Rally (1)

Haru's gaze turned dark. Never had he suffered such an insult before. He had the urge to beat Fujisuke's ass up on the spot, but he knew better.

"I hope you won't regret it then."

Not replying further, the blond seven year-old left with a snort.

"I'm so sorry Haru." apologised Eina, aggrieved. "He has always been a little cocky, but he's not a bad person really."

"Yeah… Whatever." Haru didn't care about his character, now that he had fucked around with him. "How strong is he ?"

"He is much more talented than Akihiko, whom you fought before." Eina was serious. "My brother ranks third in the sophomore rankings, two spots over Akihiko. I would really not advise you to fight him tonight…"

She was subtle, but it was clear that she had little hope of Haru defeating the sophomore genius later.

Eina was worried. Even though she didn't want her brother to lose too as he was dear to her as well, the fact that he had been the one recklessly finding trouble with her classmate and the odds that were not in the later's favour shifted her support towards Haru.

She knew that was not weak and had tied with Akihiko a week ago, and that was in a three versus one situation. It could be estimated that Haru was even a bit stronger that the fifth seat of the sophomore rankings.

But even then, Fujisuke, with the upbringing of a genius hailing from a household that gave birth to a patriarch level powerhouse a few generations ago, was something else.

"His taishu is truly strong, as he has mastered the Sixteen Palms technique of the Gentle Fist." Eina revealed. "But that is not the main issue."

"His genshu is not to scoff at, and he is the most proficient Fire release warrior of his generation. Whilst most of his peers are still struggling with elementary nature transformation of ninshu, he has already mastered several powerful fire release skills such as the Fireblast technique and the Burning Palms technique." She explained in a low tone. "Besides Chizuru and Hagerama, the top of the sophomore rankings, there's no one who can defeat him."

Haru frowned a bit hearing this. Ninshu specialists were what he was still somewhat unprepared to deal with at the moment, as his own ninshu repertoire was far from satisfactory. Of course he had a few aces up to his sleeves, but the thing was that since he last fought only a mere week has passed.

Achieving a major leap in strength beyond his current growth pace was unrealistic, and that was probably why Fujisuke was not really worried about him no matter how talented he was.

But Haru was different from most warriors. He was someone who strived under pressure, and he had no doubt that he would emerge stronger again after such a challenging battle.

As Haru stayed silent at her explanation, reviewing all the information and trying to assess counter to his opponent's fighting style, Eina mistook his muteness for fear and apprehension.

"Haru… How about we leave ? It's not too late, and I can make sure it won't be a problem later with the matriarch and Aizen." She proposed. "I don't want you to be bullied in front the others.."

"Heck no." Haru refuted directly. "Thank you for your concern, but I'm going to make him beg for leniency. True men do not shy away from challenges, much less warriors."

"I see…"

The rally unfolded slowly. Eina went back to chat with her friends, alongside Aizen. Soon, the white haired outlier found himself alone.

As a mature mind in a child's body, Haru didn't really mind loneliness. He was bound to not be on the same page as his peer-aged mates, and adults would hardly see him as something else than a kid.

Since he entered the academy, it could even be said that most of the relationships he created with others were hostile to some degree. As for the others, as the sole true friend he made Eina was not a bad one… But she was a female.

It's not that he disliked girls, but in regards to friendship it just wasn't the same as a true buddy. It did not occur to him in the past that those who have the chance of being reborn in the Naruto world mostly endure some harsh loneliness.

It was not a natural thing for a individual of the human race, such a social species, to be so out of touch with the others. Haru missed having someone he could confide to everything he is going through without fear of consequences.

Although he was not entirely dissimilar to most reincarnated people in reincarnation stories, as he longed for power too, but for the most part it was just to ensure his survival. He knew that he wouldn't live past the age of ten when the fate of his clan comes if he was being just idle in the meantime.

But sometimes, being a normal person from the "real" world deep down, the constant pressure and social isolation was sparking some depression in him.

"Hello ! Are you new here ?"

Haru who was lost in his thoughts for a while snapped back at reality when a pink haired guy, looking a bit older than him approached him with a smile.

"Yes." Haru nodded. "You are ?"

"I'm the twin brother of Aizen." He said, introducing himself. "You can call me Isshin !"

Although Isshin had no glasses, and most certainly had a top notch eyesight due to his wide and bright Byakugan eyes, he had this nerdy feeling Haru could not actually explain.

"I'm Haru."

Although it may have been because he was thinking about his social relationships a minute prior, but Haru felt somehow that maybe this guy's company was what he needed at the moment.

"No wonder, I've seen you lost in your thoughts so I took the liberty to come to you." Isshin revealed. "The Conference will begin shortly, it will be about ninshu and chakra natures or so I've been told."

Looks promising. Haru thought, his interest picked. Even though Haru was prioritising body and mind strengthening at the moment in order to maximise the growth of his chakra at the early stages of his training, no warrior or ninja was complete without the mastery of ninshu, or ninjutsu.

