"Well that was easy." I said, my head tilted as I stared curiously at the jug of water that was a stack of books a second ago. I'd cast a genjutsu on myself to make the book look like something else.

Mika Ato, a black-haired genjutsu specialist that Aika had brought into the Nara library to train me, had been walking me through the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique. It was a D-rank genjutsu that created a small illusion at a short range from the caster but otherwise didn't affect them. I'd picked up the casting of the genjutsu even more easily than I had the Nara shadow techniques.

Mika's jaw was on the floor as she stared at me. "How… You picked that up in an hour!"

Aika chuckled from where she watched off to the side. "I told you he was a gifted child, Mika-chan."

"I…" Mika took a deep breath. "Okay. I have an idea of how to better teach you now. Why don't we–"

"How do I make my own genjutsu?" I interrupted her, already thinking of the possibilities. I'd picked the genjutsu up really easily. When I was initially reborn here, I wanted to make my own ninjutsu, but Aika still wouldn't teach me any ninjutsu because my nature transformations weren't 'At an acceptable level' yet. But the genjutsu was easy. She probably wouldn't stop me from trying to make my own genjutsu with how easily I picked this one up, right?

Mika's jaw fell open again as she stared at me. "You…want to make your own genjutsu?" she sounded disbelieving.

I nodded. "I already have a few ideas for different genjutsu to make, but I don't really know the theory behind it."

"I… I don't know. I've never made a genjutsu." Mika admitted, still staring at me like I was crazy.

I pursed my lips, staring at the water jug I knew was a stack of books. "Okay. Thanks for the lesson. I can probably figure it out." I walked away, my mind abuzz with possibilities. I heard Aika comforting, thanking and dismissing Mika behind me, but I was too focused on the task at hand.

Genjutsu played on the target's senses, showing them things that weren't there. All I had to do to create my own genjutsu was figure out how it did that and replicate it.

"Aika-san?" I called, turning around.

"Yes, brat?" Aika said, sounding strangely amused.

"Can I use my genjutsu on you?"

She shrugged. "Go for it."

I slowly cast the genjutsu, being careful to note exactly what it did and how it affected her.

"Kai." Aika said, a grin on her face. "Did that help you, little professor?"

"Yes, actually." I said seriously. I walked over to the table and started jotting down notes. All I had to do to make a genjutsu was convince the person I was casting it on that it was real. That was a lot easier than making something actually happen. I could do this. "Sorry, Aika-san. I'm gonna work on this for the rest of the night."

"Don't stay up all night." Aika said easily, shuffling towards the door. She understood that I was too focused to work on something else right now.

I buckled down and got to work.

X

It took me almost the entire mid-year break – three weeks – to make my first genjutsu. That may seem like a lot of time, but most ninja need years to create something new. I also didn't spend every waking moment working on it. I still trained with Misaki, volunteered at the hospital, and worked on my nature transformations with Aika, but my main focus was the creation of my first genjutsu.

I'd done it in a fraction of the expected time. I'd tried to keep it simple to start with. I already had plans in my head for other genjutsu I wanted to try to make in the future, but this was a great step forward.

"Aika-san!" I called enthusiastically, rushing into the library. "I did it!" I stopped for a moment, confused. Aika wasn't alone in the library. Shikaku was there with her. I didn't know what he was doing in the library, but, as the Nara Clan Head, he could go wherever he wanted whenever he wanted to, so I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it.

"I did it!" I repeated, rushing up to Aika. "Come on! I want to show you."

Aika looked down at me with a strained smile. She was typically pretty laid back, so that was strange. Had Shikaku been chewing her out?

I noticed Shikaku following us outside and past the guards, but I didn't really pay it much mind. I was too excited to show Aika the fruit of my labor. I led her to a small courtyard free of people in front of the library and stood across from her, a single kunai drawn.

"Ready?" I asked her.

She nodded.

I took a deep breath and threw my kunai, weaving hand signs immediately after. "False Barrage!" I called the name of my new jutsu, more for dramatics than anything else. A genjutsu wasn't much use if you had to always tell your enemies that you were casting it.

Aika's eyes widened as the single kunai I'd thrown at her turned into ten. She dodged one, attempting to deflect another, but her hand passed through empty air. All of the kunai were illusions.

"It multiplies whatever I throw and fills the air with fakes while simultaneously making the real projectiles invisible. See?" I pointed at her feet where I'd thrown the actual kunai. It phased into being as the technique faded.

