CHAPTER 2

Chapter Summary: With his resolve firm and unwavering, Suzuki Hiroshi starts training diligently. He discovers that he has still a lot of talents to uncover for himself. His talents are recognized and is assigned a teacher by the Hokage himself.

Acting on my plans for the future, I went to an empty Training Ground 57 where I started on conditioning my body. I planned on improving on my stamina first and so, I went for an exercise routine that did just that.

I was severely stunned after an hour and so, though. I think I underestimated my stamina too much. My muscles were starting to ache and I was a little out of breath but I wasn't too tired yet. Is that even possible?!

I thought things through and concluded that it was my muscles that needed extra work rather than my stamina. I readjusted my body conditioning regimen in my mind.

Seeing as my muscles were already overworked, I brought out the scrolls on ninjutsu that I took from the Archives to start on my ninjutsu training. This excited me quite a bit. I mean, what kid wouldn't want to do almost impossible things? Chakra is just too awesome.

I read through the instructions on [Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu] and thought it was easy enough. I read from an autobiography about a shinobi a while ago doing a ninjutsu for first time would always be a failure due to problems on molding chakra so I should be very patient in training ninjutsu.

To finally start out my ninjutsu training, I tried feeling my chakra and went through the hand signs. It was then that another surprise came banging at me. Was it so easy to mold chakra?

Every time I go through a hand sign, my chakra shifts immediately and perfectly as if I had complete control of everything.

'Was this perfect chakra control?', I was excited at the thought.

I was weaving the last hand sign and my chakra was going to burst. I was worried that I'd faint of chakra exhaustion so I only released half of my chakra while shouting, "[Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu]!"

Mist started to gather around the area immediately. It worked! Oh Kami, it worked! I was quite proud of my work.

It covered about a radius of ten meters with me at the center. There was one peculiar thing about my mist, though. Instead of constantly dispersing throughout the area, the mist gathered around me. It seemed to swirl with me at the center. Shit, this wasn't supposed to happen.

I cancelled out the jutsu manually seeing as it wouldn't stop swirling around me. I then read the scroll again, trying to see what went wrong with my execution of the technique. My doing of the technique was faithful to what was written on the scroll, however.

I was going to attempt to use it again but I felt my chakra at about a third of what it was when full. I used half of my chakra to cast the mist and a little more to maintain it so trying it again would be suicidal for me.

I just went for target practice to improve on my throwing skills for the rest of the day and went home as the sun set in the horizon.

I was sure that the following month was going to be uneventful if I repeated my cycle of training and going home. Thankfully, there was the addition of D-rank missions into my routine.

I immediately dove in D-rank missions after going out of the house in the mornings. The Mission Assignment Desk had only a few people asking for missions, probably because almost every Genin was already sent for missions. And so, I hogged a lot of D-ranks during the first two weeks of my training

Paint your fence? Yes please.

Gather herbs? Okay.

Babysit? Sure.

Deliver parcel? Of course.

Help with construction? Don't mind if I do.

I relentlessly did D-ranks for a week that I eventually earned the goodwill of the chunin manning the desk. He must have been quite pressured by clients having their requests quite piled up with only a few Genin doing them while the war was going on.

I eventually got a reputation within the Mission Assignment Desk as 'The Genin Who Only Did Chores' as I went on at least three D-rank missions every day with a fast completion rate. Quite rude and demeaning, I thought, but at least I earned some points from the chunins.

While I did missions in the mornings, I still trained relentlessly in the afternoons.

One night, I was awoken when I sensed a something on my door sleeping. I opened the door slowly only to see a cat sleeping in the front of my door. The problem wasn't that the stray cat was sleeping literally in front of my door. No. The problem was that I sensed what was even in front of my door.

I'm a sensor now?! What is this?!

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to have something else that I can use as a shinobi. And sensing was something I was planning on training with already. But, didn't I need to train to be a sensor?

The question that pervaded me was if I was a natural sensor or not. I couldn't sense anything until the cat at the door before. In order to be a natural sensor, you had to be able to sense since birth or something. I was not that. My sensing ability came to me in my sleep because a cat was at my door.

I kept thinking what happened to me and what changed but I grew tired of racking my brain for answers and theories. I decided to just go to sleep, all the while still sensing the oblivious cat right outside my door.

After that night, I trained my sensing while walking around the village. It was very overwhelming at first but it became easy after a few days.

Training it was quite easy as well. My range training consisted of expanding my chakra sensory to its highest range (at few several kilometers) and then slowly closing it in to my immediate surroundings. It was like training your lungs to hold a larger capacity of air.

My detection training consisted of accurately pinpointing chakra signatures within the village. I wanted to be able to recognize which were civilians and which were shinobi. I also tried differentiating shinobi by their strengths through their chakra reserves.

Detection training was a little behind than range training but I thought it was going alright.

After the first two weeks of exercising, my body underwent visible changes. I wasn't my lanky self like before and instead I had muscles forming. It was quite scary how fast my body underwent changes but it was a change I welcomed.

Together with my developing body, my chakra reserves grew in size. I didn't do anything for my chakra coils to develop further and grow my chakra reserves so it was another shock to me.

