[Amai's POV]
July 24th.
It's been at least one month since my reincarnation, and honestly... I haven't made much progress.
Well, I mean, we do progress much faster here physically. In about half an hour, at a jogging pace, I can cover five kilometers with a lot of strain. It doesn't sound like much, but when you consider that this is coming from a five-year-old body, it's actually pretty insane.
I haven't been training much either since I only get the chance to do it about twice a week. And, as you might guess, a diet consisting purely of rice porridge and soup isn't exactly ideal for building strength.
All I've been doing for my chakra is some internal stuff—trying to get it flowing and all that. Using the Leaf Concentration Exercise would be beyond stupid right now, because of reasons I have already previously mentioned. Primarily Danzo.
He's like the boogeyman of every single story that takes place here, and the reason why we can't have good things.
Come on, I know the Uchiha were kind of fucked up, but they still were one of the most powerful clans in Konoha. If they had done something to begin with and avoid the tension between the Uchiha and the village itself, they wouldn't have had to worry about a coup in the first place.
Wiping them out was like cutting off one—no, two of your arms just because they were starting to cramp. Sure, the problem's technically gone, but now you're left severely handicapped and bleeding out.
Maybe there was some kind of hidden reason, but I seriously wonder what inspired such a display of stupidity. Of course, it was probably "for the greater good," as he liked to say in the series.
Really, even though a coup was inevitable at that point, wiping them out severely weakened the village. I don't know how the other villages didn't scheme against Konoha back then, considering how vulnerable it was. Who did it even have left? Kakashi, Hiruzen, Might Guy... maybe Jiraiya, if he wasn't off doing recon around the world, chasing after the child of prophecy.
Who else? Minato was dead. Tsunade was off gambling somewhere. Orochimaru had turned traitor. And the rest? Scattered or isolated in their own ways.
Maybe it's because the Leaf was just that powerful, even without all those overpowered individuals.
Hm, food for thought.
Anyway, that's enough ranting for now. A certain trio of little brats are about to interrupt my privacy—not that I had any in the first place, with the few children in this room. I want my own room already.
"Amamamamamaiii!! We wanna ask you about something!" Rei's voice rang out from the door.
Well, that's uh... a new one.
Time to get off the bed, I suppose.
"What is it, Rei?"
It's been hard trying to act like a child, and honestly... it's getting exhausting. The way kids talk, move, and even think is just so different from how I used to be. I have to constantly remind myself to act my age—or at least the age I'm supposed to be.
God, I miss my phone. It was just so convenient—music, games, entertainment, instant access to information—I didn't even realize how much I had been taking it for granted. Right now, I was stuck in a world where even books were limited, at least in the place I'm currently living in.
The closest thing to entertainment was either looking at the ceiling, playing outside or talk to the kids talk about nonsense.
"Do you know about the, uh..." Rei paused, before awkwardly scratching his chin. "What were they called again?"
"The Sannin, you dum-dum!" Takuya added, nudging him.
Huh? What brought this on?
"...Any particular reason you're asking me about this?" I asked, skeptically. Why the Sannin all of a sudden?
"The adults were talking about some Orochi snake guy, and we figured you'd know since you're smart, because you talk like a grown-up or something."
Smart? I didn't even consider myself smart, I thought that I was quite stupid—wait.
Oh god, that means I have to switch it up. I truly am a fool.
If even a bunch of five-year-olds were noticing, then I really wasn't doing a good job at keeping up the whole act.
Then again, they're my friends in this life, so I figure putting a little trust in them wouldn't go wrong. Maybe this is just my inner dreamer talking, but I want to believe that I—
"Amai? Earth to Amai?" Rei asked, waving his hand in front of me.
Right, I had to answer them.
"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry for spacing out," I said, shaking my head. "I was just thinking about something. Anyway, Orochimaru, is it? Why are you asking me about him?"
Rei scratched his head, "Well, we overheard the adults talking about him, and they sounded pretty serious, and we thought of asking you about it."
Orochimaru... had he already defected from the village in this timeline? I did know that he became a traitor at some point in the story, but I didn't know when.
Either way, that's still good. That means I have one less threat to worry about. Just to confirm...
"Is he..." I asked, my palm on the back of my neck. "y'know, a traitor?"
"Yeah, he is," Rei confirmed, looking a bit uncomfortable. "He was doing a bunch of really bad things that got him kicked out of the village. Something about experiments, we dunno much."
Okay, good.
"Well, I'm not as 'smart' as you guys think I am, but I know some stuff."
Now, how do I talk about them while making it seem entertaining? Truthfully, I've never been good at telling stories.
"You see, this Orochimaru guy used to be the Third Hokage's student, along with two others. They're known as the Sannin, or the Three Ninja. They are very, very strong, even when compared to the Kages."
Honestly, the Three Ninja is such a shitty name. Literally anything else Hanzo could've come up with would have been far better. It was probably just on the spot, a propaganda stunt to stop the war at that time.
And yeah, didn't they just barely survive against him, too?
"Oooh. Tell us more, tell us more!" Daichi said, already taking his seat.
Great, I got their attention.
"These three ninja were the most powerful in their generation. Orochimaru, the creepy snake guy—" and also known as pedo-maru by many. Weirdo had the habit of going after kids, especially Sasuke. Gross.
"Jiraiya, the Toad Sage who is also pretty strong and the one who taught the Fourth Hokage, so he's basically his mentor," and a perverted writer, too, who's supposed to be taking care of Naruto and instead is out there chasing after skirts and some dumb prophecy.
"He could summon toads that were the size of literal mountains, and use techniques in unison with his summons to unleash some very destructive jutsus, capable of burning entire forests."
"That's... that's so cool!" Rei exclaimed, "What else? Who's the third one?"
I couldn't help but let out a small smile hearing that. As flawed as they were, I can't taint their image in front of children.
They were the legendary ninja for a reason.
"I think that would be Tsunade. People call her the Slug Princess, mainly because of her summon. She's the greatest medical ninja in the world, and could heal about any wound."
A gambling drunkard, too.
"Not only that, you know the Hokage stone faces on the mountain?"
"Yeah?" Takuya nodded, clearly curious.
"She could shatter any of them with a single punch, because she's just that strong. Her strength is one of the many things that made her famous," I said, resting my face on my hand.
By this point, I had gotten a few others listening. It was starting to get kind of awkward, but I didn't mind.
"What about Orochimaru?" Rei asked, "You haven't told us about him yet."
Oh man, this is going to be hard to talk about. I don't really like the guy.
"Right, uh, Orochimaru..." I stammered for a moment. "Orochimaru was actually kind of a genius when compared to the other two when they first started out. He was really talented, especially with ninjutsu, and was considered a prodigy under the Third Hokage.
The thing is, he wanted to master each and every single technique in existence. In his journey, he got lost at some point and eventually began wanting immortality, and thus, well, y'know... doing the stuff you've heard from the caretakers. The Third Hokage fought him off apparently, and he got kicked off the village for all those bad things he had done."
"Was he always bad, though?"
Oh boy.
This is going to take a long time to explain.