***Author Note: I apologize for the original chapter 23 being hard to read. I've gone ahead and revised it a bit (separated the paragraphs, organized and created better transitions). Thank you again to all those who left comments and concerns. Your feedback helps me improve as a writer and I'll always try my best to fix things if you point them out.
Monday Chapter will still be released at 6:00PM EST. Cya soon.
Once again I'm sorry for any inconvenience and happy reading.***
~Soutarou POV, scene continues~
[.....Good Luck.]
Reading those last lines, Soutarou only felt one thing, 'As expected of the genius of the shinobi world.'
Smiling, Soutarou shook his head as he slowly memorized the requirements for step three, before calmly rolling the scroll back up, Soutarou returned it to its original position within the cabinet. Before unlocking the door and being greeted with Nono who had obviously just come over to tell Soutarou to come out for dinner.
Looking back for a moment, Soutarou shook his head and walked with Nono to the kitchen.
At that moment that Soutarou had walked away a seal activated on the scroll, lighting up certain sections in red causing them to disappear…
~Soutarou POV, two days later~
Walking up early as usual, Soutarou began his morning workout. Slapping a sealing tag onto his wrist he flowed chakra into it using the ram chakra just to focus the chakra. Immediately the resistance and gravity on his body increased exponentially and with that he began running, not around Konoha, but across a flowing river that ran through most of Konoha's forested regions.
Continuing until he began to pant in exhaustion. Soutarou then shifted gears and began doing one handed push ups while his other hand held a leaf and simultaneously began trying to evaporate the water content out of it as fast as he could.
When he got tired of pushes he switched to sit-ups hanging off a tree all while continuing to dehydrate leaves. Once he finished with that he then began mediating upside down all while continuing to hold the leaf. Soutarou shook his head in slight frustration before thinking, 'I've gotten so used to fast progression, quick results, that I've started to expect too much. Leave it.'
'Focusing on this is smart, of course, but I won't be able to make quick progress anymore. It's better to start the shadow clone method. I have enough chakra to create about five shadow clones that can train together… Though I just know how bad the headaches are going to be at first. But, it's better to use this young and acclimate myself to it. Killing two birds with one shuriken I suppose.'
Soutarou smiled before shaking his head. He then slowly worked his way back home before Kabuto smiled and simply said his medicinal bath was ready. Shutting the door behind him and slipping out of his clothes and into the bath Soutarou began immediately extracting chakra silently before eventually a knock resounded with Kabuto saying, "It's been three hours, you can get out now Soutarou."
Eyes snapping open, Soutarou slowly got up and flexed his hands open and closed, before staring at himself for a moment and thinking, 'As expected of myself… already this tall at six years old!'
Soutarou walked over to a wall with measurements written along it and marked his height before measuring and coming to an astounding measurement of, [53 inches].
'Huh… I hope I keep growing at this rate, but then you know slow down around maybe six feet and 2 inches… Any taller than that and I'll be a monster… not to mention… These bastards here are all short as hell! Only someone like Jiraiya and future-future-like married future Naruto are tall.'
'Anyways… I'm so glad I had Tsunade, Kabuto, and Nono check the formula and cross reference to see if Tobirama or that Ancient Senju Ancestor missed anything. Tsunade one day had the random thought why don't you start extracting chakra and mediating inside the solution and boom, we did the math and found out that doing so not only enhances my absorption rate of the solution, but it positively affects my chakra growth. '
'That's how I jumped up in terms of chakra even before my first chakra growth spurt, which I should mention is yet to hit. Tsunade said it should happen soon, but six is just an estimate, not a true marker of whether or when it happens. All in all, I'm set for another quick growth period. Not to mention using shadow clones while I'm in the bath to offset the time 'lost,' though then again it's not really time lost, but just time I have to use on just enhancing myself… The future looks bright…'
Just as Soutarou was stepping out of the bathroom a wave of memories hit him and his face lit up in glee, though combined with the scowl that instinctually formed from the jarring headache it looked like he needed to go to the bathroom right then and there.
'Finally! Who said I wasn't going to make progress fast? Although it took all five of them together more than three hours to barely rehydrate one leaf. Still I have that sensation down, which now means I can speed up the process by just spamming it. Hehe… Whoever said practice makes perfect, really knew what they were talking about though I guess they never guessed, that you can spam it!'
Forming another hand sign he created another five shadow clones or so he wanted to all before realizing he didn't have enough chakra to maintain five shadow clones simultaneously. Sighing Soutarou grumbled and instead formed three shadow clones and sent them off to rehydrate a leaf.
Continuing on with this day Soutarou didn't notice the hidden gaze on his clones that were outside and rapidly dehydrating a leaf before trying to rehydrate it again, albeit with much less success.
~Hiruzen POV~
Hiruzen stared through his hazy glass orb that sat on a purple velvet cushion. Before thinking,
Hiruzen's face turned nostalgic as he thought, Hiruzen sighed and shook his head as he slumped in his chair, Hiruzen shook his head and turned his head towards the window facing outwards towards Konoha before he thought,
Hiruzen took a puff from his pipe and exhaled deeply before inspecting the engraving on the pipe's side and reminiscing after thinking about Toka-senpai for moment, Hiruzen chuckled for a moment before his mood fell as he thought about not only his inability to improve Konoha to the level his Sensei did but his failures as well,
Hiruzen looked out the window in deep contemplation, Hiruzen's eyes turned toward the new Uchiha district, Hiruzen scratched his bread in frustration as he continued, Hiruzen's mood completely fell apart as a tear streaked down his face, before he wiped it and calmed himself.
Hiruzen's face fell again and his expression darkened again and even further at that as he thought, Hiruzen's thoughts wondered. Hiruzen stared out the window with narrowed and hardened eyes before sighing deeply and shaking his head, Hiruzen shook his head and smiled softly, Hiruzen's smile grew brighter as he thought, Hiruzen stood up and put his hands behind his back before calling out, "Inu."
A silver haired shinobi jumped out of the shadows and kneeled before saying somewhat emotionlessly, "Yes, Lord Hokage."
Hiruzen pulled out a file and said, "Classify all information regarding Soutarou Morita as not only Top Secret, but as 'my eyes only.' Review the file before you do so and you'll begin guarding him in addition to Hawk. He is no less important than the Nine Tails Jinchuriki, in fact he may be more so."
The silver haired shinobi paused before saying, "It will be done my lord."
Hiruzen's eyes glinted before he walked out of his office and the silver haired shinobi similarly retreated back to the shadows….
***Author's Note:
Really long chapter, abt three thousand words which made us break 50k words! Cheers and here's to another 50k (Ideally this novel will end up with around 2million+ my brainstorming and the late game fights -already written- mean that even that estimate might be off…). Anyways until next time!
This chapter is also another one of those filling in the gaps chapters… I feel like this backstory is needed to explain certain character's actions and, you know, to fill in the gaps that Kishimoto left us.***