Chapter 04: Storing Knowledge 

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"Welcome kid. What may I help you with?"

A female librarian, sitting behind a desk, spoke as a spiky-haired kid walked in. He looked straight at her before replying.

"I'm looking for books on shinobi."

She paused for a second. "Well, do you have a card pass? It's my first time seeing you here."

Akio shook his head – to which she started looking for something in her drawers. A few seconds passed before she pulled out a card and put it on the table.

"Write your details here, and I'll check up on this later on. For now, you can use this library but I'll give you a temporary pass."

He picked up the pen and wrote his full name, age and date of birth on a piece of paper. She then looked at it for a few seconds and stood up.

"Akio Hanshiro.. huh – is that how you pronounce it.?"

He simply nodded, signalling a yes.

The librarian walked past a few bookshelves whilst he just followed behind – until they arrived at a specific section.

"Here you go. If you want to find a specific book, just go by the alphabet. If you can't find it – ask me." She started walking away, leaving Akio already scouring with his eyes.

'Hmm… Chakra. Let's see on C.'

Akio glanced at the third row and picked out a book.

[Chakra Theory for Beginners]

It was a small-sized book with less than 15 pages. Still, he flicked through every page, but it was unusually fast.

Then he closed his eyes… just like before, his eyelids fluttered. The outline of his pupil was bulging out, rapidly moving around.

As he opened his eyes – he inwardly thought – 'This is… such a cheat. It actually can be used like this.'

He looked at the book and just skimmed through it, ingraining it into his memory – with his memory recall, he looked at his recent memory from a first-person perspective. To his surprise, he could perfectly see every word written in the book – couldn't this be used to speed up his reading pace so he could catch up with the others? It's like a recording feature that he can go back to watch.

[Basics of Chakra]

He pulled out another book which he flickered through again.

'Chakra: energy which gives people superhuman-like strength… no godlike strength. I needed to know more about it. Although these books' information overlapped with each other, there was no harm in just 'recording' them.'

In the future, he may need more references in a specific area – and he should use this ability to its full potential.

So he skimmed through all 14 chakra books in the library, but instead of feeling some sort of content, he felt confused.

Akio had just stored a few months' worths of information in his head in just an hour– yet he realised something – these books didn't explain how to use chakra. Only explaining basics and theory – but no appliances. But now he realised that this is a public library, and chakra couldn't be just taught to anyone.

'Well I did have some gains from this; I might as well use up this time to scour for more information. Knowledge was power after all.'

Hours passed by… he carefully and slowly skimmed through books ranging from the history of shinobi to the geographical aspects of the Shinobi world. He didn't know if someone was watching or noticing but just to be careful, he didn't want to just skim through books. It was easy to gain information, yet it was difficult to digest it smoothly. Some parts felt like they were blank, but he just stored them in his mind so there was no rush. He could read it in his own time after all.

Just as he was about to read more books, a voice rang in his ear. "Akio. How long are you going to stay here for, closing time is in an hour."

'Shit… I need to be home for dinner.'

Without even realising it, he had lost track of time so he put the book back into the bookshelf.

"Ah. Time went so fast, I didn't realise." He sheepishly scratched his head.

The librarian just giggled at the kids' antics as he walked by – but just before he walked out – she handed him a card.

"I didn't know you were going to stay for so long, but I got you a card in the meantime."

He smiled and respectfully said, "Thank you librarian- san."

He waved to her as he walked out and she did the same.

On his way back, he thought about the gains he felt in just one day. A full day hadn't even passed and he reckoned; he had held more knowledge about Chakra than most first-year academy students. It was only the basics after all yet his foundation was solid as he read books that overlapped but differed in some places.

For the first time since coming here, Akio looked forward to what the future held for him. However, it was only for a split second before his eyes darkened.

'War times will be coming soon. I need to be on my absolute most cautious behaviour; I can't look forward to such things.'

He scoffed at his own thinking; he never wanted to arrive here in the first place nor did he want to stay here – yet he knew there were plenty of opportunities to take advantage of. He wasn't going to be complacent with just acquiring knowledge.

-Knock!

-Knock!

-Knock!

At this moment, he had lightly tapped his door three times, waiting for someone to answer and someone did as the door widened open, revealing a young girl.

Seeing the person at the door, her eyes grew cold as she walked away, leaving him by himself. He didn't mind as he just walked in.

The fresh aroma of food rapidly entered his nose; his stomach rumbled at the smell. It seemed the constant reading got him hungrier than usual.

Walking into the kitchen, he saw his father with a bright smile on his face. "So you went outside today I heard."

Akio nodded. "Yeah, I went to the library to find out some things."

Hagiro laughed. "My son's finally going outside." He carried on, "Some friends of mine said that you were looking for me. What for?"

"Uh, I was just looking for you to ask about some things on chakra and other stuff."

"Chakra?" he asked, confused. "Haha! If you want to learn about chakra, I'll show you myself after dinner."

'Finally!' inwardly, he was over the moon.

He smiled and sat down at his spot at the table whilst the others had perked ears. Even they were interested in what this good-for-nothing thing did at the library. He never even steps foot out of his room – except for dinner so why would he go to the library?

From the look on Arizas face, he knew what this supposed 'il show you myself' was – and he clenched his fists underneath the table, seeing Akio so happy. It irked him as even his appetite was fading away, but he still ate.

Half an hour passed… the family had finished eating as the maids started to tidy up everything.

Currently, Akio was following his father out to the backyard with a seemingly delighted expression. Outside was a large area of land with a mini lake and a large pool.

"Now I'll show you what chakra is all about," Hagiro smugly exclaimed.

Akio just stood by the side, watching intently at what was going to happen.

"You're going to want to stand much more back, son." He laughed.

After he did, Hagiro did some hand seals before launching his palm into the ground…

The ground started rumbling, causing Akio to stumble a bit. The grass parted, giving birth to a huge mud-moulded dragon which crawled its way out of the ground. Its mouth widened as it hovered in mid-air and blasted out a few mud balls that were sent flying toward the lake. A huge splash occurred, wetting everything in its vicinity… The dragon then disappeared, turning into mud before combining with the earth again.

This whole process struck Akio in awe as he watched a dragon… literally – a dragon comes out of the ground. It was different from just seeing it in a show; he had just experienced it in reality.

'This kind of power…'

He was snapped out of his thoughts…

"So what did you think?" He smirked, seeing the frozen expression on his son's face.

"It was… beautiful," he exclaimed with his eyes widened.

"Haha! Don't worry, you'll be doing this in no time. I don't believe my son's got worse talent than me."

After he had seen this, Akio had more attraction toward shinobi… now he definitely knew that he had to get power like this no matter what.

'This power… I need it; I want it – to not die I will have this kind of power for myself.'

Immediately a sudden crave for power arose in his heart – his mind flooded with pent up thoughts, fantasising his own future.

Hagiro, who was still in front of him, noticed his eyes flicker with some fleeting emotion – determination… and thirst. A thirst that he needed to quench… he was all too familiar with that feeling and was even more confident on his son's path as a shinobi.

'Something in him has changed, and it's definitely doing him good. I hope to see him accomplished and see how far he can go.'

Even his father felt excited about his son's future – immediately wanting to support him on his journey.

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