He couldn't get out of the land of hot water.
His father was a ninja and he was a small child, there was just no way. It wasn't like he could tell his parents the truth – that some creepy nin was going to stomp right through this place and slaughter everyone. He didn't even know when that was going to happen, if it was going to happen or even if it had already happened. He was here, but did that mean that the events that he knew of in Naruto were the truth, or just that the world they'd been based in existed?
Even if it was the truth, he wasn't going to be able to convince his parents to leave – his father had sworn loyalty to the village, to leave would be desertion and he'd be hunted down. If he was believed, it was more likely that they'd try and fight Hidan and lose anyway. Worse, if he was proven true, what would happen to him if it became known that he had known the future? What future would that lead him to?
He had never learned much about the land of hot water – it didn't feature much in the anime. All he knew was that it was more of a resort than a hidden village. It did explain why the town seemed laid back and the ninja at ease, unlike what you'd expect from a military dictatorship. Yugakure was considered pretty pacifist and their ninja mostly dealt with keeping the roads safe – hardly a village of assassins and spies. It was rather like what he imagined Konoha pretended to be – a 'nice' village, but they were also 'nice' enough to not take any of those not-so-nice contracts at all.
Being pacifist of course meant it barely showed up in the Naruto anime. The only history he knew of was that Hidan had fucked the place up that one time. Pacifist or not though, he didn't want to bet on them being nice enough not to kill deserters or not mine him for information if he showed he had knowledge like his though.
Of course this all assumed that he did have relevant knowledge which was no sure thing yet, and he had no easy way to prove it either. Most of what he knew was from Naruto's genin team time, and worse it was localised to Konoha. Not useful or provable at all.
He did try and get a hold of a bingo book to try and check what he knew against it, but no dice. Things like that were restricted – certainly a civilian kid like him wasn't going to get one easily even if one of his parents was a ninja.
The question then became, what to do with his life? Did he even want to be a ninja? Regardless of when he was, or what might be going on in the world, was that the life he wanted for himself? Being a ninja of Yugakure was a pretty sweet deal for him in a lot of ways – it wasn't as morally difficult for him than villages that weren't pacifists or were more volatile. He wouldn't have to worry about becoming an assassin or killing his fellow students to graduate or anything – he'd more likely just be a ninja guard. That was what his father said most of his missions were.
Of course escort duty still meant killing bandits if necessary, but it was a lot less difficult to reconcile than just being a murderer for hire. Still, even from a 'soft' village like Yu, being a ninja would be hard work, painful and with no guarantee that he'd survive or thrive.
The alternative was not to be a shinobi, which meant being a civilian. There were plenty of jobs to do, though they came with pros and cons. He wouldn't be able to travel safely as a civilian – it was just as risky really, because of bandits. So if he prioritised safety he'd have to stay in-village, perhaps make crafts like his mother or work in the hot springs or hotels that populated the resort town.
He wasn't sure he could accept that life.
In his last life he'd kept it simple. Finished school, gotten a job wherever would take him. He spent years working in retail (ugh) and then moved into catering. It paid the bills but was hardly fulfilling – he'd kept his head down, made the safe choices, and ended up with cancer at 24 and dying in hospital. He'd thought all those years 'I'll play it safe, build up to it. I'll go travelling when my situation is more stable'.
He never got to travel. All that money he'd been saving for the future ended up lining someone else's pockets at the end of the day, because he'd been too cautious to enjoy it himself.
This time he wasn't going to do that. By no means did he plan to be reckless, but he didn't want to watch life pass him by without getting to experience any of the good bits of it, not this time.
So maybe he would become a ninja then. A Yugakure ninja that took protection missions and escort missions, maybe something further afield if he went diplomatic. It might be more dangerous than he'd want, but in this world he was just as likely to be a casualty as a civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time than as a ninja actively getting in the way of trouble.
That wasn't necessarily a reassuring thought, but it kind of helped, to know that he wouldn't be helpless this time. Hiseo was going to be a ninja.
