Tokiju, Senju Tokiju

Preface:

You can enjoy a wonderful life without thinking too much. Reality is exhausting enough—why wear yourself out over nothing? Set down your tired body and embrace the art of doing nothing!

Main Text:

Konoha, Year 29.

Konoha Hidden Village, the Senju Ancestral Residence.

"Big brother! Tokiju, big brother! Wake up..."

The incessant calls left Tokiju, who'd been hoping to catch a few more winks, thoroughly annoyed.

He got up impatiently, glanced at the little brat in front of him, and said, "Kid, if you can't give me a good reason for this, I'm going to beat you up!"

He'd spent all night practicing chakra extraction, and he was exhausted.

Anyone would be in a bad mood if they were woken up under those circumstances—unless the person waking them was their mother.

But the little brat in front of him, who was about his age, clearly wasn't.

In fact, he was Tokiju's younger brother, who was utterly cowed by him: Nawaki—or, more formally, Senju Nawaki.

However, because of Second Hokage Senju Tobirama's policies, the Senju Clan had completely faded into the background in Konoha.

There was no Senju Clan in Konoha anymore—or, more accurately, no one used the Senju surname anymore.

But that didn't matter, especially not to Tsunade, Nawaki, and Tokiju, the three royal grandchildren of Konoha.

All three were the grandchildren of First Hokage Senju Hashirama. Everyone in Konoha knew that.

So they could get away with acting up now and then. As long as they didn't do anything serious, people would turn a blind eye and let it go.

After all, they had powerful backing. One shouldn't forget that Uzumaki Mito was still alive and well.

As the First Hokage's wife, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, and the most senior woman in Konoha, her words carried tremendous weight.

Whether it was Tsunade, Nawaki, or Tokiju, they were Uzumaki Mito's last blood relatives, and she spoiled them rotten.

She was strict when teaching them, but the rest of the time, she doted on them without restraint.

So as long as the three of them didn't make any serious mistakes, they'd be fine.

But would they make any serious mistakes?

Obviously not.

For one thing, Uzumaki Mito kept them in line. And their personalities weren't the sort to get them into serious trouble anyway.

Both Tsunade and Nawaki loved the village deeply, as grandchildren of the First Hokage.

And with Uzumaki Mito's strict guidance, they'd never cross the village's bottom line.

As for Tokiju, he had the experience of two lifetimes and knew what he should and shouldn't do.

That's right—Tokiju was a transmigrator.

In his previous life, he'd managed to earn more money than he could spend in a lifetime before turning thirty.

He'd planned to start enjoying life, but before he'd even had a few days to celebrate, a semi-truck turned him into a speed bump.

When he woke up, he'd become a babbling infant, with another baby about his age beside him.

At first, he thought the Old Lady Meng's soup had been watered down. But as the days passed, he gradually realized he seemed to have transmigrated.

And not just anywhere, but into the messed-up world of Naruto.

As one of the long-running manga series that had already ended, Naruto was naturally familiar to Tokiju. He knew the general direction of the plot, and he knew how dangerous this world was.

People joked that it was all about the eyes, and that wasn't too far from the truth.

This was a world where bloodlines reigned supreme. Without one, you were nothing but cannon fodder.

Unless you had a cheat or a system to give you an advantage, you could forget about ever making something of yourself.

Tokiju had also discovered that it was now the twenties of Konoha's calendar, just a few years before the Second Ninja War.

By then, Tokiju would be old enough to be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder, which made everything even more messed up.

Fortunately, as he grew up, Tokiju discovered that he seemed to be a member of the Senju Clan—and not only that, he was Tsunade's younger brother and Nawaki's older brother.

That immediately calmed his panicked heart.

As a direct descendant of Senju Hashirama, Tokiju had yet to show the full strength of his Sage Body, partly because of his age.

But during his studies, he discovered that he had a real talent for Sealing Jutsu.

With Uzumaki Mito teaching him, he could master the fundamentals of Sealing Jutsu, which most ninjas found complicated, at an incredible pace.

His experience from two lifetimes certainly played a part, but he was also genuinely interested in Sealing Jutsu.

When he watched Naruto, he'd thought Sealing Jutsu was incredibly versatile—there seemed to be nothing it couldn't seal.

Amaterasu was powerful, sure, but the Fire Sealing Method: Flame Seal could handle it.

The Nine-Tails was powerful, sure, but the Adamantine Sealing Chains of the Uzumaki Clan could still whip it around like a top.

Since Tokiju's grandmother was Uzumaki Mito, he also had Uzumaki blood in his veins.

It was thin, but it was there.

So Tokiju had a chance of awakening the Adamantine Sealing Chains, and he was working toward that goal.

After all, he hadn't awakened a system or any other cheat, and he'd been disappointed about it for quite a while.

So, to protect himself in the future, as soon as he was old enough to move around freely, he'd clung to Uzumaki Mito and begged her to teach him Sealing Jutsu.

After being pestered constantly, Uzumaki Mito had finally had enough.

Thinking that Sealing Jutsu was so complicated that a child wouldn't have the patience to read about it, let alone understand it, she handed Tokiju a scroll covering the basics.

But to her surprise, Tokiju not only read it all but understood it, too.

If Tokiju hadn't still been too young to train in chakra, he could already have been showing off a few Sealing Jutsu techniques.

The sight had left Uzumaki Mito utterly astonished. Was her grandson really that talented?

From then on, under the resentful gazes of Tsunade and Nawaki, Tokiju had become "someone else's child."

Seeing that Tokiju had such a gift for Sealing Jutsu, Uzumaki Mito's enthusiasm for teaching him had flared up, and she began instructing him personally.

Tokiju was more than happy to go along with it, and threw himself into learning with everything he had.

With Uzumaki Mito personally teaching him, he gained extensive knowledge of the Uzumaki Clan's basic Sealing Jutsu.

That knowledge was also one of the prerequisites for awakening the Adamantine Sealing Chains.

To clarify, the Adamantine Sealing Chains were not a Kekkei Genkai. They were a Sealing Jutsu developed on the basis of the Uzumaki Clan's bloodline.

In other words, the Adamantine Sealing Chains were a technique that only members of the Uzumaki Clan could learn.

They were a powerful Sealing Jutsu that unleashed a tremendous amount of chakra stored within the Uzumaki Clan in an instant.

So, for Tokiju, the only thing keeping him from awakening the Adamantine Sealing Chains was the amount of chakra he had.

That was why he'd spent all night practicing chakra extraction.

Many of the ideas in his head couldn't be put to the test until he'd truly awakened the Adamantine Sealing Chains and experienced them firsthand.

Looking at his older brother's scowl, Nawaki shrank back a little. He really was a bit afraid of him.

Grandma Mito and big sister Tsunade both doted on him, but his big brother was the exception. When his big brother was in a bad mood, he really did beat him up.

Tokiju had only been born a few minutes before Nawaki, but an older brother was still an older brother—especially in a family with a proud legacy.

"Tokiju, Grandma Mito wants to see you. She told me to come get you." Nawaki shrank back and spoke timidly.

Hearing that, Tokiju rubbed his tired eyes and replied, "Got it. I'll be right there."