"All right, kiddos! Time for some training!"
"We're all awake. These two couldn't sleep for more than six hours before they woke me up to get ready.." I called out with a groan as we watched Jiraiya bursting through the door of the house we helped him built, a smirk spreading across my face as the bewildered man blinked a few times to stare at the three of us waiting patiently.
Well, I was waiting patiently in the dark grey bodysuits and black pants he gave us for training wear, but Yahiko and Konan on the other hand were acting like they both got a shot of adrenaline as they were bouncing on their feet with excited grins as Jiraiya snapped out of his shock with a smirk.
"Well, good to hear you all are so excited! Yes, even you, Sessho~!" The man cooed with a grin as he knelt down and rubbed Sessho's head, to which I would always be surprised by the dude's way to make anyone like him as the little dog yipped before running back to sit down besides me.
"So, what's up first? Hand to hand fighting stuff? Illusions? Ooh~ Ninjutsu?!" Yahiko asked excitedly and Jiraiya simply gave the five year old an amused smirk while pushing his head away with a finger.
"No, no and no. The first step to your training…is unlocking your chakra."
"Yes~!" The orange-haired kid whispered/ shouted with a grin while Konan looked just as excited, but he caught the smirk on my face and rolled his eyes.
"Don't worry. Since you got your chakra unlocked and have shown some skill with the Surface Walking exercise, we'll move onto the second phase of chakra control with you."
"Walking on water?" I asked and watched as the man smirked before nodding as he made a few hand signs, which I most definitely copied as he turned to the side before slamming his hands on the ground.
"Earth Style: Mobile Core!" The next moment, I watched in awe as the ground in front of him sunk in to form a large hole that looked like it came up to waist-height for me, the man raising his hands and standing up as the hole was slowly filling up with water from the rain.
"When that's done filling up, what you need to do is do the same thing as Surface Walking, but you just need to constantly adjust your chakra to the shifting of the water's surface as well as to how your body weight shifts around with each step. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Okay. Well, kiddo #1 and #2, time to give you two my undivided attention!" The man exclaimed with a grin as he lead the two of them away, making me shake my head before I turned to Sesshomaru as the dog looked at me with a curious gaze.
"You can go with. The water's probably going to take a while to get to the top and you'd just get bored with me." I said with a smile, the dog giving me a happy bark, trotting after where the others were walking while I chuckled and looked back at the water.
'Damn, I knew it rained a crap ton in Ame, but it's nearly half-way full already.' The hole was a decent size too, being nearly the same width and length of our living room/ dining room which could comfortably fit all four of us along with a few tables.
It took barely a few minutes before the entire hole was overflowing with water and I took a deep breath as I easily flowed from my chakra from the centre of my abdomen to my feet, the rush of energy I got from doing so still the same as it was the first time I did so.
However, I realized just how broken my eyes were with chakra control as I planted my first foot on the water and stepped onto it, clenching my eyes shut and waiting for the cold sensation of it if I fell in only to be confused as I was still standing.
Slowly opening my eyes, they widened in shock as I found myself standing on one foot, hopping from foot to foot a few times and even doing a few quick side-steps, but no matter what I did…
I didn't sink in.
'…These are definitely literal cheat codes to me.' I thought in shock as I crouched down on the water, feeling my mind subconsciously shifting & moving the amount of chakra I had on my feet without even needing to try.
It kind of felt like I was cheating for a bit…up until I remembered that there were only a rare few in this world with cheat codes that actually survived to see their thirties without people trying to kill them or steal their cheats so I need to be concerned with myself & myself only.
'Along with Konan, Yahiko, Sessho and maybe Jiraiya….and also Tsunade and Orochimaru since one did hand me all of her medical skills while the other gave me the ability to get Sage Mode. They can be added to that list too.'
"…Here I was expecting you to be swimming in water and you're crouching on it." I was pulled from my mental thinking by Jiraiya's voice, looking over to see the man giving me a deadpan stare before I smirked and leapt off of the water and towards him.
