Your votes keep this climbing.
Thanks!
Yagura Karatachi was an only child.
His father was a jonin of Kirigakure, his mother a chunin.
Most years, they were away on missions outside the village.
So it was just Yagura and his grandfather at home.
Grandfather Karatachi had been a jonin himself before age caught up and he retired.
One thing the Third Mizukage got right: Mist ninja could apply for retirement after 50.
Whether it got approved was another story, but at least the option existed.
Meanwhile the old man himself kept working into his 70s or 80s.
That part was admirable.
A real workhorse, you had to give him that.
At the dinner table, Yagura was doing his best to crack jokes and make his grandfather laugh.
The atmosphere stayed heavy anyway.
Halfway through the meal, Grandfather Karatachi set down his chopsticks.
“Tomorrow you’re starting at the Ninja Academy.”
“Mm-hmm.” Yagura knew.
He nodded and kept eating without missing a beat.
Grandfather Karatachi’s temper flared.
“Can’t you show some urgency? You know the Academy’s rules, don’t you?”
“I do.”
Yagura thought to himself: I know them way too well.
But—
“Grandfather, you know what I can do.”
Yagura smiled.
“I’ve got Water Release and Lightning Release down, taijutsu’s no problem. It’s just genjutsu I don’t have the talent for. I’ll need you to find me a teacher for that eventually. If I can’t use it, at least I shouldn’t get caught by it.”
Translation: Grandfather, I’m strong enough.
Don’t worry.
Those kids just entering the Academy won’t be able to touch me.
If Yagura had to fight the corrupted Uchiha Obito right now, that’d be suicide.
But arm-wrestling with a bunch of Academy first-years his own age?
Yagura wasn’t worried in the slightest.
Current Academy students might be stronger than the peacetime Konoha kids from the original timeline, but even if they were stronger, it wouldn’t be by much.
Not to brag, but put a Sunagakure chunin in front of him right now and he’d be confident taking them down.
Why specifically a Sunagakure chunin?
Because Sunagakure ninja were universally acknowledged as the weakest in the shinobi world.
Lost to Konoha, then lost to Iwagakure.
Lost to Iwagakure, then lost to Amegakure.
Next they’d be losing to Kusagakure and Takigakure.
Honestly, Sunagakure had no shame left.
THWACK!
Seeing Yagura so smug and self-satisfied, like he’d sprout wings and fly any second, Grandfather Karatachi’s anger boiled over.
He slapped down his chopsticks and flicked Yagura’s forehead.
“Ow!”
Does everyone in this world have a bad habit of flicking foreheads?
Yagura clutched his reddened forehead, staring in confusion at his huffing, glaring grandfather.
Grandfather Karatachi jabbed a finger at him.
“You little brat! Learn a couple tricks and think you can fly? If you die at the Academy tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least! Day after, I’ll call your parents back to make another kid. They can still have more!”
“…”
Sprayed with his grandfather’s angry spit, Yagura discreetly washed his face with a sweep of Water Release chakra and bowed his head.
Messing around was fine normally, but Grandfather was genuinely furious this time.
The harsh words came from a real place.
Grandfather Karatachi truly didn’t want Yagura dying because of his own sharp, unrestrained personality.
The only reason Yagura had lived this peacefully all these years was because Grandfather Karatachi had lost count of how many times he’d cleaned up the boy’s messes behind the scenes, keeping Yagura’s name out of the sights of Kirigakure’s schemers.
“I was going to wait until after you started school tomorrow to tell you this, but seeing you like this, I can’t rest easy.”
Watching Yagura instantly fall silent and lower his head, Grandfather Karatachi couldn’t stay angry.
He pressed his hand on the table and sat back down.
“I’m retired, but I still have a few old friends there.”
There?
The Mizukage Building?
Grandfather Karatachi stopped.
His hand rested lightly on his empty teacup.
Yagura understood immediately.
He looked up and poured his grandfather tea with practiced ease.
Taking the olive branch, Yagura sat back and met his grandfather’s eyes, waiting for him to continue.
