Naruto

Shinsei took the slip of paper.

Was this Chakra Paper?

"Channel your chakra into it."

Chakra flowed from Shinsei's hand into the Chakra Paper at his fingertips.

The paper quickly crumpled, then became damp before breaking into fragments and falling to the floor.

"A lightning affinity, too?" Nobita looked at the fragments on the floor, then explained to his son, "Chakra generally has five natures: water, earth, wind, fire, and lightning. Water makes the paper wet, earth makes it crumble, wind cuts it in half, fire burns it, and lightning wrinkles it."

Water, earth, and lightning? I was born with three natures. Water and earth aren't surprising, since I'm a Senju. But did lightning come from transmigrating, or did I inherit it from Mother?

Water and earth seemed to be the prerequisites for Wood Release, but after Hashirama Senju, I never heard of anyone awakening it. Later, Yamato, Obito Uchiha, and the Dance King all got their Wood Release from Hashirama Senju's cells.

Wood Release was powerful, but far too difficult to obtain. Besides, Hashirama Senju's Wood Release and Yamato's Wood Release weren't the same thing.

Nobita placed two scrolls in Shinsei's arms.

"These are some low-level Water Release and Earth Release ninjutsu. You won't need the more advanced ones yet. I'll give them to you when you can use them." Nobita put away the remaining scrolls, closed the chest, and returned it beneath the bed.

"Remember, don't extract chakra too often. It'll affect your growth," Nobita solemnly warned his son.

"I understand." Shinsei quickly nodded.

He spread out a scroll. Unfortunately, Shinsei could only recognize a few Chinese characters in it. He couldn't understand the rest at all and could only look at the illustrations.

Helpless, Shinsei turned to his mother.

Riya shook her head.

"It's too late. I'll explain it to you another time."

Fine, illiteracy was a serious handicap. How did those transmigrator predecessors manage to train as soon as they got a scroll without ever going to school?

After saying goodnight to his parents, Shinsei took the scrolls back to his room and carefully tucked them beneath his pillow.

He began his daily meditation, but unfortunately, it still had little effect. He could only wait for his body to grow.

The night passed uneventfully.

Early the next morning, light snow was still drifting on the wind.

Holding a scroll, Shinjō found his father downstairs.

Unfortunately, Nobita firmly refused to teach him to read using a ninjutsu scroll. He still didn't want Shinsei exposed to ninjutsu so early. A child's body wasn't fully developed and held little chakra. It was easy to exhaust all the chakra in their body, affecting their growth or even endangering their life in serious cases.

With no other choice, Shinsei could only learn to read from newspapers with his father.

After lunch, he went to the grove from before, but even after waiting until nearly dark, he saw neither Uchiha Itachi nor Shisui Uchiha.

He didn't see Uchiha Itachi or Shisui again in the days that followed, and Shinsei didn't dare ask at the police station. He didn't know whether they were busy with missions or avoiding him.

"You're actually a monster, aren't you?"

A little brat's voice came from the distance.

"A white-eyed monster!"

The sound of a little girl crying reached him.

White eyes? Did they mean Hyūga? I've seen members of the Hyuga Clan before. Their white eyes did look rather strange. You needed good looks to pull them off.

"Hey! Shut up!" another child's voice called out.

"Who are you?"

"Listen up! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! The future Hokage!"

Naruto? Shinsei headed toward the grove where the voices had come from.

"Hokage? Are you an idiot?"

"Clone Technique!"

A blond child wearing goggles on his head was forming hand seals. Smoke puffed up, and two ten-centimeter-tall figures appeared on the ground.

Three children surrounded Naruto, while a little girl crouched nearby, crying.

The three children laughed so hard at Naruto's lousy clones that their stomachs hurt.

Thump!

Naruto took a punch to the nose, and blood flowed out.

"Hey!"

The three children turned to see another child their age walking over.

"You want a beating, too?" the child in the red hat asked arrogantly.