Landing with a soft grunt in front of the Sannin, I bounced on my feet with a grin while looking up at Jiraiya, who simply scratched his head as he looked over to where the others were training before shrugging as he turned back to me.
"Well, what else are we training for today?" I asked and he simply smirked before making me yelp as he flicked me across the forehead.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"For getting too power-hungry. First, you need to master the basics and that means I want you to be able to skate across the water as well as being able to balance yourself on one fingertip before we can move on to the second step of training. So, get to it." He spoke and I watched as he walked back over to the others before sighing as I turned back to the water.
'Oh~ If he wants me to master the basics, then I'm going to master them to the point that I can be fast asleep and still do them.'
"24…25…26…"
"…How long has it been since you guys started training?"
"31…32…33…"
"Uh, about two weeks, right Konan?"
"I think so."
"37…38…39…"
"Two weeks, huh? Are we sure he's not a jonin shinobi in disguise?" I ignored Jiraiya talking with Yahiko and Konan as I continue with my physical training, my left arm held behind my back with my legs straight as I balanced my entire body on just my right index finger while doing one-finger push-ups.
"Don't worry, sensei. We thought that too, but he's still Nagato. That and Sessho would bite his face off."
"And that's 50!" I grunted as I finished my push-ups for the day, pushing off of the surface of the water and landing in a crouch before looking over at the trio to see them looking at me.
"What? You said I should master the basics until I can stand on water with one finger so I did." I answered at Jiraiya's look, Konan and Yahiko snickering as the man tried a few times to fire back only to let out a defeated groan as he nodded.
"I meant it figuratively."
"Well, I took it as a challenge. So, what do we do next?"
"Urgh, you kids wanna say something?"
"Well, we kind of figured out Surface Walking yesterday night…by accident."
"I asked Sessho to chase them around the room to force them to learn it." I spoke up as Jiraiya turned to them in shock, his head snapping to me and towards the panting dog next to me before I chuckled as he shook his head with a sigh while palming his face with both hands.
"…Why? Why did I even think this would be possible?" His muttered words confused me, but I shrugged as I walked off of the water, watching in amusement as Yahiko tried to walk onto the water before smirking while Jiraiya and Konan hid their laughter as the orange-haired boy fell straight into the cold water.
"Ooh~ Ooh, that's cold~!" He hissed as he resurfaced, all of us watching as he waddled over to the edge and rolled out of the water before he let out a comforting groan as I took a deep breath and blew out a stream of warm flames above his form.
"Let me guess. You also decided to master the techniques Orochimaru and I taught you, didn't you?" Jiraiya asked with a narrowed frown before shaking his head as my response was to give a slight nod, not wanting to aim my head too far down lest I actually wanted to burn Yahiko.
"Hah, fine. I guess since we're getting close with chakra control, we can have taijutsu training next." Immediately, I quickly cut off my flames right as Yahiko leapt to his feet with excitement, Konan glaring at him along with me as he looked at us before giving a sheepish grin as he remembered the flames that was above him.
"Uh, hehe~ Sorry about that."
"Sensei, I think Yahiko is suicidal."
"Oh, you're just figuring that out? I knew from the moment I met the kid." Jiraiya spoke with a grin as he walked away, Konan and I laughing at that and the disgruntled look on his face as Yahiko stomped after the Sannin member with a glare.
Bouncing on the balls of my feet, my upper body moved and weaved around Yahiko's punches as he tried to hit me, my calm expression a stark contrast to his irritated glares that was slowly turning into frustration as I've been doing this dodging dance since our match started a few minutes ago.
"Come on! Punch! Back!" He grunted as he swung at me and in response, I made him flinch by feinting a forward tackle, to which he quickly back-pedalled away only to realize too late what was happening as I crouched with a leg sweep and knocked his feet out from under him.
