6 - Thoughts and everyday life

The Hidden Leaf Village. Konohagakure no Sato. Or simply Konoha. One of the five great villages established by shinobi for other shinobi. By combining their efforts, people with immense power united powerful ninja clans, bringing an end to the era of endless wars. Or at least, it seemed so. Until people find agreement on countless issues, peace is impossible, regardless of the society's form or how much the world order changes.

Previously, shinobi skirmishes were mostly local and chaotic, but now they had become cohesive and widespread. Of course, the number of battles decreased significantly, but their new scale was catastrophic. Entire families perished—fathers, mothers, the young, and the old, teenagers, and children. Not all bodies of the fallen made it back home; many were forgotten, and civilians were of no concern.

Wild, utterly repulsive circumstances for many.

Satoru Gojo, with a vacant expression, watched his newly appointed chakra basics teacher, Kanna, clean the memorial plaque with a matter-of-fact seriousness. Four kanji were engraved on the cold stone, reading the name of the deceased: "Shimizu Takuya." Below these characters, a plaque explained the deceased's story without much detail.

"Despite his young age, Shimizu Takuya possessed the brave heart of a true shinobi. Surrounded by enemies, he allowed his younger comrades to escape. Honor and luck to him in the afterlife." — Reading each line, stroke, and character, Satoru's expression remained unchanged.

However, his grip on the stems of the flowers he carried tightened slightly. The former shaman knew that Shimizu was also the surname of his new acquaintance. This was her relative, and judging by the neat appearance of the memorial stone, he had died relatively recently, and at that time, he was considered very young. Kanna had not gone into details, merely asking Gojo to help with the monument's upkeep. In fact, she handled all the important tasks herself, while he stood by holding the flowers.

"Satoru, please pass the flowers." — Turning to face him, the woman weakly smiled; her eyes were unusually distracted and pained.

"..." — The boy silently handed the very expensive, rare tulips to his teacher, slightly pressing his lips together.

Memories of past years flooded him: carrying Riko Amanai's corpse in his arms; later, his fellow shaman Yu Haibara died due to incorrect mission information; Geto Suguru, deeply affected by these events, chose a twisted path, forcing his best friend Satoru Gojo to kill him; thousands of civilian deaths due to wrong decisions and delays during the so-called Shibuya incident, among whom was his student Kugisaki Nobara and another close acquaintance, Nanami Kento; the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna, who later took over another student's body while the strongest shaman of modern times was sealed in the prison realm. In the battle with the ancient monster, the six-eyed shaman did not hold back at all, so Megumi Fushiguro was likely dead too.

The Reaper tirelessly hovered around the world of shamans, constantly taking souls. Again and again, without end... And so on, endlessly. Eventually, even Gojo Satoru was killed. Now, his previously confident words about victory caused only bitter irony.

"Nanami was right. Being a shaman is a crappy business. And so is being a shinobi." — Rarely did he allow himself such gloomy thoughts. — "Too bad I can't do anything else."

Satoru Gojo, with a detached look, observed as Kanna replaced the flowers in the vases on the memorial plaque.

In the distance, crows cawed.

The boy with wheat-colored hair watched as a green leaf slowly "crawled" from the tree to his palm, moving along his thumb. This was one of the simplest chakra exercises Kanna explained to Satoru. He couldn't fully control his chakra yet, but with effort, he could "push" it. Pushing this mystical energy, he made it leave his Tenketsu, causing this amusing effect—the leaf slightly adhered to his skin. It was supposed that at later stages, the exercise would become more complex: more leaves would be added, their paths would become more winding, and their speed would increase.

This chakra property reminded him of his former cursed technique. Limitless. In its neutral form, it embodied Infinity around the user, existing everywhere and slowing any moving attacks infinitely. Realized Infinity divided the initial speed of any attacking object geometrically, making it never reach the user of the Limitless cursed technique.

Enhancing the "rotation" of cursed energy, which released the user's innate cursed technique, Gojo Satoru obtained the so-called Blue—a man-made anomaly that allowed the situation of negative natural numbers to become real. A minus one apple couldn't exist in nature; it was a mathematical model, and this apple either existed or didn't exist at all. Blue was that very "minus one apple," an anomaly that the world sought to correct, filling the suddenly appearing negative space with whatever was nearby, creating a strong gravitational effect.

Thus, Blue attracted everything around it, just as Satoru now "magnetized" the leaf to his finger. This coincidence amused him. For fun, Gojo took another green training tool from a random tree and attached it to his other hand. Then he tried to move both leaves along his arms simultaneously but found it required significant mental effort, though he didn't abandon the attempt. The person who held the title of the strongest shaman of an entire era couldn't afford to relax during his own training!

Especially since it would be embarrassing to fail in front of spectators...

Two years had passed since Kakashi Hatake completed the main shinobi academy program. Now seven years old, he still ran errands for civilians with his two team members, performing low-rank missions. It had already become tiresome, but he endured. A ninja must strictly and unwaveringly follow the mission's letter, regardless of what sacrifices—time or even team—they must make.

Moreover, his teammates were such losers. And he, a talent who earned the rank of chunin at six, was stuck with them in these fields. A disgrace.

"Obito, pick up the hoe and help us clear these weeds." — The silver-haired child frowned, both his black eyes twitching with irritation.

"Forget these weeds!" — Grumbled the black-haired boy, who was a head and a half taller than Kakashi and obviously older. — "It's more interesting to watch that weirdo, just look at his face, ha-ha!"

The boy made a face when he met the green eyes of another boy diligently practicing chakra control, teasing him. The latter grinned widely and made a comical grimace, making Uchiha Obito burst into laughter. However, this did not distract Gojo from working with the green leaves, and he continued to show considerable effort.

"Look, he understands more than you, Kakashi!" — Wiping away tears of laughter, Obito tauntingly smiled at his team member and repeatedly pointed at Satoru with his finger. — "Learn while he's here."

"..." — Hatake's eyelid twitched, and he even stopped breathing for a moment, but chose to remain silent and continue working.

"Obito, don't do that..." — The girl nearby, also responsibly weeding the field, frowned as strictly as she could. — "Stop mocking Kakashi and help us."

"Y-yeah!" — The bully immediately straightened up, a blush of shame flaring on his cheeks, and he adjusted his blue vest with the importance of a peacock.

He immediately grabbed the hoe and began working furiously, openly showing off for his female teammate. Kakashi merely turned away disdainfully and sighed tiredly, maintaining the same pace as before.