Rebirth (II)

After getting cleaned up, I pulled out the kunai from the makeshift holster I made using some plastic bags. The holster wasn't going to last for long, but I could always ask N Onee-san for a kunai holster. I stared at the kunai with a solemn look on my face before I stowed it back inside the holster for safekeeping. The other kids in the orphanage were just that, kids. I didn't want the other kids to see the kunai.

For them, becoming a Shinobi and fighting for Kumo on the frontlines was the greatest honor, so if they saw the kunai, they would become jealous of me. Yeah, I know it was childish, but they were children and I have seen it happen before right in this orphanage… N was a good woman, I am not going to deny that, but at the end of the day, she was a Kunoichi of Kumo.

No matter what she felt for the children, she would still carry out her mission, and her mission was to make the children loyal to Kumo and sort out the most talented children from the rest. It was considered an honor to receive a kunai or a shuriken from the matron, so the ones who received it would obviously show it off to other children, and that would make the rest of the children jealous and it would also compel the rest of the children to do better.

All in all, it was quite a simple, but devious plan…

*GONG*

A loud gong was heard from downstairs and I slowly climbed off my bed. N uses the gong whenever the food is ready. As soon as I came out of my room, I was greeted by a couple of children of my age. "Raijin, what did N Onee-san make today?" The girl asked in a hopeful tone, looking pretty excited. I simply smiled at her before deciding to tease her.

"I don't know… Maybe she made a salad or something" I answered with a grin and the girl gagged at my answer.

"Yuck" The girl grimaced before her face turned a bit green.

"He is only teasing you, Mira" The other girl spoke up drily while giving me a dirty look.

"Eh? I wasn't teasing her, Jira. She might have made a salad for all I know" I raised my hands in defense. Mira and Jira might have similar types of names, but they were not siblings. Heck, they didn't even look alike. Mira was a brown-skinned girl with pale blonde hair while Jira was a fair-skinned girl with dull red hair. The only reason they had similar names was because the two of them were left outside the orphanage on the same night.

"Hmph! She would make something to go along with a salad" Jira pointed out with a smirk tugging on her lips and Mira almost had tears in her eyes by that time.

"You two are being mean…" Mira poked out her tongue at me and Jira. While bickering, the three of us finally arrived inside the dining hall. We weren't the first ones to arrive, but most of the other children were yet to arrive.

"Raijin, help me with the food" N called out with a ladle in her hand.

'Well, there goes my peace' I sighed internally before I started to make my way toward her. Soon the rest of the children also arrived, but I continued to help N with the food until everyone except for me and N had a plate of steaming food sitting in front of them. Even though the food was served, nobody was eating since N and I were yet to sit down. After both N and I took our seats with a plate of food in our hands, everyone clapped our hands together. "Itadakimasu!!" Everyone chanted together at the same time before we finally started to dig into our food.

I glanced around the table with a complicated glint in my eyes… Right now, there were only 15 children in the orphanage, but there used to be a lot more. Only a few days ago, twenty five children who were older than us were taken to the Kumo Training Facility… There was no Shinobi Academy in Kumo from what I knew, and all the Kumo Shinobi were trained in the Training Facility. However, I wasn't sure about the Anbu as I had yet to find any mentions of them, which was quite understandable.

From what I have read in the books in the orphanage, I have realized that Kumo is probably the most militaristic village among the five great Villages, which didn't bode well for me. Alas, there was nothing I could do to help my situation. I had to work with the hand I had been dealt with… While I was sad that I wasn't born in Konoha, at the same time, I was glad that I wasn't born in Sunagakure… Considering the shit Suna went through in the canon, I feel really bad for that miserable place.

Back to the topic of Kumo Shinobis, according to the books, Shinobis in Kumo were categorized into two major categories… After graduating from the Training Facility, some Shinobis received code names based on the English alphabet, though the alphabet A, B, and C were exceptions A was reserved for the Raikage, B was reserved for the closest aide of the Raikage, and C was reserved for the second closest aide of the Raikage. Shinobis with alphabetic code names were considered elite and they acted solo most of the time, but they could be assigned to a team if the mission required it.

Then there was the second group, who received code names based on their personalities. These Shinobis were assigned to a team of three, and just like Konoha, they would also have a Jonin instructor during the training period, but the team would cycle through various Jonin instructors so that they could find their own calling… I believe the system in Kumo was better than Konoha's as a student might be a Medical genius, but his talent may go unnoticed since their Jonin instructor didn't know anything about Iryo Jutsu.

However, there was something common between the two groups. After graduating, they would discard their old names and only go by their new code names…

Now, as for the children who were recently taken to the Training Facility, I wasn't sure what was going to happen to them… It has been only a year since the war finally broke out but from what I understand, Kumo isn't planning to send 4 year olds to the frontlines, but that may change in the coming years… I just hope I am not sent to the front lines. After I turn four, they are going to take me to the Training facility too, so they could turn me into a trained killer.

Even in this fictional world, I would have loved to stay away from all the conflict, after all, I was a completely normal law-abiding guy in my past life… I might have done some drunk driving here and there, but still, I was mostly law-abiding, but now I was going to be taught how to kill. I wasn't sure how I was going to fare, but what other choice did I have? If I had a family then I would have had a choice, but for an orphan like me, their only choice was to become a Shinobi.

I didn't even know my parents… After giving birth to me, my mother walked away without bothering to give me a name and apparently, my father never showed up at the hospital. N gave me the name Raijin when she saw my blue eyes which were quite similar to Lightning Chakra. As a matter of fact, I think it is better this way… It would have been harder to become a nuke nin if I had a loving family back here in Kumo. Thankfully, I didn't have anything holding me back from running away if I ever decided to go down that route.

Though for the time being, running away was not an option… First of all, if I wanted to run away then I would need to be quite adept in wall walking as Kumo is up in the mountains and then I would have to somehow creep past the sensor nins patrolling the borders of Kumo and right now, the security was much tighter since the village was at War… Then again, even if I somehow managed to escape, what was I supposed to do? Where was I supposed to go?

"Raijin, are you okay?" Mira asked worriedly as she shook my arm.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry… I was lost in my thoughts" I easily lied through my teeth and Mira simply smiled back at me. At least, there was something really good about being a child again, you would start absorbing all the knowledge like a sponge and rarely would anyone suspect a three year old… There was always that…

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