It was the day of the Rinne festival in Hidden Leaf Village. Like the name suggests, it celebrates the cycle of samsara a soul goes through. For many, it was the day of mourning for the deaths of loved ones, of accepting the loss of lives, and of praying for the souls that went into the Pure Land, seeking peace.
But it was also the day to celebrate new beginnings, birth, and prosperity. A joyful holiday where friends and loved ones exchange and share gifts.
Jinsuke and his elder sister were doing a final check of the gifts they would be bringing to their grandparents. Hideo and Haruka were getting ready in the meantime.
Jinsuke had just turned 4 years old a couple of weeks ago, on December 1st. It was an exciting and busy year for him. He progressed through his studies in a steady way.
Haruka, as a Senju, wanted to make her son learn every bit of useful knowledge and skill he possibly could.
The Senju were a clan of Shinobi, possessing many skills. They tended to not specialize. As specialization was a surefire way to death in their line of work. Of course, every Shinobi had one or two areas they were better at.
But the Senju were a clan of thousands of skills. They did it differently. The Senju mastered many skills in every area of Shinobi arts in such a way that each skill supported multiple other skills, thus covering any and all weaknesses.
This had resulted in a comprehensive skillset that had made them the premier Shinobi clan for a thousand years, only rivaled by a few notable other clans. One of them was the Uchiha clan, possessing the famed Sharingan.
Hideo's mother was a member of the Fuma clan, which was the retainer of the Uchiha clan. Hideo, as part of the Fuma clan from his mother's side, was taught to be a Fuma shinobi.
The shinobi of the Fuma clan excelled at stealth, espoinage, assassinations, and all forms of bukijutsu, especially shurikenjutsu. The Fuma clan's shurikenjutsu was famed throughout the world. And it was wildly believed that the only reason the Uchiha could nearly match the Fuma clan in shurikenjutsu was only because of the sharingan.
Hideo, too, wanted his children to be proper Fuma Shinobi. But alas, like most other children her age, his daughter was attracted to flashy jutsus and screaming proclamations. She had no interest in being a boring ninja. So, Hideo's hopes and expectations fell upon his son, Jinsuke.
Jinsuke accepted both his parents demands wholeheartedly. He was mentally far more mature than his age. So he understood the value of discretion and subtlety. He knew the best way to survive was if no one noticed you, and, more importantly, if there was no one left to notice you.
So Jinsuke continued his training.
He learned about chakra from his mother in both theoritical and practical ways: how to mold it, how to control it, and how to utilize it. His chakra reserves and chakra control increased steadily. He could already hold the leaf on his forehead for more than half an hour.
Jinsuke's fuinjutsu caligraphy practice continued. He had a long way to go before making his first seal. He had already learned the fuinjitsu script commonly used in Konoha. He was to start learning the Senju script in the coming year.
Another thing that was added to his training schedule was medical knowledge. The Senju clan had vast amounts of knowledge about medicine, the human body, and the effects of chakra on it. Jinsukwe was not a medical genius or a born scholar. But the combination of an adult's work ethic with a growing child's increased learning capacity meant that retaining, processing, and comprehending vast amounts of new information was not that hard.
Hideo, on the other hand, took care of Jinsuke's physical conditioning. A comprehensive exercise and diet plan was introduced for optimal growth and development. After months of conditioning, Jinsuke was ready to begin his foray into taijutsu.
Last week, Hideo taught him Fundamental Leaf Taijutsu, or Leaf Fist, as some called it. It was the most basic set of punches, kicks, footwork, and grapples. It had little combat application. Leaf Fist's job was to set a solid foundation and framework for one to develop their taijutsu from.
Jinsuke had no previous combat skills. He did not remember ever engaging in combat in his past life. At most, there were a few scuffles in the schoolyard and, later in life, in the bar. All in all, he had a clean slate. This made him greedily absorb every bit of knowledge his father imparted.
Chakra sensing was another skill Jinsuke practiced, and he was quite good at it. Chakra sensing was not difficult, as anyone could sense chakra if they concentrated hard enough. What really separated natural sensors like Jinsuke and his father from others was mainly range, accuracy, precision, and response time.
In theory, anyone could train in the chakra sensing technique to slowly increase their range and response time as time progresses. That is how acquired chakra sensors are made, which makes them the majority among the Sensor-nin.
Natural-born sensors differ from their counterparts in that their sensing is far more precise and accurate than an acquired sensor's sensing could ever be. This made a natural-born chakra sensor a valuable asset to their village.
Jinsuke could already sense up to 100 meters around himself with increasing clarity, and his senses will grow throughout his life in all aspects.
Finally, the last addition to the packed schedule of Jinsuke's life was the art of discretion. How to move silently, how to sneak without being noticed, how to lower one's visibility, how to hide one's presence, how to stay undetected by hiding in plain sight—all methods of stealth, distraction, and misdirection were drilled into his bones by Hideo. Any use of chakra was forbidden while training stealth.
All members of the Fuma clan strive to perfect their stealth first, and only then do they augment it with various chakra techniques. It results in a shinobi who is less dependent on chakra during stealth missions, which makes them much harder to get noticed by scouts, sensors, and lookouts.
Taijutsu, physical conditioning, chakra sensing, stealth, chakra theory, chakra control, fuinjutsu practice, and medical knowledge. All of this made Jinsuke's life very busy.
But this suited him just fine. Jinsuke dove into relentless training with his very soul. He was afraid. The few times he had seen his parents and elder sister spar made him realize the sheer difference in abilities among them.
Both Hideo and Haruka were regular jonins. And they achieved this rank after many years of training, survival, and fighting. Although Jinsuke had the blood of two of the strongest and most storied clans, so did nearly every civilian in the village, and Jinsuke was sure that most would not survive the coming wars.
The chances of him living through them were very low. These thoughts haunted him. The knowledge of the future was a boon as much as it was a burden. So Jinsuke stopped thinking about them.
Training focused his mind and helped him clear his head of unnecessary thoughts. Each day of learning new things and practicing and polishing existing ones made him more confident in his own abilities.
Jinsuke was lost in thought when his parents called him. He jolted awake and went out of the house with his family. The streets were decorated with colorful strips of paper., ribbons, and lanterns. Various lights illuminated the whole village as crowds of people milled about, each with joyful smiles on their faces.
As they met the neighbors, they exchanged greetings and well wishes. Jinsuke observed the beauty present around him and just enjoyed the moment. After finishing the meet and greet, they departed from their neighborhood.
The Rinne festival was in full swing as the Masayoshi family went towards the meeting place, a newly opened nearby restaurant owned and operated by an Akimichi couple. It was the only place both grandparents would meet, as neither would ever agree to go to the other's clan compound.