Chapter 3- In which Kushina isn't laughing anymore

Ren Uchiha POV

He stared at the beautiful, mesmerising world around him, his eyes capturing every little detail with ease as Mikoto walked him through the streets of Konoha.

Sharingan was amazing. There was no other way to say it. It was to a 4K High Definition TV what that HD TV was to a Black and White TV from the 80s. There was just no comparison.

The colours were more vivid. The details more elaborate and precise. He could see much further away in the distance than a normal eye. And his reflex were off the charts.

And this was just a One-tomoe Sharingan.

He wondered how the world would look to him once he gains higher level of Sharingan. Or, when he'll eventually unlock the Rinnegan.

He discreetly looked up at his Status Screen and saw that his One-Tomoe-Sharingan Bar was filled halfway up to 100%. And it's only been a few months since he unlocked these eyes. Though, unlike the other Uchiha, he kept his Sharingan eyes open at all times, so was it really a surprise that his bar was filling up so quickly?

"Ren-kun. Keep up!" Mikoto-san called out from the front and he quickly ran forward on his tiny legs in order to catch up with her.

"Now, do you remember what I told you last night?" Mikoto-san asked.

"To be respectful to Kushina-san. To listen to her words and to learn all I can from her." He replied with a roll of his eyes, only to get his cheeks pinched by Mikoto-san. "Ow"

"None of that. I'm being serious right now, Ren-kun. Kushina-san is one of the very few Fuinjutsu masters that Konoha has. And you're lucky that she has deigned to give you her time. So mind your manners, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Sure." He said as he pried her fingers off of his chubby cheeks.

Mikoto gave him an unimpressed look but didn't continue with her tirade afterward.

The rest of the walk was in companionable silence before they eventually stopped in front of a fairly decent looking home surrounded by tall concrete walls. Walls that his Sharingan noticed, were filled with glowing Fuinjutsu seals.

Yeah, he was not touching those walls even if someone paid him a shit ton of money to do that.

Unlike him, Mikoto seemed utterly unbothered by the glowing seals and moved toward the front gate before pressing on a particular area, some of her chakra passing through her finger and being absorbed by the seals.

A few of the nearby seals activated and despite knowing in his heart that nothing will happen to her (probably) his heart leapt to his throat as he got ready to pull Mikoto back away from the front gate. But then, a second passed, and nothing happened.

His heart calmed down a bit and he looked closer to study the Fuinjutsu seals in front of him, trying to understand what they did, or how they worked but completely failed to decipher any of it. Maybe if he had the Observe skill then he would understand what this seal did, but just like most of his other Gamer Functions, his Observe skill was also locked up right now.

"What did you do, Mikoto-san?" He asked in the end and Mikoto glanced down at him and gave him a motherly smile.

"I informed Kushina-san that we're here." She said before she reached down to wipe away some imaginary dust from his clothes before looking him over once again. "Now, be on your best behaviour, okay."

He wondered what it said about him that he didn't feel the least bit of discomfort at being mothered like this while having the soul of a 25-year-old guy.

"Okay." He said simply, and Mikoto flashed him a pleased smile before they started waiting.

A few moments later he saw the entire Fuinjutsu sequence covering the gates come alive. And the seals moved around the gates, taking a different form altogether before finally coming to a stop.

Then, the front gate opened and his entire world was covered in red, as he was promptly glomped by the red haired menace that was Kushina Uzumaki.

"Oh, aren't you just the cutest little thing." Kushina cooed at him while rubbing her cheeks against his own and he turned his head to give a stink eye to Mikoto who had covered her mouth with her dainty hand and was quietly chuckling to herself.

He held the urge to kick Kushina with his tiny legs and let her continue with the molestation until she finally had her fill of him.

"If you're quite done torturing my ward, Kushina, then maybe you should release him before he faints from lack of breath." Mikoto eventually interjected. But Kushina only tightened her grip around him and gave a scoff to his adopted mother.

"Never. I'll never let go of Ren-kun!" Kushina announced enthusiastically but then wilted under the unimpressed look of Mikoto-san and reluctantly put him back into the ground.

