Revelation and Determination

Today Takeru Yamamoto became 1 year old. It was a nice chilly day with little winds blowing. The atmosphere was pleasant. Takeru noticed that the climate here in this region was always warm throughout the year, like no matter what season comes there was always a tinge of summer present. Only in winter the weather got cold and snow fell. Takeru was born on the eve of winter thus he saw snowfall for the first time in both of his lives when he was about 1 months old. The warm climate made Takeru feel safe somehow.

Takeru did not know what he wanted to be when he grew up. Maybe he would become a samurai like his father wishes him to be or a healer like his mother or maybe he would just be a farmer, managing the shop, taking care of his parents, spending his days in peace and quiet. He was happy with the prospect of living a simple life to the ripe old age.

Takeru mused as he saw his parents were decorating the house with some flowers and few strips of colourful cloth. The house was soon filled with laughter and joy. His father invited a couple of his close friends. His mother invited granny Miyako's family and few of her friends. Granny Miyako came with her son and daughter-in-law, and their her twin grandsons , Renji and Genji, both 5 year olds. They came early to help Akane and Toru. The Yamamoto shop was closed today with the promise of giving some discount on the shop's products tomorrow. Takeru was happy and his parents saw it. They wanted to make this day to be a memorable one. Although the shop sold a few chickens and pigs but they had little meat on their plate to eat. They mainly ate rice, vegetables and some fruits with very few meat dishes made only on some special occasions. And today was a special ocassion so Toru took a whole pig to slaughter to celebrate his son's first birthday.

Takeru wanted to speak his first words today to show his appreciation for everything his parents had done for him. Nothing special just simple 'mama' and 'dada' for now. He could already speak fully coherent sentences fluently but did not show it to anyone. Takeru played with Renji and Genji but they soon became tired and Takeru became bored. Akane, her few friends in the neighborhood, granny Miyako and her daughter-in-law were in the kitchen preparing food and gossiping. Renji and Genji were laying down on the tatami mats exhausted after running around for so long. Toru, granny Miyako's son and Toru's friends chatted among themselves. Takeru without anything else to do listened to conversations the adults were having.

"The yield this year will be good" - spoke Toru.

"Yes, I saw that too, hopefully this year there will not be any incidents like previous ones" - agreed granny Miyako's son Atsuno, the village merchant.

"Well situations look pretty stable right now but there is no way to be sure that it will always be nice" - Toru spoke with scepticism.

"Yeah, I heard those water bastards were seen near the port. I would like to think that they came here to trade but I think I am being too naive." - Atsuno told wearily.

"Yes, trade. Trade lives surely. Bunch of murderers." - spat the village blacksmith Tenshi.

"Now, now, no need to be so agitated, Tenshi. We know your hatred for them but not all of them are despicable. There are a few good ones too." - Hikaru, the resident woodworker placated the irate blacksmith.

"You met just one of them, and he was nice to you because you saved his life." - Tenshi argued.

"Maybe that was the reason but you can not argue that they are also humans like us. It is their profession that makes them unable to be kind." - argued back Hikaru.

"Well, that is true, I have never met any 'kind' shinobi in my life" - agreed Toru.

"I think their lives are pitiful actually. Can you believe they send children to fight their battles. I saw a corpse of a child coming from Otafuku city. Some people I think the child's clan members took the corpse away. I saw a glimpse of their faces I tell you, it was like they have no emotions at all". - said Atsuno with pity.

"They are cowards. Have you seen any shinobi fight? They fight from the shadows. They just know how to kill and destroy. Honour, kindness, compassion mean nothing to them." - hate was visible on Tenshi's face.

"Hey, Toru, do you think those shinobi from the port will come here?" - asked Atsuno fearfully.

"I do not think they will come here. Although our village is prosperous, It does not hold a candle to cities like Otafuku or Tanzaku much less Keishi." - answered Toru.

"Yes, that is true. But I think they came for another reason." - said Hikaru.

