N:RTK. 3: Lay Of The Land.

Disclaimer: This fanfiction is a creative work inspired by the Naruto universe created by Masashi Kishimoto. It is not intended for profit or to infringe upon any copyrights associated with the original series. All recognizable characters and settings belong to their respective creators.

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Opening Author's Note: Well, I hope you guys liked the second chapter. I know it got a little info dumpy but I need to take into consideration that not everyone knows Naruto and how the world of Naruto works.

So the second chapter was written while keeping that in mind do not worry though for the rest of the chapters I will be incorporating these info dumps and expositions more smoothly into the story while slowly revealing more information.

Also one more thing just because I displayed his talent limits doesn't mean that he would be restricted to that level. The MC can still overcome his natural limits through other ways.

Like if he got Hashirama cells somehow and carefully integrated it into his body then his Chakra pool would immediately go from high chunin to elite jonin or even low kage level. I am not saying that this is the path that he will take but this is just a possibility.

But that still quite ahead in the future so let me not get ahead of myself and begin the chapter. I hope you enjoy.

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Summary of the previous chapter –

Adam gets the results of the test. His scores aren't good, but he expected it because he is a civilian. Though his talent scores in Genjutsu and Iryo-ninjutsu is quite decent around Jonin level. His hopes are reignited when he finds out that his talent score in fuin-jutsu is at the low kage level.

After this the ROB reincarnates Adam in Naruto and he wakes as a 5 year old. When looked out of the window at hokage rock, he is shocked to see only Hashirama's face. He questions the timeline ROB sent him into and is filled with the dread of uncertainty.

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Last time on Naruto: Road To Kage. Chapter 2. Glimmering Hope –

"– is there only Hashirama's face on that knock-off Mount Rushmore."

He was filled with the dread of uncertainty, for he was in an era he had very little information about.

Now Continuing –

'Hmm, it seems like I wasn't transmigrated but rather, truly reborn. This stream of memories that's slowly filling my mind of the past 5 years is definitely helpful. Thanks, ROB, for letting me skip the baby years.'

He thought to himself, rather than speaking out loud, because despite being in his own room, he couldn't ever be too careful now. After all, he was in a Ninja village filled with spies and interrogation specialists who could enter one's memories.

'Fucking Yamanakas.'

'I need information even though I practiced and kept myself fit. It was only average at best.' He needed to learn the history of this world to find exactly where he was in the timeline.

He hoped [Uchiha Madara], the dancing master, wasn't in the village because he was a fucking menace and someone who didn't even want to stand in front of him if he didn't have a way to get out of dodge.

As he was putting his thoughts together, he dressed himself; there wasn't much in terms of selection choices. But he didn't mind; after all, he was just a poor orphan kid now, though he wouldn't be one for too long if he had anything to say about it.

After locking the door to his small apartment, he left after hiding the key in a crack and filling it with sand so it remained well hidden. It wasn't really visible from his window but he could see decorations on the streets, as if a festival was going on.

He tried to recall if today was important.

'Ah, today's Tsunade's birthday; how old was she again? Was it 2 years ago that these festivities started?'

'Anyways that means the ninja will be more preoccupied with guarding the important shit, and I can enter and leave the academy's ninja library with no questions asked.'

He thought to himself, as he made his way through the crowd, taking in the sights while putting the known paths of the village in his mind. For now, it was his muscle memory carrying him through; he remembered he had been going to the academy for about a year.

And it hadn't been that long since its establishment, he also was remembering about hearing about the rumors of Hashirama's clash with Madara in the valley of the end. The merchants couldn't stop talking about the incident for weeks.

They literally changed the landscape, destroyed an entire section of a mountain range, leveled the surrounding hills, and created a freaking waterfall by redirecting the flow of a god-damn river.

That was the level of these two legendary Ninjas who earned the right to hold the title of [God of Shinobi].

Unlike Hiruzen, who probably did it through propaganda and brainwashing his forces, he refused to believe that Prime Hiruzen was anywhere close to the power level of [Senju Hashirama] or Uchiha Madara.

The only other ninja that was in Konoha right who he would consider for the title would be [Tobirama Senju]. And it wasn't because of his prowess but rather because of his brains.

The man was the brains behind hashirama's smooth reign as a kage and while Hashirama may have built the village, Tobirama was the one who made it into a reality.

His contribution towards the creation of the shadow clones, the reanimation jutsu, the strongest non-sharingan genjutsu and the list just went on. It was Tobirama who he truly felt was worthy of the title of [The Professor].

