Do I Know You?

A few more months have passed and it's now my first birthday officially!

I've been given a calendar and I'm now able to track how old I am. This will be extremely helpful as I've spent a whole year not knowing how old I was.

You could argue I could have asked but age was never a thing I was taught yet so I wouldn't make sense for me to be like.

"Yo how old am I!"

When Kakashi read me a book it mentioned swords, so I took that as an opportunity to ask Kakashi for a sword. I asked for a ninjato which I believe would be a good weapon to focus on for the time being before I start practising ninjutsu.

You could make an argument of just using taijutsu which would be valid.

But honestly any shinobi can die to a simply stabbed or thrown kunai. So paired with my Swift Release it reinforces the fact this isn't the worst idea.

I mean Sakumo Hatake was minimum Low-Kage using a ninjato. Kakashi and Itachi used it in Anbu so it can't be all bad.

This will also bring an easier experience when getting my first kill if I don't get forced into it. I'd rather get a clean cut with a sword than kill with a kunai.

I'd assume that using quick speed to quickly finish off my opponents with clean slashes is much more effective than wrecking the place with ninjutsu and destructive abilities.

Kakashi on my birthday actually got me a wooden ninjato that is the actual size of a real metal one. I'd know because Kakashi said so and he's never lied to me.

I think.

Let's not fact-check that.

I've made sure not to get myself attached to Bird in any way because of the simple fact of her being a root member.

No matter how much she "cares" for me, she will always follow Danzo's commands and if asked will kill me without question.

Now this isn't to say I hate Bird.

No!

I've just got a favourite and it isn't her.

--POV DOG/Kakashi--

It's currently little Raidens first birthday.

A few months ago Raiden expressed an interest in swords and like any good older brother would do, I got a wooden one for him to train with till he's old enough for one.

I'll teach him how to hold and parry with a kunai today as he's been bugging me about it a lot lately.

Maybe after another read of Icha-Icha though...

Right now it's currently sometime in the morning and I'm working with Raiden to help him with his stance and how to hold his wooden kunai.

"A little more to the side Rei," I tell him as he quickly adjusts his stance.

Looking at the determined kid I start to tell him about the next exercise of practicing how to parry and block with a kunai.

Grabbing another wooden kunai I bought just yesterday for this I slowly but surely ingrain the stance and how to hold to kunai into Raiden as he adjusts very sloppily to my very slow hits.

'He's slow but he's only one, I can't expect Chunin-level speeds can I.' I dryly humour myself.

After a few more hours breeze by, Raiden and I stop our little training session to be postponed for tomorrow as we now have to eat lunch.

Raiden will meet that old fox for the first time tonight after all.

Now sitting in the kitchen eating with Raiden and Bird, I see Raiden starting to get nervous for some reason.

The kid now showing obvious signs of anxiousness starts to speak.

"Dog dog!, Outside!!!" My eyes raising a little not expecting such a thing for some reason.

Quickly looking over to Bird as she uses anbu signals, explaining that it depends if Danzo allows it. It is a bit weird to limit a child but he's not my kid and none of my business.

"You will have to ask your grand-uncle when he comes to visit you tonight," I say

I could see Raidens shocked eyes when I said that.

We usually avoided the topic of his family name to the point of him only knowing that his name was Raiden, so him knowing he had a grand-uncle was quite a big deal.

"I'll let your grand-uncle explain your situation more later on in the day alright?" I say in a soft tone

Raiden hearing this starts to nod cutely.

--POV Raiden--

"I'll let your grand-uncle explain your situation more later on in the day alright?" I hear Kakashi say in a soft tone

Hearing this I start to nod as I start to put the puzzle pieces into place in my mind.

'At this point with all my observations the only conclusion I have is that my "grand-uncle" is the one and only Danzo. I mean I don't think a kid like me would get so many privileges without me being related to someone like Danzo as there's no way the Hokage would let a root member take care of me.'

Kakashi should have joined Root right after the nine-tails rampage. The possibility I'm the child of a rich civilian or village elder who is in cahoots with Danzo is not that far.

Now the only thing I'm waiting for is sunset so I can finally meet my probably psychotic grand-uncle!

--POV Danzo--

It's finally time to meet Raiden for the first time since his birth.

Time sure has passed, he's now a year old and apparently he's very interested in Kenjutsu.

Specifically in Ninjatos.

A very good standard weapon that Root uses. 

Did Bird influence him?

Ignoring that I brought some gifts

So before coming here I went to my root library and picked up two Kenjutsu styles one of the styles is the Shimura Clan's personal Kenjutsu style while the other style is from the now-integrated Senju Clan from the warring era as a gift for him. I don't plan to make the boy to be spoiled but I don't want him to be a mindless solider either.

He needs to have the Battle IQ of a war veteran with the strength of an elite Jounin to guarantee his success.

So for the first four years of his life will be to improve his critical thinking, the in and outs of village politics and commerce. It's a hefty amount but because he has a decent amount of chakra unlocked he should be maturing faster than a normal child after all.

Feeling the late-night breeze on my skin, I open the door to the large house of 5 bedrooms. The place is located in the Clan district with multiple other Shimura houses close to it.

I could have visited him earlier but I've spent most of my time scheming against the Uchiha and spreading rumours about the demon vessel Naruto Namikaze's looks.

To gain the little ones' favour I got a Chakra conducting ninjato as a gift, you would think the Kenjutsu styles would be enough but a child wouldn't know their true value.

So bringing an actual sword would make the little guy easier to talk to.

--POV Raiden--

What a birthday it has been!

I've gotten my first form of training which I will need to exploit in the future to survive. Kakashi told me that physical exercise is crucial and is possible for me to do as I have already gotten my chakra unlocked.

