Even after being left alone in my room once more, I waited a few minutes longer to ensure I was truly alone before rushing towards the new set of books, I had just been gifted, skimming the titles of the left pile, happy to discover it was constituted of textbooks on different academic subjects, exactly as I had requested from the village's leader.
I was glad to finally have all the tools required to do something of value with my time and increasing my learning as much as I could over the next few years definitely was a worthwhile endeavor as far as I was concerned.
I still was somewhat worried about picking up bad habits or physically harming my growth, so concentrating on my brain for a while sounded pretty great, right about now.
Picking up the first manual, I did not waste any time before quickly skimming through the whole book, from cover to cover, making sure to only take enough time to open every single page, but doing so much too quickly for me to read, let alone comprehend or internalize anything of value from the pages.
From my experiences with Iruka's reading sessions, I had come to the conclusion that in order to best utilize the complete cheat code that was my Kurama-boosted memory, I was better served scanning and storing in memory all my books at once, before then taking my time and mentally read through their contents one at a time at a later date.
My reasoning was two-fold, theorizing both that my brain's processing power would be more efficient working on the stored data from memory, rather than having to see and translate the light from my eyes into usable data in real time, but more importantly, this strategy would also allow me the additional benefit of no longer needing the tomes to be physically present in my hands to make use of them whenever I desired to study, say in the middle of the night when sleep escaped me for some reason and I lacked any light to be able to read.
It really payed to have a permanent memory on your side from a young age... No wonder the Sharingan was considered such a boon, even in its base form.
I had discovered the skill of storing data for later from books weeks ago, but this would be my first time making use of it, seeing as slowly reading books was my best bet at wasting my days away while I still was too young to be allowed any freedom, even though I must confess a certain curiosity on the literary landscape of this world, finding it sorely lacking compared to Earth, but that was to be expected with how much harder communication and cultural exchanges were in a world without the blessing of high speed Internet.
By the time it was finally time for me to go to bed for the night, I had finished scanning through the whole list of thirty six books, even going as far as letting my caretaker know that I was done with this particular batch, and requesting she provides me with new reading material in the coming days or weeks.
I was hopeful Hiruzen would authorize my getting my hand on more advanced books sooner or later, but even then, just assimilating the knowledge written in this first package would keep me occupied for a long while.
I had gone to bed that night happy with myself and the first step I was taking in my education, already aware my position in life was much better than it had been only a few hours ago and infinitely more enviable than the real Naruto had been at this point in time, especially if my non-childishness meant the villagers treated me better than they had the real Jinchūriki.
The following night and subsequent days saw me implement a new discipline into my routine, seeing me start every day with a quick stop at the bathroom where I cleaned myself extensively, having felt disgusted at the general level of hygiene among my roommates. I would then grab a quick bite from the communal breakfast, before spending most of the day occupied with the study of one book or another, only interrupting myself for meals and another round of cleaning before bed.
Such rigor in my scheduling allowed me to go, in the matter of hours, over what should have easily been multiple days, if not weeks, worth of material. Part of the prodigious speed was explained away by the fact that assimilating the knowledge I read was coming easy to me courtesy of my Internet based twenty-first century education, but I also credited my little trick of ridding myself of the need of actual reading, as extracting values from memory was indeed faster than doing so from sight.
In my assiduity, I barely noticed the months flying by, too busy absorbing as much information as humanly possible, providing me with the hope that I would never have to waste my time studying when I grew of age to attend this world's equivalent of schooling establishments.
As a result, it had not taken me very long to get through the whole mathematics syllabus of the academy, as I was breezing over the subjects, from basic Arithmetic to Combinatorics, while going in depth into Algebra, Geometry, Calculus and Statistics.
Not even three months into my reading and I was already confident to be at least equal in mathematics to the average graduate of Konoha, which incidentally meant I was already miles ahead of how smart Naruto had been at this age, or at any point in his life, really; the man had ended up being a powerhouse, but no one could ever accuse him of being the sharpest tool in the shed, let alone the scholastic juggernaut I was determined to become as I directed my attention to other subjects...
Skittish about learning Ninja skills, I had not really minded the absence of anything relating to the Shinobi arts in my mental library. I had happily concentrated my efforts on the more academically challenging books instead, procrastinating my days away by learning all I could about more subjective matters like history, judging it would be doubly useful as it allowed me to separate my knowledge of the current world from the Naruto Universe I had grown used to prior to my death.
Similarly, the study of Geography occupied an important and integral part of my self-studies, as I knew that everything I managed to learn now could one day increase my chances of survival in a mission down the line.
