Chapter 27: Future plans

Keitaro gently closed his bedroom door before locking it. He rushed around the room ensuring that all of the windows were closed and that the blinds had been pulled shut as well. While doing so may have been redundant given the fact that the likely hood of anyone bothering to waste their day spying on a three year child was abysmally low, he still decided it was best for him not to take any chances.

Once he was sure that his room was secure, he unfurled the scrolls and ink brushes given to him by his father. He made sure to inspect them carefully before laying them out on his desk. There were several scrolls of varying sizes including some that were clearly shrunken down due to some technique or seal. Picking up one of the regular sized and blank scrolls, he unrolled it and picked up his brush an started writing.

If anyone was present they would be quite confused as to why a three year old was writing in a language that seemed to be nothing more than gibberish, and that would have included anyone who might have been from Keitaro's previous world as well. After all, even though he was writing in English, he was writing it backwards. A simple trick that he'd picked up at some point out of boredom but would now be used as a double measure of security for his writings and notes.

The first thing he wrote down was the over all timeline of events that he though would occur that he could still remember. He didn't bother to write out too many details since the chances of things changing with time was bound to increase, especially once he started using his knowledge to his own advantage. He especially made a note of the Uchiha Massacre that was going to happen in about six to seven years.

He was on the fence about whether he should get involved in that mess or whether to simply allow things to follow their natural course. On one hand the Uchiha were a literal ticking time bomb that could blow up in his face if handled incorrectly, but he also knew that the massacre was the catalyst that pushed the village into a downward spiral and was a focal point of the original timeline.

Had the Uchiha not been removed, then the village wouldn't have been viewed as such a weak and easy target. The Konoha Crush plot, even if it would have occurred, would have most likely been repelled easily and Garra would have most likely been killed at the hand of a powerful Uchiha as he grew increasingly more unstable. His death would have resulted in the tailed beast inside of him needing several more years to reform which would have caused the Akatsuki's plan to be pushed back for quite a while. Of course all of that paled in comparison to the assistance the Uchiha would have been able to lend to the village in dealing with the Akatsuki and all of the other nonsense that would happen in the future, given the fact that they had about three Mangekyō Sharingan in their back pockets the whole time. 

Of course all of that hinged on the idea that the Uchiha remained willing to serve the village. It would be foolish to believe that the Uchiha would simply shake hands and sing songs of conciliation with Hokage faction of the village. 

Thanks to Danzo's maneuvering and Obito's assistance from the dark, the Uchiha and the village were bound to keep drifting further and further apart. Even if he managed to prevent the massacre, it wouldn't be worth it if the Uchiha decided to rebel during the Konoha Crush that was still most likely still to occur. That would completely ruin any hope of him using his future knowledge and may very well speed up the destruction of the world in some way.

No matter how he thought about it the Uchiha where a hot potato the needed a gentle touch and a stern hand to control them and Keitaro simply wasn't sure about how he would be able handle them.

Pushing the Uchiha to the side Keitaro quickly noted a few other important people and scenarios to look out for before turning towards ways to strengthen himself.

The first thought that crossed his mind was to find a way to get access to the First Hokage's cells. While the idea of a random man's face appearing somewhere on his body wasn't exactly ideal, access to wood style and an even larger chakra pool was an enticing deal. Of course the only ways for him to get them would require him to make some unsavory friends .

He could try to befriend Tobi and join the Akatsuki, something that he honestly wasn't too against. He would have free rein to do as he pleased as long as he didn't openly rebel against Pain and kept Obito's interest to heart, As long as kept the two of them happy, then he wouldn't have anything to worry about. Even better, as long as he played his cards right, destroying the Rinnegan in Pain's possession could very well become a possibility, allowing him to completely ruin any hope that Black Zetsu had of ever reviving Madara and by extension, freeing his mother.

 Of course the fact that Keitaro still had family that lived in the leaf village that he truly did care about, and would most likely not agree to deserting the village with him, was the main reason as to why he threw out that idea.

The next person he though of was Orochimaru. Though the snake guy had never been one of his favorite characters, Keitaro was willing to acknowledge his accomplishments in scientific advancements. 

If not for his obsession with stealing the body of powerful Uchiha clan members, Orochimaru would have been able to go much farther than anyone. Why the guy never simply tried creating clone bodies to continuous inhabit was anyone's guess but at least Keitaro could find solace in the fact that he didn't have to worry too much about drawing Orochimaru's attention since he didn't have any unique bloodlines as far as he could tell.

Of course the main worry with Orochimaru was the fact that once you got entangled with him it was practically impossible to get away from him, and given that the only successful result he had gotten with transplanting the cells of the first ended up still being pretty lackluster when compared to some of the real powerhouses that were bound to show up latter, there really wasn't enough of a reason for Keitaro to put himself into the path of thee demon snake. So the idea of joining him was placed on the back burner for now.

The last person that came to mind was Danzo, the biggest problem for the hidden leaf himself. In all honesty as long as Danzo was killed before the Uchiha massacre then all of the villages problems where bound to disappear with him. Of course whether Keitaro was able to milk him for all he was worth before his death, was another question all together.

Joining root was never even a consideration, and just the idea of working for such a two faced bastard made Keitaro's skin crawl. Of course whether Keitaro was talented enough for Danzo to ever want to approach him to join root in the first place was anyone's guess.

