Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
A few months passed and I actually found I knew the answer to get the level 2 shelf unlocked, the puzzle involved a set of nodes within a seal that placed in the same area would cause the seal to overload and collapse on itself, not creating an explosion (luckily for me since I failed the test the first few times) but instead just fizzling out. The answer to the puzzle was that you placed one set of nodes on one side of the scroll and the other on the other side. I had not yet seen Kushina since I had accomplished getting to the second level since she was on a mission according to Minato but he congratulated me when I told him and he had enough knowledge of sealing to explain the uses of such a design.
"Well sometimes you may want a seal with a dual purpose, in my house for instance I created a seal for the air conditioning that draws warm air in and expels cold air on the other side, you have to be careful when creating a seal that it does not become paradoxical, placing elements on 2 sides of the same scroll is one way of doing that, there are ways of getting around that limitation without having to use the other side of the scroll but thats really advanced and even I don't know much about that, Kushina will be able to tell you when you're ready though." he told me.
I noted down this advice as I did most things I learned in a notebook Kushina provided shortly after I first started learning which was handily sealed so that only I could open it. My memory seemed pretty infallible as I could remember almost everything anyone said word for word but it didn't hurt to note it down especially considering my memory had been sabotaged in the past with many memories of my past life missing. In the notebook I had also noted the scant few things I had remembered about the show, written in a code in a second language from my old life that possessed another writing system. It required a cipher to decrypt it even if someone in this world could read it making it practically impossible to read without the cipher. To tell the truth though there was little to write. I knew the show and the main characters name was Naruto, that it, oddly, took place some time after the present I currently found myself in - which I only knew because there were more heads on the mountain in the title card - and something about a giant fox demon. As a result of these three pieces of information I felt there was only one warning I could write down that may help prevent any of the drama that took place in the TV programme and that was to prevent the attack of a giant fox. Little to go on but it was all I had.
As much progress as I had made with my fuinjutsu the next task to unlock the next level seemed practically impossible. Mostly because there was no instructions to the puzzle, just a seal that did nothing and made no sense, contradicting itself many times in it's design, I resigned myself to thoroughly reading the dense scrolls available on the shelves I had access to.
With 2 months to go until I started at the academy I finally judged my body as prepared as I could make it outside of actual combat and began to reduce my time training my body to work on increasing my strength, at this point despite being 4 years old I was just below 4 foot 5 inches, the growth spurt I had undergone since arriving in this world had not just been surprising - it had been remarked upon by Minato and Kushina - But it had also been painful, my already building muscles had been forced to stretch over a larger and larger frame. It made sense then that during this time my cupboards were emptied at record rates, once or twice I had tried to venture into the village to get more food but I had been caught on my way both times by Minato who insisted he collect my shopping for me. I was grateful but I was worried he was taking it a little far, I thought I had shown myself independent enough at this point that I could get my own groceries. I told Minato this and he had told me there were troubles in the village at the moment and he didn't want me getting injured, I had to concede it was a reasonable point, he told me not to worry however as it should have calmed down within a few months.
At the moment my days consisted of practicing my katas in the early morning and then following that endless, crushing strength training. I had found that my strength in this world grew to bounds I would have thought impossible in my last life and that many of my weights consisted of objects I wouldn't have dreamt of lifting especially at my young age, one of them being the trunk of a fully grown tree that had been felled near the training ground. As a result of my strength training and my practice to accustom my body to the strikes it needed to take I found that each punch I made on the training ground practice stump now took chunks out of the surface and my kicks fractured the bark. My evenings were spent meditating and practicing chakra control until my reserves were expended though I was struggling to find new ways to get finer control. Recently I had found a technique which I was still finding difficult to accomplish involving rolling drops of water around my hand, this involved keeping a small delicate barrier between the water and my skin so that it stayed as a bead of water and another layer of chakra above that compelling it to move across my hand.
My hair during this time had also seen its own meteoric growth, I now kept it bound with a red band at the back of my head otherwise it would be long enough and thick enough to surround my entire body.
What really concerned me during this time was the war. It seemed like all the news Minato and Kushina brought back was negative. Konoha seemed to be holding its own from what I understood but the amount of funerals I had seen them attend was very concerning. It wasn't unusual on many days to see people walking down the street outside dressed in funeral attire. I wished I could help but until I graduated from the Academy there seemed to be little I could do.
Classified
Keiko's file
Clearance Level: S (unless access granted by the Hokage)
Name: Keiko (No known last name)
Age: 4
Parents: Jiraiya, Unknown
Height: 4 foot 6 inches
Appearance: Keiko presents as a dark skinned child, muscular in build, distinctive marks include red marks stretching from his eyes to his temples, close observation has indicated these are growing similar to his father Jiraiya, the subject also shares the same white hair which has grown at an accelerated rate since arrival in the village, originally wearing a cheap tunic, trousers and sandals on arrival he has since transitioned to a more spartan wardrobe wearing only trousers held up with a rope belt eschewing any footwear, this appears to be due to his accelerated growth which has resulted in him outgrowing clothes within weeks.
Skills:
Taijutsu (untested) - High Genin
Ninjutsu (untested) - Unknown
Genjutsu (untested) - Unknown
Fuinjutsu - Jonin
Chakra control - Chunin
Intelligence - Unknown, suspected to be Jonin
Bio: Subject first found on border with Kumo following an altercation with Kumo kidnappers, subject presented himself as belonging to an orphanage in the area but no papers are on record from the orphanage indicating he resided there, questioning other orphanage members has brought mixed results with some saying they vaguely remembered such a child and others stating they knew no one of that description. Subject has been confirmed to be an offspring of the ninja Jiraiya though he has not yet been notified since he is out of the village. Subject has been observed since his arrival at Konoha and has shown he has extremely advanced knowledge usually only displayed in individuals 3-4 times his age such as his ability to read fluently on arrival. As a result he has been marked as a possible prodigy. He has also displayed great proficiency in the ninja arts he has actively practiced in, becoming classed as high genin in taijutsu without any active teaching. Related to this he has seemingly created his own fighting style which has been compared to the style of Might Duy though in many ways it seems more advanced offering other avenues of attack than brute strength alone, subject has also been observed completing increasingly intricate chakra control exercises unprompted, some of these have been added to the ninja library to be considered as potential, more advanced, exercises to be taught at the academy. Subject has few belongings but has begun keeping a journal of sorts which he believes is keyed to open only to him (see notes below), current policy regarding the subject is to keep him under observation which is currently being achieved through a B rank mission. No evidence of malicious intent has yet been observed.
Recommendation: Current recommendation is to allow subject to attend the ninja academy and allow access to the village whilst stopping the current B ranked observation mission and assigning a low level Anbu member to take over his observation.
Notes: Currently keeps a journal he believes opens only to himself, contains some kind of unknown language, among other things, suspected to be coded, research has revealed this to be highly sophisticated and it is unknown whether it will ever be deciphered. It's presence alone though is suspicious and is cause enough for further observation.
AN: A shorter one today, sorry about that. I actually did look at the reviews and got quite enthused when I saw some of them were positive so I think I might try and write a much longer one next.