"DAMNNNN ITTTTTTT!!!" Sumihiko shouted at the top of his lungs, echoing throughout the village. Two days had gone by since Benzaiten had instructed the young prodigy to learn the jutsu he had absolutely zero grasp of. He had still been just as stumped as the first time he was shown the technique assigned to him by his mother.

His legs were riddled with cuts and scratches from his hundreds of attempts at this seemingly impossible technique.

"Why the hell can't I do this? Mom says it's a D-rank technique at best and I can't even use it once! I bet Sasuke would have been able to do it by now. If he was here, he'd probably be laughing at me! That smug bastard thinks he's the best at everything! I'll show him who's really on top!"

Sumihiko attempted the technique again, only to jump up, hit his head on a disk of air he hadn't realized he had created, and then hit his face on another one he had accidentally created. He let out a roar and started punching a tree that was on the field. What should have been a peaceful afternoon of rest for the new ninja was a complete nightmare. He had seldom experienced something like this. He picked up almost everything within his first couple of attempts so having to work so hard was foreign to him.

At that point, he decided to try to change his angle to learning the ninjutsu. He began running out of the training ground and making his way to the house of one of his clansmen. He arrived at a door and began banging on it. The house was very large and looked rather expensive. It was traditional but at the same time had a modern-esque vibe to it. The house was mainly the color of bamboo with darker and lighter greens spread throughout the residence evenly.

"Hold on! Hold on! I'm coming," a gruff voice shouted. The door opened and a tall imposing man stepped out of it. It was Asuma, Benzaiten's younger brother and Sumihiko's certified confidante.

Asuma was relatively young, only being twenty-six so he was like Sumihiko's older brother, usually being a babysitter when Benzaiten was on missions or when she just wanted some free time. He was the one who taught Sumihiko his first ninjutsu, the one who taught him about girls, and the one who taught him about being a man. If Benzaiten found out a secret Sumihiko had been harboring for years, Asuma would have been the one helping him hide it when it was first created.

"Oh, hey Sumihiko. You look like shit. I was just making some lunch, do you want a bite to eat?"

"Well, I guess. But what I really came here for was some help. Mom gave me a jutsu to learn that's supposedly a D-Rank technique that I can't figure out! It's called the Air Step. She said she invented it and how it was super simple but I can't even land right!"

"Wow, she's giving him that test. She shouted at Dad for months when he had her do it and swore her kid would never be subjected to something like that. I guess Dad was really right when he said "You'll understand when you become a parent yourself. Well, I guess if he's taking the test I'll make sure it really works." Asuma thought to himself as a bead of sweat dropped from his forehead.

"Oh, that?" Asuma said. He then began weaving hand seals and started hopping on the air the same way Benzaiten had been doing previously. "You really can't do it? I figured it out within the first couple of tries after your mom showed me! I thought a supposed super prodigy like you would have learned something like that easily."

Sumihiko's face changed from a look of annoyance to one of horror.

"How did he learn it faster than me? Mom and Gramps said he was the slowest learner in the entire family. What could he have been capable of that I'm not?" Sumihiko thought.

"Why don't you try it in front of me so I can see where you're going wrong?"

Sumihiko did as instructed and wove the necessary hand seals and attempted the Air Step once more. He landed on the ground with a painful thud, much to Asuma's delight as he began laughing uncontrollably, to Sumihiko's chagrin.

After Asuma finished he scanned Sumihiko. "Well…" he stared for a second. "It seems…" "Maybe…".

"WHAT!" Sumihiko bellowed, getting annoyed with Asuma's stretching of what the boy deemed to have been a simple explanation.

"I have no idea," Asuma said with a grin, making his nephew deadpan. "To be honest, you did everything just right, you just can't seem to form the air in the right place at the right time. You should probably just keep working on it, you know sometimes even the best ninja can struggle with simple things. No one can be the best at everything. Not you, not my dad, not even your father."