Would something special happen at the Academy tomorrow?
Had the Third Mizukage noticed him?
Did that old fossil have a peeping crystal ball like the Third Hokage?
Half anticipation, half doubt churned in Yagura’s chest.
Grandfather Karatachi caught the uncertainty and calculation in Yagura’s eyes.
Surprise flickered through him.
He’d thought this brat believed he could sweep the entire Academy and had thrown his brain away.
Apparently the brain was still there.
He just didn’t use it often.
“You know the Academy’s system. Every new student gets grouped with two others into a three-man squad. That squad stays together for 6 years, until one person graduates.”
Why only one person?
Because at Kirigakure’s Ninja Academy, one condition for passing the graduation exam was killing the two teammates you’d spent 6 years with.
If you could kill the teammates you’d lived alongside for 6 years, then you could become a true, emotionless killing machine.
“Yeah, I know.”
Yagura nodded, quickly catching on to what his grandfather meant.
“My teammates are seriously strong?”
Grandfather Karatachi’s mouth twitched.
He couldn’t be bothered correcting whatever farmer outside the village had taught Yagura such crude language.
It was accurate enough anyway.
“Ahem.”
Grandfather Karatachi’s face darkened.
Dead serious, he said: “Mangetsu Hozuki, heir to the Hozuki Clan’s main family. And Kaede Onime, heir to the Onime Clan.”
…
At that very moment, elsewhere.
Also in Kirigakure’s central core district, inside a residence heavy with age.
“My teammates? Yagura Karatachi of the Karatachi Clan?”
Mangetsu Hozuki surfaced from the pond that occupied the entire backyard.
Only his head still looked human.
The rest of Mangetsu’s body had transformed into something like ragged jelly soaking in the water.
This was the Hozuki Clan’s secret technique: Hydrification.
Self-explanatory.
The body could turn into water.
Immune to all physical attacks.
Weak to Lightning Release.
“Mm. Yagura Karatachi.”
Hozuki Clan Head Sogetsu Hozuki had pulled up a chair by the pond’s edge, calmly fishing.
“And Kaede Onime. You’ve known him for years. Those two are your squad teammates.”
“Heh. Kaede? Sensor type.”
Sensor type meant weak in direct combat.
Close in, one slash, done.
Mangetsu laughed, tone unreadable.
“Hope he doesn’t cry when he sees I’m his ‘good teammate.'”
He swam slowly to the pond’s edge, stripped without a care in front of the clan head, then leisurely dressed and sat beside his father.
“Father, who’s this Yagura Karatachi?”
Mangetsu had never heard the name before.
“Someone from the Karatachi Clan.”
“I got that from the surname.”
Mangetsu’s face twisted with disdain at the useless answer.
“Intel. What’s he look like? Chakra capacity? Weapon preference? Taijutsu or ninjutsu specialist? Does he have Lightning Release? How am I supposed to cut him down with nothing?”
The Hozuki Clan head listened to his genius son’s demands without moving, eyes narrowed as he kept fishing.
Only when Mangetsu stopped talking did he hand over a dossier.
Mangetsu tore it open and grabbed the papers that fell out.
Name: Yagura Karatachi
Gender: Male
Age: 7
Chakra Natures: Water, Lightning, Wind
Preferred Weapon:?
Learned Ninjutsu:?
Secret Techniques:?
Mangetsu’s eyes went blank.
“Hah… what is this?”
“The Karatachi side locked down all intel tight. This is all I could get.”
The Hozuki Clan head opened his narrowed eyes.
“But if it’s hidden this deep, there’s something at the bottom of the pond.”
“So this kid’s strong.”
Mangetsu tossed the useless paper aside.
He stood, cracked his neck with sharp POPS, and rubbed his fists together.
“No intel? Fine. As his teammate, I’ll probe it out myself.”
“Don’t overdo it.”
No denial.
Just a warning from the clan head.
Exactly what Mangetsu wanted to hear.
He grinned, teeth bared in a low laugh.
“Got it.”
➤ Next: Yagura’s Ninjutsu Training Manual