With the quick and relatively easy paths to power blocked off, Keitaro instead turned his attention to some of the known Jutsu that once learned and mastered would elevate him to powerful combatant.

Might Guy's The Eight Inner Gates immediately came to mind. Being able to burst out with immense strength and speed, coupled with some exquisite Tai Jutsu skills were some of the things that Keitaro could get behind. Remembering how Guy had been one of the few people able to truly harm a ten tailed Jinchūriki and had remained as one of the consistently strong characters throughout was simply another plus in his books. Of course whether or not he himself would be able to handle the level training need to reach Might Guy's level of strength was another story.

The more he thought about it the less likely it seemed to be a good fit for him. First of all, the chances of getting Might Guys attention was slim to none in all honestly, and without his guidance it was practically impossible to learn the eight gates technique. Not to mention that it had a pretty glaring weakness as far as he was concerned. While it gave immense strength and speed to its users, it took an astronomical amount of time and effort to train and only truly began to pay off in its later stages.

No matter how he thought about it, Keitaro was sure that he'd need at least a decade or two to start seeing worthwhile results. He also wasn't looking forward to ending up in the hospital with fractures and torn muscles and ligaments, every time he used the technique, forced to spread days on end in recovery. No it just didn't seem practically especially since unlike Guy and Lee he could actually utilize his chakra from what he tell.

Shaking his head he placed an asterisk next to the technique and moved on. He decided that if the chance presented it self he'd at least train to access the first few gates but would much rather rely on something else.

The next thing that came to mind was the Strength of a Hundred Seal. While it was a technique known exclusively as Lady Tsunade's bread and butter, it was technically accessible to all medical-nin. Since he was going to be training in medical ninjutsu anyway it just made sense to put it on the table.

Of course whether he was able to train and utilize it was another story. There was always the chance that he would end up unable to use it because his chakra control just wasn't up to scratch. Not to mention the idea of being handicapped for about five years, unable to fully utilize his chakra while the seal was manifesting was simply bound to cause problems for him when it came to completing missions.

While Sakura was able to tweak the technique so that she could still use her chakra pretty much without a problem, Keitaro wasn't stupid enough to believe it would be that easy for him to come up with a similar solution. If it was, then there would have been more then only two users of the technique in the village. Still it wasn't off the table just yet. He'd need to see what it entailed before coming to a decision.

The thoughts of snagging Minato's signature Jutsu flashed across his mind, but he didn't hold out much hope. The fact that no one at any point in time seemed to have picked it up in the future either meant that its requirements where even more ridiculous or that it was something that could only be passed on by the Hokage, and Keitaro wasn't sure how he would even begin to approach Hiruzen in the coming years. If he got a chance he'd look into it, but he didn't have high hopes about it.

All the other interesting Jutsu that came to mind were unavailable to him since they were the secret techniques of the other clans and no matter how much he wanted to be able to gain access to the Shadow Manipulation Technique, it simply wasn't going to happen. And since the chances of him being able to steal the Jutsu form the other villages was pretty much zero, Keitaro moved on to the other more mainstay Jutsu to master.

Other elemental jutsu would have to wait until his chakra natures were tested so they where postponed till a later date and while he wasn't sure he had the talent for it, Genjutsu was also something he wanted to dabble in.

In his mind it was one of the most amazing and versatile techniques around, and the fact that so little people seemed to utilize it was something that he just couldn't understand. While most of the truly powerful Genjutsu users tended to be able to do some truly amazing things with it, Keitaro would be content with being able to use it in much more subtle ways.

Thoughts of a Genjutsu that made his opponent believe that his weapon was a few inches shorter or longer than it actually was, or making them see him move slightly slower or faster than he actually was could be pretty useful. Nothing too elaborate, just small inconsistencies that would allow him to confuse and throw off his opponents so that he could eventually capitalize on their mistakes was what he was hoping for.

Of course whether or not such a thing was even possible was something he would have to do more research on in the future.

Finally he turned attention to the things that he would be able to gain access to in a short amount of time. As a member of the Inuzuka clan, he was bound to receive a ninken with which he would bond and grow with. Training his ninken to utilize other jutsu besides the regular Taijutsu based moves that were accepted as the norm of the clan were but a few of the things he wanted to do with his ninken in the future. He already had a few ideas of how to strengthen his partner but it would all depend on whether or not his current thoughts and theories where valid or not. He made a note to do some more research on the topic of his ninken and moved on.

The finally things that Keitaro noted were the more mundane techniques that he deemed to be necessary for any component shinobi of Konoha. The Shadow Clone Technique was a must, along with the Substitution Technique, Body Flicker Technique, and any of their many variations. He also intended to try his hand at Fūinjutsu, something that was also under utilized in his mind, as well as to attempt to learn the Rasengan in time.

Since he could still remember the training that Naruto had to go through while he was learning it himself, it just made sense to try to learn it, While it could cause people to ask questions, it was better to have an A class Jutsu in his back pocket than to not learn it simple because it might cause people to keep an eye on him in the future.

Finished compiling his notes, Keitaro quickly skimmed over them all. While it looked like he had his work cut out for him, he at least had an idea of what he needed to do in his immediate future.