Hello everyone, sorry about the delay AGAIN. I felt bad about my upload schedule and the chapter that I was working on was turning out to be very long, so I thought I could cut part of it and upload a chapter early, this means that the graduation chapter is the next one. Let know if you guys enjoyed or disliked anything.

—-

"Let's see…" Hayashi-sensei hummed to himself, looking at a clipboard with our names on it. He was determining who would fight next at taijutsu practice. His lips stretched into a sly grin as he announced the next up to fight in taijutsu spars to our group of anxious academy students. "Next up: Uchiha Daisuke vs Uchiha Shodo!"

The crowd of children cheered a dramatic 'oooooh' in response, much to my annoyance. Great job, sensei, look what you've done. He doesn't think that this kind of fight would rile everybody up? I looked back at Hayate, only to see that he didn't look sympathetic at all, he instead only looked excited, fixing me with an expectant look.

I sighed to myself, shaking my head. I didn't delay my entrance onto the sparring area since I knew I'd get yelled at. I wasn't nervous, I didn't think I'd lose to my fellow Uchiha, in fact I felt confident, I was just more annoyed at the fact that I would have to get involved in some class drama.

Despite my previous match with Hyuuga Momoku, my classmates didn't regard me too highly. They couldn't tell from the fight that I was actually pretty good at taijutsu, since my offense was still lacking and because Momoku beat me, just like everyone else who sparred with him.

I eyed Shodo from across the sparring arena before the match began. The Uchiha were all pretty reserved. It was hard to spot an "undignified" Uchiha out on the streets of Konoha. Shodo, though, didn't seem to be reserved considering his Uchiha heritage. He was smirking at me arrogantly from the other side of the arena.

"I asked around about you at the compound, you know?" jeered Shodo, hostility and pride seeping into his tone. "I heard that a cowardly Uchiha kunoichi retired and left the clan to marry a mere civilian, they had a child together." He pointed at me.

The bastard actually brought up his opponent's mother. I glared at him from across the arena. No one talks shit about kaa-san. I motioned at him to bring it. He smirked even harder. "Even if you are half-Uchiha, you were still born to a weakling! What makes you think you're any different from her?" he taunted.

Oh, this was so on. Forgive me for falling for a child's taunts, but I never said I was especially mature.

I got into my stance and so did he. Hayashi-sensei was sweating a little from where he was seated. Maybe it was dawning on him just now that this was a bad idea. He raised his hands in the typical way to show us when to start. "3… 2…. 1…. GO!" he announced, initiating our spar.

Shodo looked confident in himself. He probably thought that no matter what, he was better than me. He charged at me, and he wasn't bad. His charge looked reckless, but he wasn't taking me as lightly as I thought he would, considering how tense his body was even while appearing as confident as he did.

He was wary of me, despite everything he'd said. He wasn't stupid.

He tried to sweep my legs from under but I side-stepped it. He recovered from his lowered position with a springing jump in my direction, and started trying to punch my upper body, especially my head.

He was viciously aiming to knock me out. I took the time to continue dodging and blocking where necessary. As expected of an Uchiha, he was very good at taijutsu. It wasn't easy enough for me to idly dodge, I had to remain focused.

But at the end of the day, he wasn't Gai. I may not have been used to fighting this boy, but I was used to way more… challenging attacks. I cringed at a memory of a brutal kick to the solar plexus from a few days prior.

Punches flew past my face as I kept dodging them. I quickly realized that even though his aggressive yet skillful attacks were impressive, he often favored his right for stronger attacks.

That's the kind of habit that has to beat out of you. Gai's done that plenty of times for me

I decided to stop evading, considering my classmates were getting rowdy about me needing to 'man up' and 'fight back'. Sure, I'll fight back. Slipping past an especially heavy swing, I leaned into his side to counter his attack. I watched his expression become panicked as my fist suddenly met his nose.

Some blood spurted out from his nose as he recoiled back. I decided to not pursue him to get another attack in, since I wanted to give him another chance to show something to Hayashi-sensei. I half-expected him to call me a cheater or a wimp or something, but he regarded me with more caution than before.

