Chapter 4

I hated walking. We had been walking for almost 2 weeks straight. Jiraiya had lead us through town after town as we headed to the, Village hidden in the Leaf. Every day we walked and explored, while Jiraiya explained the nature of the power that we all had obtained.

Apparently, it was called chakra and it was an amalgamation of both Mental and Physical energies, whatever the hell that meant. Although, that explanation did explain why I had gained so much of it when my mind had synchronized in the fight with Orochimaru, basically I had gained all of their physical and mental experiences in one so my chakra in turn skyrocketed, that had allowed me to enhance my muscles so I could land the strike that saved our lives. We now were training our chakra skills through control exercises, sticking leafs to our heads was almost a constant thing as we tried to refine skills that would be necessary for our survival in this world of ninja.

The more time we spent with Jiraiya the more enlightened about the general state of the world we became. The politics of the great five nations, the contract killing ways of the ninja, and all the other information that keyed us into how dangerous this world was. I had read the book given to me by that rat faced man several times over, and I still picked up new details about this world every time I read.

We would walk everyday, and then every night I would fight and die in my mind. The near constant pain and death did put me in a gloom from time to time, but everyday I would wake up not dead, but in a brand new world. Cincinnatus had me learning in a huge range of topics every night. Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and History were all topics that I was tutored on in my head. My world had been opened up to new possibilities, and I was greedily learning as much as I could.

My friends were also not stagnate, they took all the opportunities they had to learn and grow. Furianus frequently interrogated Jiraiya about ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, and genjutsu. We all listened and soaked up the information that he dispensed. Arminus also did not slack in his duties as he continued to teach us the intricacies of architecture and engineering. To sum up we were busy kids.

It was on our 17th day of walking with Jiraiya that we came upon upon the gates of the village. Whatever preconceived notions I had about the village were blown away in that moment. The walls of the village were massive, almost the size of large hills or mountains. It was that moment that I realized we were dealing with something that was far beyond our own conception.

"Holy Shit! These walls are massive!" Furianus yelled. Jiraiya laughed.

"You haven't seen anything yet kid." He replied. He talked to the gate guard and easily got us entry into the village. He lead us down the crowded streets pointing out buildings and explaining their purpose. My eyes track and observed every single detail, the buildings were massive!

As my eyes took in the sights of the building they caught sight of something moving rapidly across the roofs. That shouldn't be possible. I blinked and refocused my eyes. I was not hallucinating, two kids were jumping from roof to roof at high speed. They were hard to make out from a distance, but they both had blond hair. They quickly vanished from view.

"Jiraiya?" I piped up.

"Whats up?" He answered.

"Do people jump along the roofs as transit here?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, that's usually the fastest way for ninja to move across the village. At this time though, it's probably some kid who's late for academy." He answered.

"Ninja academy?" Cato asked.

"That's how people who want to be ninja go to learn the fundamentals of what it means to be a shinobi."

"Interesting, what are the ages of kids that go to the academy?" Muscius asked.

"Well kids usually graduate around the age you guys are right now. Although, if you all really want to be ninja you will have to have an accelerated track. Oh here's the Hokage office, this is where the leader of the village works." He explained as he lead us inside.

"Ahh Jiraiya-sama you have returned! The Hokage will see you at once" A receptionist at a table said. We followed Jiraiya up flights of stairs.

"Hey, Jiraiya. Why do people add that sama or san thing at the end of your name?" Cato asked.

"Oh that's just a way for someone to show deference to rank or relation to another person. Don't worry about it, you guys clearly are foreigners so people won't care too much that you don't follow local customs" He answered. We eventually came up on office. Jiraiya opened the door and lead us in.

Inside an old man wearing a strange hat sat working on paperwork. He looked up and focused on us as we entered the room.

"Ahh, Jiraiya. You have returned. Who are these guests you've brought?" The Hokage asked.

