Reito stepped out of the line of students to face Sekka, the top student, resigned to the idea that he was about to be dealt a humiliating defeat. She looked him over with disdain.

“Okay, good job, Sekka, switch with…Akio, please,” said Iruka Sensei.

Reito’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He’d been saved, but he wasn’t sure whether to be more relieved that he wasn’t fighting Sekka or concerned about her replacement, who looked delighted to have been chosen. Still, he had wanted to fight Akio the day before, hadn’t he? Since they weren’t permitted to use Chakra, this might be a good opportunity to get back at the boy.

Facing each other, Reito and Akio performed the Seal of Confrontation. The red-haired boy was raring to go, his clenched teeth bared.

“Begin!” the teacher instructed.

Before he knew it, Reito was stumbling sideways, reeling from a knifehand strike to his cheek. Akio was fast! Reito used the momentum to his advantage, rolling forward and spinning around, prepared to react from his crouched position. However, Akio was already close, his arm pulled back for a punch.

Reito moved his head just in time and darted to his left, but Akio was on him again immediately. There wasn’t even time to get to his feet, so Reito tried sweeping the boy’s legs. Akio somersaulted, bringing a heel down forcefully. Reito braced his crossed forearms to block the impact, which worked but allowed his opponent to bounce into a backflip and launch a new attack.

Using this brief opening to get to his feet, Reito widened his stance and raised his arms. They exchanged hands at speed, but for every blow he parried, Akio landed another. That was when he noticed Akio laughing.

The gap in their Taijutsu skills was this big, yet his opponent wasn’t even taking him seriously. Akio was purposely holding back to prolong the fight and take pleasure in knocking him around.

Frowning indignantly, it occurred to Reito that this meant Akio was underestimating him. He had been on the defensive the whole time. If he switched things up, he might be able to take Akio by surprise. Trying his best to focus despite the pain Akio was inflicting with every calculated body shot, Reito waited for an opening. When the boy laughed again, he saw his chance.

Reito braced his back leg, swung his left arm upward to deflect Akio’s incoming left hook and force his body to turn inward, then threw his weight behind a retaliatory punch. He’d timed it perfectly, so it was a shock when Akio caught the punch in his open palm and skidded backward a pace from the impact. He had turned on the spot at incredible speed to free up his hand.

Akio had protected his face, but the more pressing issue was that he now had a tight grip on Reito’s fist. A devilish grin flashed across the boy’s face, and Reito suddenly panicked, remembering their previous encounter. He was going to burn him again. Acting purely on instinct, Reito reflexively pushed out like he had before.

What happened next seemed to play out in slow motion. Reito watched as Akio’s expression changed to one of alarm, his feet left the floor, and he began to soar across the training field, landing ten feet from the place he had been standing.

“Reito!” Iruka Sensei roared. “Wha-what do you think you’re doing? No Chakra is allowed during sparring, you know that!”

He barely registered the words. No Chakra? He hadn’t used Chakra. He couldn’t use Chakra, not like that. And yet, his arm was still extended following his blocked punch, and his opponent was getting to his feet a considerable distance from him, looking furious.

“A killer and a cheater!” spat Akio, rubbing his chest and adjusting his mussed pompadour.

“Silence, Akio!” the teacher chastised. “Reito, you’re disqualified! Switch with Daishi.”

Reito didn’t dare look at his classmates’ faces as he was dismissed from the field without even performing the Seal of Reconciliation. His cheeks were red with shame and embarrassment, and his mind was racing. Akio had blocked his punch, hadn’t he? Or was it some sort of delayed reaction? No, that was ridiculous. It was clear Reito had done something else, but what exactly? And how?

Racking his brain for an answer, Reito found himself remembering his previous run-in with the boy. Had something odd occurred then too? Was that why Akio had relinquished his fiery grip, why Haru had thought a Jutsu was responsible? What about the bathroom wall? Sakura had asked what Jutsu he used on it. Then there was the tree….