Before he could get up, I was already pinning him to the ground with my left hand held to his throat while my right hand was aimed at his face, both hands coated in chakra that made the air vibrate before I stood up with a smirk as Yahiko huffed.
"And that's another point to add to the fifty of Nagato. Also, Nagato wins against Konan too, which makes the score 100 to zero for the year." Sensei spoke up as I felt my clone dispel, the memory influx not even bothering me as I watched Konan standing up with a grumble while looking up to let the rain wash off the mud on her eyes
"You know, you fight dirty and unfair~"
"That's what it means to win. Survive no matter the cost." I answered to Konan's whining with a shrug, to which she huffed and wiped away the remnants of the dirt with her hands before I turned to Sensei as he spoke up.
"That's right. If you can find a way to win, you take it and you take that win for yourself."
"But aren't shinobi supposed to be all cool and noble and stuff like that?"
"Nope, those are samurai you're thinking of. First thing about being a shinobi is that you do everything to survive until the next day no matter what it is."
"What if I need to kill Konan or Nagato?"
"…You have one morbid imagination." I muttered softly while staring warily at Yahiko, Konan nodding along with my words as the young orange-haired idiot gave us a confused yet irritated look.
"You're the one who said that I needed to do anything. Being forced to kill you guys to survive counts as anything, doesn't it?"
"Yahiko's got a point. A very very concerning point, but a point nonetheless. If it comes to a point where you have to sacrifice one to save the other as well as yourself, you do so. At least that way, two of you can survive to live on, get stronger and then get revenge, understood?" For the first time, Sensei looked serious as he gave that speech and I knew not to joke around as I gave a nod, the other two doing the same and satisfying his concerned needs as he smiled before ruffling our hair.
"Now, I'll leave you kids to do your own training, but remember the golden rules."
"No training any kind of dangerous jutsu without you supervising."
"No fighting against each other unless both agree to it and it's pure taijutsu."
"And Nagato, no trying to experiment since the last time you did so, you nearly blew up our house." Yahiko, Konan and I said respectively, the man giving a pleased smile before walking back to the shack while I grumbled as the other two giggled.
"Good! See you guys for dinner!" He shouted and we watched him leave before I turned to the other two while stretching my body.
"Any of you want to train taijutsu?"
"And lose again? Nope, you can do that on your own." Yahiko spoke with a shrug as he walked away, Konan giving me an apologetic smile to which I waved it off before watching as the two of them went to train on their own.
We weren't allowed to go more than two hundred meters from the house so we had three training grounds made.
The first was the water hole that Sensei made a year ago when we started out with chakra control, the second being the large outcropping of rocks to the far back of the house that we used for aerial-based and movement-based combat and the last was the large open plains near the two hundred meter edge of our restricted area that Yahiko and Konan were going to.
"Do you think I've gotten too strong, bud?" I asked Sessho as I sat down next to the ninja hound, who was now big enough to be a head taller than me when I sat down.
He simply looked at me with a curious gaze before giving a happy bark as I smiled, softly rubbing the top of his head while watching them leave before sighing as I looked up at the soft drizzle raining down from above.
It's been a full year since we started training under Sensei and almost a year and a half since I woke up in this new body.
So far, the only jutsu I know are the ones that Sensei and Orochimaru showed me along with the few I tried to learn by myself before the aforementioned explosion incident that destroyed my small room in the shack.
Let's just say that trying to recreate the Wind Style: Rasenshuriken before I knew the Shadow Clone Jutsu was not the best idea and it was only thanks to the fact that I only fuel a little bit of chakra into it that the jutsu destroyed my room and nothing else.
Well, I also got a long jagged cut across my left arm but you can't learn powerful jutsu without getting an injury or two.