"It's a long story. " Jiraiya replied. The Hokage sat forward in his chair.

"I have time." He replied.

Jiraiya then proceeded to go over everything that occurred. He spared no detail in describing who we were, how we met and our scuffle. I saw the Hokage's eyes widened when he mentioned how we had fought off Orochimaru, he even gave us a more appraising look. He frequently asked questions to clarify, which Jiraiya answered. Eventually, Jiraiya finished his explanation. The Hokage sat for a while before he spoke.

" I understand the situation now, and I agree. You four boys might have the talent to become the shinobi. Also I have learned from the Lord of Fire that the Romans are to be considered our allies as they have made an agreement to serve him. I think it wise that we build ties with our new allies. Arminus-san?" The hokage asked.

"Yes?" Arminus replied.

"Do you think that your superiors would be inclined to approve of our two parties collaborating?" The Hokage continued.

Arminus thought for a second before responding. "I do believe they would be inclined to agree that collaboration helps both of us." Arminus replied.

"Excellent! Well in that case I would like to offer that your four pupils be allowed to visit our ninja academy for a day so that they get a better idea of what ninja life is all about. We still have much to discuss and I don't want to bore the lads with such dry discourse. Is that acceptable for you?" The hokage asked. Arminus again thought for a second.

"Yes that is very acceptable." He turned towards us. "You all have much to learn and this will be a good experience for all of you." He said in his 'You have to do this voice'.

"Of course that sounds wonderful thank you very much Hokage" Cato quickly answered for us. The Hokage chuckled.

"Izumo! Come and take these boys to the academy. Iruka's should be an excellent instructor for them. Also here give this to Iruka" The Hokage quickly wrote a note and gave it to a man who just materialized behind all of them.

"Understood Hokage-sama. Please follow me." The man who I assumed to be Izumo said. We all followed him as he left.

"Have a nice day!" The hokage called before the door to his office shut.

Izumo efficiently lead us through the building and the village to the ninja academy. It was a red colored large building. He quickly lead through corridor after corridor. We eventually found ourselves in front of door. Izumo knocked.

"Come in!"

Izumo opened the door and ushered all four of us in.

"Oh Izumo-san, what's up?" The teacher assumed to be Iruka asked.

"Orders from the Hokage" Izumo replied as he handed the note over to Iruka, who quickly scanned it.

"Okay, So these are visitors?" Iruka asked.

"Yep"

"Alright, you can head out. I got this" Iruka said. Izumo simply nodded and left. Iruka turned to face the class.

"Alright class, these are some visitors the hokage wanted to show our academy off to. So be on your best behavior" Iruka ordered, the class said "okay" in return.

"Hello, my name is Iruka, I am the teacher here what are your names?" He asked us.

Cato again was the first to speak. "Hello everyone, it's nice to meet all of you. I am Cato Scipio. This is my brother Muscius." He pointed to Muscius.

"Hello" Muscius replied.

"And this is" Cato began to speak as he pointed to Furianus.

"Hi everyone! I'm Furianus! Nice to meet all of you!" Furianus cut off Cato in usual Furianus fashion. I sighed, now it was my turn.

"Hey everyone. I'm Caius. Nice to meet all of you" I said in a casual tone.

"Its nice to meet all of you. Now class can you please make room for our guests to sit?" Iruka piped up. My eyes scanned the rooms inhabitants for the first time and something caught my eye. There were two kids who had the same blond hair that I had seen this morning. One was a girl and the other was a boy. The boy had an open seat next to him. That was interesting.

"Okay, so just find a seat and we will continue our lesson" Iruka said. Everyone else began walking to seats that had opened up in the amphitere like classroom. I walked up and sat next to the blonde kid in the upper row. When we were all in our seats again, Iruka picked up his text book and began to teach.

