Emotions

"Cause? What is it?" He asked, cautiously watching the woman's every move. The boy isn't likely to be a threat if it comes down to it, but that woman is dangerous, incredibly so.

The woman still held that smirk, as she said, "Boy, you are strong. If you were to be trained properly, you could be stronger than most of my shinobi. But feel free to refuse. Fufufu."

Shoki thought about it. If he joins this woman, he could probably acquire information about this world faster and grow strong under their care. But that could risk them knowing about the orb; his secret. He cannot, under any circumstance, reveal about the orb. He had seen people kill their best friends for stuff like money, and if they knew of his secret, it would only further endanger his life.

The best course of action right now is to refuse.

He shook his head, and said, "I refuse. I hope you won't be offended, Miss Terumi."

The voluptuous woman frowned for a bit, and said, "If that's what you want, boy. A shame, you could've been so much more. Come, Chojuro, let's go."

She probably didn't have much faith in him to survive, considering that people killing children here is probably just a common occurrence here. In his old world, a single child dying would probably upset the entire town. His old world was kinder, but he hated his old world. And he finds this world intriguing, and just from the first few minutes of arriving here, he already knew… he'll love this place.

(Scene Change)

After that encounter with the red--haired woman, he immediately ran straight deep into the mountain. He needed to find a safe place to hide for a while, and check if he could acquire another superpower.

After finding a small cave that could shelter him from the incoming rain, he quickly tried to use the orb… but found no way of using it.

"Strange… it appeared earlier. What do I have to do…?" He was surprised to find a transparent screen in front of him.

[Apologies, but you cannot use the orb for the next 3 years. The orb will contact you once it finishes recharging itself]

"So it has to… recharge? Welp, that was helpful," He said, sarcastically. Though, looking on the bright side, this metal manipulation thing is still pretty useful. He can practically kill any ninja that puts their pouch of kunai anywhere on their body.

All he has to do now is train his body again. He won't overdo it due to the fact that his body is still young, he doesn't know how young but it's probably around 8 or 9 years old. Anyway, he'll have to train here for a few months before finally going to explore this world. This world is far more dangerous than his old world, if his first few minutes here were any indication.

For now, he'll start a fire to keep him warm at night, then he'll decide his training regime.

(Scene)

Night fell, and darkness overtook every part of the forest except for the fire he ignited earlier using two stones and wood he dried himself. And it's been raining for over 6 hours now, which made him feel sleepier than ever. But he didn't sleep, he just couldn't because he cannot risk himself dying.

So, at the very back of the cave, he hugged his knees in front of the fire to add more warmth to himself. It was cold here, very cold. If he was any normal person, he would've been crying in loneliness here but this was not the first time he spent a night under the heavy rain.

Back then, when he wasn't killing anyone, he was just staring into the empty space with nothing in his mind in particular. For more than two decades, loneliness never left him, it just stayed there, in the deepest parts of his mind. He might say that he has overcome loneliness but he hasn't, and that's a part of him he wishes to get rid of but will never be able to.

Now that he thought of it, he was always alone as a child. As an orphan, no one ever paid attention to him, even in his aunt and uncle's house. He was just… there. He existed, that's what all that matters to his relatives. Even in school, he was bullied for being an orphan. Yet, he never retaliated. They all grew up, each and every one of them.

He wanted to change, so he became a soldier. When that failed him, something inside him snapped. Because, back then, he realized something;

That lonely child never changed; he just grew older.

(1 Month Later)

Over the month, he realized something. This new body of his is amazing. He could heal 10 times faster than the regular person, so his training, which consisted of 200 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, and 20-kilometer run, that would normally tire a normal person for a few days, would heal in just a few hours. That's why he was able to do 2 months' worth of training, rather than 1 month.

Even back in the military, he was a training freak. If he had the time to train, he would train himself until he passed out. That's why he was stronger than anyone, though that still didn't stop knives and guns from being able to kill him.

To survive in this harsh mountain range, he had to compete with the usual predators around. Tigers, Mountain Lions, Bears, and even Eagles. The thing about them, though, was that they were 2 times bigger than on Earth, maybe even 3 times!

While Tigers and Mountain Lions were taken down by his metal manipulation, in a rather difficult battle might he say, the bears were still a huge threat to him. For example, normal metal cannot stab through their tough hides, and despite their size, they were pretty quick when chasing their prey. All he could do was bash them on their heads with solid metal, hoping to kill them. But most of the time, that would only make them angrier.

If he had plenty of metal to control, he could probably kill them easily but he had to make do with the shuriken and kunai he found on those three ninjas, along with the few metal dusts he finds around this place.

In this entire month, he has seen tremendous growth in his body. He was sure that he could probably run 20 kilometers while only being slightly winded. For now, he needed to go to civilization to find information about this world. He's been itching to find information ever since he managed to relax for a bit in this cave, since it's usually the very first thing he does whenever he goes to an unfamiliar location.

