Senju Chen sat cross-legged in his room. Moonlight spilled through the wooden lattice window, casting a pool of clear light across the tatami.
With his eyes closed, he sensed the immense power within him.
Unlike the newly formed river of chakra four months ago, the energy within him had now gathered countless tributaries from both the Senju and Uzumaki bloodlines, becoming a deep, boundless ocean that lay quietly dormant.
This bloodline fusion had not only given him vast reserves of chakra, but also granted him sensory abilities far beyond those of ordinary people. Within several hundred meters, every rustle of grass in the wind, every insect's chirp and falling leaf registered clearly in his mind.
He slowly extended his right hand, palm facing upward.
A speck of green light appeared out of thin air, then rapidly stretched, branched, and intertwined.
There were no hand seals, nor any unnecessary movements.
In the blink of an eye, a lifelike wooden sparrow took shape in his palm, even the fine feather patterns on its wings rendered in perfect detail.
This was one of the most basic applications of Wood Release.
With a thought from Senju Chen, the wooden sparrow actually flapped its wings and hopped lightly onto his fingertip, tilting its little head as it "looked" at him with wooden eyes.
It was animated and lifelike, just like the real thing. At the same time, the sparrow's field of vision appeared in his eyes: his left eye showed his own perspective, while his right showed the sparrow's, leaving him looking at himself.
At first, he had found these multiple perspectives very disorienting, but with extensive practice, he had gradually grown accustomed to the sensation.
Of these techniques, the one he found most useful was Wood Release: Wood Clone Technique, a ninjutsu that rivaled or even surpassed Shadow Clone. After all, even the Sharingan struggled to see through a Wood Clone.
During this period, he had even used a Wood Clone to practice, with one of him practicing shuriken throws at the training ground while the other practiced Sealing Jutsu in his room.
Now, ninjutsu such as Wood Locking Wall and Wood Clone Technique came as easily as breathing, and he could unleash them instantly. If he mobilized all his chakra, he could even produce a small Wood Dragon several meters long. Though it lacked the First Hokage's world-shattering power, it was still enough to make any jonin take notice.
For a child who was about to turn five, such power could only be described as astounding.
As for the Three Basic Techniques taught at the Ninja Academy, they were almost laughably simple to him.
Poof.
Senju Chen formed hand seals, and a puff of white smoke rose from his small body. In an instant, he became a little old man with a pipe in his mouth and a stern expression-the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Imitating Hiruzen Sarutobi, he cleared his throat, only to speak in a childish voice. "Ahem, study hard at the Ninja Academy. No misbehaving."
As soon as he finished, he broke into laughter himself and released the Transformation Technique.
Big Sister Kushina's advice as someone who had "been there" still echoed in his ears.
No bullying classmates?
A school life without skipping classes wasn't complete?
Ichiraku Ramen was the ultimate social tool?
Remembering her smug expression, tinged with nostalgia, as she said those things, he could not help chuckling again.
Skipping classes, fighting, making friends over Ichiraku Ramen...
Coming from the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki and future wife of the Fourth Hokage, these suggestions, so full of youthful foolishness, created a curious contrast.
Senju Chen could even imagine how boldly Kushina's long, fiery-red hair had once streamed through Konoha's streets, and how she had beaten those classmates who dared mock her until their faces were bruised and swollen.
"But it was also at school that I met Minato..."
Remembering her final words, and the tenderness that had unconsciously appeared on his face, the smile on Senju Chen's face slowly faded.
He had been in this world for several months.
From the initial novelty and excitement, and thoughts of how to survive, he had gradually settled down.
In his eyes, this world was no longer a set of cold manga pages, nor animated scenes flashing across a screen.
The people here laughed and cried, found happiness in a bowl of ramen, and could hold someone in their hearts for a lifetime. Kushina was so vivid, so passionate, like a flame that would never go out.
Yet he knew that, on that night a few years from now, this flame would expend its last light and warmth to protect the village and her own child.
The thought of that predetermined fate made Senju Chen's chest tighten.
It was a helpless heaviness, born of being an observer who knew the future.
What did the power he now possessed amount to in the face of that already-written "script"?
Like a single drop of water, how could he shake the surging torrent of the times?
He thought of Tsunade again.
His own elder sister, the woman who constantly numbed herself with heavy drinking and reckless gambling, who had inherited the First Hokage's powerful vitality yet spent her entire life losing people. Nawaki, Dan... the important men in her life had left one after another, leaving her alone to lick her wounds.
If he had not arrived, leaving her to care for him, she would probably have already left the village by now to wander the world.
And there was the once-illustrious Senju Clan. Now, only the two of them remained.
That thought lodged like a thorn in Senju Chen's heart.
He had once asked Tsunade about it, seemingly "by accident."
It had been one afternoon when Tsunade, for once, had not gone to the gambling hall, but instead leaned beneath the veranda, drinking gloomily. The setting sun stretched her shadow long and illuminated the loneliness on her face with perfect clarity.
"Big Sister Tsunade."
Senju Chen, who had still been four at the time, brought over a little stool and sat beside her with a solemn expression.
"Hmm?" Tsunade glanced at him through bleary, drunken eyes and pinched his cheek. "Little Chen, what is it this time?"
"Why are we the only two left in the Senju Clan?"
Tsunade's hand stopped as she poured her drink.
Tilting his head back, Senju Chen asked the sharpest question in the most innocent tone. "I heard Big Sister Shizune say that the Senju and Uchiha founded Konoha together. The Uchiha Clan still has so many people. But what about our clansmen? Where did they all go?"
He remembered how prosperous the Senju and Uchiha clans had been at Konoha's founding in the anime he had watched in his previous life.
Yet now, the Uchiha remained Konoha's largest clan, while the Senju... were almost erased from history.
Most of the drunkenness instantly vanished from Tsunade's face. She remained silent for a long time, and even the air seemed to freeze.
In the end, she merely extended a finger and flicked Senju Chen hard on the forehead.
"You little brat, stay out of grown-up matters!"
She changed the subject with feigned impatience, though her voice carried a barely perceptible tremor. "You want to know? Beat me at arm wrestling someday, and I'll tell you!"
With that, she stood up, resumed her carefree, unrestrained manner, and staggered out, leaving Senju Chen with only the sight of her desolate retreating figure.
From that day onward, Senju Chen never asked again.
He knew it was not that Tsunade did not want to tell him, but that she did not dare, unwilling to touch that bloody wound again.
There had to be an enormous secret behind it.
A secret that even the First Hokage's granddaughter guarded with the utmost silence.
"Whew..."
Senju Chen let out a long breath, as though some of the pent-up heaviness in his chest had escaped with it.
He slowly opened his hand and looked at the clear lifeline on his palm.
A sense of helplessness?
Perhaps.
"Sigh."
How exactly had the Senju Clan disappeared?
And was Kushina's future truly impossible to change?
He opened his hand, feeling the ocean of chakra within him. He had obtained this power far earlier than he had imagined, and it was far stronger.
Perhaps this was the meaning of his coming to this world.
Konoha's regrets, the Senju's regrets, the Uzumaki's regrets... there were simply too many things in this world that were hard to accept.
Senju Chen's gaze gradually grew resolute.
Since I'm here...
I ought to do something to make this journey worthwhile.
His gaze then turned toward the scattered lights of Konoha in the distance.
The Ninja Academy, huh...
There should be quite a few familiar surnames there, along with those so-called "geniuses."
Uchiha, Hyuga, Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka...
"The Ninja Academy... I hope it has a few surprises in store for me."