Morning came with noise.
Uzumaki’s tended to start there days early.
The loud noise of the village was in stark contrast to the silent Konoha.
The only early morning disturbance in Konoha would be occasional training of Might Duy.
Since Kushina’s caretaker decided to cater for them all during their stay, Mito decided to sleep in as well.
During breakfast, Akira asked about gravity seals.
“Gravity seals are actually specialized for Uzumaki children who aspire to be ninja. Only people with strong vitality can use them, that is partly why Uzushiogakure monopolized them for themselves.” replied Mito.
“Given your extraordinary vitality, you can start at the lowest level on the gravity seal. I’ll also get started on a nutrition plan for you. But even Nawaki didn’t start this early, why the sudden interest?” Tsunade asked.
‘Uh oh.’ Akira thought,’ Can’t tell then the real reason.
Time to weoponize my looks.’
“I saw some other kids exercising yesterday, is it not allowed?” He asked, doing his best to appear pitiful and using the puppy dog eyes.
An invisible arrow seemed to pierce both Mito’s and Tsunade’s hearts, instantly crumbling any protests.
“N-no, it’s fine.” Tsunade replied, with a shaky voice.
‘New attack acquired.
Double critical hit.’
After breakfast, Kushina took Akira’s hand and dragged him out in the village for some fun.
‘Soft,’ He thought, looking at their intertwined hands, then at her face,’It’s like yesterday’s bullies didn’t even happen.’
He wasn’t sure where Kushina’s confidence to not run into bullies again came from.
Or maybe he just read too many Chinese novels where the villain brings his entire ancencestral lineage to fight everytime one of them gets beaten.
Along the way, they passed a shop selling sunglasses.
Akira found one that looked like Gojo’s and bought two, for himself and Kushina.
If he had blue eyes instead of black, Akira would have said,’Nah, I’d win’ right then and there.
He bought the glasses to hide his sharingan usage for a while.
He wasn’t afraid of any repercussions from anyone, he just knew it would be very annoying and time consuming.
Akira knew that while Mito was alive, he would have enough time to get stronger until he could handle himself.
Giving Mito trouble after everything she does for him was incredibly stupid, especially since it had an easy solution.
As sad as he found it, Akira knew that Mito only had around eight more years before transferring the nine tails.
Akira also wanted to use the sharingan to copy some ninja moves.
He knew that ninja were secretive, and wouldn’t take kindly to copying their techniques so that wanted to do it discretely.
Eventually, they made their way to a training ground.
This training ground was mainly used for sparring and not any techniques ninja wanted to keep secret.
But their experience using even the basic techniques was very valuable, especially to Akira.
He activated his sharingan and started copying.
Their footwork, kunai skills, shuriken throwing, all copied
Because the ninja were older than him he couldn’t use everything he copied, but he could use this as a guide to know the average level of ninja and for when he started.
The academy is where these basic skills would be polished.
Then he saw it.
A katana, and he instantly fell head over heels.
Akira wasn’t sure if it was because of an excess of cultivation novels in his last life, but he absolutely loved swords.
Even though they were a bit cliché, he loved how they looked, sounded and operated.
Even better, kenjutsu could be used at six paths tier as a substitute for taijutsu.
The only reason it wasn’t used by Sasuke, was because even a Kusanagi sword could have been broken during those battles, luckily Akira had a solution.
Another perk was that he could recreate the elemental breathing styles that combined breathing with swordsmanship from Demon Slayer instead of just the base breathing.
And his versions could have real effects, unlike the anime that only added in the special effects for show, and could be taken to a whole new level.
He wasn’t sure he could recreate sun breathing, but the five elemental breathing methods were doable.
Even mist breathing could be done once he got the mist techniques.
And there was even a whole nation that centered their fighting styles on kenjutsu rather than ninjutsu.
Even Konoha had their fair share of kenjutsu scrolls.
All he had to do was visit Tobirama’s notes and he would be set.
He would even get the Uchiha style swordsmanship as a bonus from the notes.
Tobirama really was the gift that kept on giving.
Coming home from a fun day with Kushina, Akira was summoned by Mito in her room.
Despite his enthusiasm for swordsmanship, he knew it would be unwise to start now.
If he focused on swinging a sword before building up his body to a sufficient level, his muscles might develop in an unbalanced state, rather than the all-round look that he was going for.
“Akira these gravity seals will be placed directly on your body. You can rewrite them yourself when you learn to use chakra as ink.” Mito started.
“But promise me that you’ll never go over the limit Tsunade tells you. I’m only agreeing with this because I know you are more mature than kids your age.”
But inwardly he was exctatic.
‘Early maturity, standard for reincarnators.’
Akira then took of all his clothes except his underwear.
Mito placed her hand on the centre of his back and stared pouring chakra out, shaping it into the seals.
The seals spread outward, starting from the missile of his back and, when Mito was finished, disappeared.
But Akira could feel the change.
He rotated gos arms, his entire body felt heavier.
It wasn’t crushing, just there, like wearing a big jacket.
You only feel the difference when you put it on, and when you take it off.
He knew it would take some getting used to but this was the start of his journey to punching Madara and kicking Kaguya.
“There, it’s done. I already put it on the lowest level. Only go higher when Tsunade tells you. And don’t overdo the training as well.” Mito warned, one last time.
“I swear I won’t go overboard, ninja’s honour.” Akira replied playfully putting three fingers over his heart.
“Grandma, can we asked the people here ro help with compressing seals?” He asked.
“Why you don’t think I can do it?” Mito asked, winding up to pinch his cheeks, her expression darkening.
“No its just, I want to spend more time with you grandma. If you are the one creating it, I won’t get to play with you.” Akira quickly replied.
Mito’s fist unclenched, and her expression shifing back to the fondness she has for her grandchildren.
“Alright, I promise I’ll spend more time with you.”
‘Whew!
Crisis averted.’
After Mito told the Uzumaki clan leader her plan, he readily agreed to help with compressing seals to make them smaller.
He even said that if they managed it, he would gladly give her half of the funds that it would make.
Mito readily accepted for one reason only.
“Akira, I’ll give these funds to you and Kushina. You both are the only ones without allowance.”
Mito wasn’t lacking in money, Tsunade was old enough to earn her own on missions and Nawaki got a normal allowance since he was still a kid and she found him a bit unreliable.
Akira was the one who reintroduced the idea of compressing seals so she felt he deserved it, even if he couldn’t use it yet.
After Hashirama introduced the village system, there were less fights than during the Warring states period.
If Akira didn’t remind Mito, Uzu would gave forgotten all about compressing seals.