Kakashi was kind enough to make me a little training routine I will follow that I will integrate in to my future learning.

Now sitting down in the living room re-reading a book about the Japanese language.

I'd say that I'm quite fluent now in speaking in Japanese and can focus on learning other things now.

While reading the book though I hear the entrance of the house opening.

'Is that grand-uncle?'

Standing up and putting my book on the table I start to make my way to the entrance to greet the "guest".

Going through the kitchen and into the big hallway I could see someone walking towards me that I now identify as Danzo Shimura.

'I'm a Shimura!'

The now identified man rocking a white kimono with a few bandages covering his right eye has black hair.

Breaking myself out of my stupor there were four shadows close by.

'This guy takes his safety seriously damn.' I say to myself

Danzo is a war veteran that can probably make a whole profile on my personality and skill set with just a few minutes of observation so I thought of a way to go under the radar in term of being too un-natural as I already am, and it's be always be honest and disguise my mood with something good.

I don't really have too many opinions of the guy but I can hide most of the things I want to by being excited to ask him if I'm able to leave the clan compound to explore as a good example of shifting my thinking when talking.

It's not like he's gonna ask me if I'm a reincarnate or something.

Walking up to the old Cyclops in an excited way I started to greet him with a bow.

"Hello, Granduncle!" I greet him with a cheery voice

"Hello Raiden I've heard some good things about you from Bird and Dog. Let's bring this conversation to the living room." Danzo says as he keeps walking towards the living room with me soon following after him

Hating the silence I randomly say a question.

"Where arm?"

My childish voice could be heard in the halls as a sudden stop occurred.

Everything was silent, including Danzo.

"Hmmm." He contemplates. It's not like he should tell a kid about being more sensitive.

So it should be alright.

Right?

"I lost it while protecting… A good friend."

"Who, who?!" 

The pauses in his sentences made me a little impatient. While it was a little obvious, this felt out of character for a guy like him.

"He's the third Hokage, Hiruzen. It was during the battlefield against Kumo, that their Raikage was able to blitz past while we were distracted." Nodding at his words, he looks at my wide eyes as I eagerly listen wanting more information. "Hiruzen was making a combination jutsu that sealed the fate of over 1000 shinobi and way more injured."

"Woah!"

My surprises weren't fake at all as this was new information not given in the original manga or anime. In all fairness remembering the destruction of one elemental A-Rank ninjutsu, imagine combining two like fire and wind.

It would basically eliminate a mid-sized village by itself.

"Ignoring that, I've been told you're interested in ninjatos now."

Nodding at his words a smile hits my face.

"I Train!" I huff out, opening the door to the living room for Danzo, The darkness of the shinobi world seeing this, tilts his head in thought.

Both of us enter the room we sit down crossing our legs.

"Because of your interest, I've decided to bring you a gift." He says as he brings our three scrolls

One scroll has weird writing on it while the other two have a symbol on them.

Danzo putting his hand on the left scroll uses chakra to unseal an item as a small white cloud appeared. The small white cloud soon after its disappearance starts to disappear as a clean ninjato with a slick black and grey design appears.

Seeing the sword you could see a glint in my eyes.

'It looks so clean.' I internally screamed at myself seeing the cool blade.

"Sword!" I say clearly trying to calm my excitement down

"Just call me Ojiisan and yes this is for you, but on two certain conditions" he says while putting the sword back into the scroll.

Hearing this I sucked in my breath waiting for his answer.

"You must train with Bird and Dog," Danzo says as he hands me a schedule that I think I'll need to give to Bird when Danzo leaves.

"That's a long time!" I respond as I can hear someone behind me facepalm

Now with the schedule in my hands, I proceed to take a look.

()()()

{Schedule: Tuesday to Thursday}

(7:30am-9:30am) Kenjutsu/Physical Conditioning

(11:00am-12:00am) Commerce

(1:00pm-2:00pm) Political Situation of Konoha

(3:00pm-4:30pm) Academy Work

(7:00-8:30pm) Chakra control exercises

()()()

Reading the whole schedule I started to get an excited look, of course for the Kenjutsu practise and Chakra control exercises.

'Damnit I can't escape school work wherever I go...' I inwardly complain

"This sword won't be your only gift if you can get up to par with my expectations." He says making me guess he's trying to rope me in with gifts

Not likes I had any other option if I said no that would just be plain stupid anyways.

After accepting his deal he goes on to explain the two kenjutsu styles he brought for me which surprised me since I never actually thought of getting one.

The styles I got were the Shimura Style: Swift Death and the Senju Style: Power Drift.

The Shimura Swift Death kenjutsu in simple words was to with quick precision and knowing the human's basic weak points would swiftly strike an opponents vital spots while constantly on the move.

While the Senju Power Drift is more of a defensive style with counters which includes using the opponents momentum against them while using your own strength to be hard as tall as a mountain but flow like water when the time is right.

'That's way different, is it because the Shimura style of more modern? While Senju's is more basic.'

Quickly accepting all of the scrolls I proceed to ask a question plaguing my mind for a while now.

"Ojiisan... Outside!" I say with an expectant look

Danzo calmly looks at me and replies.

"For now you can only visit the backyard and the garden in the Shimura compound. When you're older you will be able to go around the village with supervision."

Hearing this I lose my expectant look but I at least know that I'm gonna be able to explore in a years time.

'Do they seriously think anyone else other than me can understand their words?' 

Either way, there are no complaints here, it's better than being a mindless Root shinobi.

I have to make the most out of my training as this is a dangerous world after all.

The worries include Jounins and political enemies before world destroying aliens.

()()()

[Post random meme]

[A/N: Who would win? Kakashi and Asuma or the zombie duo (Kakazu & Hidan) Both after shippuden time skip. I'll join in the discussion if y'all reply xD]