My first day of training with Uncle Riki started with me waking up in mid air. I had less than a second to process the sight of Riki standing next to my bed, had outstretched in my direction and the sun just barely illuminating the night sky through the window behind him before I landed on my back a few meters away.
As I lay on the floor, trying to figure out what the fuck just happened, Riki loomed over me and dumped a pile of cloth onto my chest.
"You have three minutes to put those on and meet me outside," he said, before vanishing in front of my eyes with the soft 'ping' of chakra.
While I much preferred an alarm clock, the instant shot of adrenaline and shock meant I was already fully awake and lucid, so I didn't waste any time. Taking a look at what he had dropped on me, I briefly examined the plain grey pants and white shirt before hastily throwing them on. The material seemed sturdier than normal day to day wear, designed for either training or heavy physical work. Throwing the clothes on I dashed out of my room and towards the front door.
If Riki thought waking me up by literally throwing me out of bed was and appropriate start to the day, I didn't want to know what method he would use to punish tardiness.
Rushing out of the front door while simultaneously trying to put on shoes, I found Riki standing in the street with a stopwatch. Not even looking up he pressed a button while calling out.
"Four minutes twenty-three seconds. Needs to be faster."
Looked like I was going to find out anyway. With the adrenaline in my system beginning to dye down, I had to Stifle a yawn as I approached. Not to complaining about my wake up call was probably the smart move here, so I instead tried to guess what time it was as I waited for Riki to explain the plan. The sun was only just peeking over the horizon, with the stars still visible so it was probably between four and five in the morning.
"We, or rather, you, will be running to training ground one while I collect Mori-san. It shouldn't take more than twenty minutes from here, so if we haven't arrived by the time you get there you might want to start doing some basic stretches."
Nodding my understanding I took off towards the designated training ground. Due to it's proximity to the academy I knew of a couple shortcuts and managed to arrive with time to spare before Riki and Shuun appeared, allowing me to begin my stretches while looking around.
Training ground one was the very first public training ground created, and so it was unlike any of the others. It was located close to the centre of Konoha, not way out on the outskirts like the others, and was very basic. Just a grassy field with a fence around it so civilians wouldn't mistake it for a park. The training grounds got progressively more complicated or specialised the higher up you went, culminating in the heavily restricted training ground 51.
I had only managed to get through a couple stretches before Riki and Shuun arrived. After a brief 'good morning' with Shuun, who was still rubbing some sleep out of her eyes, Riki got our attention and began laying out the plan.
"Alright then, first of all both of you are going to do a quick warm up, just a couple laps around the field will be enough. Once loosened up you two are going to spar with each other, and then after that each of you are going to spar with me so I know what I'm working with. We'll break after that so you have time to shower and eat before the academy, before rejoining here after the day's lessons. Understood?"
Voicing our understanding we began the warm up. The field was roughly two hundred meters long and hundred-fifty wide, and after a couple of laps I could feel a light sweat beginning to build up. I still marvelled at the fact that something that would have left me wheezing and gasping for breath before the Accident my body did practically on auto-pilot now. The academy training making me reach a level of fitness I had never reached in my previous life. Not having asthma was also nice.
Honestly, probably the best thing about living in a shinobi village was how much it emphasised physical fitness. Unlike back home before the Accident, practically everyone in the village was remarkably healthy. Obesity seemed limited to the royal courts of the Daimyos, with even the average civilian making sure to keep active. Even the Akimichi clan were surprisingly healthy considering their appearance, more akin to professional powerlifters than the usual lithe shinobi as their clan focused more on overwhelming strength than speed.
Finishing up our last laps, Shuun and I jogged back over to where Uncle Riki was watching us, who then directed us to a dirt patch to begin our spar. Looking over at Shuun as we headed towards where we would face off I noticed that unlike my sweaty self, she was totally unaffected by the couple kilometre long jog we had just done.
Catching me sizing her up, she gave me a predatory grin as we squared off.
"Hey Aki-chan, just letting you know I'm not gonna go easy on ya. Your uncle mentioned to me that you needed a little tough love," she taunted.
Shooting a glance back at Riki, he just looked at me with no reaction whatsoever, but I wouldn't put it past him to pull something like that.
I was absolutely not looking forward to the inevitable curb stomp.