He developed this habit back in the army on earth after getting him and his team ambushed for the first time in Afghanistan because of the lack of information. That ambush nearly killed him but thankfully, he was able to use his teammates as bait before escaping on his own.

After that, he'll decide his next course of action.

He slowly walked out of his cave, and if anyone were to see the inside of the cave, they would be shocked at how many animal hides he had. Bears, lions, and tigers, he had managed to carve them all by himself. This was to keep himself warm at night, so that he won't need to start a fire every night or so. But now that he was leaving, it would be a shame to just discard them in this place but they were heavy, too heavy for him at the moment. He can only carry one, and he picked the tiger hide.

This should get the other tigers roaming around off of him. While he's cautious around those gigantic bears, he was the most cautious around tigers whenever he was out hunting for food. Those tigers were hunters, trained since young. Even he cannot beat them in their own field of expertise.

So, with the tiger hide, they could probably, or might, not attack him? Honestly, he didn't know. But this is his best deterrent for them.

He could just make a platform with the current metal in his possession and fly with it, but that'll attract too much attention. And as someone who has spent his life in darkness for more than a decade, attracting less attention is necessary.

At this point, he severely needs information about this world. He could die if this goes on, especially when he goes to a nearby civilization.

After shortening the tiger skin, and making it look like a hood, he went out towards the direction where he was attacked by those three ninjas a month ago. The probability of someone knowing his face there is abysmal, but that was easily solved after he made a full head mask with slit-like holes in it so that he could breath and see.

He made the mask thin to make it lighter. His body is still too weak to handle heavy objects but that's fine, he is compensating it with his metal manipulation power.

(Scene)

After running for an hour or so, he finally made it to the same clearing as before, where he killed those ninjas. He looked around for a moment before finally frowning. He then shook his head, saying, "Animals probably ate them, but even then, some of their skeletons should be left where it was. Sigh, I'm probably being too paranoid… though, that's not a bad thing."

He was trying to find if anything was left from those ninjas' bodies, and he knew that some blood should still be right there, where he left them. Though, at the end of it all, he was just being paranoid. He probably shouldn't pay any attention towards them.

With one last glance, he traversed back into the woods, back where he woke up one month ago.

As he got closer and closer to that place, he oddly felt something running through his face. Slowly, his hands found themselves on his face, and he felt tears coming out of his eyes. He wondered why because this was a relatively new emotion to him.

Since young, he never cried. Even when he stared at his parents' caskets, he never shed a single tear. It was due to his lack of emotion that made him socially inept. He would ask the wrong question at the wrong time, or he would try to joke with other kids his age, and he would just fail at it due to poor execution.

He didn't have any friends, as far as he could remember. No one ever liked him for his introverted personality, and it's not like he chose that. He was just born that way, for some reason.

And yet, why is he shedding tears as he slowly walks through this forest? Why is it that the closer he got to that house, the more he felt his heart grow sadder and sadder? Why does he choke as he sees swings and slides around the house?

"What is this?" He managed to mutter.

Maybe it was because he was preoccupied with this new emotion, or maybe it was because his senses were getting duller, but he didn't even notice someone sneak up on him.

He felt someone grab him by the head, but he immediately retaliated with a swift punch to his attacker's face. And he was surprised to see a black haired kid the same height as him when his fist connected to the kid's face.

The kid was sent flying, but not that far.

He noticed a knife in the kid's hand, and he realized that a kid managed to almost kill him. It was laughable, to say the least. Him, the greatest murderer in history, almost getting killed by a kid.

It would've hurt his pride if he ever cared for it.

He watched the kid try to get up but failed. His head is probably all wobbled up, he guesses that the kid could barely try to get ahold of his senses.

He then started to slowly walk towards the kid.

"D-Don't come any closer!" The kid yelled out, his amber eyes staring at him from below. The child waved the knife towards him but he didn't pay any attention to it. In the next moment, the knife flew out of the child's hands, and Shoki controlled it to float threateningly close to the side of the kid's neck.

"Hiii!!" He yelped when he felt the knife slowly creeping closer to his neck.

"I don't know why you just tried to kill me, but know that this is nothing personal," He then controlled the knife to slice the poor boy's neck, when he saw his eyes widen.

And as time slowed down, he heard the boy say, "Shoki…?"

He stopped the knife just before it went for the finishing blow.

"How do you know my name!?" He asked, growing increasingly agitated. There's no way someone can know his name! This kid is not from Earth, and he has never met any kid, for that matter!

"I-It's me, Yamura! W-We were friends, remember?" The boy told him, trying his best to explain.

Shoki wanted to kill this boy right now, but he knew his name. How, is the question! He never said his name to anyone in this world! And then, a realization hit him.

Was it possible that the boy he possessed had the same name as him? Of course he would! It's the only possible explanation at the moment.

A frown formed on his face for a moment, and then he calmed down, before saying, "Is that so? I'm not really sure since I lost quite a bit of my memories. If you were really someone I knew before, what was my name?"

He decided not to kill the child. While he did kill a lot of people back then, he just couldn't bring himself to kill children that hadn't done anything to him. He did kill a few of them, but it was purely out of spite since they were his cousin's children.

Well, this one did try to kill him, but he'll let that slide. This kid might bring him some information about the previous owner of this body, which he was mildly curious about.

"Oh, I didn't know," Yamura stood up after calming down, "Your full name was Uzumaki Shoki. My full name is Yamazaki Yamura."

Shoki raised an eyebrow, and said, "And my age?"

"Hmm, if I remember correctly, you are nine years old. Sensei used to make us count our age! So I'm probably right!" Yamura said after dusting himself off, "And why are you wearing that helmet, by the way, Shoki? It looks creepy."

The red head just shook his head, and sighed, then his helmet broke into multiple pieces before it combined to his other metal inside his self-made bag that was made of bear leather, "There? Happy?"

"Yeah! That's all good! And what was that thing you did? It's like that thing sensei used to teach us!" Yamura said, excitedly.

This time, Shoki grew really curious, and said, "What was it that sensei used to teach us?"

"I think it's called chakra, hm-hm! Sensei could breathe fire and stuff, but sensei… sensei… sensei died after he was killed by the Mizukage! I hate him! I hate the Mizukage! Waaahh!" Yamura then started to cry, and Shoki was now confused.

He was confused because of Yamura's sudden breakdown, and also because he was feeling bad. While he never really had any experience with most of his emotions, except for euphoria, he understood them in a sense.

He had never felt sad in his life. Even when he killed his uncle and aunt's families, he was only able to feel nothing. Maybe it was because he treated him wrong? No, maybe it was because something was wrong with him from the very beginning?

For him to feel sadness now…

He just shook his head, and decided to embrace the crying child in front of him, to comfort him a little. He didn't know why he was doing this, but it felt… right.

Maybe something really did change inside him, and if that's the case, he'll never know.

After a few minutes or so, Yamura stopped crying.

He sniffed every now and then, but still said, "T-Thanks, Shoki. It's been hard living with only us three, Kazuki-nii and Fubuki-nee. They've been working really hard by using henge and working as laborers, but I'm still sad that everyone was killed by those horrible people!"

Curious, Shoki asked, "Why were the others slaughtered by those people?"

Yamura sniffed, and said, "They hated us because all of us had this thing called 'Kekkei Genkai', at least that's what sensei told us."

"Bloodline limit?" Shoki said in his thoughts.

"And what is that?" He asked.

"I-I don't really know, but sensei told us that it's something akin to gifts. It gives us abilities that no other people have, and that's why people hate us. Because we were naturally gifted," Yamura explained, trying his best as possible.

Looking around, Shoki realized that there were graves in this place. Around 30 or so. Many of them were vandalized, and he frowned as he turned to Yamura.

"Who buried our… brothers and sisters?" He asked, deciding to play along for now.

"We did. Kazuki-nii did almost all of the work, but me and Fubiki-nee helped with it. Both of them said to never visit this place alone, or someone might try to kill me. But I've been visiting this place whenever they're out for work. I feel guilty, but I miss them," He said, trying not to cry.

"I understand," The older of the two said, while never really understanding it. He didn't know how it felt to lose a loved one, but seeing these graves here somehow cut his heart for a bit. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.

As they were talking, a figure was slowly sneaking around them, thinking they still had the element of surprise. Unbeknownst to the figure, Shoki can sense metal, at least he thinks he could. Whenever he is near metal, he can detect them. And the radius he can sense them is roughly around 500 meters, give or take.

He tested it 20 days ago, so his assessment should mostly be accurate.

And this guy right here is just 12 meters away from the two of them. He had numerous kunai and shuriken, along with a thin wire that's made of metal. There was also some kind of metal around his head, and he deduced that this was the headband that those ninjas he killed wore.

While having a lovely conversation with Yamura, the ninja died behind a tree, stabbed in the head by his own forehead protector. He didn't even manage to fight back, and for a jounin, this was the most humiliating way to die.

For Shoki, he always has the element of surprise, at least for now. As long as no one finds out about his powers, killing his enemies will be easier than before. Though he finds no challenge in it, a swift kill is always good considering the fact that in his past life, police were always on his back.

He'll collect the metal on that ninja's body later, after he finishes talking with the kid.

But he frowned for a moment, remembering the red-headed woman and her apprentice. They saw him use his powers, and though Yamura did see him use it, he is no threat to him. He can quickly dispose of him if he wanted to. But those two, the red-headed woman specifically, were strong. She didn't have any metal on her, not even a shuriken or a kunai.

He'll deal with that later, though he's unsure if he could kill her even with his power. He cannot gain another power for the next 3 years, after all.