"What do you mean? What reason?" - asked Tenshi. Toru and Atsuno were also looking at Hikaru for explanation.

"Have you heard the Senju and the Uchiha are making a truce?" - Hikaru asked all of them.

"What? How is that possible? Are you sure? Were they not bitter enemies?" - asked a shocked Toru.

"Yes, I heard from my father that they were fighting each other for generations." - said an visibly shocked Tenshi.

"Yes, they were fighting each other for many years but the new clan heads of Senju and Uchiha agreed to make a pact to stop the fight between them." - clarified Hikaru.

"Are you sure about that? It can be a trap for all we know. Maybe they are staging this whole thing to kill each other at one fell swoop." - asked the sceptic Tenshi.

"Yes, I am sure of it. My cousin lives in Keishi. He saw the two clan heads visiting the daimyo." - Hikaru said with a firm tone.

"If this happens it will change how shinobis operate. They were all fighting for their clan only. But if big clans like Senju and Uchiha join a pact, then other clans are sure to follow and join them." - Toru was amazed at the situation.

"Yes, at least finally the wars can stop. Too many innocents have died in these needless wars", - said Hikaru with sadness.

"Maybe the next generation can live a life free of violence" - mused Atsuno.

"All we can do is hope for that to happen", - said Toru with a little hope in his eyes.

The four men then talked about other various topics unaware of the frozen statue of the child named Takeru. He hoped to learn about this wonderful new world he was living in so that he could properly create a future path for himself. Takeru always thought that he traveled to the past, he was sure of it until now. He made himself believe that his parents were regular people, so were the neighbours and the people he had seen. He blatantly tried to dismiss the fact there were something strange with his parents and a few people he met. Even after seeing the green glow coming from his mother's hands whenever she healed someone or the visible ripples forming in the air when his father practiced his sword techniques, he acted like he did not see those things. And whenever he saw those things, he desperately wanted to believe that those things did not happen.

His dreams of having a nice and easy life shattered into pieces in just a few minutes. He after hearing this conversation was sure that he was not on earth anymore. No matter how much he wanted to, he could not deny the fact that there were no shinobi clans named Senju or Uchiha in the Japan of his past life. He had heard the tales of shinobi his father told him often and if he combined the new knowledge he gained from this conversation with the knowledge of his past life. There comes only one conclusion. He was in the world of Naruto. The village they were living in was in some place in the Land of Fire. And he was beyond fucked.

The sudden bitch-slap he got from fate made him realise that his future was not so bright anymore. The 4 Great Shinobi Wars, various skirmishes and wanton slaughter throughout the whole Elemental Nations, Danzo Shimura, Orochimaru, Obito Uchiha, Pain, Akatsuki, Madara Uchiha, Kaguya Otsutsuki, Zetsu, and other members of the Otsutsuki clan. Takeru remembered all of them. He knew the world of Naruto was not as kid friendly as he thought in his previous life. The PG rated show severely downplayed the vicious, cruel, unforgiving and harsh life people of this world had to live. He shuddered at the thought of child soldiers, clan killers, reavers, bandits, rapists, monsters and the inhumane beasts in human skin that roam around this world. Even with his cheats and powers he was not sure if he could protect his family and survive in this world.

He did not want come home one day just to see his family and friends murdered in cold blood. He did not want to be a random assassination target of some random jounin. He did not want to be killed by some edgy snot-nosed wannabe teen ninja with anger management issues. Takeru was in denial and he knew it. But now he had no choice. The Uchiha and Senju were forming pact, which means the Hidden Leaf Village would form soon. This would make other shinobi clans desperate and they too would form other shinobi villages. And things would slowly spiral out of control because of Zetsu's machinations and Madara Uchiha's betrayal. Takeru's thoughts were spinning and he was becoming more and more anxious thinking about the future. Akane, Miyako and other women in kitchen came out with piping hot food when Toru, who was chatting with Atsuno, Tenshi and Hikaru, suddenly noticed that his son was standing still as a statue.

