Two-year-old Bali sat in his wooden crib, staring at the ceiling. Again.
"This is so boring," he thought. "All I do is eat, sleep, and crawl around."
His body was stronger now but still tiny. Walking was getting easier but he was still stuck being treated like a normal toddler.
"I need something to do. Some way to get stronger."
That's when he remembered his previous life. All those health classes he took while fighting cancer.
"The breathing techniques," Bali realized. "I spent months learning those."
He looked around the room. His mother Hitomi was folding clothes. His father was at clan meetings.
"Perfect. No one's watching closely."
Bali climbed out of his crib quietly. He sat cross-legged on the floor like he remembered from yoga class.
"Okay, let's try the basic one first."
He closed his eyes and straightened his tiny spine. His chubby hands formed the chin mudra - thumb touching index finger.
"Breathe in through left nostril," he thought, covering his right nostril with his thumb.
The air felt different in this body. Thicker somehow.
He filled his belly first, then chest, then up to his collarbone. Just like his old instructor taught him.
"Now hold it. One, two, three, four..."
He tried to visualize energy spreading through his body like the ancient texts described.
Nothing happened.
"Exhale through right nostril now."
He switched his hand position and breathed out slowly.
Still nothing.
"Maybe I need to try harder," Bali decided.
"Bali-kun, what are you doing on the floor?" Hitomi asked, looking over.
"Playing!" he said in his toddler voice.
She smiled. "Such a good boy. So quiet and focused."
After she left, Bali continued practicing. Day after day, he repeated the same pattern.
Inhale left. Hold. Exhale right. Inhale right. Hold. Exhale left.
The ancient ratio was supposed to be 1:4:2. One count inhale, four counts hold, two counts exhale.
"This isn't working," Bali thought after a week. "But the books said it takes time."
He remembered reading about the benefits. Clearing energy channels. Removing disease. Extending lifespan.
"In my old life, I was dying. Maybe this body is different."
At sunrise, Bali tried the solar visualization technique.
He crawled to the window facing east and sat in his small meditation pose.
"Visualize the sun as a golden orb," he remembered.
The real sun was just coming up over the trees. Bali stared at it briefly, then closed his eyes.
"Bring that sunlight into my heart."
He imagined a golden fire in his chest. Warm and bright.
"Expand through the whole body."
The visualization felt clearer than the breathing exercises. Almost real.
His grandfather walked in during one of these sessions.
"Bali? What are you doing by the window so early?"
"Watching sun, Grandpa!"
Raigen knelt beside him. "You like the sunrise?"
"Pretty! Warm!"
Raigen studied his grandson's face. There was something different about the boy's expression. More focused than a normal two-year-old.
"This child has an unusual presence," Raigen thought.
At night, Bali practiced the lunar technique.
The moon was visible through his bedroom window. He sat facing it in the dark.
"Gaze at the moon and visualize cool nectar dripping down."
This felt even more natural than the sun meditation.
Bali imagined silver liquid flowing from the moon into his forehead, then spreading through his body.
His breathing became calm and cool without trying.
"Maybe this one is working," he thought.
His grandfather often slept on a futon next to Bali's crib. One night, Raigen woke up feeling strange.
The room was unusually cold. Not winter cold - something else.
He looked over at Bali. The toddler was sitting upright in his crib, perfectly still, facing the window.
"Bali?" Raigen whispered.
The boy didn't respond. His breathing was so quiet it was almost undetectable.
"What is he doing?"
Word spread around the compound about Bali's odd behavior.
"That child sits still for hours," one clan member told another.
"He makes weird hand shapes with his fingers."
"Sometimes he breathes in patterns. In and out, in and out."
Most people laughed about it.
"Babies do strange things. He'll grow out of it."
"Maybe he's copying something he saw adults do."
But Raigen didn't laugh. He watched his grandson carefully during these sessions.
The changes were subtle but real.
During the day, when Bali did his sunrise meditation, the air around him felt warmer.
Not hot like fever. More like standing near a fireplace.
Raigen tested it by sitting close to the boy during meditation. The warmth was definitely there.
"How is a two-year-old generating heat?"
At night, the opposite happened. The temperature around Bali dropped several degrees.
Sometimes Raigen would wake up shivering, even under thick blankets.
"This isn't normal baby behavior," Raigen realized.
Three months into the practice, something new happened.
Raigen was reading scrolls when he suddenly felt like he was alone in the room.
But Bali was sitting right there on the floor, doing his breathing exercises.
"Strange. I can see him but... it's like his presence disappeared."
Raigen activated his Sharingan to get a better look.
Bali's chakra signature was almost invisible. Like a faint shadow.
"How is he suppressing his chakra? He's barely two years old!"