"It works really great with all the projectiles I throw with my chakra strings and shadows. It makes ten copies of each projectile I've thrown, so if I throw just ten, then there will be a hundred fake projectiles flying through the air." I ranted on about my new technique. My enthusiastic smile turned to a frown as Aika didn't look at me. She was still staring at the kunai at her feet, a frown on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Shikaku, who had stood to the side and silently watched me demonstrate my technique, walked forwards and knelt in front of me. "Your parents' team returned today. They encountered a strong enemy nin and suffered heavy casualties. Both your mother and father died in the battle."

X

The funeral was a grand affair. In addition to my parents, seven other Konoha ninja had been killed, along with three others being wounded. One of those wounded had lost a leg, preventing him from ever working as a ninja again. Apparently, when missions went this bad, a big event was held to mourn the dead.

What was the mission that went so horribly? It was a standard patrol. Five standard patrols. Five teams of three chunin that were watching the borders of the Land of Fire. All four teams were lured to the same location by a Konoha chakra signal that called for help. The teams converged at the spot around the same time and were ambushed. It was a trap.

I didn't have all the details, but I'd heard people whispering about a lone ninja and purple snakes that fought with him. That, combined with the fact that the enemy nin took the bodies of the ninja they killed told me everything I needed to know.

The disgraced Sannin and Snake Summoner – Orochimaru had killed my parents. What other ninja operating close to the borders of Konoha was strong enough to defeat five teams of chunin simultaneously? Why else would they take the bodies of the fallen if not to let him experiment on them? My parents alone, two Nara, were a prize I'm sure he would be dying to dissect.

I should have been enraged. I should have been plotting my revenge on Orochimaru. I should have felt something, but I didn't. I was numb. My parents were dead, but I didn't feel anything. Was it wrong that it felt more like two passing acquaintances had died than my mom and dad? I hadn't really known either of them. The vast majority of the time we spent together was spent training. The only time I could recall us having fun was that weekend we picked up my poison plants and played board games. Did it make me callous that I didn't feel crushing pain at their loss?

I hadn't really paid attention to the funeral service. There were rows of wooden benches set up facing a roaring fire hat was supposed to symbolize the dead in some way. I don't remember what was said. The Hokage himself said a few words about the Will of Fire, but it all went in one ear and out the other. I'd always hated funerals. Everyone talked about how horrible the loss was, but all that talking didn't change the fact that the people were still dead. In my first life, I'd done everything I could to avoid them. It appeared that dislike had carried over to this life as well.

Everyone around me stood up, and I took that as my cue to rise with them. People started milling about, hugging and comforting each other as they shared their grief. I only felt grief for my lack of grief. Did that even make sense?

"Shinto Nara."

I turned around and my heart nearly stopped. Standing in front of me was an elderly man with bandages wrapped tight around his body. He held a can in one hand that he leaned on as he looked down at me.

"Elder." I greeted, bowing low.

"Please, that is unnecessary here." Danzo Shimura said, an expression of sorrow on his face. I wasn't sure if it was fake or not. "I am sorry for your loss, child."

I straightened my back and said, "My parents did their duty. I will miss them, but I will honor their sacrifice by living." That was a suitably indoctrinated reply, right?

A small smile graced Danzo's face, telling me I'd picked the right dialogue option. "I have heard you are quite the talented young man. I have heard you even managed to create your own genjutsu. That is unheard of for one so young."

I forced myself to stay calm, not reacting to his words. This was bad. Danzo not only knew my name but was taking an active interest in me. My parents were dead. I was the ideal ROOT recruit now. I needed to find a way to get out from under his thumb without making it clear I was trying to get out from under his thumb.

"I have, elder. I hoped to show it to my parents when they returned, but…"

Danzo's features softened. "I am sorry to remind you of your pain, child. Let us not dwell on the past, but look to the future. With your parents passed on, you will need to be looked after until you reach genin."

I wracked my brain, trying to think of some way to get off this topic. It was a clear ploy to offer refuge for me and snatch me up into his machine. I opened my mouth to try to change the topic when a hand fell on my shoulder from behind.

Aika Nara stepped up to my side and smiled warmly at Danzo. "We are grateful for your concern, Shimura-sama, but the Nara Clan take care of our own. Young Shinto will be living with me from today on. I could never replace his parents, but I will do everything I can to be a deserving guardian."

Danzo stuck his nose up, looking down at each of us in turn, his one visible eye calculating. In the end, a small smile broke out across his face. "I am glad to see the boy will be cared for. Aika-san, please help Shinto through this difficult time and teach him well. I could not think of a better guardian."

