Chapter 2
"I want to join the academy." Shinji stated, with conviction, to his father, who was currently half drunk, clutching a bottle in his arms as he laid on the couch.
"You're two, get out of my face brat," came the angry reply of his father, Akuma Sato.
"I'm four and even four year olds can enter the academy given-" However, Akuma did not let his son continue.
"I said get out of my face!" Akuma, in his half drunken slew, threw the bottle he was clutching at his son. Shinji dodged the glass bottle with ease as it shattered against the wall, spreading glass and whiskey everywhere. Anger flared up within the boy as his father stared with a smirk.
"You angry, brat?" His father slowly got up from the couch and leaned in closer to his son's face. "Then do something about it." Poking Shinji in the chest, he pushed the boy a couple feet back and snickered. "Look at you. You can't even stand your ground when I poke you. What makes you think you'll last even ten minutes in the academy?"
Shinji said nothing as he stared at his father with a cold glare. "That's what I thought, brat. Now, be a good boy and... Get. Out. Of. My. Face." Shinji could smell the whiskey on his breath as Akuma spoke.
Shinji stomped out of his house to the back yard where he kept his training equipment. So far it was just his trusty wooden sword which he had trained with, some shuriken and kunai he salvaged from a dumpster, and a makeshift target made out of a pile of rocks.
Having to resort to salvaging from dumpsters now because Akuma, in his ever-fatherly wisdom, was exceedingly angry at the boy for running off with his money to buy a 'wooden stick' as he called it. Even as a four year old, Shinji was not exempt from his father's cruel punishment. 'It will all make me stronger,' is what he told himself every time his father had beaten him, yelled at him, or anything in between. It was all in the name of strength for Shinji. He grabbed the stitched-up kunai pouch, strapped the beaten wooden sword to his back and decided he needed to walk around the village for a bit and maybe find somewhere to train.
After thirty minutes of exploring the outskirts of Iwagakure, Shinji happened upon an empty training ground. 'This is a perfectly good training yard. I wonder why no one's using it.' He kicked a rock and watched it soar into the distance. 'It's still incredible though. Four years and I've made so much progress already.' He grabbed the handle of the sword with his right hand and pulled it free from its shabby sheathe.
During his training, Shinji realized that his physical strength was worse than lacking; it was abysmal. His stamina, endurance, and strength rivaled that of a caterpillar and he soon realized that form training will come in time. What he needed was to be able to wield the weapons he wanted to use. This caused Shinji to fully focus on training his body and now, where he was unable to even lift the sword for a minute, now he could swing the blade with little to no effort.
'It's unbelievable how fast I've grown. Is this the norm for those of this world?' Shinji went through the forms burned into his memory after 70 years of being a Witcher. 'Like riding a horse. May forget from time to time, but with a little practice…' Shinji gave a flourishing slash with his wooden blade and was satisfied with the feeling, '…it all comes back.'
He continued to train in his sword style for the next few hours and had the sinking feeling he was being watched for the past two of those hours. Before long, a familiar man with a demon-like mask appeared before him.
"Gotta say runt, that's an interesting style you got there." The voice of Oni reached his ears and he turned to greet the man.
"Thanks, I developed it myself." The boy said with a smirk. "It's still got a ways to go, but I'll get there in time."
"Your style, does it have a name?" Oni asked with crossed arms as he stared at the boy. Shinji considered it for a moment and donned a thinking pose.
A metaphorical light bulb went off in the boy's mind before he answered, "it's called the Manticore style." Oni gave a half hearted chuckle in response to the boy's grandiose way of naming his style.
"Gotta say, you got some style runt. Even if I don't know what a manticore is." Shrugging at the last part, while Shinji pouted. Oni seemed like he wanted to say more, and he did. "You in the academy? You could probably get in with a recommendation."
At that comment, Shinji's expression morphed into anger. "I would be if my deadbeat excuse of a fucking father would sign the damn slip!"
"Woah! Watch the language there runt, I'm sure there's a reasonable-" however the growl that escaped Shinji's lips silenced the man.
"If you're about to lecture me about my abusive father and tell me to cut him some slack because he's 'stressed' I will shove my foot so far up your ass your grandmother will feel it!" At first the man recoiled slightly, but once Shinji's rant was over, the man started to chuckle. Then the chuckle evolved into full blown laughter.
