Chapter edited on the 1st of September 2024*
By the way, I have a discord for TFI. If you want to send me any criticism or even just chat, this is the code: uDyCFFxB2X
—-
To my horror, the Third Great Shinobi war had actually started. The conflict was one that I had been aware of for a while, but its existence didn't quite feel real. In a way, tou-san's conscription was a rude awakening. The war wasn't just extremely bloody, but it had far-reaching consequences, such as Obito becoming Tobi, and the subsequent tragedies linked to Madara's Eye of the Moon plan. The status quo that I had lived in thus far was beginning to fall apart.
That wasn't my only worry, either.
"Tou-san, you can't go!" I yelled at the frowning man, clenching my fists at my side. Tears tugging at my eyes, I did the only thing I could – scream in outrage. "Please calm down!" kaa-san hushed me.
"I don't have much choice, kiddo. I have to go back to the Genin Corps." he repeated to me gravely. You've got to be kidding me. From what I remembered, this war was a bloodbath. Tou-san definitely wasn't weak as a former career ninja, but war was never certain. There was always a chance that he could die.
Retirement was an option for shinobi after completing a certain number of years worth of active service, but neither of my parents had retired as a result of career-ending injury, and thus they were still at risk of being conscripted for war. Hidden shinobi villages mobilized all available resources in times of war, and the Hokage's word was law. Whether he liked it or not, there was no choice short of being branded a traitor and stripped of his rights.
The village was pulling capable fighters out of its reserves in order to stall for the rush of early academy graduates. After retirees and current active duty shinobi were sent off, the last few years of academy students would be next. Kaa-san wasn't conscripted because of a clause in the Mobilization act that the Sandaime Hokage had introduced, which allowed a household one guardian even during conscription. It seemed that Sarutobi Hiruzen was as kind as I remembered.
Thoughts of losing tou-san plaguing my mind, I ran up to him and hugged him. He couldn't die. He absolutely couldn't die in this war. I cried in his shirt as he patted my back. There was nothing I could do to help him in this situation. Helplessness squeezed at my chest as I hugged him tighter.
After a few minutes, I latched off of him and looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. "Tou-chan, the promise you made to me… It goes both ways, okay?" I reminded him shakily, voice hoarse from my sobbing.
Tou-san smiled gently at me. "I know."
—-
Academy's break was still on, and despite the start of the war, things hadn't changed much for me, other than the impending departure of tou-san. Gai and I had continued training through the break, and despite the relative normalcy, I could tell the boy was tense.
His smiles were too strained, conversation was too surface level, and most of all, his training intensity had gone up. I was barely keeping up with him, but I didn't complain. It was fairly clear what was going on – it was the war. Gai was eccentric and happy-go-lucky, but he wasn't stupid. He must have been dreading the same things I have been.
After the day's training ended, Gai faced me with a grimace, and I knew that he was finally ready to talk about what was on his mind. "My class is to take the graduation exam at the start of this school year."
I stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate. Gai was unusually quiet. "I do not know how I should feel, Daisuke-kun-" he paused, hesitating once again. Seemingly swallowing the lump in his throat, he continued. "On one hand, I am excited!" he exclaimed with his usual eccentric tone. "I have the opportunity to become a shinobi – to prove myself and make the village proud!"
His grin fell, "Despite that, I find myself dreading it. Tou-san did not keep quiet about his experiences in the last war." he explained, "Including my m-mother's gruesome… downfall." he choked out quietly. It was the first time that I heard the boy stutter. Maito Gai was confident, loud and strong. This side of him drove home the fact that war was coming.
"I wonder, will I meet that same fate? What about tou-san?" he wondered out loud, before gazing at me. "... What about you, Daisuke-kun?"
What Gai loved was training alone or with his friends, making his father proud, and self improvement. He loved his self-rule. He was conflicted between what he loved.
"Are you scared of dying, Gai?" I asked him after a few seconds of tense silence. He looked offended. "O-Of course not!" he shouted, shrinking back. I smiled at him fondly, "Well I am scared of dying." I returned. Gai's eyes widened in surprise. "It shouldn't be hard to admit, you know. If you aren't scared of dying, you're either crazy or suicidal." I explained with a chuckle.
