10 One year since

[Uzushio after the war]

The silence hung heavy in the air. Gone were the sounds of haggling of the vendors and gone were the jovial chatter of shoppers. Instead, a somber procession wound its way through the deserted streets, the only sound a rhythmic thud of marching feet and the muffled sobs escaping from veiled figures.

At the very heart of the procession lay a simple wooden casket, carried by six young shinobi, faces etched with a grief that seemed out of place on warriors hardened by battle.

Inside the casket were supposed to be the remains of Elder Genji, the sole casualty of the war that occurred a few days back, but only few knew that the casket was empty. A disheartening fate to one of the Uzumaki's greatest warriors.

Though his physical form may have been absent, Elder Genji's legacy lived on in the hearts and memories of those who had known him, a beacon of strength and courage in the face of adversity.

As the procession passed many stood on the sides, some openly crying, their tears wetting the ground beneath and others stood stoic, with faces etched with determination to honor the death of one of their beloved elders, no scratch that, their beloved family.

After all the Uzumaki are one big tightly knit family.

As it became darker families lit hot air balloons made from paper. The fires within creating a beautiful spectacle against the night sky as it flew higher signifying the passing on of their family.

'So old man Genji is dead. I guess this is reality in a war-torn world like that here.'

Satoru did not know much about Genji but his mother's reactions were enough for the child to understand that he was someone important to her.

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Weeks had softened the sharp edges of grief. Most were hesitant to smile at first though that had been replaced by the solace gained from their overwhelming victory against the allied forces.

Meanwhile Satoru had shown signs of learning how to crawl first and also speak. This completely surprised Akagi as a baby was not supposed to learn either this early.

Well Satoru was a genius after all. The six eyes could turn even a fool into a "heavenly genius." Maybe except for a certain rubber boy pirate and a knuckle head ninja.

It has been six months since I came to this world. Quite the commotion had happened back then. Though I was surprised when I found out Kushina was Akagi's niece, her father being Akagi's brother.

This led to Kushina being stuck with us when her parents were out for missions. We got quite close as time passed. When she understood that I was able to understand her we began planning elaborate pranks.

The time when we had our food fight was soooo fun, or should have been. Her being a trained shinobi caught all the food and led to Kushina getting a lecture for a few hours. I escaped then as a pretended to sleep but then had to calm her down as Kushina had gone full pouty mode, which could be attributed to my betrayal.

Though the one way I could catch her off guard was when I stole Akagi's clothes when she was taking a bath and hid them under the sofa. She was on guard for a while that there was a pervert stalking her and stealing her clothes. Well, she wasn't wrong but what could she do. I was a baby after all.

But I was eventually caught. Fooling the senses of a professional ninja was impossible after all. She has started placing the clothes basket much higher now so I couldn't reach it.

So, the best response I had for that was messing up the laundry and throwing it all over the house. Well, she let me do that to certain extent later on since she thought it was cute, but that was boring so I stopped.

Maybe the best way to stop a child from doing pranks is to ignore the pranks.

All that said, it seems like mom is sleeping now. Time to go out on an adventure.

Geez, not being able to walk is such a pain in the ass.

But as I crawled to the door, it seemed that I had hit something hard.

'A pair of legs whose could it…Ahh its Kushina. No Uzumaki has hair as red as that. Tomato head really fits her.'

"Saaatoooruuuu-chaan are you sneaking out. How cute."

I panicked when Kushina said that quite lound. I tried to make the shh sound but curse these underdeveloped vocal cords.

"You know what Satoru-chan…"

"Big sis Kushina will take you out."

Haaah now I have a party member. Mind you an annoying… but cute party member.

I curled up my fist and punched the air in an attempt to say "Let's Gooo"

But it just ended up as an awkward Awawaaaa to which Kushina giggled. How embarrassing.

The great adventure I expected wasn't as great as I thought. Most of the aunts in the market just came and pinched my cheek.

"Even babies feel pain you old women" or so I wanted to scream. But the baby noises I made only seemed to attract more aunties.

The pains of being a baby… Haaaah…

Well, Kushina bought a pack of crayons and we came back home.

THIS TOTALLY WSN'T THE ADVENTURE I IMAGINED!! HOW LAAAMEEEE.

Mom was awake and pissed off. She knew that I wouldn't be kidnapped or be in danger, the Uzumaki's are one big family after all.

After hearing a looong lecture which probably only ended because one of mom's friends had arrived. We played for a while before the two of them put me and Kushina to sleep.

… Or so they thought. I was a kid that was given a new toy – Crayons – and I wasn't gonna give up a chance to prank them. Both mom and her friend were drunk and asleep. So I woke up Kushina and we got to work.

We made it look as if the two of them in a drunken fervour trashed the house. Clothes scattered all over the place and the crayons in their hands after we had finished our art work.

As amazing as our plan was, Kushina folded and blurted out everything at the lightest of interrogations, aka, a stern look followed by a count down.

This only led to Kushina wiping out the drawing from the floor while mom and her friend got to cleaning themselves up and the laundry. The level of cooperation between the two of them was kinda impressive, ngl.

Mom left the drawing on the walls as it is since she found it cute

It had been a fun few months and now Kushina had to leave for special training again. The details of which only me, mom, her parents and a few higher ups knew.

Now it's been an entire year since I came here.

Whenever Mom was with Kushina, she wouldn't take me to her training grounds. After a long time of pestering and promises not to mess things up did mom allow me to go with her to the training grounds.

And yeah, I was finally able to talk proper words though it still had kind of a childish tone to it and bit of a lisp.

Putting that aside, I had enough playing the nice child. Today, I had a plan brewing, a plan that promised a scene of epic proportions.

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I saw a review about constant breaks reducing the immersion in the story and even i felt it was too much.

I kinda tried to copy what oda did but now realised writing mangas and novels are extremely different as i went through the chapters again.

That said,

HAND OVER YOUR POWERSTONES FOR A COOKIE