Itsuki Kaguya, Hidden Cloud Village
I trudged along with my fellow orphans across the village, following behind the Head Matron, and as I gazed around, I spotted a few other groups of what looked to be children in the same boat as us. I never did ask Tamui how many orphanages were in Kumo, but the war had clearly been taking a toll on the population.
I had been outside of the Orphanage a few times by this point, but the view of walking among the very clouds themselves and being able to gaze down at the bed of white, while looking down from the walkways that connect the gigantic mountains together, never ceases to amaze me.
It was like living in a ninjafied Olympus.
The only issue was how agonizingly inefficient it was to get across since there was no choice but to pass through said walkways, meaning they were also heavily congested most of the day. I had seen ninjas walking on the sides or upside down along the bottoms of the structures, but sadly not all of us knew that technique so we had to travel like some normals.
A few heads turned my way. Whenever I explored the village, I always stuck out like a sore thumb.
With hair as white as the clouds above, straight and long as it reached down my back, a zig-zag parting in the centre.
Sea-green eyes and a smooth, innocent face, a twisted reflection of the vicious bloodline that I wield. The purple kimono I wore over my pale white skin was a deliberate choice, allowing for easier access to my abilities.
None of these things individually drew the attention of passers-by, but together the uniqueness signified a meaning of belonging to somewhere. Somewhere that is clearly not from Kumo. Even for those unfamiliar with the looks of the Kaguya clan, I clearly represented a people who were different to your ordinary civilian. A person does not develop such traits on their lonesome, there must be others.
The clearest indicator being the twin crimson dots that centred on my forehead and the shade of red on the underside of my eyelids, taking my innocent face and making it look a touch demonic.
Some were slightly fearful of me, a cautious nature built from hearing stories about the Kaguya clan over the centuries, and so tried to keep their distance.
Most though, were simply unaware or just decided to trust that their Kage would not bring such a danger into their village. They were not scared of me, nor did they even mistreat me. They simply looked at me as if they could solve the puzzle of what I was by staring, before carrying on with their day.
Apparently, my existence was an S-rank secret of the village, but with little explanation as to why for the people who were unaware of the Kaguya clan and knew my last name.
We soon arrived at the academy, joining a noisy, large crowd of kids and parents and that had to number at over a thousand people. The academy itself was the biggest building I had seen, its dark stone walls completely surrounding the mountain itself, covering its peak from view as its many stories nearly reached the height of the Raikage's office.
After a few minutes of waiting, a man with more muscles than anyone I had seen yet (which is saying a lot in Kumo) stepped out of its front doors. He was younger, but was definitely a man I recognized from the story. The first one I had recognized in fact.
Ay, the Third Raikage, stepped forward on the raised platform and lifted a hand. Silence engulfed the crowd as he immediately gained everybody's full attention. He paused momentarily before speaking.
"Becoming a shinobi is no small choice. It is a promise, a vow to give your all to Kumo. To fight, to bleed, to give everything you have into protecting our home. To protect the children, the civilians, the people who are not able to protect themselves were our enemies to come to attack.
You have all decided to become the guardians who shield this village, and for that, I cannot thank you enough. It makes me proud as your Kage knowing that you all love our home as much as I.
When I look you all, I do not see children. Not anymore. No, I see warriors. I see the future of our village! You are our villages future! You are the shinobi who will carry the village forward after this brutal war is done with, and show the world the might of Kumo! Today, you enter a new world and become comrades in arms until death!
This is the start of your journeys. Your careers as Shinobi. Everything you will possibly need to become as powerful as you can lies in this village, and it all starts at this academy. Put your hearts into it. I know I can trust each and every one of you to give everything you have and be the strongest ninjas you can be."
Cheers erupted from the thousand in attendance, and a small smile graced the Kage's face. His eyes swept the crowd, taking in the new crop of recruits, until his gaze met mine. I met his stare for a few seconds, before his smile widened slightly, and after a nod he returned his attention to the rest of the crowd.
…
"It is the basis of all Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu…" Habichi-sensei drawled on.
Going to school for a second time and learning in a class full of four year olds was as boring as you'd imagine it would be. My new sensei had introduced himself and explained the curriculum for the first semester. Then he spent hours going over basic Maths and tested our reading and writing skills.
