POV Shin

2 months later

"Shin wake up, we're leaving," I felt a push on my arm.

"Good morning, Mom, a few more minutes," I said as I rolled over, the sheets not wanting to let go of me.

"Shin it's late, I have to go to the hospital, and yesterday you said you would accompany your uncle today," mom insisted, shaking me a little.

"Just 5 minutes mom, a quick breakfast and I'll go with uncle," I said the sheets were very tight today I could barely move.

"Your uncle is waiting for you to eat breakfast, it's rude to keep him waiting too long, Shin."

I thought for a moment what to answer, I couldn't think of anything so I used something my dad uses a lot with mom.

"Among family it's wrong to fight over small things, you always have to be united, I'm sure my uncle will excuse me," I said.

But it was too late. Mom had already started with the tickling, but the sheets my friends today betrayed me because I couldn't get out of them.

"MOM! You promised not to wake me up ticklish again," I said, already awake, throwing aside the treacherous sheets.

"And you promised, that you would always wake up on the first try and accompany your uncle," she told me, crossing her arms.

I was the same way, we looked at each other for 2 seconds, mom raised an eyebrow and I looked down.

"Sorry mom, I will accompany my uncle," I said lowering my arms.

"Well, and no more asking for candies to your uncle, you're going to get sick and fat."

"Mom, I'm very healthy, a couple of sweets won't hurt me," I said as I raised my arms like dad does. Lately, I've been playing more with Hiroto and I can feel myself getting stronger.

"Unless you're an Akimichi it's never good to be fat being a ninja, and anyway I already warned your uncle, no more candy."

I lowered my head, realizing my defeat. It was a shame, as there was a new ice cream place I was really looking forward to trying. I washed my face and went downstairs to have breakfast with my uncle.

Mom said to my uncle, "Kiku, I entrust Shin to you. Once you finish your errands, you can walk around the village. We'll be back for dinner." Then she hugged me goodbye.

"Good morning, Uncle," I greeted him and sat down to eat.

My uncle had come to the village to settle some business and talk to my dad, apparently the war is almost over. I didn't remember my uncle, apparently he came when I was a baby, but he had to go back to take care of his business.

He looked a lot like my dad: he had long brown hair, unlike dad's short hair. His eyes were dark brown, and his height was almost identical, although he was thinner and didn't have the scars that Dad had. My dad told me that at a difficult time for his family, his younger brother made the decision to leave the ninja academy to take over responsibility for the family finances and business.

Dad always says that he actually saved his family, since my uncle has always been very smart and was the best one to take care of it. Most of the business is outside the village, especially near the Hot Spring Village (Yugakure), which causes him to be far from Konoha.

When he came he said he was coming to take advantage of certain business opportunities, since the war is about to end, it is a good time to buy businesses in the village.

I didn't know any more since dad, mom and my uncle went out that night with my grandfather, and I had to go to sleep early. At least now I can sleep better, I still have the weird dreams but they are not always scary, or wake me up.

After breakfast I went out with my uncle, we took a walk around the village, my uncle stopped at every market to ask prices of products, then he would write them down, he was being very careful.

When I asked him why he was doing it he told me. "It is to know the price of the products, as the war is about to end many prices will change."

"Why would war change the price of things?"

"Consider this, in times of war, numerous kunais are used, which causes many of them to be purchased. As the quantity available decreases due to excessive purchases, their price begins to rise. This is in contrast to other products that, because they are not sold, become cheaper over time," he explained to me.

"So if an object becomes rare or a lot of people want it it becomes more expensive, and if an object no one wants to buy or it is bought very little, it goes down in price."

"Exactly Shin. This is known as the law of supply and demand, and can be influenced by significant changes in a community, such as wars, treaties with other villages, the emergence of new businesses, among other factors," my uncle commented.

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"If one is smart and can see these changes ahead of time, one can see a lot of opportunities to do business”.

"Like buying cheap Kunais and then selling them when they are expensive?", I asked, I couldn't think of how else to make money other than that.

"It's one of the most common ways to generate money You are really smart, Shin, to consider this barely knowing some aspects of the market," he commented to me.

I can't help but smile. I remember when mom was explaining to me about money, numbers were easy to learn, but handling money was not. When dad explained to me what ink, papers and candy cost, I understood more of its importance. I didn't know how to make money though, other than working as a ninja like dad, or at the hospital like mom.

We continued walking through the village. My uncle kept explaining to me things about the markets and how to make money, although there were things that I didn't understand why they worked like that, my uncle just told me that later he would explain to me why.

"Shin, remember that it is not always necessary to understand the “why” of everything. For subjects you don't plan to study in depth, it's enough to know the minimum to apply the knowledge," he told me.

"My grandfather tells me that learning is very important, knowing more is never bad."

"And he is right, but at the same time this is not always the case, for example, knowing the value of things is crucial to avoid being cheated with excessive prices; however, for most people, it is not so necessary to have a deep knowledge of the market. It's good to learn but you also need to think about what you learn and how useful it will be for your life," my uncle told me, although I didn't quite understand.

"Consider this, a blacksmith must not only have a deep knowledge of metal handling, which is his specialty, but he also needs to have a good understanding of the market. After all, he must be able to sell his creations at good prices. Now he might know about art or sculpture, he might be able to make the weapons he creates look better or make metal ornaments. So far you are with me?"

I nod

"All of the above represents valuable knowledge, but consider the case of someone who wishes to learn how to make maps. If he is a blacksmith who has never left his town or village, that knowledge becomes irrelevant to him, since it is of no use to him in his trade or environment. So learning that did not bring him any benefit to his life, it would have been better for him to learn other useful things, that's what I mean it's good to learn but it's always better to learn things that will be useful at some point."

