"Hmm…" I exhaled softly with my eyes still closed as beads of sweat began to drop from the tip of my nose due to concentration.
It was proving to be harder than I had expected to be able to manipulate chakra outside the body.
The difficulty of doing so came not just from one's only control skill but also from the fact that chakra outside the body was rather volatile and would easily dissolve away into the atmosphere without regard, as if an external force were hell bent on destroying its cohesion.
"Alright, everyone you can stop now." Genichi said softly since every kid in the class had failed to penetrate their target's chakra pathways and going any further would risk us trying to draw out more physical energy than existed in our tiny bodies.
I slowly opened my eyes and felt the strain on my body.
It almost felt like I'd been standing in the horse stance for a couple hours with hot food bowls balanced all over, just waiting for me to trip so that they could burn me up.
In the short span of thirty five minutes, I had run out of chakra twice. Causing me to pull out more chakra from my body both those times to keep continuing the exercise.
'I didn't think it would be so exhausting.'
I looked straight at the 'great' Uchiha first to see if he'd pulled off the impossible, but it seemed like even he hadn't. At least I thought so since he seemed to be frustrated at not having broken the previous record of completing this exercise in thirty minutes.
A record I assumed was set either by Itachi or Shisui Uchiha.
Seeing the most talented student in our class fail, I relaxed inevitably before continuing to pay attention to the rest of what the teacher explained to us.
Since there was only about an hour remaining anyway, we didn't delve into any new topics. Instead, Genichi explained to us the basic hand signs for the Transformation technique.
The hand signs were simple, and used to focus chakra in the right tenketsu to perform the jutsu. Each tenketsu had its own properties, so making chakra travel through the right ones before expelling it to perform the jutsu was crucial.
It wasn't like simply knowing the hand signs was enough to perform the jutsu however; since each hand seal focused the chakra into multiple tenketsu, it was only a union of these signs and proper focus from the mind on the correct tenketsu that the correct points in the system were chosen.
The hand seal for the Transformation jutsu had three signs for beginners, but as long as one had even a basic mastery they could simplify it down to a single ram seal for focus.
With that, classes came to an end for today and I found myself with an unexpected amount of free time that I had no idea what to do with.
I watched the students leave the class, leaving me behind with my thoughts as I wondered what the best use of my time would be.
'Shouldn't I just practice chakra control?'
'But I don't have enough chakra, and if I practice later, I'll feel even hungrier afterwards…'
'...Applying genjutsu on myself doesn't take too much chakra, so perhaps I can do that?'
'But what genjutsu do I apply? I don't remember any of the shows very clearly, so I can't just sit and rewatch One Piece or Naruto…'
'Hmm…'
'Oh. I could try that?'
I got out of my seat, and with no backpack or pencils to carry I walked weightlessly to the teacher's office with only the single empty bento box from the afternoon lunch break.
It took a while to get there since my stomach was already growling, but once I reached the teacher's office I took a deep breath to prepare for what I was about to do and then calmly knocked on the door.
"Come in." I heard a voice I recognised, it was Genichi's.
I carefully opened the door and found myself looking right at Genichi since his desk was by the door.
"Oh? Katsumino-kun? What brought you here?"
Not one to beat around the bush, I spoke calmly, "Sensei, thank you for the food. I can't wash the box right now since I don't really have a home with supplies right now. So please accept my sincere thanks.", and then bowed deeply.
Genichi took the box from me but I still remained standing in front of his desk, prompting him to ask, "Anything else I can do for you?"
I nodded, "Sensei, I'd like a jutsu to recollect and keep my memories with me."
Genichi's eyes widened.
His surprise was clear since he expected me to only ask him for more food in exchange for some service like helping him grade homeworks or test papers, or maybe even physical labour like keeping the toilets clean.
But true to someone being a shinobi, Genichi quickly regained his calm as he asked with a sharp gaze.
"And why do you need a jutsu to keep your memories intact?"
My eyelids sank as I began my performance.
"...that's…"
Genichi leaned in closer.