Whilst he has read some books and listened to Hantaro-sensei lessons, Haru was clear that the extent of the Ōtsutsuki clan knowledge on ninshu was absolutely unparalleled in this world. If the Ōtsutsuki race was not considered.

[A.N : I'll be explicitly referring to Hamura's descendants as the Ōtsutsuki clan and to the world eating aliens as the Ōtsutsuki race from now on.]

Centuries of research and Super Kage level powerhouses experiences have brought the clan an unimaginable expertise on the properties of chakra and its inner workings.

It would be naive to believe that the bulk of this knowledge would be shared evenly with the inferior branch family, and openly at the academy of Shirogakure.

As Haru began to plan the next steps of his training, ninshu would soon come forth into the picture. It would have been great to test his elemental affinities beforehand, as it would have allowed him to focus on the knowledge that was relevant to it.

"Do you have any ideas about how can I test my affinities ?" Asked Haru, even though he knew it was a bit late by now. At least he would know for later.

"Affinity test ?" The pink haired boy was surprised. "Oh yeah, you must be a freshman right. It's true that it would be good to know before the conference. Here, give me your hand."

As Haru raised his hand after a second of puzzlement, Isshin touched his palm with his index and closed his eyes a few seconds in concentration.

A dozen seconds later, a small seal appeared at the center of Haru's palm in a flash of light, much to his astonishment.

He is a seal master… Thought Haru, genuinely taken aback. Whilst everyone recognised the utility of fuinshu in the clan, few were those who were actually learning it. And even if it they were, it was only in the later years of the academy because younger warriors often preferred straightforward brute fighting.

And not everyone had that knack for fuinshu. Much like genshu, fuinshu was a path based upon the yin chakra attribute but the practice threshold for the kind of draw less application that Isshin just did was much higher than genshu.

"Alright, try circulating your chakra through the seal." Instructed Isshin. "It should be working."

Lighting up for a few seconds, the seal erased itself and a small holographic sheet appeared above Haru's hand.

"Let's see.." Isshin said, browsing the information for a while. "Hmm, it's quite good. You have a total of four affinities out of the seven. Your primary being Yin release, surprisingly. The others include Water, Earth and Lightning releases. That leaves many possibilities on the table, so I'd advise you to be extra attentive later."

Haru nodded in understanding, quite satisfied with these results. They were versatile, and the fact that his primary affinity was yin was even better news. His mature mind for his age due to his rebirth may have a lot to do with it.

Haru knew that even though the clan had many methods to develop and practice combined chakra natures, the true extent of that possibility was unknown to him, and understanding whether or not some of those methods were compatible with his chakra natures was one of his objectives tonight.

He had the Earth and Water affinities, so maybe there was hope for Wood release, who knows. But as another example, as he did not have either Wind or Fire affinity, Dust and Scorch releases were fundamentally impossible.

"Alright let's go, or we may not be able to stick together if all the good seats are taken."

Following Isshin out of the main reception room, the two children followed others similarly aged or older in another room further inside where a dozen kids were already sitting cross legged on tatamis, and a brown haired middle aged adult was facing them silently.

His face was expressionless, his demeanour stern, and that chilling aura he gave commanded respect. It was clear that the one who may have the idea to fool around would be immediately met with a thunderous lesson about seemliness.

Haru and Isshin sat quietly, waiting along the others the beginning of the lecture. Haru though, who was full of unwarranted self-confidence, looked around the room in a very indiscreet manner, uncaring about what others may think of it.

Eina and Aizen were sitting at the forefront, facing the adult directly. Fujisuke was a few spot on the left of Eina, and there was less than a handful of other people that Haru could recognise, one of them being the blond loser Akihiko.

There were a few things that Haru noticed however.

He wasn't aware of it previously, but the sophomore cycle seemed to have an exceptionally high number of students. Whilst there were only four people in the entirety of Haru's class, the main family clansmen, there was over five sophomore children of the main family in this room alone.

Considering that both Byakuya and Koyuki weren't here either, meaning that there was only half of his own class here at the moment, it could be expected that Aizen's class was not here wholly either.

The demographic difference was surprising, and meaningful. Haru began to wonder how many students of the main family there were in the previous generations, his seeming oddly scrawny.

A handful of children even older made up the rest of the group. Junior cycle student thought Haru. There was not any senior cycle students present, most likely because this kind of lecture must be pretty useless to them. Its utility for junior cycle aspirant warriors was questionable as well if he was being honest.

These guys looked pretty strong already. With his sensing capabilities, Haru could tell that their chakra reserves were much bigger than anyone else present in the room, the esteemed elder aside. For some of them, they were nearly three times bigger than Haru's current reserves.

The white haired genius held no fantasies about being capable of taking on these guys for the time being.

Just not yet.