Kisame Hoshigaki sat there on a tree only a few meters away from me, the famous Akatsuki member looked younger than in the anime sitting there with his legs crossed, his characteristic shark like features were unmistakable but he was missing samehada from his side having only a normal sword.

The Monster of The Mist looked hurt, he was shirtless but his belly was wrapped up in bandages and he still wore an intact Kirigakure forehead protector “So, how old are you kid?”

“You’re Kisame Hoshigaki” I said, demonstrating my matchless wit as I stared at him, in my defense I though the tailless tailed beast would be with akatsuki already not here watching me climb a tree with an amused smile in his face.

“Yes I know, but that’s not what I asked” he said while his hand caressed the hilt of his blade.

“I’m five” I answered, finally snapping out of my daze and sitting on one of the branches so I wouldn’t fall as my chakra ran out.

“Damn they get younger and younger nowadays” he mumbled to himself “So, where did you learn to train like that kid? I know it’s not taught in the academy”

I started sweating after hearing his words, fuck tree climbing is supposed to be training method from Konoha not Kiri “Ahh… nobody, I just started doing it to become better” I don’t think he believed my mad lying skills but he also didn’t think I was some kind of spy because he didn’t kill me right there, either that or he was already a traitor and didn’t really care about it.

Not to say I looked down at kirigakure traitors, just the contrary I absolutely looked down at loyal shinobis who continued to follow this fucked up village even when its Mizukage was such brutal bastard.

“Ha, seems like we have a prodigy here, are you even in the academy?”

“Yes, I have just finished the first year test” Kisame’s eyes seemed to shine with interest and I felt the heavy pressure from his chakra slam on me almost making me fall from my branch, it lasted for a whole five seconds before he seemed to lose interest and sigh.

“A pity you’re so young, it would have been fun to face you in the graduation exam” he laughed and simply left using body flicker to move too fast for my eyes to see.

I waited a few seconds but, since I was unable to sense anyone else around me I released the breath I had been holding and finally climbed back down from my tree, gathering my clothes which were already dry made my way back to the dorm, the sun had already gone down and, if I waited more they wouldn’t let me back inside until next morning.

Laying down on my bed I couldn’t help but think about Naruto, about the story I had both watched and read in my previous life, being born on kiri I knew very little about what happened here before the forth shinobi war, all I knew is that at some point Kisame would leave it, that it would give raise to Zabusa Momoshi and the jinchuriki Utakata, it would also be attacked by the Ototsuki clan and exterminate the Yuki clan for fear of its powers but I had no idea when it would happen or even in which order, damn I didn’t even know if Naruto was already born or not at this point, probably not, the war had just ended a few months ago and he should be born after its end from what I remember.

Thinking about the war, its end didn’t really affect Kiri all that much, most of our shinobi were still fighting against some clan or another and we were in a constant state of battle amongst ourselves no matter what.

As I laid there I felt my chakra recover completely so I looked around the room and, seeing as there was no one else here, I raised my hand in front of my face and circled my chakra driving it around in my core without using any element before sending it through my right arm, as the chakra left my hand I circled it as fast as I could before compressing it tighter and tighter.

As I compressed it the chakra started to become visible, a bright spot of light in the center of my palm, it started the size of a ping-pong ball but slowly compressed until it became smaller than a nail, finally I felt it stop spinning and become solid in my hand.

Stopping my efforts I was left huffing with exhaustion and nearly out of chakra again but there was a small seed laying in my hand, the result of my own exclusive ability.

At first I thought I had been reborn as a Senju and this was my ability to use the mokuton manifesting itself, my very own cheat ability, visions of creating entire forests and subduing tailed beasts appeared before my eyes, no such luck.

My Kekkei Genkai was different, not only did it not require any hand seals to manifest itself but it also took an enormous amount of chakra for very little result, in fact I could barely create something the size of a finger even by almost killing myself with chakra exhaustion.

More than that my ability wasn’t restricted to only creating plants, I had actually managed to create some living, breathing ants and other small insects capable of moving, though they only lived for a few seconds before dying.

It’s a pretty useless power if I think about it but I still trained it every chance I got, perhaps with enough training it will eventually have some use when my chakra grows to jonin level or even further.

Scratching the wall besides my bed I made a small hole and planted the newly created seed inside, I don’t know if it will be able to survive or grow but I have been planting my seeds everywhere in the village, after all a man can hope.

Stretching my arms I crossed them behind my head and closed my eyes, there is no such thing as a rest day in the kirigakure shinobi academy and tomorrow the second years training would start without any rest.

The Kirigakure shinobi academi has an accelerated graduation program thanks to the constant state of war the village faces, during the first year of the academy we were separated into classes with 20 students of varying age and taught by retired or crippled genin, they had terrible skills and were basically cannon fodder that had survived against all odds but they taught us the basics skills of a shinobi, the second year was different, in the second year they taught us how to be kill.

The first thing I discovered as I arrived at the academy was that our new classes were in a giant classroom with more than 100 students of varying ages, then I noticed the heavy atmosphere of distrust and anger coming from every student.