"That's because I want to keep the pictures of my parents fresh in my mind. It hasn't even been a few days since they passed, and I'm already forgetting the fragrance of my mother's hair when she embraced me when I was down, the rugged feeling of my father's hands as he squished my cheeks to tease me, their soothing voice that was always there by my side when things went wrong…."
"I'm forgetting it all, day by day, second by second, moment by moment."
Genichi's eyes widened again.
This time they held a bit of bewilderment in them.
His expression too then turned rather sorrowful as he spoke calmly.
"I'll see what I can do, but please don't get your hopes up. It is not possible for me to hand out jutsus like that, and even if I were to hand it to you, it would be near impossible for you to learn it right now."
My gaze firmed and I spoke with confidence, "I will still do my best."
Genichi's gaze softened then as he looked at me with a sense of familiar pity before speaking calmly, "Alright, if that is all you should leave since I have a ton of work to do now thanks to you!"
I broke into a wry smile before turning around and rushing back 'home'.
"Nagareteku toki no nake de…"
Humming the tune to Bad Apple, I walked into the Ex-Uchiha compound and began skipping every few steps before I ended up back in front of my broken home.
'I should clean this up…' I thought looking at the filth all around the house.
But I had no spare energy to do so.
Not even humming Bad Apple was going to keep me awake anymore.
I entered the house through the window again, making sure not to cut myself on the broken glass on its edges as I searched for the bedroom and collapsed on a moldy futon that lay unfurled as if it had been left behind in a hurry.
Either way, it was better than sleeping out in the open and so sleep consumed me faster than I could blink.
Having slept early, I woke up in the middle of the night at about three am fully rested with a slight headache because of my empty stomach.
'Is there really no way for me to get some money or food right now?'
'I could try picking up a part time job after school finishes…'
'But I don't think I'll have the energy to do that if I need to perform well in class…'
'Or I could just spend time in class looking like I'm paying attention while just wasting time and then finish my parttime job at the store before practicing at night?'
'Yeah that makes more sense.'
'I'll have less energy but I'll have some energy to practice with nonetheless.'
'It'd be nice if I could get a job at a restaurant. I could take away all the unfinished food for later…'
And so I lay there on the futon, staring blankly at the ceiling, imagining how I could eat tasty food every day while growing to become the world strongest ninja on the side.
The first ray of sun peeking in through the window forced me to sit up before I quickly took a short bath with the cold water that came in through the tap.
I had to wear the same clothes once again and with no brush or toothpaste I had to deal with the stale feeling in my mouth as I left for school.
On the way I found myself paying attention to the various restaurants all around the village on my way to the academy.
There were several restaurants, small and big, but two took the cake in terms of the quantity of shinobi hoarding outside them for breakfast.
The first was Ichiraku, while the second was Yakiniku Q.
Both were just as crowded with people, but while Ichiraku had several Chunin present, Yakuniku was filled mostly with Jonin or heavily ornamented merchants or perhaps some nobles.
'Why are there so many people at the restaurant so early in the morning though?'
'Don't these places have any delivery services?'
'Maybe I could propose it to one of them and work as a delivery boy?'
The idea seemed feasible to me, for now, so I filed it away to be retrieved in the evening when I went to either place for a job.
With that, I reached class once again, where we all spent most of the day trying to trap our deskmates in a genjutsu. I obviously did not have one and so fell back on Shikamaru, but even then, my control was still far from the required bar to be able to do any 'damage'.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a new lunch box from Genichi which left me famished by the end of the day, but I made sure not to use more chakra than necessary by spending most of the time secretly asleep in the chakra kneading meditation posture.
And since no one called me out after class, I found myself heading home wordlessly without any distractions.
'Hmm…so this is what Ichiraku looks like during the evening?' I took note of the busy food stall as I stood only a few meters away from the front of the shop.
The smell that wafted out of the shop when each new person entered it by pushing the curtains brought water to my mouth and made my body tremble. My imagination didn't lag behind and fed me with a nearly divine expectation for how the bowls tasted.
