Naruto: The Ordinary Genius

In Konoha, a small, somewhat shabby courtyard.

"Kaito, today is your first day of school, so don't cry, okay?" The boy's mother was teasing him gently, holding his hand.

"Don't worry, mother, I won't." The boy, named Kamikawa Kaito, felt a bit helpless at the moment, looking at his mother tightly gripping his clothes. He thought to himself, when had he ever cried?

Hmm, Kaito pondered for a moment. Actually, there was one time—when he was just born and cried after being slapped, confused about what was happening. However, as an 'excellent' youth of the 21st century, although he wasn't entirely sure of the exact reason, he knew that crying at birth was essential for a baby. If there was no sound, it usually meant something was wrong.

So, from birth until now, Kaito had only cried that one time. But even that was something he couldn't help; it was just a biological response. Even if Kaito could have held back, the medical staff wouldn't have allowed it.

Kamikawa Sinai looked at her son, feeling a bit reluctant. After all, it had always been just the two of them, mother and child, relying on each other, which had been tough. Luckily, her son had always been independent, and often even helped her with small household chores, easing her burden.

However, there was one thing missing—her son lacked the childishness that other children had. Sinai sometimes found it hard to experience the joys of being a mother. She wished he would act more spoiled during his adorable age.

"Come home early after school," Sinai said with a resigned smile.

"Got it, mother. Now, please let go, or I'll be late on my first day."

In the end, Sinai let go. She originally wanted to take a day off to accompany Kaito to school, but he had sternly refused once he found out.

Nevertheless, Sinai wasn't too worried. Kaito had always enjoyed wandering around the village and had never gotten lost. He had even explored the Ninja Academy numerous times before.

With Kaito off to school, she herself needed to go to work. It was just the two of them in the household, and it was up to her to support them.

...

Kamikawa Kaito, age six, was born into a single-parent family. His father had been a Chūnin but died during a mission. His father's teammates had mentioned that due to Sinai's pregnancy, Kaito's father had worked even harder to take on missions to earn extra money for his soon-to-be-born child. Unfortunately, he met with an accident due to exhaustion, leaving Sinai alone, heavily pregnant.

Sinai herself used to be a ninja—only a Genin—and after getting married, she willingly gave up her title. After giving birth to Kaito, she took on various jobs to make ends meet. Thanks to her previous ninja training, she was still quite capable among ordinary people, making job hunting easier. Moreover, Kaito was an early bloomer, so the toughest period was really only at the beginning. Now, their lives had finally stabilized.

Kaito, of course, was a reincarnated soul, one who had grown up in this world from the very beginning. When he realized he had crossed into the world of Naruto, Kaito felt indifferent.

His previous life had not seen him settling down, and he had little left to linger over—save for a slight regret for not being able to repay his parents. As for Naruto, Kaito had watched the anime, though admittedly with a bit of a casual attitude. He had skipped much of the story due to the excessive flashbacks, but having seen it was still better than not.

And then there was the matter of his "cheat power." After confirming over the past six years, Kaito had reluctantly accepted that he didn't have the typical "golden finger" that other transmigrators seemed to get—only the knowledge of some of the plotlines, which could itself be considered a kind of advantage.

Oh, and perhaps the strength of his soul was also notably strong. Kaito found that his ability to remember things was far better than before, though not quite at the level of photographic memory. Still, it was pretty impressive.

His bloodline, though? As far as Kaito could tell, he was just an ordinary person. No Senju vitality, no Uchiha Sharingan, no Uzumaki or anything like that.

This was a bit of a headache for Kaito. He definitely wanted to become a ninja. After all, he'd come all the way here, so he had to try the local specialties. If all he wanted was to live quietly, he could just marry into some ramen shop—although being adopted by a great clan wasn't realistic, joining a ramen family might be possible.

On the bright side, at least he wasn't an Uchiha. Kaito realized that he was the same age as Naruto Uzumaki—if he were born an Uchiha without any special abilities, he might very well have ended up dead before long.

Kaito was, therefore, mostly content with his current situation. He might not have a powerful bloodline, a cheat power, or some unique Kekkei Genkai, but at least there was nothing about him that would attract dangerous attention.

And over these past six years, Kaito hadn't just been idle. Even though he couldn't yet extract chakra or learn ninjutsu, he understood that physical training needed to start young.

But Kaito also worried that his young body could get hurt, so he didn't push himself too hard. Instead, he mainly focused on training his fingers.

Even though later in the story ninjas would perform all kinds of jutsu without hand signs, in the early stages, speed of forming seals was essential. To ensure flexible and deft fingers, Kaito had begun training them even as a baby.

If he kept at it, Kaito believed he could potentially reach the fastest seal speed. Even if he didn't become the fastest, he should be among the best.

As of now, his seal speed was close to three per second—of course, this was without any chakra, which naturally made it faster. However, this set a solid foundation; once he grew familiar with chakra, he could still aim for the same level.

Before he knew it, Kaito had arrived at his classroom. He took a deep breath. He had done everything possible in the early stages, but his time at the academy would be critical for further building his strength. He had to work even harder since, as an ordinary person, there was only a sliver of a chance for him to become a great ninja. And most importantly, he had an important goal to achieve during this time.

The teacher hadn't arrived yet, and Kaito looked around the room, seeing familiar faces. He smiled. Luckily, he had been placed in a class with Naruto Uzumaki, under Iruka-sensei.

Kaito scanned the classroom, but instead of looking for specific people, he casually found an empty seat and sat down.

The classroom was noisy without the teacher present. Some children were even crying. Kaito casually started forming seal after seal with his hands under his desk.

At that moment, someone walked into the classroom—a boy with short, blond hair and whisker-like marks on his face. His eyes swept across the room, and finally, his face lit up with excitement.

He had found Kaito.