Here is the fourth Chapter, I hope you enjoy reading it.
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"As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at thing which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know." -Carl Gustav Jung
Shikaku's ninjutsu lessons were for the most part… not very helpful.
I wonder just how exactly Shikamaru was able to learn anything from his father. Maybe it's because Shikaku did all his experimenting on me.
Anyways, when I say his lessons were not helpful, I mean he just handed me some journals and scrolls our great-great-something-great grandfather wrote when he first made the shadow possession jutsu.
Now, why would he hand a five year old these ancient and highly valued Nara clan artifacts? Who knows, Shikaku is only nine and doesn't even want to teach me anyway.
Now, if I have to agree with Shikaku on one thing, Hiroto probably shouldn't have made him be my teacher. Shikaku hasn't even fully mastered the jutsu himself. Hell, he isn't even taking his Genin test until later next month, he's still an Academy student.
I also have no idea how I'm supposed to teach these jutsu's to myself (not including the fact these scrolls are so old they're basically illegible). I haven't even been taught how to unlock my chakra coils. For most shinobi (clan kids included) it's highly advised that you don't start using chakra until the age of six. Don't ask me why Kakashi and Itachi were using it before that age, maybe it's part of the reason they both ended up with… certain personality quirks.
But back to me, I haven't unlocked my chakra. Even in this time of war where kids are starting at the Academy earlier, it's one of the few things that haven't changed. But I'm pretty sure I still at least have to do that before I can do any sort of these shadow-possession jutsu.
So what am I going to do about this?
Mope in our clan's deer fields while looking like I'm reading these scrolls until somebody takes pity on me and comes over to help. It's a plan I often implement when I'm trying to find someone to help me but don't actually want to go out looking for someone. Most of the time, it works.
Today though, it takes a bit longer for the plan to work, and the deers take pity on me far before an actual human does, and I end up with five lying around me before someone else comes into the field.
"Oh, is that little Kotaro over there?" I hear someone call out to me. Looking over at the voice, I see it's Haru, one of the men who live a couple houses down from me and Shikaku.
Well, man might be a strong word. He's probably only fifteen or sixteen, definitely not older than a high school senior if the patchy beard on his face says anything. But he has one of those Konoha Leaf Headbands around his forehead, which means he's a shinobi, and in this world, that means he's an adult.
"What are you reading there?" he asks me when he notices the scroll I'm reading.
I lift it up to show him. "Shikaku gave it to me. He says it can teach me the shadow jutsu's."
"Hmm, you're learning that already?" he asks. At my nod, he continues. "Aren't you a little young for it? Does Shikaku even know it?"
I think for a second. I know Shikaku at least knows the basics. I remember our father teaching it to him before he died. But I was never included in those lessons, so all I remember is that it looks really cool from afar.
"I think he knows it, the basics at least," I say. "But he's too busy to teach me, can you?" I ask, hoping my original plan will work, that someone will take pity on me and teach me instead.
"Too busy? Your brother's an Academy student. What's he busy with?" Haru actually does have a point with that. Especially since I do half of Shikaku's homework. (Well, his math homework. But that's half of the homework Shikaku turns in, so…)
"He said he's busy with busy," I say, and that's not a lie. Shikaku did say that, while he pulled the covers over his head and fell back asleep.
"So can you teach me?" I ask again.
"Hmm." he hums. "What jutsu do you know?"
"I don't know any," I say, and if that ain't the truth. I know jack shit about chakra. I can't even feel if the presence of chakra in this body is supposed to make me feel any different as opposed to my body in my Last Life.
"Wait a minute. You're saying you haven't done any jutsu but you're trying to learn this?" Haru asks with shock in his voice. "Who's crazy idea was that?"
"Hiroto-ojii-san told Shikaku he had to teach me."
"Really?" Haru nods to himself. "Well, let's go find one of them. No wonder you have no idea where to start, you can probably barely read what's written on this old scroll."
"You can read it? It's suuuper old," I ask. Because the scroll was super old, and every letter was bleeding into the next. Even if it was written in English, I wouldn't have been able to read it.
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The beginning of taijutsu classes was… exceedingly painful. And not because I was getting hurt. No, it was because the kids were… so… so bad.
I guess I was wrong in thinking that all the kids would know something about martial arts and fighting before they started the Academy, but even half of the clan kids ….just didn't.
