Chapter 19: 1 Year

With a somber expression, Minato handed out two documents to the councilmen. This time around, the appeased Fugaku Uchiha had decided to finally represent his clan and took his seat in the council. With the Uchiha's support, Minato's word held more weight than ever. Looking through the documents, all the councilmen, be it the Hyuugas, Uchihas or even Aburames were left unsettled.

"Obito Uchiha... and one of the Legendary Sannins... this has turned troublesome. If Orochimaru's actions are true, then the sudden disappearance of my father's eyes are... rational."

Hiashi spoke coldly, cutting the silence as the councilmen immediately started whispering to each other.

"Not only the byakugan... a member of my clan has lost his Sharingan." Fugaku added and looked at the documents in his hands darkly. On one of the pages was an image of black-haired youth with a huge and innocent smile. His orange goggles straddled on his forehead as he made a pose by extending his hands.

'Obito... huh.'

"Hmph! Who cares about those second class dojutsu! If you cared enough, you would have sealed the eyes on your branch family."

Hiashi's mocking voice gained an impassive look from the silently raging Uchiha as Fugaku spoke coldly.

"Seal the branch members and get my elder's eyes targeted? Like yours?" He tilted his head and spoke coldly. "And if you wanna pick a fight, I am more than happy to tear off the noble image and show the most disgusting sides of you insects."

Hiashi slammed his palms on the table and stood up with a wrathful expression, his byakugan immediately activated as he pointed at Fugaku. But before he could speak, Fugaku's sharingan activated, three tomoes rotated ever so gently as everyone, except for Minato, turned their gazes away from Fugaku, Hiashi included.

"What? Unsatisfied? Your eyes may see all, but you, as a person, are still not man enough to match my gaze. My eyes can destroy you in minutes.

All you hyuugas... at least, a lot of your main house are the same.

Great boast, little roast."

Before he could continue, Minato stopped the conflict with a commanding 'Enough' as he easily matched Fugaku's gaze, making him falter slightly as the embarrass Hiashi took his seat with a deep scowl.

"Hokage-dono, there are things more pressing than these two." The Aburame leader spoke up and continued as the tension eased up slightly. "While the delegates were found to be under a genjutsu, it is undeniable that Obito Uchiha belonged to our village.

Other Kages might not take his actions kindly and the village may face some difficulties."

Hearing his words, the guild representatives felt slightly worried. While wars were followed by peak business period, it was only beneficial to a select few. No matter which type of war took place, business always took an impressionable hit that deprived profits to many.

"I will deal with it appropriately." Minato spoke plainly as he gave some guidelines to follow in the following period of tension to reduce various forms of risks.

***

It's been an entire week since Eio felt that sudden sensation. Even in his previous life, he hadn't felt so... clear. Never. Meditation was the door to exploring his soul, a statement that his previous teacher would often mention. But only now did he truly feel that he never meditated in the 'correct' fashion.

Meditation was never about focusing at one point... no, it was always about exploring. With newfound motivation and method, Eio took 1 hour out of his daily routine to explore his inner self in the form of meditation until...

'I can feel it. Mom is sleeping and father is cooking. I can feel the morning breeze entering the room from the window, there is a scroll right below my bed. What? There's a scroll?'

His attention immediately broke out as he felt all the nature energy phasing through his body. While his body tingled slightly, due to a special product created by a sliver of his chakra mixing up with the small amount of nature energy accommodated by his body, the feeling ended as soon as it came and his eyes snapped open. His tiny body covered in sweat.

Taking a moment, Eio started the Chakra Manipulation exercise for another hour followed by thirty minutes of stretching and then, he stood up from his bed and rolled down his bed. With his tiny body being able to get below the bed, he came face to face with a small compartment covered by a piece of plywood that matched the surrounding area. If he hadn't sensed the location in his previous wondrous state and the fact that he concentrated on the area to see a tiny crevice, Eio wouldn't have been able to find this scroll.

With a frown, Eio used his small hands to push away the cover and the scroll immediately fell on his face... something he should have perceived earlier. Rubbing his nose, he rolled out from the area with a scroll in his hand and then sat on his bed once again. Opening the scroll impatiently, Eio felt slightly stunned by the contents of the scroll.

'Congratulations, son. If you found this scroll, this means that you successfully managed to reach the threshold of being a sage. While I feel complicated by making you train at such a young age, I wouldn't impose anything on you. Before you continue reading this scroll, my son, you need to know a few things.