Anyway, while I didn't have much success with replicating forbidden S-Rank jutsu, I most definitely had far better success with every other jutsu that I knew and copied from Sensei and while the man tried his best to hide his hand signs from me when he used jutsu, I 'coincidentally' saw a flash of the hand sign when he made a Shadow Clone in front of us for the first time a few days ago.
The sight of a dozen Nagato clones, excluding myself, running around a second later probably scared the piss out of him, but after he realized what I did and the fact that I wasn't passing out from chakra exhaustion, I also got banned from practising any ninjutsu until everyone was ready to do so.
Most of my year was also just taijutsu and accuracy training, which just consisted of us throwing small pebbles at a row of boulders until we can hit all ten boulders ten times in a row each…while balancing on one foot and while Sensei threw pebbles at us to draw our attention away.
Yeah, Sensei does not play when it comes to mastering the basics. Not one bit.
"I guess you're right, buddy. So, think we're gonna be able to do some special training today?" I asked before rolling my eyes as Sessho gave me a look that I knew said 'No', rolling my eyes and looking forward before I frowned as I saw Yahiko and Konan's chakra rising and declining rapidly.
However, what made me frown was the third chakra next to them, confused at who it was before my eyes widened in horror as I remembered a minor event shown in the anime that happened to the trio of Ame kids when they were younger.
"Sessho! Go get Sensei!" I shouted as I took off, chakra flooding to my legs and boosting my speed even further as I crossed the distance in the blink of an eye just in time to see an Iwagakure shinobi dressed in their traditional Chunin garb raising a sword above his head.
However, instead of seeing Yahiko out cold on the floor with Konan covering his body, it was replaced by the sight of my mother guarding my father's cold body with her own, a scream echoing in my mind as blood splattered across the house.
It was only moments later that I realised the scream was actually coming from me, drawing the attention of the Iwa-chunin away from the two and he slowly looked just in time as I leapt through the air with chakra scalpels covering both of my hands.
With a roar, I drop-kicked the chunin's chest and blood erupted from his mouth as I stomped his body into the ground, my blood pounding in my ear as I sliced and diced at every available part of his body that he could.
"-ato! -gato! Nagato! Nagato" A voice shouted and I gasped as I found myself being pulled from the house, taking deep breaths while staring in both shock and slight horror as the disfigured corpse lying on the floor.
Stumbling back while feeling the adrenaline leaving my body, I looked at the others and was surprised to feel Konan hugging me, feeling a bit out of breath as I fell onto the ground before looking over to Sensei to see him picking up an unconscious Yahiko with a frown as he turned to me.
"Are you okay?" He asked and I gave a shaky nod as I dispelled the chakra around my hands, letting Konan help me stand up as I clenched my hands to stop them from shaking.
"Y-Yeah, just…a bit shook."
"That's good. It means you're still okay."
"S-Sensei, what do we do about…that?" Konan asked hesitantly while taking a glance at the corpse, both of us surprised as Sensei made a single hand sign and blew out a scorching fireball that burned the corpse to cinders.
"That's what we do. Rule number one of battle: never leave any trace you were there. Now, let's get back home and tomorrow, we're kicking up your training a notch. It appears I've been too hesitant in teaching you all everything I know."
"Wait, does that mean…?" I trailed off as I looked at him, the man frowning and nodding as we began walking back towards our 'home'/ shack.
"Yes, from tomorrow onwards, we're starting off your ninjutsu training."
A/N: And we have another chapter finished~! This was supposed to go up tomorrow, but I got bored sitting at home so I just wrote up a chapter.
Anyway, Nagato now realizes just how much power he has and he also finds out that he has a bit of trauma still left, so next chapter, a bit more on that, a quick time-skip before we head on towards the next arc of the story~!
Another also, Nagato seems very strong, but that's only because he's being compared to two kids that aren't even trained and he only got the drop on the Chunin since as we all know, a battle can be ended with an ambush before it can begin.
However, from next chapter onwards, you'll see just how weak he really is compared to the truly strong of the verse.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
Anyway, as always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!