I wasn't going to be overconfident in saying that my experience in martial arts in my Last Life would have any influence here. I know these kids are only five but… I knew five year olds better in my Last Life, who's parents only signed them up for martial arts so they were in an activity that would burn their energy off.
"Yah," Chojiro shouts as he tries to punch me in the chest.
We are currently doing mock sparring in pairs after we were shown how to throw a basic punch. The instructors, Hajime-sensei and Koga-sensei, were walking around and correcting our forms and mistakes. Although they were taking their sweet time with it.
"What kind of punch was that, Chojiro?" I ask, after watching the … quite terrible… punch.
I shake my head, there's no way I'm waiting around for the senseis to come over and correct him, not when I know more than enough to correct this stuff.
"No no no, Chojiro. First, you have to form a fist right," I start to explain as I take his hand and start manipulating it. "You see your fingers here. First you want to curl them in. Then you take your thumb and wrap it around the outside. If you wrap your fingers around your thumb, you could break it."
"Oh," Chojiro says, it just dawning on him what I mean.
"Yeah," I nod. "Hold your fist like that." Then I move to stand beside him. Now show me how you punch," I ask, trying to see just what his punching form looks like. It's better when he uses a proper fist, but the form is still… sloppy.
Eventually I show Chojiro the steps for throwing a simple punch: Chambering your arm, taking a step forward to increase momentum, twisting your wrist.
"Great," I say once Chojiro can do it semi-decently. "Now try punching me."
"What? Kotaro! How can I do that?" Chojiro says, shocked that I would even think about having him punch me.
I sigh. "You're not going to hurt me, Chojiro. And even then, I'll just punch you back," I joke, trying to lighten the mood and see just how strong Chojiro can punch.
"But-," Chojiro hesitates.
"Come on, I just want to see how strong you are," I whine, trying to get him to punch me.
That seems to do it though. For he pauses, takes a deep breath, and does exactly as I showed him before. Only right before his fist makes contact with my arm, I see his hand slow down, and he only taps me.
"Come on, Chojiro. You can punch me harder than that," I say as I motion for him to punch me again.
"But Kotaro," he says, shaking his head. "I don't want to hurt you."
Okay, just why does this kid have to remind me so much of Choiji? I swear, if he doesn't end up dying somehow in the next twenty years, you could say that he would be a past life of Choji. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. There's no way I'm gonna let this kid die, that's why I'm pushing him now.
"You're not going to hurt me, Chojiro," I tell him, again trying to encourage him.
From the pair standing next to us, one of which is Mikoto, I can hear her say, "What are they even doing over there? Just messing around?"
Man, this girl annoys me.
I look at Chojiro. In the months that I have been hanging out with him, I haven't exactly figured out ways to motivate him or make him worked up about anything. But I haven't tried this yet.
"Hey Chojiro," I whisper to him, low enough that the two girls can't hear. "You see those two girls over there," I motion to them with my finger. "They think you're too weak."
"What?! No I'm not!" he says.
"Then show them," I say, patting my shoulder. "Punch me as hard as you can."
"Fine," Chojiro huffs, and before I know it, I see a fist hurtling towards my face too fast for me to do anything.
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"Just how do you know so much about math, but nothing about any of the other subjects?" Minato asks me one day as I am helping him with his math homework.
It is currently our study period that takes place halfway through the afternoon, usually held on the three days leading up to our next test. Usually I'd find this time to be perfect for a nap, but Minato asked me to help the three of them; Minato, Chojiro and Kenji. Apparently I've been deemed the teacher of our little group. If only because I don't pay attention in class but still seem to know everything.
I have no idea where Minato learned his manners, he said he lives in the village's orphanage, but I can't find myself to say no to a five year old who knows exactly when to say please and thank you.
"It's because math never changes, Minato," I say cryptically. I can't give him all my life's secrets just yet. Maybe one day if stuck as POW's, bored out of our minds and start talking about life philosophy, but not now.
"What do you mean 'math never changes'?" Kenji asks.
"Exactly that. No matter where you go, math and science will always work the same. History and reading, that stuff changes all the time."
They all look at me in confusion. Minato's face looks more confused than when he is completely stuck on a math problem. "Are you saying you learned this stuff in a different country?"