"So… tea?" Kushina offered with an embarrassed chuckle as he tried to straighten his ruffled clothes and hair.

Being a young, cute looking boy is a huge disadvantage. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

"I'm afraid that I have a few kunoichi classes to teach to Itachi, so maybe later." Mikoto said before she gave a polite bow to Kushina. "And once again, thank you for accepting Ren as your student Kushina-san."

"Ah, it was nothing." Kushina said with an embarrassed chuckle before she bid her farewell to Mikoto who gave him a last nod and then turned and left.

"So…" Kushina said as she turned to look at him once again. "Tea?"

His irate glare was all that she received.

—————​

"So, before we get started. How about some basic introduction?"

"Basic introduction?" He asked.

"Like, your likes, dislikes, hobbies and goal in life." Kushina said. "Let me go first as an example. I'm Kushina Uzumaki. I like Minato, and Ramen. I dislike a certain red fox, and the two minutes it takes to cook Ramen. My hobbies are Fuinjutsu and cooking for Minato. And my goal in life is to revive my clan by having many children with Minato. Now, you go next."

He stared at her for a moment before he started his own introduction. "My likes are playing around with chakra and seeing all the things I can do with it. I also like my new family, I suppose. My dislikes are… hmm… I don't have any particular dislike. War, maybe. Also, I don't like it when people treat me like a child. My hobbies are training, playing around with my chakra, and growing stronger. And my goal in life is-" He paused as his System dinged and he got a new notification.

Ding!

Your Genjutsu Skill has increased by +1!

Huh… when he first started speaking with Genjutsu, he hadn't done it with any particular intent aside from not having to speak. But as he continued with it, he noticed that if he put a stronger person under Genjutsu, then his Genjutsu skill improves at a faster pace.

This effect was so pronounced that yesterday, when he conversed with Minato and Kushina for only half an hour, his Genjutsu skill went up from 26 to 29. And now it went up by another level.

This was understandable as someone like him would usually never be able to put a Kage level shinobi or Kunoichi like Minato or Kushina under a Genjutsu. So when he does this and succeeds, then the System rewards him rather generously.

Gamer System for the win!

Noticing Kushina was still staring at him, he quickly continued where he'd left.

"As for my goal in life… I would say that it was to become the strongest person in all of Elemental Nations. That's a good starting goal for me, I suppose."

"A starting goal?" Kushina asked, her eyes twitching.

"Yeah. With my bloodline, it shouldn't take me too long to achieve this goal. After that, I can chase my other hobbies like Singing, Drawing, Sculpting, writing and other such things."

Truth be told, he didn't even consider becoming the strongest as a real goal for himself. It was just something that was going to happen eventually. He'll just have to train a few hours a day and his Gamer System will take care of the rest.

For him, saying that he was going to become the strongest was equivalent to saying that he was going to be taller when he grew older. It's just the natural way of things. As long as someone doesn't kill him half way through on his journey, he would complete Han Jee-han's template and reached Tier 9.

"You're quite a confident brat, aren't you?" Kushina asked and he shrugged.

"I suppose. Though it's more like I'm confident in my bloodline. I'll well aware that without it, my growth would be far slower than what it is right now."

"Hm… as long as you acknowledge that fact and havn't become too arrogant and conceited." Kushina said before she reached for a stack of paper. "Now, how about we get started."

"Okay." He said, eager to get started with his Fuinjutsu studies.

"Before we do anything else Ren-kun, we need to check whether you have any talent in Fuinjutsu or not."

"And how would we check such a thing?" He asked.

"That's rather easy. I'll show you a set of seals, and you'll tell me if you see anything wrong with those seals or not. And if yes, then what."

"Okay." He said before Kushina picked up the top paper from the stack and showed it to him.

It was a rather simple seal with only a few characters written in it with straight lines between those few characters.

"Well, what is wrong with this seal?" She asked.

He gave her a raised eyebrow. He had never studied Fuinjutsu before in his life. How was he supposed to tell what was wrong with it?

The Observe skill would've been really useful right now. But it's not like he could do anything about it.