"But you know what, Gai? I have to face the fear head on. Maybe our paths will lead us to death, but I won't die before I can fulfill my ambitions." I declared with a determined gaze. Tou-san was going to war, and I'm going to follow him shortly. Even after that, the death of my entire family lies in the choices of Uchiha Itachi and Shimura Danzo.
The two won't have the chance to touch them if I have any say in it. Izumi is going to live a long, prosperous life, tou-san's gonna survive the war, and kaa-san's gonna be around to celebrate it.
"What are you trying to say, Daisuke-kun?" Gai asked after a small pause. "What I'm trying to say is that it's up to you to decide whether your fear of death is stronger than your goals. Are you going to falter before you have the chance to fulfill your ideals?"
Gai took a deep breath before nodding. "I'm going to prove to everyone that Maito Gai exists." he said with his characteristic smile.
Shooting him a thumbs up, I continued, "Just promise me you won't die. I'm not friends with liars, after all." I reassured Gai with a wide grin, holding out my hand for a handshake. Someone like Gai couldn't just die. Maybe I had a bit of my guarantee due to my foreknowledge, but after training with Gai for almost three years, it was difficult to picture the boy in mortal danger.
Gai accepted my handshake with a smile. "I promise!"
—-
Later that week, my second year at the Academy began. The atmosphere was tense as Hayashi-sensei told us about the war and what it would mean for us. Our primary shinobi was to be accelerated, prioritizing combat and survival skills, while cutting down on non-combat related classes. Graduation exams were to take place in the 3rd and 4th years so they could assign us to teams as quickly as possible.
A frightening reminder, but at least I was able to see Hayate again after a while.
As expected, most of Gai's year had passed, including Gai himself. I wasn't in doubt about that fact. Gai told me about his team members: Shiranui Genma, the laidback senbon user, Ebisu, the stern all-rounder who was fairly proficient at Fire Release, and his hearty sensei Akimichi Chouza.
His placement on his team had clearly excited him, but it was easy to tell that even he was worried about it. The new bath of Genin had time to train, gain combat experience and learn new skills with their sensei before being sent into war-related missions. Ultimately, it was up to the judgment of the team leader, but there was a lot of pressure on said team leader to approve them as prepared for war. The time a team could have varied from between a month and several months.
His new team meant that Gai's schedule was more active than ever, so I had to train by myself on many days, even though Gai made a special effort to make time to train with me. Hayate still came along, though every time. He mostly came for sparring, but I could tell he did conditioning at his own rate in his own time after seeing the difference that endurance made during combat.
One day we began learning about the Academy 3 jutsu. It was earlier than planned on the pre-war curriculum, but I was always happy to learn more about the nature of chakra and jutsus. We didn't learn any practical information about those 3 jutsu, but we did learn the theory of how they worked.
The Transformation jutsu was a technique that used a light film of chakra, along with visions from our minds in conjunction with genjutsu theory to alter the appearance of a shinobi. The Clone jutsu was an illusionary technique that created a purely visual image of the user. Despite that, it didn't have a smell, cast a shadow or have any substance. The Substitution jutsu used chakra to allow the user to move at unnatural speeds to substitute themselves with an object. It is related to the Body Flicker jutsu.
When my classes ended, Gai was waiting for me in front of the academy – a habit he had long since developed. I had gotten used to seeing his face outside of the academy doors, as he made it a point to begin training with me as long as he had the free time to do so. Today was one of those days.
Gai ran up to me in front of the academy for the nth time. "Daisuke-kun, today is the day you meet my eternal rival!" he announced, dragging me by the back of my shirt before I could respond. I tried to scramble out of his grip, before realizing that I now had the ability to stop this madness.
Dropping my feet to the ground, I channeled chakra into my feet, sticking myself to the ground. As he continued to tug me, the adhesiveness did the trick, and stuck me to the spot. I leaned over the ground at a 45 degree angle, chakra keeping me from moving. I turned my head to smirk at Gai as he looked down at the part of the shirt he was holding with an open mouth.
"My apologies, Daisuke-kun! I did not realize I was dragging you," Gai said with an apologetic smile.