"So, if I want to become a ninja, I should only learn the skills specific to ninjas?", I asked. It makes sense; there are skills that I will probably never use that I don't need to learn.

"Not necessarily, there are many themes that intertwine, even if they are sometimes hard to recognize. For example, understanding the market is valuable if you're on a mission in another village; many ninjas learn a bit of this, or manners if they need to make believable they're someone else. It all depends on what you choose for the future, as it's all part of preparation."

"Like when dad explained to me that, before creating a fire dragon, I had to master simpler jutsus and learn how to handle fire," no matter how much I asked him to teach me how to do it, he would always tell me the same thing.

My uncle laughed, "Yes, that's a good example, it would also be good for you to learn how fire works. However, there are exceptions to this rule; for example, drawing may not be particularly useful to you as a ninja, but it is an activity you enjoy and therefore worth learning. In my case, writing poems has been useful to me in some negotiations, but I do it mainly because I am passionate about it.”

My uncle kept talking about different experiences as we toured the village, first he talked about the market, then when he was a merchant and attended to his business. Their experiences were very different from those of my parents, he had traveled a lot, met many people, he even told me that for a while he accompanied some nobles.

However, what impressed me the most was his way of thinking, which makes me understand why my dad always said my uncle was very astute and the best at taking care of business. He reminded me of my grandfather, he also believed that learning more is something we all should do, similar to my uncle who said you have to learn with an objective not learn by just doing it.

I felt that my uncle observed the world from a unique perspective. An object revealed not only its value, but also its history, depending on who was selling it. Its usefulness became evident, as well as its scarcity if he had never found it or if it was the only one available on the market. In addition, its quality could be measured by the type of customers the seller attracted. My uncle really stresses me to see everything from different points of view.

"When trading everyone wants to make money, and everyone wants to make more, there are some who are greedy and want to make as much as possible, others who want what is fair, or people who sell at very low prices for certain reasons. In the end success is to reach an agreement without offending anyone, in commerce maintaining good relations is always valuable," he told me.

We stopped at a restaurant for lunch. I didn't understand everything my uncle did like buying things at very high prices, not to sell them, but for connections, even so I learned quite a lot today.

"Uncle there's something I was thinking, are there things that every person or ninja should learn?", I asked after finishing my soup. Mom is annoyed when someone talks with their mouth full, she says it's impolite, and she's very insistent about it.

"Yes, there are always things that are too useful for anyone to learn, for ninjas it would be the obvious ninjutsu and taijutsu, both are essential but knowing how to master them according to your style is vital. For normal people it would be reading, writing, basic mathematics, basic survival skills, like where to find water, locate yourself by the sun and stars, they will teach you that at the academy", he paused to drink some of his tea.

"Although in my perspective something invaluable for everyone would be to learn a little bit of philosophy, to choose the one that is most in line with them. It ties into your values and convictions," he told me.

"What is philosophy?", I had heard my grandfather say it a couple of times but I don't remember when.

"You could say it's knowledge, usually represented with rules of how a person should act according to their values, it helps to distinguish what should be the most important things in your life, which ones you shouldn't give so much importance to, and how to be fair in difficult times," he told me.

It sounded kind of complicated, rules of how to act to be better, it reminded me of the Nindo (Ninja Way) that my dad talks about.

"You're young yet you don't need to pay much attention to this, but in your last years at the academy you should review it, it will help you not to hesitate when you're on missions, and if difficult situations come your way you'll know how to act." He took another sip of his tea.

"Although there are many types of philosophies, I think our clan's philosophy is very fair, as well as reflecting a very good lifestyle for anyone."

"What clan?", I asked in confusion.

"Which one else, our clan Shin, the Gokan clan," he replied.

I froze. I can't help but think of the things Dad used to say to me.

-Flashback-

"Our family has always been adept at raising eagles and messenger birds..."

"Your uncle had to leave to handle the business the family had, we have quite a few outside the village..."

"When you're older I'll teach you special family jutsus, for now just play and the time will come..."

-End of Flashback

"WE ARE A CLAN!", I shouted, realizing. Then I was embarrassed by the way the people in the restaurant looked at me.

"You didn't know about our clan?" my uncle asked me quizzically.

"No dad never said it, he had talked about his family having special jutsus, they know how to raise birds and business outside the village, but I thought all families had things like that." Now that I think about it it makes a lot of sense that we are part of a clan.

My uncle just touched his forehead, "I guess what my brother told you is technically true, but for some reason he still didn't want you to know that we are a recognized clan in the village, our clan is in a bad position the only 3 direct line descendants are my brother, you and me."

Incredible we were a clan, I don't know how I didn't realize it, maybe that's why most of my parents' friends are part of clans. Although we are few, surely it was because of the wars as my dad told me, many of his family or rather the clan died.

"I understand you have a lot of questions, but my brother should be the one to clear them up for you. I think I made a mistake in telling you, and I know you won't wait until he arrives in the evening. Let's make a deal, I'll tell you the clan story, and you won't ask me any more clan questions until you talk to my brother."

"Done", I didn't even think twice about it, besides I can ask him questions about how to raise birds, or things not directly related to the clan, my grandfather taught me to always be specific in deals, that's exactly why when he tells me some deal now I ask him to repeat it before accepting.

My uncle told me it would be better to talk about this at home, all the way there I couldn't help but fidget and my uncle was in no hurry, after the longest 15 minutes of my life.

We sat in the living room and I began the story.

"Our clan, the Gokan clan, was part of the village in the beginning, we were accepted by the First Hokage, but our history goes further back than that. In the beginning we were 3 different clans, located in what is now Fire Country, Water Country and Hot Spring Village..."