Facing off a couple meters apart I steeled myself as I took a basic defensive stance. Hands raised to eye level, half curled into loose fists ready to lash out with a punch or slap away incoming attacks. Feet shoulder width apart, leading with my left side and leaning forward slightly to present a smaller target I waited for Shuun to make the first move.
Mirroring my stance, Shuun approached slowly before exploding forwards when she was only a couple steps away. I ducked under the first jab from the left, sidestepped the follow up right cross and tried to close the distance but was forced away by a barrage of lightning fast jabs and swings which ended with a few heavy strikes on my forearms as I was forced to block instead of dodge.
She refused to let up as I fell back, advancing relentlessly as I attempted to gain distance and think of a plan. If anything the pace continued to ratchet up with Shuun's punches coming faster and her combos more elaborate as she began breaking through my meagre defence, landing solid strikes after solid strike across my chest and arms.
I needed to get closer to nullify her reach advantage, or else I would just be battered into a pulp by her punches. Pushing through the pain of the occasional missed block I did my best to weather the storm, waiting desperately for my chance.
Finally I saw my opportunity as Shuun went for a left jab, our not-insignificant height difference combining with the awkward angle I had manoeuvred to creating an opening. Ducking below the punch and lunging forwards to try and close the distance, I kept low, practically at waist level, making it nearly impossible for her to land a hit as I advanced.
The first sign that I had made a mistake was the crack of bone striking bone as Shuun shifted her weight and pivoted on her back leg, her front knee smashing into my temple and my vision flashing white with pain as I was flung to the side by the force of the hit.
Sprawled out on my back, dazed and confused, a shadow loomed over me. Snapping back to my senses I realised that Riki hadn't actually ended the match yet, reacting just in time to roll out of the way of the Shuun's follow up foot stomp. Still partially dazed from the hit to my head I wasn't fast enough to avoid the follow up kick to my gut, the world exploding with colour as I was sent airborne for the second time that day.
Getting the breath knocked out of me as I hit the ground and rolled to a stop, I vaguely heard Riki call an end to the match as I tried to remember how to breathe without throwing up.
A few seconds later the others were leaning over me, Shuun grinning in victory while Uncle Riki shone a small light in my eyes. Seemingly satisfied with whatever response he got, he motioned for Shuun to help pull me up to a sitting position.
"Well that was... enlightening. Why don't you take a short break while I spar with Mori-san?"
Not bothering to try and talk yet, I just gave a thumbs up in acceptance as I pulled myself back together. It may not have done much for me physically, but watching Shuun then proceed to get absolutely demolished by Uncle Riki in their spar made me feel a lot better about myself.
I may not have landed a single hit, but at least Shuun had to try. Watching her get effortlessly picked apart and thrown around by Riki was a nice bit of shadenfreude after my own dismantling. Calling the match after he learned everything he needed to, Riki turned to me as Shuun collapsed in exhaustion.
"We can call it there if you don't feel up to another spar?"
"No. I'm fine, let's go," I said as I slowly got to my feet. We were here for a reason, and I had given my word to give it everything I had after all.
Riki wordlessly accepted my response, but I knew him well enough to recognise the brief approving look he gave me as I prepared to get crushed yet again.
There was no such thing as easy improvement, and if I wanted to survive the coming shit-storm I needed a whole lot of improvement.
-V-
Several hours later Shuun and I were back at the training ground, waiting for Uncle Riki to give his verdict. Shuun was still looking as fresh as ever, while I on the other hand was nursing a welt on the side of my head from earlier this morning. After giving us both a once-over to judge our current conditions, Riki began speaking.
"I'll start with you, Mori-san, because there are just less things to say. Akihiro-kun asked me to include you in our training sessions because he thinks you have potential and I agree with him. I don't know where you learned to fight but you are far better than I expected. According to my nephew you are being held back due to your difficulties grasping the theoretical side being a shinobi, which would make sense as your taijutsu skills are easily adequate for even a fourth-tier placement.
Secondly; while your endurance and speed are excellent, I noticed that the power behind your strikes is lacking. You landed multiple hits on Akihiro-kun this morning, but only really managed to land a decisive blow when you baited him into recklessness. Our goal right now is to get you to advance to the third tier of students, and after that to get you as close to being a genin as possible. To this end I think it would be more advantages to shore up your weaknesses than continue to hone your strengths."
