Chapter 18

The birth went remarkably well, with Aya pushing for about fifteen minutes until the baby's head emerged. Kenshin, seeing the baby's head, was frightened again, and froze for a few seconds, not knowing what to do. But then he pulled himself together, and began to gently pull the baby out.

In a few minutes, Kenshin was already holding the baby, who was silently looking at him with his little blue eyes.

- Aya, look how cute he is. Here, little Ichiro, come to Mommy. - Kenshin whispered, and handed him over.

- Oh my god, he's so cute! - Aya said excitedly as she took the boy in her arms. The blue-eyed baby looked at Aya, and began to cry loudly, beaming his eyes toward Kenshin.

- Be a good boy, don't cry. It's your mother, isn't it? - Kenshin said with a smile, and leaned down to lightly kiss his son on the top of his head.

The baby, as if he had heard Kenshin's words, instantly fell silent, and looked at his mother.

Aya held her son close to her, and kissed him tenderly: -You're so beautiful, my god... My little Ichiro, you'll grow up to be a strong shinobi! - Aya said enthusiastically, then shifted her gaze to Kenshin and added: - You know, I always fell asleep to my grandfather's stories about his father, my great-grandfather. I imagined that all of his made-up stories were true, and that I was the great-granddaughter of a descendant of the great Uchiha clan!

Hearing Aya's last words, a smile froze on Kenshin's face and he suddenly asked: - What are the stories? The Uchiha Clan...?

- Ah, that's just the ramblings of an old drunkard. As a child, I believed every word with admiration, but now I realize that my great-grandfather could not have been the son of the Uchiha Clan, who was supposedly planted by his parents in a simple village while hiding from a terrible chase. My great-grandfather always told this unbelievable story, until the real members of the Uchiha clan heard it. They severely beat him, breaking several ribs. After that incident, my great-grandfather stopped telling that story to everyone, but told it to my grandfather, and my grandfather told it to me.

- Yeah, I don't envy your great-grandfather..." The young man sighed half-heartedly, realizing that he'd gotten excited before his time.

- Ichiro, little one, are you hungry? - She asked Aya, softly, and held him to her chest. As if on cue, the boy suckled on her right breast, and silently began to eat.

Kenshin, meanwhile, decided not to disturb them, and left the room. Three hours later, the young father blinked his eyes in surprise when Aya came out of the bedroom as if nothing had happened. Her belly was flat again, without a single stretch or sag, and her vagina was tight and firm again.

"Wow! The system did its best-no other way!" - The young man thought rapturously, and hugged Aya as he looked at his first son.

Suddenly an idea occurred to Kenshin, looking at the baby, he mentally whispered "Status," and a small summary popped up in front of him

Name: Nakayama Ichiro

Age: 62 days

Talent level: 16

Expected development rank: Genin.

Chances of further achievement:

Chunin - 40%

Jonin - 1%

Kage - 0.001%

****

"What? Sixty-two days? Hmm, maybe the system is counting by the child's accelerated development time..."

After reading the description of each item carefully, Kenshin realized that the system adjusted to the ranks of this world, and evaluated talent in terms of achievement in chakra management.

"Hmm, so the talent level is a measure of future shinobi achievement. Ichiro's number is 16, so his expected development is peak genin, and possible attainment of the rank of chunin... Hmm, if the number were 20, then he could reach chunin level without much trouble..." - Pondered Kenshin, assessing the future prospects.

- Ichiro, look how daddy loves you, he can't take his eyes off you, right Kenshin? - Aya asked with a cheerful smile, and started to coo with the baby, kissing him and giving him maternal tenderness.

- Ichiro, you'd better grow up soon, because your father needs a helper! - With a laugh Kenshin said, and hugged his wife and son.

- Don't listen to him, little one. Daddy is joking. Grow as much as you want, Mommy will take care of you! - Aya declared, unable to be happy about becoming a mother.

The next few hours passed unnoticed; the baby slept and ate, but did not cry, and often looked in his father's direction. Aya and Kenshin ate dinner and went to bed. Because of the soiled bed in the bedroom, the girl and the baby used the bed in the "guest" room, and Kenshin had to squat on one of the four beds in the "barracks. But he did not complain, and was well aware that the first night the mother and child had to rest properly.

When Kenshin woke up in the morning, he could not believe that he had become a father. He got out of bed to find Aya sitting at the kitchen table with the baby in front of her, playing merrily with him. Ichiro was laughing loudly and playing with his mother, not caring about anything.

Seeing Kenshin, Aya said: - Oh, good morning. Look, our baby's already teething! I can't believe how fast he's growing.

Kenshin noticed that the baby had indeed grown much larger overnight, and couldn't help but wonder where the growing body was getting its energy from. Deciding that this was another mystery of the "system", he discarded these useless reflections, and kissed the girl and the baby.

- Well, bandit, are you growing up? - Kenshin asked his first son with a smile.

The baby didn't answer anything, but shrieked happily and held out both hands to Kenshin, begging to be held. The young father took his son in his arms, and played with him for about ten minutes, spinning around the kitchen with him, to the baby's gushing laughter, and the girl's gentle gaze.

The rest of the day went on quite routinely. Aya babysat the baby, and Kenshin practiced in the gym, catching four live rabbits, specially changing the formation that now made the rabbits jump into the snare at a certain angle, and catching them by their hind legs.

After lunch, the young man rested for a while, waiting out the heat by spending time with his wife and child. By evening, Kenshin went berry picking, and for about an hour he picked the local equivalent of the blackberries he knew. Then the young man moved to the river, and took a few fish from the artificial cage, tossing some cooked grits to the others. Then he headed home.