Winter gave way to spring, and time flew by. In the blink of an eye, more than a year had passed.
Bang! Bang!
The sounds of combat rang out as two figures, one large and one small, exchanged rapid blows on a little river.
They were Shinsei and his grandfather.
Shinsei swept out a leg, and his grandfather reached to grab his right leg. Shinsei quickly followed up with his left, kicking the hand away, flipping through a half circle in midair, and landing on the water.
His hands formed seals. Pat, pat, pat-three seals in a second. He opened his mouth.
Water Release: Water Shockwave!
A high-speed stream of water shot from Shinsei's mouth toward his grandfather. The old man quickly formed seals and pressed his right hand against the water's surface. A swirling mass of water rose from the river.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall!
The two streams collided, throwing up an enormous splash.
"I'm done!" Shinsei raised his hands in surrender. He was out of chakra.
"All right, take a break. Children shouldn't extract too much chakra." His grandfather understood. Being able to fight him this well at his age was already excellent. Very few children his age could reach his grandson's level, and even rarer was the fact that he hardly ever played.
Standing on the water, Shinsei scooped up river water to wash the sweat from his body. A handsome little boy was reflected in the water.
I'm pretty handsome, aren't I? The thought flashed past. Thanks to his parents' looks, Shinsei was good-looking in this life, with a sunny sort of handsomeness that was not at all effeminate.
He shook out his arms and walked ashore.
I'm still growing too slowly. I'm already six and about to enter the ninja academy, but at best, I'm only at Sasuke's level when he graduated. Yet Sasuke hadn't received any effective instruction from anyone back then, while I've had Grandfather giving me one-on-one lessons from time to time.
Besides, I can already see my ceiling. Grandfather said my chakra would eventually reach around jonin level, and that's probably reliable. I'm not going to underestimate the life experience of someone who's survived since the Warring States period. Meanwhile, Sasuke and Naruto had cheats all the way, and later on, they could practically one-shot heaven and earth.
In a world of bloodlines, hard work merely meant reaching one's ceiling sooner.
My age is also a major handicap. It limits my chakra reserves. Even now, two B-rank ninjutsu leave me drained. I can use five or six C-rank ninjutsu, depending on which ones they are. For the ones that consume a lot of chakra, four will empty my mana bar.
I haven't accumulated enough knowledge. Although Grandfather has roughly jonin-level strength, his theoretical knowledge is a complete mess, and he can't explain things clearly. I'll have to see whether I can find a teacher with a better grasp of theory later. Otherwise, I'll have plenty of ideas but lack the foundation to put them into practice.
His grandfather pulled a scroll from behind his back and tossed it to Shinsei.
Shinsei caught it and unrolled it. Two ninjutsu were recorded inside.
Water Release: False Darkness.
Lightning Release: Earth Flow.
Great! I've always wanted to learn Lightning Release, but unfortunately, Grandfather doesn't know it.
Ever since their previous conversation about developing Wood Release, his grandfather had barely taught him any Earth Release and had sternly warned him not to entertain any ideas about Wood Release.
Shinsei had only been talking. Of course he knew how difficult Wood Release was. Apart from Hashirama Senju, he had never heard of anyone successfully developing it on their own. Tobirama Senju had invented so many ninjutsu, yet even he had been stumped by Wood Release. Shinsei had no desire to become Danzo's underling or deliver himself to Orochimaru's door.
Besides, since his grandfather had warned him not to develop Wood Release, he probably knew something. Konoha was not ruled by a bunch of innocent saints.
In truth, there was another release he wanted to develop even more.
Storm Release.
To be precise, it was a kekkei genkai. Storm Release possessed the destructive power of Lightning Release while retaining the ease of control of Water Release Ninjutsu, and it was stronger than either. More importantly, developing Storm Release would optimize the developer's genetic structure, greatly increasing their chakra ceiling and allowing it to be passed down to the next generation.
In other words, if he succeeded, Shinsei's eventual chakra reserves would at least reach elite jonin level, with Kage level also a very real possibility.
Darui's Storm Release in the original story had practically disgraced Storm Release, causing an excellent kekkei genkai to be severely underestimated.
If he went a step further and learned Sage Arts, he would not be reduced to a bystander in the final battle. Madara Uchiha's Sage Art Storm Release could even sever Naruto's Yin-Yang Release black rods. Even Madara Uchiha himself could not withstand that level of offensive power.