The Academy teachers were a little impressed when we found out that I had slightly above average chakra reserves. And when I say average, I meant by clan children standards. So its growth was a little alarming to me.

I perused my mind for any idea as to what happened. Nothing on the books I read in this life had any information however, my past life's memories may have an explanation.

There was a genre of literature in my past life called 'Fanfiction' that provided theories on chakra. To summarize, it comes down to the fact that chakra is formed through yin/spiritual energy and yang/physical energy. People who reincarnate within some of these 'Fanfiction' stories have a big amount of yin chakra within them due to them carrying their past life's knowledge and experiences. That was probably the case with my yin chakra. And since I was training these past few months, my yang chakra grew. Together, they meshed with each other and added on to my chakra reserves and further developed my chakra coils.

The thing with the yang chakra was a little doubtful though. Training my body probably wouldn't give me so much yang chakra.

I then remembered the weird situation at the start of my rigorous training regimen. I had stamina unbefitting of the state of my body. Yeah, that was quite weird.

I thought about it a little and theorized. What if my body had high latent yang chakra from the very start?

It seemed plausible but I had no way to actually prove it so I just stopped thinking about it after I hit a slump in my thought process.

'It's certainly a surprise but it's not unwelcomed.', I thought while feeling my low-jonin chakra reserves.

'My [Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu] is not right.', I thought as I released the mist that was swirling around me as its center.

I diligently followed what was in the scroll but, no, it doesn't work as intended. It wasn't what it was supposed to be.

It was frustrating the hell out of me.

So, I sought out for advice for any Jonin I knew and was familiar with me.

There was no Jonin that knew of me.

Well, except for one. I hope he still remembers me.

Team Taida was at Training Grounds 31 doing some teamwork exercises when I walked in on them.

The shrieking banshee seemed offended that I was there but then changed as she curiously looked at my rather well-developed body.

The Hyuga raised an eyebrow at me, seemingly questioning why I was there.

Their third member was an Aburame boy given that he had dark glasses on and jacket slightly larger than him. The one that really gave him away was the buzzing that I could feel from his kikaichu through my sensing.

Nara Taida turned around to see what his students were looking at and showed a surprised face as he recognized me.

I approached him and greeted politely. "Good afternoon, Nara-san. I wasn't sure if you were really here but thankfully, you were."

Nara Taida looked over my body through my clothes. "Wow. What have you been doing? Your body looks very different from weeks ago!"

I looked over my body and realized that my now tight clothes sculpted my hard work. I should probably buy some decent clothes. I look like I live in a fitness gym from my past life. It was a little exaggerated but the fact remains that I need clothes.

I looked back at him and just shrugged. "I just trained my body. Anyway, I was hoping to take a little bit of your time to ask you some advice on my ninjutsu."

He looked a little skeptical. "Ninjutsu? You're already looking at ninjutsu? That's for chunin-levelled shinobi though. But okay, I guess I could spare a few minutes."

"Yes. Thank you." I said with gratitude at his confirmation.

I then, proceeded to tell him about my problems on the [Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu]. He was listening normally for a bit but after some processing, he seemed shock.

"The mist was swirling around you?!", he asked – err, shouted.

"Yeah. Is it a problem with my execution after all?"

"Oh no. Not at all. I have to ask first though; do you know your chakra affinities already?"

"No. I asked the weapon shops in the village and they said only chunin or higher could buy them so I postponed testing them."

He looked constipated by what I told him. "Okay. Wait here. I'll buy you some.", and then away he went.

The Hyuga then approached me. "You're already trying out higher ninjutsu? Please. Just because you trained your body doesn't mean your all that talented at it."

I felt my temper rising quickly. "Do you enjoy it?", I asked out of the blue which seemed to shock him. The shrieking banshee was going to tell me off for him when the Hyuga replied rather hastily.

"No. What are you on about?"

"Oh. I just thought you enjoyed having a stick up your ass.", the Hyuga seemed to get my joke seeing as how his face turned bright red with fury. It wouldn't have been so offensive for him if he didn't have a Hyuga!Supremacy and Civilian!Inferiority kind of mindset. Being told off by someone he believes of lower stature must hurt him so much.

The shrieking banshee looked scandalized while the Aburame chuckled a little. At least someone in this team has humor.

I then continued on speaking, "You should probably lower down your arrogance. We're at war and I'm doing everything I could to survive. I have freedom regarding my training so if you have a problem with me learning ninjutsu then take it up with the Hokage."

He shut up once I reminded him of the situation. The shrieking banshee stood up to his rescue though.

"Don't talk to him like that! Taisetsu-kun is only telling you to know your place!"

I decided to ignore her for a moment and scratched my ear. Then I turned to her "Hmm? Were you saying something? Sorry, I tend to tune out useless chatter."

It was the shrieking banshee's turn to have a bright red face.

The Aburame seemed to enjoy our little skit as he chuckled a little loudly than an Aburame should.

Thankfully, Nara Taida shunshined into the training grounds before either of them could talk back to me.

Nara Taida offered me a piece of chakra paper. "Here. You know what to do, right?"