The idea that my knowledge of the terrain might one day allow me to escape Kisame, Sasori or Kakuzu was the greatest possible incentive when it came to ensuring I poured every bit of my concentration memorizing for hours every single detail I could find about the Elemental Nations.
I had also been quite happy to find some biology and anatomy materials smuggled among Hiruzen's gifts for me, though the lack of chakra systems let me know those were heavily censured for a more civilian reader base, which was fine with me.
The first thing I had done after finishing the Mathematics curriculum, however, had been to tackle the more familiar to me subject of Physics as it was also offered by the academy. I had to admit, that unlike for mathematics, which I had judged adequate, I had been sorely disappointed with the current level of knowledge taught in the civilian course in Konoha.
What was considered as the totality of Physics to be taught to children and adults alike, had only been the most basics of Mechanics, some theory of relativity and the most bare-bones of optics lessons.
To be fair, such a lackluster level of education should not have come as a surprise to me, as even before my reincarnation, I had known that the Elemental Nations were not quite on the same level of technology as my previous world had been.
With an energy source like chakra and mystical abilities everywhere, it was logical that there was much less drive for societies to go as far in their quest of understanding their world as my world had done, though honestly, with some of the stuff I had witnessed surrounding mythology and divinities in this particular pantheon, like Jashin, I too was somewhat nervous about looking too much into the more spiritual aspects which consisted the fabric of this Universe.
Of course, I could not discard the possibility of the knowledge existing somewhere but being hidden from the civilian populace and the masses. The current political system was much more authoritarian than I had been used to and as far as I could see, there was no benefit from a Shinobi point of view to allow their civilian counterparts the knowledge that there were methods to cause the complete annihilation of all life on Earth using atoms and no chakra at all.
In a lighter set of ideas, I had spent an enjoyable few days memorizing every organ of the human body, its functions and how critical it was to life, before moving onto the name of every single bone, as well as the major arteries.
I was already aware the book was very limited in scope, and provided incomplete information, as all knowledge on chakra and pressure points was suspiciously missing, but it was still enough to get me started on my student career.
I had no doubt I could quickly complement my learning once I was confirmed as a Shinobi hopeful and officially joined the Academy and gained access to the library where such knowledge was probably hidden.
Slightly more than two weeks' worth of time was spent studying the History of the Hidden Leaf, starting from the era of the Warring Clans period and the unexpected union between the Senju and Uchiha clans leading to the official founding of the village. I gained an interesting overview over the time line of events that had led to the founding of the four other great villages as well as a basic rundown of the causes and consequences of the first Three World Wars, which had resulted in three decisive victories for Konoha.
I had gotten some sardonic amusement at how the most recent textbook had ended, underlying the promise of a bright future for Konoha after the emergence of the one-man army that was the Fourth Hokage, a man striking fear in the hearts of all enemies of the Leaf.
As could be easily understood, the books had been written prior to the attack of the Kyuubi and the death of the village's hero, but more than that, I was almost certain every single event shown in the materials was a watered-down and white-washed version of history, aimed for the consumption of the public in an effort of propaganda, as it always presented the village in a good light, giving the impression it always stood for what was just and only defending itself from outside aggressors at every turn.
Memorizing all I could of the country's topography and internalizing the contents of its land, on the other hand, had proved itself quite useful, though all I had learned from the plants and fungi was how to recognize which ones were edible if found in the wild as well as which to avoid due to being poisonous. The book on animal species had a similar level of usefulness, with the small quirk that it had put a strange emphasis on the hundreds of insect species common around the village, probably due to the fact the author was an Aburame.
Still, I had immediately seen the usefulness of such material and hoping for a more thorough understanding of the landscapes composing this world, I had expressed my interest to my caretaker for the Hokage to provide me with an equivalent level of information on the other nations, which had resulted in about a month of non-stop learning about the Lands of Water, Earth, Wind and Lightning.
Similarly, I had been pleasantly surprised to find a few cooking books among my list, each one detailing a few dozen traditional recipes of the Land of Fire in them, which I promptly absorbed into my long-term memory, before requesting similar cook books from the other nations. By the end of it all, I had stored in my brain all the instructions to follow in order for myself to be perfectly ready to prepare veritable feasts once I was of age or had gained enough experience to start feeding myself on my own.
So lost in my daily routine, it had come as a genuine surprise to me when Hiruzen Sarutobi had visited me one day, all smiles, wishing me a very happy birthday and sharing a cupcake with me.
