Trip to Konohagakure I

Kushina and I had very little luggage since our rings held all of our things. Well, my bracelet held basically everything; the rings just had a few items we may need on the fly.

The three-man squad escorting us was led by a man named Konya. His teammates were Nitta and Seto Uzumaki. It was a well-balanced team. As we talked, we were informed that Nitta was a fuinjutsu grandmaster, Seto was a ninjutsu specialist, and Konya awakened physical adamantine chains.

This squad showed how much of a menace the Uzumaki can be on a battlefield. They have chains for close combat and ninjutsu for long distances. Once they have bought enough time, the fuinjutsu will end any fight.

As to why Masumi was here, it was to deliver a message from the Uzukage. Ashita had a big smile on her face as he read the message.

"It would be irresponsible to send a two-year-old anywhere without their mother. Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, has permitted one Ashita Uzumaki to join her children in their stay at Konohagakure."

At the good news, both Kushina and I ran over and gave her a hug. I had a suspicion that Suto would do something like this since I didn't add her name in my negotiation at all, but I didn't expect him to wait until we were literally about to leave before letting us know.

I looked over to Masumi without letting go of our group hug.

"Thank Suto-sama for me; it means a lot, you know."

I didn't realize when it started, but I felt tears running down my face. I didn't expect to start crying, but I wasn't too surprised. After all, I was still two. Nearly three, but still only two years old.

Masumi and our guard squad all had big smiles, watching the scene. 

"I'll do that, kane-kun. Take care of yourself and your family. Train hard, have fun and enjoy your new village. Don't get too homesick; we aren't going anywhere, you know."

With those parting words, Masumi headed back into the village. Between Suto's gesture and his comments, the Uzumaki clan's position cemented its position in my heart.

No war or secret was going to prevent me from keeping them alive.

Ashita was the one to end our group hug first, only I didn't escape. Ashita scooped me up and threw me on her shoulders.

"Mom∼ I'm not a baby. I can run on my own."

She wiggled my legs, which ended around her chest height. "Of course you can. But how fast and how far, you know?"

I petulantly hit the top of her head lightly three times. "Fine. I'll remember this when I am big, though."

This little quip got a laugh out of Kushina and all of the adults. I rested my arms on her head and set my head on them, I had to tilt my head down.

Of course, this gave me an eye full of my mother's bosom. The adult me knew about boobs, but the kid me didn't care. This resulted in the childish action of me reaching slightly and kicking one of them lightly.

Ashita obviously didn't like that and quickly smacked my leg. "Quit that, else I'll remember this when you are big." 

This drew a laugh from Seto since he was the only one of the adults, other than Ashita, with a kid. The other two just shook their heads at the family's antics.

The other person in the group had a question, though.

"Ashita, will I get big boobs like yours one day?" This caused Konya to cough out loud. 

"Can we get serious, please? We have a mission." Not missing this chance, I said one word quietly but still loud enough that everyone could hear it.

"Prude"

Poor Nitta just so happened to be drinking water at this time. She snorted, coughed and sputtered while the rest of us laughed at Konya's face, which had gone bright red at my comment.

Eventually, we all settled down, and Ashita, the responsible mother, dissuaded her foster daughter's concerns. As for me, my comment earned me another slap on the leg.

"You shouldn't know words like that, Kane, and you should show respect to your elders. Konohagakure isn't like Uzushiogakure; the Uzumaki are more carefree than most. In some places, your words can be taken as disrespect and can have dangerous consequences for more than just you."

"Okayy∼ I'll be good."

"You better. Sorry for their behaviour, Konya-san; we can depart whenever you are ready. Hopefully, this little guy won't cause any problems for us."

"Alright. Let's go then."

With that, the 6 of us left home, two of us for the first time and the last time.

-

The journey to the land of fire was rather boring. We ran for half a day and then got on a boat. From there, it was a 3-day journey till we docked at the land of fire. 

My time on Ashita's shoulders while running gave me an idea for a new trick with Nature Energy. I could sense it, control it, carve with it, compact it and make items. Couldn't I also treat it like a field and do something like a bastardization of a Byakugan?

As it turns out, yes, I can.

It's similar but different to creating constructs. Instead of contracting as much of it as possible into a small space, I had to do the opposite.

Making constructs was taxing on my mental energy and required my focus to manipulate it afterwards. This sensing, however, was drastically less taxing on my mental energy.

Within two days of experimentation, I found the best ways to use it. I had an active and a passive version.

A passive version was just me paying attention to my surroundings. Only I was focusing on one sense more than another. Like when something smells good, you try to find out where it is coming from.

Instead of using my sense of smell, I'm using my 6th sense to become aware of disturbances in the energy around me. It is a lot to take in because I see, but don't see, everything in my perception. 

It's like seeing in a negative, where you see how the thing impacts its environment but not what the thing is. This version has a narrower area where I can sense, but there are no blind spots, and I hypothetically should be able to fight blindfolded like this. 

The other method; the active version, is to make waves in the energy myself. Those waves then interact with things, and I can see how the energy reacts to those things.

This method is more taxing, so I can't send out pulses as often, but the range is over three times what the passive version can cover.

Since we were outside of the village and could possibly be attacked, I didn't want to spend all of my energy on a single exercise and be out of commission should any danger appear.

Two nights had passed uneventfully, and Kushina had lost her vigilance due to the peaceful travelling.

Tomorrow, we will reach Konoha sometime in the afternoon. I was still paranoid, though. I was in the shinobi world. Nowhere is truly safe unless you are strong enough to solo a few Biju. Even then, some bullshit alien can drop out of nowhere and yeet you out of existence.

I had taken to sleeping during the day when everyone else was awake to keep watch. Only Konya and Ashita noticed this, and neither one disapproved of that mentality despite how young I was.

I would send pulses out every 5 minutes all night long. That was enough time to regain enough juice to make it through the night and not have any issues falling asleep easily in the morning.

The last several hours had been uneventful, and part of me was complaining that nothing would happen, so why should I bother? But I persevered through this. Laziness was a bitch and was rather loud, but my paranoia was far louder.

It was time for my next pulse, so I sent it out as usual, but something was off about the feedback I got. It picked up something about two ships' length away. Six adult-sized figures with some irregularity to their form. All of whom were moving very fast.

A/N:

What do you think of this new use of Natural Energy? I was inspired by Tatsuya Shiba's Elemental Sight

Guess which leaf ninja will be meeting them at the docks.