Well, he was going to try to be a ninja. He had no idea if he could actually become one – he didn't know what the graduation requirements were or if he could use chakra. Not to mention whether he could actually stomach the reality of it – Hiseo hadn't gotten into a proper fight in his life, new or old, so for all he knew he'd lock up when put on the spot.
That was a tomorrow problem though, for today he had his decision tentatively made, and with that in mind sought to give himself the best chance he could. He'd started attending the academy recently and it was there that he focused his efforts.
During outdoor time at school he made sure to learn the stretches and do his best with running the way the teacher showed them. What little he remembered of actual ninja skills involved economy of movement, pushing past limits to encourage growth. He was too young to risk overdoing it, but under the teacher's watchful eyes, he felt safe enough.
It was fucking hard though.
Getting up the determination to really run was easy, but when his lungs were burning and his muscles felt like they were cramping in his legs, it was really hard to keep going. He felt like he was going to be sick and die, possibly simultaneously, and it was only because he'd actually gotten sick and died in the past that he knew that wasn't actually going to happen. (If he stopped, if he collapsed on the ground and couldn't move, that was what it felt when he really was dying, so he never did that no matter how much his body wanted him to, he always slowed to a walk and kept moving, always moving so he knew he wasn't going to die)
Aside from increasing his body's endurance though, there wasn't a whole lot he could do just yet.
Being a ninja in Yugakure was definitely different than in Konoha. For one the classes were much smaller – there wasn't much need for ninja in a village like this where it was so heavily pacifistic so it was less popular among the masses. Unlike in other villages where it was an honour to be a ninja in service to the village, here it was a just barely acceptable job to some people, but a necessary one, for most. That was the attitude he encountered early on: 'someone had to do it'.
The students also varied in age, offering classes for different skills and specialties, but also opening up the academy to younger students and giving them something of a pre-ninja education in things like observing others, reading and writing, and how to travel safely. Not everyone who went to the academy was going to be a ninja, but everyone who wanted to be a ninja went to the academy. There was also a regular school for kids, which students could switch onto once they were old enough, but it was still considered worthwhile to send younger children to the ninja pre-academy for basic skills that would be useful no matter what they did.
Because it was mostly bodyguarding though, the focus of their ninja studies delved extensively on protection and recognising trouble before it broke out. It wasn't uncommon for the small classes to be taken out for brief trips into the village for training and tests, where ninja on duty would give the children something to practice on, using henges and genjutsu to safely show them what to look for and expect without anything bad actually happening.
Hiseo didn't do too badly in classes, but he didn't tend to excel either. He had the benefit of some remembered experience, but found it difficult to apply what he knew in practice. He enjoyed learning though, even though he preferred watching to doing. Learning to skin a rabbit had been hard, even though it had already been dead when he got it, that'd been unpleasant.
He'd also been pretty bad at making a fire, though he could make the fire pit just fine, getting a spark and letting it catch had been nigh impossible for him. He'd just have to hope he could do a fire release when they started teaching about chakra, but as a kid in the pre-class, it was basics all the way, no proper ninja stuff at all, if you discounted the flexibility and stamina exercises they did during outdoor time.
Going to classes meant he spent less time at home with his mother, but he actually spent more time with his father now than they had before. Partly because he didn't sleep quite as much as much as he used to now he was a bit older, to be fair, but also because he spent more time doing activities from his classes. He still helped his mother sometimes, but less often now that he didn't need quite so much close attention, and his help was actually somewhat helpful now, rather than just something he could fiddle with within his mother's eyesight.
It saddened him a bit, that he was already starting to feel the distance from his mother just because he no longer spent all his time with her, but that was a sacrifice he felt helpless to avoid. If he wanted to become stronger, he couldn't spend all his time playing with her either. He still took the time to be close to her, but not nearly as much as before. She'd been good to him, still was, but growing up was always going to mean moving away from what they'd had before. He couldn't spend all his time playing under her watchful eye, no matter the future he intended for himself.
