[1st POV]
After crying for a few minutes on the front door, I returned to normal again. And by normal, I meant I was fine again.
I had too many things in front of me that I couldn't spare too much time crying like a little baby, although I would like to do just that for a couple of months at least.
I was fortunate enough to have the house all to myself. Initially, that was a weird feeling, letting a 12-year-old live all by himself after his parents died. But I realize that a village that lets younger kids go to war a few years back would not really give a flying fuck about a 12-year-old living alone after his parents passed.
When I thought about that, memories flooded back to me again about how all the inheritance went to me and how I was treated as an adult immediately after my parents passed.
Welp, good for me, I guess.
I left my shoes near the front door and walked inside. My first instinct was to run up the stairs and head to my room. Like I said, the house was a big and comfortable one that had two floors.
When I entered my room, I made a beeline for the large mirror placed on the wall. That was when I saw the all-too-familiar face I had.
I was a young kid, but this face looked more mature than my past life. I was one year younger, but I guess the difference in the world made me look more mature here.
I had very soft and elegant features, and my skin was on the paler side and very smooth. I could definitely pass as a girl if I dressed right. My hair was greenish-blue. I think it was cyan; I'm not sure, I was a boy. I never really cared about the names of different shades of colour.
My eyes were the same colour. I had an equally slender build, but I was not built like a twig either. I might be thin, but I had broad shoulders and a small waist; it was a telling sign that if I built muscle, I would have a perfect physique.
All in all, I only saw potential even in my appearance. That made sense, considering I put all my stats on potential with speed talent.
"Now onto my special ability. A golden finger as that form said," I said.
I made a hand sign for no particular reason other than looking cool. I closed my eyes and called forth the Susanoo inside of me.
I felt something click in my mind, and when I opened my eyes, I was encased in a greenish-blue chakra, the shape of a man.
Yes, it really was that simple.
"Wow," I mouthed while looking at my reflection in the mirror.
The Susanoo was big, at this point its torso came from my feet and was able to encase my whole body. It had no clear features yet, but it had glowing eyes and the proper shape of a torso with arms and a head.
I practised with the Susanoo for quite a while, but I felt no drain in my chakra to maintain the Susanoo. I could probably keep it on forever if I were not in combat. The only thing I felt was being physically weaker and more sluggish due to most of my chakra leaving my body in the form of the Susanoo.
The Susanoo was literally all my chakra-creating shape. But since it was an ability, no chakra was leaked, and I could absorb the same chakra into my body again to feel completely normal. Just like I had asked, there were virtually no drawbacks to using my Susanoo.
I could even control my output, making it so that I only used half of my total chakra to create the Susanoo. But in that case, the Susanoo became smaller and even more transparent.
I assumed that in case of combat my chakra would be used. But just having one on was no drain at all. The ability naturally came with master-level chakra control with absolutely no leaks.
After I was done experimenting by picking up my bed, flexing the Susanoo and such, I deactivated it. Again, it was just a matter of thought; the ability comes as second nature.
"Okay, now time to explore my other golden finger," I said to myself.
But easier said than done. I put all my stats on potential, which I assumed would be my talent and upper limit. That particular stat was completely full after I put every point on it.
That should make me at least as talented as the most talented shinobi, right? I should, in theory, be comparable to the likes of Minato, Kakashi and Itachi. They were all raw talents in their youth.
I dived into my mind soon after and realised that I was indeed talented since birth. I was always right behind Sasuke in every ninja test and always second after Sakura in the academic test.
But my genius had prompted me to be lazy instead of being productive. I never knew hard work in this life. If I had actually worked, I could've easily surpassed everyone in the academy. I was not born naturally motivated like other geniuses from the show.
"But that changes today," I said and looked at my hands.
With genius talent, ninja parents, and constantly attending the Ninja Academy, I was already armed with quite a few techniques myself. But I still did not have the change in chakra nature or proper ninjutsu yet.
What I had was the Clone Jutsu, Substitution Jutsu, Rope Escape Jutsu, Transformation Jutsu and finally the Body Flicker Jutsu.
The Body Flicker Jutsu was something my parents taught me early on when they realised I had great reflex and reaction speed. It was also something I could use to escape when faced with danger, so it was the only Jutsu I could convince them to teach me.
With my talent, I always begged them to teach me ninjutsu, but they just wouldn't allow it. Something about stopping me from growing so much early and enjoying my childhood for a while. After all, you can get stronger all you want for the rest of your life, but you can never relive your childhood.
Honestly, I hate and love them for that. It was dumb to stunt my development just because of that, but at the same time, perhaps they wanted me to have the life they didn't have, considering they grew up in wars.
"I can work with these," I said with a smile. I also had some advanced training I wanted to try, like walking on walls or walking on water. Due to my knowledge of the plot, I could practice those early on before I even had a jonin sensei.
