3. New Friend
A cool, refreshing wind sweeps across the rooftop of a two-story house. Two small figures lie under the shade of a tree on the rooftop.
"So cool!"
Ritsu opens his eyes and blocks the warm sunlight with his small hands.
A yellow-haired, short boy lies beside him with a blue popsicle in his hand.
The sound of slurping and licking rings in Ritsu's ears.
"Do you like popsicles so much?" He turns around and asks Naruto with curiosity.
"Mm… I love it!" Naruto nods while licking the wooden stick clean.
He prepares to throw the stick away.
"Wait!" Ritsu notices some words on the stick and stops him.
He takes the stick from Naruto and smiles at the latter.
"You won the jackpot!"
"Jackpot?!" Naruto tilts his head in confusion.
"This means you will get another popsicle without paying money."
"Ohhhh!" Naruto makes an oval with his mouth.
"Let's grab another popsicle."
The duo jumps on the nearby tree branch and slides down the smooth tree trunk.
While walking, Ritsu reminisces.
'It has been a month since I made friends with Naruto. Both of us meet after lunch and hang out together until evening.'
Ritsu glances at Naruto and sighs.
'Unlike someone, I have a very busy schedule. I wake up early at 5 am and continue my practice of sword swings and Taijutsu techniques under Uncle Yuga, till 8. After eating breakfast, I learn how to read and write with my mother till 11. Then I will spend the next hour relaxing with Grandma while listening to her stories. After eating lunch, I will meet with Naruto to play in the evening.
Usually, I would train with my father in the evening, but father has been away on an important mission since last month. So, I have extra free time. Also, sometimes, I will train in Ninjutsu instead of reading and writing with mother.'
Ritsu recalls the hand signs of the most basic fire release jutsu his mother taught him. It's not the Fireball jutsu that he thought of, but a small fire ring jutsu.
Fireball jutsu is a high-level C-rank jutsu and thus is extremely hard to master. Fire ring jutsu is a D-rank jutsu and thus is comparatively easy.
'Even though I am not an Uchiha prodigy with inborn talent in Fire style, I will make it up with hard work. As a quarter Senju and three-fourth Uzumaki, I have high chakra reserves. Almost 5-6 times the normal chakra of a shinobi and it only grows even further until I reach adulthood. Having a high amount of chakra is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because I won't easily run out of chakra and practice my Ninjutsu skills for a long period. It's a curse because I have terrible chakra control and it's hard to grasp the right amount of chakra to infuse in a jutsu. Sometimes, this creates trouble and I ended up using more chakra than intended in my jutsu. It's fine for large-scale jutsu, but jutsus that require precise chakra amounts are hard to master. Slowly but surely, I will overcome this hurdle.'
Ritsu sighs.
'Speaking of high chakra level!' He glances at Naruto, who is merrily walking beside him while holding the popsicle stick like a treasure.
'Naruto has ten times the normal amount of chakra and it's still increasing with every passing day.' He sighs again.
The chakra reserves of a shinobi are decided by birth. Training regularly in the leaf concentration technique will increase chakra capacity. However, the effect is minimal and depends on the user's heritage. Perhaps after training in leaf concentration exercise for ten years, you will see an increment of, say, 10% chakra reserve. This increase isn't a lot for a normal shinobi. It will only allow him to release another fireball before running out of gas.
It's not that this extra chakra is not useful, but in a fight, it might not really matter. Besides, most shinobis don't have enough spare time to practice leaf concentration technique every day, two hours a day for ten years straight. It will be better to invest this time in honing other skills or perhaps learning how to control your chakra more effectively.
While Ritsu is lost in such thoughts, he trades the free stick with another popsicle and walks to the nearby park.
AH…
Naruto's sudden cry startles him.
"What happened?" Ritsu turns to Naruto. He follows Naruto's gaze and notices a group of haughty kids in front of him.
"These kids… they are…" Ritsu recalls their expression and understands the situation at a glance. He has an Ah! Not this shit again! expression on his face.
