Chapter 3: Three Years Later
No, I don't want this outcome. I don't want to follow the plot as it develops. I don't want the parents I've just gained to die so soon. And if I don't want these things to happen, then I need to have strength. Strength is the foundation of everything. Only with strength can I stop these things from happening. I want to protect my parents, and I want my yet-to-be-born brother to live a happy life.
No matter what, I want to protect my family, to protect the people most important to me. And just like that, Orion, who had only just been born, slowly, slowly drifted off to sleep with this vow in his heart.
Time is always the easiest thing to lose. It slips away secretly when you're not paying attention. Day after day, year after year, our Orion came to be known by everyone as a clever child.
This was only natural. Inside the body of a child was the mind of an adult. On top of that, Orion's memory was already excellent, and since he was living in Japan in this life, with people around him speaking Japanese every day, Orion managed to start speaking before he was even a year old, able to clearly express himself so others could understand.
"Time really flies! Three years have gone by just like that," a small figure said, sitting leisurely on the wooden steps, watching the scenery in the courtyard.
Having been here for so long, Orion had gradually come to understand the current timeline. When he was born, it was five years before the Nine-Tails disaster. Now, three years have passed, and he is four years old. The time until the Nine-Tails disaster is getting shorter and shorter, yet his current strength is still very poor, even though he trains his body whenever he has the time.
The problem now is that his body is still too tender. At just four years old, his body is too weak for excessive training. Furthermore, one cannot cultivate chakra before the age of four, which meant that his strength hadn't increased much in these three years.
That's not to say the three years were a complete waste. There were some small gains. At least, through his long-term training, his body had gradually begun to grow sturdy. He was no worse off than a seven or eight-year-old, and he was even a bit taller than a normal four-year-old.
Aside from his body getting a bit stronger, the only other thing he could improve was his shuriken accuracy. After three years of practice, his shuriken accuracy could be described as exceptionally precise. He could basically hit the bullseye of any target within a hundred meters, almost never missing.
Orion, who was sitting on the wooden steps, slowly stood up, took a deep breath, and gently exhaled. His eyes fixed on a target a hundred meters away. He extended a small, tender hand, pulled three shuriken from his pouch, and gripped them between his fingers, concentrating his spirit.
"Swoosh!"
With incredible speed, the three shuriken shot from Orion's hand, accelerating as they flew through the air.
If someone had been there to witness it, they would have been astonished, because the speed of these shuriken was simply not something a four-year-old child could achieve.
Although this speed posed no threat to Chunin or higher-level ninja, for academy students, those still learning at the Ninja Academy, it would be fundamentally impossible to dodge. To them, this speed was simply astonishing.
While they might be able to barely see the trajectory of the shuriken, by the time an academy student could react, the shuriken would already be right in front of them. Therefore, with this shuriken skill alone, he could already dominate the Ninja Academy.
Without a doubt, the three shuriken, not a single one missing, all hit the bullseyes of three separate targets a hundred meters away. Faced with this, Orion felt a little helpless.
My strength is still too poor. This body of mine is just too weak, and I can't train it too crazily, or I'll end up injuring myself. After all, this small body is still growing; it hasn't finished developing yet. Training has to be gradual.
Besides, didn't all the novels on Earth say that transmigrators get a system bound to them? Where on earth is my system?
Without the help of a system, wanting to become a powerhouse in this world would be truly difficult. No, not just a little difficult, but extremely difficult.
Becoming strong is not so easily achieved. This world still has many incredibly powerful people. Not to mention the Akatsuki, even within Konoha, there was Danzo, the Sannin of Konoha, and a great number of Jonin and Elite Jonin.
And this world had so many other ninja villages, like the Five Great Shinobi Villages, and countless other small villages.
Just thinking about this gave Orion a bit of a headache. What should I do? And the Nine-Tails disaster is approaching. What am I supposed to do? Without corresponding strength, there's simply no way to change anything!
Also, Itachi should be about the same age as me right now. When the time comes to go to the Ninja Academy, I'll have to deal with a freakish prodigy like Itachi. It will be hard to surpass him. Right now, Orion was truly feeling a bit of despair for the future.
He couldn't see the future at all. No way to become strong, no way to protect the family he wanted to protect. Even his parents were going to die in the Nine-Tails disaster, and his younger brother would be scorned by the entire village of Konoha.
What should I do? What on earth should I do? What else can I do?
No. How can I know the outcome if I haven't even tried? Even if that is the outcome, as long as I've worked hard, I won't have any regrets, because I will have tried my best. Whether I can change it or not isn't up to me to decide.
A figure walked out from behind Orion. It was Minato Namikaze, still with the same golden hair, wearing the exclusive Hokage robe, his eyes sharp and filled with incomparable confidence, a constant smile on his face.
Three years had passed, and many things had happened. His father, Minato Namikaze, had become the Fourth Hokage and had countless matters to attend to. The Third Hokage had retired to the background, no longer managing other affairs, and was living a leisurely, peaceful life.
"Father, you're here. Is something wrong?"
Orion turned his head and asked his father softly.
During these three years, although his father had become Hokage, his love for him hadn't changed. He was still very concerned about him. His mother was the same as his father, holding an infinite love for him.
The only difference was that his father, as Hokage, needed to handle many things and sometimes didn't have time to spend with him for long periods. It was mostly his mother, Kushina Uzumaki, who stayed with him, cooked for him, and taught him a lot of knowledge. It was also she who slowly taught him Japanese.
"Orion, today is your fourth birthday. I've prepared a gift for you. I hope you like it."
After speaking, Minato Namikaze took out a scroll. Perhaps seeing the confused look on Orion's face, Minato began to explain.
"This is a scroll on the method of extracting chakra. Starting today, you can begin to extract your chakra. I wonder if you like this gift?"
(End of this chapter)