I tried to pay attention to him, it's just that he was such a dry teacher that I got bored easily. I think he was teaching us about the history of the village or something, I stop listening. Looking around I saw that the blond neighbor was doodling in a notebook. He had spiky blond hair, what looked like whiskers on his face, and he wore an orange jumpsuit. I got a better look at his drawings which actually were of plants, and they were really good drawings too.

"Cool drawings" I whispered to him. He turned and looked at me.

"Thanks. So where are you guys from?" He whispered back.

"It's a place you won't know," I replied.

"Oh. My name is Naruto" Naruto said.

"Cool, hey quick question. I saw two kids and one of them looked like you running on rooftops this morning. Was that you?"

"Yeah, my sis and I were late so we had to rush." He said sheepishly.

"Oh that makes sense. So this Iruka guy is a really dry teacher," I whispered to him as I faked paying attention to the teacher.

"Yeah I know right. Lunch is coming up soon so we are almost done."

We continued to whisper about things up until the bell rang.

"Alright lunch time guys! Be back in an hour and then we will have some sparing today." Iruka yelled as kid already stood up and started leaving.

"Hey Caius?" Naruto said as I stood up.

"What?"

"Wanna go get ramen for lunch?" He asked. I looked around to see what my friends were doing, but it looked like Cato and Muscius were already walking away with another group of kids. Furianus was also doing the same.

"Sure!" I replied.

"Awesome!" He jumped up in excitement.

"Hey Sis! I'm going out to eat with my friend here." He yelled over to a group of girls. A blonde girl turned towards us.

"Got it!" She replied.

"Awesome let's go!" Naruto exclaimed as he led me out of the building. We talked about all sorts of things as we walked.

Eventually, we came upon a store called Ichiraku Ramen. We both entered and sat on stools.

"Hi Ayame-san and Tunechi-san!" Naruto greeted.

A teenage girl came up to them.

"Hi Naruto! Who's this?"

"This is my friend Caius" I'm showing him around!"

"Oh excellent! So what will you have?"

"Two miso ramen for me!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I'll have a pork ramen please" I ordered.

Naruto continued to tell me about one of his most impressive pranks that he had played. He was a really fun kid. Eventually, our ramen arrived and we ate. Well I ate, Naruto did something else. He demolished the two ramen bowls in the blink of an eye. It was actually kind of scary how fast he ate. I also ate quickly but he straight up demolished the ramen that was put in front of him. After finishing eating we paid, said our goodbyes, and returned back to the academy yard. Here everyone had gathered around a large dirt rectangle. I saw my friends and I walked over to them.

"Hey guys," I said as Naruto followed behind me.

"Hey, who's this?" Cato asked.

"This is Naruto. He's the prankmaster of this village," I replied. The amount of stories Naruto had about his pranks were mind boggling.

"Nice to meet you Naruto" Cato held out his hand. Naruto shook it.

"Same to you to" He replied.

"You seem like a cool cat Naruto" Furianus said in one of his confusing adjectives.

"Thanks, I guess" Naruto responded.

"Nice to make your acquaintance" Muscius said.

"So what's going on here?" I asked.

"Basically, we get to fight each other here" Naruto explained.

"Really?"

"Yeah, two boys will be selected by Iruka to fight each other and they will, everyone will get a match." Naruto explained.

"Cool, I hope we get to fight!" Furianus said excitedly. It was at this point that the blond girl who I recognised as Naruto's sister came over to us.

"Hey bro, do you think you'll get paired with Sasuke again?" She said to him.

"I hope so, I've wanted to wipe that smug expression off his face. Oh, say hello to my friend Caius. Guys, this is my twin sister Nao" He introduced us to her. We all said our greetings to her, but we were interrupted in our greetings by Iruka.

"Alright! Everyone seems to be here, so today we shall start off with," He read off two names of kids,who both entered into the dirt rectangle. He told them to start, and then they fought. It was a pretty boring affair. One of the kids ended up pinned, two more names were called and it all repeated.