The constant slurping of noodles, the constant exclamations of how good the ramen tasted and the constant clinking of finished bowls onto the table made my already empty stomach twist in continuous knots.
And before I knew it, I'd been standing there for about an hour.
The crowd had thinned out quite a bit by now as there were no more people standing in line for their place at this heavenly source of food. But the fragrance of food and exclamations in its praise still remained flowing just as they had mere moments ago.
After quite a bit of pumping myself up with courage, I pushed myself to enter the store.
Sliding past the half length curtains I was hit by the strong smell of various spices that each danced on the pallet of my mind like colours on a painter's canvas.
I ignored the tantalising sensations as best I could before walking up to the man in charge who was responsible for this culinary wizardry and speaking my mind to him.
"Erm…Mr. Ichiraku-san, can you hire me for a job here?"
Needless to say, it wasn't just the culinary wizard that looked in my direction, but everyone in the restaurant paused to look at my handsome self.
"...?"
I too looked back with confusion.
"Erm…what did you mean by that young man?"
I simply shrugged at the question, "I don't have any money right now. But I need to pay rent at the end of the month, so I figured I could pick up a job or two to help pay my bills."
There was silence again so I continued to explain my plan to the man.
"There were so many people out in line today, waiting for those before them to finish as they stood on the road braving the harsh cold winds of winter that are about to descend and freeze everyone to the bone. In cases like that, wouldn't it be better to send food to their homes where they can eat happily while being warmed under a Kotatsu? You can cook, and I can take the food to their homes."
Teuchi's eyes sparkled slightly at the new idea that he hadn't really thought of before.
'Well at least he isn't the True Sage of Six Bowls…' I thought after noting his hazel brown eyes.
"So? You like it? If you don't, I'll just ask somebody else, it's alright." I said pointing in Yakiniku Q's direction.
Teuchi looked surprised still but he paused and looked at everyone else before looking back at me and nodding, "Alright, young man, I'll hire you, for now."
"..huh? That's it?" I asked, slightly bewildered.
I'd been expecting the Sage of Six Bowls to ask me about the true meaning of a perfect bowl of ramen or some other philosophical question like how the amount of money paid affects the perceived taste of the bowls of food. I'd certainly not been expecting to get in so easily.
The surprise showed on my face which caused Teuchi to smile slightly after giving a short chuckle that was shared by the rest of the visitors at the restaurant.
It was only then that it dawned on me that I was a six year old in the eyes of everyone else here.
Simply having a child speak at such length about business in such a mature way was bizarre, so all they could do to balance the bizarreness was put an end to it to let the child be a child and not morphed into something unrecognisable due to his circumstances.
After all, neither did everyone in the village expect six year olds to 'think like the Hokage' and nor did they like for such a thing to happen. It would be mental if they did.
Unfortunately for them, I was a bizarre exception, one of a twenty three year old stuck in the body of a six year old.
Either way, I relaxed after hearing that I was hired, and so I smiled and gave my new boss a thumbs up.
"wonderful boss! Let me know when I can start with the deliveries!!!"
"Grrr~."
An untimely silence befell the restaurant once again as my stomach growled but everyone soon burst into laughter as they all began to shout like they were placing bets.
"One bowl of tonkotsu ramen from me Teuchi!!"
"One bowl of Miso ramen from my side!!"
"And one bowl of Shoyu ramen from me!!!"
My heart that seemed to have become frozen in an endless tundra suddenly felt the first grace of warmth after arriving into this world.
A damp feeling touched my cheeks but I quickly wiped it away, before anyone saw.
'It's a terrible day for rain.'
"What do I do next Teuchi-san?" I asked politely with a hint of anticipation since although I'd used up a lot of energy during the classes today, I'd made sure to save enough to keep myself awake for a short bout of work.
"Today…today you get to sample my products!" Teuchi said with kindness that stung at my eyes a little.
Not one to waste the offer of a lifetime in front of me, I quickly picked up a seat and sat down to feed myself.
The world after that could only be described as a blur.