Shuun blinked in confusion.
"So we are gonna work on what I'm bad at ignore what I'm good at?"
"Right, I had forgotten your vocabulary isn't as developed as Akihiro-kun's, but that's the idea."
"So if what I'm bad at is theory, how am I gonna improve that? Its not like I can suddenly be smarter?"
"Of course you can."
"What? How?"
Pulling out and unrolling a scroll from one of the many pockets on his flack jacket, Riki revealed a storage scroll. One almost-too-fast-to-notice gesture and puff of smoke later a small pile of books fell to the ground, followed almost instantly by Shuun's groan of annoyance.
"By reading of course. Unlike the academy however, these books focus on methods to improve memory and information recall, as well as puzzles designed to teach problem solving and logical deduction. In-between chapters we will also be focusing on improving your strength through resistance training."
Reluctantly flipping through one of the books, Shuun perked up at that last part.
"Wait, doesn't strength training as a kid stunt your growth? That's what Hiroto-sensei tells us."
"Well, the easy answer is 'not if you do it right'. The fact of the matter is that, yes, if you damage your bones' growth plates it can stunt your future growth. This is actually easily avoided with proper supervision to make sure you aren't doing something wrong, which can cause them to be damage. The reason the Academy discourages it is because, as skilled as your teachers may be, they can't keep a constant eye on fifty or more kids at once to make sure they are have proper form all the time.
Now pick a book and start reading while I talk with Akihiro-kun, I'll be over in a bit in case you have questions."
With that Riki turned to me as Shuun wandered towards a shady spot with the book she had been flipping through.
"Alright Aki-kun, I'm going to be straight with you. Your physical skills actually aren't terrible for your age, but that's also your biggest issue. Your age. You simply don't have the size or power to compete with the others because your body still needs to go through a lot of growing. The fact that you were able to hold out for any amount of time against someone like Mori-san, who is taller, faster, and stronger than you by a significant amount is actually very promising.
Unfortunately, a 'promising' loss is still a loss, and if you lose a fight outside these walls, it won't matter how good of an accounting you gave."
"I'm guessing you have a work-around for that, otherwise you wouldn't be telling me this."
"I do. And this is where your intelligence comes in handy. I assume you've been taught how chakra is formed already?"
"From the combination of spiritual and physical energy."
"Correct. It's actually a lot more complicated than that, but only the scientists concern themselves with that. One way to to visualise your chakra is to think of it as a fuel tank, which has a fixed size. This fuel tank is being fed from two hoses, the physical hose which consists of your body's physical energy such as level of fitness, stamina and just overall health, and the spiritual hose which consists of your mental energy such as intelligence, willpower and experience.
These two hoses pour their energies into this fuel tank, where they react to form chakra which is then sent throughout your body. The more prominent any of these things are, the more 'concentrated' the energy that is released into the fuel tank.
This is important to understand, because in your case, your physical hose is releasing a decent quality of energy considering your physical abilities relative to your age. Meanwhile your spiritual hose could be considered the densest, most potent energy possible due to your exceptional intelligence for your age, resulting in a lopsided combination."
"I don't understand how that is supposed to help Ojisan"
"It helps because it gives you a significantly concentrated chakra. Remember when I said the fuel tank has a fixed size? It is a common misconception that increasing the power of your physical and mental energies increases the amount of chakra at your disposal. What actually happens is that it improves the quality of the energies, resulting in a purer and more potent chakra than otherwise, which you require less of to achieve the same result as a 'lesser' or 'more impure' chakra.
All of this is to say that because your spiritual energy is of such a high 'quality', it raises the 'potency' of your chakra by a massive amount!"
Uncle Riki was starting to gesture wildly, clearly pleased with this fact.
"Okay so I have more potent chakra than normal, I still don't see how this is supposed to help me not get smashed the moment I get into close range of someone."
This just caused Riki to grin at me.
"It's simple! Chakra is essentially a force multiplier, so the very first real technique any shinobi learns is to enhance their physical abilities with using their chakra. It's how we are able to reach speeds and strengths even the strongest or fastest civilians would never even hope to achieve, while seeing and reacting to things that can happen in the blink of an eye. And the more potent the chakra, the larger the multiplier!
