but I was still uncomfortable with openly doing a late genin or early chunin exercise while still not officially going to the academy.
A large part of me thought I was unreasonable, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I would get too much attention and people would start asking questions about this seemingly no-name prodigy.
I also thought that it might get Hifumi unwanted attention and scrutiny, which I wanted to prevent at all cost.
That I hadn't found a suitable spot, that wasn't restricted to shinobis played also a small part.
So I kept going to the orphanage to visit Hifumi for some tea and after that to go further to my old training spot where I regularly upped my old regime
I couldn't wait for the academy to start the week and finally be able to compare myself to clan kids, that surely had prior training of their own.
Days went past in a blink of an eye and suddenly I was standing in a crowd of children in front of the academy listening to the Third Hokage deliver his speech.
Duty, pride, family and village.
The way the Third was going through his speech it seemed like it was the equivalent of a reheated meal, acceptable but nothing to write home about.
This sentiment was only enforced by how some shinobi parents seemed to use the opportunity to catch up with each other.
Still, it was relaxed feel-good atmosphere permeating the academy yard, which followed us to the same classroom I visited during the last month.
Only this time Daikoku stood in front of the blackboard again with a big smile.
"Good morning to all of you and welcome to your first day at the academy." Anticipation settled around the room. This was it.
"My name is Daikoku-sensei and I will teach you for the next several years to become the best shinobi you can be. To get things started I want you all to introduce yourself to the rest of the class, we will begin in the first row to my left."
He pointed out a boy, who cringed a bit at being singled out in the very first minutes.
He hesitantly stood up, said his name and bowed to the class.
"Very good, Haru-kun." And so it went on without a hitch past me and the Akimichi-boy next to me.
Apparently the start of the curriculum would consist of the history and the geography of the village itself and the shinobi-rules. A guy called Iwana Akame was going to handle physical education.
I reinforced my desire that I was going to make a point of learning and internalizing all the theoretical aspects to the max simply because I didn't have the plot-armor or power to neglect anything in my education and live happily ever after.
It was a week later, I had yet to feel any challenge in either the theoretical or the physical classes that I decided to approach Daikoku at the end of the day.
"Excuse me, sensei."
"Yes, Daiki-kun?" He smiled at me, as you would at a bright and respectful little student of yours.
"I was wondering if there's a place where academy students can practice after school."
"Of course, the practice yard in the back is always open for students and some of the upper years like to use the small woods right behind it." He suddenly turned serious.
"Be careful though, they tend to practice their taijutsu and use their weapons there."
I was debating about asking for a suitable body of water to practice my water-walking but decided against it for the time being.
I nodded my thanks and made my way out of the backdoor towards the training yard.
Taking a glance around I eyed the trees before me and used a skill I've been neglecting for quite a while.
I closed my eyes, my left hand became a one-handed ram-seal and I concentrated.
Behind me I sensed Daikoku still in what had to be the classroom, a similar-sized chakra pool made its round a floor above.
Dismissing both I focused on the small forest before me.
I perked up when I sensed a duo some 50 meters into the woods.
Cautiously walking forward I was mindful of Daikoku's words and my surroundings.
As I got closer I got a better read on the two chakra signatures and guessed that they were only slightly bigger than mine. I started to wonder how old these two individuals were going to be.
Hearing voices I stopped behind a tree and peeked around. Two boys, if I had to guess not too far from graduation, panting on the floor from whatever training they did.
Keeping it casual I stepped around the tree and into their view.
"Yo." Lazy wave.
Both stared at me until the boy with strange markings at his eyes stood up.
"What are you doing out here newbie?" The other boy with light brown hair also stood up and crossed his arms. The reception wasn't exactly hostile, but I definitely felt unwelcome.
"Just wandering around, looking for a place to train or people to train with."
I shrugged. One smirked, the other snorted.
"And what exactly did you hope to train? Better go to the playground again."
I didn't like the condescending tone, but kept my demeanor light. They couldn't know any better.
"I was hoping to find someone, who could teach me the Clone Technique."
"Well, turn around, your sensei is going to teach it to you someday."
"I'm ahead of my class and want something to work on."
I paused and switched gears. Already somewhat tired of this I took control of the conversation and went for my selling point.
"How's your chakra control?" They stared at me, as the guy on the left opened his mouth to reply I cut him off.
With a burst of speed I jumped forwards, made a tight twist and somersault.