He studied the seal for a few more moments before he shook his head. "I don't know."

"Okay." Kushina said and took the next page from the stack before showing it to him. It had another simplistic seal drawn into it. "What's wrong with this one?"

He studied it for a few more moments before shaking his head once again. "I don't know."

Even with the help of his Sharingan, he was unable to tell what was wrong with those seals. Or if there was even anything wrong with them in the first place.

Kushina might just be trolling him for all he knew, though he frankly doubted it.

"What about this seal." "And this…" "And this…"

Over the next five minutes, Kushina went through the entire stack of paper and he was unable to tell what was wrong with any of those seals.

Finally, Kushina went through the last paper and then put the stack of paper aside before giving him a serious look.

"I suppose I don't have any natural talent with Fuinjutsu then?" He asked.

Kushina nodded. "You don't but that's not something bad. In the normal shinobi population, only one or two out of a hundred have the talent to intuitively understand Fuinjutsu."

"Intuitively understanding Fuinjutsu? Is there even such a thing?" He asked and she nodded once again.

"Indeed there is. Back when I was in Uzushio, every Uzumaki child was able to answer at least one third of the Test. The most talented ones were even able to answer upto two thirds of the test correctly." Kushina explained. "That is what made the Uzumaki such a feared clan. Learning Fuinjutsu is technically not classified as a Bloodline, but in our case, it might as well have been."

That... was indeed quite a broken ability.

The Uzumaki bloodline was very powerful as far as he could knew. Huge Vitality, long lifespans, large chakra reserves, Kagura Mind's eye, Adamentine Chains, the ability to heal by getting bitten by others.

And now the natural talent in Fuinjutsu.

He was beginning to understand why the other villages saw Uzushio as such a big threat that they decided to band together to destroy it.

Given enough time, the Uzushio village could've become something truly terrifying.

"So… what now. Is it impossible for me to learn Fuinjutsu?" He asked, though he didn't truly believe that anything was impossible for him as long as he had the Gamer System.

In the worst case scenario, he would just use Waifu Catalog and use 5 of his 23 remaining points to buy Added Potential (Uzumaki Bloodline). Or simply buy the Science Talent for 20 points.

"No. Learning Fuinjutsu is not impossible for you. You can still learn it by brute forcing it. It's not the optimal solution, and is a huge time sink, so I would not suggest it. Not until you've grown older at least."

"Brute forcing it?"

"By memorising every thing there is to learn about Fuinjutsu. Then gain experience by making mistakes after mistakes after mistakes for years before you start to get the hang of it."

"Doesn't that just make it like Iryojutsu then?" He asked, since a shinobi or kunoichi also needed a lot of knowledge on a human anatomy in order to learn it. Then they have to practice the Iryojutsu techniques on half dead animals again and again and again until they eventually learn how to do it properly on humans.

"Yes, and no." Kushina said. "You can say that Fuinjutsu is somewhat similar to Iryojutsu. But in many cases, Fuinjutsu is more like art than science. That is why you cannot just copy the seal of a Fuinjutsu master and expect it to work just as well as the original seal did. Or at all, really."

He nodded. That point was understandable. If making Fuinjutsu seals was as easy as simply copying them, then the Uchiha would've long since gained a foothold in that market thanks to their Sharingan.

"So, knowing all this, do you still want to learn it?" Kushina asked with a teasing smile.

"Of course I do." He said without a second's hesitation. "I never expected that learning Fuinjutsu would be easy. So what if I don't have the natural talent in Fuinjutsu? I'll just learn it by memorising everything else. With my two bloodlines, I do not believe that anything is impossible for me as long as I put enough effort into it."

"Are you really sure about your decision?" Kushina asked once again. "Learning Fuinjutsu without having any talent in it is as bad as learning Iryojutsu techniques while having bad Chakra Control. You can still back off while you have the chance. I won't hold it against you, dattabane."

"I still want to learn it."

"Are you really sure? Because once you start learning, I won't let you back down, dattabane." She said and visibly cringed at using her verbal tick once again. But then she shook her head and gave him a stern look as she continued. "I don't appreciate some no name brat wasting my time."

