_________ POV Narration_________

Daisuke didn't quite know what to make of the child they had been raising.

For all the 5 years the child had been alive, Daisuke had never seen him actually cry, besides the time they had found him in the snow.

So many months passed by with them doing their best to look after the child, it was strange how easily they got attached to him, but it also made sense.

Kioshi Ken, the small child, was part of their group. He became one the second they decided to pick him up. Currently, they had nothing left in the world, no one left besides each other.

That child, much like them, had nowhere to go, no one to turn to.

Without them, the child would've been nothing more than another slowly decomposing corpse in the winter wilderness.

Daisuke had spent many nights pondering what would've happened had they not saved Kioshi. Would they even have the motivation to survive for as long as they did?

In the beginning, they were all defeated by the prospect that they'd never see their loved ones again. Daisuke was also one such example.

If they returned, they would be executed. Their families were most likely disassociating from them, in order to avoid punishment, so returning might even put them in danger too.

So, all they had now was the bonds they built with each other.

Currently, Daisuke stood in the middle of a clearing with a stick, teaching a small Kioshi a proper stance.

Surprisingly, Ken seemed to at least be a bit of a natural when it came to holding a blade... At least to Daisuke.

To Ken, he was just getting used to holding a blade again. It wasn't his first time. He was no master, but he wasn't exactly a novice either.

He hadn't exactly been sword-fighting opponents in his past life, but he was somewhat familiar with executions and had used small blades consistently throughout his career.

But he had never had a proper teacher, all of what he knew was found out through trial and error.

Now he had Daisuke, giving some semblance of balance to a style that would otherwise only shape up to be wild and bloodthirsty.

Daisuke was genuinely shocked, although Ken was weak in body, he seemed to be an extremely fast learner. His lack of sight didn't seem to bother him either, as he slashed away at falling leaves with frightful precision.

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The only thing that was lacking currently was speed. There was no way for a small child to showcase speed impressive enough to make Daisuke astonished though.

Ken's current blade moved at a speed that Daisuke could track with his trained gaze, but it also seemed to whiz a bit in the wind.

The more time passed, the faster Ken seemed to get, and the more leaves he seemed to be able to hit with his wooden stick.

This training went on for a few months, the other samurai also noticed how determined Ken was. So they all imparted parts of their respective styles to him.

There were no such things as secret styles among them, they were all family, and what they had they shared.

The sword training then shifted from Ken hitting falling leaves, to Ken sparring with Daisuke or whoever was available.

The adults were obviously going easy on the blind child... At least at first.

But by the time Ken turned 6, they had no choice but to block his strikes in earnest. At this point, it was rather obvious that Ken could 'see'.

Everyone could tell that his 'sight' was likely related to chakra. So they also started trying to teach him how to use it in fights.

They thaught him a few chakra control exercises, which Ken was able to complete perfectly in very minimal time.

Constantly controlling and feeling the energies inside of him since birth had gifted him with a huge advantage when it came to controlling said energies.

At this point, the samurai realised that they had a prodigy on their hands.

They had no idea just how major their child's accomplishments were, as they were merely samurai.

But most children at Ken's age could barely sense their chakra, very few could control it, let alone perfectly.

Ken didn't have anywhere to learn jutsu from though, he simply learned the Samurai ways. And a Samurai's main ability, and their most powerful, was infusing their blades with chakra.

After realizing that the small child could already almost perfectly control Chakra, Daisuke was quick to try and teach Ken how to perform chakra flow.

They didn't have any way of finding out what type of Chakra Ken had, but they would as soon as Ken managed to perform it properly.

Chakra flow usually required one to know such things, but they simply had no way of gaining those types of training supplied out in the mountains.

And, regardless, they bet on the fact that Ken was a prodigy, that the small child would manage to forge his own path.

And, the very first day Ken reached the age of 7 years old, was the first time he managed to infuse chakra into his blade.

His small tanto sparked with lightning, and a blue coat seemed to cover the edge of the blade perfectly.

From this, Daisuke was able to tell that Ken had a lightning attribute, that much was obvious, but he also had the wind attribute, that one was a bit less obvious, but a trained eye could tell.

Ken was excited when he had finally achieved the state of Chakra flow, he quickly rushed to the nearest tree, the tanto in his hand seemed to be completely covered by a blade of chakra.

With a single swipe, Ken was able to cut the tree in half instantly. The wood was cut cleanly, to the point where the wood felt smooth to the palm when Ken touched it.

It was around that time that Daisuke and the others realised that they didn't have much else to teach Ken.

He had learned everything too quickly.

Two years was all that it took for him to come to that point. It made them feel a bit inadequate...

But they had never been especially powerful, they were mere soldiers, cannon fodder born to die and be buried in mass.

At least Ken had demonstrated that his talent put him above the rest.

The samurai were confident that he would be able to handle himself in the future, but there would still be some time before little Ken would develop an interest in the real world.

Until then, at least the Samurai could rest easy. Even if some of them were rather salty about the fact that Ken could already beat them in a spar...