(mid-October, year 51 AK)
Seven months later.
'Time flies fast huh...' Yuta thought as he was laying on the grass, watching the clouds in the sky.
He was at the training grounds with a small forest, that was close to the orphanage, it's rarely anyone was occupying this place, only a few times Yuta saw someone here, or rather heard some noises coming from here, and when that happens, he immediately leave and didn't saw who was training here even once.
As of why Yuta was coming here from time to time, it's to try to do the Tree-Climbing exercise while no one's watching.
Although, trying is a precise word for what he is doing, as he wasn't able to do it at all. From his previous attempts, including the today's one, he can tell that his chakra is still insufficient, it was barely enough to make a couple of steps up the tree, and that is if he manages somehow to utilize it all and spend it all during those few steps, and that is still impossible for him to do, as he is unable to spend all of his chakra in such a short time.
Although his control over chakra became much more precise, it is no longer felt like sluggish and unruly streams, now his chakra is flowing through him completely under his control, he can instinctively control it like he controls his arms and legs.
'Since I learned the chakra control, my chakra grown significantly, it's like four or five times more than it was back then, but I guess in the grand scheme of things it is still in its infancy...'
'I remember Sakura was known for small chakra reserves and good control over it, she was able to complete the Tree-Climbing exercise easily on the first mission outside the village. But she was like twelve or thirteen and that was after she completed the whole six years of the academy.'
'Damn it! This is pathetic! I'm lying here and comparing myself to the useless Sakura, and this comparison is not even in my favor...' He hit the ground with his fist in frustration.
'Well, I turned five this month, and it has been a year since I started training. And she was twelve and had six years of academy and a few months under Kakashi, even if she didn't spend much effort training, it's still much more that I have, and age is a huge factor as well...'
...
'If I had picked the best talent, then I would've been on the level of a Jonin already, maybe...' Yuta felt frustrated about his slow progress.
...
'Is this how all those normal not-genius shinobi in this world felt like? This feels unfair. You train every day, there is progress, sure, but if you calculate that progress and try to predict how it would go in the future, then you'll might see yourself becoming a Jonin bottom-feeder in your thirties during your prime, but it'll never be enough to reach the level of anything higher than that, hell, maybe even a low-level Jonin would be unreachable with an average talent like that...'
'And then, there is geniuses there, like Itachi, or Kakashi, or Guy, and above them there even monsters like Madara, Hashirama, Sasuke and Naruto...'
'Honestly, if I didn't have anything special, I would've probably either quit ninjaing or most likely would've joined some non-combat department, like the Sealing corps, and would've tried to live a normal life and avoid combat altogether.'
Yuta sat comfortably on the grass cross-legged, "Ok, today is the day, no more stalling!" He said with resolve.
From time to time Yuta was trying to grasp his Time Control ability, and recently he felt that he was very close to grasping it, all he lacks now is a last final push to do it.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on the soothing cold feeling deep inside, it felt so close now, Yuta felt like he could extend his hand and grasp it any moment now, but whenever he tried before, he failed to reach it, but now he was determined to do so no matter what.
After a couple minutes of concentration Yuta felt he was closest to his goal than ever before, he felt a strong instinctual desire to reach it, to grasp it, to reunite with it, to make it his, to integrate it within himself, to become one with it, he won't be able to explain any of it even if he try, and he doesn't know where that feelings are coming from.
And there is also a strong sense of irrational frustration because he hasn't reached it yet.
A few more minutes passed, and Yuta felt like his mind is becoming tired, a little bit longer and his concentration would waver like many times before.
'I can't take it any longer, I must grasp it now or I feel like I'm going to go mad!'
A strong desire mixed up with frustration and given birth to a searing hot anger, Yuta suddenly felt extremely and irrationally angry at this moment, that he was unable to grasp his own Time Control ability that he chose over everything else the whole year ago, the whole year of uncertainty and worries about it add up at this very moment and fueled his anger to the extreme.
And the next moment, carried by his anger, Yuta put every tiny bit of his concentration and willpower into it, and he felt like something intangible finally tore deep inside of him and the soothing-cold feeling poured into him like an unstoppable river after the metaphorical dam was destroyed.
Yuta was being overwhelmed by the feeling of the soothing pleasant coldness that covered him in an instant and flowed through his entire being, it immediately washed away his strong negative emotions like frustration and anger, and at this moment Yuta found himself in an extremely and unnaturally calm state, and at this moment his mind was calmer than it ever been, he suddenly felt at peace now.
He opened his eyes and was shocked to find himself in a new, strange, and unfamiliar environment. He was sitting on the smooth and calm water surface without submerging into it, and as he looked around, he saw the same water surface in all directions as far as he could see, all the way into the horizon.
The water looked clean and transparent, but there was no riverbed in sight, only the dark depths deep down, Yuta felt that there was no bottom to this river, and the depth of it is endless. As of why he thought it was a river and not a lake or ocean – he felt the strong and steady current of the water below him, that flows in one direction, always forward.
He felt the same feeling of soothing coldness from this endless river, the same one he felt deep inside of himself.
'Where am I?' Yuta thought, his mind was unnaturally calm, 'This place feels wrong somehow, like it is incomplete. All I can see is the endless world that is split in two, the bottom half consists of the endless river, and above it, it just nothing, empty void, it's like this world is only half full, and it feels unnatural, like there should be something above the river, something equally endless, grandeur and unfathomable, but it's missing...'
As Yuta looked around while sitting gross-legged on the water surface, he felt extremely tiny and insignificant in this place with this grand and mysterious river with no end.
'Did I get teleported into this strange place? Unlikely. I was meditating prior to this in the Konoha's training grounds. I was trying to grasp that feeling that comes from inside, same feeling that comes from this river now, did I succeed? If I did, this place must be a mental representation of the source of that feeling I was trying to grasp.'
...
'The endless and bottomless river with steady and constant current, is this the representation of the time itself? Could it be that this place is my mindscape? The same kind of inner mental space that Naruto had with Kurama inside of it?'
'But my mindscape has an endless and bottomless river in it, I'll call it the River of Time from now on, I feel like it's only fitting. I thought that the soothing cold feeling I was trying to grasp was my Time Control ability, but it didn't look like it. The feeling comes from the River of Time itself, and this river is definitely not my ability, it like it's the concept of time itself, or rather mental and metaphorical representation of it inside my mindscape.'
'The ability I chose was called Time Control, but all it did so far - it has allowed me to access the River of Time inside my mindscape. Since I was able to get in here, that means I'm on the right path, but what should I do next?'
Yuta stared into the River of Time, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do...
--- AN ---
Nice cliffhanger I've got there, please enjoy~
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