Never Too Late to Teach an Undead New Tricks

Ever since he started living in Konoha, Hitsugi Kurashi had created a regular schedule for himself, consisting of six days filled with training and one rest day per week. And, this Sunday just happened to be his self-designated rest day.

So, he decided to spend the day looking through his clan's book of jutsus.

What? That doesn't count as training if he was only looking through them, not practicing them.

As of now, he had only managed to successfully cast a single C-rank jutsu, a D-rank jutsu, and a Forbidden jutsu. Those being Reiton: Nigiru Te (Spirit Release: Grasping Hands), Rei Bunshin (Spirit Clone), and Yokai Possession, respectively.

But those were only 3 out of the 12 Reiton techniques recorded in the Hitsugi jutsu book. And that doesn't even include the other Nature Releases in it, such as the 5 jutsus under Kāton (Fire Release), 2 under Dōton (Earth Release), 4 under Suiton (Water Release), 1 under Raiton (Lightning Release), and 6 under Fuuton (Wind Release).

As Kurashi still didn't know his Chakra Nature, he focused on studying what the Hitsugi clan specialized in, Reiton.

That being said, with the amount of chakra his body currently held, it was a little unsafe to practice anything above C-rank just yet, and the only reason why he was able to do the Yokai Possession technique was because the jutsu didn't actually use his own chakra, but instead, transfers the Cursed Chakra of his Yokai partner into his body, allowing him to access part of the Yokai's abilities.

As no two Yokais are the same, the Yokai Possession of two different people will never be identical. Though, how much difference there was, Kurashi was unsure since he didn't exactly have anyone to compare with. He could only try to remember the details from the few times he'd seen the previous clan head, his father, had shown the jutsu.

"Out!" The Yokai whined and scratched the coffin walls.

"You can't go out, Sensōbokken." Kurashi chided his contracted patiently. "You need to stay inside the coffin for atleast three years so you can acclimate to my chakra without outside interference."

"Krruuoo..." Sensōbokken grumbled inside the coffin as it's contractor sighed, reminding himself that he was dealing with a child.

And truthfully, even when compared with Kurashi's current age of four and a half years old, his Yokai partner could still be called a child, having lived for less than two months before Kurashi made a contract with it.

Though, that was typically the norm with Cursed Yokai, those Yokai that were created from negative emotions, such as grief, anger, sadness, and so on.

Usually, these types of Yokai would have very short lifespans, and those that did live longer would have attached themselves to locations filled with negativity, like abandoned houses or graveyards.

That was why, when the Hitsugi clan formed contracts with such Yokais, it almost always ended in success, with the Contractor offering to share life with the Yokai, ensuring it's survival, and the Yokai would share it's chakra, boosting the contractor's power.

Unfortunately, it seemed that one can only sign a contract with a single Yokai. The good news though, was that Yokais can grow stronger by eating negativity, like other Cursed Yokai, Malicious Ghosts, or simply just negative emotions.

This is one of the few circumstances wherein someone could say that being sad was beneficial without sounding like a total lunatic.

Kurashi shook his head and turned to look at a lone sword hanging on the wall of his study.

In the end, Sensōbokken managed to convince him to take a walk outside.

...

It was a sunny day out and Kurashi decided to visit the market to buy his groceries, having a lot of free time with it being the weekend.

Passing through the nearby cemetery, Kurashi walked leisurely, admiring the desolate scenery as he carried a paper umbrella to shade himself from the disgusting rays of the sun.

Although he currently possessed a human body, his life as a Jiangshi still affected him mentally; one of the effects being his abhorrence to anything hot and bright. Like the sun, or fire in general.

That's why he was stuck on a strictly cold food diet.

Kurashi closed his eyes, feeling at peace surrounded by the sound of singing cicadas and the cool wind brushing through his hair.

"Ouuhhh..."

There was a slight disturbance in the atmosphere, bidding the young clan head to open a single eye.

In the middle of the road, a creature which looked like a cross between a human and a turtle curled into itself, looking unhealthily dry. It was a Kappa.

"Wuuoogh..." It groaned in pain, hiding its face into its arms to shield from the burning sun.