I kept my mouth shut as Danzo walked away, watching his retreating back suspiciously until he was long gone. Finally, when I could breathe again, I turned to look up at Aika. "I'm going to live with you?"

She smiled at me and ruffled my hair. "It would be more accurate to say I'm going to live with you. I'm going to move into your house and take care of you if that's alright with you."

I smiled at her. "I'd like that."

Aika slowly knelt down in front of me, wincing in pain as she descended and holding her back. "Don't you worry, Shinto. You're going to be alright. I'll take good care of you." She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it comfortingly.

I laid a hand atop her hand and frowned. "Aika-san?"

"Yes, Shinto?"

"How soon can I graduate from the Academy? I… My parents were chunin. I want to be a chunin too." I said, using the first excuse that came to mind.

In truth, I wanted out of the Academy because it was doing nothing for me. My sparring with Misaki was teaching me more taijutsu than the upper years were teaching, and I already knew all the theory and chakra usage we were going to cover. I needed a jonin instructor fast. I'd thought myself safe because I knew the timeline, but the death of my parents showed me otherwise. The anime didn't show 'insignificant' events like this because they weren't relevant to the main cast, but I wasn't one of the main cast. I was an irrelevant nobody. I needed to buckle down and work my ass off so I could get out of the Academy. The faster I got stronger, the less likely I would be to die.

Aika was frowning at me. She looked me in the eyes, her gaze searching. At length, she said, "There is no minimum age to graduate from the Academy. As far as rules go, you have to be at the Academy for one year in order to graduate. You will be able to graduate when you are ten next year, but only if that's what you want."

I nodded along with her words, my mind elsewhere. Ten years old, that meant I had the rest of the year to get to the point where I wouldn't die as a genin. "Will you help me train, Aika-san? Will you teach me the Mystic Palm technique and help me overcome my problems with ninjutsu?"

Aika nodded, a serious expression on her face. "Of course I will, Shinto. Now come on. It was time we were headed home." Aika winced again, holding her back as she rose to her feet. She took my hand and walked me away from the funeral. No one approached us as we left, but then I didn't know any of the people my parents worked with, and Aika was only here for me.

The guards at the gate to the Nara Compound offered me condolences as we passed, a somber air over hanging over the typically slacking duo. Again, I felt guilt for not feeling worse about my parents' passing. Maybe the emotions would hit later? Or was I just a sociopath?

Aika led the way up to my house. I was surprised to see there was someone waiting for us on the porch.

"Shinto," Shikaku greeted as he stood up. "I'm sorry about your parents. They were good ninja, good people. I will miss them."

"Shikaku-sama," I greeted, bowing my head. "Thank you for your condolences. They were proud to serve the Nara Clan and Konoha. Can I help you with anything?"

Aika was glaring at Shikaku from where she stood at my side, but Shikaku weathered her ire with ease.

"This isn't the time, Shika." Aika hissed.

"We've waited too long already, Aika." Shikaku turned to face me and motioned towards the door to my house with his head. "Would you mind inviting me inside?"

I nodded. "Of course, Shikaku-sama." I let go of Aika's hand and walked up to the door, opening it and holding it open so they could both enter.

Shikaku sat down at the dining room table. Aika followed him, slower, but radiating a displeased aura.

"What is this about?" I asked hesitantly as I sat across from them.

Shikaku pursed his lips and reached into his coat. He pulled out a sheet of blank paper and slid it across the table to me. "Channel your chakra into that."

I picked up the paper and recognized it easily. It was chakra paper. I shot a questioning glance towards Aika, but she was still glaring at Shikaku and didn't pay me any mind. I frowned and channeled my chakra into the paper, not sure what it was supposed to accomplish. Just like when I'd used chakra paper before, half of the sheet went up in flames while the other half became soaked in water and drooped in my hand.

Shikaku sighed loudly, leaning his elbows against the table as he rubbed his forehead.

"Shikaku-sama?" I asked hesitantly, starting to feel a little concerned. What was this about?

Shikaku met my eyes and said, "People are born with a chakra affinity for one element. Ninja can learn to use multiple elements as they grow older and more experienced, but people are very rarely born with more than one chakra affinity. More often than not, these births are a result of an elemental kekkei genkai. Shinto, you have both a strong water and fire affinity without having trained either of them. It's possible that your genes somehow mutated and gave you a kekkei genkai never seen among the Nara Clan."

I swallowed heavily, the gravity of what Shikaku was saying settling over me. Shikaku wouldn't make something like this up for a joke, and he wouldn't tell me unless he was as sure as he could be. "What…what does that mean? I mean… What does that mean for me going forward?"