After he got back in his stance, I decided to attack for once. Gai was seriously bugging me about needing to step up my offense. It was hard to do that since my only regular sparring partner was the spandex-wearing monster.

Gai was getting stronger at a ridiculous rate and he decided to stop holding back against me ever since I turned 7. Dodging is all I've been able to practice with him. Most of my attempts at offense were crushed almost immediately, leading me to develop a style that favors defense and counter attacking too much.

Taking a move from Gai's arsenal, I decided to attempt a bastardized version of his newly-developed Dynamic Entry. I couldn't manage the whole spin, but I could manage the form of a flying side kick. A killer one at that, considering the strength of my legs relative to my arms. Gai's explosive fast-twitch muscle training would do that to anyone.

The momentum I would gain from leaping into the kick and the force that my hips can produce by twisting made for a very impressive kick for my age that not many could emulate. He had no idea what was about to hit him.

At some point he stepped back to make some distance and I took the chance to use the aforementioned kick. I leaped at him with speed he didn't expect, right leg shooting at the left side of his body.

He blocked the blow but I could tell that he felt it. I may not have been great at offense in taijutsu, lacking practice in initiative, but I could still hit hard if given the chance. At least, very hard for my size, it was a perk of following Gai's regimen. I saw one of his knees buckle from the weight of the blow on his side.

I kept attacking his guard with heavy blows, giving him no chance to step away. I saw an opening in his guard - his chin was wide open for an uppercut - and went for it to finish the fight.

I was only really able to do this against people who were inferior to me in strength, speed and/or technique. The last time I tried to do this, Gai caught my second blow and pummeled me into oblivion in true Gai fashion, stating that my attacks were too linear.

As my punch hit its mark Shodo shot backwards and landed harshly on his back, but he was still conscious. Hayashi-sensei took a serious look at Shodo and decided that continuing was probably a bad idea, and stopped the bout before he had the chance to get himself more injured.

Frustration filled Shodo's bruised up face as he jeered at sensei that he could keep going. Most of my classmates assumed I would lose to Shodo, so the "audience" was left speechless. Shodo left back to his friend group before he could do the Seal of Reconciliation. Rude.

I walked back over to Hayate who looked pleased with my performance and victory. I was happy to see that my training was paying off. And that I beat the shit out of Shodo. "That was insane, Daisuke! You put that jerk right in his place!" Hayate said with childish excitement, congratulating me.

I sighed at his overenthusiasm. "He was gonna get beaten by someone else at some point. He was kind of sloppy for a clan kid, too. Don't be too impressed."

"Come on, don't be humble." he teased, patting my back. "With all of Gai-san's training, you can't stay humble fore-" Hayate tried saying before we heard Hayashi-sensei shout.

"Hayate-kun! Get on the stage already, you're fighting Anko-kun!" Hayashi-sensei said, yelling at us. He had a vein comically bulging from his forehead, eyeing both him and me with annoyance. Somehow we'd missed who would be sparring next while talking.

Giving Hayate a thumbs up for good luck, I sent him off by pushing him closer to the arena as revenge for last time. He mock-glared at me before facing his opponent, the confidently smirking Anko.

"Prepare 'ta lose, shrimp!" she said, her voice booming with confidence. She stuck a tongue out at Hayate, who scowled right back at her. He looked like he was one second away from attacking her just there. They both got in a stance, eager to fight.

I didn't know who would win here, since Hayate's taijutsu was pretty average. His kenjutsu was his specialty, after all. He also didn't train with Gai and I that often, so he had less combat experience.

I know that Anko had the potential to become a tokubetsu jounin and get chosen by Orochimaru as a student, so I was a bit worried for my sword-wielding friend.

As our academy sensei started the match, the purple-haired menace sped towards Hayate with a smile on her face. The first thing I noticed when they began the fight is that she was very agile. She wasn't faster than me in terms of running or side steps, but her striking, blocking and dodging were all faster than mine.

Hayate was crumby at taijutsu in comparison, that much was obvious, but he was able to evade her blows, even if it looked like he was struggling, but when he tried to punch or kick her, she parried or dodged the attack and returned the favor with her superior speed.

