3: Moving Forward

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~Konoha, Year 28~

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Ryoichi played with the kids for an hour or two before Ayame showed up, and took him home after thanking other parents.

Along the way, they stopped at a local dango shop where both mother and son duo devoured multiple sticks of dango.

'Strange I never had a sweet tooth in my previous life…did I inherit it from Ayame.' Ryoichi thought as he turns his stuffed face towards Ayame who was devouring stick after stick at a speed most shounen protagonist would choke.

'Yeah, definitely from her…'

"Ryo-chan~ eat slowly you might choke," Ayame said worriedly, but that only made him eat even faster, he knew once this shameless woman finished hers she will eat his own dango.

Ayame saw her son's action and pouted, "Mou~ Ryo-chan I only ate your dango once- O.N.C.E."

Ryoichi *Snorts* at Ayame's whining and inwardly grumbled 'Only once since I could catch glimpses of your Jounin-level speed'

The duo didn't talk much after that and focused on their heavenly balls of sweetness.

"Oka-san, did you ask permission for my early admission in the Academy?" Ryoichi questions Ayame once he finished his dango.

"Ka-chan~" Ayame corrected.

"Did Lord Second accepted your request?" Ryoichi ignored Ayame's childish shenanigans and continued with his question.

"Ka-chan~"

"When can I join the Academy?" He ignored Ayame again, but he know that this mother of his won't answer if he doesn't comply.

"Kaaa-chaan~" Ayame repeated again making Ryoichi's eyebrow twitch.

"K-Ka-chan..." Ryoichi said with a blank face, but inwardly he cringed hard.

"Kyaaa! Ryo-chan kawai!!!" Ayame lunged at Ryoichi and hugged him tightly.

"Ka-chan, please answer the question," Ryoichi spoke again while being hugged a shit out by Ayame.

"no, Lord Second declined."

"Why?" Ryoichi escaped Ayame's hand and questioned again.

"Quoting what Lord Second said to me: Elder brother said he would rather have the village disbanded and go back to Waring era again than to lessen the age requirement," Ayame answered Ryoichi, her tone mimicking Tobirama's.

"So that means I can't join the Academy before I turn 8…?"

"Don't be sad Ryo-chan, you can still train with me~" Ayame tried to encourage Ryoichi, seeing him dejectedly hang his head down, but Ryoichi didn't reply.

Seeing her words didn't have any effect, she spoke again, "How about I buy you another plate of dango?"

Ryoichi shook his head causing Ayame to offer something else.

"No? How about the Shuriken set you wanted for your birthday? hmm? That's also a no…How about another basic Taijutsu manual?" Ayame offered a bunch of different things to cheer up Ryoichi, but he promptly declined all, and just as she was running out of ideas, Ryoichi spoke.

"Jutsu…I want Ninjutus."

"But-but Ryo-chan…it's dangerous." Ayame felt conflicted by his son's demands. On the one hand, she wants to give it to his demand as he rarely has any, but on the other, she's scared he might hurt himself, even giving a Taijutsu manual to a child less than two was something unheard of, and that's considering she has grown up hearing multiple stories about the warring state era from her late father.

Even at that time, clans trained their children when they were older than three, but they also were thrown into wars when they were four-five years old, so it was out of necessity.

But Ryoichi's next word and expression caused Ayame's reluctance to melt away.

Ryoichi lifted his head and stared into Ayame's eyes, his molten gold eyes widening with drops of tears forming around their edges.

"*Sniff* Ka-chan~ pretty please~" Ryoichi shamelessly attacked Ayame's weakness, and Ayame seeing her stoic son crying hurriedly accepts his demand.

"O-okay."

'So easy~this woman…' Ryoichi smirks a little amidst his crying. He already knew that Tobirama won't accept Ayame's request, but still made her do it nonetheless.

There are many reasons behind his actions, but there are two that stood out among them.

First being coming under Tobirama's radar, of course, he considered the repercussions of such actions, but him being a Senju cancelled out most of them.

And the second was to get his hand on ninjutsu, even if he know that he will be only getting basic ones he still wants them because he has been trying to mold his Chakra for three months already, but has been failing miserably.

Ryoichi needs a Ninjutsu to study how each hand signs mold and affects his Chakra. He also doesn't know anything about hand signs as well, they are not as common as the Fanfics made them out to be.

Ryoichi could only hope that Ayame also teaches him hand signs and the trick behind how they affect Chakra because he had already tried many signs he remembered from his past life, but they had no effects.

And as for the reason he's going to such lengths to get some basic Ninjutsu, it is because the village and clans keep a very tight leash on the circulation of Jutsu's, even the basic ones.

You can't just find them randomly in your dead parent's inheritance because one of the basic rules Villages and clans apply was the destruction of copied scrolls after learning them. The only Jutsus exception to this rule are the self-made ones.

Although clans are much more lax than the Village, especially clans like Senju and Uchiha who consider even side branches as extended family members. Ryoichi can't really blame them, after all they live such a cutthroat world.

Ryoichi has asked Ayame multiple times for Ninjutsus, but was declined with the same sentence every time: "It's too dangerous Ryo-chan"

So he had to guilt trap this woman, it is also good that he never demanded anything from Ayame, even his birthday present were something Ayame insisted he told her, so she doesn't mess up.