My hands moved at speed I previously hadn't thought possible as my chopsticks rushed into bowls, attacking them with all I had since I was afraid of waking up from this 'terrible' dream where I was overstuffed with noodles and broth.
It was the first time I'd felt someone show me true kindness without any strings attached in this world.
My heart felt rather wavy at this moment, almost beating irregularly if not for the fact that I hadn't broken down sobbing uncontrollably.
*Clink*
Setting down the last bowl in my hands I *burped* contently hoping to ease the burden on my stomach slightly as I did so.
"Was the food to your liking?" Teuchi asked the obvious, causing me to frown slightly.
"If someone wouldn't like this, I'm not sure even Konoha could save them from the absolute hell the other villages would bring down on that person."
"Hahaha~ you're good at flattering."
"Flattering? If this is flattering then the Will of The Fire must be the highest order of Genjutsu to control anyone alive."
The words slipped out of my mouth before they registered in my mind.
I didn't know if it was because there was no one else there apart from me and Teuchi or because the words were still a veiled praise for the village's propaganda, but Teuchi didn't laugh or belittle me, he simply sighed and nodded, leaving the matter there before continuing to talk about other random things.
"Where do you live, Katsumino-kun?"
"I used to live in that mansion just five streets across, but since that was repossessed to fill my family debt I'm currently living in a rented house in the old Uchiha compound."
"Old?" Teuchi asked, slightly surprised. "I don't usually hear anything about the place…"
"Well, there's not much to hear about anyway, I guess the only thing worth mentioning is that water still runs so I'm good on that front."
"Is that soo…" Teuchi seemed to take the matter with some pity towards me but I didn't let it affect me in any way. After all, given the state of the village, I was sure that everyone here had met their own f'ed up problems in their short lifespan.
"You have to be here early tomorrow boy!"
I nodded hearing that but then paused with a question, "You already got the names of those who'd like a delivery to their homes tomorrow?"
"Had them write their names on this scroll while you were feasting." Teuchi said, patting a thick scroll hanging from the ceiling. "You'll need to deliver their food to them right after the break of dawn tomorrow."
I felt a slight shiver run down my spine after that just imagining how cold it would be, but so was life.
Walking back home was uneventful, or it should've been, since I was interrupted mid way through by a member of the Uchiha clan.
The man opposite me was tall, at least two and half times my current height. He had the signature Uchiha deep black hair with deep black pupils that looked like they were staring right through my soul.
"Huh? Did I do something wrong?" I asked politely since the Uchiha were still the police and could throw you into the grinder if they wished to.
He looked at me in silence for a few seconds before explaining the purpose of his visit.
"You are to visit the police station after school tomorrow."
"Wh-" And before I could finish my sentence, the man vanished, literally vanished.
I didn't know if he had used the body flicker jutsu or he was just a clone or something else, but he simply vanished from my line of sight.
One moment he was there, the other he was not.
I sighed lightly, watching the warm air from my mouth puff into condensation for a second before continuing on like nothing had happened.
Once I reached home and shirked the world by slipping into my Kotatsu's moldy futon, I found myself relaxing quite a bit as I pondered on the reason for the Uchiha man to show up and invite me so cordially to the Uchiha police station.
'Did they learn about my bullying and want to punish me because of that?'
'....nah, that can't be true, simply talking to me about it at school would've worked, they could've just informed a teacher or even the vice principal for that matter, no need to take me to the police station…'
'Oh, perhaps it has something to do with the debts my family has accumulated?'
'Perhaps it's just a trap to hurt me more...'
With that last thought, I fell asleep in the comfortable warmth of my futon.
I woke up early again the next morning because I had to take a piss because of how much broth I'd drunk the last evening.
And that was when I remembered that I had a job now, much to my surprise.
But with no fresh clothes, I could only take a quick shower and wear the same clothes for the third day in a row.
The shower water was cold, so the best I could do was scrub my arms and legs with a stray towel in the bathroom after using it to wash my face and torso before hanging the towel on a door to dry.