"How are you doing, Naruto?" He had asked politely, though he seemed genuinely interested in my answer, which made sense as it wouldn't do for the village's Jinchūriki to be needlessly unhappy, especially one with my potential.
"Bored." I said tiredly. "I have been studying for almost a year now."
He cracked a smile at my whining. "Yes, I have heard about your eagerness to learn about our world, though I must admit to feeling some surprise with your interest in the culinary arts?" He asked and I was glad I had a story ready to play on his heartstrings.
"Dad said that half the reason Mom wanted to marry him was because he always fed her ramen and he wanted me to learn to cook so I could always impress anyone I wanted to like me." I replied with a smile and the Kage let out a mirthful laugh.
"Yes, Kushina was quite fond of the dish." I watched him curiously as he sighed after calming himself before he returned his full attention onto me and asking "What do you know about them?"
"Not much." I admitted having no desire to say things that were false and blow my cover due to a stupid inconsistency between the fictional world of Naruto and this one.
"They loved each other. They loved me. And they're still here with me." I added diplomatically, after a second.
"How so?" Hiruzen asked interestedly, and I pointed at my belly.
"Dad left part of his chakra in my seal as a failsafe if I ever came close to losing control so he can seal the Kyuubi back into me." I let him know, enjoying the widening of his eyes, but continuing before he had the chance to interject anything. "Part of Mom is also inside me, waiting for the day I will need her help to subdue the Nine Tails and truly make his power my own."
I was really hoping letting him on this knowledge would allow him to trust me more in the future instead of seeing me like some kind of bomb waiting to explode.
He looked stunned at the revelation, taking a second to fully digest what I was saying, before chuckling and mumbling to himself for a few moments, stroking his graying beard pensively.
"Your father was, by far, the best Hokage this village has ever seen." He eyed me for a second before playfully adding, "You will be hard-pressed to surpass him."
"I know." I admitted with a nod of my own. Even if I still didn't consider him my dad, Minato would be a tough act to follow for anyone. "But he said I would do it one day, so who am I to prove him wrong?"
"Does that mean you are still aiming to take this hat of mine someday?" He asked half-teasingly as he removed said hat and put it on the table in front of me, where I observed it in silence for a long while, considering the advantages and disadvantages of the role, despite my decision having already been made long ago.
First and foremost, it was a lot of work and an enormous responsibility to be thrust upon someone. Tsunade was right in that it was totally a sucker's job, even if she had let Uzumaki convince her to become said sucker and taking up the mantle. As far as I was concerned, Jiraya had the right of it in always finding a way to not be saddled by the ball and chain this thankless position was, first setting up his student, then his teammate to take the fall in his stead.
At the same time, however, my freedom and well-being were only guaranteed so long as the current Hokage was on friendly terms with me. I could not imagine having to deal with following every whim and order of a certified evil bastard like Danzo, Orochimaru or even Sasuke.
It would probably become necessary for me to try and grab at the position for myself if only to secure a future where I could take charge of my own existence. I was done being a pawn.
"Well, that's alright, you are still young enough to take your time and decide what you want to achieve with your life." He interrupted my thoughts while I was reminiscing.
"No, I am going to be Hokage someday." I declared calmly. "I just don't think I am ready for the responsibility it entails." I admitted and he nodded his understanding, clearly approving of my thinking seriously about it.
A few minutes and more small talk later, the man had wished me a happy birthday once again before leaving the room, leaving me more introspective than ever.
I was three years old, now. It was surreal to think about how young I was, but at the same time, I was getting quite restless at the lack of physical progress I was making. Yes I was becoming knowledgeable, but unless enemies challenged me to trivia battles, all the studying I was doing wouldn't help at all in improving my chances of succeeding in this world.
I had on multiple occasions requested to be allowed to leave the building, even if it was to go to the backyard, but had been rebuffed every time. Thankfully I had always managed to not make a demand of it, knowing it was a rule applying to all orphans and aware my desires would not be fulfilled. Besides, I was not necessarily eager to meet the village's disdain towards their Jinchūriki.
More and more, I was learning about this world as I read and studied everything the academy taught civilian children, I was becoming excessively aware that I could probably graduate from the establishment the moment I set foot there.
Honestly, at this point I was only missing the Shinobi portion of my schooling to be ready for the Genin graduation test, which to be fair to the Academy, was actually the most important part of its curriculum.
Despite my reluctance to remain sheltered from improvement, I maintained my studiousness, and as a result, my general knowledge kept increasingly branching out in unexpected and at first glance useless directions, seeing as I read everything I managed to get my hands on.