She managed to land a blow on Hayate when her high kick that he'd seemingly managed to dodge came around and hit the side of his head in a move that was reminiscent of high level Taekwondo. She was flexible… like a snake. Hayate stumbled backwards, dazed. Uh oh, that hit his temple.

He held up his arms to block but she slipped through a crack in his guard and nailed him with a knee to the nose followed by an overhead punchto his cheek. Her fighting style was brutal, punishing people for flaws in their form. It was almost the opposite of my fighting style, hers being observant yet offensive and mine being observant and defense. Hayate fell to the ground, seeing stars.

The class apparently found this extremely violent match extremely entertaining. No match thus far was so fast-paced. I could see how Orochimaru took interest in Anko's ability, as creepy as that sounded. She had a natural predisposition towards fighting and identifying weak points.

She smirked at me after she gave the Seal of Reconciliation. Did she take out her anger on him? She hadn't fought this aggressively against anybody else in previous sparring sessions. I shot her a confused look and she scowled at me back before turning away and stomping out of the arena.

Coming back to me, Hayate was holding his cheek, looking ashamed for some reason. "Dude, I never want to fight Mitarashi ever again…" he mumbled.

"Next fight: Yamagata Takeo vs Muranaka Minako!"

—-

Today was a free day for me. Gai was busy on a mission and I needed a rest day to allow my body some time to heal itself. I was pretty sore, since the last 6 days I'd been training especially hard. Gai noticed the discrepancy between my upper body strength and we started work on correcting that, punching training dummies for hours. He also upped our strength training regimen, to my detriment. This guy did not allow me to have a break. Not that I was seriously complaining.

Kaa-san gave me some allowance to go take Izumi outside to have fun while she rested at home. Lately she's felt somewhat overworked so I wanted to do what I could to let her have a nice long nap.

"Izumi, how about we go to the park?" I asked while carrying her. She could walk, but she was still a toddler. She frowned at me and shook her head. She always wanted to go to the park. I thought back to what I often did before I started training so often.

We went shopping, we went to the park, sometimes we went to visit old friends of kaa-san or tou-san… Oh, sweets! I had a pretty big sweet tooth and nagged my parents all the time to take me somewhere to eat something sweet. I grinned down at Izumi.

"How about we get something tasty?" her eyes widened at that, "Yah-mi food?" she blabbed. I chuckled at her funny pronunciation. "That's right, sis, but don't tell kaa-chan." I bargained with a rebellious grin, wagging my finger from side to side. She nodded seriously, which was absolutely adorable.

I hadn't had dango for a long time, what better way was there to spend a day with my sister? My favorite dango shop was a good 20 minutes walk from our apartment. So I idly spoke to Izumi about some trivial stuff like what the academy is. She was disappointed to hear that the Pirate King's treasure was a mystery after she'd asked me about it. "It's probably the friendship along the way," I explained patiently.

Maybe I should pass more things from Earth onto her. Fun things like foreign recipes and stories for her to tell her own children. I wasn't an amazing chef back on Earth, but I could cook a mean schnitzel or burger, for example. Along with what I knew how to cook well, I also knew the basics for a lot of recipes and could probably get better at them with plenty of practice. Yeah, that sounds nice.

Arriving at the Dango shop, I took a seat and ordered two portions of mitarashi dango. Anything that Izumi couldn't finish, I'd eat myself. As much as I was taking Izumi out for some delicious treats, I was also treating myself. I'd made a lot of headway, after all. I deserve it. My grasp over Fireball Jutsu was getting better, and Gai deemed me strong enough to not hold back in sparring anymore.

Waiting for the dango to be finished, I rocked Izumi on my lap while we were seated, humming Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. Sometimes I wish I could listen to those songs again. Maybe I could commission a singer sometime in the future? Izumi was happily humming with me, mumbling gibberish and out of sync.

Ooh, maybe I could figure out how to use auditory genjutsu to play songs from my memory. Yet another thing to pass on to my sister!

I noticed three familiar people stepping in, A spikey-haired genin with sunglasses, a genin with serious eyes and brown short hair and a loud girl with her hair tied in a short purple ponytail. Wait, Aoba, Raidou together with… Anko!?

