November
I watched over Naruto's shoulder as he practiced his hiragana, a leaf twirling on my forehead and one on each palm. I had told him that I wouldn't teach him how to access his chakra until he could read basic hiragana, but aside from a little whining this seemed to spur him on. With a clear goal in mind, a determined Naruto was a focused Naruto, and he wouldn't stop until he could read flawlessly.
He still complained a bunch, but I could tell it was mostly for show. Naruto had never had anybody push him to learn, and I could tell he was enjoying it. "Good job, soon you will be trying out some of the chakra exercises I know." I commented as I sent the leaves on my body spinning. Naruto perked up.
"Really?" His lips stretched into a grin as he dropped the pencil in his hand onto the table and left his work to focus on me.
"Yup. You'll still need to practice reading and writing, but we can move on to some of the more informational books in the civilian library." Naruto's face fell in disappointment as he thought over what I had said.
"Not today." he said dejectedly, biting his lip. "The Senior Librarian is in the Library on Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and doesn't allow me in. Besides, I can't take any books out." Just the fact that he knew the schedules of the librarians so well proved that he did care about books, even if just as something that was being kept from him.
"I think we can get you a library card." I had found about the rules by going to a different library. You could get a library card with ID, or if you didn't have ID, with a bill with your home address on it.
***
We went to the Hokage tower. Naruto was allowed in, and me with him. A civilian secretary recognized Naruto. She was very old, and the corners of her eyes crumpled up when she smiled. "Are you here to see Sandaime-sama? He is busy today.
"No," Naruto explained "but I need some help with paperwork."
"Mhmm?" she replied.
"Naruto needs proof of address to get a library card, but one of the librarians is being difficult." Her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Do you have a lease agreement? Maybe something signed by Lord Third, maybe?" I asked.
"Naruto, introduce me to your friend." The bespectacled secretary said interestedly.
"This is Akitsu." Naruto replied, "He lives in my neighbourhood."
"Pleased to meet you." She said, and I responded to her with a small bow. We made small talk as she went through a filing cabinet. "It's nice of you to help Naruto." She said with a small smile on her face.
"Well, Naruto plans to be Hokage when he grows up, and he'll need to know a lot to make that happen." Her eyes crinkled with pleasure.
"Hachisuka Sukami." she introduced herself. I bowed relatively low to her.
"Akitsu." I replied. She took out a file with some papers in it.
"Naruto-kun, Akitsu-kun, I'm about to go on lunch. May I walk with you?" We nodded happily. What happened next will remain in my heart for years. We walked to the library. Ms. Hachisuka walked up to the front desk and rang the small bell there authoritatively. A young librarian who had previously been rebuked for helping us saw us, but the senior librarian walked waspishly out of the back room. The tension in the room ratcheted up as Ms. Hachisuka and the senior librarians' eyes met. Several patrons noticed and failed to disguise their interest. "Please," Ms. Hachisuka said in a clear ringing voice "issue this child a library card."
"May I have some ID?"
"Right away!" Ms. Hachisuka replied, playing to the growing audience. "Let me get his Shinobi ID card. Oops. How about his Travel papers? Oops. He doesn't have those." During this time Ms. Hachisuka had palmed the librarian's yardstick forgotten on the countertop. "He doesn't have those, because he's six!" the secretary yelled, smashing the ruler down flatly on the desk. The entire room jumped, and the junior librarian dropped her mug of tea to the ground, smashing it. Now there were fifty people watching.
"Please find here enclosed a bill with his name and address on it." Ms. Hachisuka proffered the bill to the head librarian, whose eyes widened when she got to the end of the document with Sarutobi's signature. The librarian opened her mouth to talk, but Hachisuka silenced her with s zip-it gesture. "Please issue him a card, now." Ms. Hachisuka said in steely command. The head librarian leapt to comply. "The other child also" Ms. Hachisuka imperiously commanded, and the assistant librarian leapt to comply, helping me with the same paperwork. When the junior librarian asked my address Ms. Hachisuka calmly shut her down.
"Don't subject the child to an impertinent quiz, dear, just give him the card." The junior looked to the senior librarian, who acquiesced with a nod. A few minutes later our audience drifted away as we received our shiny new cards. As we left, I saw Ms. Hachisuka issue a quick hand sign to the head librarian which I interpreted to mean 'Silence'. Ten minutes later, we were out the door.
Naruto said in an awed voice "Hachisuka O-basan, you're my new hero." She pinked a little, and tousled his hair, sending us on our way.
***
We continued our morning exercises, and Naruto grew more limber, and strong. Helping out the working girls in our building got us some goodwill, and they were willing to help us when I asked if they could show us how to do make up. With different clothes and his whiskers disguised we were able to buy food at normal prices though we had to travel to do so.
We took a trip to the library. For Naruto we got a book about the Warring clans' era, the history of the Five Shinobi Villages, some preparatory math, and a book about amphibians. I got a slightly higher-level math textbook, a slightly more advanced history textbook, and a book about the human body.
