Outside the Hyuga clan, Akira and Kushina were waving goodbye to Hana.
“Bye Hana! See you at the playground tomorrow!” yelled Kushina.
During the walk, Kushina easily became friends with Hana.
She talked about her life in Uzushiogakure, while in return, Hana talked about hers.
Hana was a main family member, just like Akira suspected, and she was an only child.She also started training at 4, and she was a bit of a genius.
The Hyuga clan developed their fighting styles around the byakugan, focusing on taijutsu.
Their main taijutsu style they use is the Gentle fist system, which deals precise blows to their opponents chakra pathways that impedes their chakra.
Even without activating her byakugan, Hana was able to perform the Gentle fist at a beginner level from just watching others perform it.
He wasn’t sure if she was on Neji’s level, but she was good.
A year later, during one particularly rigorous training session, Hana awakened the byakugan.
The byakugan was way easier to open the sharingan.
It usually opened through intense training to control chakra, though it can sometimes be awakened spontaneously by extreme emotional stress or danger.
When asked how far she could see she said after training with her father, she could see around 100 metres in a 360 degree view.
For reference Neji could only see around 50 metres in Naruto and around 800 metres in Shipuden.
Even Hinata could see at only 1 kilometer during the second round of the chunin exams.
She eventually got it to 20 kilometers by 18, but she was said to have one of the purest byakugan in the clan.
Hana had just as much potential, if not more.
He wasn’t sure if it was the same in cannon because she died after giving birth to Hanabi.
Akira also learned that they were the same age so they would be attending the academy together.
After dropping of Hana, on the way back home, Kushina suddenly pinched Akira’s waist.
“What was that for?” He asked, bewildered.
“Her eyes were beautiful huh. Hmph!” Kushina said, pouting.
‘Ah, so she’s jealous, but she looks like a hamster with her cheeks puffed up like that.’
Akira used one finger to touch the side of her inflated cheeks, when Kusjina suddenly turned and bit it.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.” Akira said, quickly surrendering.
“For the record though, I think your red hair is prettier.” He added with a smirk.
During the rest of the year, Akira, Kushina and Hana, met at the playground.
Kushina would sometimes force Akira to play with them, but he genuinely enjoyed their company.
Kushina and Hana became so close that she was even invited to her home, introducing her to Akira’s family.
He also hung out with the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, though they mostly talked in the shade, never doing any physical activities.
Akira also kept up with his training during this time.
His breathing technique was at the point where he only needed someone to verify if he did it during his sleep.
The range for his Kagura minds eye also increased to 12 kilometers and he also added a new chain to his adamantine sealing chains, making a total of 3.
Akira wanted to focus on the amount of chains because he could easily increase the length when he had more chakra.
His hand sign speed sat at around 1 seal per second, but that was only because he focused on feeling how the chakra moved when the signs were performed.
His one handed seals were coming along nicely as well, but it was harder to make the correct seals that allow chakra to flow the same way as 2 handed seals.
The biggest improvement came from his chakra control.
Akira didn’t manage to make the yin seal yet but he felt his chakra control growing as a byproduct.
He could technically walk on water but that was only on still water in his bathtub.
He had yet to visit the river to verify if he could do it in rougher waters.
His fuinjutsu skills grew as well, now able to make sealing scrolls and explosion tags with ink, though Mito forbade him from recklessly making explosion tags without supervision.
He was now learning the theory for sealing the chakra of an opponent.
Lastly, in the second month of the new year, Akira awakened the final Uzumaki ability.
It wasn’t flashy like the chains or the Mind’s eye, but it was just as useful.
One morning, Akira woke up to his body feeling energized.
It wasn’t the usual Ashura bloodline energy, it was more fundamental.
All his sore muscles from physical training vanished without a trace.
When he asked Tsunade to check it out, she verified it, saying that his blood had special healing properties.
It worked by transferring chakra whenever someone drank his blood.
It wasn’t Hashirama’ passive healing, or Tsunade’s creation rebirth which can heal even if she was cut in half, but it was sufficient for Akira. You are reading on novelping dot com, the official source.
Then came his fifth birthday, May 2nd.
Mito, with the help of Kushina and Hana , set up a surprise birthday with all his friends, though it wasn’t much of a surprise because Akira liked to keep his sensory abilities on.
The gifts he got was undoubtedly the best part.
Tsunade gave him her notes on medical theory when she was just starting out while Nawaki got him a wooden kunai.
Kushina got him a new pair of sunglasses which she bought three of, so that Hana and her could match with him.
Hana got him some fingerless gloves for training that he fell in love with because of how cool they looked.
Even the Ino-Shika-Cho trio got him gifts.
And last but not least Mito.
When she pulled out a scroll, Akira almost did a backflip.
“Is that what I think it is?” He asked, barely containing his excitement.
“Use this technique very wisely Akira, promise me.” Mito said, seriously.
“I promise!” He replied, practically jumping in the air when she gave it to him.
Shadow clones, the best cheat for learning anything theoretical.
It was so overpowered that it could even be used for sage mode training.
Akira couldn’t wait to use it, so after the party, under Mito and Tsunade’s supervision, he started.
Following the instructions, Akira made a tiger seal, then snake seal and then tiger seal again.
He carefully controlled the chakra to split evenly in half and it appeared.
In a puff of smoke, another Akira was in the room.
They stare at each other for a bit when the Main body suddenly nodded.
The clone, nodding back, dispersed itself allowing Akira to feel for the first time what it was like to have two bodies.
The experience was weird.
It felt like studying for a long period of time and your brain is just worn out.
Fortunately he awakened the healing ability.
After a few seconds the effects disappeared.
Akira estimated that after practicing it for a few more times, he could get the hand seals down to just the cross Naruto does for his, and he’d be able to shake off the mental fatigue as well.
Now all that was left was re-engineering the multi-shadow clone jutsu, and figuring out how to do it with one handed seals.