Reito stared at his open hand in contemplation. He had done it. He had been the only person around. He had broken the branch off somehow when he threw up his arms. He had pushed it the same way he pushed Akio; he was sure of it now. But how had he done it? What was happening to him?

***

“Hey, wait up,” Haru called after Reito when the school day was finally over. “Still want to train together?”

Reito hadn’t spoken since the incident with Akio, and unsurprisingly, no one had spoken to him. “Err, sure, but… After what happened…” he responded.

“Come on, it’s pretty obvious you didn’t mean to do…whatever it is that you did,” said Haru nonchalantly. “Once we learn to use Chakra, it’s hard not to use it when you’re under pressure. We’ve all slipped up at some point. Akio tried using his burning technique on Hanabi last year, the hypocrite! She laid him up, of course. What sort of technique was it that you used, anyway?”

“I don’t know,” Reito said under his breath, scanning his surroundings for eavesdroppers. “I’ve never done anything like that before, at least not before I…went missing.”

“Oh,” said Haru. “We should probably figure it out during training, then.”

Reito gave a mirthless laugh, staring at the boy in disbelief. “Are you sure? Aren’t you worried?”

“No more than you must be,” Haru shrugged. “It must be weird to wake up with some new Jutsu you don’t understand. Kinda cool…but weird.”

“What if it’s dangerous, though? It could be connected to… Do you think I should tell someone?”

Haru looked pensive for a few moments. He, more than anyone, understood the importance of any information that might pertain to Reito’s disappearance. “Let’s figure out what you can do first,” he said. “Where should we go? Training Ground Two is closest.”

“No, Six,” said Reito, an idea occurring to him.

“Why there?”

Reito wanted to explain, to tell Haru about his mother’s exam, but he was forbidden to speak of the secret final test that awaited this year’s graduates. “There’s a route I used once. I want to compare how I do now,” Reito clarified, and this was true to an extent.

“Alright. So, what did you think of sparring? How do we compare with your old classmates?”

“About the same, I guess, though there were a couple of surprises. You were right about the girls!”

“Right?” said Haru with a smile.

“I couldn’t believe that guy who took the dive against Sekka, though.”

The boys joked about Keita’s tactics. “What about Daishi?” Haru asked next.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Who did he spar with? I don’t remember; I wasn’t paying much attention after…”

“Akio,” Haru confirmed. “I was hoping you saw because I can’t get a read on his Taijutsu. He’s pretty good at dodging, but I have this feeling he holds back on offense. He lost, but Akio was still mad about what you did, so he was full of openings, and Daishi was moving like he was going to strike a bunch of times but never did.”

“Weird,” Reito commented. “I’ll have to look out for that next time.”

***

When Reito and Haru arrived at Training Ground Six, they headed right for the tree line.

“What are we looking for?” Haru whispered.

“This,” Reito answered, pointing to an ‘X’ marked on the trunk of a thick sycamore. “I made this…a long time ago. From here, we’re going to race that way at maximum speed, okay?”

Haru blinked in confusion. “That’s all?” he asked.

Reito nodded, “Yep, for fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen minutes at maximum? You mean, no conservation, just give it all we’ve got? Sorry, Reito, my Chakra will run out before that.”

“Right, so should mine.”

“Oh. So…it’s like endurance training?”

Reito nodded in reply. It couldn’t hurt to work on their stamina, but he had another goal in mind. So, after the pair molded Chakra, they took starting positions and then began their race. Haru moved a little better than Reito, but after five minutes or so of trailing him through the thick wood, bouncing from tree to tree so quickly that their arms flailed out behind them, Reito began to gain, then edge ahead.

Around the ten-minute mark, Reito lost his competitor. It was as he suspected. This was the route he had once used to flee from Amaya Sensei with her red flag. Back then, he had been forced to abandon his escape attempt in favor of hiding. The difference was as plain as day. He hadn’t felt the need to stop this time. He had barely even slowed down.