Before I could snap out of my confusion Aoba and Raidou were already walking towards me with recognition in their eyes. "Well, if it isn't our hero! What're you doing here?" said Raidou as he looked down at Izumi curiously. "I'm here to treat my little sister to some dango." I said to Raidou, answering his question before he asked it.

I looked down at Izumi, "Go on Izumi, say hi to Raidou-san, Aoba-san and,..." I said to her quietly, glancing at my classmate who was staring at me with reluctant interest, "Mitarashi-san." Izumi squealed in glee as she flapped her arms in a cute wave.

Aoba looked between me and Anko, "You know Anko-chan?". I nodded at him in response, "We're in the same class in the academy. We're only acquainted." I didn't know Anko knew Raidou-san and Aoba-san personally, though.

"Anko-chan is like a little sister to us, except she's more scary than cute." Aoba-san taunted, giving a pointed look at Anko who glared back at him. "Shut up! I thought you were getting me dango!" Aoba smirked at me while pointing at Anko, "See what I mean? Not cute at all."

Raidou stepped in to calm Anko down, "Quiet down, Anko-chan! I'll get you your dango." he sighed in exasperation, then he walked off to order. The raging girl calmed down and stared at my sister curiously.

"I didn't know ya hadda sister," I frowned, of course she hadn't heard. I hadn't spoken to her since the first day of school. "You take 'er for dango often? She asked neutrally.

"Actually this is the first time, since she didn't feel like going to the park. My kaa-san is feeling stressed about taking care of Izumi so I offered to take Izumi outside so she could have a few hours of rest." I explained, smiling at Izumi. What's with the questions?

Anko stared at me for a bit longer before responding, "Don'tchu have a clan? One of yer relatives coulda taken care of her, right?"

So that's what this is about? "My family is separate from the Uchiha compound" I clarified with a bit of irritation in my voice. "Tou-san's fighting in the war, so he can't pitch in." Anko widened her eyes in surprise.

"Y-you-.." she started, before composing herself, "Yer not one of those stuck up clan kids?"

I scrunched my eyebrows at her in confusion. When did she get that impression? Is this why she wasn't talking to me before? I sighed after a moment and shook my head to say that no, I wasn't.

Raidou came back at the same time as the person bringing our dango. Izumi clapped in excitement.

As I was eating my dango and carefully helping Izumi eat hers, Anko gazed at me, seemingly contemplating something important, before she shrugged at us. "Well, no one who likes dango can be a bad person!" I gaped at how ridiculous her statement was. My mind flashed to an image of a certain sumo-loving Chiyo.

Anko yelled at me in irritation, " 'S there something on my face?!" I shook my head profusely. She's definitely got a few screws loose.

The next few hours were spent chatting over some dango, which was a really nice break from all of the training I was doing. Maybe I should make some more friends. I wasn't too social in my past life, I only had maybe 10 close friends. I could really go for a burger… I need to get cooking already!

Eventually I had to leave so I could get home on time. I didn't wanna scare kaa-san, and I was already running just a little late.

As I was leaving, Anko stopped me while I was at the door to the dango shop. "Wait up, Uchih-" he paused, clearing her throat, "Daisuke!" I stopped and turned around to face her. "What's wrong?" I asked. She shoved a mitarashi dango stick right up to my face.

"Yer mom's feeling tired, right? Give her this when ya get back home!" she said with a genuine smile. How nice of her! I'd seen how she devoured her dango before, and she was willing to give up a stick for my mom.

I genuinely smiled at her, accepting the dango. "Thanks, Anko-san, I'm sure kaa-san will appreciate this." It was seriously getting a bit too late so I waved them off hurriedly and left. Seems like I've made a new friend.

—-

It was quite sudden, really. When tou-san came home from his first deployment, that is. The three of us were having dinner together when tou-san unlocked the door and quietly stepped inside.

Hearing the door open at this time, kaa-san and I already knew who it would be. We rushed from the dinner table to the front door, taking Izumi with us of course.

"Kichiro!"

"Tou-chan!"

We ran up to the father and husband our family had been missing for a few months already. It was already December, almost 4 months since he originally left for deployment.

Tou-san's uniform was covered in dirt, dust and dried blood. There were rips all over it. He had cuts over his hands and smelled terrible, he probably just got back from reporting to the Hokage.