I nodded and received the chakra paper. I channeled chakra into it and it got very wet before the paper split in the middle.

Nara Taida nodded his head. "Now, try doing the jutsu."

Because of my training, I was able to do the [Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu] without seals but I couldn't do that here. I wanted to be humble a bit. So I weaved through one sign.

I whispered the technique. "[Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu]. The mist then appeared and swirled around me. After a few seconds, I released the technique.

As if confirming his suspicions, Nara Taida nodded his head up and down. "Congratulations! You may have an abnormally high affinity towards water and even a secondary affinity towards wind. Wow, you're quite troublesome."

I was confused. "What does this mean for me, exactly?"

"Well for one, you could easily do any Water Release jutsu. From what I read and heard, you wouldn't need a water source when doing water jutsu since you could directly pull it out of thin air."

That confused me even more. "But, isn't that something only the Second Hokage can do?"

Nara Taida smiled lazily at me. "Exactly, only he was able to do that. And I believe you could as well."

That shocked me. "You think I have a water affinity that's equal to that of the Second Hokage?!" I looked at the rest of Team Taida and they seemed as shocked as me.

Nara Taida nodded and grabbed me. "Yes. And now we have to go to see the Hokage immediately."

That shocked me some more. "Wait what?! No wait-". Before I could protest properly, we already shunshined out of the training grounds.

HOKAGE's OFFICE

"The swirling mist? Something like that did happen with Tobirama-sensei.", the Hokage said as he moved his smoke pipe away from his mouth.

We were in the Hokage's Office. I was a little unnerved about being here. I was in the office of the strongest shinobi in Konoha. I saw it in my past life's memories but this is just… amazing. I'm currently trying to hold back my fanboying tendencies.

The Hokage took a pause and nodded. "Yes, you might become just as powerful as Tobirama-sensei someday.", he looked at me and asked. "Do you want to try?"

What exactly is he implying right now?

"Yes! Yes, please!", I said with all the sincerity, relief, and gratitude that I could muster.

He smiled in a grandfatherly way. "Good, then. I'll assign a teacher for you in the coming days. I ask that you be patient, though. It will still be a few days before he and his team come back from a mission."

Oh shit. He's going to provide me a teacher!

"I could train him, Hokage-sama. Together with my team.", Nara Taida suggested.

"And I would've suggested that if your team wasn't ready to go for C-rank missions that could aid with the battle in the frontlines.", the Hokage explained.

I guess I won't see much of Team Taida in the coming days then. Thank Kami.

Nara Taida seemed to deflate at hearing that he would be going in and out of the village for some time. "Tsk. Troublesome."

The Hokage turned back to me and smiled once more, his eyes showing some hope. "I hope you train to the best of your ability, Hiroshi-kun. I'll be expecting you to have grown in strength the next time you are in front of me."

With that, he dismissed us and we left the office.

Nothing changed in the following days. D-rank missions, training, sleeping, and eating was everything I knew of.

It changed slightly though as I was called on back to the office of the Hokage. Apparently, he wanted me to be able to properly make a [Water Release: Hidden Mist Jutsu] so he gave me a book on Hand Signs and Jutsu Creation. I was excited and thanked him profusely.

And so, I dedicated an hour or two every day to reading and experimenting on jutsu creation.

It was only after a week when I was informed that the Jonin that was going to teach me had already arrived.

An ANBU told me to meet my new Jonin-sensei and his team at Training Grounds 3 the next day.

I was quite excited.

HOKAGE's OFFICE

"What do you think of the boy, Taida-kun?" the Hokage asked the man in front of him.

"I think he's worth raising, Hokage-sama. I think you made the right decision.", Nara Taida said.

"Can you tell me what happened during his Genin Test with you?"

Nara Taida thought for a while. "He was quite timid. And weak. The only good thing that was going for him was his level-headedness and intelligence. He asked his teammates to cooperate with his plans but Taisetsu-kun was too proud to take orders from a civilian while Yua-chan just followed along Taisetsu-kun. In the end, he couldn't do anything by himself."

"I remember he fainted as well, right?", the Hokage inquired with amusement in his voice.

Nara Taida was embarrassed at the question, "Yes, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage compared the image created from Nara Taida's recounting and the boy he saw a while ago. "He didn't seem like what you described though."

"He's been training by himself after he requested a transfer to the Genin Corps. I honestly thought he just gave up and decided on becoming a career genin but he worked harder than when he was in the academy.", Nara Taida explained.

"Why didn't he train hard at the academy, though? It would've been easier for him if he did."

"I was wondering that as well so I went to the Academy to investigate. It seems that the teachers are favoring only the clan children. They're putting too much attention in the clan children while ignoring the civilians. With how intelligent he is, he might have caught on to that and just didn't care anymore."

The Hokage's forehead formed dark lines. "We'll have to clean up the Academy then. Thank you for looking into that, Taida-kun. It must have been 'troublesome' for a Nara to do extra work.", the Hokage mused.

"Oh no. Not this time. Believe me, it was my pleasure, Hokage-sama.", Nara Taida said with a smile.

A/N: Hey! I don't really have anything to say so, see you guys on the next chapter!