Toru shook Takeru and asked, - "Takeru, are you alright"? Takeru, who stood frozen thinking about his awful luck and predicament was suddenly shaken out of his musings and blurted out his first word in this life that aptly described his situation, "FUCK!".

The day ended with all the food and chatter. The invited guests saw themselves out after congratulating Takeru and giving him hugs, kisses, cuddles and gifts. Akane blamed Toru for always cursing at home letting little Takeru learn bad words. Toru, silently grumbling, took out a bottle of sake to spend the evening at leisure. Akane began reorganizing and cleaning the house.

Takeru, meanwhile was lying on the bed thinking about what he should do. To protect himself and his loved ones he had to become as powerful as he can. For this he needs proper guidance. Sure, he remembers some jutsus and training methods from his memories but they did not have much description and information on how to do it and Takeru would not do something half-assed. He had to gather information about how to start using chakra.

Takeru surly remembered the main twelve hand-seals used in various ninjutsus, the main three chakra control excercises - leaf concentration excercise, tree walking excercise and water walking excercise, he also remembered some jutsus mainly Shadow Clone Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu, Body Replacement Jutsu or Substitution Jutsu, Body Flicker Jutsu, Fireball Jutsu and Rasengan. This world had the miraculous energy, chakra and everyone had it. He knew that Toru and Akane could use chakra as he saw them use it often. He could ask his parents to teach him how to feel and mould chakra.

But before that he had to increase his training intensity. Takeru did not know the capacity of his inborn chakra reserve. So he formulated a plan, that no matter the size of his chakra reserve he would focus on mainly three things, speed, efficiency and accuracy. Due to his sensing ability, adaptive body, physical control, enhanced comprehension and impeccable muscle memory he could become a taijutsu beast. His sensing ability would make him an excellent scout and tracker. With his physical control he could learn and master shurikenjutsu and bukijutsu faster than any regular shinobi. If his chakra capacity turned out to be big enough he could use shadow clones to further heighten his learning curve, if not then he would focus on making his chakra control as precise as possible.

Medical ninjutsu was a must learn for him. He had a healing factor but it was not strong enough, and having medical knowledge could make his physical recovery even stronger. Plus in a tight pinch medical ninjutsu could become a valuable skill. Shape transformation and nature transformation of chakra was also a must learn. Afterall who would not want to spit fire from his mouth? And lastly nature chakra or senjutsu chakra, for this he would have to get a animal summoning contract. Takeru, thinking of the path he would likely have to take in order to survive and protect his family, slowly fell asleep.

From the next day Takeru upped his training intensity as much as he could. Being a mere one year old did not give him much freedom but he persevered and trained hard. He also made his training more efficient. He did mental calculations and problem solving at a constant rate while running around the house jumping, skipping, moving, stretching. He did all sorts of movements bringing his flexibility to new heights. He also continuously practiced to make his movements more and more fluid and swift. Slowly a distinct rhythm forming in his steps which he matched with every piece of musical beats he remembered. He did it so he can change his rhythm in an instant during a fight.

Takeru started doing laps in the house to build his endurance. His adaptive body doing its job slowly increased his durability, strength and endurance. He refined his emotional control so he became less flustered from either experiencing sudden spikes of emotions or sensing others emotions, making him more composed. Takeru did not strech his sensing ability like last time but kept practicing nonetheless. His control over this ability was growing stronger. Akane taught Takeru how to speak properly and started teaching him how to read and write. Takeru although learned at a much faster speed than his mother taught him, did not show it to her. He took it easy and went with the flow and from Akane's perspective learned only a bit faster than children of his age were supposed to.

Another year passed in Takeru's life and in this year he made much progress. Takeru could now control his body with increased fluidity and precision. His movements were not rigid or robotic anymore. His emotional control also increased with increasing social interactions he continued to have with people. His sensing ability was also progressing nicely. His physical strength, durability and endurance increased causing him to be more active. His mental faculties also increased and he had already mastered the new language.

