Seven years. Seven years with no answers as to how I shall return home. Am I stuck in this world? Or is this some hidden continent no one has known about? I don't know.

What I do know is that like others that belong to Iwagakure, I can control earth. It comes natural to me, as it should since I was a skillful earthbender by the age of six. It was the first type of bending I ever learned, and the most used.

"Boji."

"Boji."

"Boji!"

"Huh? What?" My trance was broken when a little girl slammed her hand down on my desk. Short brown hair, dark eyes, and freckles. She was a bit loud, and it reminded me of the children I used to play with long ago.

Mei was her name and she was one of the people I could consider a friend here. Honestly speaking, she was one of the only people I talked to.

This was not because I was a lone wolf, or had a powerful clan backing me. It was simply because I spoke as little as possible. Being as old as I am mentally it was difficult to keep up the persona of a child. Which is why I found that speaking less gave me less attention. Although not that much.

"Are you coming or not?" Mei asked me.

"Sure."

I already knew what she was referring to, it's been all she could talk about for days. Her older brother returned today and last time he was here he promised her he would teach her some techniques. He was a prodigy in his own right and around six years older than us. 

Mei and I lived close to one another, but she was part of the Itawa clan, and I was not. Clans were a huge deal in this world, they passed down their bloodline to their children who would inherit special abilities or even learn secret techniques. There was something similar in my world, but that was only with the Beifeng family. They passed down the art of seismic sense, a rare sub-bending style of earth bending.

Anyone who was touching the ground, or anything attached to the ground could be seen. Even if your eyes did not visually see them. I ended up learning it along with metal bending, another sub-bending of earth bending.

 "Then let's go!"

"Ahh, Boji, a moment before you leave." Sora said as she motioned for me to come over.

Sora was the instructor at the ninja academy and taught our class. Supposedly this was the final class she was going to teach before she retired. She was still young so retiring seemed far from it. Maybe she was going to become an active Shinobi once more.

"Yes?" I was curious why she stopped me. I thought I had a general understanding of her personality but guess I may have missed a few bits. She only ever called students to stay behind if they've caused trouble, but I did nothing wrong.

"You've shown remarkable growth since you've entered the academy. A friend of mines would like to meet you so I thought I'd bring it up."

A friend of hers? Heard about me?

"Okay."

This didn't seem like anything worth declining so why not. Besides, this could be a chance for me to learn something new. 

Sora smiled. "Great! We'll stop by your place later today."

I nodded but was curious. Why my place? If they wanted to meet me why not just do it here?

Leaving the academy Mei and I went to her home. It was a large home three stories high with a wing dedicated to training. I came here some times to spar with Mei and some of her family members. We never used what they called ninjutsu or what I considered bending, but we practiced a lot of hand to hand combat. Which was fun.

Although my body might be that of a child, my mind was not. I called upon the years of experience to crush my opponents. Did I feel bad about it? Not in the slightest.

This caused her family to look at me in a different light saying I was a genius at fighting.

Outside the gate of her home was a teenage boy, about two feet taller than me with long brown hair and brown eyes. He was speaking with another man who was much older than him, probably in his mid-thirties if I had to guess.

Noticing us they ended their conversation and the older man vanished. I was surprised when I first saw the people of this place disappearing all the time. Where I'm from that was impossible, so I was eager to learn how they did it.

"Hey! You're home early." The teen said as he waved his hand in our direction.

"Itchi!" Mei shouted as she ran towards her brother. He gave her a quick hug.

"Hey." I said.

"Boji, it's been a while. How are you doing? Still at the top of your class?" Itchi asked me.

I nodded. The curriculum wasn't difficult, children could easily do it. Although learning some of their ninjutsu took time, it was all easy to pick up. What caught my attention the most was that I had to use hand signs to use some ninjutsu, but not all of them. If I had a general understanding of how it worked and I could just bend the earth to my will.

Although I kept that part a secret for now.