"What's so funny?" Shinji snarled through grit teeth.
"A couple things." Oni ceased his laughter and raised his hand to count with his fingers. "One, a four year old cursing a storm is hilarious. Two, a kid threatening an ANBU is even funnier." After giggling a little more at the red faced expression on Shinji he continued, "and last but not least, your lack of knowledge."
"Huh?" Was Shinji's intelligent reply. To that, Oni sighed.
"You ain't the only one with a troubled home life kid. It's almost normal for us shinobi. However, if you did your due diligence and read the fine print, you would've realized that you need a signature-"
"From a willing family member I know already!"
"Don't interrupt me, runt." There was a split second where Shinji felt a dark presence wash over him but it was gone just as fast. "Like I was saying. You either need a willing parent/guardian, or a shinobi of high enough rank to sign off on it."
The realization made Shinji's eyes slowly widen, "Wait so you're telling me, that as long as someone is, say a jonin, in rank, any random mook can sign you off for the academy?"
"That's…actually the jist of it, yea." Oni sounded surprised at Shinji's understanding, but the boy's next question brought a smirk underneath his mask.
"So, could you sign off for me?" Shinji asked, a little embarrassed.
"Now why would I do something like that for a runt like yourself?" Oni was testing the lad and if he passed, well, his actions from there would be very simple.
"I may be young but I'm not stupid, Oni. I know how it goes in this world, strength means a lot, but knowledge means just as much if not more. I can sit here all day for the rest of my life perfecting my swordsmanship, but if I do that, I close my mind to everything that can be learned at the academy. I refuse to be weak in any aspect. You want a reason, I'll give you one." The boy looked at the blackened eyeholes of the mask with a furious determination within his young eyes.
"If you sign off for me and grant me this opportunity, I'll be the strongest one in the academy in less than six months." It wasn't the words themselves that stuck out to Oni, hell it wasn't even how he said it.
It was his eyes. The unchanging, unflappable determination only found in the strongest shinobi, was standing in front of him at a whopping three feet tall at four years of age. When he met Shinji one year ago, all he saw was a little kid heaving a wooden sword up a hill. Now stood the same boy a year later, able to handle the very same sword with ease and grace.
Oni suddenly got very close to Shinji and looked deep into Shinji's teal orbs. "Are you absolutely sure this is the life you want, runt? Let me tell you it's not for the faint of heart." Oni's voice was cold but held a great amount of meaning behind those words.
Shinji was no fool, which is why he smirked up at the man. "I'm counting on it." Oni stood back up to his full height and regarded the boy for a moment.
"Follow me, runt, and keep up." Without another warning or turning back, Oni took off in a direction toward the main part of the village. Shinji did not remain static for long and took off in a dead sprint.
Oni momentarily looked back and spotted Shinji only a couple meters behind him. 'I may not be going as fast as I can, but for this runt to keep up with me, even at this speed, he's already above the third year class in that regard. Who the hell is this kid?!'
Onis words did not express his thoughts though, "You gotta go faster than that if you wanna be the strongest, runt!" Shinji's face expressed his annoyance at Onis words which made the man chuckle. 'You may be strong, but you're still a brat.'
They continued sprinting in tandem before finally coming upon a large stone building at the epicenter of the village. Oni stood there, relaxed, while Shinji had to regulate his breathing and was sweating slightly.
The boy looked up at the building and then back to Oni, "What is this place?"
Shinji could tell he asked a stupid question based on the tilting of Oni's mask at his question.
"Runt…this is the Tsuchikage Manor. You know, where the leader of our village works?" Oni explained in a deadpan tone.
"Okay okay no need to be a dick about it." The boy looked himself over before entering, "Is this presentable for the tsuchikage?"
Oni looked over his charge, the boy's maroon shirt was marked with dirt and sweat on top of the mountain of wrinkles that came with it. His pants were torn and they were slightly too big for the lad and his sandals were in dire need of replacing. The boy had his ratty kunai pouch attached to his waist and his beat up wooden sword strapped to his back. "You're fine, runt. Just go in, be yourself and let me do the talking unless addressed directly. Understood?"