'These kids must be Naruto's bullies.' Having faced a similar experience, he can understand Naruto's situation with a single glance.
"Who are you?" He shields Naruto behind himself.
Naruto opens his mouth slightly, but Ritsu shakes his head.
"Don't worry! Big brother will protect you." He pats Naruto's head and tucks him behind.
"Hmm… so you are the friend that this demon fox told us about?"
A six-year-old kid walks in front of Ritsu. His height towers over Ritsu. Ritsu is only as tall as the latter's chest.
"So, what if I am?" Ritsu snorts and folds his arms.
"Hehe… nothing much! This means we also have another 'friend' to play with."
Ritsu immediately understands what they mean by play.
'So, these kids are bullying Naruto!' Four kids surround Naruto and Ritsu.
"Come, let's play!" They circle the duo.
"Sorry, but I don't have time to play with you." Ritsu grabs Naruto's arm and prepares to walk away.
"Hehe… but we want to play!" Another kid pushes Ritsu back into the circle.
"You can't bully my friend!" At this moment, Naruto musters his courage and walks in front.
"Bully?" The kids tilt their heads, feigning confusion.
"Who said we are bullying you? We just want to play with you!" He smiles at Naruto.
"Come, let's play tag!" Another kid pushes Naruto with force. Naruto staggers and almost falls if not for Ritsu's support.
"Now, it's your turn!"
Another kid taps Ritsu and Naruto from the side while taunting them with a gesture.
This action snaps something in Ritsu, and his eyes fill with rage.
"In that case…"
He clenches his fist and rushes towards the boy in front of him.
"Eat this!"
Bang…
He punches the latter in the stomach, raising a small dust cloud with his momentum.
Ah!
The boy who is hit by Ritsu's punch is stunned. The expression on his face turns ugly. Other kids also turn silent.
After a few seconds of silence,
"Huh! It doesn't hurt much." The boy rubs his fat belly.
"I thought it would hurt a lot, but it doesn't hurt that much."
"Hehe… boys, we want to play and make friends. But this kid wants to fight!" A grin appears on his face.
"Then let's teach him how to fight!"
The four kids rush towards Ritsu.
'Damn it! I thought I had some strength after that training. But I only trained for two months and my little body doesn't have much strength. I tried to close the gap with technique, but these kids seem to be from the academy. In that case, I will use the Senju clan Taijutsu that I spent hours learning!'
Haah…
"Heavenly Spear kick,"
Ritsu leaps in the air while extending his right foot.
Bang…
-------------------
Ten minutes later,
"Don't let me see you next time or else…" Ritsu flashes his fist before the academy kids.
"We won't let you get away with this!" the kids growl a threat at him and run away.
Ritsu rubs the blue and black bruises on his face in pain.
'This time, I will stand for myself.' He turns to Naruto.
"Naruto, no matter what, you should stand up for yourself!" He pats Naruto's head.
'Those bastards sneak attacked from behind and tried to overwhelm me with their number! At first, I wanted to burn them with my fire ring jutsu, but it isn't a good idea to use something like this in such a close area.'
Using offensive ninjutsu within village confines is prohibited. The only place a shinobi can use ninjutsu is inside an open area, approved by the village. Most of these open areas are training grounds. There are over a hundred training grounds within the village. Most of these training ground belongs to several clans within their territory.
The Senju clan also has their own training ground and so do other clans. The remaining training grounds are public training grounds, open to everyone.
Ritsu borrows an ice pack from the popsicle vendor and rubs it on the bruises on his face to reduce swelling.
He sighs and turns to Naruto.
"Let's search for another secret spot next time!"
Mm…
Naruto nods.
'Next time, I won't get hurt so easily.'
Ritsu part ways with Naruto and arrives in front of the Senju clan.
Sigh…
"I must train even harder to never get hit again. For now, I will set a small goal." Ritsu clenches his fists.
