Chapter 5. Speedrunning Child Development
If I'm to escape this living room, I'll need higher mobility, not to mention that walking will be a good milestone. My limbs feel exceptionally coordinated and strong this morning. I think it's time to try standing.
'At this rate we'll be flying before running. So much for Nara reputation of laziness.' Quips Shika.
I struggled to move this tiny body in ways it hasn't yet. from a crawling position, I bring one foot forward to plant it firmly on the ground. Then the next foot while my hands were still on the ground. I slowly leaned back and extended my legs getting into a standing position. My proportionally massive head threatens to topple me over with any slight imbalance.
Trying to keep balance from miniscule movements starts to become tedious. I manually activate Quick Think to give me some time to process everything. This does indeed give me some peace from constantly monitoring my balance allowing time to think. I can still feel the pressure against my legs, but the constant feedback from feeling like I'm going to fall seems to have stopped. As my body grows, it's getting easier to understand the feedback while in Quick Think.
In the time while I'm hyper focused on the changes of how my body feels after growing a little more. I realize I'm starting to fall backward, but it's more like zero g than falling. It's quite an alien sensation that I've never felt...
My balance is not telling me I'm falling!
As my anxiety reaches a threshold, the flight or fight version of Quick Think activates and I'm immediately flooded with the information from my inner ear that I'm falling. It feels like a geyser of chemicals flood my brain. A sharp spike of adrenaline and fear that one gets when they lose their footing next to a cliff, but instead of this feeling lasting a fraction of a second like normal, it feels like it will never end. The closest experience for this alien sensation is like the continuous sensation of the first moments of falling in a lucid dream. It's intense, surreal and uncomfortable.
I attempt to bend my legs and extend my arms to get low and counterbalance falling backward. In the state of slowed time, my body does not move as fast as my thoughts and the flood of overwhelming feelings continues. The slow speed at which my body moves feeling like paralysis only adds more fuel to the potent emotional turmoil.
The agonizing intensity of fear and anxiety continues to overwhelm me as gravity slowly brings me back into balance. My inner ear finally feels comfortable with the grounds position to my head and body. It stops flooding my brain with warnings.
That was the first time I've noticed a significant difference in functionality of the two versions of Quick Think. I thought it was just the rate of perception that was changed, but it seems as though there's more to it. My inner ear didn't seem to be sending signals to my brain during the manual activation of Quick Think. As soon as the stress (fight or flight) activation was triggered, I was flooded by signals from my inner ear. Maybe the stress activation applies chakra to my inner ear, and possibly more body parts, allowing them to function at the speed of the temporarily increased thought speed.
This perception speed ability has been present since my new birth. I'm surprised I haven't analyzed how it's functioning sooner. Granted a lot has been going on. It's definitely something to do with chakra, I might have to learn more about it before I can truly figure out what it's doing. However I can't help but think of possible ways chakra is increasing my perception speed:
-Is the chakra modifying the myelin sheath on neurons to increase signal speed? That may not explain speed ups outside the brain.
-Is it spatial manipulation to decrease the travel time of nerve signals? Seems feasible, but I don't even have an idea of how to to test that right now.
-Chakra is carrying information signals to get around laws of thermodynamics? Is chakra made of matter or waves? Can it be seen in a microscope?
So many things to investigate! I think to myself as a balance in a deep squat.
I muse over the implications of possible answers for my perception speed and chakra as a whole. My stress induced Quick Think wears off and I'm immediately assaulted with a sharp headache and a massive gurgle of my stomach.
Yoshino whips her head over from what she was doing in the kitchen when she hears the gurgle of my stomach. Her face lights up as she sees me balanced in a deep squat in the living room.
"Good job Shikatsu!" she exclaims as she swiftly walks around the kitchen counter to join me in the living room.
She crouches at the other end of the living room and gestures to walk to her saying "Come on! You can do it!"
I move my feet in a way that could barely be considered as baby steps as I slowly shuffle them forward. However Yoshino's infectious smile finally overtakes me with joy causing me to lean forward resulting in relatively large bounding steps. Like a particularly uncoordinated penguin, I clumsily make my way to my mother.
As I make it to her arms, she grabs me and lifts me up in a big hug congratulating me on my achievement. It's a shame baby's don't normally remember these moments of their childhood as they truly are something to cherish.
-o-
Yoshino takes me out with her to the garden in the backyard. She tends to the plants around the bamboo deer scarer (shishi-odoshi).
"Mommy, what that? what doing? why?" I ask vibrating with curiosity.
"These plants help make medicine for the village. I'm collecting samples that are ready and removing weeds."
Interesting - I hadn't considered the Nara clan's medical role.
"Why?"
"These plants are very delicate and require the right conditions. Harvesting early and clearing weeds helps them grow. Also the medicine helps people get better and is our duty as part of the Nara clan." Yoshino patiently answers.
I grab a clump of dirt in my tiny hand. I peer into it studying the different minerals and fibers as small bugs scurry away. I'm still caught off guard when confronted with the reality of this world. The amount of detail compares to earth. The seemingly endless causal chain from social interactions. The overall chaos of reality that no mere story could simulate.
"Why?"
"Alright, that's enough of that, let mommy work." Yoshino warmly states.
'I'm sure glad our mom is more patient than the Yoshino shown in your world, but maybe that comes when we start making decisions she doesn't approve of' Shika contemplates.
-o-
"Mommy, buk buk!"
"It's not buk, it's book. Say, Please will you read a book to me." Yoshino demands.
"Please read book to me!"
"Good job!" Yoshino praises with an infectious smile.