Sumihiko just nodded in annoyance and began walking away, as a light breeze began flowing past him.

"You're not staying for lunch?" Asuma asked, a bit surprised as Sumihiko was always a big eater, and was never one to skip out on a meal. "I'm serving now and you can leave right after you're done."

"Nope, I'm gonna go figure this thing out, how are the villagers gonna look at the son of the 4th Hokage if he can't even figure out simple D-rank ninjutsus." Sumihiko said dejectedly.

"Sucks to see him like this but if Sis wasn't teaching him like this, he'd fly into battle with any opponent who he met eyes with and would get killed in his first real combat mission." The bearded man thought this to himself as he pulled out a cigarette and a lighter, lit the cigarette, and took a long drag.

Sumihiko decided to go to another place to learn the ninjutsu that had been evading his mastery. The man he wanted to see was his grandfather, the Third Hokage, who had been rumored to know every single jutsu in the Hidden Leaf which would obviously include the technique that his mother had shown to him. He arrived at a brown door and knocked on it carefully. This house had been decorated even more ornately than the last. It was fitted with gold, ivory, and the same bamboo color that Sumihiko's uncle seemed to enjoy so much. The door opened to a seemingly shriveled old man whose face lit up with a smile when he saw who was at the door.

Sumihiko's respect for his grandfather superseded almost everything else that mattered to him. He had lived through two of the three great ninja wars, was the longest-running Hokage, the most powerful Hokage in his prime, which included Sumihiko's father, the oldest a Hokage had ever been, and held two titles; The Professor, for knowing myriad ninjutsus including the Hidden Leaf's entire arsenal, and even more importantly, God of Shinobi, for being the most powerful Shinobi of his and maybe even all time.

Hiruzen on the other hand was over the moon about his grandchildren. Due to the turbulence of the time he was Hokage, Hiruzen never got to spend much time with his own children, a regret that he had always held in his mind. His entire time as Hokage, he was always afraid that he would never get to see his children grow up and have families of their own. Since he got to meet not one, but two grandsons, he made sure not to take them for granted.

"Hey gramps, you look happy. How are you doing?"

"Oh hey Sumi, I'm doing just fine. I just finished lunch and I was getting ready for a walk. How are you?

"I'm doing good. But, I'm struggling with this jutsu that my mom showed me a couple of days ago."

"Oh wow, I never thought she would be giving him this lesson after what she said when I gave it to her," Hiruzen thought, leading to a little chuckle. "Well, what kind of technique is it?"

"It's called the Air Step. I already went to Uncle Asuma to ask him to help me learn it, but he just said that I need to keep practicing it. But, Mom wants me to learn it before I get assigned to my team."

"Well, I can't say that I've ever heard of it, could you possibly show it to me?" Hiruzen asked, innocently.

Sumihiko did as instructed, albeit a little surprised at his grandfather not knowing a technique, and showed the old man the hand seals, attempting the jutsu, only to rocket upwards, banging his head on the ceiling, and being caught in the arms of his grandfather.

"Well, I'll be. A jutsu that allows a ninja to fly, what is this world coming to?" Hiruzen did the hand seals once and immediately hopped on the air, bouncing all over the house and flying through his door. "Wow, what a rush! I wish there was something like this around when I was your age, and for it to be so simple!" Hiruzen said this and Sumihiko felt his blood begin to boil. "If Minato was shown this, he may have really been the strongest Hokage! I don't really know where you could be going wrong on something so easy!"

"What the hell!? How can Grandpa just pick it up so quickly!? I know he was strong but he's so old now! What does everybody have that I don't!? What makes them so much better than me!?" As Sumihiko thought this, a new thought crossed his mind. "Dad would have gotten it on the first try. And any real son of his would have too." When he thought this, he immediately took off on a sprint. Neglecting even bidding farewell to his grandfather.