His adorable action getting some chuckles from the passer-by aunties and grandmas.
"I will master the C-rank Fireball jutsu in a month and complete my training in basic Senju taijutsu and Kenjutsu by the end of this year."
A few minutes later, he arrives in front of his house.
Ishiko is standing outside with folded arms.
"I am back home!"
"Welcome back!" Ishiko shakes her head.
"Looks like my little fellow got bullied!"
"It's fine! I have yet to grow." Ritsu makes a gesture with arm.
"Alright… alright… you won't get bullied after you grow up. For now, go and wash yourself. Mama will apply her secret healing medicine to vanish the pain."
He likes the feeling of affection and pampering from his mother and grandmother. Their affectionate gesture heals every wound in his heart and body.
"Ok!" He nods meekly.
"Hoho… Ritsu is such a kind and compassionate kid!" A middle-aged woman with slight wrinkles and red hair walks out of a nearby room.
"Mom!" Ishiko turns to the middle-aged woman.
"He will turn into a fine and strong gentleman when he grows up!" The middle-aged woman smiles.
"I just hope he doesn't bully the weak!" Ishiko shakes her head.
Both she and Akinao have tested Ritsu's talent. Ritsu has an outstanding talent at the level of a prodigy. Both his Ninjutsu and Genjutsu talents are genius-level. And even his kenjutsu and Bukijutsu skills are quite good. He has very good comprehension and learns everything quickly. He pays rapt attention to their teaching and grasps everything with just a simple explanation, and he always focuses on the details. But what surprised them the most was his perseverance and strong will. He won't stop his training unless someone asks him to. This is a cause of worry for everyone in the family.
"However, this is an era of peace. What dangers could a child face?" Ishiko mutters.
"Strength doesn't always come from the body." Shima smiles faintly and walks out.
"I will take a small stroll to meet some friends."
Whoosh…
She disappears from Ishiko's vision.
"Sigh… the elder council!" Ishiko rubs her forehead with a headache.
--------------
Inside the bath,
Ritsu carefully wipes his body while making plans for his future.
'I have been in this world for two months now. After two months, I have learned that my talent for shinobi arts is good but I need to further hone my skills to use them effectively. I am still not good enough!' He recalls today's fight against those kids.
"Also, I have yet to learn the language of this world. Since the shinobi language resembles Japanese, they have three different writing systems with three different syllabaries—Katakana, Hiragana, and Kanji. And I have to learn all these first before even thinking about learning complex techniques."
Ritsu recalls the basic Fuinjutsu scroll he saw the other day in his grandma's collection. Just looking at it gave him a headache. However, it also made him excited because the Fuinjutsu runes and their arrangements reminded him of something—something that he was very passionate about in his last life—Programming.
Yes, programming was one of his passions in his last life, a fond hobby he developed while in school. Since he had few friends, he spent most of his time in the school library, reading books and learning new things and skills.
He always wanted to try programming, but he didn't have enough money to buy a computer. His grandma learned of his passion and bought him an old used computer on his sixteenth birthday. That was one of the happiest moments of his life- receiving a gift that he loved from the most beloved person in his life.
He spent hours every day learning to program and coding on that old computer. The internet was expensive, but he was able to save enough money from his allowance and buy books from stores to learn.
When he went to college, he opted for Computer Science to pursue his passion and he was really good in his subject. For a time, he was among the best students in the college. However, after his grandma's death, he was heartbroken and neglected his studies for a year.
It took him a long time to move on, but he still remembered his grandma's words to cherish his life and not get stuck in a place and carry an emotional burden.
He managed to salvage his situation and get a decent job in a good company. The pay was high, and the workload was manageable.
Sigh…
'Who could have thought that a sudden earthquake would topple everything? Still, I have a new life and a new family. I mustn't let my past life influence my current life. Or I will burden myself with both my past and current regrets in the future. I will take steady and strong steps and do my best.'
He laments his past and looks forward to his future.