"Nope," I say. "I've never left Konoha. Except for maybe when I was a baby, don't really remember much from back then." And that's true, while I do remember certain events, and what it was like being a baby, my senses were still so underdeveloped I had no idea what was happening five feet away from me.
"So are you saying someone in your clan taught you this? And they just skipped the rest of the stuff?" Kenji asks.
"No," I shook my head. "They tried to teach me how to read and write, although that hasn't exactly turned out great." It's true, twice a week I still sit through Kiyoko-nee-san's reading lessons. Over the past few months I've learned how to read most words, but my writing in the Japanese language is still jack-shit. "I guess you could say… I was born knowing this math stuff."
"You were born knowing it?" Minato asks as he pushes his face closer to me and looks into my eyes. Okay, I take my manner's comment back, this kid knows nothing about personal space.
"That makes no sense. Are all Nara born knowing this?" he asks.
Shit, why's this kid have to ask so many vague questions? I guess I just have to resort to the tried and true method of getting inquisitive kids off-topic. "I don't know actually. I do my older brother's homework a lot, although that's just cuz he's too lazy to do his own. You should ask him later."
To my luck, this tactic works. Minato leans back to his seat, and smiles while saying, "Alright, I think I'll ask him later then. Will he be at your house this afternoon?"
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"So have you mastered the leaf technique yet?" Haru asks a week after our first chakra lesson. After he found me last week, he walked around the compound with me looking for both Hiroto and Shikaku. When it turned out that both those males realized I needed to begin learning ninjutsu but neither really wanted to be the one to teach me, Haru took it upon himself to teach me. If you could call it teaching.
I don't know what's up with this family's teaching style. Maybe it's because they think I taught myself math so I can teach myself everything else, but they all seem to show me something once and then leave me to figure the rest out. (Except Kiyoko-nee-san. She knows that if I was left alone I would turn out to be quite literally illiterate except for reading numbers.) . This is what happened after Haru taught me how to call chakra to different points on my body and then showed me how to put a leaf on my forehead.
It took me a couple days to figure out how exactly to not let the leaf drop after five seconds, but now I can do it for upwards of four minutes. I'd have to say, practicing the technique was hella boring though. Kind of like doing planks. Sure, you're fine in the first thirty seconds, but after that you get bored out of your mind and realize just how many parts of your body you're using and how much this exercise just sucks.
"Yeah, I mastered it," I say. "Do you want me to show it to you?"
"Nah," Haru says. "That'll take too long and I got other plans tonight. Now I'm gonna show you how to do tree-walking."
"Tree-walking?" I ask. Of course, I know what this man is referring to. It was, after all, a very important part of the beginning of the Naruto series. But this early? I've barely begun using chakra.
"Yep," Haru says. "Follow me to the forest and I'll show you."
A short walk later, Haru explains to me the basic theory behind the technique as I watch him slowly walk up the trunk of the tree.
"You'll need to know how to do this before you can start to do any shadow techniques," he adds before he drops back down to the ground.
If that's why he's teaching this to me so early, then it makes perfect sense. After all, learning all of the shadow possession jutsus must take a significant amount of time. So if Shikamaru could use them effectively in fights by the Chunin Exams, he must have started learning these chakra exercises at a much younger age than they showed in the series.
"Now go on, Ko," Haru says as he pushes me in the direction of a tree. "Let's see you try it."
On my first attempt, I fall straight to the ground, landing hard on my back. Shit, that's gonna leave a bruise.
I hear Haru laughing behind me. "Good try, Ko. Good try," he says. I turn around to look at him as he begins walking away.
"Where you going?" I ask his retreating form.
"Like I said, I have plans tonight," he calls back to me. "Come find me again once you master this."
Sigh, looks like I have yet another thing I need to learn on my own.
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"Okay you brats, today we're going to start doing what you've all been waiting for: learning how to use your chakra," Hajime-sensei says one morning.
This instantly catches the attention of every child in the classroom, and they all start whispering to their neighbors in hushed tones. Most of them, understandably, can't help but be excited at the prospect of finally being able to utilize the power of nature to get stronger. After all, for many it's probably the first time they'll be using chakra.
But trust me, after a while the simple stuff becomes boring.
Little did any of us realize however, these 'chakra lessons' start with an hour long lecture on chakra theory. Which is really... really... boring.
Honestly, after the couple months of training with Haru on this stuff, you don't need to know anything about the theory behind it to start using chakra. It's probably better if you aren't drilled down with theory first.