I stuck my landing on the tree directly behind them a few feet above their heads.
I made a point of looking extra nonchalant while sticking horizontally to the tree with my hands in my pockets.
"Doesn't matter, mine is better." They gaped at me.
"Here's the deal," I paused, put my hands out of my pockets for some pointing and gesticulation.
"You will show me the Clone Technique and you will explain it to me. You will answer my questions to the best of your abilities. In return," I pointed at myself for emphasis.
"I will teach you a genin-level chakra control exercise, which will help you immensely with your graduation." I paused again, becoming serious.
"This would obviously stay between the three of us."
They looked at each other, slightly taken aback by this pushy little boy, and nodded.
"Fantastic," I clapped once. "My name is Daiki."
"Shibire"
"Minoji"
'and I will probably forget your names by the end of next week.'
As I was making my way home, I couldn't help but look skywards and breathe a massive sigh of relief.
'A whole week, a whole fucking week.'
It's entirely understandable, that not everybody shared my enthusiasm regarding everything chakra-related, but, my god, those two turds should be very grateful to whatever deity when they are actually able to make a living by being a shinobi.
During the fourth day when Boy Number 2 still hadn't figured out how to keep his feet sticking, I was so close to losing my composure, that I was ready to channel my inner British tv-chef and go on a profanity-riddled rant.
'Whatever, a deal is deal and I got what I wanted.'
First I had them show me the hand seals for the Clone Technique and after the third time observing them stumble through the sequence I asked to look into their advanced books to memorize the respective depictions. Luckily I had more than enough time, while they were struggling, to get familiar with the other hand seals, too.
Satisfied, I watched them do the jutsu multiple times and even a few times with my sensing focused on them to detect certain shifts during the forming of the jutsu.
My relief arose from me doing three acceptable clones and those two high flyers finally running up the trees.
I gave them a not entirely genuine smile, a thumbs-up and told them in no uncertain terms that we were done here.
I also reminded them to keep this whole episode to themselves and hoped the unspoken 'or else' was received.
Something unrelated but just as nice was actually the result of a spur of the moment decision by me when I collected a bit of money at the administration building for my groceries.
As I watched the genin sitting behind the counter count the money, the same one that agitated Suzume with his lazy attitude, I waited for him to finish and just asked him if he knew a spot where an academy student could go for a swim.
Apparently I hit the right tone of chill, because he kindly gave me the directions to a stream, which was running some ten minutes away from the cemetery.
I gave him a nod in thanks, which he lazily returned with a small salute. Yeah, the guy was a real dude.
Depositing my groceries in the kitchen area, I folded the dry clothes that I had kept hanging across my window and sat down cross-legged on the floor.
Closing my eyes, calming my breathing and sensing inwards I settled my chakra in the most docile state possible.
I grabbed a pencil and put it in front of me, the tip pointing towards the ceiling.
My eyes focused on the blunted graphite I gently hovered my left index finger above it.
Slowly I settle my finger down on the tip and closed my eyes again.
I coaxed my chakra in what felt like slow-motion toward the point where I keenly felt the pencil press into my fingertip. Having a good feeling I slowly raised my left hand and opened my eyes.
The pencil was sticking. Relieved I gave myself mentally a satisfying pat on the back and just lay down on the floor.
Just basking in the moment, finally having accomplished another step towards working on the single blade of grass.
Despite my current frown, I was actually enjoying myself.
The water of the stream was gently rushing below my bare feet, my T-shirt on the shore and the sun warming my skin.
I observed my clone with a critical eye as it ran past me.
The appearance was more than fine, I made sure of that with a couple of hours spent in front of my mirror.
Funnily enough, the appearance was actually the easiest part involved. If I had to guess, using what I read in Hifumi's old book and my own theories, it had to do with the tiny amount of yang chakra used looking to regain its basic form on its own.
This coupled with the significantly larger yin-part actively guiding it into shape and I understood why it's one of the most basic jutsu thought to young children.
Incidentally, this was probably also the reason Naruto struggled so much with it compared to the Shadow Clone Technique.
The proportioning heavily leaning towards the yin-chakra with only a comparatively tiny amount of yang-chakra involved didn't do him any favors given that he was basically leaking with yang-chakra compared to normal children his age.
In its most basic form, the jutsu would almost form itself as long as the right amount of chakra and the simplest of nudges were used.
Obviously with the right amount of expertise regarding the subject you could make the jutsu just a bit more lifelike and that might give you some valuable seconds when you are in a pinch.