Takeru finally was confident enough to slowly reveal his achievements to his parents. He showed his parents that he could read albeit with some difficulty and write simple things. He also openly conversed with them using simple sentences. Words flowed fluently from his mouth although he sometimes intentionally stuttered and made jumbled the words. Toru and Akane were proud of their son and often gave him little gifts and trinkets. They found that Takeru loved books and was very eager to read so Toru with help of the village merchant Atsuno gathered a few old books for Takeru to read. Takeru read and memorized every valuable information he could find. Be it geographical details or economic situations, any information he deemed valuable was pushed into his brain. Takeru understood that no knowledge was useless so he studied everything he found.

Takeru spent the little free time he made sitting at the shop front, engaging in conversations with different people. Akane saw that Takeru enjoyed watching the people coming and going and sometimes even talked with them. Toru saw it so he asked Hikaru to make a little wooden chair for Takeru to sit on. Takeru trained regularly but not at the cost of his own enjoyment. He wanted to spend his childhood happily. He had fun talking with people and the people loved him. Anyone who visited Yamamoto shop would see a cute little child sitting on a little chair. This activity was relaxing for Takeru as he could practice his social skills leisurely. Takeru's presence in the shop also increased the traffic of customers on the shop helping his parents.

Days passed and after a few months with his training was going strong and every book at his disposal was read and memorized. Takeru finally asked his mother about the green glow on her hand when she heals people.

"Oh, this? This is called chakra Takeru". - Akane replied.

"Can you teach me how to do it mom? It looks fun", - Takeru requested innocently.

"Well, I can teach you how to use chakra but I have to discuss it with your father first, okay?", - Akane said with a smile.

"Can dad also use chakra?", - Takeru asked again curiously.

"Yes, he can. But he can use it a bit differently than me", - Akane clarified.

"Different? How? Can he do the green thingy you do?", - asked Takeru.

"No, he can not. And it is not called green thingy. I will teach you about it but first you have to do your studies", - Akane promised.

"It's not fair mom! It's boring", - Takeru pouted.

"Well, I will only teach you about chakra if you complete your studies everyday", - Akane said with a firm tone.

"Hmpf, okay. I will do it", - Takeru accepted as he had nothing to lose.

"That's my good boy!", - Akane said patting Takeru's head lovingly.

Akane and Toru had a discussion that night about how to teach their son about chakra. They came at an agreement that Akane would teach Takeru the basic knowledge about chakra and it's manipulation first. Then she would teach him about how to mould and control the chakra. When Takeru would become 3 year old next winter Toru would start teaching his son basic physical conditioning and basic taijutsu katas and kenjutsu techniques for a solid foundation.

From the next day Takeru was taught about chakra and the basics of Its manipulation. He listened to his mother with rapt attention and focus not missing a single bit of her lectures and memorized every bit of it. Although Akane was not a master of the subject. She was proficient in the basics and some more. Takeru learned many things that was not shown in the manga or anime in his past life. And this new knowledge along with the knowledge he already had made him understand the true nature of chakra.

Chakra was inherent in all living beings in this world. Some could use access it, some could not. It differed from individual to individual. Everyone's chakra was different and unique. People with chakra sensing ability could use it to distinguish between people, easily tracking, locating and identifying their target. Though it was mainly dependent on the capability of the said sensor. Chakra was made of two main components, spiritual energy and physical energy. These two energies which were collectively known as 'stamina', when mixed with perfect balance created chakra. Physical energy could be increased with physical training, excercise and stimulants. Spiritual energy could be increased with meditation, mental excercises, studying and experiences. Thus increasing the quality of a person's chakra. The chakra reserve of an individual could also be increased with enough practice.

Chakra was the life energy of an individual. If an individual used up all the chakra in the body then that person would die. Chakra was produced within the chakra coils that mainly surround and connect to each chakra-producing organ, the energy circulated throughout the body in a network called the 'Chakra Pathway System', which was similar to the cardiovascular system but instead of blood, chakra ran within it throughout the body. Certain people could produce chakra naturally or could learn to generate chakra and release it outside their bodies through pressure points called tenketsu in order to perform various jutsus.