Think of it this way; if chakra was a race horse granting it's power to you, yours would be fed on the finest grasses and spring water possible, while other kids your age would be feeding theirs gruel and puddle water!"
"I got it the first time Ojisan, if anything that metaphor just made It more confusing."
Waving away my comment Riki finished up his impromptu lecture.
"Anyway, while I will be continuing to give you extra physical training to increase the quality of your physical energy, we will mainly be focusing on harnessing and controlling your chakra to enhance your body. Your potent chakra will do the work of increasing your bodies physical capabilities when you are using it to enhance yourself, allowing you to fight on more even footing with your peers despite your comparatively under-developed body."
This time It was I who couldn't contain my grin. The days of getting pounded in the dirt might soon be behind me if Riki was to be believed.
"Alright Ojisan, how do we start?"
-V-
It took two weeks of training with Uncle Riki for me to learn how to infuse my body with chakra. It was a bit confusing at first as unlike the leaf exercise I was not moulding then expelling the chakra through one of my tenketsu. Instead I had to generate a constant flow throughout my entire body, which would then infuse every cell in my body with the potent energy.
The feeling I got when I managed to pull it off successfully for the first time was addicting. Everything seemed to slow down as my vision sharpened and reactions were heightened. A wave of energy rolled through me soothing my bruises and wiping away fatigue, making me feel like I could run a marathon without breaking a sweat. I could feel my muscles twitch and react to the slightest thought, ready to explode into motion at any moment. I felt like I could do anything, break through any obstacle.
And then I was immediately brought back to earth as Riki proceeded to lay me out in the following spar in record time, my boosted physical capabilities nowhere close to matching his lifetime of experience and training.
I was pretty sure he didn't even have to use his own chakra.
Laughing at my dumbstruck expression he told me that everyone had the same reaction the first time they learned how to properly enhance themselves. Once I had gotten used to my 'powered-up mode' the euphoria would fade and let me properly judge what I was capable of. Eventually I would be able to move in and out of the state without even thinking about it, my body instinctively knowing when it was needed.
He also mentioned that once my chakra had reached a certain level of potency it would start having minor secondary effects depending on my chakra's nature and unique 'personality'. A common example, being in the land of fire, was that people with potent fire natured chakra would safely increase the body's core temperature. This was useful in both dealing with cold, as well as for fighting off viruses and bacteria by mimicking a fever. Theoretically it should be possible for shinobi with incredibly potent chakra to physically manifest these traits to radically change their bodies, but to Riki's knowledge it had never successfully been done.
A brief memory flashed through my mind at those words, of a man covered in lightning and moving at impossible speed. I had no idea how old A had been during the kage summit, so it was possible he hadn't even been born yet. Either way if it was his lightning chakra that let him pull that off, attempting to copy it with whatever my own nature ended up being was certainly something to eventually look into.
While making my own version of A's and the third Raikage's unique ability was a long way off, learning to boost my physical abilities using chakra had a much more immediate effect.
Not only was my chakra control better than it had been after spending so long interacting with it, but I began winning more and more of my daily spars. Now that I could compete at the same level of strength and speed, my only real disadvantage was my reach. And while I had yet to win against Shuun herself, our spars became closer and closer while giving me plenty of experience in how to deal with my shortcomings in that department.
Two months after the start of our training I had gone from around the mid 50s to the top ten in the sparring rankings. Meanwhile Shuun had apparently shown enough improvement under Riki's 'book assignments' that she was finally promoted to the third tier in the Academy.
Unfortunately we weren't able to hang out in the classes together for very long as a month later, once Hiroto was satisfied with my improvement, I was finally promoted to that ever exclusive and sought after fourth tier. All of which brought me to my current situation of following Katsurou to the upper levels of the Academy instead of heading to my normal class.
It had been seven months total since I had first stepped through the gates of the Academy. My goal had been to take my time, not stand out too much, and then get a cushy back-line job in R&D or something while I bided my time to get out of Konoha without getting my head put on a spike for desertion. Instead here I was at the upper echelons, blazing through the ranks with the eyes of some very powerful people on me.
Either I needed to make better long term plans, or really improve my acting skills because holy shit this one went off the rails almost instantly.
Katsurou stopped in front of one of the many doors. Looking back at me he offered a smile and nod before wishing me good luck and sliding open the door. Having no idea what to expect I walked through the doorway to come face to face with...