One thing that was distinctive about Yugakure was that because it relied almost exclusively on tourism for is economy, the importance of appearance was paramount. It was for that reason that academy students didn't even touch weapons until they were eight years old, and even then it was during class time only, using unpainted wooden weapons at first. It presented a bad image of the pacifist village if their children were visibly carrying weapons, ninja students or not, so they weren't allowed to for some time.
Of course their taijutsu skills were impressive as something to work on that wasn't visible to tourists, but weapons were another matter. That was how he found himself taking hold of the wooden kunai for the first time, as they were taught how to handle them.
They were shown how to hold and store them first – it was important to learn how to handle them safely, so for the first day they were shown how, and then told to wear them without them being visible. When his teacher had talked about it, it'd made sense – he'd never seen his father's weapons, not once. Even active duty ninja were pretty subtle – it was all about appearance, his teacher told them.
So he wore his wooden kunai, trying to find a spot to put them where they were hard to spot but still accessible. Every now and then the teacher would stop the lesson to have them take one out like they were about to throw it, then put it away again. At the end of the school day the pouches were taken away to be returned to the student in the morning.
The pattern continued for two days, but the morning of the third day their weapons were no longer unpainted.
Instead the edges of the 'blade' were coated in a bright paint. When they were told to draw their kunai during class time now, any who held the blade incorrectly got paint on their hands to signify a cut.
It was ingenious, and saved many students from getting injured. No doubt they'd move on to live weapons eventually, but for kids just starting out, he was surprised – pain built up strength he knew, but teaching safe handling in a harmless way seemed something a ninja village wouldn't bother with. Yu really was a pacifist town.
It certainly made it easier for him though – he was able to become familiar with a 'weapon' without the threat of being harmed by it, especially when they were all still small and naturally a little clumsy. When they finally did graduate to live weaponry (again, during class time only, no kids were allowed weapons outside unless they could hide them completely he supposed) he already had proper handling habits in place. It was nerve-wracking holding a dangerous weapon, even though it wasn't that sharp at first, but the habits he'd formed with the practice tools meant his body already knew what to do, even while his mind panicked about the danger.
It was interesting to experience, almost tricking the mind in a way. He soon calmed down from holding a live weapon because he was so used to the wooden ones and knew how to avoid hurting himself.
Not all he students did so well of course, some hadn't practiced enough with the wooden ones or taken it seriously enough, but the number of cut fingers and hands was far less than one would expect in a class full of kids with knives.
By the time he was nine years old, his class had merged with several others, and the kids not interested in being ninja had either dropped out or continued into the regular school, or dropped out to work.
Unlike before where there were a variety of separate classes with students on different tracks (ninja, and non-ninja) now only ninja students remained, and it was here that more practical ninja skills were developed. Before they had shared classes for history, geography, propaganda and the like, along with doing some meditation and exercise. Now the meditation class was cut in half with chakra control, and phys ed became sparring as well. They also were finally taught how to throw their kunai, not just defend with them and hide/handle them, along with other inconspicuous weapons.
Hiseo wasn't great at sparring. He could do the moves easily enough, but punching another little kid in the face was hard. He won a lot, but did so without causing much damage. It made it harder to fight, and more often felt like he was trying to capture instead of defeat his opponent as instructed. His teachers saw this, but despite one discussion on it didn't try to dissuade him. What he was doing was harder, but as long as he understood that he was handicapping himself, it was actually to his benefit to continue as he was.
So instead of breaking noses and throat-punching like he knew was most effective, he'd enact complex takedowns that pinned his opponent to the dirt, often without hurting them at all, merely immobilising.
Of course he didn't always win. One girl early on had gotten offended that he wouldn't 'take her seriously' and had broken his nose pretty badly, but before long it just became normal. The class soon accepted that Hiseo didn't disable his enemies the easy way, and the teachers let him so it was fine. It was only in rare instances where the class was instructed to use a certain attack or method that he had to fight like he wanted to cause harm instead of to disable without force.