Tenketsus were extremely tiny nodes that lied along the chakra pathways, there were 361 tenketsu in a human body that controlled the flow of chakra like circuit breakers, and within those tenketsu were eight gates which controlled body function and strain levels. Chakra was released through the tenketsu points mainly hands and feet in order to perform jutsus. Chakra normally could not be seen with naked eyes and though highly concentrated chakra was visible few people had strong enough chakra to do that. Jutsus were performed mainly by manipulating chakra with different hand-seals or by simply controlling the chakra in the body.

Akane taught Takeru all the knowledge she had about chakra and Takeru in her absence tried to feel out chakra within him. But he could not feel it no matter how much he tried. When he told Akane his problem she told him that not many people can feel chakra inherently. Most people had to get someone to infuse some of their chakra in their chakra pathway to jumpstart their chakra coils. Akane and Toru discussed among themselves whether to teach Takeru chakra moulding. As most children only develop their chakra coils enough to start moulding chakra at age the age of 3 at minimum. They even asked granny Miyako about it. And she told the husband and wife that Takeru's body and chakra coils were developed enough for him to start moulding chakra.

So the next day Akane told Takeru to sit down correctly and close his eyes and concentrate and slowly infused her chakra in his body's chakra pathaways. All of a sudden Takeru could feel it, two distinct energies converging inside his navel region. He could sense a blue fire inside his mother's belly too. He was stunned. Akane thought Takeru was trying to feel the chakra in him. So, she left him to concentrate and went on to open the shop.

Takeru was sitting in a meditative pose trying to make sense of what just happened. He first brought his focus into his body. Takeru discovered that he could sense his spiritual and physical energies separately. He saw that some of his spiritual energy was slowly trickling inside his brain and fusing with it and his physical energy was doing the same with his whole body. But majority of his spiritual and physical energy were merging in the chakra coil in his belly and was creating a new form of energy which he sensed was like a blue fire.

Takeru thought about this new discovery. He came to a conclusion that the increment of his mental capabilities and the adaptive ability of his body was not something he gained through reincarnation. It was the two energies, spiritual and physical slowly enriching his mind and body from the time of his birth. He spread his senses and saw a similar blue fire in his mother's body. Takeru was inwardly shouting with joy. His sensing ability somehow evolved and now he could sense chakra too. This made him an all-round sensor as he could now sense objects, living beings, their chakra and their emotions disregarding any barriers or obstructions. This sense of his, this absolute sense made him hyper cognizant of his surroundings making sure that he would never be caught off-guard.

Takeru tried to increase the amount of spiritual and physical energies to be infused into his mind and body but failed to do so no matter how much he tried. He thought maybe the amount of spiritual and physical energies he could infuse in his body and mind was fixed. Still the amount slowly infusing into his mind and body ensured him that his mental and physical capabilities although much slower than before would automatically increase the more time passes.

Now Takeru brought all of his attention and focus to mould his chakra and he could do it with surprising ease. He then tried to control the flow of chakra around his chakra pathways. He thought he would fail to do so like before with his physical and spiritual energies but no, he could do it easily. He could control chakra inside his body. He tried different things like slowing down, fastening and even temporarily halt the flow of chakra in his body and he could do it all. This made him ecstatic as he knew that no one in this world, maybe barring the Sage of Six Paths, Hamura and Kaguya, could do what he could, atleast not at his age.

This revelation filled him with hope, he could almost see himself getting stronger, strong enough to survive, strong enough to protect those he loved, strong enough to overcome the upcoming challenges. He became determined. His will became strong. The fire of determination was dancing in his eyes. So what if he was not the chosen one, the child of the prophecy, the incarnation of Indra or Asura. He would become strong. He would not give up. He would survive. And like this the nearly 3 year old Takeru Yamamoto found his nindo in the world of shinobis.