It's sort of like learning how to draw. When you're young and a kid, someone can just hand you a crayon and you could go to town making lots of drawings every day, exploring what you can do and making your own ideas and style. Then, when the kid starts taking art lessons, they're taught many theories and techniques to make better drawings. If not taught the theories at the right time, it could potentially cause a kid to become stuck on what techniques they need to use to show what they want in their drawings. They might feel like they need to be doing something even though it's counter-productive to what they want to do.
Using chakra is a little like that. There's probably some safety and liability reason on why we're being taught all these theories to start, but I can ultimately see this confusing some of the kids when we start actually using it.
Eventually, after lunch time, we get around to finally doing something more today than sitting at our desks. It turns out that chakra is a big enough topic that for our first day on it, the entire day will be spent covering it. And it seems for the afternoon session we're finally moving to the 'application' part.
"Alright, Now we're actually going to start doing stuff," Hajime-sensei says as he comes back into the classroom. "All of you go down to the small training room downstairs, that's where we'll start."
Once the twenty or so students in our class get there, we form up in a circle around Hajime. He holds up his hand, holding a small green leaf. Oh joy, it's the stupid leaf exercise again. He slowly passes leaves around to everyone, and goes over more theory on how we're supposed to do this.
After the explanation, we are finally given the chance to try and hold the leaves against our foreheads. The simple exercise goes better for some than others.
As I expected, the two Uchihas in the class have already done this and become masters at this little exercise. And they weren't too happy to see that I knew how to do it as well.
After Haru started teaching me how to use chakra, it was something I took to like a duck to water. My control was greatly helped by the fact that I knew what it was like to have a body without chakra, so I knew exactly where the chakra is going in my body and how to shift it around.
If I were to describe it, it's almost like holding a clump of runny cookie dough. The more you focus on it and try to control it, the more thick it becomes, letting you form it into shapes in your hands. Eventually you are able to kneed it, forming it into a little ball in your center, then slowly pulling parts out to other areas of your body.
Holding the leaf to my forehead using chakra, Hajime-sensei eventually makes it around the other kids to stand before me. The look on his face tells me he isn't surprised by what I am able to do.
"Seriously kid, first math and now… you already know how to do this too?" he asks.
"Yep," I nod.
He sighs, rubbing his forehead. "Please don't tell me you started doing this by yourself." Weird, does he think I learned math 'by myself?' Probably.
"I didn't" I say, still holding the leaf to my head. "My cousin taught me how."
He sighs again, and under his breath I can hear him say something like "typical Nara, starting their kids so young." Is that something he thinks only about the Nara clan, or all the clans? Because looking across the room, I can see Fugaku and Mikoto doing the same thing as me. "Did your cousin teach you anything else?" Hajime asks. He sounds annoyed.
"He started teaching me tree-walking the other day," I add.
"Tree-walking?! As a gen- Academy student?!" he almost yells.
"Yeah. Why is it a big deal?" I ask, confused. I know in the anime, Team 7 didn't start learning it until after they graduated from the Academy. But if you look at the theory behind it it should be easier to learn how to tree-walk than do something like a clone or henge. The chakra is barely leaving your body with tree-walking, it's only coating the surface of the part of the tree you're attaching yourself to.
"Why don't you go outside and practice that," Hajime says as he turns around, muttering "why's this kid always have to be so far ahead of everyone."
Okay, am I really that far ahead though? I look around the room to see what stages the other kids are at, and besides Fugaku and Mikoto, they… aren't making that much progress. Minato is holding the leaf in his hand, staring at it questioningly (Precisely what I mean that it might be better to let kids explore some of it by themselves before pushing theory down their throats). Chojiro keeps putting the leaf up to his head… only for it to fall right to the floor. Kenji is making some progress, if holding it on his head for half a second qualifies as progress. It might just be some moisture that's making it stick.
So… maybe I am pretty far ahead. Although Hajime-sensei still didn't say that about the two Uchihas. I find that at some point, I must have started sulking. This is just great. Now I'm jealous of two five years because I'm… better than them?
Man, I need to get out of here.
Which is great, because Hajime-sensei just told me to go outside. Giving me the perfect excuse to take a nap underneath one of the trees. And there was one I spotted on the training grounds last week that looks like it would make the perfect napping spot.