This same cycle repeat until a name was called. "Sasuke Uchiha and-" Iruka was cut off by another voice.

"Iruka-sensei, I want to challenge him" A black haired, serious looking boy said as he pointed at me. It took me a second to figure out what he meant, but after I did I had one simple thought, "Fuck".

"Sasuke! It is rude to challenge our guest, plus they aren't even trained ninja, it would b-" Iruka began to berate the boy when he was cut off. Hopefully, this would all fade away.

"Caius accepts!" Cato yelled out. I really hated him sometimes.

"What the hell are you doing?!" I whispered to him.

"It's rude not to accept a challenge" He replied with a shit eating grin plastered all over his face. He was forcing me into the damn thing, the crafty bastard.

"Are you sure?" Iruka asked a little taken aback. Cato looked at me expectantly. I sighed.

"Yes, I am sure." I began to slink my way into the ring. I did manage to hear the whispers of some people around me as I walked.

"Sasuke is going to destroy him."

"Doesn't he know Sasuke is the strongest kid in the class, that kid's a goner."

My thoughts on how I was going to get out of this situation without getting face kicked in began to focus. Okay, so whoever this Sasuke kid was, he was skilled and strong. That also pointed to him being arrogant, if that was correct then I would be able to guess. He's probably gonna do a couple probing attacks figure me out, and then try and take me down. At least that's what I would do if I were him. It is safe to assume for my own pride, that I won't have much of chance in this fight.

I found myself staring at him as I stood opposite of him. It was at this moment that it occurred to me how fucking strange of a situation I had found myself in. I mean 4 weeks ago, I was slated to be doing simple measurements, and now I was fighting the kids of a ninja village. I chuckled at the hilarity of my situation, unfortunately I laughed a little too loudly.

"What do you find so funny?" Sasuke asked me. His eyes narrowed as if he already knew the answer.

"He's laughing at Sasuke-kun!" One asshole shouted.

"Teach him a lesson!" Another yelled.

The entire crowd began to boil over in rage. It was at this point I could only sigh and wonder what the hell I had gotten myself into.

"I wasn't laughing at you, I swear." I pleaded trying to calm the situation, but the anger of the crowd drowned out my attempt at peacemaking.

"Whatever, are you ready?" He asked.

"Yeah. Sure" I replied as I fell into a defensive pankration stance.

"What kind of stance is that!" A heard someone from the crowd yell.

"Begin!" Iruka yelled.

Sasuke didn't waste any time by pushing off his back foot he quickly closed the distance and lead with right jab towards my face. I deflected and dodged, then counterpunched with a right hook to his chin. He used his free left hand to catch my fist. A foot crashed into my face knocking me down. He was faster than I had thought, he had been able to take advantage of my open guard and deliver a roundhouse kick to my face.

I jumped up to my feet. My face buzzed in pain, but I ignored it. I spat on the ground. It was clear Sasuke was a very skilled opponent, he had a lot of grace and fluidity in his attacks. He smirked towards me. He had the technical skill to out fight me. I couldn't compete with him on a technical level. I also wouldn't be able to out force him, he could probably dance around attacks that used raw power as a way of going for a single knockout. In theory I was out of options, but all the fighting in my head had taught me that there was 1 other option. Go for a single hit and then maximize the brutality to beat him quickly before he could adjust. I had to find a weakness in his attacks so I had to probe him.

I dashed towards him and launched a flurry of jabs, he deflected or dodged them all, but I didn't leave any openings. He didn't try to make anything and simply countered my blows until I backed off. That was interesting. Now I only had to run one more test to figure out my path to victory. I closed the distance with him and launched another flurry of blows, but I then launched a right hook. This opened up my head to another roundhouse kick that soon followed. I was able to bob my head under it, but only because my stance was good. The fact that he had responded with another roundhouse implied that he saw it as his knockout weapon, that was good. I jumped back. I finished my plan to win this fight. For a third time I rushed towards him. He was content to let me throw myself against him, he probably assumed I would make a mistake that he could capitalize on and win the fight with. As got within distance of him, I launched a slow Haymaker at him, effectively opening up my entire right face to his boot, my foot position also made it impossible for me to dodge, I also made sure my left arm was out of position to block the kick that I knew would come. Now, my chance to win would depend on if he took the bait and went for the win.