A relatively full classroom.
I hesitated for a moment, the thought that I had walked through the wrong door flashing through my mind. The fourth tier was supposed to be exclusive! The best of the best! Less than a handful of students would push through the lower tiers to achieve the right of being a fourth tier, so why and how were there a dozen or two other kids in this room? It was triple the amount of the third tier!
The teacher, who had obviously been expecting me, waved me over and I approached him on auto-pilot.
"Excellent, right on time. Everyone, this is Akihiro-san. He is an exceptionally gifted child of the Uzuki lineage who started the academy less than a year ago! There are even rumours that he might even reach the fifth tier before he graduates, even though he started from the first. I suggest you all pay attention, maybe you'll actually learn something for once."
This got a couple laughs from the assembled students, which added another layer of surprise and confusion. The joking and friendly tone of the teacher, the much more laid back atmosphere, the fact that some of the kids seemed to be not paying attention at all, instead choosing to stare out the windows. It was all a radical shift from the much more serious and military-schoolish atmosphere of the lower tiers.
Speaking of the students, now that I was getting a better look at them I noticed two things. The first being that, while they were still older than me by a couple of years by the looks of things, they were both much closer in age to each other, and generally younger than a lot of the tier three and below kids. The second was that every single one of them had some sort of marking either on them, or on their clothes.
Hearing the teacher, who had introduced himself as 'Noburu-sensei', telling me to take a seat I wandered over to the nearest open place, my mind racing. I had a mounting suspicion about this class, all I had to do was wait for the attendance call. Sure enough Noburu began rattling off names, confirming my suspicions. Inuzuka, Inuzuka, Uchiha, Aburame, Hyuuga, Kurama, Uchiha, Akimichi. The list went on, clan name after clan name.
I was the only non-clan member in the class.
Slowly the pieces started falling into place, and I began to understand what had actually been going on.
By the time we broke for lunch I was furious. It wasn't the fact Noburu held me back and told me I would have to catch up on all the material I was behind on by myself, or even the casual dismissal from the clan kids. It was because of the realisation I had arrived at.
I was actually pleased for once when I heard Minato's chakra approach as I stewed in my indignation on the roof. Having someone to vent at would be nice.
Seemingly uncaring of my obvious sour mood Minato dropped himself in front of me with his usual disarming smile.
"I wanted to congratulate you on reaching the fourth tier! Looks like I might have actual competition now."
"I doubt it, I'm just a lowly fourth-tier after all. How could I measure up to the legendary Minato Namikaze, first ever fifth-tier student?"
Minato just laughed away my comment on his own promotion, but the glint in his eyes said he hadn't missed the bitterness in my tone. Before he could respond I continued, not even trying to hide the anger now.
"So when did you figure out it's all a sham?"
Minato leaned back against the railing with his head tilted, examining me. He still hadn't lost his usual air of good cheer somehow.
"...About three months, give or take a couple weeks," he responded. "I've always been a curious person, so when I found that there were no clan children in my class, or in any of that year's first tier classes I began looking around. I noticed that all the clan kids go upstairs after arriving, so I took a peek one day while I was supposed to heading to the toilet."
Minato shrugged nonchalantly, totally unbothered.
"So why do you call it a sham? I mean you're right of course, but I would like to hear your thoughts."
I was more than willing to let loose anger that had been building.
"The whole system is built for the benefit of the clans! They get to send their kids to the Academy where they get to make friends and connections with the other clan children, and are then practically guaranteed mentorship by an elite jonin once they graduate! Meanwhile everyone else gets dumped in massive pool at the bottom where we have to fight and claw at each other for the privilege to be given the same chances as those kids have.
The whole reason we have tiers is a joke! The clans would never allow their children to be lumped in with the masses, so those with potential have to jump through these ridiculous hoops just to satisfy their egos. Meanwhile, they train the rabble so they are just competent enough to carry out the menial work around the village, while giving the clans' children the best training and education they can get, allowing them to hold onto their power!"
Minato just nodded along, waiting for me to finish before responding.
"You're right of course. The Academy was designed purely for the clans, but I think you're missing the bigger picture. I'm sure you remember why Tobirama-sama started the Academy, right? To mend the rifts between the different factions? That's exactly what the Academy is doing."
"How does this increase the cohesiveness of the village? The system encourages division, not unity!"