"Kotaro? What are you doing out here?" I hear a voice call out to me.
I lift my head up from where I had it laying on the ground to see it was Shikaku that had called out.
"Kaku-nii?" I greet him. "What are you doing out here?"
"I can ask you the same thing," He says as he comes to stand over me, his body casting a shadow over my face.
I drop my head back to the ground. "Hajime-sensei told me to go practice chakra stuff outside," I answer. "I felt like taking a nap instead."
"Only you?"
"Yeah," I say calmly. "I already knew how to do what he was teaching the other kids."
I hear him exhale deeply before he starts to walk away, allowing the sun to shine bright into my eyes, causing me to wince. "If you're gonna be ahead of everyone don't get too complacent," I hear my brother say as he walks back to wherever he came from.
What does he mean by that?
Don't say he's telling me to get off my butt. If he is, I'll point out all the times Kiyoko told him to do the same thing when he only rolled over to take a nap. Who knew older brothers can be so troublesome?
Once the Academy lets out for the day though, I do start practicing the tree-walking technique… by not going to the forest.
No, to master the tree-walking technique, I wasn't going to start with trees. Trying to run up trees over and over again will take forever to yield results. Instead, I think the best method would be to try walking up steep slopes, increasing the slope until you reach one nearly perpendicular to the ground.
Where would I find these slopes, a common place you see shinobi popping about, the rooftops of buildings.
In my Last Life, I led many construction projects dealing with building and replacing the roofs of buildings. Typically, roofs with pitches between 0/12 and 3/12 are considered very easy to walk on. Above a pitch of 4/12 it is considered more difficult, requiring some type of harness. Above a roof pitch of 8/12 it is considered nearly impossible, requiring the use of scaffolding if work on the roof is necessary.
So first things first, I need to find a semi-steep roof to begin practicing. Going around Konoha makes me realize the architecture of this place is really weird. Some roofs are completely flat, some with a slope small enough you can barely notice it, and then there are some that are way higher than what I need to start. There's almost no agreed upon style of any of these buildings at all. Which is weird when you think about how this village is less than fifty years old at this point in time.
I eventually find more varied roof slopes in the civilian-housing section of the village. My walking around on top of their roofs will probably piss some of them off if they hear me. So I hope my small five-year old body weight won't make too much noise.
I pick the house I want to start with and climb up the wall to the roof. I don't know if it's because this body is naturally more athletic or there's more points along the wall to help climb, but the climb isn't that hard at all.
And as I expected, standing on this roof is exceedingly challenging, if my slipping feet tell me anything. I channel some chakra through them and they stick to the roof tiles. My momentum doesn't stop however and I almost tip back on my feet before I am able to bend my knees and right myself.
"What are you doing over there?" I hear a voice ask behind me. I turn around, and across the alleyway, I see the window open of the neighboring building with the face of a young girl looking out. It must have been her who asked the question.
"Who wants to know?" I ask back.
"You're that Nara boy from the Academy right?" she asks. At my nod, the girl takes that as her invitation to join me, and she climbs out the window and jumps over to where I'm standing.
Now that she's closer, I recognize her as one of the other girls in my class at the Academy. If I remember correctly, her name is Reika. I haven't had too many interactions with her, but know enough about her to know she's one of those civilian-born kids. Although she is one that does better than most. She has strawberry blonde hair tied back into a ponytail and a thin face. And she's tall, at least six inches taller than me. Man, who knew there was such a large range in height at this age? And why am I cursed with being short?
"Woah, it's hard to stand on this thing," She says as she notices the steep incline of the roof. She puts her hands up on the roof tiles to stop herself from sliding down. "How are you not sliding down?"
"Chakra," I explain. "It's sort of like what we did in class today. Except instead of pushing chakra to our forehead to make it sticky, you push it down to your feet."
She takes a long hum, before I see her scrunch her face. She must be doing what I said.
Then suddenly, I hear a popping sound and she is projected up off the roof by her feet. I see her land hard on the alleyway behind me, and it looks like it hurt.
"Are you okay down there?" I call out and ask.
"Yeah, I'm alright," Reika says around a moan as she slowly stands up. She then looks up at me, and boy does she look mad. "What did you do to me?!"
My first thought is that she must have channeled too much chakra to her feet.
Huh, maybe those theory lessons were important after all.