"Come and hit me, then." Thanks to the education he had received in his previous life, Shinsei couldn't stand such blatant bullying.

The child in the red hat came at him first, throwing a punch.

His fist was slow, and Shinsei saw it clearly. He grabbed the boy's wrist and pulled, throwing him off balance, then followed up with a kick.

The child in the red hat clutched his stomach and began crying.

The chubby child looked at the boy on the ground and hesitated, but still threw a punch.

Shinsei sidestepped it and punched the chubby child in the stomach as well.

The chubby child fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and quietly sobbing.

The remaining child turned to run, but Shinsei grabbed the gloves hanging from his clothes and used his momentum to pull him to the ground.

Though they were about the same age, Shinsei had an adult's mind, after all, and had deliberately exercised since he was little. Beating three children took no effort at all.

"Hey, apologize," Shinjō said to the three children on the ground.

They stopped crying and sat there in a daze. He didn't know whether they were too embarrassed to do it.

"If you don't apologize, you'll get another beating." Shinsei raised his eyebrows.

"Sorry!" The three children got up and apologized to Hinata and Naruto.

"If you don't leave now, you'll get another beating! If I catch you bullying anyone again, I'll hit you even harder."

The three children quickly ran away.

"That was amazing!" Naruto imitated Shinsei's movements, gesturing back and forth.

Huh? I remember this scene. Wasn't this the part where Naruto saved the damsel in distress and Hinata fell for him? Kids these days really matured early. Hopefully, I haven't ruined their future relationship.

Shinsei looked at Naruto. There really were whisker marks on both sides of his face, but they looked more like birthmarks than actual whiskers.

Hinata shyly lowered her head and murmured her thanks.

Back when he read the original, Shinsei had actually liked Naruto quite a lot. He could never manage that eternally sunny personality himself. If he had gone through Naruto's experiences, he probably would have turned dark long ago.

"Hey, what's your name?" Shinsei asked, despite already knowing.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the future Hokage!" Naruto pointed his thumb at himself. "Thanks for helping just now. What's your name?"

"I'm Shinsei. If they bully anyone again, you can come find me."

"The future Hokage won't let anyone bully him! If you hadn't stepped in just now, I would've beaten them flat!"

"Hokage, huh? Good luck!" Shinjō knew he wasn't boasting, but Naruto was still a long way from becoming Hokage. He turned to Hinata and asked, "What's your name?"

"Huh?" Hinata raised her head, then lowered it again. "I-I'm Hinata Hyuga."

Her voice grew quieter and quieter as she lightly nudged the snow on the ground with her toe.

What a shy girl.

"Hinata Hyuga? Right, white eyes don't make you a monster." Shinsei turned to Naruto. "Be my little bro from now on. If anyone bullies you again, I'll stand up for you."

Naruto bared his teeth, pointed at Shinsei, and shouted.

"Don't think I'll call you boss just because you helped me!"

"Really? I could treat you to Ichiraku Ramen."

Gulp. Naruto swallowed, torn between accepting a boss and eating ramen.

"Come on, let's get ramen. Hinata, you come too." Shinsei waved.

Hinata glanced at Shinsei and followed quietly without refusing. Naruto was still behind them, agonizing over whether eating ramen or accepting a boss was the better deal.

"I could buy you two bowls."

"Boss, I'm coming!"

Shinsei had his own pocket money. His parents in this life hadn't chosen to save it for him. Since his family ran a small shop, he didn't have much need for money, but he still put a few banknotes in his pocket whenever he went out. Carrying money when he left home was a habit from his previous life. Even though he had mostly paid by phone back then, he had always kept a few banknotes tucked away on him.

It was three or four in the afternoon. Ichiraku Ramen had no customers, and only the owner was there, dozing behind the counter.

"I want pork cutlet miso chashu tonkotsu ramen!" Naruto eagerly hopped onto a tall stool, but he was still a little short, so he simply stood on it.