He smirked at her words. "You don't need to worry about that. Just give me the stuff that I need to learn and I'll learn it in no time."

"Oh, you seem pretty confident right now. But I wonder how long that'll last. Regardless, it's your funeral." She said and then reached behind her to bring out a large and thick book.

'That book must have a thousand pages in it at the vary least.' He contemplated silent. 'Probably closer to two thousand.'

Kushina slammed the book down in front of him with a loud 'Thump' and looked at him with an expectant smile.

But if she expected him to get scared away by the size of the book, then she was sorely mistaken.

A normal child from the shinobi world would indeed by intimidated by the size of that book. But for someone like him who was a studious student in his past life and studied Engineering in college, this book was nothing all that special.

"Is that it?" He asked and took great joy in the way Kushina's face fell.

"What do you mean 'is that it'? Do you know how many pages there is in this book?"

"About two thousand?" He asked.

"Yes… about one thousand eight hundred pages." She said, her eye twitching slightly. "Do you have any idea how long it takes for a normal person to learn all the stuff in this book?"

"About a year?" He asked and her eye start twitching even more eratically.

No wait. Considering that he had to read multiple books of such a size in a year when he was in college, if it was just one book… "Six months?" He made another guess and Kushina's eye twitch became worse.

He had a feeling that he was about to get beaten up by her for some reason. So he reiterated his words once again. "Three months?"

At that, Kushina simply started at him. She then massaged her brows andtook a deep breath.

"You know what, brat. You're absolutely right. It usually takes an Uzumaki child your age 3 months to learn this book." Kushina said before she slid the heavy book over to him. "And that's why I expect the same from you."

…why did he get the feeling that Kushina was lying to him. No, she was definitely lying to him.

She just told him that the book was only for those who didn't have the talent for Fuinjutsu and had to learn everything by rote memorisation. So why would Uzumaki kids even learn from it.

But if she was lying to him, then did it take the people of this world more than one year to learn this book?

That was... understandable as these people were known for being killers and not scholars.

"And what happens if I don't manage to learn it within 3 months?"

"That's simple. You miss the opportunity to learn from me. Ever again." Kushina said, giving him a 'kind' smile. "And considering that I'm the last Uzumaki with all the Fuinjutsu knowledge held by my clan, I can promise you that you'll not find a better teacher in the entire Elemental Nations. Do you understand?"

"Yeah. Can I take the book now?" He asked and her eye twitched again.

"Very well. Take it. And starting from today onward, you have three months to learn it." She said before she stood up. "Now, get out of my house and don't return until you've memorised all the stuff inside it!"

He nodded and picked up the heavy book with ease before he bowed to her. "Thank you for this opportunity Kushina-san. I'll not disappoint you."

"Tch. Thank me by learning all that stuff in 3 months." She said and then gestured for him to leave.

—————​

Kushina Uzumaki POV.

As she watched the boy leave her house with the heavy book in his arms, she felt a little bit of guilt at having lied to him like that.

The book was not easy to learn. It was first made for Uzumaki kids who have little talent in the art of Fuinjutsu. But was then later expanded upon so that even people who don't have any talent in Fuinjutsu can learn from it.

A Uzumaki child usually started learning it at the age of 5 and it usually takes 2-3 years for him/her to learn it completely.

Compared to that, an adult shinobi can learn it at a faster pace. But since they also have to go out for missions and juggle other responsibilities alongside it, it also takes them 1-2 years to learn the book at least.

So asking a 4-year-old child to learn the entire book in 3 months was rather unfair of her.

But then again, the brat was practically asking for it. Strongest shinobi, her ass! Her Minato was definitely the strongest shinobi in all of Elemental Nations no matter what anyone else says.

Hopefully this failure would deflate some of the boy's natural arrogance. Otherwise, he might suffer a lot of setbacks in the future.

Still, thinking about his disappointed and fearful expression as he confessed to her that memorising the book in 3 months was beyond him got a hearty laugh out of her.

When the boy returned to her a month later and revealed that he learned the entire thing, she wasn't laughing anymore.