One aspect was the locomotion of the chakra construct. A perfect copy is fine and dandy, but you would never fool anybody with a motionless mannequin, so you had to feed your clone with your intent using your yin-chakra.
This was the part I was working on. I wanted to go from simply running in a straight line to complex maneuvering and later right up to the correct facial expression to fit whatever situation.
Dismissing my clone, I cut the chakra of my feet and let myself plunge into the water.
After some lazy strokes, I made my way back to the shore and waited for the summer sun to dry me.
Still wet but getting restless again I sat up and thought about my other idea regarding the Clone Technique.
I could easily admit that perfecting the Clone Technique was just a way to get used to molding my chakra and because I just couldn't stop doing jutsu. It was the same with tree walking and now with water walking.
Extending my left arm I stared intently and concentrated. I had an idea, which might actually see combat use.
I used my experience with gathering minuscule amounts of chakra at the smallest places and gathered what I hoped would be the right amount and the right combination of yin and yang-chakra at my elbow.
Slowly going through the hand seals I closed my eyes again and visualized a second forearm extending from my elbow.
I stared wide-eyed, it definitely looked unnatural, but it worked.
My theory actually worked, if you dialed down the yang-chakra even more, upped the yin-chakra to fit your visualization and then gathered it at just your desired body-part you could actually just sprout limbs.
Nothing fancy and super easy, but I thought a fist or hand holding a kunai speeding towards your face suddenly doubling or even trebling at the last second might give you quite the scare.
It was half a year into my first academy year when the roles were reversed and I was caught unaware after some intense training.
After bringing the class up to snuff in the physical department Iwana started to introduce us to the basics of hand-to-hand combat.
There were no styles or even katas involved yet, but countless repetitions of the most basic kicks and punches.
This was the reason why I was out here in the woods behind the academy. For the first time, I actually had some catch-up to do compared to some of the other children.
After we did the various movements and mastered our footing to Iwana's satisfaction we were sent to the poles lined along the yard and were tasked with striking them.
It sounded easy enough, but from the get-go I struggled to commit my punches and kicks fully, always mindful and honestly somewhat scared of the looming agony originating from the body part I would use.
Just the thought of kicking with my shin full force against the rough and unforgiving wood made me squirm.
Apparently, I was a bit of pansy when it came to hurting myself.
Anyway, we were basically told not to worry, due to training and, of course, chakra our bodies would adapt to the strain and someday we could even shatter rocks…or something like that.
At the time I was busy cradling my stinging hand and getting laughed at after I finally decided to man up and punch with all my strength.
It was a satisfying thunk and I actually didn't break my hand, but holy shit did it hurt like hell.
I dimly remembered far eastern martial artists punching and kicking hard surfaces repeatedly to toughen up their bones from my old life so it made all the more sense in this life to just bite the bullet, go into the woods after class and hammer away at a random tree.
Still, looking at my now bandaged hands I couldn't help but favor simple kicks aimed below the elbow straight at the liver or low-kicks at the shin or thigh of my imaginary opponent.
Shaking my head I concentrated again and changed the chakra covering my palms the way Hifumi taught me.
Keeping my focus steady I gently guided my hands along my bruised shins.
The bruises wouldn't disappear, but it would encourage the natural healing process and it soothed the surrounding skin and muscles.
It was perfect to prevent or relieve sore muscles after a hard training day, too.
A gasp startled me out of my concentration and the healing chakra faded away.
"How are you doing this?"
I wiped my head towards the voice and was greeted by the sight of a little girl with three puppies.
I would have been slightly annoyed if the little girl wasn't just so damn adorable with her big brown eyes and the little puppy in her arms.
"Excuse me?"
She sat the puppy in her arms down next to its siblings, which were running around her feet and pointed at my hands.
"You just used medical ninjutsu!"
Standing up, I wiped my hands at my pants and shrugged, trying to downplay the whole thing.
"Yeah, but it isn't the real deal. It's just, you know, basic stuff." I was struggling here as she narrowed her eyes.
"Doesn't matter, even basic medical ninjutsu is incredibly advanced. How old are you anyway?"
"Alright, alright." I held up my hands in surrender. "Listen, I was always fascinated by chakra and a caretaker from my old orphanage is just teaching me a bit. Could you, you know, keep this to yourself, I know six-year-olds aren't supposed to know stuff like that."