And Madara Uchiha's Sage Art Storm Release had only been developed casually, without forming a complete system.
In short, Storm Release had tremendous potential.
Feeling how little chakra remained in his body, Shinsei abandoned the idea of continuing to study Lightning Release. Lightning Release and Storm Release were good, but he still had to take things one step at a time.
He put away the scroll, said goodbye to his grandfather, and hurried home for lunch.
His grandfather always deliberately avoided getting too close, and Shinsei could always sense a faint conflict within him. Just as he did now, standing where he was and watching Shinsei leave.
Shinsei roughly understood the reason. Having lived in Konoha for several years, he could guess why. Konoha High Command was always suppressing the major clans, whether intentionally or otherwise. Just last year, Cloud ninja had attempted to kidnap Hinata. The result had been the death of the Hyuga Clan head's younger brother. Even if there were reasons behind all these events, they still chilled the hearts of the major ninja clans. Not to mention the Uchiha Clan Massacre that would happen later.
Suppressing the major clans was fine, but they needed to develop the civilians. Even if civilians had low ceilings in this ninja world that placed such importance on bloodlines, there were plenty of them. Quantity could balance quality. As long as no figures who broke the limits like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha appeared, numbers would always be effective.
None of this concerned Shinjō for now. He was only a child who had just turned six. As long as he did not court death, he could continue developing steadily for a few more years.
By the time he got home, lunch was almost ready.
As the saying went, a growing boy could eat his father out of house and home. Ever since Shinsei had begun training, his appetite had kept growing, and he also needed plenty of meat. It really did put considerable pressure on the family. Fortunately, his grandfather often hunted for meat in the mountains behind Konoha, so it had not placed too great a burden on them after all.
The longer Riya watched her son eat, the more handsome she thought he looked. Unable to resist, she pulled his face close and kissed his cheek.
Shinsei was already used to it. When he was younger, he had been a little baby-faced and could only be considered fairly cute. But ever since he had started training with his grandfather and his figure had begun to develop, his mother would do this from time to time, then smile happily for ages.
Although he rolled his eyes, Shinjō was still quite grateful in his heart.
He had been very lucky in this life. His mother was kind, his father loving, and there was no real financial pressure. If people did not keep coming to destroy Konoha at the drop of a hat, life would actually be very pleasant.
After lunch, Shinsei returned to his room.
He opened the Lightning Release scroll his grandfather had given him and began reading it carefully.
Shinsei had never forgotten to train his chakra control. Except when he was asleep, a current of chakra was always circulating over his body. Sometimes it turned into water and flowed around his body; sometimes he took a lump of mud from the ground and changed its shape in his hand.
His innately powerful spiritual energy gave him an enormous advantage in chakra control. Coupled with his persistent meditation, his spiritual energy was still growing steadily, even though qi had yet to appear.
He was confident he could perform this sort of C-rank Lightning Release in his hand without going to a dedicated training ground. Of course, he would not actually perform ninjutsu inside his room.
As he carefully studied how to perform Lightning Release, his right hand did not remain idle. Chakra rapidly took the shape of a blue sphere, spinning at high speed. A moment later, its rotation slowed, and the chakra returned to his body.
With his current chakra reserves, actually using this single Rasengan would leave him completely exhausted.
He had worked out the Rasengan long ago. After all, the original story had provided a detailed tutorial. But he had told no one about it. He could not clearly explain where it had come from, so even though he knew it, he could not use it.
Once he understood the key points of performing the ninjutsu, he quickly formed hand seals. With a crackle, tiny electrical sparks appeared in Shinsei's hand.
Lightning Release: Earth Flow.
If he added more chakra and slapped his hand against the ground, the ninjutsu would be unleashed. But inside this room, he could only go this far, unless he wanted to leave the place in shambles.
He could not test Lightning Release: False Darkness yet. For one thing, it consumed more chakra; for another, it caused too much of a disturbance. After all, it was a B-rank ninjutsu in terms of difficulty, and it was powerful too. He only read the training instructions for the ninjutsu, using them to speculate about the hand seals Lightning Release Ninjutsu required.
With his chakra control, he could simplify the hand seals of many ninjutsu once they were in his hands. If he could reach the point where, like Hashirama Senju, he only had to clap his hands together and get whatever he called out, it would be practically instantaneous.
Unfortunately, his research into ninjutsu was insufficient. After all, he did not have a younger brother who could develop forbidden jutsu.