[17] Chakra Affinity
A/N: If we get to top 20 on monthly, I will release a chap tomorrow as well.
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Chapter 17: Chakra Affinity
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Akio was currently in his room, seemingly concentrating his focus on the hand sign made by him. He was pouring chakra into them… and a few seconds later – a cloud of smoke erupted – the previous Aiko wasn't there but he looked exactly like his father now.
'Finally, I have mastered the transformation technique now.'
In the first academic year, a requirement was to learn the clone technique, but now it was the transformation/ henge. This was the second of the three jutsus learned throughout the years.
In a few weeks, he gained mastery over it; much quicker than the last time which took a couple of months.
Maybe it was because – he had experience with jutsu and his chakra control had gone to a new level – he had started tree walking now, which he was getting the hang of quite fast.
He stopped what he was doing, and took a quick shower before heading downstairs, to where he met his family.
At first glance, one could notice the eyebags on Miko and everyone's faces… they were extremely stressed – up to the point where sleep wasn't an option. Even Ariza, the guy who always looked down on him, didn't have the same attitude, having bigger things to worry about.
Everyone was stressed about Hagiro… it was due to the one thing Akio was worried about – being enlisted into war…
Hagiro had to go soon to fight for his village.
Although Akio realised one thing – unlike him and his detachment to the village – his father was the opposite… he wanted to go to battle and gain merits.
He was the only one that looked stern and bright, knowing that he was about to fight for the village – the same village that he was brought up in and now was his chance.
Just like his father, and his father before him… he wanted to contribute.
Akio sighed at this for a second, then smiled as he walked up to his father. Unlike everyone else, he slept soundly and hadn't got too much stress on his mind.
"My son! You know your father's going to war soon, so I've got something for you," he exclaimed with a smirk.
Akio chuckled. "I hope it's not one of them: don't open it until I come back – only finding out later that it's a death note – your last sayings before the battle. You better not die old man."
Everyone else gave a few looks at that kind of humour. However, contrary to everyone, Hagiro laughed even more; it kept his spirits up, knowing his son didn't forcefully worry.
Unlike everyone else, Akio wasn't attached as much as them to this man. He'd known him for only a year or so, but he cherished the memories… This didn't mean he was extremely sad. Yes, he was unhappy but seeing his father's mentality; he realised that he was true to Konoha.
Even Minato – like a young kid with ambition wanted to contribute to the war and earn some merits… It was a child's dream to become some sort of war hero.
He nodded sideways, signalling a no and had a mysterious crease on his lips. "Don't worry,.you'll gonna love what I got for you."
Even Akio noticed this mysteriousness and was curious as to what he got him.
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A few weeks later…
"I've seen that you have made major progress in your chakra control," Hagiro said in an open field.
"I was going to teach you this later but since I'm going in a few days, it's time."
Akio saw his father pull out a paper from his back pocket – he immediately knew what this was and his eyes widened, knowing what he was going to teach him.
'Jutsu… he's finally teaching me jutsu!'
He was elated; he knew he was ready to learn it and wanted to see his chakra affinity too.
"This is a chakra paper for testing your affinity – the paper will have five scenarios depending on what yours is."
He put it in Akio's hand to which he immediately sent his chakra through the paper. In a split second, the paper crumbled, turned into dirt and withered away.
"Haha! You've got the same affinity as me. This is perfect – I've got a jutsu ready for you as well," Hagiro exclaimed.
Inwardly, Aiko was not disappointed at his affinity. He quickly revised Naruto in his head, fishing for certain parts and realised that he got a defensive type of affinity.
This wasn't bad for war times since enemies are everywhere. His focus was survival and this helped him immensely – also – now he had a new goal at hand: proficiency with his earth attribute.
"Now that you know your affinity; you have to learn to train that, turning it into your chakra nature. Once you have mastered this, you can start learning jutsu," whilst he explained, he ripped off a leaf from a branch.
He poured his chakra into the leaf to which it crumbled and turned into dirt… this was chakra nature training.
"Once you know how to do this, then you have to further this by turning a large area into the dirt. This is required for higher-level jutsu."
Once his father had explained everything and gone, Akio was left alone to which he immediately started imitating his father.
He held the leaf in his hand, and with little effort, he sent chakra toward it. With his chakra control, Akio tried his best to crumble the lead, but nothing happened… Not even after a dozen tries.
An hour passed and Akio now had pure sweat pouring from his hair – his expression dishevelled from the constant use of chakra. He remembered how hard it was for Naruto to do this nature training… and he had the shadow clones for it.
Akio never had this kind of advantage so it was going to take him a long time before he made some progress. However, this didn't discourage him, only making him work harder to achieve mastery of his chakra nature.
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In the next few days, whilst Akio carried on his chakra nature training, he got a strange request from his father. It was to meet him in the nearby woods, next to their property.
As he neared his father's location, a figure could be slightly discerned in his vision, having a knife in his hand. Next to him lay a tied-up deer, its protruding horns wrapped around by ropes – some would say this was a cruel sight.
Akios' eyebrows creased for a second and then he had a fleeting thought in his mind.
'Is this what I think it is?'
He thought of a guess of what I might be, but these were merely just guesses.
Right now, he stood in front of Hagiro, who was ready to speak.
"I've called you here because of one thing," he paused, taking a knife out of his hand. "Use this to kill this deer."
Akio had a sudden realisation on his face not hidden from Hagiro.
"Yes, you're sharp and you should know why I'm telling you to do this."
Akio glanced at the deer with little to no emotion and then back at his father. "It's wartime – kids are now being trained to kill."
This was natural after all. A person needed experience with the feeling of killing something before doing it.
Hagiro nodded. "Right, this is not going to be your first nor last time killing something. If you're going to take on the path of a shinobi – hesitation requires no place."
Akio glanced at his father's hand, which was out, signalling him to pick up the knife – which he did.
He gripped the knife whilst he walked over to the deer – thinking about something.
In his previous life, Akio had never killed an animal. This was his first time but due to him not being a kid with a developing cognitive ability, he had no problem killing an animal. Rather, he felt nothing toward it – now looking at him with pleading eyes.
Just like eating food or drinking water, he raised his knife and stabbed it straight in its throat…
He felt the squelsh of the flesh in his hand somehow, even though he was holding a knife. It was almost a hypersensitive feeling.
A loud exhale from the deer sounded with a sound of monotonous breathing – the blood slowly seeped out as the knife was removed. He could feel the pain the deer felt at that moment, subconsciously putting himself in its shoes.
"Weird feeling… isn't it. Knowing you have just now taken a life," Hagiro said, putting his arm on his son's shoulder.
Akio didn't feel good or have any sort of feeling toward killing this animal. It was just a.. kill.. a very numbing kill.
It wasn't going to be his last…
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