"Damn. That son of yours is just like you, Benzaiten." As Hiruzen said this, Benzaiten appeared from the shadows with a frown on her face.

"Maybe having you mention Minato was a bit much?" Benzaiten said.

"Possibly, but I know that this is only bound to make him that much stronger. After all, the will of fire burns brightly in that brat. He wouldn't be the son of you two if it didn't." Hiruzen smiled as he said this, causing Benzaiten to smile a little as well before putting her head in her hands and groaning.

While the two adults were conversing, Sumihiko was running to his happy place, a bench overlooking a small pond. He exited the Sarutobi compound and after about 5 minutes of jogging he got to his destination. His father used to fish there before his death and Sumihiko had always felt closest to his father when he was there. He sat on the bench as tears began to fall down from his face.

"How am I supposed to be better than Dad if I can't even do a simple jutsu right? What's the point of being a prodigy when the first test I get put to is impossible for me to complete? If there are super prodigies like Dad out there, how am I gonna stack up against them? There's Dad, Gramps, Sasuke, and God knows who else out there who's gonna have more talent than I do! Maybe I'm not cut out to be a Shinobi after all."

As these thoughts ran through Sumihiko's head, Hinata who had been passing by noticed Sumihiko sitting on the bench and promptly sat next to him with a little blush. Sumihiko immediately noticed her taking the seat and immediately cleaned the tears from his face.

"Hey, Lady Hinata. What's up?"

"You don't have to call me that. But why were you crying?"

Sumihiko's face turned white like a ghost when he heard that. He was not accustomed to showing weakness to anybody other than Asuma. His mother had only seen him cry three times since he was eight and none of his classmates had ever seen him cry till this moment.

"I-I wasn't crying! I just got something in my eyes! I swear!" Sumihiko said while trying to think his way out of the situation. "Great! The one girl in my class who doesn't like me is the one that finds me at my weakest. The other guys in class are gonna grill me more than a family gathering at Choji's when they hear about this."

As Sumihiko thought this, Hinata who seemed to be capable of reading the young Sarutobi's mind said, "Don't worry, I won't tell anybody. But I did see you crying. Byakugan, remember?" she said as she pointed at her white eyes, earning a "damn," in the mindscape of her classmate.

"Well… to tell you the truth, my Mom showed me a jutsu that I have no grasp on even though everyone else I've talked to about it today was able to pull it off, first try."

"Hmm, could you possibly show me the jutsu?" Hinata asked.

Immediately Sumihiko replied, "No way, I don't think my heart could take the disappointment again." Slumping down as he responded.

"Well, I guess that idea's dead but, tell me why are you so down about not being able to pick up one jutsu? Last time I checked you were ranked two in the entire class. I've never seen you struggle with learning anything other than lectures your entire life. Just because you can't learn one thing doesn't take away from everything else you have learned."

"Wait, wait, wait. I was ranked number two in the class? Sasuke, that bastard is always stealing my thunder-" As Sumihiko began spouting his objections at Sasuke's rank in the class, Hinata interrupted him.

"There's your problem. Why are you comparing your growth to Sasuke? You had the best Taijutsu scores in class. You were also adored by all of the teachers and our classmates. You've always walked to the beat of your own drum in a way that people can't help but to follow. You're a really special person and not being able to figure out one jutsu shouldn't change that for you." Hinata said, her face blushing as she spoke.

"You know, you're kinda right! I'm pretty great aren't I!?" Sumihiko said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "So what if I can't learn one shitty jutsu! I'll just learn even better ones!" Sumihiko finally was getting out of the depression that his first failure had been bringing him. He grabbed Hinata's hands and said, "Thanks a lot! You're a real pal! I was completely wrong about you!" He began dashing away, headed to his home to have a conversation with his mom.

Hinata's face had been bright red until she came to a sinking realization. "A real pal? He was completely wrong about me? Just what kind of impression did I leave him in school? What kind of impression did I leave now? Was it not obvious that I like him? Why do boys have to be such idiots?" Hinata thought this and smacked her forehead.

