Talk about the future

Want to talk to me? Find me on disc*rd: 5hXDQhhqxU

-----

The next few weeks Teruya and Sasori's mother spent helping Sasori learn how to apply chakra body strengthening technique. Naturally he helped in good faith, it's not like it was funny whenever he face planted into the ground by wrongly moving his chakra, not at all.

The teasing he gave Sasori those days was also motivated purely by goodwill, as it made Sasori wanting to hit Teruya, which was impossible without using the strengthening, as Teruya himself used it whenever Sasori got close to him.

It was also a pure coincidence that he had a camera ready on the day Sasori's mother acknowledged that he learned the technique, resulting in his smile beaming of pride, right before it changed into despair when his mother pulled out a heavier set of body weights.

Teruya may or may not have received a favour for the future by giving copies of the photos made that day to Sasori's mother, but that's for another time~

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"What a great morning." Teruya said as he stretched, still waking up. "*sniff sniff* What a smell, I missed mom's cooking."

Today wasn't a typical day where his mother and father are away doing a mission. Today both of his parents were at home, which could be an event worth celebrating.

"Mornin'." Teruya said as he walked into the living room.

"Good morning son."

"Good morning my little inventor, did you sleep well."

*groan* "Yes I slept well mom, and can you stop using that nickname? It's embarrassing." Teruya complained and only muttered the last part with a small redness forming at his cheeks.

*Hmmm* She fake pondered before grinning. "Nope, you're too cute." She said as she grabbed my head and stretched my mouth cheeks.

"I'm not cute, I'm manly!" Teruya retorted in an attempt to defend his pride, causing her only to squeal and attempt to grab him again. Teruya expecting the development swiftly made a strategic retreat escaping behind a wryly smiling father.

"Give him a break honey, he just woke up, it's a morning." Teruya's father said, saving his son from the torture(?).

"Fine, help me set up the table, and you Teruya bring food from the kitchen."

At that Teruya went to the kitchen, though in a wide arc around his mother for the safety. Tt was unknown whether it was to protect his pride or his cheeks.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"Okay Teruya, we need to have a talk." After we ate the breakfast I heard an unusually serious voice of my mother directed at me, which gave me a pause.

'She found out!' I felt panic as I realised what she wants to talk about.

I sank into the chair with a grim face and said "…I did nothing, and the cookies from the jar that are missing have nothing to do with me." 'She won't get a confession from me.'

At my words she widened her eyes before smiling, giving me a bad feeling. "I actually wasn't aware of that, but not to worry, we will get to that later."

'F*ck!' I felt a sweat form on my forehead.

"Okay, stop teasing him honey, let's get to the topic." My father said.

"Fine." She sighed. "Let's talk about your future."

At her words I perked up.

"It is difficult not to notice the zeal you show in regards to the puppets." She wryly smiled as she gestured towards a shelf of carved out figurines, they comprised of animals, humans, or a mix of both of these, at which I scratched the back of my head in an embarrassment.

"Are you sure you want to become a shinobi? It's a very dangerous and emotionally heavy life." She said with a sigh. As she continued I saw a growing concern with each word on her face. "In this career path even if you would be physically fine you might be told to do things that would go against your moral compass, or you wouldn't want to do, yet you would have no choice but to do them. Frankly I'm against it, I would prefer for you to live a civilian life in the village away from harm."

"Yes." I said with a resolution, locking my gaze with her. "I believe that if I were to stay as a civilian I would regret it for the rest of my life."

"You silly boy, despite being smart you can also be a dummy." She said with a sad smile.

"Okay, lets talk about the path that you chose." I turned to my father. "To become a shinobi one would have to join an Academy. The minimal age to enter it is set at being at least five year of age. I would rather want you to enter it when you are a bit older than that, but then again, considering your thirst for knowledge and progress I doubt you would agree to that." He said at which I nodded.

"That means we might away for very long periods of time while you are at academy."

"Is it because of the coming war?" I asked, surprising my parents.

"You know?" My mother asked.

"I saw the signs: rising prices of food, water, weapons…" At which she made a sad smile.

"Sometimes being too smart can be painful…" She ruffled my hair.

"You're correct Teruya, we might be away because of the possible conflict in the near future. As such we need to tell you of the few important things." My father said. "Academy's curriculum lasts four years, however it is possible to skip some years and even graduate early."

'That's pretty neat, I wouldn't have to waste my time and listen to things twice if I already knew them.'

"We are aware of how quickly you learn and the degree of skill you possess. Because of that we DO NOT want you use that option." My father said emphasising his words.

At that I was confused. "Huh, why?"

At my question father presented me with a cruel reality. "Remember what we said? There is a possibility of a conflict erupting, and what do you think would happen if you were to burst through the academy and graduate? You would be sent to the frontline, where fresh graduates die in droves. Even Jōnins like us will face constant danger. Survival of the fresh graduates is fully dependant on fate, not on skill."

"Also as one of the tests to graduate you have to… kill a criminal offender to make sure that in the field you wouldn't freeze. We don't want you to go through that when we are not there with you." He said with a grim face.

"Because of that" My mother continued. "promise us that you will not graduate before the war is over."

"I promise mom, dad." I swore to them.

"Now" I turned to dad. "we also want you to do your best in Academy and achieve the best marks you can."

That got me confused. "Didn't you say that you do not want me to graduate early?"

"Yes, but even if you have the best grades and beat records the grade skipping in Academy will only be presented as an option, it won't be done without your consent." He explained. "For you to understand the reason we want you to achieve best possible grades we need to explain to you a bit about Shinobi military structure."

Seeing that he has my attention he continued. "After graduating from Academy one becomes a Genin, after which one can get promoted to Chūnin, and later a Jōnin. Normally only a portion of Jōnins become Jōnin team leaders that guide and teach Genins in the field. Because of the incomparable numerical difference between the Genins and Jōnins each Jōnin-sensei makes a team with 3 Genins, and even then there is simply not enough of them for all the graduates. As such only the top students are given the right to become a part of a Jōnin led Genin Team.

Those that did not meet the expectations are sent into the Genin Corps." At that he scrunched his eyebrows. "In there teams are formed, however they do not get any Jōnin teachers, as such without any guiding hand their future growth is incomparably more difficult – and dangerous – compared to those that were part of the Jōnin led team. On top of that during a war the top graduates wouldn't get to be a part of a Jōnin led team, as there would be no time for them to form cohesiveness in a team, and Jōnin expertise would be needed promptly on the field. Another reason why we don't want you to graduate early…"

"So please do your best in the Academy…" My mother said.

"Okay, I promise I will be #1 student in the future!" I swore, making both of my parents smile warmly.

"To help you in that endeavour, today I will teach you a ninjutsu. Even if you didn't reach the goal that I set before you yet, I do believe it could help you in your exercises…" My dad said.

"Whoah, you are the best dad!" I exclaimed with an excitement as I threw myself at him, laughing and hugging him, as he spun me around.

-----

Long-time no see guys. The reason for my absence was that I *cough* got lost on the path of life. I absolutely did not find a lot of good fanfics that I had to read. *sagely nods*

Also I got a user review that is meant to 'motivate me' that has three star rating. Kind of a weird motivation to be honest, but okay.

In regards to release date – bruh, writing is a pain, when I get in the mood to write then I write, so no promises (but if I were ever to drop it or something I would write, so sleep calmly).