My refusal to be overly picky in the material I was offered was the main reason behind my learning to differentiate between most precious gems and minerals. Part of me hoped that I could get some kind of use of the knowledge at a later date through the use of clones, but at the very least I had discovered that most countries had their own metal mines secured, which helped them produce the weapons they required, from the humble senbon to the sturdiest chest plate.
It was interesting to discover that most ninja barely bothered with armor, the velocity of most attacks easily outstripping the defensive capabilities of anything not made of chakra.
Speaking of which, it seemed this world had its own version of magical ore, the largest deposits of which were in the Land of Iron where Samurai harvested it and made special equipment capable of channeling or absorbing chakra.
The legends of Kiri even claimed the seven swords of the Mist were made from that particular material, though no source was provided for the information, but honestly whether it was true or not did not matter to me, as I would probably not get my hands on that metal anytime soon, seeing as it cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of Ryo to render enough of it to smelt a single ingot, let alone craft a blade.
In my boredom and despite my belief it was useless to me, I still took the time to read about the full process of smelting and smithing, committing to memory all I could about the skill in the unlikely scenario I found myself in the role of blacksmith.
It never hurt to add more arrows to my quiver, and it wasn't like I had anything better to do...
It was following this particular reasoning that I had found myself one day learning more about the art of tailoring, and more precisely crocheting, discovering numerous methods of sewing, repairing and designing clothes and fabric into beautiful and cute designs alike.
Not seeing the harm of trying and intrigued by the opportunity to work on my dexterity and hand-eye coordination from the comfort of my room, I had immediately requested of my caretakers to provide me with the tools necessary to learn this art.
As expected, I was categorically denied, both staff members ignoring me entirely, until I had explicitly pointed out that this was an official request from my part towards the Hokage, and that I would be informing him personally that I had made it when I next saw him.
I was bluffing, but just as I thought it would, the threat had achieved its objective, nobody wanting to be the person responsible for wasting the village leader's time with such inane matters.
The next day had been the first time I was confronted with the reality that doing something was much harder than reading about it even if you knew exactly what it was you wanted to do and it took me literal days of trying for my creation to look even remotely acceptable.
Even then, it would have taken exponentially longer for me to improve had I not discovered another perk of Kurama residing in my belly, as my muscle memory followed the lead of my regular one and allowed me to reproduce perfectly any action so long as I had accomplished it in the past.
It was honestly ridiculous how helpful it was to be able to hook a string into a needle on the very first try without even needing to have my eyes open after having succeeded at leastl once before.
It had taken a very long time, but I had managed over a few months of constant practice, to learn to repair clothing, as well as craft socks, scarves and gloves from scratch, providing some for every single child and member of staff of the orphanage.
The skill, by itself, was already a pretty useful one, especially seeing as it would translate into an ability to easily provide stitches to the patients in the future, but the real treasure for me, came in my ability to do multiple things at once, leaving my hands busy repeating tasks I had accomplished before, while my thoughts were far away, reading more about this world and its inhabitants.
Another unexpected benefit was that while they still kept their distances from me, the matrons had apparently appreciated my generosity in providing my fellow orphans with clothing and had become somewhat warmer to my presence, even smiling at me sometimes after I provided a particularly well done piece.
Before I knew it, time had already flown by and another year of stay at the orphanage came to an end and I was already four years of age, officially old enough to leave the establishment and my solitude behind in favor of freedom and my joining the rest of the civilized world.
Just like every other orphan, I would finally be afforded my own apartment to live in, and like every other child, I would be allowed to join the civilian side of the academy on January 1st, having convinced the Hokage to let me be with my peers despite my intellectual superiority.
Of course, I would have to submit to boring lectures and written tests to prove that I was not conning everyone into believing I was smarter than I really was, but that meant I would have complete freedom for the four years until I was of age to enter the Shinobi Academy at the age of eight.
Personally, I had been somewhat surprised to learn that schooling started with the new year in Konoha rather than in late August or early September like I had been used to, but upon thinking about it for more than a second it made complete sense to me. Summer vacations in my old world were a result of necessity as agricultural societies, where the schooling system had emerged from, required young men to be free to help at the farm during harvest season, rather than any need for summer to be a time of enjoyment for students everywhere.
For the Shinobi world, such notions were considered foolish and completely unnecessary, meaning the school year started on January 1st and ended on October 31st, leaving two months free for the children to try and find themselves a job to supplement their finances for the next academic year, the village stipend barely enough to sustain their needs, let alone their school supplies.
