After returning home, Higashino Makoto first went to the bathroom to wash up. He then sat properly at the dining table, ready to eat.
The table was already set with food.
Sitting across the table was his biological mother in this world—a young woman with a pretty face and long brown hair.
Her name was Higashino Megumi. She belonged to the kind of commoner without a surname: before marriage she was simply called Megumi, and after marriage she followed her husband's surname and became Higashino.
Higashino Makoto's father in this life was named Higashino Jirō. He was a Konohagakure chūnin with an ordinary appearance but a tall build and decent strength. However, he was not at home at the moment, having been away on village missions for quite some time.
Yes—Higashino Makoto was not an orphan in the Naruto world. Fortunately, he had both parents alive and well, without receiving any heaven-defying buff.
Moreover, his appearance now completely took after his mother. At not even four years old, it was already clear that mother and son shared five or six parts of resemblance in their facial features. This made Higashino Makoto believe that as long as he did not grow up badly, he would probably become a handsome guy in the future.
Of course, it was also possible that he might grow into a rather delicate-looking boy.
That was unlikely, though—because he was quite certain that no one in his family had the bloodline of the Yuki Clan of the Land of Water.
When Higashino Megumi gave birth, she was only twenty years old. Now she was twenty-three, and Higashino Jirō was about the same age. The two of them had even been classmates.
They were very young—young enough that Higashino Makoto's mental age was more than ten years older than theirs.
But now, he still had to call them father and mother.
He felt no embarrassment about this. He had not transmigrated and taken over someone else's son's body; rather, he had been directly reborn in Higashino Megumi's womb. The couple were genuinely the biological parents who gave birth to and raised him in this life.
Calling them father and mother was perfectly reasonable. In his previous life, Leon had not been the kind of cold-hearted or overly sentimental person either.
While eating, Higashino Megumi asked curiously, "Makoto, if I remember correctly, you've been training this early every day since you were three, right? Is it hard?"
"Not hard, Mom. On the contrary, I feel very happy. I like that feeling of becoming stronger."
"Why do you want to become stronger so much?"
"This is Konohagakure. I'm going to be a ninja in the future—do I need a reason to want to become stronger?"
"You do."
"...Do I?" He paused, then said, "All right. I hope to become a powerful ninja in the future, so I can protect you and Father."
Facing his biological mother, Higashino Makoto did not put on the same political correctness he used outside—saying things like protecting the village or protecting his companions.
"Makoto, thank you." Higashino Megumi smiled, reached out, and rubbed his head, saying with some happiness, "But you've got it backwards. It should be your father and I who protect you."
"Compared to that, what makes me even happier is that the way you're talking big finally looks like a child your age, you know. All this time, you've been a bit too precocious.
"You're not even four years old yet. How should I put it— it really makes me feel like I have no sense of accomplishment as a mother. I remember that you've never even wet the bed."
"When you were still a baby, you could actually remind me to take you to the toilet just by making noises, leaving me without even a chance to change diapers. That's completely different from what everyone says—being a mother didn't feel hard at all."
Faced with his mother's long string of complaints, Higashino Makoto felt somewhat helpless and could only tease back lightly. "Oh, then it seems I really disappointed you by not wetting the bed, Mrs. Higashino."
Bang!
Higashino Megumi punched her son on the head. "Call me Mom. Where did you learn to address me like that?"
"Okay, Mrs. Higashino. I learned it from Uncle Kuroda downstairs."
Bang!
"I told you to call me Mom!"
"No problem, Mrs. Higashino."
Bang!
...
After breakfast, Higashino Megumi returned to the bedroom to change clothes and hurriedly prepared to go out.
Before leaving, she reminded him, "Makoto, Mom is going to work. Take good care of yourself. If anything happens, come find me at the hospital."
"Okay, I know, Mom."
Like her husband Higashino Jirō, Higashino Megumi was also a ninja—and in terms of professional rank, she was even half a level higher than her husband. She was a tokubetsu jōnin skilled in medical ninjutsu, currently working at the Konoha Hospital.
Back then, moved by the deaths of her younger brother Nawaki and many companions, Tsunade proposed that the village should strengthen the training of medical ninja and have them join ninja squads, in order to reduce the mortality rate during wars or missions.
Although this policy had not yet been implemented and her boyfriend Katō Dan had also died along with it, after the war ended, Konohagakure still formally put her proposal into practice.
Higashino Megumi was one of the beneficiaries of this policy.
