"Is this me?"

A four-year-old boy with short, mousy red hair and eyebrows glances at his face in the mirror. He has pupilless red eyes and three red scratch marks under both his eyes.

"Why do I look like a kid? And why is my hair red? What kind of hair dye is this?"

A few seconds ago, he woke up from a long dream. Various unknown memories flooded his mind.

"Is this some sort of lucid dream?"

He carefully raises his hand towards his face and pinches his cheek.

"Aw… Aw… It hurts!"

He glances at the slight red marking on his face.

"Since it hurts, it shouldn't be a dream, right?" He glances at his reflection in the mirror.

"As if in hell I will believe that!"

Bang…

He punches the wall in front of him.

Aww… aww…

"It hurts! It hurt so much!" The kid glances at the bruise on his fist.

Suddenly, his head feels dizzy and his vision turns blurry.

"What was that noise?"

"Kurai! Kurai! Are you alright, dear?"

Several noises ring in the kid's head and he passes out.

A tall man with brown eyes, and shoulder-length mousy brown hair enters the room followed by a woman with long, bright-red hair and large, red pupilless eyes. The man has a frown on his face while the woman's face looks worried.

"Kurai!

The woman hurriedly rushes towards the kid and picks him up. The man presses his finger on the kid's chest and his frown eases up.

"Don't worry, he just passed out a little. Prepare the herbal soup to help him recover."

Mm…

The woman nods and places the kid on the bed.

------------------

A few hours later,

"This sucks! This sucks balls!"

Kurai stares at his reflection in the mirror and curses silently.

"This isn't a dream. I somehow died and now I am reborn as a kid! And this Walmart Sasori in the reflection is my new face."

Several complicated expressions appear on his face. He wants to shout out his lungs and let his bottled-up emotions out.

"That doesn't sound like a good idea!"

After a few seconds, he calms down.

"But why of all worlds it have to be the Shinobi world of Naruto?" He panics again.

He presses a hand against his fast-beating heart and reorganizes the memories from his past and present life.

"So, I was a 25-year-old adult man in my past life. Lived a normal life with my grandmother, with no drama or struggle. I wasn't particularly a genius or prodigy of some sort. I only managed to score top grades in my school and college with sheer hard work. My parents died early in a car accident when I was three years old. Since then, I was raised by my grandmother in the countryside. She was a very loving, caring, peaceful woman." 

He sorts his memories.

"When I was 16 years old, I won a laptop in some sort of government-organized exam. Since then, I have become a fan of coding and programming. I got a scholarship to a good college because of my grades. I was a math major with physics as a minor subject in college. 

My hobby of coding turned into a passion that continued even in college and eventually, I got a good job as a programmer in an MNC. Other than that, I was a fan of gaming and anime. I was not a weeb in particular, but I had my share of all-nighters. I even got a girlfriend in college, though we broke up in our last year since she had different pursuits.

Grandma passed away when I turned twenty. Her death was the single saddest event of my life. It was her death that made me seek companionship in the form of my former girlfriend."

Sigh…

Kurai sighs in his heart.

"Also, I will miss my PC that I spent most of my first salary to build. I didn't even get to play the list of games on my Steam account. I really wanted to play that new Dark Souls 3 DLC that just came out."

He reminisces about some memories.

"It's hard to get over it!" Kurai closes his eyes.

"Kurai, here is your medicinal soup!"

A beautiful woman with long, bright-red hair and large, black pupilless eyes enters the room with a tray holding a bowl of piping hot soup in her hands.

'So beautiful!'

Kurai is stunned to see the woman in front of her.

'My girlfriend is nowhere near when compared to her.' Kurai makes a mental remark.

"Kurai, are you alright?"

Worry appears on the woman's face after seeing the boy in a daze. She hurriedly places the tray on the table and places her fair hands on his forehead.

"Are you feeling feverish?"

Ah…

Kurai is startled out of his thoughts. He hastily replies.

"I am sorry Mother! I just spaced out for a second." He quickly apologizes.

"It's good that you are fine!" The woman smiles sweetly and hugs him in her embrace.

"Do you want mother to feed you?" She asks with a smile.

"No, I can drink it on my own!" Kurai shakes his head.

"Ok, then! Finish it soon and then meet your father in the backyard."

"Ok!" Kurai dreamily stares at his mother's back as she exits the room.

'Looks like I missed a lot of things in my baby days.'

Ahem…

He quickly shakes his head to dispel his dirty thoughts and picks up the spoon. He drinks the soup while sorting the memories of his current identity.

'So, I am Kurai Senju, a member of the Senju clan. My father's name is Akinao Senju and my mother's name is Ishiko Uzumaki. Now, that's a good starter in this world, if I have to say.'

Kurai nods his head in contentment while blowing air on the hot soup.

'Even though it's hard for me to accept this, I will still try to adapt to this change.'

He pulls the shutter of the window and gazes at the distant Hokage monument with four faces.

"This isn't a dream!"

He sighed and took a sip of the soup.

"So, I am born in a peaceful era. That's a relief to know!"

The era after the reign of the Fourth Hokage was quite peaceful until Naruto turned twelve.

"On that note, what year is this?"

Kurai's mood suddenly plummets.

"The troubles start with Naruto turning twelve. And I don't want to die just after reincarnating."

He quickly searches the room for a memo or calendar of short and he soon finds one. However,

"Fuck this shit!"

Soon, he throws the calendar away.

"I don't have a time reference and the most important thing…"

A gloomy expression appears on his face.

