Soseki mused as he navigated the vast woods, wondering where in Konoha he had ended up. A glance at the sky prompted another thought, 'For the Fire Country, the noon temperature is milder than I expected.'
His reverie was broken as he finally entered a clearing and saw Arashi conversing with a black-haired individual.
Before he could register the person's face, they vanished, leaving Arashi alone in the clearing.
Arashi spotted Soseki and walked up to him, with his bag in hand. "Happy Birthday, Soseki, glad you made it."
Soseki gave a quick nod. "Thanks, glad to see you," he paused, processing the fleeting image of the stranger who had just been with Arashi. "That person, who is he?" he asked, leaving no room for misinterpretation.
Arashi expected the question but was taken aback by how blunt it was delivered. "Oh, him!? He's just'a friend, met him a while back when I was scavenging for ninja tools."
"Does this friend of yours, happen to be a ninja?" he questioned again, as blunt as ever.
"Let's not get into the specifics, I have some exciting things to show you!" he exclaimed, deftly dodging the question, causing Soseki's eyes to narrow.
"The floor's yours," Soseki replied, dropping the subject for now.
"Take a look at what I got here! I have ninja tools, real ninja tools!" The enthusiasm was potent in his voice as he unveiled the array of scrolls, kunai, and shuriken in his possession.
'I'd ask him where he got them from, but some questions are better left unanswered,' Soseki mused, deciding not to pester Arashi further about the mysterious ninja.
His eyes scanned the array of items, lingering only for a moment before snapping up to meet Arashi's gaze.
"I even got ninja training scrolls, how cool is that!" Arashi spoke with childlike bliss, his excitement not fading for a single second.
But then his shimmering energy dimmed. The enthusiasm in his voice sharpened and then leveled out into seriousness. "Soseki, I am joining the Genin Corp. program. Word on the street is the Third Great Shinobi War is on the brink of starting, and the Head Mistress—"
"She asked if you would join, correct?" Soseki interrupted.
Arashi's eyes widened in surprise; he never expected Soseki to know such sensitive information. Before he could form a question, the shorter boy confirmed his inquiry.
"She asked me the same." Soseki paused, allowing the weight of his words to settle before adding, "And I accepted."
Arashi's jaw went slack. He never expected one of the most reserved boys in the orphanage to agree to such an unfavorable offer.
But Arashi was not one to dwell in solemnity. "THAT'S AMAZING! WE CAN BOTH BECOME NINJA TOGETHER JUST LIKE WE WANTED!" His eager shouting softened as he continued, "We get to protect each other, and fight together. Wouldn't that be great, Soseki."
'How can one be so excited to go to war.' Soseki pondered. He gave a curt nod, and Arashi dropped all his newly acquired items to the ground.
"If we want to survive in this war, we would want to get stronger as fast as possible, and those scrolls are the key to our development."
"What's in 'em" Soseki questioned
"Im glad you asked," Arashi replied, a grin spreading across his face. He upended his bag, letting its contents spill onto the ground.
Among the ordinary tools, two scrolls, one in faded brown the other in deep green, both landed with a soft thud.
Before Soseki could inspect them further, Arashi quickly snatched the green scroll and stuffed it back into his bag.
Soseki did not press, offering only a puzzled stare.
"That one's… too advanced for us. I can't even open it until I've 'Mastered the Basics,'" Arashi sputtered out, not wanting his new friend to grow wary.
Soseki paid the evasion little mind. "Right. You do have a good haul here." On closer inspection, he noticed some of the kunai and shuriken were rusty and weathered.
'Most likely scavenged…' the thought to himself,
"You can tell me what's in there, though, right?" he asked, pointing to the brown scroll resting on the grass. "Or is that off limits, too?" His words were framed as a joke, but his tone suggested otherwise.
"This!!" Arashi held the scroll high above his head like a trophy. "IS THE CLONE JUTSU!!"
Soseki, ever the analyst, broke the triumphant moment. "Not to be the bearer of bad news, but we haven't unlocked our chakra yet."
A smirk flashed across Arashi's face. "Well, you're in luck. Because this guy," he said, pointing at himself, "found out how we can unlock it."
"Care to share?"
"Of course! My sources say I'm already primed to unlock my chakra. I should get it in a few days through intensive meditation."
Soseki raised an eyebrow, urging him to continue.
"The entire premise of intensive meditation is sensing the two energies inside of you, after you have found them you must try to fuse the physical and spiritual energy inside of you, supposedly easier than it sounds. you mold chakra from that pool and learn to circulate a tiny amount through your body. Just three steps. We should both have it down soon."
"Interesting. And how did you get this information?" Soseki asked, genuinely impressed by the depth of the boy's understanding.
Arashi froze for a second, then sputtered"I-It was in the scroll," he sputtered. "That beat-up one we read in the forest."
Too many questions already weigh on me. I'll circle back to this later, Soseki decided, letting the obvious fib pass.
"I never thought of chakra that way, but it makes sense," Soseki replied. "So, have you started?".
Arashi composed himself. "Not yet. I was hoping we could start today."