Things only became interesting once he began to teach us about the geography of the Cloud Village and its place in the world. Now he was explaining the basics of Chakra for the few class members who are first generation shinobi from a family of civilians.
"Hey, dya think he's bald under that bandana and that's why he's wearing it?" A boy behind me who's name I can't remember whispered.
"Haha yeah, maybe he can cast genjutsus off of it to blind-"
A crashing window drew everyone's attention, and to our surprise we found our sensei, who had just been at the front of the room, shouting at the flying forms of two of our classmates.
"If you wanna mouth off during lessons, then do it outside! You'll pay nothing but absolute attention in my class!"
Our Sensei was also kind of a hard-ass. Almost like a drill sergeant.
Lucky for the kids that we weren't too high up from the village.
…
Unlike in some of the fanfics I had read, there was no entrance exam for the academy. The Head Matron simply gave a list of our names a few months prior, and we were all set to attend. If anyone chooses to be a Shinobi, Kumo would whip them into something and put them somewhere in the Shinobi forces.
Tabui had said that the training provided in Kumo was second to none, better than any other village. All because of the necessity to have such support for our Shinobi, as we had no Clans here. The generations worth of knowledge to train many of our forces did not exist. So, almost everything was shared in the Cloud Village and help from your fellow ninja was easily given. Whether this was some Kumo propaganda by the Head Matron was yet to be seen.
But because there was no exam, the classes seemed mostly random and not at all divided based on ability.
Which was made very clear when I steamrolled through everyone during our spars. I hadn't expected anyone to actually be a challenge, but even holding back wouldn't have given them a chance.
Barely paying attention, I shifted my weight, leaning away from the oncoming swing aimed at my face. Seeing my bored expression, the boy I was facing grew frustrated, but was unable to act on his feelings as I grabbed his forearm and landed a heavy punch to his stomach.
He wheezed from the blow and collapsed, not getting up as I rested my hands on the back of my head and stepped away.
We were made to spar three students each, giving our instructor an understanding of where we all stood, but unfortunately for my instructor, he didn't get to see much from my opponents as I felt no need to draw my fights out.
Habichi-sensei sighed, "Itsuki, go take him to the nurse's office."
"Sure thing sensei, but which way was that again?"
A longer sigh was drawn out by my sensei this time before he spoke, "Brat, I have already shown you the way twice now. So quit your joking, take that grin off your face and go take him to the nurse's office, before I have someone take YOU to the nurse's office!" He cracked his knuckles for added effect, which was made even more intimidating because of his enormous size like many of the other gym-rats in this village.
"Why would someone need to take me to the nurse's office, sensei? I'm completely healthy," I tilted my head and put on a face of concern. "That should be pretty obvious, especially to a trained ninja like you. Are you alright, sensei? Are you sure YOU don't need to go to the nurse's office?" Habichi-sensei's frown deepened the longer I talked.
Unfortunately for him my blood was yearning for some kind of a challenge today, no matter how low my chances of winning were. And his threats of violence had no impact on a guy who rips his bones out on the daily. As emo as it sounded, pain meant nothing to me anymore.
I pointed a finger directly in his face, "maybe you hit your head? Is there a big lump under that bandana? It's OK sensei, you don't need to be embarrassed, you can show me. I ca-"
I was launched back as a footprint formed across the entire length of my chest, falling into a few of the children watching. Scrambling back to my feet, a savage grin overtook my features as a growl of excitement escaped me.
'HAHAHAHA FINALLY!'
I held out a hand and aimed high, firing five Bone Bullets from my fingers, a move I figured out recently, before pushing out the bones in my forearm, fusing them into two twin Swords in my hands. Pumping Chakra into my legs I shot forward, seeing him lean away from the bullets.
Stabbing toward his thigh with one hand and slashing across his midsection with the other, he twirled around, expertly dodging both attacks and I barely had time to react to the spinning back kick he aimed at my chest once again.
Splintering off parts of my ribs, my entire front was rapidly covered in large jagged bones, shooting forward as they gave Habichi no time to pull away his foot without being skewered.
"Tch," he grunted as he pulled back his bleeding appendage.
A small grin then pulled on his face, "You have promise. Good. But at what point did I say we could use Kekkei Genkai in a Taijutsu spar!?" And in an instant, he vanished from my view.