Sumihiko got to his house, where he found his mother sitting on the couch. Sumihiko's relationship with his mom was complicated, to say the least. His mother had become a bit distant since he decided he was gonna go down the path of a ninja. Asuma and Hiruzen always tried to explain to him that Benzaiten had lost a lot of her loved ones due to the hazardous roads Shinobi walked and Sumihiko could understand this to a certain extent but it didn't stop it from hurting him. Benzaiten truly did love Sumihiko with all her heart, but she was terrified of losing another person close to her. She didn't want to be abandoned by the last piece of her husband that was left behind.

"Mom! I've decided that your jutsu is stupid! It doesn't matter if I can't do it! I've figured out more than enough jutsus to compensate for one D rank! And if you don't think everything I have been able to do outweighs this one thing I haven't been, then you don't know the first thing about me or ninja at all!" as Sumihiko gave his mother his peace, he heard a sniffle. "Mom? Are you okay? I'm so-".

"You really have grown up, my beautiful baby boy," Benzaiten said, interrupting Sumihiko.

"What? What are you talking about?" Sumihiko asked in confusion.

"You see, that whole jutsu thing was a test. It's traditional for the Sarutobi to test the resolve of the new genin before they actually get assigned to teams to make sure they're ready. It's impossible for you to do at the moment at your current level."

Sumihiko was bewildered at this. He had spent all this time, chakra, and effort on a test that he wasn't even meant to pass. "Then what was that jutsu that you showed me? It was obviously possible or you, Uncle Asuma, and Gramps wouldn't have been able to do it."

"First off, I said you wouldn't have been able to do it," Benzaiten said sharply before continuing. "That technique doesn't actually use wind chakra as solidifying air is insanely impractical and unpredictable. The technique doesn't actually require hand seals. It's actually an advanced form of chakra control that consists of attaching your chakra to the chakra in the air itself, it's only really possible after you've used other ninjutsu to saturate the air. It's a Jonin-ranked technique that's illegal to do while inside of the village to stop kids from getting hurt. You were never actually gonna pull it off. The point was that you realize that you don't have to be able to do every single thing and that it doesn't discourage you."

"Did you even actually create the jutsu?"

"Oh, goodness no. That's a technique that's been around as long as the other chakra-sticking techniques like vertical walkIng and water walking. It's just a lot more rare and a lot more safeguarded. In fact, there are about 12 ninjas in the Leaf Village that can use it right now."

"And Uncle Asuma's one of them!? No offense, I like the guy as much as the next person but I've never seen him as much of an overachiever."

"Oh, he can't use it. Why? What did he show you?"

"He just did the hand seals and did the technique the same as you."

"He didn't do the same thing as me. I don't really want to explain what he did right now but all you need to know is that you won't be able to do anything like that for a while either, if ever." Benzaiten said, hoping Sumihiko wouldn't ask any more questions about it.

Luckily, her wishes were granted, as Sumihiko just huffed and walked to his bathroom saying, "I need to take a bath, I'm exhausted and stinky" as he signaled a farewell to his mom, and left the room.

"Damn, I'm lucky Hinata gave me that pep talk or I might not be a ninja anymore. But what could Uncle Asuma have been doing that allowed him to stand on the air? Uncle Asuma is great at Wind Release but if Mom said it'd be near impossible to do, I doubt even he could do it. So what could it be? And why would Mom want to keep it under wraps?" Sumihiko analyzed the situation in his head throughout his entire shower but when he couldn't figure it out by the time he got out of the shower, he decided to drop it for the moment.

He went to his room to go to sleep for the night and after putting on his pajamas his eyes closed and he drifted into the world of his dreams. He saw a magnificently large beast. In fact, it was so big that it had appeared to be the size of a mountain. It had a monkey's head, with a white mane, the body of a tanuki, the legs of a tiger, and a snake for a tail. It was growling and drooling and looked very hungry.