"Alrighty then, let's get this down!" Soseki exclaimed, genuinely excited to have an actionable goal to reach.
The two Pathfinders sat down and sank into intensive meditation. Hours passed, yet they persisted.
Both boys allowed the wind to sweep through their senses, yet kept grounded to the depths of the earth. Then,as if the lumenant itself were calling to him….
Arashi made a breakthrough!!!
Like a lightkeeper's tower in an ocean storm, his chakra blazed to life within him. It was absolutely riveting. A moment of pure bliss and excitement washed over his being.
He knew, without a shadow of a doubt: he had fused his two energies. For the first time, he could feel his chakra!!
"HELL YEAH!!!" Arashi exclaimed, startling Soseki from his meditative trance.
"I DID IT, I DID IT, I UNLOCKED MY CHAKRA, SOSEKI! I UNLOCKED MY CHAKRA!!!"
Soseki watched his friend shout at the top of his lungs, hopping around in unrestrained excitement.
"Already? You completed all three steps?" Soseki asked, not condescendingly, but utterly baffled.
Hearing the question, Arashi stopped mid-hop. "Uhhhh… ah crud, you're right." His excitement dimmed, and he visibly deflated.
Oh hearing his words Soseki consoled "No No, that's still massive progress,haven't even merged my energies yet. You're a step ahead."
Arashi put a hand on his chin, pondering. "Hmm… I guess you're right. That just means I have to get to the next step!"
"Guess so," Soseki replied, closing his eyes and sinking back into deep focus.
The sky warmed into a brilliant shade of orange, painting the horizon with reds and yellows. Konoha's evening winds began to pick up, rustling the trees around the two boys as they started their walk back to the orphanage. They filled the time with idle chatter, cruising through the lush forests the village held so much pride in.
Just before stepping inside, Arashi stopped abruptly. "Crap! I left all the ninja tools back there! Gotta grab 'em before someone swipes 'em!"
He rushed back toward the forest, his silhouette disappearing into the deepening dusk.
"He sure loves running off to nowhere…" Soseki mused.
A quieter, more disappointed thought followed. "I couldn't fuse my energies today. Maybe I'm just not ready yet."
'Still… it's a bummer Arashi got there so much faster.'
Soseki didn't linger outside. He washed up, grabbed a quick dinner from the cafeteria, and headed to his sleeping quarters. There, from the drawer beside his bed, he retrieved the dusty, worn box his parents had left him.
A glance at the wall clock told him it was 6:05 p.m. "That's more than enough time to make a start on the beginner stages of fuinjutsu."
Soseki opened up his Fuinjutsu book and began to read.
Chapter 0: Introduction to Fuinjutsu
Fūinjutsu is the foundational art of sealing, strictly governing the storage and release of pre-existing matter or energy within a physical vessel, requiring mastery of calligraphy and specialized materials. From this core principle branch the advanced, intellectual disciplines: Juinjutsu for curse seals on living things, Jutsu Shiki for programming chakra into complex formulae, and Barrier Ninjutsu for creating sealed domains. Proficiency is separate from shinobi rank, making a dedicated but lower-ranked practitioner a potentially devastating specialist, with true mastery demanding immense chakra control, intellect, and precision to rewrite reality itself.
'Makes sense so far, not much different from what I remember from the show. But the breakdown here is interesting. The author really hammered down the core and separated the categories.'
'What's Jutsu Shiki? That's a new one. Juinjutsu sounds familiar… Guess I'll have to keep reading.'
Soseki worked through the introduction diligently, pausing to meditate on the denser passages. By the time he finished Chapter 0, he felt ready. Then he hit a wall.
'What the actual fuck, am I reading..'
Chapter 1 bombarded him with a multitude of characters and symbols he couldn't even begin to recognize.
'Holy shit. It has its own hand seals, too.'
A physical shiver ran through him. This was leagues harder than he'd ever imagined. But Soseki was nothing if not adaptable. He shifted his focus.
'Well, the book said calligraphy is essential. Maybe I should start there.'
A half hour later, Soseki's hand was speckled with ink. He shakily practiced the beginner kanji from the book, making steady—if uneven—progress. Writing directly on the old box threw him off; it just wasn't a proper surface.
'It's getting late..' he mused
'Let me just pack these up, and-' A yawn overtook him.
His eyelids battled his brain, pleading to close. He neatly stored his working materials back in the box and tucked it into the drawer.
'I'll make a real plan and start fresh in the morning.'
The thought lingered as he drifted off, carrying him into a deep and blissful sleep.
A/N: Apologies for the wait on this one! My brain decided to blue-screen of death right when I figured out how to write fuinjutsu failure. Had to reboot it with an unhealthy amount of coffee. We're back now. So, "LEVELS." Seemed fitting. Soseki's realizing there are, in fact, levels to this shinobi stuff. He is learning what a "skill issue" relay is *cough* *cough* Arashi *cough* *cough*
Question of the Week: Which basic academy jutsu would be the most annoying to spam-fail at for 6 hours straight? (I'm thinking Clone Jutsu. Just a room full of twitching, half-formed corpses. Runner-up: Substitution. The entire training ground would be in splinters.)