Worst of all, though, was his face. He had terribly dark eyebags from his evident lack of sleep. His eyes were unfocused. I could only imagine what he saw, considering that he'd been sent straight to the frontlines. I felt guilty just looking at him: while I was safe in the village enjoying the company of my family and friends, he was out on the field fighting for Konoha.

Despite all of this, the biggest emotion I felt was relief. Wrapping my arms around tou-san's waist, I held back tears. He probably didn't need to see them right now. I wanted to be optimistic about his survival, but over the course of these 3 months, I was always terrified of the chance that he would die. It was a recurring thought that had plagued my mind.

"Tou-chan, you made it back!" I practically screamed at him. Tou-san looked down at me, ruffling my hair as his lips formed a small but genuine smile. I raised Izumi closer to my tired father so he could see his daughter. He gently grabbed his daughter and carefully hugged her. "Oto-cha!" she squealed happily, not really understanding much other than the fact that her father finally came home.

Kaa-san gently took Izumi from tou-san. "Welcome home, honey! How about you go take a shower and sleep? We can talk later." kaa-san expressed, gently giving him permission to rest. He was probably used to ignoring his tiredness. That, and following orders.

Tou-san's eyes shone with something like gratitude as he nodded, walking to the bathroom. Kaa-san went to get him a change of clothes and a towel.

As much as I wanted to have a conversation with tou-san, what he needed most right now was a shower and at least 12 hours of sleep. He looked like he hadn't slept properly in months, and that's probably exactly what happened. Unlike some of the other parts of Konoha's forces, the frontline shinobi had a lot of work to do.

Hopefully tou-san wasn't badly hurt, physically or mentally.

—-

Kaa-san woke us up with the smell of breakfast in the morning, god bless her soul. We'd all gone to sleep very early since tou-san came home at around 19, and my still-growing body saw fit that I slept nearly 12 hours, waking up just in time to get ready for the academy. Tou-san was still in bed, as expected.

Before leaving for the academy, tou-san got up and asked that I come home and skip training today, and I agreed without any fuss. I wasn't about to deny my father the chance to see his kid as much as he could.

Speaking of the academy, we were picking up the pace rather quickly, sacrificing general curriculum for military training. More often than not, we learned about chakra, taijutsu, bukijutsu, shinobi history, and even shinobi politics. We've also started a new class supposedly quite early, which was hand seals class where we learned basic Konoha signs and hand seals.

I already knew the hand seals by heart, but honestly my hand speed for seals were barely passable and I've been hardstuck with my hand mobility for quite a while. At least I haven't encountered any problems with Konoha's military signs.

The most important lessons that they were imparting us were probably taijutsu training and chakra control. We were expected to learn at least one of the academy 3 during this year. Many of us had gotten a headstart but civilian-born students have been dropping out since the start of the war, partly due to the increasing difficulty and partly because of their worrying parents.

Speaking of chakra control, I'd already managed to progress further in that department. While kaa-san was skeptical about my reserves, the training with Gai improved my physical energy by leaps and bounds week by week, and it was catching up slowly but surely with my spiritual energy. My reserves were therefore a fair bit above average for my age.

And that's how I managed to harass kaa-san enough to entertain the idea of overseeing my water walking. Water walking itself wasn't much of a problem to get down, considering she'd made me tree-walk until it was second nature to me. It was like concentrating on foot positioning while walking. I just had to adjust my control for the different ripples and currents in the water.

Phrasing it like that probably undermines some people's efforts in the chakra control department. Meh, it was what was easiest to me for a long time, though. I think it has something to do with my high level of awareness of the chakra in my body. Having had a body without it before, having chakra felt like I had a constant source of familiar, yet very noticeable energy filling my body.

Because of all of my personal training and physical conditioning, I was probably among the top of my class in terms of shinobi skills. I'm sure that the academy 3 would not prove problems to me, but we haven't gotten to that yet. Only about half of the academy classes had real worth to me, but it was still fun going to school, if sometimes boring.

I was glad for the head start I'd gotten, to be honest. Watching some of my classmates enduring our physical conditioning for the first time was painful to watch. Less importantly, we were also taught how to report vocally and on paper, and had basic survival training every once in a while.