Shinji stood up straight and nodded, "Yes sir!" Without any more provoking, the two headed inside the mansion. The walk was short and tense with Shinji's heart pounding in his ears. 'Why am I so bloody nervous?! I've met kings and queens before and now I'm suddenly nervous to talk to one dude?!' Shinji's thoughts rattled around in his mind until they suddenly came to a halt at a set of double doors in the hallway.
"Ready, runt?" The masked shinobi asked as he spared Shinji one glance.
Shinji only nodded in return. Oni wrapped his knuckles on the door a couple times before Shinji could hear someone shout, "Enter!"
Oni opened the door to reveal a large room with an ornate desk in the middle. The wall behind the desk was practically made out of windows so as to have a pretty nice view of the village actually.
However, the man sitting at the desk who was looking through his paperwork suddenly looked up to see the duo who entered his office. He had a long, white beard and mustache with a large red nose. He was of a short stature with round, beady black eyes wearing some sort of ornate maroon robe with a gold trim.
"Ah Oni, it's good to see you. I have another mission if you're interested-and who might this young one be?"
Oni was about to answer but to his and the tsuchikage's surprise, Shinji stepped forward and tried his best to casually introduce himself. "My name is Shinji Sato, sir. It's nice to meet you." For extra effect, he added a slight bow. The elderly tsuchikage looked upon the child for a moment, assessing him. 'He can't be any older than three and he's certainly not without manners for a youngster! It's always nice to see the younger generation respect their elders!'
A proud smirk came to the old man's face. "Well it is a nice change of pace when you youngsters have manners, my name is Onoki of the Twin Scales young man. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"So what can I do for you two?" To this question, Oni stepped forward.
"I would like to personally recommend Shinji Sato, to join the academy one year early on the merit that I believe this child to be ready." Oni said with ease and confidence to the old man.
Onokis eyes widened ever so slightly but quickly returned to form. "I see, and what makes you believe this child is ready?"
"I've assessed his talents myself and while he may not be skilled right now…" Shinji grimaced when he heard this, unintentionally drawing a smirk from the tsuchikage. "…he has great potential and it would be a waste if we did not cultivate it."
Onoki considered this for a moment. 'Praise like this from Oni certainly goes far. But he's so young, could he be too young? Even so, it's unwise to allow a four year old to enter the academy strictly based on talent alone. Perhaps a test may be in order first?'
"Very well, I will allow it. On one condition, a test of sorts." Onoki waited for a reaction of some kind but did not receive any other than a determined look on Shinji's face. 'Not gonna back down huh? I like you already youngster.'
"This test will consist of three parts. A physical test, theoretical test and last but not least a practical exam. If you manage to pass all three, I'll place you with next year's class." Onoki spotted a slight smirk come to the boy's face. 'Just wait Shinji, I haven't given you the other half.'
"However, if you fail even one of the tests, you will be barred from the academy for life." The smirk was wiped off the boys face and replaced with a worried and slightly panicked expression. "I will give you one week to prepare, youngster. In one week's time, return to my office at 8 am sharp, failure to do so will result in an automatic barring of your future within the academy."
'Oh ho ho the smirk is back! Will he take the offer?' Seeing the smirk return on the boy's face made Onoki want to chuckle, however he did not show this.
"You're on gramps." Onoki's head snapped to Shinji with a raised eyebrow while the boy could've sworn he heard Oni snicker.
A little while later the two exited the building and were now out on the street in front of the mansion. "So, you think you can really do it?" Oni asked.
"I would've never agreed if I wasn't 100% sure. I just need to know what to study and that's it." Shinji grumbled to himself over which history books he had to purchase, what theoretical books would be useful and what kind of physical test they would have him do, all the while Oni was regarding the kid.
"Here, runt. This is what you'll need." Shinji, caught up in his thoughts, ignored the man until he had to bop the kid on the head to get his attention.
"Ow! What the hell-what's that?" Attention diverting to the piece of folded paper being handed to him, Shinji grabbed the paper and read the list.
"Chakra for Dummies, Legacy of Stone: a History of Iwagakure, and Shinobi Basics? These are all the books I'll need?" Shinji raised an eyebrow as he looked at the demon masked shinobi who simply nodded.
"These will get you started on the basics. Good luck with the studying, runt." Without another word, Oni disappeared with a trail of dust marking his exit.
'That was kinda cool. I should head to the library and get started on this list.' With that thought, Shinji's very first steps to his shinobi career started.