He went for the win. He began a twisting motion for a reverse roundhouse kick to go for the knockout. Perfect! As he began his turn he took his eyes off me for the tiniest of moments, that was his mistake. I poured as much chakra into my arm to speed it up as I brought it in a swinging motion so that I could meet Sasuke's kick. I then grasped the foot that was targeted towards my head and I threw all the power into acceleration Sasuke's spin into a faster uncontrolled spin. He rotated again, but this time I was bringing my left fist in a backhanded gesture that smashed into his face as his face rotated into my fist that was going the opposite way.

Sasuke was sprawled out on the ground, but I barely gave him a second before I started the brutality part of the fight. Now if I were trying to fight nice, I would have let him get up or just punched him in the stomach, but I was not fighting nice I was fighting brutally. That meant I had to get my point across and keep hitting him where it hurt. I grabbed his hair with my left hand and pulled his head, where I began to pummel his face with right hook after hook. It was only after a couple hits that I felt a 3 taps on my thigh. I immediately stopped my assault on his face and I let go of his hair.

It was at this point I realized I had tuned out everything else around me. Everyone around me including the teacher just stared at me in shock. I saw Cato sighing and shaking his head. I realized I had fucked up again.

"Oops" I said almost understating the level of fuck up I had to cause. The crowd exploded in outrage. I couldn't make heads or tails of what was being said, it was soo loud. I turned back to Sasuke and saw that I had really battered his face, his nose was bleeding. He was still sprawled on the ground panting. I held out my hand to him. My eyes met his and what I saw wasn't anger or hate, it was respect. He took my hand and I pulled him up. That quieted the crowd.

"Good fight" Was all I could think of to say.

"Yeah, good fight. I want rematch later. Then I'll beat you" He said.

"Fine, rematch later." I held my hand and he shook it. The crowd was absolutely silent as we both walked back to our respective spots. Iruka said something but I didn't listen to him. I slunk down and tried to hide my presence as I got strange looks from both Naruto and his sister.

The fights went on for the rest of the day. Cato, Muscius and Furianus all fought other schoolkids, but they all lost. I did my part, by trying to disappear as well as I could. After all the fights finished, Iruka lead us back inside. There we continued with more classwork. Naruto and I talked about the fight with Sasuke. Apparently Sasuke had never lost a spar, so my victory over him had already sent the rumor mill into overdrive.

The class finished eventually and another ninja came to retrieve all of us Romans. We said our goodbyes to our friends. I had promised to Naruto if I returned that I would come see him first thing, he wrote down his address on a piece of paper and handed it to me. We were already outside, when I remembered I had forgotten my pack in the classroom. I went back to retrieve it, but when I was at a corner in the hallway I ran into someone. I knocked them over.

"Ooops! Sorry about that!" I said as I held my hand to a purple haired girl. She glared at me for a second, then accepted my hand.

"Hey are you that visitor kid that beat Sasuke?" She asked. Her eyes focusing on me, the strength of her glare made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

"Yeah, that me." I managed to mutter.

"Huh, well good job on that. I always hated that smug Sasuke kid. Oh by the way my name is Ami" Ami said.

"Nice to meet you Ami, but I have to go get something" I said, excusing myself. I grabbed my pack and returned back to my friends. The ninja lead us back to the Hokage's office. He was still sitting at his desk, Arminus and the other adults were also there.

"So how did you boys like your day?" The Hokage asked with a smile on his face.

"It was awesome!" Furianus exclaimed. The Hokage laughed at his outburst.