'Body Flicker!'
I tried to expel bones out across my back and arms as they were on my front, I had been working hard to improve the speed at which I could do so.
But even then, I wasn't fast enough.
I was helpless as I felt a hardened fist smash into the back of my reinforced skull, and darkness crept into my vision.
…
I awoke to the realization that I was piggybacking one of the other students, carrying me to the nurse. I saw the boy I had knocked out before my spar with the teacher in a similar situation in front of me with someone else. I should really let them know I'm awake and already healed.
"AHH!" I screamed.
"AHHH!" The kids screamed back. Startled, the boys jumped up, dropping the pair of us as they did. The boy I beat, still being unconscious, slammed into the ground, where as I, the clearly more prepared ninja, landed gracefully on my feet.
The two boys turned around and scrambled backwards a few steps, a realization that there was no danger dawning on them as they caught their breath. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" One of the boys yelled at me.
I raised my hands, "woah, don't blame me. You scared me man, be more careful next time," I calmly replied, finishing with my arms crossed to show my disapproval of their antics.
"How did we scare you!? We were taking you to the nurse!" The other boy shouted back, stepping towards me.
"So, you think I'm injured, and now you're screaming at me? The injured guy? What kind of a sick person slacks off like that when there are people in need of dear help?" I shook my head in disappointment and pointed to my right. "And you dropped that guy. Is this some kind of joke to you?"
He charged at me, quite rudely I felt, but it was far to slow to work. I jumped over him, propelling off of his back and making him stumble forwards.
"Well, if your gonna act like this and not take me to the nurse's office, I might as well just go home." I walked off, hearing their shouts behind me.
…
When you enter the academy as an orphan, you're given the choice of having your own apartment or staying at your orphanage.
I, like almost everyone else, chose the latter option. Besides the fact that there was an array of training equipment available there, a retired Chunin for a Head Matron to give out advice and spar against and food given out here for free, I did actually like everyone in the orphanage. I had especially gotten attached to the small band of four year olds who work their asses off every day to try to get on my level.
I would be bored out of my mind if I had to live by myself.
But the main reason I stayed was that I had no plans to hold myself back and hide any of my strength.
There was no Danzo here in Kumo, at least to my knowledge. I wouldn't be plucked out and forced into Root like I might have been were I reborn into Konoha. I had no doubts that I would be expected to father a new clan for the village one day, but apart from that, I completely believed that this place wanted what was best for me.
They would not try to hinder my growth, only match my hard work with whatever support I needed to help me grow further, so I would take full advantage of that.
I'm their star child. Their future. In the long run, I'm arguably more important to them than a tailed-beast.
They are also aware of what my potential is since the current Kaguya clan head has the same Kekkei Genkai, and is apparently one of the most dangerous dudes out there. So, any sandbagging from me would definitely be noticed.
I arrived back at the orphanage entrance and searched for the Head Matron. I was scheduled to have an evaluation today at the hospital to learn more about my biology, something I had been waiting a while for.
…
A Chakra scalpel cut into my heart, past my ribcage which I had parted to give the doctor an easier time.
The Medical shinobi's eyes had been wide for the past thirty minutes, and only widened further as he felt my heart repair itself with the help of my Regeneration Chakra.
I was pretty stumped too. I knew I could heal myself, but I had no idea I could bring back my organs.
The doctor had gone from making cuts along my hand, to slicing off a small part of my skin, to making a small incision across my small intestine, to just cutting out a small chunk out of some of my less important organs.
He was currently working on my heart, at my insistence, which had healed back perfectly fine like the rest of my body had.
'Holy shit,' I could only marvel at the sheer unfairness on display. The only organs he hadn't tested on were my eyes and brain, as medical ninjutsu with those were much more dangerous, with more severe injuries being complete lost causes. He was confident he could aid in my recovery with the other tests, but my noggin was something he drew the line on.
But we both knew there was no reason why I wouldn't be able to regenerate them too.
'Is… is this the same level of healing that Hashirama had? Am I… am I 100% Hashirama cells?' I marvelled in awe, "Itsuki cells" I spoke out loud pondering my divinity.