Well, atleast someone shared Kurashi's aversion to that hot and bright thing.

Coming at a stop in front of the troubled Yokai, Kurashi reached into his pouch and pulled out a water bottle.

"Excuse me." He poured out the water on the Kappa, filling the hollow bowl on top of its head with water. Almost instantly, the creature seemed to be rejuvenated, opening it's eyes to take in the sight of its savior.

"I don't have any more water. If it's still not enough, there's a small lake towards the south. It's less than two hundred meters from here so you should be able to get there before the water on your head dries up." Kurashi pointed towards a location where water could be vaguely seen shimmering against the sun, partly blocked by a coverage of trees.

The Kappa looked at the lake then back towards the boy, nodding hesitantly to show that it understood.

"Then, I shall head off. Please do take care of yourself next time." The young clan head then continued on to the market, leaving behind a Yokai who silently stared at his back, engraving his image in its mind.

...

The next day, instead of being taken outside for their more physical subjects like they would normally do in the afternoon, they were introduced to a new teacher. One who would teach them the basics of Fuuinjutsu.

Uzumaki Mito. Or, better known as the wife of the Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama.

Though, the way Kurashi met the esteemed lady, didn't exactly go the way he would have liked it to.

"An ignorance seal?" Mito-sensei scoffed as she closely studied the yellow paper hanging on the forehead of her smallest student. "Shoddy work. Truly an insult to the art of fuuinjutsu."

Imperceptibly, the corner of the Hitsugi clan head's lips twitched.

He already knew that the seal was bad since he tried to make it himself. But if it works, then it works. It's not like he could buy any ignorance seals in any shop in Konoha since, apparently, any seal outside of the normal explosion tags was outside of anyone's knowledge.

Besides, no one has commented about the seal yet, so he assumed it was doing its job well enough.

"So, what exactly do you have there that needs to be hidden, hmm?" But, of course, a seal of such low level is not enough to stop the curiosity of a certain Uzumaki lady.

Slip.

"Ah-"

With a single pull, the seal came off and Uzumaki Mito became the first to see the flash of gold on her student's forehead.

The Jindan, or Golden Core. It was the solidified form of energy. In the previous world, it used to contain qi, but now, it housed the majority of the chakra in Kurashi's body, acting as a secondary storage which allowed him to produce twice as much chakra than he would have without it.

It used to be his secret, knowing that there was bound to be someone who'd have the urge to steal it, out there. Not anymore, apparently, as their new teacher just decided that their whole class should know about it.

"Ah, much better." Mito-sensei sighed, pleased with herself. "That ugly seal was really bothering me."

Kurashi took a deep breath, calming himself as his whole class gawked at the sight of his Golden Core.

"Now, how about I teach you children how to make a proper seal?" The elderly lady smiled, taking out several papers and brushes from a storage seal and began passing them around.

"Saturday, 9 am, in the Senju Compound." As their teacher passed by Kurashi's desk, she whispered quietly only for him to hear. "I'll make you a better seal."

...

Hitsugi Kurashi was an enigma.

If you were to ask his classmates what they thought of him, they would most likely answer 'A Prodigy' or 'The youngest clan head'. But, they would not really know him as a person.

If you were to ask the civilian children, they would tell you that he was someone who always helped them find the things they lost, like toys which were stolen by the local Yokais. Though their parents would just shake their head and say that he was a very imaginative child.

But, if you were to ask Uchiha Utaru, he would tell you that Hitsugi Kurashi was the strangest person he'd ever met.

How so?

Well, for one, Hitsugi Kurashi had his own view on how society worked. A very strange one.

One time, Utaru caught Kurashi muttering to himself about how the nobility of Konoha were far too loose in their image management.

"Konoha doesn't have nobility." Utaru whispered to his seatmate in perplexity, to which, he was answered with a concerned gaze.

"You're from a noble family." Kurashi pointed out, his expression looking as though he was wondering if something was wrong with the Uchiha's head.

"Explain." Utaru furrowed his brows, not liking the look he was getting.

"It's an obvious fact that the families which aided the founding of a nation are granted nobility by the Emperor." Kurashi explained concisely, acting as though what he was saying was an obvious fact.