He honestly wasn't sure whether he'd ever be comfortable using moves that were intended to be fatal. It was one thing abstaining against other small children, but using non-lethal moves wasn't always going to be possible, and there was no guarantee that the problem he had was only because of his small opponents. If he was facing a bandit, he might have no choice but to kill them, in combat or afterwards.
Still, for now it wasn't a problem. While he did receive some questions about how he came up with some of the moves (some he learned from his father, some he remembered from before and tried them out for himself) as long as he learned the academy teachings it didn't matter what else he threw in.
One thing that he did learn in his classes was some recent history. It was mostly focused on his own village of course, even in world events it was mostly aimed at how it affected the land of hot water. Interesting, but not necessarily useful to him or his aim to prove the relevance of his knowledge of this world. He learned that the major villages had several great wars in recent history, always seeming at war with each other really. The smaller villages were usually left out of it, overlooked for the most part, only sometimes used as battlegrounds.
Most of the minor villages were left to their own devices while the major villages destroyed themselves and each other. As long as a minor village didn't try and step on any toes and kept to themselves they were mostly fine – basically if they accepted that the major villages could do what they wanted then they wouldn't draw the ire of that major village. It did put them in a tough spot sometimes because they were pacifists here, and it was a tourist hot spot so keeping it clean and safe was important, but they definitely didn't want to get squashed by a big village if they tried to stop or interfere with their business, even if it meant letting an assassination happen on their territory.
For the most part though, ninja observed a certain courtesy for things like that – it was the same for all ninja villages big and small – if possible, keep things like fights and assassinations quiet, or out of the village proper. It was as much courtesy as good planning – targets were more vulnerable in transit and less chance of them slipping away in a crowd.
They were taught the procedure for if combat was encountered in the land of hot water, how to check someone's passport or travel documents if they seemed suspicious or were found somewhere they shouldn't be, though as a tourist spot there weren't many restricted places in the village, just the academy and a few buildings used for ninja business like the jail and offices.
He was ten before they learned about the information network.
The land of hot water was pacifist, and they had a decent arrangement to keep their land rather than be taken over by a bigger village, despite the moderate strategic advantage that could be. Their land was fertile and the weather conditions were good, yet were allowed their own authority. That was in part because of the neutrality of their land – pacifist and neutral meant a great place for other countries to use as a relatively safe zone.
A lot of information was traded in Yu. Going to the hotsprings was a good excuse for anyone to come visit, not to mention the massage parlours and other tourist attractions. Land of hot springs was a good meeting spot, and because it wasn't very centralized (many resorts were built around different hot springs) ninja could come to any hot spring they wanted. Some villages had a 'preferred' resort, which made it easier to avoid hostilities. Indeed, if foreign ninja went to Yugakure, they were often recommended to different hot springs depending on their affiliation. It wasn't unusual if a foreign ninja came to Yugakure for business and were rewarded with a coupon for a hot spring, it'd be for a particular resort.
In some ways the whole village was split into zones, to keep different ninja away from each other and minimize chances of fighting breaking out. The zones weren't enforced, but ninja weren't fools – keeping to their zone meant they had less chance of seeing someone who might provoke them, especially the major villages which always seemed to want to fight each other even when there was no active war.
That wasn't even mentioning the missing nin.
Either way, if the ninja didn't see something they had to act on like someone from another village or a missing nin, all the better. For the most part people came to Yugakure for the hot springs and/or for information, not to fight. Hiseo was taught to suppress any fighting that might break out in the land of hot springs because if the land became known as too rowdy or dangerous they would lose the tourism that kept the country running. The main export (aside from information which didn't count) that their country survived on aside from tourism was potato exports and that wasn't near enough to carry them if anything happened to their tourism industry.
For all that, it meant that Hiseo's non-lethal takedown practice was doing him a lot of favours. If he kept it up, he'd almost have a guaranteed spot working in Yugakure proper, he was told. After all, it was better for business if foreign ninja could be detained without harm if a fight broke out.
It wasn't really his intention to stay in the village full time, but it was good to know that he could if it turned out that the danger of the road was too much for him. Not to mention the discomfort – there was much to be said about having a warm bed to return to each night and proper washing facilities – neither of which could be found on the road.