Reito kept running until he reached a stream intersecting his path. He came to a stop at the water’s edge, bending over to catch his breath, viewing his reflection in the mirrored surface. He was sweating, and his cheeks were rosy, but his Chakra hadn’t yet been depleted. Whatever he had done during sparring, the shocking number of clones he had produced… These weren’t abilities he possessed five years ago. Something about his Chakra was different. Something about him was different.

***

After a quick rest, Reito headed back the way he came, eventually meeting a tired Haru, and they returned to the clearing together at a considerably slower pace.

“Man, I’ve got to enlarge my Chakra pool!” Haru exclaimed, collapsing onto the grass.

Reito joined him on the ground and began rubbing his calves, but for reasons he explained on their journey, he didn’t share the sentiment. Apparently, his Chakra pool was more than sufficient these days.

“So, you look the same, but you’ve got more Chakra and can use some weird Jutsu you didn’t know before?”

“Pretty much,” Reito confirmed.

“Maybe you invented a time-travel Jutsu?” Haru proposed with a wide grin.

Reito chuckled. “If I had gone back in time, wouldn’t I look ten years older now, not five years younger?”

“Alright, bear with me. Maybe you found the Fountain of Youth in the future?”

“So, I find the Fountain of Youth and invent time travel? Wow, I turn out to be a pretty good ninja!”

The two boys laughed heartily at this. Reito couldn’t help thinking of Kazuki. He would have liked Haru. “Can you use any special Jutsu?” he asked.

“Nah, I think I’m destined to fail the Graduation Exam. I’m a failure as a ninja,” Haru said.

“Oi! You’re no failure; you can heal people,” Reito insisted. “I was never any good at anything except for Shuriken Jutsu, and I wasn’t even the best at that! If I could pass five years ago, anyone has a shot!”

Haru shrugged. “The academy doesn’t test us on it, but I’m alright at Kenjutsu,” he said.

“Like your mom? Did she teach you?”

“Yeah, since I was a toddler, and I’ve kept up my practice since…” he said solemnly. “But it’s not much use when I can’t afford a katana. Even if I do graduate, I can’t exactly take my kendo shinai on missions!”

“I dunno about that,” Reito chuckled, thinking of Amaya Sensei’s amazing Lightning-Style Kenjutsu. “Maybe you can light your shinai on fire during battles?”

Haru laughed loudly, then got to his feet. “Come on, let’s see your technique.”

Reito stood up but wasn’t sure what to do next. “I don’t know how I did it,” he admitted.

“Hmm. What were you thinking when it happened the other times?”

“I was mad, I guess.”

“So, get mad!” Haru suggested, looking around the nearby brush. “Here, I’ll help.” He picked up a long stick and brandished it like a sword, then started poking Reito with it.

“Hey!” Reito objected.

“What’s wrong? Is it making you mad?” Haru mocked. “Make me stop. Use your Jutsu.”

Reito dodged and deflected the jabs and swings of Haru’s stick, which he wielded with expert proficiency, and returned blows when he could, but even after an hour, he wasn’t able to reproduce what he did to Akio. Tired, hungry, and bruised all over, the boys decided to call it a day.

***

The following morning, Reito arrived at Training Ground Three just before dawn. After visiting the memorial and waiting ten minutes, he started to worry his new sparring partner wouldn’t show.

“Morning,” a voice spoke to Reito’s rear.

Reito lurched in fright, then turned to greet Kakashi Sensei, wondering whether he enjoyed sneaking up on people. “Good morning. I thought I might have got the time wrong.”

“Ah, sorry. I don’t like alarm clocks, and the rooster in the neighbor’s yard was late with its morning crow,” said the masked man, “then a black cat crossed my path on the way here, so I had to take the long way around.”

“Oh,” said Reito simply, unsure what to say in response to such blatant lies. Still, he wasn’t going to question the future Hokage.

“So, shall we begin?” Kakashi asked. “I was thinking that I would give myself a handicap. I won’t use any Chakra or my left hand, but you should feel free to fight as you wish.”

“Oh,” Reito repeated. “Are you…? Are you sure? Is that fair?”

“Ah, perhaps not. Okay, I won’t use my left leg either,” said Kakashi, placing his arm behind his back and balancing on one foot.