"That's good to hear. Well you boys must have had quite the day. So how you like to stay the night in the village?" The Hokage asked.

"That sounds wonderful, thank you very much for the hospitality" Cato answered.

"It is no trouble at all. Now I should get back to my paperwork, plus you boys must be starving. So go get some food and sleep." The Hokage said as he snapped his fingers and a ninja came up to us.

"Please follow me so I can show you to your inn," We all said our thanks to the Hokage and the ninja led us out of the building to an inn. We all got settled before Jiraiya took out to a nice restaurant. We had all had a busy day so it wasn't long after dinner that we all fell asleep, me included.

That night it was another round of fighting and learning. However, when I was in the middle of a lecture about chemistry that I noticed something odd. My teacher dissolved, and I whirled around to face a blonde haired man with a ponytail. He was clearly an interloper.

"Who are you!" I yelled.

"Interesting, you have much stronger mental defenses than I predicted." The blonde hair man said.

"I asked who are you!" My temper began to flare. This person didn't belong here, that really put me on edge.

"My name is Inochi, and I can explain everything if that will suit you" Inochi replied.

"This does sound interesting, let's here all of it." Cincinnatus said as he continued to chew on an apple.

"Who are you? Are you a demon?" Inochi pointed at Cincinnatus, his body suddenly defensive. It was at this point that I realized that we had very complicated situation on our hands that would take a while to unravel.

"One thing at a time here" I said.

It was a very complicated situation, but eventually we all got on the same page. Inochi was a mind reading ninja that had been ordered by the Hokage to investigate my mind, because they suspected that it was inhabited by a demon. Cincinnatus explained the reason for his being and the nature of my power. Eventually after all this explaining, I had one last question.

"Mr. Inochi, can I speak with the Hokage? I want to know everything." I asked.

"Well considering how this situation has developed I think that would okay. I'll leave now and wake you up" Inochi said as he disappeared.

"Tread carefully Caius. These people are not to be trifled with." Cincinnatus said.

"I know, I'll do my best." I said as I began to feel the sensation of waking.

"Just keep in mind that sometimes your best won't be good enough." He replied as I came out of my sleep. I found myself in my room, Inochi standing over me. He gestured to me and lead me out of the room. We walked to the Hokage's office where the light was still on in his office. Entering I saw the Hokage's eyebrow raise just a bit, Jiraiya was also in the room.

"I assume this means the mission did not go according to plan." He said.

"That is correct Hokage-sama. This is much more complicated." Inochi replied before beginning his explanation of first how I caught him, Cincinnatus, and of my power. The Hokage and Jiraiya were silent during his recount of events. When he finished off the Hokage asked me a question.

"So why did you want to talk to me young Nonus-san?" He asked.

"What do you want with us? I mean from what I can see, it takes a lot of time and energy to train people into ninjas, so why bother with us? We aren't trained, and we are several years behind the skills of what others of our age cohort are at. It doesn't make any sense." I asked.

"Well there are several reasons. First off your power is one that is unique in nature, plus if what you have told us about your fight with Orochimaru was correct then it already has allowed you to be able to fight well. Secondly, as your mentor Arminus already knows. You boys have a unique chakra system. While most people have a centralized system that generates chakra and distributes it, you and your friends all have decentralized networks that work from cell to cell. We have no idea of the effects this might have, but we can guess it will give you all much more flexible ways to use chakra. Do these all make sense?" The Hokage asked.

"I suppose so" I responded as I digested all the information that had been presented to me.

"So what now?" I asked.

"You should get to bed young man, I still have much to discuss with Inochi-san. If you ever have anything else you want to speak to me about just come and speak to me." The Hokage answered. I simply nodded and left the room as exhaustion from the day's events began to take hold over me again. It was going to be a long night.

Here is the most current chapter after I finished rewriting the story in a first person perspective. Tell me what you think of the perspective and is there anything I could improve about it.