Chapter 23: Unexpected But Not Unwelcome

'Maybe I was a bit harsh.' Sora thought as he walked into the grocery store.

He sighed as he went to the isle that has what he required. While he dumped what he needed into the trolley in front of him, he reminisced about a bit.

As a normal orphan, he struggled to stay alive. He was all alone and learnt how to survive. The streets weren't kind to anyone who was unfortunate enough to end up there.

In his second life, he was was gifted with a family. A family that he would cherish for as long as he lived only for him to lose them one by one.

Despite how indifferent and cold he appeared, he had one important fear that he himself had just realized.

The fear of attachment.

The fear that any person he got close to would eventually die. The appearance of the Template only solidified that feeling.

The Uchiha. The clan that went through so much trauma and pain to attain power. Hated by others and hated by themselves, they were fated to end up alone.

Any attempt of friendly attachment to him was met with a brutal rejection.

'If I don't want to feel the pain of losing something then the best thing to do would be to have nothing to lose!' That was the mindset he followed up until now.

That mindset was being shaken up recently by his new 'roommate'. The aura around her was too familiar. It was almost like…

'Mother.' He thought as he took his time slowly moving around the store. The weight of his thoughts seemed to physically weigh him down.

Speeding up a bit, he quickly took his items to the register to pay. It was evening and the store was his last stop before he went back.

He had already gotten what he needed from the library earlier after returning the other books he borrowed.

"Next." The cashier called out, getting his attention.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He entered his apartment with the bags filled with groceries in his hands, managing to close the door behind him.

The usually silent apartment had now had something playing in the background. Listening closely, he confirmed that it was simply the TV playing.

Walking towards the kitchen to drop off the bags, he turned his attention to the living room where he confirmed that the TV was on.

Lying on the couch was Zatanna laying on the couch with her hair splayed in all directions. He silently moved to the table in the middle, grabbing the remote and turning off the TV.

He had a look of contemplation as he gently picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. With the amount of time he spent in his makeshift workshop, it was basically his room.

Gently setting her on the bed, he turned to leave the room but not before activating his sharingan. He observed her for a moment before turning it off with a sigh.

'It's more different than I expected.' He thought as he exited the room.

He hadn't had the chance to observe his different his chakra structure was from a magic user.

Whereas chakra had chakra coils and pathways to support and allow the use of chakra, magic has had a core in the body that can be used to channel magic in different forms.

From what he could tell without experimenting, magic was easier to use than chakra but where it surpassed chakra in ease of use, it failed when it came to power.

Chakra itself was many times denser and more powerful than magic. Mana being spiritual energy and chakra being the combination of physical and spiritual energy.

'That's not mentioning the amount of time it would take to switch from using chakra to magic. The process of isolating my spiritual energy from the physical isn't worth it."

'It's power would be less and it isn't in efficient to switch between them in a fight.' He thought, shaking his head as he went into his workshop.

Locking the door behind him, he took out the books he took from the library. After the first experience there, he had made a mental note to go back to grab a few skills.

He held each of them one by one, accepting the prompt that popped up with each of them. He didn't particularly have a certain skill that he was searching for but he struck a goldmine.

[*Ding!*]

[You have gained 'Medical Knowledge'!]

He acknowledged the use of medical ninjutsu that Sakura and Tsunade used and wished to recreate it. With modern knowledge that they weren't privy to, he might succeed in creating something similar or superior to it.

The next skills were thing he didn't think he would find at all. Of all the things he thought he would find in a public library, these were absolutely unexpected.

[*Ding!*]

[You have gained 'Art Of The Mind'!]

[*Ding!*]

[You have gained 'Analyze'!]

Art of the mind was a skill that he unexpectedly acquired from an inspirational book. The book was titled 'Know yourself and your enemy' and the skill it gave was similar to its name.

[Art Of The Mind: It allows the host control over his own mind and emotions. It allows the host to resist mental attacks. At higher levels, it grants the host a random mental ability.]

[Analyze: It allows the host to see the information of the target of the skill.]

After discovering the first skill, he went on ahead to search through the other philosophy type books and found Analyze among a detective and analytic based book.

He didn't find anything other skill of use for now so he left with the ones in front of him. It also gave him an idea.

He moved to his computer that's was already booted up and waiting. Opening the search engine, he typed in what he was looking for.

'Some people have hyperactive imaginations and decide to put them in words. These are normally seen as fictional nonsense and draw zero attention but they are still out there.' He thought as he found what he was looking for.

On the screen, a digital cover of a book was displayed. It was titled 'Guide To Alchemy'.

'It's a long shot but it might just work.' He thought with hope.

He then clicked on the 'Order Now' icon at the bottom of the screen. If it worked, it would open a lot of doors for him to grow stronger.

If he was unsuccessful in recreating medical ninjutsu then he could simply brew up a healing mixture to produce the same effect.

The possibilities of alchemy were near limitless, though, it was dependent on whether it would work.

With that done, he sat on the floor in the middle of the room. With a deep breath, he activated Art Of The Mind as he felt the world around him go blank.