"But that's where you're wrong," Minato leaned forward as he spoke. "You see, the truth of the matter is that the civilians and shinobi families? They don't matter. Not right now at least. This is why your uncle put you in the position he did. He must have known the true purpose of the Academy, and now you are in the perfect position to one day make real change in the power structure of Konoha.
Right now the power, the true power, resides in the clans. Each one of them are able to field scores of skilled, hardened shinobi, taught with methods that have been tried and tested by hundreds of years of conflict.
If it weren't for Tobirama-sama's own power and influence they would have begun actively sabotaging each other for more power, instead of just keeping it to the political arena. Tobirma-sama knows the situation can't last like this, so he created the Academy.
You are right in that the clans send their kids here to be taught and in doing so form connections. But more importantly, they form friendships. Friendships outside their own clans. And even more importantly, friendships outside any clan at all. Most of the clan heads are past their prime, so it's only a matter of time before they start being replaced by their heirs. Their heirs who now have friendships and rivalries with both other heirs and those who have proven themselves while never belonging to a clan.
Think of how different those heirs will be to their parents. A generation more focused on building up Konoha instead of their own personal power. The clans are Konoha's pillars of strength, if they are at each other's throats then no number of civilians or shinobi families would stop us from falling. But if they see the value in true co-operation with their peers? If they truly began to believe in The Will of Fire? Then Konoha would never fall."
Minato's words sent a chill up my spine. I was reminded of my first thoughts when I had learned about the Academy tiers. It wasn't just the lower tiers, the whole system was designed to manipulate. It was a genius system designed to trick the clans into eventually putting Konoha above their own personal power through targeting their children, by offering them something they would be idiots to refuse. The fact that the lower tiers ended up trained enough to do the mundane tasks of running the village was just an extra bonus, with the goal of improving their lot once the foundation had been solidified.
My shock must have been easy to see, as Minato once again laid back against the railing still smiling and looking perfectly pleased with himself.
"Honestly it isn't a terrible system, until the clans have been put in check. Those who show enough promise from the lower levels aren't totally abandoned. And once the clans aren't about to turn on one another at the drop of a hat we can start really helping everyone else."
Bullshit. It was a fundamentally broken system. Granting a select few positions above everyone else just because they were born to the right family wasn't a good system. It was the direct antithesis of the idea of equality, one of the foundations of my home before the Accident. Even if the idea was to promote said equality later on, systems which had gained momentum over decades became harder and harder to change.
"So if you knew the whole thing was a sham, why did you try to rise so far? Why go after the fifth-tier so badly if the whole tier system is just to manipulate us? Why not just stay at fourth-tier?"
For the first time Minato's smile vanished, along with his air of pleasantness. The glint in his eyes becoming hard instead of curious.
"The clans think they hold all the power. The current system favours them at every turn, and the only person they fear is Tobirama-sama. Do you know how humiliating it is for them that a nameless orphan made a fool of not only their children, but their traditions that they followed to train those children?
I refuse to let people like that have a say in the Hokages' dreams, Akihiro-san. I started at the bottom tier, and now I am the first fifth-tier student the Academy has ever had. I have reached higher than any clan kid, and I wont stop here. I wont stop until I have the power to break their choke-hold on this village, and Konoha is the place the Hashirama-sama dreamt it could be.
The more important question is, what are you going to do Akihiro-san? Are you going to give up? Run and hide? pretend that everything is fine the way it is?
We are the ones who will change the world, and it is up to us to figure out what kind of world we want to make."
-V-
Minato had left without waiting for an answer. Probably because he knew I didn't have one.
What was I going to do? The question refused to leave my mind. It swirled around and around, and as the months rolled past I spent any free moment I had in quiet introspection.
Before the Accident, I felt the answer would have been obvious. Liberté, égalité, fraternité as our French neighbours would say. They were the ultimate ideals to strive for in old world.
But I wasn't in my old world any more.
I was in a different world, with different customs and different morals. This was a world of child soldiers, military dictatorships and magic. The daimyo's were royal families who still wielded vast amounts of personal power, something my old world had tried to leave behind centuries ago.
The morals and ethics of my old life had no place in a world like this.