I had to inform Gai that I could not train with him today. He scolded me for it before I gave him the reasoning, which he tearfully accepted, exclaiming that the Youthful reunion between father and son should never be interrupted. He quickly calmed down after I reminded him that he could take Hayate to train with him. Heh.

It was kind of satisfying to see someone else being dragged off by my hyperactive green beast of a friend. I saluted silently with tears in my eyes as the young swordsman was dragged off, glaring daggers at me. "Have fun, Hayate, Gai!" I shouted to annoy and encourage each of them respectively.

I was looking forward to being able to sit down and spend time with tou-san. I heard for kaa-san before sleeping that he would be with us for at least a month, which honestly was honestly pretty short of a break considering his 'job'.

I came home much earlier than usual, much to the excitement of Izumi and kaa-san. The family were all dressed for a casual winter outing, including tou-san. He looked much better than yesterday, though his eye bags were still pretty bad.

"Put your backpack away, Daisuke-chan! We're going on a picnic!" she said, hurrying me up with a backpack. I heard Izumi screech something along the words of "Huhrrey!" as I speed-walked to my room to put my stuff away.

I thought it was unusual that we were going out on a picnic during winter, if it would help tou-san relax, then I didn't mind.

I got back to the door and greeted tou-san with a hug before we left. He was tired but not as hollow as yesterday, offering me a gentle smile.

Izumi and kaa-san were beaming in excitement on the way. Despite it being winter, today wasn't a bad day for a picnic. Fire Country was much warmer than the places I'd lived in on Earth, nearly comparable to parts of North Africa or Latin American countries climate-wise, so we had no snowfall. It was simply a bit chilly. Kaa-san packed some warm food along with other cold food, namely pork food and rice balls among other things.

We found a nice plot in one of Konoha's parks to have a picnic together. We spent two hours relaxing and enjoying each others' presence. Tou-san seemed to grow less tense by the minute, even though he was silently listening to me and kaa-san's conversation for the most part.

Though he was thankfully relaxing, he was spacing out very often. Kaa-san and I often found him staring blankly at us, deep in thought. I didn't mind that he was spacing out but I was worried that he was thinking about the war and I'd rather he get stressed again during his break.

I snapped my hand in front of his unfocused gaze to get his attention. He blinked and tilted his head in confusion. "Oh, sorry, kiddo. What's wrong?" he asked, sounding guilty. "Let's go on a walk!" I chirped in response. He shrugged in indifference and we got up.

Tou-san and I treaded side by side in a steady silence. I thought a walk would be good for him since he was spacing out, and I also wanted to ask him about his deployment. Before I could get the first word, tou-san turned to me.

"You wanted to ask about what happened at the front lines, right?" He started with a sigh. I nodded back at him. That's also why I separated us from Kaa-san and Izumi.

He grimaced before continuing, "If this helps to answer your question, I'm not so sure about you becoming a shinobi." He smiled at me sadly as I frowned at what he said, "But I know you would probably go off to train and find a way to become a shinobi even without my permission."

He slowly stopped walking as he started ever so slightly trembling. "Daisuke… war, it changes a person, it challenges your beliefs time and time again." He looked up at me, eyes full of regret. "I made it back home. I was even promoted to the rank of chuunin. I… let good shinobi under my command die."

"It isn't your fault, tou-chan, you didn't kn-" I pleaded before being cut off. "Regardless of who's fault it is, they were under MY command!" he snapped at me, looking away guiltily. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"I.. Tou-san, you can't blame yourself for peoples' deaths." I said quietly, coming out as more of a mumble. Tou-san smiled sadly at me and ruffled my hair. "Thank you for trying to console me, but that's not my point anymore." he stated, his face hardening with determination. "I didn't agree to talk so I could vent to you."

I blinked up at him, feeling anger boil under my skin at his self loathing. Regardless of his guilt and anguish over what's happened, I didn't want my father beating himself up.

"I've seen war, kiddo. I'm not letting you graduate unprepared." he told me with a commanding tone. My anger turned to determination. "I want you to learn two specific earth jutsu before you graduate," he said, holding up his closed hand. "First, the Hidden Mole jutsu," he raised one finger, "and second, the Mud Wall jutsu." he finished, raising his second finger.