And that was the level he would be aiming for as well, yes, his bet with ROB was only to achieve the level of a kage. So even a low level kage would have satisfied the bet, but he wanted to see how far he could go if he pushed himself.

'So, this is the academy, man it almost looks the same as the one from Naruto. Anyways, the library and archives are in the underground levels, if I remember correctly.'

'It hasn't been that long since I started at the academy, so if I say that I came by to read up on the basics, it should seem normal. Now the only thing I need to do is be confident.'

He exhaled a long breath and relaxed further. He had a confident and sunny smile on his face as he made his way inside. After getting only a passing glance from the librarian, he made a beeline towards the back.

After perusing the aisles for a while, he selected three books. [Chakra Theory], [Ninja Basics 101] and [History of the Leaf].

He went for these three in particular because all three of them had been written by the one and only No.1 genius of Konoha.

Senju Tobirama. The man was still living in the shadow, but his brilliance still shone through. He was the one who established the Shinobi Academy, as he went through the book named - History of the Leaf.

He discovered where he was exactly in the timeline, and he had to admit it. It didn't look good for him. He realized that the First Great Ninja War wasn't too far off; in only a few years, Hashirama would die protecting the retreating Leaf Shinobi Army.

He discovered where he was exactly in the timeline, and he had to admit it. It didn't look good for him. He realized that the First Great Ninja War wasn't too far off; in only a few years, Hashirama would die protecting the retreating Leaf Shinobi Army.

And that would be the spark that would ignite the powder keg of death and destruction.

He couldn't help change that outcome, as he was still too weak; in fact, he was so weak that he knew if he were to be sent off to war after the academy training, then he would die like nothing but a nameless cannon fodder.

After reading up a bit on the clans and their history, he closed the book. He closed his eyes to recall the map of the Elemental Nations in his mind's eye.

'Good, that's one important thing I've memorized. I will get a more detailed one on the borders of the fire nation later.'

'Now, let's see what this chakra really is..'

He had been given a brief rundown by his teacher at the academy before they unlocked everyone's chakra.

But he wanted to know what it really was and how it worked, maybe he would gain some idea on how to break limits on his talents.

He always saw the ninja in Naruto as mages who could use elemental magic, create illusions, strengthen their own bodies, manipulate space, etc.

Hmm, so chakra is basically a mixture of mental energy (yin) and physical energy (yang). Now all this is stored in the belly button area, and it spirals out in chakra pathways or networks.

'It looks like the nervous system, but less extensive; my chakra pathways mustn't be wide or strong enough to handle more chakra like those of the clan Shinobi.'

'It says here that as we use up our chakra, we channel it through these pathways towards the required tenketsu, which in turn causes the chakra pathways to widen.'

'Looks like I found what I will be doing for the next few weeks, except for training in hand seals.'

Hand seals were a whole other ball game; they basically helped the ninjas mold their chakra and perform jutsu. But as one uses a jutsu more often, they develop a muscle memory of molding the chakra for that jutsu through the hand seals.

It allows for ninjas who are experienced at using one particular jutsu to use it with lesser hand seals than required. Every element even has its own hand seal that is used at the beginning of casting a jutsu.

This allows the ninjas to counter each other by using jutsu of opposing nature. If a ninja uses the horse seal then he is definitely going to use a fire jutsu.

Like Madara against allied shinobi when he made the horse hand seal and used the majestic destroyer flame.

The allied shinobis didn't wait till they saw the fire, but instead the moment they saw Madara use the horse hand seal they started using all the defensive water jutsus they knew.

He planned on developing a way to use ninjutsu without hand seals at all and then he would use the hand seals of the other elements to influence the enemy into using the element that his own actual attack would be stronger against.

An example would be he would up the hand seal for wind jutsu; the enemy seeing this would obviously counter with fire, but the actual jutsu he would be using would be of the water element.

Also, he promised himself to never shout the actual names of jutsu, rather just like the hand seal. Even the names he would shout out would be fake.

He would shout, Katon: katon goukakyuu no jutsu, and do the horse seal, but then hit them with the lightning barrage when they raised up a water wall to defend against him.

It was devious and despicable, but it was the way of the ninjas—to deceive their enemies and win no matter the cost.

Obviously, it wouldn't be easy; he figured it would be like drawing a circle and a triangle at the same time while reciting a story backwards. But he knew it would be worth it if it would allow him to survive and win in this treacherous world.

Ninja Basics 101 came with a guide and introduction to all the dos and don'ts of the Ninja Lifestyle. It even gave a brief explanation of all the various subjects that were available in academy courses.