I couldn't help getting angry about this whole Hyūga thing. Maybe 400 clan members with the Byakugan, and maybe 50-100 of them fight? Those who weren't main house did... what? Sweep the floors? Bookkeeping and Laundry? It was idiotic. There were maybe 300 walking talking MRI machines. I understand that the Mystic Palm Technique was energy intensive, and you could make an argument that that energy needed to be kept ready in case Konohagakure ninja's lives were in peril, but really. A Hyūga could be both a doctor and frikkin radiologist. Better even. They could figure out what was wrong with a patient without opening them up, and deaths to infection were soooo a thing. Imagine a Hyūga spending 5 minutes walking through the obstetrics ward sorting out problems before they occurred. An MRI machine in my old-world cost millions of dollars. But, no, the high-class Hyūga had their relatives sweeping the tatami. If they had been around to help, maybe my mother wouldn't have died. I wanted to do better.
I bought some locks from a second-hand store and tried to teach myself to pick them. It was hard, and I put it away after a while, promising to come back to it later.
***
Naruto sat on a pillow concentrating deeply, his tiny face scrunched up in focus. A brick sat quivering on his forehead, as if about to pop off. It had taken him around two months to find his chakra, but when he did, he had a bucket full of it. I was up to five leaves, but when Naruto tried that, the leaves would explode. Instead, I had created what I called the Brick Sticking exercise. He looked a bit ridiculous, sitting lotus position with an entire brick sat on his forehead, but if that was what it took to improve his chakra control then so be it. We could always work our way down.
I knew that ninja sent chakra through their bodies to strengthen their muscles. I knew that the Inuzuka clan could enhance their noses with chakra to facilitate tracking, but I didn't know whether or not normal ninja could do that on a smaller level. I had tried out the muscle enhancement to lift up a big bucket full of water a couple days ago, and it was a semi success. I started, crouched, struggling to lift the bucket. I then added chakra to my arms and legs. It came out in a burst instead of smoothly. I smashed the bucket into the ceiling, denting it and showering us with water. Naruto gaped, pointing at me before we fell to the ground struggling with laughter. It was no Tsunade punching, but it was the first step that would come in useful, I'm sure. My arms were sore for days, and I might have pulled something.
Now it was time to try enhancing other senses. I sat down in lotus position on the blue-grey carpet of the living room, and carefully gathered chakra to my nose. I couldn't go quickly and risk my face blowing up. I let my chakra slowly saturate my nostrils and took a deep breath. Immediately I was assaulted with a barrage of smells; the leftover fish in the refrigerator, the laundry detergent on Naruto and my clothing, the dusty scent of the carpet beneath me. I tried to concentrate on the smells outside of our apartment, the people, food, and plants, but it grew too muddled and blurry to take information from.
Well, that was definitely labelled a success. Next, I moved on to my eyes. I had known about my Hyūga heritage for a couple of years now, but life had been too busy to mess around with my eyes too much. Besides, I had been paranoid about having the Hyūga come down on me as soon as I activated them. Now would be the time to finally test them out. I let my chakra trickle into my eyes and focused on the threadbare curtains of our home.
Suddenly as if the world had been plunged into some sort of transparent plane of existence, where I could see everything in my vicinity. I could see the refrigerator behind me, but somehow the food inside at the same time. Walls were merely suggestions, and I could see into the lives of our neighbours, Tenshi from suite 6A was washing dishes while her cat weaved between her legs, Omaki from suite 6C was sleeping off a hangover with the lights off, the street outside was bustling with people, and I never knew there could be that many pests in one house! I turned my head quickly, and became dizzy, and fell to the carpet, the room spinning under me. It looked like it was time to start on those locks again.
***
Food was tough. Despite pooling our resources, Naruto would get hungry. The kid would be hungry an hour and a half after dinner. If given the chance, he would put away 5000 calories a day away. Of course, he had trouble learning when he was hungry. We fished in the Naka River. We hunted squirrels with slings. I thought about buying some bags of dog food for cheap calories, but that shit would mess him up for life. It was never quite enough.
We were by the banks of the river one day and had caught a small fish to cook with supper. While cleaning up our catch, Naruto stabbed his thumb with the fishing hook. We wrapped it at home with gauze and tape. While we sat around the flickering fire Naruto told me a story about the last time he had shared a fish with someone. He told me the story of how he had first met Sarutobi Hiruzen in the woods when he was young, and Naruto had been grilling fish and boiling mushroom soup over a campfire. Sarutobi had come across him, and he looked hungry, so Naruto had offered him some of his fish. Sarutobi had shared great stories about the wide world with Naruto, and about the past Hokage. Naruto gave him some of the soup before he left, and called him Jiji. Naruto didn't see him for a month, because Sarutobi got sick, but ever since then Sarutobi has shared a meal with Naruto at least once a month.
The story made me a little sad to be honest. What kind of adult would see a child, hungry for food, but more hungry for affection, and give one at the expense of the other. Sarutobi was a shinobi. He could have caught his own fish, but instead he took Naruto's. I didn't talk to Naruto about it though. I didn't want to upset him.