As he let go of my shirt, I realized something. If I was leaning over the ground and the support from Gai dragging me was gone, then…
The moment the thought passed my mind, I fell dramatically towards the ground, my butt firmly impacting the gravel and kicking up a cloud dust around me. I glared up at the boy responsible for this situation, who was too busy heartily laughing at my misfortune. He reached his hand down to bring me back up, which I accepted reluctantly.
"You are too clumsy, my friend!" he said in between guffaws. "And you're an asshole, Gai," I deadpanned, dusting myself off.
After that, he ushered me forward to come with him. The route was different than usual, so he led the way. "Why am I coming along, anyway?" I asked Gai as we were running off towards Kakashi. Gai smiled and I could've sworn that I saw a twinkle in his teeth. "Isn't it obvious? I wish for you to witness my inevitable victory!" he said, giving me a thumbs up.
"Are you sure you're gonna win?" I asked. The question fell upon deaf ears as he upped his speed without waiting for a response. Come on! "Wait up, Gai!" I yelled as I ran after him. Eventually, we arrived at a training ground I'd never been at before.
Gai sprinted toward a group of four people standing together. At their center was a man with long, blonde hair and a standard Konoha vest, flanked by three younger ninjas. The first boy had white hair sticking up in defiance of gravity and wore a mask covering his mouth and nose. Beside him, a girl with purple markings and short brown hair flashed a bright grin at her teammates. The final member of the group had spiky brown hair, striking onyx eyes, and sported goggles uncharacteristic of a shinobi. It was unmistakably Team Minato.
Gai ran up to Kakashi, shouting at him confidently. "I challenge you, my eternal rival! Let us decide whose Youth is stronger with the greatest spar the world has ever seen!" he announced, completely interrupting whatever they were talking about. Read the room, man.
Kakashi sighed, "Again? When will you admit that I'm just better than you?" he asked in exasperation. "I will never admit something that isn't true, my esteemed rival! Let us begin!" he shot back, stepping into a stance.
Minato tried to stop it but it was too late. Kakashi had already followed Gai a few meters to the side and got into his own stance. Kakashi may have thought that the challenges were pointless, but his own pride ensured he would never decline a challenge from Gai.
I ran up to Minato and the team's two remaining teammates, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin. "I'm sorry for his intrusion." I apologized hurriedly on his behalf. Minato shook his head, "It's no bother," he reassured me before smiling gently at me, "And who might you be?" he asked politely.
I had forgotten to introduce myself to a Jounin. What a great start. I bowed, "I'm so sorry! My name's Uchiha Daisuke, a friend of Gai's." I said respectfully before I heard Minato speak again. "Now, now, there's no need to be so polite. Nice to meet you, Daisuke. My name is Namikaze Minato." said the future 4th Hokage, introducing himself with a closed eye smile.
"Maybe he should apologize to us himself. It wouldn't be the first time he intruded on our training," grumbled a certain Uchiha Obito. "He's already intruded on our training so many times! Doesn't he have his own team?!" he shouted in frustration.
Rin placed her hand on his shoulder, "Kakashi-kun told us already, right? That Maito-san has been challenging him to bouts for years. This must be important to him, so just leave them be, Obito." she defended Gai gently, causing Obito to deflate.
"...If you say so, Rin…" Obito muttered. I caught a faint blush on his face.
Rin then turned to me looking curious. "Why are you here, umm, Daisuke-kun?". From their point of view I was some random kid who came at the same time as Gai.
"I'm a friend of Gai's, and it seems today he's decided to allow me the pleasure of witnessing a duel with his… 'eternal rival'," I looked back at their match, and it looked to me that Gai was actually doing very well against Kakashi. "... I thought it would be a good learning experience, so I came along without protest." I finished with a shrug.
Gai wasn't as skilled as Kakashi was. Kakashi was a prodigy, after all, but Gai made up for it with his superior strength. The young beast's strength was reinforced by his well-developed muscles, the constant strength training he did, as well as a healthy dose of chakra augmentation. Kakashi didn't look like he was on the ropes, per say, but he was definitely sweating, forced to stay on his toes to avoid a direct hit.
And Obito watched from the side with a bitter scowl, envious of Gai's skills.
"I have to say, Maito-san is amazing for pushing Kakashi-kun so far!" Rin told me while we were all watching their match. "You two train together… Are you any bit as good as he is?" she asked innocently. I smiled sheepishly at her, "Ah, no, not at all. Gai's just on another level, as besides, I'm still younger than he is." I humbly admitted.