This is insane. What the hell would it even take to kill me? How much of me needs to be left to regenerate fully? Am I like Perfect Cell?
In the story, when Kimimaro fought Lee and Gaara and used that giant bone forest move, he absorbed his body into his bones and travelled in them, appearing right behind the duo.
Did he just not have a brain for that brief moment? No body at all apart from literal bones? And did he then near instantly grow back a whole new body for himself?
This... this is…
"Pft-hahaha," I couldn't hold back the laugh as I fell back, landing in a chair behind me.
Tabui's eyes had narrowed in concern, while the doctor kept the same exasperated expression on his face as he took in a deep breath, an attempt to have some level of composure. "This is unprecedented. Your body generates a form of Medical Chakra far more potent and far more advanced than anything I have ever seen before. I am truly not sure if there is anything that you wouldn't be able to heal."
The doctor's brows furrowed, his eyes focused on me even further, "even if you were to lose a limb, I see no reason why you could not be able to regenerate it back. No, with this Regeneration Chakra as you call it, I have seen enough evidence to know for certain that you could."
"What could actually kill me then?" I asked him, still smiling like a loon.
"Barring you running out of Chakra and being unable to restore yourself, I cannot honestly say. Perhaps if your brain were to be damaged, as you said you were briefly knocked unconscious at the academy today. But even still, there are grounds to assume even that may not be enough." He looked up and met my eyes, "perhaps every cell in your body would need to be completely eviscerated to truly put you down… Quite a formidable ability."
He sighed, as he had many times during the evaluation. "I will be sure to inform the Raikage of this. For you though, I strongly recommend you start using weights to bolster your training. You will not have your development impacted by the use of them like others your age, your healing will see to that. Especially, make the most of training weights to keep on at all times, with your Recovery Chakra working in tandem with them, you will see more benefits than anyone else."
"Where can I get training weights from?" I questioned.
"You just have to ask at the academy. Everyone is permitted to use them from their fifth year onwards, and with the doctor's permission so will you," Tabui spoke up to inform me.
"Quite right," the doctor adjusted his glasses. "Now, onto our final topic… How do you feel when you fight Itsuki? What emotions are there? Is there any strong change?"
'Huh… oh. Right. He's asking about the Kaguya madness.'
"Nothing too much, I guess. If I'm against someone I'm stronger than, that is. But I do get a little excited when I know the fight will be tough, like against Ms Tabui."
"Or like your academy instructor today? A very brash decision to try to challenge Habichi. What compelled you exactly?" The doctor pulled his notepad back out.
"Yeah, like that too. I was just bored after having to fight against the other kids, and Habichi-sensei was a great challenge for me. Look, I know your asking to make sure I'm not insane like the other Kaguyas, but it's really not like that. I knew he's a Chunin, I wasn't trying to kill him or anything, I knew he could handle it, and if he couldn't I would've held back to not seriously injure him. I'm not bloodthirsty or anything, I just get a little more enjoyment out of a good fight than most others do."
"Hm. And how are you outside of spars? How is your temper?"
"Itsu here is a smartass. I'd have known if he was quick to anger. Instead, he enjoys when people try to annoy him and never fails to get a rise out of them." Tabui shook her head, a smile on her face as she looked at me.
"I see. Even so, do take more care, Itsuki. This battle-junkie mentality may not be an issue here in the village, but may very easily lead to grave danger outside. You are quite the intelligent boy, I have seen that even with our short meeting today, so I trust you can envision these scenarios."
"Yeah, don't worry doctor. I wouldn't ever do anything dumb like fight an army by myself. I'll keep all that energy here in Kumo, maybe challenge the Raikage or something." I hoped so anyway, I did feel myself getting carried away sometimes during my fights.
The doctor looked at me for a second, then stood up, "hm. Good. Well, that's all for today then. I've made a note for you to give Habichi for your training weights, so be sure to take it to him." He stretched out a hand, "after what I've seen today, I'm expecting big things from you, Itsuki."
I shook his hand and thanked him for his time before walking out with the Head Matron.
And just like that, my training opportunities have bloomed, and my potential far higher than I previously imagined.
'I'm gonna have to push myself a lot more starting from tomorrow.'
AN: How broken do you think Itsuki's healing should be? And how broken was Hashirama's for that matter?