Silence.
"Fine," she picked up another of her puppies to its delight. "I'm Hana."
"Daiki, nice to meet you."
'Now what?'
"You seem to have some experience with medical chakra yourself?" I sat down again, deciding to continue with my self-treatment when I was at home.
She sat down, too, and nodded at her tree dogs, which happily rushed off.
"I want to become a veterinarian like my aunt. So I help in her clinic and sometimes she uses medical ninjutsu, too."
I nodded, she's obviously Hana Inuzuka and some bits were starting to trickle back into my memories.
"So, what are you doing out here?"
She absently took out a little paper-bag and pointed at one of her dogs, that was sniffing around some distance away.
"I'm training my ninken." Noticing my questioning stare she elaborated.
"We are looking for forgotten or discarded kunai and shuriken. After a week there's always something to find."
Almost on point, we heard a barking nearby and Hana motioned for me to follow.
We found one of the triplets barking up a tree, it turned and barked once towards Hana, who after a glance suddenly jumped up one branch after the other.
A grab between the foliage and suddenly she held a shuriken. Landing gracefully, she took a dog-treat out of the paper-bag and threw it to the excited puppy. That done, she showed me the shuriken.
She seemed to notice my lack of experience after a second and took my hand, gently guiding my finger across one of the edges.
"It's blunt, but the edges are uneven, that means it isn't a blunted training shuriken. You could sharpen it yourself and use it again, but I have enough so I'm going to sell it."
I oh'd, suddenly remembering Hifumi telling me something like that. I racked my brain for a name.
"The weapons shop south of the academy, right?" She scowled at me.
"Don't even think about it, this is my business!" I smiled, she was adorable.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't be able to compete anyway."
"Say, you are from a clan, aren't you?" Already knowing the answer I still waited for her to reply.
"Yeah, the Inuzuka clan," she pointed at the markings on her cheeks, "you can recognize us by these."
I thought for a second on how to phrase my thoughts and Hana looked like she was wondering where I was going with this.
"You saw me do medical ninjutsu earlier, you probably also know that it takes quite a bit of chakra-control to do it." I looked at her for confirmation and she nodded affirmatively.
"If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that you are pretty good in class and that you know quite a bit about the stuff, that isn't part of my curriculum yet."
She looked at me like I was stupid.
"I'm ten and you probably just started at the academy." She pointed out and I shrugged.
"My point remains, I can teach you advanced chakra-control exercises in exchange for things my class has yet to cover."
Another puppy suddenly jumped out of one of the bushes and dropped a kunai in front of Hana.
She smiled, ruffled it behind the ear, gave it a treat and pocketed the kunai in her pouch.
I waited until her eyes were back on me and walked up the tree she just jumped down from, making sure her eyes were still on me I sped through the handseals of the Clone Technique and let a couple run down the tree on either side of me.
Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting such a display from a six-year-old.
"Look, I'm pretty advanced for my age, even I can see that, and I'm bored in class so I need projects to keep me on my toes."
I kept my gaze on her. "With me so far?"
"Yeah."
"I have a feeling the teachers at the academy aren't very keen on showing preferential treatment to singular students, especially to ones as young as me, so I have to help myself in a different way."
I pointed at her.
"You are a different way. The idea at the start would be like this, I will teach you the tree-walking exercise,"
I made a cartwheel along the stem of the tree for emphasis and because I felt like it.
"and you will teach me the Transformation Technique for example."
The Transformation Technique actually was the only thing, that came to my mind for the time being.
Weapons and Tai-jutsu were things were I couldn't afford to learn something the wrong way, which is why I reserved them for my academy teachers.
The same applied to the Body Replacement Technique, because I just couldn't wrap my head around its mechanics and didn't want to risk any mishaps.
It might sound cold, but apart from the Transformation Technique and maybe glimpses into her advanced books I was banking on her connections as the Inuzuka clan head's daughter to various experienced shinobis, who would readily teach her, and by extension me, something interesting like the Shunshin, which I couldn't wait to learn.
I was met with silence so I casually made my way down the tree and came to a stop in front f her.
"Listen," I toned it down a bit, trying to sound a bit gentler. "just think about it. I'm an orphan with more than enough time on my hands and we would meet whenever you want to. I'm usually here anyway." I indicated the trees around us.
She mulled my words over, nodded once probably more to herself and thrust her hand out to me.
"Deal!" I genuinely smiled and shook her hand.