I agreed without question.

And after that, we went back to kaa-san and Izumi. Didn't want to worry them by going on too long of a walk, after all. After today, he got me started on learning the two promised earth jutsu.

The reasoning for learning these two jutsus specifically was clear to me. Tou-san saw enough death in the war and he wanted to prepare me for survival, not killing. The academy and my jounin squad would teach me all about that. I dreaded the idea of killing someone already.

Anyway, the Hidden Mole jutsu would allow me to burrow into the ground. It would be useful for things like ambushes or for the Headhunter jutsu, but for tou-san, he wanted to teach it to me for its capabilities when it came to running away.

The Mud Wall jutsu would allow to block off enemy retreats, but most importantly defend myself and squad members from projectile attacks, such as Fire Release jutsu or shuriken.

The initial learning curve for Earth Release was not high for me at all. I understood why I had an Earth Release affinity. My familiarity of molding chakra into earth from the exercises my parents had prescribed me prior to actually using an Earth Release jutsu, combined with my advanced chakra control made it significantly easier for me than learning the Fireball jutsu. Tou-san explained that I had a very powerful affinity with earth.

It wasn't a surprise to him, therefore, when it only took me a few hours to sink into the earth by using the Hidden Mole jutsu. Before two days had passed, tou-san was satisfied with my progress and we moved on to the next jutsu.

That wasn't to say that I'd mastered the jutsu, but rather to say that I could work on it without his supervision. The next jutsu would prove to be a more difficult ordeal.

The Mud Wall was more difficult than the Hidden Mole jutsu by a fair bit, which should've been obvious, considering its B-ranked status. Not only was it much harder to perform, but it was more exhausting on my chakra reserves, even though they were a fair bit above average for my age.

Even with my previous experience in Earth Release and my chakra control, my Mud Walls always had some kind of structural error. At first, it was the fact that I couldn't get it to reach a significant size, but even after I managed to correct that error, tou-san was very adamant that I make it strong enough.

Which was understandable, but very frustrating. Tou-san relentlessly attacked each wall I created to test its strength. It was kind of a bummer.

So, that was my life during the month tou-san was back from deployment. Academy, training with Gai, and then Earth Release practice with tou-san. Doing Gai's training regimen and then emptying my chakra reserves with tou-san's prescribed training was exhausting to say the least, though it helped to elevate my chakra reserves.

I did end up creating a wall that could withstand enough damage to satisfy tou-san by the end of the month, by the way. It turns out that the secret to making a sturdier Earth Jutsu was not molding more chakra into it, but rather taking more earth from the ground and using your chakra to squeeze the earth together and improve its density.

It wasn't an easy feat, mind you. There was a specific concentration and power that your control needed to accomplish that. Being exhausted both mentally and physically did not help with my revelation at all.

Past the relentless training, I was grateful. I saw off tou-san with a heavy heart when he was redeployed to the frontlines.

Hopefully he would be back for my 8th birthday, which would be in a bit over two months.

—-

Thank you for reading everyone. I tried to diversify my writing a little when it comes to language used, so I hope it's easier to read for everyone.

When it comes to the upload schedule, I will probably be able to get some stuff out during July, but I am not truly settled until August, so don't expect me to suddenly 180 with the speed.

If you can't tell what I'm doing for Daisuke's abilities, I'm trying to make it clear that his chakra control and reserves are what he excels at. This may seem generic to some of you, but I have a specific idea for how Daisuke is going to be as a shinobi and I think it's somewhat unique. And no, he will not go into genjutsu or medical jutsu significantly. His chakra control is good, but his focus will be ninjutsu. You will see why at some point.

To clear up ages for everyone at the moment:

-Daisuke: born 11 years before Naruto's birth (Birthday March 17th), right now he's 7 years old and the time is close to early January.

-Izumi: born 5 years after Daisuke, she is currently 2 years old (Birthday August 5th)

-Gai, Obito, Kakashi and Rin are all 10 years old right now

-For those curious, Kichiro and Hazuki are around the ages of 25-26, but their ages are not relevant for the story at the moment.