Chapter 02

First thing in the morning, sitting on the edge of the gap near the door, I put my shoes on my feet and after that I get up.

"Yoshhh!! You can do it," - I say aloud to myself before opening the door and leaving the house.

With my arms crossed behind my head, I take a deep breath and enjoy the wonder of being in this world. Free of pollution and not to mention that the air in the morning is always the best.

My destination today is right next to my house.

We are located in the eastern part of the village. To be more precise next to a small reserve of trees and a river that runs through all the whirlpool land.

For those who don't know, Uzushiogakure is made up of concrete skyscrapers, high hills on both sides of the waterfront and large bridges that connect the different points of the village.

Upon arriving inside the clearing of the trees reserve I do the same training as always.

Shurikenjutsu, katas and a light run around the clearing that was at least 2 km in perimeter.

If all went well, even today I would have my first lesson in the art of fuinjutsu. To say that I don't have high expectations for this would be a lie.

"Huh?" I look in the direction of a noise, which seems to be coming from a bush.

Taking a Kunai from the holster on my left thigh, I cautiously approach the spot.

By pushing the leaves aside to see beyond it...

*Hissssss* ; *Growling*

The scene I could see was the duel of a small brown boar and a brightly colored snake that was undoubtedly venomous.

The small boar looked a little dejected as it had already been bitten a few breaths ago, but even so, it faced the snake head on and looked for an opening so it could finish off its opponent.

On the other hand, the snake was curled up in an attack position and any approach by the wild boar cub would be the opportunity for another dose of toxins.

*Hissss*

The snake launches the boat when it sees the Boar's charge, but the little one manages to get out of the charge and takes advantage of the carelessness of the attack and bites it a few centimeters below the head.

The two roll on the floor in the fight for survival and the winner seems to have already been decided.

The Boar does something that I personally found crazy, little by little it starts eating its prey. What's the problem with this? The snake is certainly very venomous, but it seemed he didn't have that fear.

After eating everything.

"Well then --," Before I finished my sentence.

The Boar falls to the ground, motionless and completely dead.

What the hell was I doing? I stood for twenty minutes watching a wild boar and a snake fight? And worse, in the end they both die.

Waste of time.

I shook my head from side to side, before walking out of there towards my house.

That same day and now in the Japanese-style living room of my house, I take the teachings seriously.

"Listen to what I tell you. Fuinjutsu is a complex art, full of mysteries and quite dangerous," said the last part my mother with obvious fear. She is sitting on the mat floor in front of me. "You have to promise me to do everything as I ask you to."

"I promise," I say tersely.

"Good," She nodded with a smile, before tossing some parchments in front of me and saying, "Let's work on your handwriting first. I don't settle for anything less than perfection."

I give a tight smile, but soon I face the challenge with persistence. It was hours and hours of working on Kanji every day. Given how I started, it's simply the difference between water and wine. In a few weeks I was approaching the minimally acceptable level of mastery to start learning fuinjutsu.

Of course, in these weeks that followed I didn't neglect my morning physical training and tried to find a balance to suit my learning of fuinjutsu.

In the midst of all this, a few weeks ago, my father unfortunately had to leave on a mission outside the village. Relations between villages seem increasingly troubled.

According to what I found out from my parents, the second ninja war ended shortly before my birth. The whole world remembers this event with a bitter taste in their throats from the lost blood.

Even the great and mighty Konoha feels the brunt of the loss of exceptional ninja from their ranks.

With the weakening of the five great ninja villages, this has made room for smaller villages to feel encouraged to no longer look at them with their heads down.

And the result of this was the increase in minor conflicts occurring at the borders.

This increasingly recurring conflict between villages makes me wonder, when will Uzuzhiogakure be destroyed? Will it be before or after the third ninja war?

In the anime and manga, the date of the event was not mentioned.

But something I'm sure doesn't mean a good thing is... Hiruzen and Danzo.

Both have been in Konoha's power since the end of the first ninja war. What's the problem with this?

Those who watched the anime know, Sarutobi due to his inaction and Danzo due to lack of scruples to achieve his goals, were responsible for a lot of shit that happens or will happen in the ninja world.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that both or at least one of them is involved in Uzushiogakure's fall from the canon.

The question is... What should I do about it? I have no illusions that my current strength is enough to stop anything. If I were to categorize I would be on the strength of an average genin which in itself is amazing as I'm only 4 years old, or rather, I'm just a few weeks away from my 5th birthday.

If I really wanted to impact this world I would need some leverage. The uchiha have the sharingan, Naruto had the kurama and I also needed some factor to raise my potential.

My bet is on the fuinjutsu. Needless to say, several broken jutsus and techniques in the canon were the result of mixing ninjutsu and fuinjutsu. For example, orochimaru's cursed seal that allows access to senjutsu chakra, minato's hiraishin, uzumaki's adamantine sealing Chaim and I suspect that even the moon and sun seals delivered by hagoromo to Naruto and Sasuke.

"The tea is delicious as always, Shio-san," I say with my eyes closed, posture straight in my chair, as I politely lift the cup of steaming tea to my lips.

In these few years I learned to appreciate a good tea.

"Haha," Laughter came because my words and postures.

Akane, better known my mother shakes her head from side to side with an amused smile and says, "Where do you learn those mannerisms, my son? You look like an.."

"An adult," Shio, the tea shop owner completes my mother's words with an amused look.

"Stop laughing at Hiro-chan," said Shio's husband, Takumi, a red-haired man in his 40s who co-owns the establishment with his wife. "He recognizes the greatness of tea, certainly a great man of culture."

The two redheads own a small shop near the east wing bridge, just a few minutes' walk from the main district of uzushiogakure.

"Tea is culture," I acknowledge the truths in those words and nod in agreement.

"Ouch, Ouch," - Takumi cried out in pain at having his ear pulled by his wife.

"Are you influencing him, Takumi? I hope you're not teaching him to be a pervert like you," - Shio said with an angry expression and arms crossed.

"Ouchhh! I promise not. I promise I didn't teach him. After all, what's the point of appreciating beautiful female curves? Blah! This is a thing of my past. I'm a married man," Takumi looks at me and question in support, "Isn't that right? I never taught you anything perverted, Neh? Neh? Neh?"

I stare at him blankly for a moment, look back at my glass in my hand and then...

I take another sip, ignoring his cry for help.

This was all it took. And it can be said that the following scenes were not at all pleasant for poor Takumi.

Heck, wives with broom handles are scary. May Takumi rest in peace.