First, you are my pride and joy. Your decisions about your future won't change that fact. Never.

Second, to not force my... our clan's training on you, there are many other hidden scrolls inside your room. Don't get anxious. If you haven't reached the required threshold, you won't find them even if you destroy your room.

Third, no matter what, mention the scrolls to me or your mother. To train in our way is your choice. Everything you need to know is in those scrolls. If you are unable to find them, then it is for the better for excess knowledge only brings more harm than good. If you do find them, you will train on your own. Think of it as a long-term assignment.

With the things cleared out, I shall first go through the first part of the scroll that describes the making of sage.

To become a sage means to connect with nature. And to connect with nature, the age of 5-10 is perfect. Sure, the requirements of chakra reserve to even sense the nature energy is something that no kid can possess, our clan alongside some select few has always been an exception....'

As Eio read the contents of the scroll, his mouth hung open due to the sheer intensity of the training described in the scroll while the second part of the scroll almost shook his body.

***

1 Year

"Mom! I'm going out!"

Asuka immediately looked at the running Eio and shouted.

"Be sure to bring a plushie for Himawari!"

Eio nodded and replied with a happy smile as he looked at the dark-haired child cradled in Asuka's arms, sleeping silently while Ryu enjoyed his monthly leave, his image of being in pyjamas in the afternoon spoke much about him relaxing with a relieved smile as he took a sip of his coffee.

As Eio left, Ryu looked at Asuka and spoke lightly.

"You know... it has been almost a year since his training session. Last night, I went to his room and checked on all the scrolls... the Sage and Chakra Beast Manipulation scroll is already gone."

Asuka smiled happily as she slowly laid her youngest daughter, Himawari inside her crib and spoke out.

"Of course it's taken... what did you expect?"

She gazed at him before Ryu got up on his feet and made his way towards Asuka.

"Say, why don't we get another one... let's try for twins." His roguish attempts were met by a disgusted glare as Asuka snorted.

"Nah, if you want one, why don't we find that snake and get you implanted by twins! Let's see if you like getting kids out of your body."

Ryu scowled at her words. But he wasn't the one to feel dispirited. Placing his hands on her trained and tight waist, Ryu couldn't help but smile.

"Oh, come on, let's do it safely."

His soft whispers did work wonder on the Rabbit princess as she seriously considered his words. Her arms, unconsciously, placed on Ryu's waist. But their moment was broken by Himawari suddenly crying, unhappy by leaving her mother.

"Ah! You made her cry, scoundrel!"

With her palms shoving Ryu's chins away from her face, she immediately picked Himawari up and started to sing her a lullaby while Ryu sighed in a depressed manner. He sat back on his seat while grumbling as he remembered how Kairo, his teammate, spoke about singles getting action almost every night. Maybe... just maybe, he was right... but god forbid if Asuka actually found his thoughts.

He would be skinned alive.

***

As Eio ran through the streets with a simple smile, his body, on the other hand, continuously functioned as the surrounding nature energy entered into his body and kept on mixing with his chakra. It took him a full year before he could finally open the Sage Mode described in the scroll prepared by Ryu. Of course, his progress wasn't known to anyone. Not even his father and mother. While the Sage Mode granted Eio with longer sensory abilities and an overall power-up, one thing made him completely dissatisfied.

Time Duration.

The first time he tried out his Sage Mode, that happened to be just a month ago, he immediately stood in front of the mirror and found that the area around his eyes was covered in violet pigmentation, just like Ryu's, but that was it. His tattoos did not cover the entirety of his body and the aura he freely allowed out of his body wasn't near comparable to Ryu's on their first and last session.

As he kept on training, he found that during the mixing of his Chakra and nature energy, which by the way, wouldn't be possible for him if he wasn't more than thirty years old mentally, as he kept on moulding the strange product named as: Sage Chakra inside his body, the farther his body adapted to the strange mode, demonstrating that mastering the Sage Mode was in itself would require constant training and gradual process.

Meanwhile, the second part of that scroll continued to haunt him at night. Even though the jutsu described in that particular scroll was far more amazing than the Sage Mode itself, Eio still didn't think that he was ready. Over the year, Eio also realised one more thing. And this particular realisation could be considered as the most important gain he managed to profit from in the past year.