Her combat talent as a ninja was limited, but she showed considerable aptitude in medical ninjutsu.
Medical ninjutsu requires extremely high chakra control, and women have a natural advantage in this regard.
After giving birth to Higashino Makoto, Higashino Megumi recuperated for more than two years. On the one hand, she took care of her son; on the other, she was also studying and improving herself.
After Higashino Makoto indicated that he could take care of himself, she returned to work at the hospital, because medical ninja are relatively special—the learning difficulty is high, and no matter how much they are trained, there are never enough personnel.
Fortunately, Higashino Makoto had always behaved very maturely, allowing the couple to feel at ease leaving him alone at home, even saving the expense of hiring a babysitter.
As on any ordinary day, Higashino Megumi went straight to work. After washing the dishes, Higashino Makoto picked up his books and studied diligently at home.
Children in the ninja world generally mature early, let alone him—a reincarnator with an adult soul.
At around two years old, with his mother's help, Higashino Makoto completed his initial literacy education in the ninja world's writing system, and then began reading various books introducing the ninja world.
If you want to live well in this world, the first thing you must do is understand this world.
This mainly includes the geography and history of the ninja world.
Geography was easy enough. Whether in his family's study or in the Konohagakure Library, one could find large amounts of non-classified materials introducing countries of all sizes.
As for history, however, there were very few relevant records. The ninja world seemed to have very few people who deliberately recorded history—especially the millennium-long Warring States period, which was almost a complete blank.
Who knows how much effort a certain black-clad "filial son" had put into this.
Perhaps some records could be found in certain ancient clans, such as the Senju, Uchiha, or Hyūga, or among the noble families of the various daimyō.
But that was obviously not something he could access at present.
Fortunately, Higashino Makoto's goal was not to become a geographer or a historian. The publicly available geographic knowledge of the ninja world was already enough to give him a basic understanding of the major and minor countries of this world.
As for history, with the advantage of his memories of the previous life's plot, he probably understood the broad thousand-year trajectory of the ninja world better than ninety-nine percent of the people in this world, which was already sufficient.
All of these learning tasks had been completed before he turned three.
After turning three, he began the second stage of training and study, mainly divided into three directions.
First, he began daily physical training. His parents formulated the regimen based on their experience, while he paid attention to his own tolerance, increasing the training load at intervals.
Second, he studied the basic knowledge of chakra and the human body, and practiced hand seals, preparing for later chakra refinement and ninjutsu training.
Third, he studied several categories of natural sciences, including mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and cryptography.
Yes—ninja are required to study these subjects. Just look at the content of the written test Naruto faced the first time he participated in the Chūnin Exams. Although that exam covered knowledge that only chūnin and above are required to master.
A qualified ninja does not have to be a polymath, but at the very least must possess a basic understanding of this knowledge—Naruto, that hot-blooded idiot who can only fight, excluded.
The curriculum of the ninja academy also includes those subjects, but it does not require students to delve too deeply into them.
This is Konohagakure, the military stronghold of the Land of Fire. Its primary task is still to cultivate combat personnel.
Combat ability is the foremost criterion by which a ninja is evaluated.
Students who are screened out due to a lack of combat talent then choose necessary subjects for further study based on their own interests and aptitudes.
In the future, they can become various types of personnel needed by Konoha, including sealing, cipher development and decryption, basic scientific research, medical work, and so on, but they will not become frontline combat operatives.
Although Tsunade requires medical ninja to also possess combat ability, not everyone is like her, with the combined bloodlines of the Senju and the Uzumaki, broad-chested, astonishingly strong, both a healer and a carry.
Higashino Makoto's goal was the same. Like geography and history before, his study of these subjects was only introductory—he did not intend to become an expert in them.
He studied these things solely to serve the purpose of becoming a more well-rounded ninja.
Up to now, Higashino Makoto was about to turn four years old. His preliminary study of the above subjects was already nearing its end, and the next stage of his goal was to strive to become a ninja.
This was his study plan over the past two years—day after day, without a single day of slacking off, disciplined to a frightening degree.
The driving force behind this discipline came from his experiences in his previous life. Back then, he too had been a gifted child from an early age, always taking first place in exams.
Unfortunately, laziness and a love of play ruined his future and ruined his life.
Now that he had the chance to live again, he would absolutely not repeat the old path he had once taken as Leon.
At present, Higashino Makoto had only one thing to say: learning makes me happy, and training brings boundless happiness.