I had never really connected with any of my former companions, a combination of my older mental age and the knowledge that I may have to kill some of them latter had made me distance myself as such I didn’t even try to look for them and just studied my new classmates but I didn’t recognize anyone form the anime, no surprise there since there wasn’t many people from the mist appearing on it

Without paying much attention to it I sat in one of the chairs and waited until the classroom was full, a small girl with dark blue hair sat to my right while an older boy with straight white hair sat to my left.

An awkward silence hung between us for a few seconds before I decided to introduce myself “Hi, I am Nagami”

“I… I am Rury” said the timid girl as she bowed my way making me wonder how did she gather the strength to pass the first year exam and kill someone.

“Hikuno!” almost screamed the boy and smiled revealing a set of sharp dagger like teeth in his mouth, I shuddered.

Before we could say anything else a Kunoichi walked inside the classroom and everyone became quiet least we anger our new teacher.

“Good, it seems like everyone is here” said the middle aged brunet, she wore the basic shinobi costume from kirigakure with a grey jacked and her forehead protector keeping the hair out of her eyes “My name is Enan and I am the chunin in charge of teaching you for the next year, hopefully you all won’t disappoint me”

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I couldn’t help but swallow at her harsh words before she continued “In your first year of academy you should have learned all the basic abilities necessary for a shinobi, in your second year however you will start learning true ninjutsu and kenjutsu.

As shinobis from kirigakure the first jutsu you will learn will be the water manipulation jutsu and, for those particularly gifted, I will even teach the water shuriken jutsu, I don’t expect anyone to master water manipulation in this month as full mastery is a thing which even a kage cannot claim but know that in order to graduate the academy you must demonstrate a satisfactory ability with it by the end of this year”

As Enan spoke most of the older boys hang by her every word while the girls gritted their teeth in anger, even I couldn’t help being stunned by her beauty but I quickly shook my head and concentrated in her teaching

“The hand seal most affiliated with water release is the dog seal and it is the only one you will need for a simple water manipulation, to pass the academy evaluation you will have to be able to expel water from inside your body and manipulate it but, as you’re just beginners I will be teaching you how manipulate already existing water”

Making the snake seal Enan first produced a dozen buckets before changing to the dog seal and created water condensing it from the air itself, at least a dozen liters of water filled the buckets, an impressive feat for a chunin, I was already able to use earth manipulation as I remember its hand seal from the anime so it shouldn’t be that tough a challenge to learn it for a different element.

I wasn’t able to do much more than splash the water around in my assigned bucket but it was far better than most of the class earning me some praise from my new sensei.

The next month passed quickly as I learned to use water manipulation to a satisfactory degree, unfortunately I wasn’t the best in class but I easily made it as one of the 16 that got to learn the water shuriken jutsu.

Learning to use a new jutsu was hard, it wasn’t just knowing the right seals and using them with perfection no it required knowing how to channel your chakra, the right amount to use, how to pull on the energy produced by your body and mix it with that which came from your soul in just the right amount, that’s why, despite being here for 5 years, I had only been able to learn two simple jutsus by myself.

Water shuriken jutsu wasn’t a very powerful skill to have, a normal shuriken was both stronger and easier to use the only advantage is that there’s no need to prepare the shurikens beforehand and they are endless as long as you have chakra, in resume it was a useful jutsu to have but wouldn’t be winning me any battles, at least not against an opponent I couldn’t overcome in some other way.

At first I made some effort to interact with Ruri and Hikuno , but it soon became obvious that I was different from them, I was too mature to truly become friends with them but I did help them with their jutsus every once in a while, in the end they didn’t begin to avoid me like everyone else but we also weren’t close, I also couldn’t connect with the instructor, I didn’t worship her like most of the class and that seemed to annoy her to no end.

Having been recalled to the front lines Enan sensei would stay with the class for the entire year so, when most of the class become able to manipulate water she started us in producing water chakra in our stomachs to expel from the mouth and even creating it outside the body, after a while she even started teaching us our second ninjutsu, the water mist jutsu.

As for Kenjutsu it was a different story, most of the time we spend two hours training the sword each morning with Enan sensei but, at least once a week one of the shinobi from the front lines who had been hurt or was on leave would come and give us a demonstration.

Although we started learning ninjutsu and kenjutsu we didn’t stop being instructed in taijutsu and assassination techniques, being the leading student in my class I received the dubious reward of having to execute criminals another two times, one of which was even allowed to fight back nearly beating me senseless before I managed to stick a kunai in his eye and twist it until it reached the brain, the experience left me trembling me and, for the following two days, planning my escape from this village before I realized I had almost died at the hands of a civilian, what chance did I have of running away from a bunch of shinobi.

As the months went by and the graduation exam started approaching I began to felt more and more desperate, I had no allies in the class and, while I was easily the best student it was far from enough to take on three or four of them at the same time so I spent every single moment awake training either my techniques or my chakra with very little to show for it, I started to before more aggressive and even started planning how to eliminate my strongest enemies before the exam began until I realized it had started to affect my performance in class so, when I meet Kisame for the second time I knew what I had to do.