And training should not be limited to chakra training either. My potential should include all talents, meaning I could also train physically. I recalled Taijutsu masters like Rock Lee and Might Guy; their training was quite straightforward, and they still saw improvements.
I have one more week before the final exams arrive. Let's see how much I can improve by then.
I want to do better than Sasuke and Sakura in their respective fields. I wanted to graduate as the number one genin of Konoha.
That should be my first goal.
I did not have a real motivation as to why I would get strong yet, but when I die, I do not want to die without any regrets or something to miss again.
I so wanted to commit to something this time. And with the opportunity that was given to me, it should be obvious where my commitment should lie.
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[1st POV]
You would think that a child so young, who decided to train by himself just for the sake of it, without any proper guidance or motivation, would not go far.
You would be right.
But I wasn't one of those, at least not anymore. And I realised this halfway through my training as well.
I headed to the basement of the house to train. My parents actually had a training ground there; this was where they kept their skills sharp and also trained me a couple of times. Since my parents were ninja, the basement had everything I would need to train myself.
Training weights, kunai, shuriken, blades, metal wires, and even those weights that one could wear as a vest or on their legs, like the ones Rock Lee had. My father was a jonin, and my mother a chunin, so they had everything I might need without having to go shopping.
There was everything I could ever need and more. It got to the point where I wondered if my fortunate situation was included in my potential stats.
And when I began training there in every way that I know from both lives' knowledge, I realised I could push myself really hard.
The memories of my death, where I was so utterly helpless in the face of those criminals, I never wanted to feel such helplessness again. And the memory of my parents' death only made me strive to be stronger than them.
Death was not a rarity in this world. If I wanted to live here, I would need to be strong. My knowledge about the future and the upcoming threats only worked as a curse and blessing to make me push harder.
And after I trained until my body collapsed, I paused. The absolute silence that followed each laboured breath was bothering me, and in those moments, I realised that I did not have anything else in this world to care about than training.
So after a while, the decision to stop training turned into a short break before I continued again.
What else was I going to do? Nothing, so better continue training.
Every time I thought I pushed myself to the limit, my body revealed to me that I could push myself even further. My body was like a sponge, a cup that could hold nigh infinite things and it was greedily absorbing every bit of training I put it through.
"197, 198, 199...." My voice was the only sound as I continued pushing myself off the ground. The floor beneath me had a puddle of sweat.
"200," I said and pushed myself one final time before I collapsed again with a deep thud.
I was wearing a training vest that was filled with chakra-infused materials to make it extremely heavy. The one I was wearing weighed 50 kilograms.
My laboured breath spread across the training room. The deep echoes were like a whisper that constantly reminded me that I was alone.
I looked at the clock on the wall, and it was already night. In total, I had spent nearly five hours training my body. Push-ups, pull-ups, squats etc. Physical training was easy enough, and I used the training vest to make the actions more challenging.
But at that point, I decided to stop physical training and focus on other things.
I rested for ten minutes on the ground before standing up. I did not get rid of the vest, deciding to continue wearing it to continue training my body.
You need to be proficient in Substitution Jutsu, Clone Jutsu and Transformation Jutsu to pass the academy. So I decided to practice them.
"The first jutsu I ever learned..." I said and made a single hand sign. The E-rank jutsu did not require multiple hand signs.
"Transformation Jutsu," I said.
My chakra came alive, weaving a pattern to perform said jutsu. They followed my will and my intent as I shaped the chakra around me. I had a vivid picture in my mind while doing so.
A puff of smoke exploded out, hiding my body for a moment before that smoke came back to me to form layers on my body and change my appearance.
I moved to look at myself in the mirror on the wall. Like any training room, the place had a big mirror on the wall where you could observe your forms and techniques.
When I saw myself in the mirror, I did not see my usual self, but Naruto.
I did not remember practising this jutsu much but I would say I was pretty good at it. But as I looked into the mirror, I did notice some improvements I could have made.
The transformation was solid, but it was missing details, like the pockets in the clothes and the way the hair was missing strands when looked closely. If I moved too much, the transformation became a little shaky, too.
It would probably be enough to pass the final test, but it was not enough to ace it.
Luckily, the jutsu barely required much chakra to perform, so I could practice it multiple times to perfect the transformation.
"Let's do this," I said while cancelling the transformation in a puff of smoke. I made the same hand signs again.
"Transformation Jutsu!" I said and transformed myself once more.
I practised the jutsu for an hour or so. In total, I might have done around 100 transformation jutsu back to back. Although the jutsu did not require much chakra, I felt a drain in my chakra reserves after doing it that much.
But after the 100th transformation, I looked at myself in the mirror again and saw a perfected transformation.
Even if I were an extreme critic, I had nothing to point out. There was literally no flaw in my transformation.
I was a bit shocked at my own progress if I was being honest. But that was only my first clue at the endless potential I had inside of me.
I would redefine the very meaning of talent.
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