If there was one thing he had learned so far it was that while he might think something was fine in theory, actually doing it was another matter. He couldn't say whether he'd actually settle with having to catch his own food and wash in rivers if he did choose a role which had him predominantly travelling.
Those were thoughts for Hiseo of the future though, for now he had much more immediate decisions to make, like who he wanted to pair up with for practicals today, which was tea ceremony.
Hiseo liked going to the academy. Most of the skills were useful or gave him some insight into something. Because the class sizes were small and the ninja were mostly stationed in the land of hot water it meant that they were often roped into teaching a class or two, so students were exposed to more variety. It also meant they were given 'taster' sessions, depending on a shinobi's specialty.
Hiseo learned that he was interested in poisons and the like but not in crafting them himself. Unsurprising given his preference for non-lethal takedowns, he wasn't very good with wounds – mostly because he hadn't the stomach for the gore. Basic first aid was something he could do at least.
They were also introduced to different weapons (wooden or otherwise blunted first, mostly) that they were able to try them out and gain some familiarity at least. Hiseo found he rather enjoyed a polearm, though it was not a weapon that was popular in general especially in Yugakure where less visible weapons were preferred for ninja unless they were patrolmen or the like. He liked having a long shaft that he could use like a bo staff, but a sharper end for some distance in his attack.
He enjoyed nunchakus too, though wasn't very good at using the flexible chain. He did wonder if he could learn some kind of chain weapon though, if he really did want non-lethal takedowns, it'd help to have a weapon to tie up his opponents. If only he had the coordination to use them, anyway.
For now it didn't matter – these were just taster sessions so students could have some awareness of what was out there and some exposure to it. There were lots of lessons about how to make and get out of different knots though, and he was pretty good at those.
Simpler lessons included learning how to leave and read subtle and hidden messages, and lip reading. Overhearing messages meant for others was how they got much of the information for their network, which meant learning many of the ways messages could be left.
They were also taught how to move and hide their basic weapons in kimono and other outfits, along with basic customer service, in case they were to be concealed as resort staff while on duty, as was often the case. Somewhat awkwardly they were also shown how to conceal weapons while attending as resort guests also, including wearing just a towel and hiding a few weapons beneath it.
There just seemed so much to learn. He'd thought that most of what he'd learn would be jutsu, from what he knew of the anime, but clearly not. So far they'd not actually learned a jutsu, only chakra control exercises. It was still amazing to be able to feel the energy moving through his body, to try and manipulate it to give the desired effects. So far they were only really sticking leaves onto their hands like he expected, but even so. At least when they eventually learned water walking, they'd be doing it over the hot springs – far less miserable than doing it over a cold pond or the ocean.
Graduating the shinobi academy occurred at age thirteen – the oldest that he knew of. Early graduation was possible, but a student still had to show they had learned the lessons they would be missing through their own efforts – no skipping ahead because they were good at one thing or another, a wide knowledge base ensured a more well prepared shinobi, no matter their combat skill or other circumstances.
Technically most students could graduate at twelve – the last year involved mostly field work, like a work experience, with a few lessons interspersed at the academy (like sex ed and how puberty affected them as ninja). A student could skip it, but it wasn't recommended – even if they spent the year skipping between different roles, or didn't pick any of the jobs they'd worked in that year, it gave them the experience of how the village and that particular role worked, and ensured that the bulk of the teaching was passed onto proficient teachers, rather than working ninja who might be good at their jobs, but not so good at teaching younger children how to follow in their footsteps.
All in all it was a smart system and Hiseo enjoyed it. Was enjoying it rather – he still had a few years to go until he graduated as a Yugakure shinobi.
Not, it turned out, that he ever would.
Note: So I've had to do a lot of worldbuilding here – information on the land of hot water is SCARCE! Some of it may not be correct, but tbh this is going to be AU anyway (isn't all fanfiction, in the end?) but yeh. Tryin my best!