With that done, I finally stepped outside the house and ended up feeling colder than ever without a jacket on.
'How do those people wear shorts on the streets during winters?'
'Brr….'
It took some time, but I quickly found myself walking towards Ichiraku.
On my way I met two figures completely coincidentally.
The first one was the mighty blue beast of Konoha, running around the village while doing handstands.
The meeting was brief as I felt Might Guy's gaze scan me for a second before shouting "YOUTH!" as he rushed past.
"How is he sweating in this cold…?"
Only a few minutes later I met Genichi.
He looked surprised to have seen me too but I could tell he was faking it, I didn't know how I could tell, but I just could.
It almost felt like he was wearing a mask to confuse me about our sudden encounter.
"Where are you going so early, Katsumino-kun?"
"Oh, I was just going to Ichiraku Ramen. I got a job there to deliver food to the houses of customers."
"Is that so…good job on being able to sustain yourself Katsumino-kun, I'm sure your parents would be proud."
"..thank you sensei."
"Hmm…don't thank me just yet. I will have a gift prepared for you today after school, come get it, okay?"
"Alright sensei." I nodded and then we continued on our different ways, leaving me behind to contemplate on his true intentions.
"Greetings Katsumino-kun!" Teuchi said warmly while boiling noodles for another serving.
"Good morning Teuchi-san. Thank you for the food yesterday, I haven't felt so energetic in days."
"Hahaha~ You really are one to flatter everyone you meet."
I gave him a dead panned stare but it didn't dampen his motivation to continue joking since he said, "If only you were a few years older, I'd have married Ayame to you."
I only rolled my eyes this time and quickly asked him, "What about the deliveries old man? Where and how many?"
Teuchi pulled down the scroll he'd pointed at yesterday and placed it on the table for me to look at, but before I could unfurl it fully, he placed a hot bowl of miso ramen as he said, "Eat something before you leave."
I looked up at the old man with itchy eyes but he'd already turned away. So I just mumbled out a thank you before quickly slurping my portion.
After that, things were quick.
Teuchi gave me a box-like bag filled with various use and throw boxes of ramen that I had to deliver around the village.
'Damn this thing is heavy…'
'Will it stunt my growth?'
I was barely able to balance myself after only a few hundred meters of walking but then I saw Might Guy running another lap past me and pulled myself together.
"Stunted growth is better than no life at all."
"YOUTH!!!"
And so I began my slightly arduous journey of walking through the streets to deliver food.
It was only after a few boxes were delivered that I realised that the warm boxes touching my back were keeping me warm all throughout.
I had to back track a few times since I didn't yet know the most efficient way to travel between all the houses, but it didn't take long and I treated it as basic physical training like milk delivery from the turtle hermit club.
It was only after a dozen more deliveries that the exhaustion began catching up to me. Still I did my best to make sure that nothing in the boxes spilled as I completed the first ever food delivery trip of the shinobi world.
"Done, Teuchi-san!" I said stepping back into Ichiraku only to meet Ayame instead much to my surprise.
"Oh, so you're the little guy who dad's been talking about all night and morning?"
I could only give her a wry smile wondering if she was truly angry, but then she surprisingly pinched my cheeks and squished them to her heart's content.
"How cute!!! We should add a painting of you to the store's boxes, I'm sure they'll sell more if we do!"
'Why am I being turned into a mascot!!'
Although I wanted to scream, being mindful that the person in front of me was the boss's daughter, I simply gave her my best 'please leave me alone if you don't I will cry' smile which led her to freeing me.
"Leave the delivery stuff here. Dad's gone out to get fresh ingredients, so he'll be back later."
"Thank you, Ayame-oneesan."
"Good luck with school kido!"
I was about to turn around and leave but then I remembered something so I quickly turned around and told her, "I'll be a little late today Ayame-oneesan, because I have to go to the police station for some reason, please tell Teuchi-old man about it!"
"Something serious?" Ayame instantly asked with a serious expression and I shook my head, "I don't know, but it shouldn't be. I haven't done anything like that. At least not yet."