Shikaku's gaze was serious as he said, "It means that I will be working with you personally on your nature transformations. Aika tells me you've been having trouble with them, so I'll help you. Once you are able to use both water and fire jutsu, we will need to test if you are able to combine the two chakra natures."

I was sitting stock still, having a hard time believing what I was hearing. "What… Do you know what the result of them combining would be?"

"We have documents on the Hidden Mist and several individuals over time who have possessed what they called 'Boil Release'. I'm not certain, but I think that will be what results from your dual Chakra nature."

Fire and water. Or more accurately, heat and water. Boil release sounded right. I wonder if I would be able to make grease fire explosions with that? Actually, back up, how did this happen to begin with?

"Do you know why I have more than one chakra nature?" I asked.

Shikaku shrugged. "I'm not an expert on the subject, and I haven't gone consulting the experts because I wanted you to be protected. The only three people who know about this are currently me, Aika and now you."

"Not even the Hokage?" I asked, a little surprised.

Shikaku shook his head. "This is a clan matter that may evolve into a clan secret. That means the Nara clan is within its rights to control information about it for the time being. Back to your question, both of your parents had an affinity for fire. I don't know exactly where the water affinity came from."

So a water affinity just appeared out of nowhere? Was that just dumb luck? What were the odds of a kekkei genkai spontaneously appearing in a newborn kid? Somewhere around a million-to-one? Probably worse than that? There had to be a reasonable explanation for why I specifically have multiple affinities. Think. What is special about…

Son of a bitch. Was this because I'd reincarnated? The fire affinity came from my parents and I brought the water affinity with me? That didn't make sense though. Wasn't chakra more physical than that? I would have needed some…spiritual vessel or something to bring it over with me.

…Like an overabundance of Yin chakra, spiritual chakra, granted by the Nara's bloodline. Aika had told me that I had an abnormal amount of Yin chakra even by Nara standards. Did spending time being dead make me more tailored towards spiritual chakra?

Kami, was that why I was having difficulty with nature transformations? Was I so loaded up with spiritual energy from my time spent being dead that I not only brought a whole other chakra affinity with me when I was reborn but that same chakra somehow gave me a kekkei genkai?

Everything was making so much sense all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry to bring this up today, but there will be a lot of attention on you now that… Now." Shikaku said, cutting himself off awkwardly. "Aika and I will work with you and help you train, making you as ready as you can be when you are inevitably called up to serve Konoha."

I frowned up at him. "People want me to be a genin already?"

Shikaku looked supremely pissed off at something, but I didn't think his ire was directed my way. "Yes. Hatake Kakashi has shown people that young, talented shinobi can thrive during conflict and be great assets to the village. People have noticed your progress. There was already pressure to have you graduate early before, but now… I won't be able to make the argument that you shouldn't have to be an adult yet. There isn't much I can do to resist them anymore. I will stall as long as I can to give you time to grow, but you will likely have to leave the Academy at the end of the year."

"We will help teach you during that time to ensure you are ready." Aika said to me, rubbing my head. There was a conflicted expression on her face. Her smile was strained. She looked like she wasn't a fan of me graduating early, but didn't really have a choice in it either.

Shikaku nodded. "Aika is right. She and I will help you progress until you graduate, but you need to be focused. The more prepared you are when you become a genin the better."

I frowned as something occurred to me. "Will I still be able to train with Misaki?"

Shikaku's frown was deeper than mine. "Yes. She has drawn the same attention you have. She will likely be pressed to graduate with you. The two of you will need to help each other going forward."

"I'll train hard." I said, resolve settling into my stomach. Ramped up training was what I wanted, and he was saying he would practically force feed it to me. I needed to be ready for the deadly world that waited outside Konoha's walls.

"Good." Shikaky said, standing up from his seat. "I'm sorry I brought this all up today, but I needed to tell you. Rest for the weekend. We will start next week." He turned around and walked out the door, his hands in his pockets.

"Up." Aika said, scurrying around the table to get me out of my seat. "You need to wash up and get ready for sleep. I won't have you up all night thinking. The best thing for you right now is rest."

I let Aika lead me upstairs, then quickly washed up. I laid down in my bed and stared at the ceiling, a million thoughts flying through my mind.

My world had been upended overnight. I didn't know what my new normal would be, but it would be a fair sight different from what it was before. I didn't know how I was going to go to sleep right now.

I felt a light prick in my arm, and my eyelids drooped. I smiled sadly. Aika stuck me with a senbon coated in a sleeping agent then retracted it with a chakra string.

I was unconscious within a minute.