It didn't interest him much, so he dedicated his time to finding a book on the Uzumaki and the art of seals. Thankfully, it seemed he was in luck; he found a book on seals by unnamed. The author's name wasn't mentioned, but the information inside looked legit.

So, he decided to give it a try, as he read through, he realized just how basic Kishimoto's interpretation of fuin-jutsu was, or maybe it was because this was an AU Naruto world. But here fuin-jutsu wasn't the art of sealing but rather "seals."

These "seals" were a language of their own that seemed to allow a ninja to do whatever they wanted provided they were smart and creative enough to solve equations of the seals to maintain the balance.

Because an imbalanced seal would just explode, leading to grievous injuries and sometimes even death of the user. It's why it was one of the most obscure ninja arts.

Fuin-jutsu was actually like a…

.

..

.

His trip to the library ended, after he had finished reading through the book and found something very interesting. It had been a seal that looked like it was hiding some secret information behind it.

But as he began to try and break it, his instincts kicked in. He stopped and observed every single line and inch of that seal, and finally he saw what made his skin crawl.

It was a small transmission seal he found attached to the security seal and made to look like it was a part of it when it wasn't.

He understood what it was immediately as his mind connected the dots. This was a trap if a student talented in fuin-jutsu unlocked the seal. Then a transmission would be sent, and they would know of the seal being broken.

They will then do anything to get the student into what he could only imagine were the more clandestine organizations of the leaf, like the ANBU or the root, if that cancer even existed at the moment.

He quietly left the library and made his way back to his apartment, in his zeal to study fuin-jutsu, he had missed lunch, and it was almost dinner time now. His growling stomach was calling out for food, so to appease it, he decided to indulge a little and bought a meat skewer.

It was delicious—better than any meat he had ever tasted back on earth. The owner advertised it as chakra beast meat, boasting how it was beneficial to the growing body of a child like him.

'Hmm, I forgot to look into nutrition and medicine. I am a kid right now, and while it might come with the drawback that I am too weak right now to protect myself, it also comes with the advantage that I can grow stronger than what I would have been if I had simply transmigrated into an older body.'

He also needed to look into these chakra beasts; they were only mentioned as being in the forest of death and being rare to find. Was it more common in this world that even a street vendor could sell it?

All these were questions that he would need to find answers to tomorrow. But for now, he was just going to enjoy the night exploring the village and getting a lay of the land.

He wanted to see where everything was because he only knew mostly about the residential area and the orphanage to the south where he had been raised.

As he moved to the western district of the village, he saw the plants and trees come to life as they bloomed with flowers and fruits. He felt a soothing aura spread all over him as the villagers stopped and smiled as they looked at the beautiful scene.

He asked a nearby villager about what it was, and the villager looked at him confused and said, "Oh, this happens all the time, kid. Do you live under a rock?"

"Sorry, I don't go out much often, sir." He replied in an apologetic tone, as he scratched the back of his head.

"Today is a very important day, it is day konoha was established so Hashirama-sama spreads his powerful chakra all over the village and gives us with these fruits and flowers. But I think this peaceful aura and this beautiful scenery is the greatest gift of all."

"Me too." He replied with a smile as he thanked the old man and moved on.

In his trip around the village, he saw various clan compounds, like the Nara, the Akimichi, the Inuzuka, the Senju and even the Uchiha. He was drawing a map of the village in his head, so that he knew where everything was and also just how big everything was.

It was hard to estimate just how big a clan compound is just by looking at the map. He also found the training grounds; most of them were located on the outskirts of the village. But the clans had training grounds inside their compounds; it was one of the benefits that came with being realized as a clan in konoha.

After reading up on the history of this world, he knew what his immediate problem was going to be. Thankfully, on his trip around the village, he also found the answer to his problem.

Though it was going to be a hard one to pull off, for now he was going to have to train on his own and bide his time.

— To be continued…

In the next episode of X̶-̶M̶e̶n̶ '9̶7̶

Cough* *Cough*

I meant in the next chapter of Naruto: Road to Kage.

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Word Count: 2,531 words (without the author's notes and disclaimer.)

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{Closing Author's Note: Thanks for reading, this is part of my exclusive works that's available on pat. reon.

If want to read ahead you can do so by heading over to Patr eon theramenlord and read upto 13 chapters ahead of this public release.

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Anyways, I hope everyone is happy and healthy, this is bye for now but I will be back in a few days with a new chapter. I hope you have a beautiful day 😁👍}