Eio finally realised that he was gifted with a chance. A chance to relive his childhood... a relatively normal childhood. After all, he isn't forced to face-off against dinosaurs neither is he kidnapped by his father's alien evil brother. What's more, he wasn't forced to go through a tower of books at a young age and by the looks of this world's technology, the chance of android's sudden uprising did not seem to be promising. No freaky purple aliens and no stuck-up man-monkeys (vegeta) that constantly pressured his young body to stay away from kids of his own age.

Many adults dreamt of reliving their childhood... he got the chance and he almost wasted 4 years of the particular chance just by staying under the shade of the tree. While that particular action felt quite relaxing, Eio could definitely play around. After all, he was forced to fight a losing war with the androids just after he reached 10 years of his age.

Walking towards the park with a happy smile, Eio immediately rolled forward as the location he stood on crumbled, revealing it to be a hole, large enough to accommodate his tiny body. "Nice Try!" Eio shouted and then waited for the assailants to show up!

Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh

Three distinct figures jumped out from the bushes turning out to be Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Kiba Inuzuka or what the group liked to call them: The Menacing Trio. With a frustrated sigh, Naruto clamped on his own head and immediately shouted.

"Ahhhh! It's too hard to be creative! With Boruto crying every night and waking for training in the morning, I just can't rest enough!" He looked at Sasuke for some support to his crumbling mentality, only to see him smirk.

"Well, that's the difference between you and me. Sarada-chan never cries! She's just the sweetest little thing!" His pride evident while Kiba, being the youngest of the household snorted in derision and simply pointed out.

"If you use the same trick for the fourth time, it would be a shame if Eio hadn't anticipated it." Kiba then proceeded to look at the Uchiha with his face full of disdain. "And why are you so happy? You didn't even think of anything more mature than 'jump scare'." Sasuke immediately snapped at the Kiba... who was called as a Dog Menace by certain kunoichi groups.

As much as Eio started to enjoy all of this every morning, he didn't waste much of his time and quickly shot towards the newly built playground that held one of the many sports festivals for the genins. With Shikamaru and Shino already attending the event with their fathers, Eio did wish that Ryu would accompany him to such events. For him... his father's company would have been a nice change of pace.

But when he saw the tired look his father tried to hide, he didn't have the heart to make that wish. Eio knew from the beginning that his parents were amazingly strong. But even then, Ryu decided to earn the living for the family by working hard every day. This allowed Eio to understand that his family had their own concerns.

This was also the reason he did not wish to make his progress known to the public. With Naruto's dad busy by hosting the event, Sasuke's dad busy with training his elder brother and Kiba's dad sadly passing away last year, the trio were simply waiting for Eio. Seeing him run away, the trio followed his lead and quickly made their way towards the event ground.

***

"Stand Up!" Hiashi's shout shook the tiny body of Hinata Hyuuga, who could barely feel any strength left in her legs. Her pale white and once beautiful face filled with bruises as she coughed up, still laying on the ground. Seeing his daughter's weakness, Hiashi's gaze grew colder while he slowly stepped towards Hinata. But before he could reach the poor girl, another figure stepped forth, a young child, almost 5 years in age. His face as beautiful as Hinata's and his pale white eyes looking at Hiashi's malevolent figure with his body shuddering.

"Master... please go easy on the princess!" Neji spread his arms, wishing to protect her from any more torture that the master placed on her young body in the form of training. Seeing Neji's audacity, Hiashi's eyes grew a tad colder and he immediately activated the seal on his forehead, making him shout in pain.

"Don't let Neji run amock in here." Hiashi spoke coldly to his younger twin, who immediately came forth and caught Neji's falling body and immediately glared at Hiashi. Hizashi, the younger twin, always hated Hinata, she was the princess, her freedom unhindered while his little boy was forced into servitude, just like himself. But as Hizashi witnessed his elder brother slapping his own flesh and blood so cruelly, Hizashi found out that his anger and hatred were so misplaced. He pitied the gentle girl who had to tolerate a monster of a father.

"Oh?" Disrespected, Hiashi gazed back into his younger twin's eyes and smirked coldly. Immediately, Hizashi's body went through a deep shock and his body wreaked in pain. But even then, his glare remained right on Hiashi's face, making the head of the clan flare in anger.

Hinata, on the other hand, only felt that it was a pity that she wasn't able to witness the event. She thought back at how Eio, Naruto and Kiba invited everyone they knew. Honestly, she felt sad that Eio even asked her if she would be coming or not. She didn't wish to make any empty promises, but in the end, she promised the boy who stopped those elder bullies from bullying her. Sadness prominent in her empty gaze tracing through the wooden floor of the dojo as she finally lost her consciousness.