"I'll have pork cutlet miso chashu tonkotsu ramen, too. Hinata, what would you like?"

Hinata stared at the menu, stammering without managing to say anything.

Was she worried I didn't have enough money? Or couldn't she decide?

"Three pork cutlet miso chashu tonkotsu ramen, please." Shinsei remembered that Hinata seemed to be a big eater. "Naruto, what do you want for your second bowl?"

"Woohoo! Boss, I want two pork cutlet miso chashu tonkotsu ramen!"

"Make that five pork cutlet miso chashu tonkotsu ramen, please. You can make two of them a little later."

The ramen soon arrived. Shinsei took a bite, and sure enough, it tasted good. No wonder it was Naruto's favorite food.

Hinata quietly finished one bowl, then, seeing that no one was paying attention, began eating her second.

Their bodies were still too small. After finishing his second bowl, Naruto rolled his eyes and kept hiccupping, while Hinata looked completely unaffected.

The bill came to 375 ryo. Fortunately, it wasn't too expensive, and he still had some money left.

"Let's split up here. You can come find me next time you want to play." Shinsei pointed toward his home.

"Okay, boss!" Naruto's spirits dipped a little, and he seemed reluctant to part. It was hard to tell whether he couldn't bear to leave his generous boss or the friend he had made.

"Th-thank you." Hinata blushed, lowered her head, and softly thanked him.

Turning around, Shinjō waved goodbye.

Over the next few days, he had expected Naruto to come and play, but he didn't see him at all. He didn't know what was going on. Hadn't the original said Naruto lacked friends as a child?

Shinsei couldn't dwell on it too much. He simply continued learning to read with his father, hoping to understand the writing in the scrolls soon.

Shinsei had already taken his chakra extraction training as far as he could. Anytime and anywhere, he could extract the chakra in his body with a single hand seal.

It wasn't advisable to extract too much chakra at once. It wasn't that it couldn't be done, but everyone's chakra had a limit. Chakra was a combination of physical and spiritual energy. Once all of both had been converted into chakra, a person was practically done for.

That was why ninja only extracted a small amount of chakra to keep in their bodies for emergencies. During battle, they would extract more according to the enemy's situation.

Some of the chakra stored in the body would slowly disappear over time, while the rest sustained the body's expenditure. When there was chakra in your body, anything you did would consume it. It enhanced your physical strength, reactions, and so on. Of course, without using ninjutsu, chakra was consumed very slowly, at a rate that was generally manageable.

"Her maternal grandfather recognized her and protected her."

Riya held her son in her arms, pointing to the words in a picture book as she explained the story to Shinsei.

"Grandfather? Mother, you promised to take me to see Grandfather!" Shinsei turned to look into his mother's eyes.

Riya looked a little troubled, but she still agreed to go the next day. Her son wanted to see his grandfather; she couldn't keep stopping him forever.

The next day, the family of three finished breakfast.

Nobita shut the shop and picked up the gifts. Riya took her son's hand, and the three headed toward the northeastern corner.

Konoha wasn't exactly large, since its central area only covered so much ground, but it wasn't small either. The area under the ninja's control was still vast.

His grandfather's home was rather out of the way, practically in a corner of Konoha's residential district.

The houses here were more spread out, but most had high surrounding walls and fairly large courtyards.

Riya pushed open the gate to one courtyard.

With a creak, the courtyard revealed a tall old man swinging an axe as he chopped firewood.

He was burly, with white hair tied behind his head, and wore a pale yellow robe. His sharp eyes watched Riya and Nobita enter, and he snorted, but his attention was immediately caught by the child holding Riya's hand.

"Is this Shinsei?" The old man's voice trembled slightly. He put down the axe, crouched, and spread his arms.

"Say Grandfather." Riya gently nudged Shinsei's back.

"Grandfather." Shinjō walked over and stood before him.

The old man scooped Shinsei up and pressed his face against Shinsei's little cheek.

"Father."

"Father."