Training water walking on the river in which I washed my clothes before creating a new tree seed had become a habit of sorts for me so, when I noticed the sight of a tall blue man sitting on top of a tree by the river I acted, sending chakra to my feet I jumped on the tree and managed to climb it with only four big steps, my movements weren’t silent but Kisame didn’t even look my way.

“You’re no longer hurt?” I noted in order to break the silence between us

“My clan heals fast, it’s one of the reasons we are so good at war” he answered absentmindedly but continued to stare in the distance towards one of the mountains surrounding the village.

Kisame didn’t look well, after our meeting I had asked some questions and learned he had yet to slay his master but he must still be haunted by what he had done in the long years of protecting information for kirigakure.

“I want you to teach me” I said to the future Akatsuki member, despite being a brutal and ruthless killer Kisame was one of the few members of the sick organization that I wish had survived the forth ninja war, he could have been a really great shinobi had he not been born in kirigakure.

Scratch that he was a great shinobi having remained true to himself to the very end.

“Ha, you’re amusing kid but no, I don’t want to train someone I would have to kill latter” He said looking at me for the first time since I noticed him, he looked slightly amused so at least I still had a chance so I decided to be a little more candid with him.

“We’re in Kirigakure, almost everyone I know will have to try and kill me someday” I said making my disgust clear for him to see, Kisame just smiled and got up from his sitting position.

“Well that’s true I guess” He said while lifting his sword over his right shoulder “come, lets see what you’ve got”

I watched as he jumped down from the tree and landed with grace on the ground, despite his heavy frame the blue skinned shinobi didn’t even make a sound when he touched the riverbed, narrowing my eyes I tried to do the same and jumped down.

‘Fuck I got carried away!’ I though mid jump and desperately circled my chakra to my feet, I didn’t have the control necessary to imitate him and ended with a superhero landing cracking the ground around me and nearly breaking both of my legs “Ouch!”

Kisame starred at me and lifted an amused eyebrow before burying the tip of his sword on the earth and cracking his neck “Come on kid show me what you’ve got”

I knew that I had absolutely no chance against Kisame but I wanted to at least touch him so I decided to start strong, as I had been simply washing my clothes and training control I didn’t bring a lot of equipment but I never left home without at least two shuriken, a kunai and some smoke bombs for escape so I put my hand in my pocket and pulled four smoke bombs and both shuriken from it allowing him to see them.

As fast as I could I threw the bombs at my feet creating a big cloud then picked up a stone from the ground, before the smoke could dissipate I threw one of my shuriken at him and formed the Tiger seal for the body flickering technique dashing towards him, still before my body left the cloud I also made the Ram seal and transformed myself into a second shuriken midflight.

With a smirk Kisame pulled a kunai from his pocket and deflected both shuriken to his right with a dismissive attitude, I almost grunted as the kunai’s edge hit me before unmaking the transformation and striking at his face with my own weapon.

Kisame’s small eyes opened wide when he saw me but he wasn’t the disciple of one of the seven swordsman of the mist for nothing, reacting fast he leaned his head back allowing my kunai pass harmlessly in front of his eyes and then kicked me in the chest sending me flying and throwing his own kunai towards the middle of my chest.

Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake! I formed the four seals with my hands in a desperate hurry as his kunai approached me and substituted my body for the stone I had picked, appearing a few meters to the right in the middle of the river I threw my remaining shuriken at him and formed the Dog, Ox, Snake seals, water release: Water shuriken jutsu!

My Chakra wasn’t full but I still managed to create 12 shuriken and throw then at him while he was out of position, grabbing the handle of his sword he lifted his whole body out of the way with just the strength of one arm before kicking the handle and flying towards me, I panicked.

I mean I know it was just a spar but when I saw one of the strongest members of Akatsuki flying towards me I couldn’t help but release a little girls’ scream inside my mind, plus I would have been dead had I not reacted fast enough to his kunai earlier, who knows if it wouldn’t happen again.

Bringign up my Kunai I slashed it at him but he parried the blow with his own kunai before punching my face sending me skipping through the surface of the river, I only stopped when my back hit a tree, painfully.

With all the air driven out of my lungs it took me a while to get my bearings and try to push myself up, before I could a heavy hand grabbed me and lifted me up patting my back “Impressive kid, not only were you able to form a viable attack strategy but you also managed to shorten the transformation jutsu to a single hand seal and the substitution jutsu to four, even our genin can’t do that also, do you know any other jutsus besides the water shuriken?”

“Coff… coff… no” I wheezed between deep breaths.

“Bad Idea then, always keep something in reserve kid” he said shaking his head “I knew you had another shuriken because I saw it so I was watching out for ranged weapons, had you thrown it I may have been tricked into thinking you were out of options and let my guard down”

“So… ugh, so you’ll… coff, coff, teach me?” I panted as I tried to shake off his blow, it wasn’t happening anytime soon.

“Why the hell not, it could be fun”