When Bali finished the session, his presence returned to normal. Bright and energetic like any toddler.
"Grandpa, play!" Bali said, crawling over with a wooden toy.
Raigen picked him up, still confused.
"This child is developing abilities I don't understand," he thought.
The changes became more noticeable over time.
During clan meetings, other members started commenting.
"Raigen-san, your grandson seems very... mature for his age."
"He watches everything so carefully."
"Sometimes I forget he's in the room. Very quiet presence."
Raigen nodded but didn't explain what he'd observed.
Meanwhile, Bali continued his daily practice routine.
Sunrise solar meditation. Breathing exercises throughout the day. Lunar meditation at night.
"I still don't feel any supernatural power," Bali thought. "But my body is definitely changing."
He felt stronger. More balanced. His mind was clearer than before.
"Maybe these techniques work differently in a ninja world."
One evening, Raigen decided to test something.
He sat beside Bali during the lunar meditation. This time, he tried to sense what his grandson was actually doing.
"Focus on the boy's chakra flow," Raigen told himself.
What he felt surprised him completely.
Bali wasn't just sitting quietly. His chakra was moving in precise patterns through his body.
Pathways that even adult ninja struggled to control were active in this toddler.
"Impossible. How does he know these circulation methods?"
The energy moved from his forehead down to his chest, then through his arms and legs in perfect balance.
"This is advanced chakra manipulation. Where did he learn this?"
After the meditation, Raigen spoke to Bali directly.
"Bali, can you tell Grandpa what you do when you sit by the window?"
"Breathing," Bali replied simply.
"Just breathing?"
"Special breathing. Makes me feel good."
"Who taught you special breathing?"
Bali paused. He couldn't exactly explain about his previous life and ancient yoga texts.
"Dream teacher," he said finally.
Raigen's eyes widened. "You learn from dreams?"
"Yes! Teacher shows me how to breathe and sit."
"What else does dream teacher show you?"
Bali thought carefully. "How to make warm and cold. How to be quiet like shadow."
That night, Raigen had another prophetic vision.
But this time it was different. Instead of the future, he saw glimpses of ancient knowledge.
Breathing techniques that predated ninja training. Energy manipulation methods from forgotten civilizations.
When he woke up, the pieces started connecting.
"My grandson isn't just naturally gifted," Raigen realized. "He's accessing knowledge from somewhere else. Something beyond our current understanding."
He looked at sleeping Bali. Even in sleep, the boy's energy felt different. Deeper. More controlled.
"Whatever he's learning in these dreams, it's real. And it's making him stronger."
By his second birthday, Bali had developed a routine that impressed even experienced ninja.
Morning solar meditation that generated visible heat waves around his body.
Breathing exercises that made his presence completely undetectable to most clan members.
Evening lunar meditation that dropped room temperature by ten degrees.
"The boy is advancing faster than academy students twice his age," Raigen noted in his private journal.
During clan gatherings, Bali would sit quietly in the corner, practicing his techniques.
Most adults ignored him, thinking he was just a well-behaved child.
But the few with strong sensory abilities noticed something unusual.
"That kid gives me chills sometimes," one Jonin whispered to another.
"Yeah. Like he's there but not there."
"Raigen-san must be teaching him early. Smart move."
Raigen never corrected these assumptions. Let them think he was training his grandson.
The truth was more complicated.
Bali was teaching himself using knowledge that shouldn't exist in their world.
"Dream teacher indeed," Raigen murmured, watching his grandson practice the sunrise meditation.
The golden light around Bali's small form was getting brighter each day.
"Whatever this child becomes, it will be beyond anything our clan has seen before."
As if sensing his grandfather's thoughts, Bali opened his eyes and smiled.
"Grandpa, want to learn special breathing too?"
Raigen chuckled. "Maybe when you're older, you can teach me."
"Okay! Dream teacher says practice makes perfect."
"What else does dream teacher say?"
Bali's expression became serious for a moment. Very serious for a two-year-old.
"Says big changes coming. Need to be ready."
A chill ran down Raigen's spine. Not from cold, but from recognition.
His prophetic dreams had been saying the same thing.
That evening, as Bali performed his lunar meditation, Raigen made a decision.
"I'll support whatever this child is becoming," he decided. "Even if I don't fully understand it."
The room grew cold as Bali entered his deepest meditative state.
His small form seemed to merge with the moonlight streaming through the window.
For a moment, Raigen couldn't tell where his grandson ended and the night began.
"Dream teacher," Raigen whispered. "Whoever you are, guide this child well."
Outside, clouds drifted past the moon, casting shifting shadows across the Uchiha compound.
Inside, a two-year-old continued learning techniques that would one day reshape their world