"Hold on, how old are you? Now that I notice it… you're an academy student, aren't you?" Obito asked me, narrowing his eyes at me judgmentally. Obito was an obnoxious child, after all. "Yes. I'm in my second year," Mild surprise flashed across the faces of Kakashi's team, including Minato.
"And you train with Gai-kun? From the way you speak, it isn't a recent development either," Minato hummed, "How much do you two train?" he asked. I tilted my head in thought, "Academy aside, we try to fit in four or five hours of training in a day" I answered honestly, thinking about our schedule, "though most of our collaborative training is strength and endurance training. We do spar together, though, but he can't take it too seriously against me." I explained with a frown.
Obito looked puzzled at me for a while, as if he had something to say, before he finally spoke, "You said your name's Uchiha Daisuke, but I haven't really seen you around the compound, and you hardly look the part." he commented curiously.
"My mother is from the Uchiha clan, but my father is a civilian-born shinobi. I'm only half Uchiha." I told Obito, clarifying the common misunderstanding. It felt like everyone asked me that question these days. Obito smirked, "Heh," he looked off proudly. Lord, he's a prick.
"Racist." I sniped back with a mock glare. "Racist? What does that even mean?" he asked defensively. "It doesn't mean anything," I sighed with my hands up, "I'm just joking around. Don't poke fun at my upbringing, though. I take great offense to it." I added seriously.
Obito puffed his chest out, "The future Hokage can offend anyone he wa-" He said triumphantly before Minato and Rin leveled him with a disapproving gaze, "Fine. I'm sorry." he said reluctantly. I nodded, accepting the apology before perking up with a curious gaze, "You, the Hokage?" I asked innocently. I'd forgotten about it, but I guess it was true that Obito wanted to be the Hokage. Maybe it would be possible if all went well.
Obito misunderstood my question as sarcasm and got really upset with me. "Yeah! You've got a problem with th-" he said before I interrupted him. "The first Uchiha Hokage, that's an interesting goal! Maybe I misjudged you, Obito-san," I said with some excitement.
Obito was blindsided by my genuine compliment. Rin smiled brightly at Obito, "It's not just me rooting for you now, Obito!" She reassured him warmly. He looked down with a blush at her sudden excitement, "Y-yeah," he agreed.
Gai and Kakashi's match just finished and Kakashi obviously won. Kakashi looked pretty tired out by the match. Gai got up shortly after losing with a smile on his face. "As expected of my hip and cool rival! That puts our score at 1-23."
I could've sworn that that score was much more equal in later years… Looks like Gai would have to catch up eventually. "What a waste of time…" Kakashi muttered. Everyone heard him except Gai.
After some stretches Gai looked ready to leave. "What a youthful competition! Let us go train, Daisuke-kun! I have much to reflect upon! Farewell, my Eternal Rival and his team members!" He announced, giving a deep bow before hauling me off again.
Everyone but Kakashi were laughing at me as my face held a pitiful expression while being hauled off. I should just learn to accept it for now. He won't be able to do this when we're older, right? Right?!
As we were heading back, I turned my head to Gai to ask him a question. "Could you take me to more of your competitions with Kakashi?" I paused, searching for some lame excuse. "Watching your bout was… inspiring!" I told him with fake stars in my eyes.
Gai looked ecstatic. "Of course, Daisuke-kun! Perhaps you can grow from watching our sacred duels!"
—-
Returning home, it was one of those times where tou-san wasn't home. If I was in denial I would tell myself that he was just at work as usual, but no. Tou-san had just gone on his first deployment through the genin corps.
Tou-san was a genin specializing in Earth Style jutsu and close combat, which meant that he would be sent to the front lines, even as a genin. The thought of it made me tremble; the doorbell ringing, bringing excitement to the whole family, only for us to be met with a shinobi telling us about the death of tou-san.
Clenching my fists, I slapped myself to snap out of that mindset. 'Enough of that!', I told myself, finally opening the door. Kaa-san ran up to me and wrapped her arms around me in a bear hug. "Are you ready, Daisuke-chan?" she screeched as she shook me side to side. Ready for what?! I couldn't breathe!