"I can't read this language since I wasn't a native Japanese in my past life."

He sighs and blew air on another spoon of soup.

"I am only four years old and have to yet learn how to read and write properly. In this world, the kids learn how to throw hands before learning how to grab a pen."

Kurai recalls the small number of memories he has in this life.

He forgot most of the spicy memories… Ahem… memories of the baby life of this body. Only faint memories of when he started to walk and run appear in his mind.

"Speaking of which…"

He recalls the incident from yesterday.

"As usual, I was practicing the leaf concentration exercise to circulate my chakra through my chakra system."

Leaf concentration exercise is a basic practice every kid practices to learn how to control the chakra and release it.

"However, I accidentally released almost all of my chakra and passed out a result. Because of this, the memories of my past life unlocked themselves."

He finishes the soup and glances at his little hands.

"Alright, since I am already in this world and have no other choice, I will set a goal for myself. My goal is to save this world."

He confidently jumps from the bed but accidentally trips on the string of bedsheets and falls flat with his face on the floor.

He wipes his face with embarrassment while holding the pain inside.

"Who am I even kidding? My first goal is to survive."

Soon, he snaps back to reality and recalls the insane villains in the upcoming future.

"I will leave that goal to Naruto and Sasuke, the protagonist. For now, I just want to live a good life, man!"

He wipes the dust and walks out of his room.

"Let's meet my father first and gather some information."

He walks through the corridor, paved with wooden planks, and soon arrives in the backyard.

In the backyard, a tall man with shoulder-length, mousy brown hair is training by swinging a metal sword.

'That looks like a real anime sword!' Kurai's eyes gleam as he stares at the Katana.

Ahem…

A slight cough startles him and his instinctive habits kick in.

"Father!"

He quickly bows to the man.

'What's with this family etiquette training? And why it's ingrained in my body?'

Kurai quickly raises his head and notices the look of disappointment in his father's eyes.

Silent tears flow from his eyes in his mind.

'I am sorry, father! I am a failure of a son!'

The inner Asian within him comes alive as he recognizes that look of disappointment with a glance.

Sigh…

Akinao sighs as he stares at his son.

'He lacks the manly aura of the Senju clan. Perhaps this is the result of his Uzumaki lineage.'

"Are you thinking something rude again, dear?" Ishiko arrives with a kitchen knife in her hand.

Shiing…

A gleam flashes across the blade of the knife.

Ah!

Akinao is startled and quickly shakes his head.

"Nothing! It's nothing! I am just worried about our son."

He signals to Kurai with his spare hand. Ishiko sits down with a basket of vegetables in her hand.

"Kurai, how are you feeling now?" He asks with slight concern.

"I am perfectly fine, father!"

He performs a few taijutsu moves from his memory.

Kids from big clans like Senju begin their training as early as the age of three. So, it's not a surprise. His father also taught him a few moves.

"Good!" Akinao nods and takes out a small paper strip from his pocket.

"Here!" He hands it over to Kurai.

"Try to infuse your chakra in it."

Hmm…

Kurai recognizes the paper as the Chakra paper used to test the chakra nature.

He holds the paper with hope and silently prays to the gods.

"Please be more than one chakra nature. Please be more than one chakra nature."

Multiple chakra nature is a bit hard to train but is more versatile.

'No, I can't jinx it so early. I will have low expectations. So, please be wind or lightning chakra nature.'

"What's wrong? Just try to infuse your chakra in this paper!" Akinao's voice startles him.

"Yes! Yes!"

He hurriedly pinches the paper between his thumb and fingers and imagines the process of blood circulating through his body. The flow of chakra is slightly similar to the process.

A wisp of chakra originates from his naval and travels through his chest, shoulder, arm, wrist, and finally, his fingertips.

Sizzle… sizzle…

The paper catches fire and turns to ashes.

AH!

Kurai freezes. All his hopes and dreams fly away with ashes.

"Hmm… so you have a fire affinity, just like your mother." Akinao turns to Ishiko and nods.

'Well, it is still something to look forward to!'

Kurai was looking forward to wind and lightning to become a speed-type shinobi.

'Now, at least I will be able to light a fire in the wild.' He consoles himself.

'Well, I am not sure that there are even lighters in this present age. Since it's a mix of the Edo era Japan and the modern period from Earth.'

"Father, what affinity do you have?"

He asks his father in anticipation.

"I have the dual affinity of earth and water release." Akinao raises his head with a smug expression.

"Then what about you, mother?" Kurai ignores him and turns to his mother.

"I have a strong fire release affinity." Ishiko nods and lights up a small fire in between her fingers without any hand signs.

"Wow, that's so cool!" Kurai claps at the sight to cheer her.

'Even though I have to behave like a normal four-year-old to not blow my cover and appear suspicious. I can be a prodigy and all but acting way above my age will grab the attention of a certain pedophile.'

He recalls the fate of Itachi, Shisui, Kakashi, and a few other shinobis.

'Still, Mother's technique is cool as fuck since she didn't even make a single-hand sign.'

Ahem…

Akinao clears his throat to draw their attention.

"Wow, father you are also cool!" Kurai claps again while Akinao smugly raises his head.

'As a witness of Asian parenting from all my neighbors, I have long mastered the art of pleasing Asian parents.' Kurai gives himself a silent pat.

"Since you don't have my chakra affinity, I will train you in our Senju clan's Taijutsu, Kenjutsu, and Bukijutsu. While your mother will train you in Ninjutsu. Is that clear?" Akinao's expression turns serious.

"Yes, father!" Kurai straightened his back.