"Hey! Who are you!?" Sumihiko shouted fearfully, doing his best to intimidate the creature.

Chakra beasts were incredibly rare, almost like a fairy tale. But Sumihiko had unfortunately bumped into the almost part of that, as it had seemed. Chakra beasts varied heavily in power and intelligence. There were the nine tailed beasts which were the most powerful, who were all held by the 5 great Shinobi nations and were all powerful enough to blow up the planet ten times over. Then, there was the rest, some could be seen as capable of rivaling the Tailed Beasts and others weren't even as strong as your average Chunin. Sumihiko just had to pray it was the latter.

The beast simply roared in his face before curling down and laying in the floor. Sumihiko had been shaken up but he refused to just become a victim to some ugly creature.

"This thing looks like something Mom used to tell me would get me if I didn't behave. What was it called again?" He pondered for a second. "Wait, that's right! You're a Nue! Get the hell out of here, Nue!"

The beast stood back up simply and got in Sumihiko's face, shrinking to around the size of a large wolf and snarling right in the young man's face. Sumihiko, having decided not to die a coward, readied himself for a fight he figured he had no chance of winning. He got into his Taijutsu stance and prepared for his last fight.

The creature pounced at him, and he ran back at it, roaring himself. But right before they crashed, the Nue changed sizes once more, now looking around the size of a puppy.

"Haha! Not too tough now, you little bastard!" Sumihiko said. Immediately the Nue changed to it's original size and ate Sumihiko right up.

Fortunately for the boy, he immediately woke up. Though for some strange reason, his room had been disfigured and his bed was destroyed.

"Mom! Do you know what happened?" Sumihiko shouted from the fractured bed.

"Oh! There was an earthquake but you slept right through it and I didn't want to hassle you! I'll call the contractor in a little bit, you just go out for today and have some fun. It is your last day as a civilian, after all." Benzaiten said.

Realizing this, Sumihiko quickly did his morning activities, ran down the fractured stairs, kissed his mom's cheek, and ran out the door. Benzaiten watched Sumihiko exit and after he was gone far enough, she called her father.

"Good morning, Dad, we need to talk. It's starting to manifest in him." Benzaiten said kind of shakily.

"Already? I figured we had a few more years at least. How far has he gone?" Hiruzen asked.

"Not all that much, really. His chakra just flared ridiculously hard and he ended up destroying the house," Benzaiten explained.

"Oh, so he's only just beginning. We have a little bit before we have to tell him. Let's just let him be a regular ninja for a little while. He can learn soon enough."

"Alright, Dad. I'll take your word on it for now. But, don't let a secret get my son hurt."

"Not a chance. I would never let anyone or anything harm my beloved grandson."

After Hiruzen said this, the father and daughter bidded each other their farewells and hung up. Benzaiten just sighed worrily.

"I really wish you were here, Minato." She sighed and went back to the kitchen in order to make some food and calm down.

Chapter End

Starting this chapter I'm doing character numbers. There will be a total of 7 stats 6 that everyone has and 1 custom and they will all be out of 10 as you will probably notice. Not all stats are finite and they will change as the characters do. If you're reading this, I'd really appreciate it if you'd comment and let me know what I've done wrong and right.

Sumihiko

Strength 4/10

Speed 6/10

Chakra 3/10

Durability 4/10

Technique 5/10

Intelligence 2/10

Custom stat: Pride 10/10

Stat average 24/100

Hinata

Strength 2/10

Speed 6/10

Chakra 7/10

Durability 5/10

Technique 4/10

Intelligence 5/10

Custom stat: Daddy's girl 10/10

Stat average 29/100

Sasuke

Strength 4/10

Speed 6/10

Chakra 5/10

Durability 2/10

Technique 6/10

Intelligence 4/10

Custom Stat: Emo 10/10

Stat average 27/100