"C-can't… br-eathe!" I choked out, before kaa-san hurriedly put me down. "Oh, I'm so sorry, sweetie! I was just so excited! I'm gonna teach you Fire Release!" she told me, explaining herself.
'I'm learning a second nature release before even learning an Earth Style jutsu?' I thought after some desperate breathing to get some air back. Maybe it was because tou-san was away and couldn't teach me what he knew about Earth Release… Regardless, I was excited.
"Don't worry about food, I packed some in that basket. I'm gonna go get Izumi-chan and then we'll go to a civilian training ground!" kaa-san announced, rushing around the kitchen and making supplies. She told me about her day while she was picking before she ran to the other room to grab Izumi.
The way she was running around while talking to me and packing stuff, it really reminded me of my mom from my Earth. I'd been missing my old family for a while, but didn't have enough time to give it much thought. I hope they weren't devastated from my sudden death/disappearance.
I took the time to get something to drink and go to the bathroom. Kaa-san came out with a big smile on her face, carrying a sleepy Izumi in her arms. She'd just been woken up during her nap. I sighed at kaa-san, who was still beaming. "You shouldn't wake Izumi up like that, kaa-chan! You can't just wake her up like that, you'll disrupt her sleep cycle." I heard it was really bad to deprive babies of sleep.
"Don't worry! She was gonna wake up soon anyway! Besides, she wouldn't want to miss their onii-chan using his first Fire Style jutsu?" she shook her finger side to side, brushing off the comment. Mother may know best, but I wasn't sure about mine knowing best…
I went closer to Izumi who was still groggy from waking up. " You can go back to sleep, you know?" I patted her head lightly, smiling gently at her. She looked like she understood, cause she closed her eyes right away. Kaa-san was surprised at how easy it was for me to "put her back to sleep".
"Let's let her nap some more, kaa-chan? We won't arrive for another 30 minutes, and I don't think I'll grasp Fire Release right away. She needs rest!" I told kaa-san, giving her a pointed look. She smiled guiltily. "If you say so," she huffed.
—-
Eventually, we arrived at the training ground. Kaa-san and I set up a small picnic-like area with a blanket on the ground, food waiting in a basket, and a pile of smaller blankets and laid down Izumi in those blankets before we went a small ways away from where we set up shop. Not far from Izumi, though, so we could watch her.
"Did you read the scroll, Daisuke-chan?" she asked with a knowing grin. I'd… sort of read it? Skimmed it? "A little bit…" I muttered, embarrassed. "Tell me what you know, then." she ordered.
"To use Fire Release, we convert our chakra into Fire Release chakra in a process known as nature transformation," I didn't know how to, though, "usually we expel the fire from our mouths because nature transformation into Fire Release chakra is made easier with easy access to chakra and air." I regurgitated.
She grinned, impressed, "Let me guess, you don't know how to convert your chakra to Fire Release chakra?" she asked, giving me a fond smile. "Ah, well, I haven't tri-" I tried to explain myself before I felt a light chop on the head.
"Focus on the present, Daisuke-chan. This isn't a problem, fire isn't your primary affinity, after all." She reassured me. "Before you try to perform the Great Fireball jutsu, let's just make sure you can do Nature transformation."
Under certain circumstances, such as having a primary affinity in a said element and with simpler jutsu, you could give the desired jutsu a try by simply using hand seals (which were a shortcut when it came to the required chakra control and nature transformation skills), but generally speaking, it was safer to be familiarized with basic Nature transformation before attempting a jutsu. Chakra wasn't a toy to be played with, after all.
I nodded seriously, bringing my hands together in a tiger seal, ready to begin. I heard it was a typical hand seal used in Fire Style jutsu. I peaked at her face and found Kaa-san nodding to signify that I was doing something right. I continued.
"Try to imagine your chakra as a fuel source for Fire Release chakra, focus on using that chakra to fuel your jutsu. The 'spark' that creates Fire Release, that's what you will have to figure out on your own." She explained to me while I was concentrating on my chakra.
I scrunched up my eyebrows in concentration, remembering when tou-san told me to really concentrate and not just look focused. I took a deep breath, visualizing my chakra. I tried to draw my chakra from my coils and concentrate it in my stomach, but that didn't do anything.