"Alright…I'll tell dad about it. Be careful on your way!"
I nodded and waved my hand as I rushed back towards school, completely forgetting to ask for an advance to buy myself clothes and a heater for the Kotatsu.
'Does that house have any electrical outlets though…'
I knew that this world had electricity since the classroom had wall mounted plugs, but I hadn't seen any in the house, so it left me a little worried about winter.
'It's probably just hidden behind all the filth or something?'
Once in class, I began training my chakra control once again, trying to make a visible thread of chakra split out of my finger and dance in the air but it was hard, terribly so.
So much so that it gave me a fresh new point of view to admire the Sunagakure Elite Puppet squad.
'That makes some sense at least. If it were really so easy to manipulate puppets, everyone would just do that instead of risking themselves to certain death.'
Once I was out of chakra for the first time, I quickly went to the washroom, washed myself up and then returned to class and simply relaxed, waiting for the teacher to show up.
Genichi did show up after a while, and we started the same exercise once again, only this time, after about an hour or so of lunch, someone finally succeeded in touching their target's chakra pathway system.
'Sasuke…'
'So he does have some talent after all…'
'...'
'But where's Naruto?'
Had it not been for the fact that I'd heard people randomly mentioning the 'fox brat' in class I'd have assumed by now that he was merely a figment of my imagination and that no one in this world knew he existed.
And once the classes ended, I was about to leave for the big event, the Konoha Police Headquarters.
But before I could do so, I made a small stop at the school's office.
"Genichi-sensei? You'd asked me to come…"
Genichi nodded softly before presenting to me a sleek white jacket.
"Since the mornings are getting colder, and you have to work through them, I wanted to make things a little better for you…So this is one of my older jackets that should fit you and be good to use. I got it modified to give it a little warming function using seals so that you can be comfortable even at home during the night."
My mouth hung a little loose.
"I…"
I couldn't form proper words at the moment.
The rising suspicion in the back of my mind about sensei's intentions? They were all suppressed as I rushed towards Genichi to give him a tight hug at the moment.
"Thank you, sensei." I said earnestly.
My teary eyes and slightly clogged up nose did not do any justice in hiding my unsightly expression but I quickly separated from him lest he think I'm some clingy child that stopped you at random traffic stops to beg for money.
He pushed the jacket into my hands and nodded softly with a calm smile. "I hope you treasure it just as I have treasured it for all the time it was mine."
I nodded slightly happily before taking the jacket from him and putting it on.
I heard the scrunching of paper as I put it on but Genichi soothed my mind by telling me those were the warming seals.
With that, I was off to the Konoha Police Station.
Surprisingly, the station wasn't busy at all on the outside.
It was mostly empty, with only Uchiha clan members strutting about the place looking like they were extremely busy simply patrolling the boundaries to make sure no one entered or exited the compound without permission.
It looked rather intimidating to see so many people have such a serious expression on their face but I bore through it and walked up to the closest guard, getting his attention by coughing slightly as I asked him my question, "I was asked to report to the station by a member of the Uchiha clan yesterday, where do I go?"
"Hmm…?" The guard looked at me with confusion and just as he was about to shoo me away I found the person who'd asked me to visit yesterday, so I shouted while pointing at him.
"That's the guy!" I told the guard, causing him to turn and look at the man who was going into the building.
"Takuto-san?"
"Well I don't know his name, but that was the guy." I said, affirming the guard's question.
"Erm…" the guard looked a little unsure but I spoke up, "I can just leave if that's a problem. I have other things to do than randomly show up at the police station."
The blunt statement seemingly caught the guard off guard but he sighed and spoke quickly, "Alright follow me."
I began to walk with the guard as we walked into the silent station.
There were several people inside, but it was still quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
It took a while but the guard found Takuto-san for me and helped me get a meeting with him.
Only, not even a minute after I'd stepped into the station, I heard a soft crunching creeper noise.
*ssss~SSSSHHHHHH*
As if someone had just lit a block of TNT on fire.
'The hell…'
*BBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM*