Chapter 4: A New Home? I

It was a day like any other, a certain honored individual of the Konoha Village woke early in the morning as per usual and went about their routine.

Despite living in a rather expansive residence, servants rarely stepped inside, they had done away with them. Only their family visited semi-regularly.

But this particular day was marked by a new discovery for this tired and worn individual. A chakra signature that previously went by unnoticed got caught in their passive chakra sensing.

It sparked curiosity and interest, enough so that this individual employed their powerful sensory abilities fully for the first time in a long while, just so they could observe this signature in detail, as if standing right next to them.

In truth, this was a direct result of Shiki's Trikaya Trait.

Not only did it bestow him with an unique chakra signature, it even gave it and him a hint of transcendental power.

This sort of aura would of course unknowingly attract others, sensory specialists, particularly the extremely strong ones would only feel this even more intensely than normal people.

So for such a powerful sensor, perhaps one of the best in the world, Shiki's aura felt extremely pleasant. It had no hint of neither evil nor good, as if it was above such concepts, a rather intriguing and novel feeling.

While previously, they had been worn down by unpleasant auras, this new one almost cleansed their tired spirit.

Precisely because of this, when this new signature began flickering strangely, his body seemingly collapsed in the middle of the forest mid training, panic and worry set in.

It was like a precious treasure was on the verge of cracking, directly provoking a thought of helping.

And so, the noble personage called upon a trusted person to go find the boy and bring them into their residence in order to try and help him.

*

As for what had happened to Shiki, it was his overflowing ability combined with his lack of technical understanding of jutsu resulting in a rather peculiar situation.

While creating a technique solely based on the physical realm was straightforward enough even with nothing but a superficial knowledge of how things involving chakra worked and no actual info on the mechanisms behind them, trying the same in the spiritual realm was a bit hasty.

Basically, Shiki tried developing a technique based on his ability to achieve meditative state, like an active meditation that increased focus and resistance to genjutsu, at least that was the final goal.

For the moment, achieving active meditation would be sufficient for him. If successful, it could even become a foundation for a way to absorb nature energy while moving for example. That was far beyond the horizon for the time being however.

The end result of his uneducated attempts was most curious, a rarely seen event, Shiki managed to trap himself in a genjutsu of his own creation.

It was truly impressive, normally, affecting oneself with one's own genjutsu is difficult because it requires overriding one's natural instincts.

Normally, one would either break the genjutsu subconsciously or simply instinctually stop it when it started affecting them.

Shiki's ability to enter deep meditation combined with his advanced chakra control created a state of intense inner focus that he became completely shut off from the outside world, crumpling to the ground like a puppet that had its strings suddenly cut.

He himself didn't even realize his state and as such, could not set himself free. Perhaps even if he realized, he was too deep to break this sort of self cast genjutsu.

*

It was this state the esteemed personage sensed, a disturbance of chakra akin to being put under genjutsu despite the fact that no one even came close to Shiki worried them and so, a trusted servant was sent to retrieve him.

Arriving at the site indicated to him, a middle aged shinobi with a gruff look, greying dark brown hair and surprisingly, no indication of any affiliation to Konoha, saw the sight of a young boy that appeared to sleep peacefully with countless leaves spread around him and on him.

Approaching closer, the man dropped to one knee and scanned the boy with his trained senses, quickly discovering a few anomalies.

'The leaves on his body are stuck . . . The leaf sticking exercise? But to make them stick even while unconscious, quite a feat of instinctive control, a reflex resulting from continuous habitual training in the exercise.'

The man drew his conclusion nearly instantly, a sign of his extensive experience with shinobi life.

Shaking Shiki slightly, probing for a response, the feedback was utterly nonexistent.

'The state he is in seems deep enough that regular pain probably won't wake him. The situation is also peculiar enough that tried to break his state as if breaking a genjutsu might not be the best idea. I should bring him back like this.' The man quickly decided.

He could sense the state Shiki was in to be similar to genjutsu but his intuition from facing countless strange jutsu over the course of his life warned him that trying to break it the usual way might not be a good idea.

Coming to this decision, the man picked Shiki's small body up and carried him to the personage's personal compound, his speed across Konoha's rooftops making him unnoticeable to even most shinobi, not to mention the civilian population.

Rapidly arriving at the compound, there were no guards right outside, at least none visible and the middle aged shinobi, known as a servant of the noble personage would not be stopped either way so he casually entered, proceeding into the main building, slowing down and showing more deference as he approached.

It was a rather majestic building, combining easter and easter features, its most prevalent one being a central building with a spiral staircase that allowed one to reach a terrace with a clear view of the Hokage Mountain where the faces of the current and past Hokages were carved.

Reaching a room near this central tower, the man respectfully announced his arrival and the completion of his task.

"Mito-sama, I've brought the boy as you requested, he seems to be trapped in genjutsu but the situation is somewhat peculiar." The man reported from outside the room.

A mature yet strong feminine voice sounded from the room's interior in response.

"Bring the child in Tadao, then you may excuse yourself, you have done well in not rashly attempting to wake him."

"As you command Mito-sama." The man, Tadao, responded, showing no emotion in his voice or expression though his mistress knew the pride he took in his service to her, hence the praise she gave him, letting Tadao know his actions were correct.

He opened the door and carried Shiki in, it was a rather simple bedroom with little decoration beyond a spiral cone like earpiece and a large frame holding a green piece of tapestry depicting a whirlpool symbol.

The mark of Uzushio, oldest of Konoha's allies and the village Uzumaki Mito, the owner of the residence, was born, in a time before the village where she now stood was even formed.

Mito herself sat on a large padded wooden chair by her large bed, motioning Tadao to lay Shiki on it.

He did as she bade and left as previously commanded, leaving Mito alone with the boy, her intentions wholly unimportant to him.

"What a beautiful child." Mito commented in passing as she focused her sensory ability, the Mind's Eye of The Kagura, a signature jutsu only a few Uzumaki could master, onto the boy in her bed to investigate his condition further.

The results however, came as quite a surprise.

With her extensive sensory abilities, Mito could tell alot about a person when focusing on them, especially at such a close range.

Thus, she could detect a multitude of peculiarities within Shiki, besides his current condition.

'How intriguing . . .' Mito thought to herself.

'But first things first.' The most important thing was to help the boy, unveiling his mysteries could be left for later.

She quite looked forward to it and it had been quite a while since she had looked forward to something to such a degree.

There was a certain quality to the boy Mito could not quite explain, not clearly anyway. It was part of what drew her curiosity when she happened to sense him during Shiki's training.

Now she examined him from close up, the intensity of this quality was increased and it seemed more obvious but comprehension of it only seemed to drift further and further away the deeper she tried to look.

Understanding Shiki was becoming Uzumaki Mito's first real challenge in a long while that she was motivated to clear.

Such matters however, were for after the issue at hand was first resolved.

+++++

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