The Shinobi academy, for the most part, was a four years curriculum open to an exclusive list of children and spanning from ages eight to twelve, with twelve being the youngest age one was allowed to graduate in peace times as Hiruzen had decreed, though prior to that, the civilian part of the schooling system was open to all, starting at age four. There was an exception for shinobi clan children whom could decide to homeschool their children until the age of eight, due to the fact that most of them had secret clan techniques to teach, which would require large amounts of personalized training with their relatives to master.
I wasn't yet completely certain how to feel about that, but I was cautiously optimistic for now as the four years buffer without having to meet most of the named characters, except Sakura would mean I would have some time to practice being sociable with others without making a fool out of myself.
I couldn't deny I was excited at having my own living space, however, as Hiruzen had confirmed I would be afforded such a privilege as well and I couldn't wait to live on my own, especially considering how little the orphanage offered me in socialization opportunities.
I did not hold high hopes for my civilian classes, but anything would be better than what I had to suffer through for now.
The day before my change of residence, the Hokage had visited me once more to personally speak with me about it.
As far as I knew, Hiruzen and I had a good relationship, if not a relaxed one, with the man appearing every few weeks at the orphanage to share a quick conversation and snack with me to make sure I did not become crazy in my solitude.
This time in particular, I had listened eagerly as he had informed me that unlike every other child whom would be sent to a one-room apartment, I would, for obvious reasons, be afforded the privilege to live into my father's residence.
I had never been happier to be a Jinchūriki or the son of a Kage than at that moment, even if both of those were to remain a secret for now, regardless of how terribly they were kept.
In reality, Hiruzen had given me explicit permission to tell anyone I wanted about either of my secrets, but there was no way in hell I was ever painting such a large target on my back before I was ready to survive the consequences.
Still, I had been even more happy when the Hokage had agreed that I could read some of the Shinobi study materials during my four year among the civilians when I had argued that most clan children would have families to train them early.
It was a breach of protocol, but he was the militaristic dictator of the village and could do whatever he pleased, a fact which had made me legitimately beam at him throughout the conversation with as genuine an enthusiasm as I had ever shown in either of my lives.
I was on the verge of receiving freedoms I had never been allowed to before and the excitement was overtaking my cautiousness to the point where I had almost missed the information that I would every month receive a set amount of money with which I was expected to take care of my needs.
Even the knowledge that I would be monitored closely by the village leader's ANBU to ensure my insertion into society was completed without any hiccups along the way did not bother me or dampen my cheer.
When the Hokage left, I had taken a moment to celebrate, before closing my eyes to take a look at my much larger constellation, hoping once more to establish contact with Kurama, but like every other time since my birth, I found him unresponsive to my calls.
I had worried slightly about his disappearance over the years, but the fact my memory was still perfect and my constellation, which had finished turning into a system of purple nodes, were enough signs to reassure me that things were fine.
The real Naruto too had not spoken to Kurama until reaching his teen years and gotten thrown down a ravine by Jiraya.
Which reminded me to keep a note to stay away from white haired super perverts, lest I be pushed down a ravine when I least expected it.
The night before the move, I stayed awake far longer than I wanted to, daydreaming about the fact I would soon be exploring the village and running around to my heart's content.
I tried tempering my joy by reminding myself that I had to start training my body as soon as possible, but even thinking of grueling exercise was making me happy, the promise of being allowed to leave the house blinding me to any negativity I might incur.
I knew that becoming a ninja, no matter what I told myself or if I started enjoying it in the future, would never be a choice I made of my free will, with the freedom to do so, but rather a necessity forced onto me by the circumstance of my birth.
Therefore, I needed to learn to protect myself and the easiest way to do so would be to join the academy and climb the ranks until I had access to a high security clearance for Jutsu and the freedom to pick my own missions, like Jiraya or Tsunade did, though I doubted I would be allowed to leave anytime I wanted.
Luckily it was not the only way to ensure my safety and I was determined to abuse my charm to build social connections I could leverage into more influence to help me reach my goals of safety and freedom even faster.
Still, despite my resolve to improve and survive at all costs, it was still important to remind myself from time to time that becoming a training machine single mindedly focused on earning strength was not really an option over the long term.
Strength on its own was not enough to keep me alive and healthy.
All I had to do was to ensure I kept pace with the original Naruto at all times, my promise to Kurama not to rely on an Uchiha only being a secondary objective for now.
I did not need to overwhelm everyone at once.
I planned on becoming strong enough to survive the end of the world, but more importantly, I had to remember that I could afford to let myself be a child.
My goal was to live a long and happy life, after all.