Everything before him seemed different, and the world seemed clearer. His limbs brimmed with strength and vitality. Shinsei gave a light hop, jumping half a meter high, and that was with him being only four years old and still unfamiliar with chakra.
What amazing energy!
Shisui and Itachi stopped sparring, their gazes turning in unison toward the child before them, their eyes full of surprise.
"You've extracted chakra? That's impressive!" Shisui said warmly, walking over and resting a hand on Shinjō's shoulder. "Konoha has another little genius!"
Amid his fascination, Shinsei did not forget to thank Shisui.
"Thank you for teaching me, Big Brother Shisui."
"You're still too young. Don't extract chakra casually from now on. It's very dangerous. Do you understand?" Shisui's expression grew serious.
"Huh? I understand."
As evening approached, they each headed home amid Sasuke's fussing. Shinsei forgot everything they had said, doing nothing but constantly feeling the various effects chakra had inside his body.
After dinner, Shinsei hurried back to his room, lay on his bed, and pressed the soles of his little feet against the wall.
He wanted to try tree climbing and water walking from the original story.
With nothing to compare against, Shinsei did not know whether he had more or less chakra than others his age. He did not know any ninjutsu yet, nor did he have a standard to judge by, so he could only train his chakra control.
Whether he ended up with a lot of chakra or very little, finer chakra control could only help.
Perhaps because an adult soul lived in his body, Shinsei's spiritual energy far exceeded his physical energy. Perhaps that was what gave him an enormous advantage in chakra control.
A few minutes later, Shinsei was walking sideways along the wall. The price was several holes in the wall, left when he had failed to gauge the strength of his chakra at first.
Who knew? I'm a genius after all! Shinsei felt a little smug, but as his thoughts wandered, he remembered all the cheats in late-stage Naruto that could insta-kill anything under heaven, and that smugness immediately vanished.
"Mom, is there hot water? I want a bath!" With tree climbing mastered, water walking was next.
Once Riya had prepared the hot water, Shinsei eagerly went inside and shut the door. After making a few perfunctory attempts at washing, he began experimenting with water walking.
It went smoothly, without any surprises. Two minutes later, Shinsei could already stand steadily on the surface of the water in the bathtub.
Although he did not know why his parents would not let him become a ninja, he could lay his cards on the table now.
"Mom, could you come in for a moment?"
Hearing her son's voice, Riya found it a little strange. Ever since turning two, her darling boy had refused to let her help him bathe. Still, she did not think much of it, assuming he wanted to experience having his mother scrub him.
With a creak, the bathroom door opened.
Riya jumped in fright, and the towel in her hand fell to the floor.
There stood Shinsei, a towel wrapped around his waist and his hands on his hips, standing on the surface of the bathwater and grinning smugly at her.
As a resident of Konoha, Riya naturally understood what this meant.
"Nobita, come here, quick!" Riya sounded somewhat anxious.
Nobita hurried to the doorway and could not help staring blankly as well.
Next, Riya quickly finished bathing her son, and Nobita picked him up, carried him into their bedroom, and began questioning him.
It was not complicated, nor was there anything he could not tell them. Shinsei gathered his words and explained how he had learned to extract chakra, including how he had seen ninja climbing trees and walking on water and wanted to try it himself.
Nobita was both shocked and delighted. He was shocked that his son had gone against his wish for him to remain a civilian and directly extracted chakra, and delighted that his son seemed to be a genius, though he had always felt he was clever from an early age.
Riya held her son in her arms, tears pattering down. Nobita propped up his chin, his brow furrowed.
Shinsei found his parents' reactions strange. Normally, shouldn't they be happy?
"Shinsei, have you decided to become a ninja in the future?" Nobita looked at his son seriously.
"Yes, Dad. I've decided. I'm going to become a ninja! You know about the Night of the Nine-Tails too. Without power, we're far too insignificant."
Nobita glanced at his wife and found the answer in her eyes.
"All right. Since you've decided, don't regret it. Your mother and I will support you."
Nobita stood up, bent down, and dragged a box out from under the bed.
The wooden box was a meter long, half a meter wide, and thirty centimeters tall, plain and old.
Riya got up and walked to the window. She opened it, leaned her head out, and looked around. A moment later, she shut it again and returned to the bedside.
The box opened, revealing four scrolls, several photographs, and a neatly folded set of old-fashioned armor.
Nobita took out the scrolls and set them aside. Then he carefully picked up the photographs and handed them to Shinsei.
Shinsei took the photographs and began looking through them.
The photographs were black and white and somewhat old.
Pointing to one of them, Riya said these were his great-grandfather and great-grandmother.
Shinsei looked at the elderly people in the photograph. They wore traditional clothing. But his sharp eyes caught a faintly visible clan crest on his great-grandfather's sleeve. If he was not mistaken, that crest represented a clan as famous as the Uchiha.
The Senju of the Forest!
Sure enough, he found the same clan crest in the next photograph, which showed his grandfather.
So that's it. Shinsei had a vague idea of why his parents opposed him becoming a ninja.
In his previous life, there had always been many different theories about the Senju Clan's decline.
Some said the King of Taking the Blame had wiped them out. But that theory was not very plausible. Experiments using Hashirama Senju's cells might have involved members of the Senju Clan, but at most, it would have been done in secret. Doing it on a large scale would have been absolutely impossible.
Others said they had been depleted through several wars, but that theory was not very plausible either. Losing some clan members was possible, but losing them all was too ridiculous. The survivors were not idiots. With their numbers dwindling, someone would surely have noticed something was wrong. If a founding clan made a fuss, Konoha High Command would never have been able to withstand it.
Besides, Hashirama Senju's wife had lived for a very long time. With such a stabilizing presence around, no great turmoil could have stirred in Konoha.
The third theory was more plausible: after Konoha's founding, the Senju had received orders from Hashirama or Tobirama to abandon their clan surname and integrate into Konoha.
This theory was fairly plausible because Tsunade and Nawaki, Hashirama Senju's granddaughter and grandson, had no surnames.
Also, Hashirama Senju and Tobirama Senju had been summoned during the Fourth Shinobi World War. If their clan really had been wiped out, they would at least have asked what had happened.
Hashirama might have been relatively easy to fool, but Tobirama? If someone had wiped out his clan, how could he possibly have said nothing?
So I'm a member of the Senju? Although I didn't end up in the Uchiha Clan of this legend of eyes, the Senju Clan certainly wasn't weak. It was even stronger.
After all, Hashirama Senju had beaten the Uchiha Dance King down with a hand on his head.
Actually, when watching Naruto before, he had imagined that if he transmigrated and had to choose between the Uchiha and the Senju, he would rather choose the Senju.
Although the Uchiha's Mangekyō was cooler and flashier, they were prone to going crazy. Every single Uchiha who awakened the Mangekyō had seriously extreme views.
He continued looking through the photographs before him.
"Is Grandpa still around?" Shinsei had never heard anything about his grandfather, but now that he had seen the photographs, he had to ask.
"Your great-grandfather passed away a long time ago. Your grandfather also died on the battlefield."
"What about Mom's dad?"
Nobita was momentarily at a loss for words. Riya tightened her arms around her son, resting her chin against his little head.
"Your maternal grandfather is still around. We'll take you to see him next time."
"Oh, okay." So he's still alive. I thought he was gone too. Is there another story behind this?
"Here, let's test your chakra nature." Nobita took out a small slip of paper.