***
We woke up well rested, and I got up to make breakfast. Naruto was up shortly after, but when I went to change the dressing on his wound, it was healed. Not even a red mark. "Naruto," I began, "That is really weird."
"What do you mean?" he replied.
"Naruto." I explained, gesticulating wildly. "If I got a cut like that, it would take a week to heal, and maybe a year for the scar to be gone."
"Huh." Naruto said absently.
"Maybe your family has a blood limit?"
"What family?" Naruto lashed out angrily, the reminder of his orphan status bringing his mood down. I quirked my brow, it turned out the little sunshine child had some emo in him after all.
"I get that you're angry, but you have or had a mother and a father. You didn't pop out of a frikkin peach." Naruto snorted out a laugh at that. Even he got the reference. "Weird abilities get nurtured from generation to generation, getting more powerful. Stabby bone people, weird eye people like the police, bug control. A Kekkei Genkai could literally be anything. If you have one, then your family must have had a long history. If we don't know about them in Konoha, maybe they're from far away. I bet your eating thing is a part of it." Naruto was visibly excited.
"It could be Kanpekina saisei – Perfect Regeneration!" He ran around making garbage jutsu hand seals.
"No, I have a better name" I began; "Don'yokuna hitode no chikara - Voracious Starfish Power!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, Dragon ball style. Naruto began chasing me around the tiny apartment, flogging me with the dishtowel in his hand. After we calmed down, we agreed to keep researching who might have been his family.
***
We spent like one quarter of our time at the library. I got a small chalkboard so we could go over the math. We went through a lot of chalk, but it was cheap. Naruto got bored easily, but he got better. We did drills. "Akitsu," he whined. "I know this stuff already.
"Naruto, knowing things isn't good enough, you have to know them fast. Ninja have to make crucial decisions in less than a second." I wrote down ten simple math equations with the board facing away from him. "Ten questions. If you get eight of them right, we're done. If you take too long, I throw this sponge at you." It was hilarious. He got better slowly.
***
While we were reading at the library, I noticed that the Village hidden in the Whirlpools was totally absent in the book we were reading. That was creepy as all hell. 'Let's erase our mistakes, and pretend they never happened.' WTF dude, how could people learn from history with it being erased all the time. That was some next level disappearing commissar shit. I spend time searching the used bookstores looking for old copies. Nothing.
One morning delivering ramen to an old guy in a wheelchair, I noticed under a potted plant, "History of the Shinobi world, Fourth edition Grade 1." Holy crap! I wanted that. They were on sixth edition now. I looked with widened eyes at the old man in the wheelchair, one of his pant legs flopping empty. He noticed my gaze.
"Shinobi-san!" I avoided his eyes, bowing.
"I do missions behind a desk now. I'm no Shinobi." he replied, his voice rough.
"Nevertheless, you have fought for the leaf, and been injured on our behalf. Thank you!" I bowed lower. He waved me off, scoffing.
"I'm Nanba Hotaka." The old man said, looking at me approvingly.
"And I am Akitsu." I replied.
"Are you one of those kids that wants to be a Shinobi?" He gave me a once over with a critical eye.
"Yes, Nanba-san. My brother and I hope very much to go to the academy next year. Could we borrow your book? We have been studying the one in the library, but we can only take it out of the library for a week. Also…" I let worry creep into my voice "I have heard rumors that they expect less out of graduates since the war ended. My brother and I wish to be excellent shinobi, and we have heard that they do not teach as much. I do not want to go out of the village unprepared." I let my face reflect my worry. He thought for a while, then pulled the book from under the pot.
"You can borrow this. If you come back, I may quiz you on what you have learned. I also might let you borrow the next one if you do well enough. I haven't opened it in ten years anyway. Just remember kid, if you are not completely dedicated to this life, back out now. Not everyone wants to retire like me, or not at all."
"Thank you, Nanba-san." I replied. "We will not fail you."
The book was a gold mine. It made the newer textbook look like Dick and Jane. It contained harder math problems and ethical problems. It contained gory plates of the aftermath of botched jutsu. It contained descriptions of the elemental nations, and Kekkei genkai in each nation. It told the history of the First and Second Shinobi Wars. It contained information on the lands of Waterfalls, Snow, and Whirlpool. It contained information on basic chakra enhancement. It contained information about Konoha's alliance with Whirlpool and their famous art of sealing. It mentioned the marriage of Hashirama Senju and Mito Uzumaki as an example of the intermarriage between the clans.
"Uzumaki!" Naruto said. "That's my name!" he yelled sharply. I did not roll my eyes.
"Maybe she is your great aunt or cousin or something. Maybe she is your second cousin twice removed. We should definitely learn more. But keep it a secret. Maybe you have enemies that are looking for you." Naruto nodded his head sagely. It mentioned the Uzumaki longevity and large chakra reserves, and a propensity for fuinjutsu. Naruto fell asleep that night, happy to feel connected to something.