Visualizing my chakra was easy nowadays, especially since I practice chakra control on a daily basis. It was like peering into a warm pool of water and finding its flow. Once I managed to visualize everything, I began to brainstorm. I wasn't going to accomplish this feat without a plan.
I took another deep breath. Fire needs three things to form and stay around: heat, oxygen and a fuel source. The three things were true for natural fire, which was different from chakra created by Fire release, but if I had to guess, the differences existed because of the use of chakra in Fire release. Oxygen would fuel the fire as I took a breath, and the fuel source was chakra, as kaa-san explained earlier. What was missing now was heat.
During school in my past life, I had learned various things in different science classes. One of things I learned was that heat was a measure of kinetic energy in molecules and particles: to put it simply, the faster these molecules and particles vibrated, moved and collided with one another, the more kinetic energy and therefore heat would be created.
I could create that heat using my chakra as well. The feat would require a bit of chakra control, but if I created that kinetic energy with my own chakra, it should create enough heat. I remembered from some videos and TV shows that people used friction to create fires in the wild, for example. Bear Grylls used friction to create heat when making a fire.
Okay, it did not take me long to get off topic.
Reminding myself of the present, I closed my eyes harder and took hold of my chakra. This Nature transformation was possible for Sasuke to do before he had enough chakra control to do tree-walking, so it should also be possible for me in terms of chakra control.
Starting slowly to build momentum with my chakra, I gathered some in my chest. I rotated the chakra in a loosely defined circle and kept my hold on my chakra as I slowly raised the speed at which it moved. The increase in speed threatened to halt my concentration, but I kept it up, holding my chakra together as it grew quicker and quicker and quicker. The rotations sped up, causing a mildly uncomfortable vibration in my chest. I took a calming breath as I felt my chest heat up.
My forehead was covered in sweat from the exertion. I looked up at kaa-san, who had her sharingan active. She was watching my progress, taking note of how my chakra was flowing, and judging by her lack of intervention, I wasn't doing anything wrong.
Eventually, the violently rapid flow of chakra in my chest reached a breaking point. My eyes widened in panic, and as I failed to calm down, I coughed out a bunch of searing hot air. The heat was enough to nearly burn my throat, as it was an uncontrolled release. I gasped for breath as I sat down.
Kaa-san approached me, "You were so close, but you had the right idea! I think you could even try performing the jutsu today!" kaa-san embraced me and gave me a noogie, "Impressive, Daisuke-chan! My son is amazing!" she gushed.
My first impression of Nature transformation? Pain.
After that, I kept practicing the conversion of my chakra to Fire Release chakra while kaa-san was watching me and giving me advice. It wasn't actually draining on my reserves, since all of the chakra that I used got reabsorbed into my coils each time I failed to produce fire, except for the miniscule amount that was consumed during the process of created heat in my chest.I couldn't help but feel my progress was too slow, but kaa-san was adamant in the fact that I was progressing really fast. I was comparing myself to Sasuke and Itachi, so maybe that's why it felt that way to me.
After about two hours of practice, I managed to create a small amount of Fire release chakra successfully.
On my final attempt, I took inspiration from matches. As usual, I took hold of my chakra and began increasing its rapid movement. The same feeling of discomfort was ever present, and as it approached that 'breaking-point' level I described earlier, I took hold of whatever chakra I could, and forced it to violently speed up as much as I could manage. A match created fire by using the energy from friction, so this time I brought my active and rapidly-moving chakra together and strook one with the other. In that instant, the heat went up to another level, and I knew that I had to release that heat.
The 'spark' was finally created. I wasn't ready for success and I suddenly coughed some smoke and fire. Kaa-san watched the rising smoke with great excitement, before gently slapping my back to help me breathe. "You did it!" she congratulated me.
I smiled weakly, "I did it," I parroted, before I spoke again, "so what's next, kaa-chan?" I asked her, trying to break her out of her initial excitement. She blinked before looking down at me and pulling at my cheek. "What else? It's time for you to perform the Great Fireball jutsu, silly!" she said, pulling my cheek.
Wasn't this a little quick?
"Watch closely, Daisuke-chan!" she said, showing me her hands. "These are the hand seals for the jutsu." she said as she slowly went through Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger. Then she moved a few meters away.
