I put aside the towel as I finished wiping the last dish dry. Then I went back to the dining chair to sit and relax for a bit. As I sat, I rubbed my belly in satisfaction.
The breakfast was great by the way. Much better than any meals at the orphanage. Main reason was because it has quite a lot of meat, which will be the plan for most of my meal going forward. Gotta makes sure my body got enough of it so it can grow properly to not hinder me as a ninja later on.
I started to look around as I was contemplating my meal plan. The room was very familiar yet felt fresh, thanks to the perspective brought by the awakened memory. The new perspective also made me re-evaluate the condition of the house that I now lived in.
The house was, frankly, sparsely furnished.
I mean, all the essential were there, but that’s it. The most striking example would be the upholstery. There were only two pieces of upholstery in the entire house, a baby crib and the bed in my parents’ bedroom where I slept.
So, yeah. It was not purely due to sentimentality that the family’s photos were where they were when I woke up this morning. It’s already there when I moved in. Though I must admit that I saw no reason to moved them either.
But one might wonder how an orphan from a household that only had a couple of beds as upholstery could afford quite lavish meals.
The answer? Investment. Or whatever was the equivalent of that term in this world.
So basically, both my parents spent almost all of their excess money toward investing in several shops and would then receive dividends. Some of the shops were even owned by prominent clans like the Akimichi.
I was made aware of that particular inheritance a couple months after I started cleaning the house in preparation to move out of the orphanage. Some of the shop owners that my parents invested in actually came to check when they heard that someone was cleaning up the Nobu Family’s house.
Short story shorter, they ended up graciously agreeing to continue paying me my parents’ dividend. They even paid for the five years they missed!
Of course, I’m no longer naïve enough to believe they did it all out of compassion. My parents surely were quite influential for them to still honouring their promises even after my parents’ demise. Hopefully.
That was how I was able to afford quite a sumptuous meal. More importantly, that’s why the orphanage’s staffs actually let me moved out well before academy enrolment, even before I could receive stipend.
…Huh, now that I think about it, will I even qualify to receive stipend as I am now?
Anyway. Me of that time was of course very surprised and delighted, even right now I was surprised and amazed by my parents’ foresight.
I guess the fact they worked in a field that used their brain more than brawn helped them coming up with this kind of idea. Their field in barrier and medical should also have minimal expenditure that allowed them to do this venture in the first place.
Though I guess they also lived very frugal, if the house’s furnishings were any indicators.
Honestly, so far this has been the perfect orphan package for a reincarnated fanfic’s MC. So perfect it felt like a plot armor, a cheat.
Though speaking of cheat…
‘System, on’
[Chakra ×1 Quest : Daily]
Yep, the defining cheat that a reincarnator can get; a system. That is, if one can take advantage of it.
Which I can’t, at least not yet.
So far, I was only able to open or close the system. So at least it was not constantly obstructing my vision.
That is after an hour of experiment before giving in to hunger.
I have tried every voice and mental command I can think of, touched every inch of the system panel’s surface with every finger that I have, and did every gesture imaginable. I even tried Fortnite’s dance just to be sure.
Nope, no other response. And that’s worrying.
Doesn’t that mean I got to do trial and error to complete that Daily Quest?
That could take forever. How could I know what kind of task I have to do to complete it?
Sure, there are references from manga and anime to try. The most famous story involving a “Daily Quest” that comes to mind was probably Solo Leveling.
Or should I say infamous? I mean, it beat Frieren. Damn aura farming… I better stop here, huh?
Point is, even testing that will take time to complete. Pretty sure I can’t just complete Saitama’s daily exercise on the first try, right?
Ugh… I know it could get annoying if the system was “hyperactive” enough that I sort of become a slave of its whims. But this other extreme with complete passivity was just as annoying because all the guesswork I’ll have to do. Surely some interactive interface would made it much more useful.
‘*sigh* System, off.’
Well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, they say. As I said, my background and the inheritance that came with it was already perfect to consider it a cheat on its own.
Though, of course, that won’t stop me to try and find out the way to crack the Daily’s. After all, if the left part of the screen is what I think it is, then this system could multiply my chakra, which is very huge.
Now, about the chakra itself.
I try to focus for a bit and mentally feel my body. And there it was, it was… uhh, something?
I want to say it was some sort of “energy”, but I don’t really understand how that word would fit in this context. It was more like a warmth that was coursing through my whole body. And I can feel it flowed along a certain path that I didn’t aware ever exist in my past life.
I also don’t seem to be aware of this warmth and pathway existence in the five years I was alive in this world. None of the orphanage staffs did either. And that (supposedly) Root agents also didn’t deem this matter adoption-worthy, if they noticed at all.
Now’s time for another trillion-dollar question. Is this really chakra?
Sure, my system have “Chakra” written in it. But how could I make sure that it was not Chi or Ki or Qi or Iweekang or Nen or Mana or… whatever else? What if my reincarnation also brought along something that is other than chakra?
… Well, nothing I can really do about it then, isn’t it?
Worse comes to worst, even if what I’m feeling right now was not chakra, at least I’m sure I still have chakra in there somewhere as this world’s native.
That was the lore, right? Everyone born some unspecified length of times after the Rikudou Sennin’s Era would be born with chakra in this world. Yay Ninshu~
So, let's just assume that the warmth in my body IS chakra. No point stressing myself any longer over it.
Though the fact that I can sense it, surely that mean I could utilize it? And maybe my body has been subconsciously utilizing it to enhance itself? Is that why I felt better like never before? Is that how it’s supposed to go?
… Or it could be because of the system.
Anyway. With how my body feels right now, I’m sure I could handle physical training just fine. And with almost two years before I got enrolled, aided by my meta-knowledge about Naruto-verse, surely I could get some good gains.
For now, though, let’s get on with my original plan before memory awakening; reading every single book that my parents left behind.
You read that right; not jutsu scrolls, but books. Quite a lot of them, and the cover for each of them said that my parents were indeed the very authors.
I haven’t got to read any of them because I was too busy helping and learning from the staffs in the orphanage, along with cleaning the house once a week. And no way in hell I would bring that kind of memento to that orphanage.
And so I went to the study where the books were, determined to finish every single one of it before I actually start training. Though it ended up being shelved (heh) because of several visitors that day.
Firstly, an orphanage staff came to check after my first night alone. He gave me a birthday gift that the staffs had prepared; a couple set of clothes. Seems like all those times helping have successfully left behind a meaningful bond.
After that, some of the store owners came to congratulate me on finally moving in and for my birthday. They even gave me some fruit. Nice.
Oh, and the neighbours also came visiting and some of them gave me sweets. Again, another blessing in the form of amiable neighbours. Some of them even helped when I was cleaning the house in the past year or so.
Then, when the sun was about to set, the Third Hokage himself came to visit.
… Blimey.
Notes
This first three chapter are an experiment for me to just start writing by churning what I presume I would think if this scenario ever happen to me. So it's just full of inner monologue (is that the correct term?). No dialogue, no interaction between character, just narration of my thought. And as the end part of this chapter suggest, the next chapter would be my first time ever writing dialogue.