She hoists me onto her lap while I'm holding an old worn leather-bound book titled 'Shinono: Fields to Remember us by'.
"Shinono... that's Mommy's old name. Are you sure you don't want one of the Nara books?" Yoshino hesitantly offers.
"Please read!" I excitedly encourage.
"Alright, alright. Those doe eyes won't always work." Yoshino reluctantly opens the book and starts reading out loud.
...
Shinono: Fields to Remember Us By
Preface
Our clan has never been defined by a single pursuit, but by an insatiable curiosity that knows no boundaries. From the literal fields of our agricultural beginnings to the metaphorical fields of human knowledge, we have always been wanderers—not of land, but of understanding.
Each generation of Shinono has been a cartographer of sorts, mapping unexplored territories of thought. Our great-grandmother might have studied the intricate ecosystems of a rice paddy, while her daughter delved into the lightning nature fields of chakra manipulation. Our uncle mapped trade routes, while another charted the thought streams of human memory.
We do not specialize. We explore.
This chronicle is not a linear history, but a tapestry. Each thread represents a family member's journey—sometimes intersecting, sometimes diverging—but always part of a greater whole. It is a testament to the belief that knowledge is not a destination, but a continuous landscape of discovery.
-Shoki Shinono
Compiler and Seventh-Generation Scribe
...
I study the words with laser focus as I follow along to Yoshino reading out loud. Yoshino continues reading past the preface as it chronicles the legacy of her clan.
I don't remember any of this from any scene with Shikamaru. Possibly it just didn't get screen time? Or given Yoshino's seeming hesitance, it's not something he pushed to learn?
"Please more!" I beg.
"Okay, one more Chapter."
-o-
After dinner I was placed down in the living room once again to play while the parents cleaned dishes. As I observed their actions in the kitchen, I realized they aren't using soap. They're simply rinsing the dish and drying it off. Do germs not exist in this world or does chakra reinforced bodies never succumb to sickness from germs? Something to look into later.
I crawled over to the bookshelf placed against a wall. I grabbed the first one I could reach. It had a large Nara clan symbol on it. I could make out some of the title "Nara-...-Shadows". Looks like I'll need to learn more kanji before I figure out the title of this book. I'll use that kanji pictograph book to see if I can infer the title and maybe some other kanji.
"Walking, talking, now reading... Child Development Speedrun: Any%, Save the animals. 7 months, 10 days, 3 hours." Shika jokes.
After some investigation, I concluded that the title was "Nara Path of Shadows". It was a book of Nara tales. Every story with a lesson. One story advocates the philosophy of shadows. In a round-about way conveys that shadows can protect. Protect from heat of the sun. Protect from sight of the enemy. Protect those who seek refuge. Shield the wounded until they heal. And when darkness falls, shadows can protect the village by binding those who would do harm.
I found myself wondering if the book's real lesson wasn't about shadows at all, but about the responsibility that comes with power. The shadow that shelters can also strangle - the choice lies not in the technique, but in the hand that wields it.
-o-
"I'm so proud of my baby boy, already making full sentences at 7 months old!" Yoshino exclaims as she washes the dishes from dinner and hands a plate to Shikaku.
Shikaku receives the plate, dries it and puts it away. As he patiently waits for another dish, he gives Shikatsu a contemplative stare. The scene before him would look innocent to most - a baby with picture books. But Shikaku sees the patterns.
Shikatsu goes back and forth from an unknown book to the kanji pictograph with deliberate purpose. There's no doubt in Shikaku's mind that his son is systematically decoding the book based on the kanji guide, even attempting to derive meaning for unlisted kanji through context. The methodical approach reminds him of cipher breaking more than a child's play.
What troubles him most isn't just the advanced development - it's the careful precision in those movements, the calculating look in those infant eyes. At times, his son's expressions shift between childlike wonder and something far too... knowing.
"...You ever think Shikatsu's a little different?" Shikaku questions as he receives another dish to dry.
"He's a Nara. I thought this was your version of normal." Yoshino reasoned.
"He's exceptional even for us." Shikaku states with concern.
"Well, you've never had a Nara with my exceptional genes!" Yoshino proudly proclaims.
"Troublesome."
"What was that?!"
"Nothing dear."
-o-
"Alright little guy, let's go watch some stars." Shikaku picked me up from the living room. He took me to the second floor of our house, through the window of their bedroom and wall walking upwards on the outside of the house to the roof. Shikaku laid down on the roof with my tiny body sprawled out on his chest as I gaze up at the stars with him.
The stars were brighter, more colorful and more numerous than I've ever seen in my past life. Does that confirm that this isn't earth? Or perhaps it could still be an alternate earth and this chakra refined body sees differently. Or maybe it's due to atmospheric differences?
I loved stargazing, but always convinced myself that there were better things to do. Now, cradled safely on my father's chest, I wondered why I thought anything was more important than moments like this.
...
"There once was a small star that looked up at his elders. All he wanted to do was glow as bright as his family overhead. He had the shine, but not the size. His family warned him to not shine as bright until he had size. They warned that the planets were jealous of the light, and while they couldn't harm a fully grown star, a small one... well..."
Shikaku pauses, his voice taking on a careful tone.
"The small star thought his brilliance would protect him. After all, light pushes away darkness. But he learned too late that sometimes the very light that makes you special can draw unwanted attention. The bigger planets have their own gravity, you see, and they can pull in stars that aren't strong enough yet."
The message was clear. He thinks I'm attracting too much attention. Would he still agree if he knew of all the hurdles already on our course?
In that instance, a shooting star streaked the sky coming to life and dying out in a flash.