Reito looked dumbstruck. That was not what he meant, but he couldn’t tell if the man was being playful or brutally honest. If Kakashi Sensei was on Amaya Sensei’s level, a would-be Genin probably didn’t stand a chance against him, even with half of his limbs not in use. With that in mind, Reito decided he would take any advantage offered. “Okay,” he agreed, then began building Chakra.

After performing the Seal of Confrontation, they began. There was something to be said for having a highly skilled partner. Despite only knowing the standard Konoha-Style Taijutsu taught at the academy—and not being especially good at it—Reito felt like he was doing pretty well by employing Chakra to increase his speed and power to their fullest. He had never been able to go all out like this before.

That said, during the hour they fought, he hadn’t landed a single blow on Kakashi Sensei. The way the man hopped around and parried every one of Reito’s punches or kicks with one hand would have been embarrassing if it weren’t so impressive.

“Phew, I’m beat,” Kakashi sighed after calling a halt to their exercise.

Reito, who was busy trying to catch his breath, couldn’t help noticing the man hadn’t broken a sweat. “How did you learn to fight, Sensei?” he asked.

“Hmm,” Kakashi considered thoughtfully, a hand on his chin. “Well, like this, I guess. Lots of hard work! That, and I had a crazy rival who liked to impose rules on our workouts. Maybe I’ll try fighting while standing on my hands next time?”

Reito laughed nervously at this, again uncertain whether the man was serious or not.

“Same time tomorrow?”

***

“Well?” asked Tsunade impatiently, peeking over her clasped hands.

“During my session with him, I observed that he appears to have vast Chakra reserves, or at least, far more than his old Ninja Registration Form suggested,” Kakashi confirmed, standing in front of the Hokage’s desk to give his report. “He doesn’t have much Taijustu skill to speak of, but we sparred for an hour, and during that time, I pushed him beyond the limit of an ordinary academy student. His Chakra output remained steady throughout despite his tenuous control. I almost had to use both feet!”

“But he didn’t demonstrate this…ability of his?”

“No, but after the reports from Sakura, Iruka Sensei, and our tracker, it seems that he’s become aware of it now. Yesterday, he tried unsuccessfully to replicate the ability while training with a classmate.”

“Haru Daigo, huh?” said Tsunade, narrowing her eyes. “I’m not sure how I feel about that. If that boy were to get hurt after what happened to his mother, I’d never hear the end of it from Saito Kannushi and his followers. It’s bad enough that Reito vandalized the academy.”

“He owned up to that, though, allowing us to keep it quiet. And I don’t believe he’s a danger to the Daigo boy,” Kakashi offered. “Reito has experienced trauma. Anyone would have trouble dealing with what he’s going through.”

“True.”

“As for this technique of his, it doesn’t seem particularly offensive in nature,” Kakashi said, scratching the back of his head. “I’m not sure it’s even correct to describe it as a technique. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say he’s simply releasing bursts of Chakra.”

“It’s premature to say that,” Tsunade chided, “but we can conclude now that the condition he was found in—the immense internal and external damage—was almost certainly self-inflicted, meaning he has enough Chakra to cause himself and perhaps others serious injury.”

“Hmm. And the Medical Division didn’t find a source to explain it. It would be one thing if he was a Jinchūriki or possessed a curse mark or something else…”

Tsunade sighed and turned to observe Hokage Rock. “So, what do we do?”

“I’ll continue working with him for now, but my initial assessment is that Reito is a normal kid. Whatever happened to him, whatever abilities he gained during his disappearance, he isn’t cognizant of it. We’ll just have to wait and see how he develops.”

“Tch! That’s the part I don’t like,” Tsunade grumbled, clenching a fist. “We finally achieved some semblance of peace across the ninja world, we finally have the village back to good condition, but I’ve still got to keep the border patrol on high alert in case someone comes looking for the kid.”

“Indeed,” said Kakashi conciliatorily, “but it will be easier to monitor him after the upcoming Graduation Exam…once our tracker officially takes over.”