"You mean the Shinobi clans?" Utaru was feeling conflicted, realizing that what the younger boy said both made sense and didn't at the same time. "And the Hokage isn't an Emperor!"

Needless to say, Utaru spent several nights pondering about whether the Shinobi clans were nobles or not, causing him to develop concerning eyebags for several days until he eventually gave up and opted not to think about it anymore else he accidentally start an uprising to overthrow the Emperor/Hokage in order to create an Empire of Shinobi which the Uchiha clan will reign eternally.

The Nara's and Yamanaka's would be the advisors, the Akimichi's, Inuzuka's and Aburame's would be the knights, while the Senju's and Sarutobi's were the ministers. Hitsugi... might end up creating his own religion. And, of course, the Hyuuga's would be banished to another country.

Yeah, he should probably stop thinking about it.

...

"Hey!"

Going to school in the Shinobi Academy isn't always filled with physical training like the civilians would expect.

Sometimes, they did go over normal subjects like math, history, and geography. And sometimes, they would be introduced to chakra, the energy tied to one's life force which Shinobi use to perform their jutsu.

Well, today was one of those days which they were taught the most basic exercise in order to train their chakra control.

The leaf sticking exercise.

The first time Kurashi tried to stick a leaf on his forehead, it didn't go so well, with the leaf crumbling to dust the moment it made contact with his unsealed Golden Core, much to their teacher's surprise and Kurashi's annoyance.

He surmised it had something to do with the Cursed Chakra he had stored in his Golden Core.

In order to avoid it from happening again, he stuck the leaf on his cheek instead, this time, it went much more smoothly, holding up for three minutes or so before being repelled by his chakra.

Meanwhile, a certain Uchiha scowled at his leaf which refused to stick for even a second longer than a minute, finding it immensely frustrating that even some civilian born students were doing better than him.

Though, if he knew that those with smaller chakra pools did better in chakra control than those with larger chakra pools, he would have felt slightly better.

But that fact didn't apply to everyone, such as people like Kurashi, who had two separate places where he stored chakra, allowing him to manipulate his chakra more dexterously than most even though the amount of chakra he had was quite large.

But, Utaru knew none of that. The only thing he sees now was how he was failing at something even the class's bottom ranks were succeeding at.

And so, after the class ended, Kurashi found himself being confronted by his Uchiha seatmate.

"You got time to spare after school?" Utaru asked with a serious expression, as though he were doing something life-changing.

"I suppose so. Why? Is something the matter?" Kurashi tilted his head slightly. Just what could this human cub want from him?

"Train with me." The Uchiha said coldly. "Taijutsu."

The young clan head raised an eyebrow. Well, it could help him hone his abilities much quicker if he had someone to test it against. And, besides, now that he didn't need to feed on humans and started seeing them as things other than food, he realized that most of them weren't that bad. In terms of personality, not taste. He hadn't bitten anyone yet, so he didn't really know how they tasted.

Plus, this world didn't seem particularly peaceful if the extermination of his clan was anything to go by. It would be helpful for the boy to hone his abilities to prevent his early death.

"Alright." With those thoughts, Kurashi calmly agreed to Utaru's demand.

So, at the end of school, Kurashi and Utaru exited the academy together, as per their agreement, and ended up being caught in a crowd of cheering Shinobi and Civilians.

"What's happening over there?" Kurashi was confused. He'd never seen so many humans crowded together in one place before, aside from that one time the entire Taoist world declared war on the Undead but that was a different circumstance.

"Huh?! Don't you know?!" Utaru exclaimed in disbelief, grabbing Kurashi's shoulders to have the boy look at him face to face. "The war just ended!"

Kurashi blinked slowly.

There was a war?

How coincidental. Both times humans gathered in hoards, it had something to do with a war.

After listening to Utaru's lengthy explanation, Kurashi eventually understood that the First Shinobi War was actually ongoing during the time the Hitsugi clan fell and he subsequently moved to Konoha to seek protection.

Unfortunately, just a year before, the Second Hokage fell in battle, which made it impossible for him to meet the widely praised genius of a man.

Perhaps, he should pay a visit to his monument some other time.