The simple fact was that I wasn't a revolutionary. Unlike what Minato believed, and Uncle Riki probably wanted, I simply wasn't. I had never been the one to take up arms, literal or metaphorical, and crusade for change. I had always been content to go with the flow, carve out my own little piece of home and just live my life. Revolution often ended up worse than what had come before, no matter the starting intention, and people always died to get there.
But the more I thought about it the more I understood that I couldn't just sit this one out. This story might have ended nicely enough in canon, but how many people had died to get there? How much senseless bloodshed had led up to Madara's ultimate plan? And more importantly, how close had it all come to failure?
Too close. And worse, my very presence in this world meant that it is possible that I had already done something to change it all. The butterfly effect was a bitch, and if I ended up working on knowledge that was already incorrect I had a good chance of just making things worse!
The only option was to act pro-actively. Prevent the fourth war from ever occurring in the first place. Minato was right. If I wanted to change anything, I first needed the power to do so.
Power like that of a Hidden Village.
Minato would be Hokage, there was no doubt in my mind. The kid didn't have my experience of another life and yet was more intelligent and observant than I. He was charismatic and his confidence was unshakable, while not being overly proud or arrogant. He was probably familiar with the current people in charge, as his use of first names hinted at.
In short, he was quite literally the perfect leader.
But he was a revolutionary, our talk had made that clear. And as history has shown again and again, when the people in power are at risk of losing that power they become scared. They would put all the resources they could spare into getting their own man as a leader. An attempt that would be doomed to failure, with Minato being Minato, which meant they would have to go with the second option. Getting an 'in' with the new power in order to secure what power they could.
Minato's charismatic abilities would win over the next generation of clan heirs, that was never in question, but the current clan heads would never accept Minato due to the risk he posed to their power. They would want someone more pliable, someone more likely to continue the status quo, someone who was powerful enough that Minato would have to pay attention to them, to act on their behalf. If that person was already familiar with and respected by Minato? Well that would be even better.
Political favours, powerful secrets, perhaps even special techniques and teachings would be given to whoever they chose. Anything to draw that person to their side. Anything to let them hold on to their power for just a little bit longer.
All that had to be done was show them the appropriate candidate.
After months of introspection and meditation, my path was clear. Riki would disapprove, Minato might even feel a little betrayed, but I was resolute. They both wanted to mould me into something that I wasn't. They both wanted me to pick up their separate banners and fight their fight. More power for the shinobi families or stripping the clans of their power, all for what they considered 'the future of Konoha'.
But they didn't know what I knew. They didn't realise their way lead to disaster and death for tens of thousands of men, women and children. The true enemy was outside of the villages walls, not 'the clans' or 'the other political powers', and I would never be free from the eventual destruction he would cause unless I was powerful enough to stop him.
The road I travelled was a well maintained dirt one, shadowed by dozens of carefully tended trees which lead up to a massive, traditional walled complex in the outskirts of the village. Knocking on the giant wooden doors of the entrance gate, each emblazoned with a stylised wing painted in red, I waited for them to open, revealing a plainly dressed manservant. I gave the politest and most formal bow I could before speaking.
"Good evening, may I speak with Kurama Shinku? I believe he is expecting me, I sent a letter a week ago."
What better clan to start with than the one who had proven to be willing to let a non-clan member join them? All I had to do was to make myself known and available to them, and the rest would simply fall into place over time.
And then, once they had given me all they could give, I would abandon them to help usher in the new generation of clan heads. Those heirs who were being influenced by Minato would be far more open to his ideals of equality and a prosperous Konoha which could only help in the long run.
I wasn't, and never would be, a revolutionary. But that didn't mean I couldn't help the cause.
AN:
The real training begins, and the chess pieces are starting to make their own moves. Next chapter, one of the horsemen begins their ride. Also low-level fight scenes are painfully difficult to write.
Fun Fact: the whole chakra explanation is actually how chakra works in canon. The idea of 'expanding chakra reserves', or somehow training to get more chakra is purely fanon. Kakashi even mentions that chakra reserves are genetic and determined at birth! I had originally planned on a slightly different explanation, but after doing a little bit of research I realised that the straight up canon version actually works even better for my purposes.
The whole chakra enhancing thing though I made up whole cloth, partially inspired by A's lightning cloak from canon, and there is one other person I would consider to have perfected their own version of that ability, although it takes on an entirely different form.
As always, criticism is appreciated for one can never improve without it!