POV - Itsuki

Life has been easy lately. I don't have to think about anything seriously. It's very nice.

If the whole point of reincarnating into a fantasy world was to conquer it with my knowledge about its future. Then I am failing miserably.

But, my purpose is not that. I don't want to run around doing things for others or be a hero. I am no saviour nor am I a devil. And I would like to keep it that way and enjoy my life while I can.

I have wasted enough time in my previous life thinking about my purpose. That's why It's reasonable to consider me as an experienced elder. Besides, wallowing in my misery was my old thing. It does not work well with my cute baby face anyway.

So, I decided to learn Japanese. I had enough of using facial expressions and hand signs as a language.

The first step to learning any language is imitating. And the very few words you should learn first is curse words. That way you would know when some foreigner is cursing at you and not mistake it for calling you a friend. And just for clarification. "This has never happened to me."

If you have a stable vocabulary of curse words. You just use it with every new word you learn. That way people would readily correct it and teach you the meaning of the words. Oh shit! I forgot to put the disclaimer.

"To all the grown men of the world who thought about imitating my method. The above-imitating step will only work with a baby small enough that people won't mistake you for a crazy person. So, practise this method for perfect language cultivation at your own risk. All collateral damage incurred is your own damn problem. So, don't come complaining to me."

It was easy for me to learn Japanese. Somehow the words became easier to remember and imitate.

"What could possibly make me so much smarter!" Oh, the computer in my brain you would say. But, you just can't agree with the fact that I am just that smart'.

After the communication barrier was penetrated by my super-intelligent brain. Life became too good. Although I still keep talking in broken Japanese to not be branded a genius. I could communicate with people normally.

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Now I am three years old. My Japanese is much better and I can go to the bathroom and toilet on my own.

The day that I took my first bathroom break alone was a monumental cognitive shift for me. That was the day I experienced privacy for the first time. And I realized that I could have a private life.

In my past life. I had no mother or any family. There was no one snooping around in my private matters. But even then, privacy was a questionable thing. I was sure that Google and Facebook knew more about me than my birth mother could ever know, even if I had any. Even after my death, I might exist as some binary digits stored in cold storage somewhere in America. My ashes in India would have been thrown out by now, but my data will live on as a record in some database ready to be served to some artificial intelligence program for market research and user activity prediction. Raking in money to some corporation.

But today, I am free and I have privacy until Danzo begins spying on little kids. What a creep!

I need to ask someone what day and age I am living in. There are many orphans and the leaf village is already established. Maybe this is the time of the First Shinobi world war.

Anyway, I don't want to cross paths with creeps like Danzo or go to war. What I prefer is a short but peaceful life that I enjoy more than the action-packed adventure of Naruto.

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After some digging around. I finally have some idea about when I am.

"Oh fuck!" That was everything I could say about the time in the Naruto universe that I was living in.  Now everything makes sense.

Although I watched the Naruto anime. I am not well versed in Narutology. Unlike naruto fans that I have seen before. I only have a brief knowledge of what happened in the anime. But I know for sure that if Hashirama, the First Hokage is dead. Then Tobirama, the second Hokage, should prepare his grave soon.

And today I heard some rumours that Hashirama is ill and Tobirama is already the second Hokage. If things go the way they are going. It would be bad for me.

My easy life will go up in smoke and shinobi wars will destroy my stable food supply. I can't allow that. It has only been some months since I began eating solid food. And due to reasons like less pollution, no hormone injected poultry and no chemical fertilizers. Everything tastes so good.

I don't want to lose all that. I have been in the extreme ends of poverty and I know what it's like. And war and bloodshed always leave the general population in poverty and famine. It is always the people who suffer for one man's ambition or greed. Then the cycle of hatred continues like the endless waves on the sea.

This is such a pain.

End of POV

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"What happened to that kid?" Asked the young Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"What happened?" Asked back Hina.

"He is just staring at the wall looking lost."

"Oh, That's normal. You should have seen him a couple of months ago. This is the most normal he has been since I saw him. Last year, he was cursing at everyone and the year before, he was screaming his lungs out every day. Although he doesn't look and act like it, he is the smartest of the bunch."

"Is that right! Then how about letting him join the ninja academy? The village needs more smart people for it to flourish" Hiruzen politely asked the orphanage caretaker.

Hiruzen went to the orphanage on orders of the second Hokage. He was here to headhunt for the new class of the ninja academy.

Kids need to be taught about the will of fire at an early age. That was the conviction that led Hiruzen.

"So, are you ok with him coming to the academy? He will be taught to read and write. If he has chakra and the necessary skills to manipulate it, He could even be a pillar of strength to the village as the First Hokage. This would be a great opportunity for him."

"Hm… Is being a ninja the right path for him. You might not know about it, brother Hiruzen. His father was also a shinobi. He gave his life for the village and now you want his son to be a shinobi. This, I could never bear the burden of making this decision for him. You should ask him what he wants to do. I believe the head caretaker of this orphanage would also ask you to do the same."

"Sorry about that. I overstepped my boundaries. I would really like to test everyone today to see if they can become ninjas. The Hokage sent me to do that. No one needs to make rash decisions today."

With that said. Hiruzen began preparing for the test.