"But remember Ryo-chan~Ninjutsu are dangerous like REALLY DANGEROUS, okay?" Ayame warned sternly for the hundredth time, making Ryoichi almost roll his eyes.

'Yeah, sure… If a clumsy woman like you can use them safely, then any four years can too.' Ryoichi thought sarcastically, but he replied in a sincere tone. "Wakatta Oka-san."

Seeing Ryoichi's calling her Oka-san again made Ayame pout again but before could express her grievance, Ryoichi spoke.

"And it's not like you won't be there when I'll first perform the Jutsu hahaha, right?"

"Haha, right…?" Ryoichi repeated again after not hearing Ayame's reply.

"O-of course I will watch the entire process Ryo-chan, h-how could I let you practice Ninjutsu without any supervision" Ayame replied to Ryoichi's repeated question. Her voice stuttered and eyes avoided his…

'Yeah… no, this clumsy woman never thought about supervising me… sigh~'

"L-let's go." Ayame suddenly stood up and dragged the deadpan Ryoichi out.

"Where?"

"To home of course."

"Are we not going to Senju Library?"

"Why would we go there?"

"I don't know, maybe to get my Ninjutus scroll"

"Not today."

The mother and son duo talked while Ayame lifted Ryoichi in her arms and started hoping towards their home.

Feeling Ryoichi's dejected expression, Ayame spoke again which made Ryoichi's face smile in excitement.

"I will bring the Ninjutsu scroll tomorrow because today I will teach you about hand signs and why they don't work when someone randomly made them."

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~Few months later~

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Ryoichi was in his usual training spot sitting cross-legged on a boulder beside the small pond with no shirt on. His eyes were sealed shut in concentration with his forehead also frowning from time to time.

Seconds went by as Ryoichi's upper body got completely got drenched in sweat. And just as his pants also started getting soaked, Ryoichi abruptly opened his eyes and cursed loudly.

"Fuck! I failed again!!!"

'Agh! Fu*king Nature energy is more troublesome than I thought…' Ryoichi cursed before taking his pants off and jumping in the pond.

After finding out which world he was reincarnated, and overcoming his existential crises, Ryoichi didn't stop finding the energy in the air, and with a clear goal in mind and his further improved senses, he managed to sense the Natural energy a few months back.

And after sensing the Natural energy, he of course tried to absorb which honestly wasn't a good idea because he nearly turned a statue.

The only reason he isn't one right now is because of the total awareness of his own body beacause the moment he felt something wrong in his cells he immediately expunged the Natural energy out.

Even with such close encounter with his second death, Ryoichi didn't stopped trying master the SENJUTSU. He believes if some animals can create SAGE ARTS with their undeveloped brains then so can he with his almost NTZ-48 brain. He can also do it even if he has nowhere near as high senjutsu affinity as those Senju region animals.

And as for those death risk, he didn't care about them. If Ryoichi have cold feet with only this, he can forget about ever achieving his goals.

Fortunately after nearly turning himself into stone few more times, he managed to scan the Natural energy and find the reason why it reacted like that.

The Natural energy was very Yang in nature, but deep in its core, it hid very potent Yin which Ryoichi termed as the world's will. He came with this concept from Xianxia, and like Cultivator's purifying Spiritual energy of Heaven's traces before absorbing them into their dantian, he also tried to remove the world's will from the Natural energy to absorb it ever since, but he failed every singlr time because the moment he wipes the potent Yin, the Natural energy collapses with imbalance.

After getting the same results over and over, Ryoichi thought about replacing the potent Yin with his own, but this idea also raised a few problems like exhausting all his Chakra reservoir after wiping the world's will, or his Yin Chakra potency being nowhere near the world's will.

'Think Ryoichi think if you can't solve such an easy problem forget about ever achieving immortality.' Ryoichi berates himself and scratches his head in frustration.

Ryoichi has no idea that what he achieved with Natural energy is already considered impossible by Sage regions.

Sages know about the world's will in Natural energy too, but they never found it or interacted with it let alone thought about destroying it. The only reason he managed to even do so is because of his Observation Haki.

Observation Haki, a name Ryoichi took from another manga because of their similarities. Observation Haki is a combination of Ryoichi's five senses, his Chakra sense, and another sense he got from his massive mental energy which is very good at examining spiritual things.

Ryoichi's senses were already very sharp, but after combining them into one, they are on a completely different level, he can even predict simple actions of normal humans from their muscle movements. He can't wait to become a Sage to see how much his senses will improve again, after all, Sages are known for being the greatest sensors.

And not to forget his senses are still developing, so they haven't achieved their full potential.

'World's will, World's will, World's will…world's will… will… will…?' Ryoichi kept repeating same sentence over and over, he was so focused that he entered a trance. And after standing for an hour and half a thought passed through his mind.

"Will!!! Yes if it's a will, Haha! why am I even trying to replace it with Yin Chakra? When I can simply replace it with my own will!!! Hahaha, it was so simple! Hahaha," Ryoichi was so excited that he forget that he was thinking out loud, it was good that there was no one nearby or else he would have had a hard explaining his loud outburst.

Ryoichi didn't immediately start absorbing Natural energy after coming out of his stupor, instead, he picked up the bento his mother packed and start eating it and after that, he meditated to recover his Chakra reservoir to an acceptable level.

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[AN: If you want to read more go to my Patr*on/41_Claws. There are 10+ advance unedited chapters on it…]