She made all of the hand seals again before breathing in as much as she could, then she exhaled out a huge fireball. She maintained it for a few seconds so I had more time to watch, then she stopped. It was crazy to me that even Genin were capable of these kinds of feats in the Naruto world. A giant fireball that made a flamethrower look pathetic was considered only C-ranked.
Kaa-san came up to me while I was still gazing at her in amazement. "Wasn't that cool, Daisuke-chan? Go on, you try it!"
"Sure!"
I was a bit nervous about what was essentially playing with fire, but kaa-san was convinced nothing bad would happen, so I wanted to give it my all. I walked forward, looking back at kaa-san nervously, who nodded at me, a small smile on her face.
I took a breath, preparing myself. I went through the hand seals: Snake-Ram-Monkey-Boar-Horse-Tiger. With each seal I felt my chakra naturally move towards my chest and build up heat. I quickly understood what made hand seals so important – they made the manipulation of chakra much easier. The process that took nearly a minute before, it was happening in a matter of seconds.
I still needed to control my chakra, though. Despite being significantly easier, I had to pay close attention to my swirling chakra, ensuring the heat stayed isolated. I took a deep breath, feeling the air feed into the growing fire. As the heat in my chest grew and grew, I figured it was time to release the jutsu. I exhaled as hard as I could, feeding chakra to the stream of flame as it escaped my mouth. Opening my eyes hesitantly, the Fireball in front of my eyes was a fair bit smaller than kaa-san's and clearly lacked much of its heat, but I had done it. I carefully cut off the supply of chakra to the flame, watching as it shrunk until I was not longer shooting out a fireball
I had finally done it. It was my first use of ninjutsu. My lips and corners of my mouth stung a little, but I was sure my body would get used to it.
I turned towards kaa-san, running up to her. "Did you see that, kaa-chan?! A fireball came out of my mouth! That was so cool!" I practically screamed at her, jumping around and waving my arms. "My chakra went like ' fuooowh' and the fire came out this big!"
Before she could respond, a gasping sound erupted nearby, and as me and kaa-san looked to our side dubiously, we saw Izumi sitting up on the picnic blanket, staring at me with comically widened eyes. The expression was funny enough for me and kaa-san to start uncontrollably laughing.
As our laughter died down, kaa-san opened her mouth to speak, "Ah, I'm so proud of you," she said fondly, an untold warmth in her gaze. "Let's eat and then get home, okay? The sun's going down, and I'm sure you're exhausted." she said gently, eliciting an eager nod from me.
It was then that I realized that I'd been training for pretty much the whole day, with Gai and now with kaa-san. I was hungry enough to eat a cow, and I could tell that my chakra had been drained quite a bit from the jutsu. It was the first time I experienced the feeling of having used chakra actively. Walking home, my limbs felt a bit heavy and my stomach growled aggressively, but other than that, I was alright.
Kaa-san and I enjoyed onigiri with Izumi.
We went home after we ate, because I was really tired from how much I'd trained today. I was finally able to learn a jutsu, I was one step closer to accomplishing my goals of protecting my family. It was one step out of a thousand, but I was filled with a feeling of great triumph.
I went to bed with a smile on my face.
That night, I had a dream where I found myself in a dark and mysterious place. I could hear the faint sound of a game being played, the clack of pieces echoing through the darkness. As I approached, a new piece was introduced. It was as if this piece held a power that could shape the entire board.
—-
Notes for updated version of chapter:
Before updating this chapter I had a lot of problems with it. It was a chapter filled with plot devices and unnatural speech, which really irked me. In terms of plot change, there was basically none, and if there were any, they only differed in terms of wording. I changed basically every scene that I didn't like the wording of, so if you read the original, you might enjoy this version of the chapter more. Thank you for reading.*
Sorry for the EXTREMELY late update, but it's finally done.
I'm gonna be more busy in the next few weeks, and then I will be on vacation, so updates could be slow for the next few months… I'll still try my best to update as often as I can. Stay tuned, this arc is gonna be pretty short and it will make way for a (hopefully) much more entertaining arc. I have plenty of plans.
As always, if there is a question, concern or any advice/criticism you'd like to give, please feel free!