"Do not move." A rough-voiced man from behind him said. Kazu started sweating profusely; his mind raced through different possibilities. He couldn't see the shinobi's face; it was hard for him to discern the man's affiliation.
"W-Who are you?" With a stutter, the child said.
Fuck, I didn't think someone was already behind me. Is he a part of their group or not? He hasn't killed me; this would mean he is not keen on killing a child. In any case, I must extort this benefit of being a toddler. He had already made a plan depending on what the man was going to say next.
"Before I answer that," the man paused. "What are you doing here?"
The man's voice was rough and intimidating; Kazu could feel his deep breaths at the back of his skull, and it sent shivers down his spine.
"I-I wanted to pick berries in the forest but got lost." He lied to the man.
"I see." The man put his kunai away from the boy's neck. "You need to quiet down, sorry then, kid."
Kazu widened his eyes; he immediately tried moving after sensing the danger, but it was too late.
In a swift motion, the side of the shinobi's palm landed on the backside of his neck. For a moment, everything went blurry. After that, everything went black.
Kazu struggled to wake up with the pain at the back of the neck. His eyes groggily looked around.
A shinobi knocked me out; was he with the rebels, or was he a Kiri-nin? He thought, pleasantly surprised to wake up intact.
A ceiling made out of stone—he was in a cave. He lifted up his head; his back ached in pain; he had slept on hard stone for who knows how long.
A man came inside from the entrance of the narrow cave. "You've finally woken up, huh?"
"Where is this?" He spoke, confused as to where he was or how he had gotten there.
"Here, drink this first; you must be tired." The man handed him a steel mug; the boy took it hesitantly—something hot was inside. He looked in; it was stew.
"You were knocked unconscious by a Kirigakure shinobi; you know how those cun—people are." The man spoke; he chuckled. "You practically stood out like a beacon, allowing us to find his squad."
The man took a small pause. "Saved us a lot of trouble."
"Oh, you're welcome." He said after pausing his drinking. He was hungry; he had even lost the pack of rations somewhere. "I am in the hands of the rebel forces then, I assume."
"Quite sharp for a pipsqueak." He said with a laugh. He patted the small child's back with his hands. Kazu could feel them; they were rough and calloused, perhaps after years of rigorous training.
"I am quite tall for my age, though." The boy told the man.
The man laughed louder. "Sure, sure." After a moment, his laugh stopped. "Say, how'd you even get this deep into the forest? It's quite difficult to just wander this far."
"Shinobi killed my mom; I ran away as far as I could." He said truthfully. He looked down in sadness, and tears welled up in his eyes as he remembered the brutal memory.
"I am sorry for your loss then." The rebel said with sorrow. "Damned Yagura."
"It's alright." Kazu said sadly. "Mom seemed to know it was inevitable, though; she was an Uzumaki refugee after the Second World War."
"Uzumaki? No wonder your chakra reserves are off the roof." The man said with mild surprise. Strange-colored hair wasn't uncommon in this world.
"Uh huh, my name is Kazu." He told the shinobi, who nodded in affirmation with a slight hum.
"Quite a fitting name." The man told him. "Kazu," in the old language of this world, the one spoken before the time of ninjas, meant "wise one."
I should ask him if he can help me become a shinobi.
"Mr. Shinobi—"
"Arashi. My name is Arashi." The man told him his name. The boy nodded in response.
"Mr. Arashi, is it possible for me to be a shinobi?" The boy asked the man.
"It is; considering you have such large chakra reserves, you would be quite a terrifying one." He told the boy.
"Really?" He asked Arashi, who nodded and hummed in response.
"Yes, but it requires intense dedication and perseverance."
The two chatted for a while, talking about the current state of the country and its politics, amongst other things.
As time passed, Arashi realized that the boy who sat before him wasn't just some simple child. Speaking to him was like speaking to someone as old as him, if not older; it wasn't his proficiency in the language or his vocabulary but the maturity present in his voice, his ideas, and his views.
The boy was just a toddler in hindsight, but his mannerisms said otherwise.
"We'll be staying near this camp for a couple of days; feel free to meet the other guys." Arashi said as he and Kazu stood at the entrance of the cave.
There were around twenty people in this small group of rebels, a small amount but one that would increase rapidly as time passed.
Arashi, such a lovely person for someone who had to slaughter his classmates to graduate, Kazu thought as he gazed at the man who was chopping wood for fire in the distance.
From what he had heard from the man, the Kiri shinobi who kidnapped him had set up camp nearby; through Kazu's immense, unconcealed chakra signature, they were able to locate this camp and dispatch the shinobi through an ambush.
As he walked around the camp, he met the friendly gazes of the shinobi. They weren't killers who solely served their leaders; they had emotions, and each one of them possessed goals and morals, unlike the current shinobi of Kiri.
A strong base that would be required if an army needed to be raised and the coup needed to succeed.
Kazu admired this thing about them; even though the village failed to help them in their goals and ambitions, they all persevered in some way to make it possible.
There were around three high-ranking Jounin-level shinobi, twelve mid-ranking Chuunin-level shinobi, and just five low-ranking Genin-level shinobi.
The Genin were mostly young; they were in their early teens. They were undoubtedly skilled, though; killing a classmate was no small act.
Kazu watched as a girl, not even a teen, kept falling into the water feet first into a small pond that had formed beside the cavern.
From his perspective, the girl was practicing the water-walking technique shown in the anime. The first technique Sage Jiraiya had taught Naruto.
"Hey, what are you trying to do, big sis?" He asked the girl. She looked at him with her piercing red eyes—no, they were not the Sharingan; she just had red pupils.
If looks could kill, Kazu would already have died twice over.
"None of your business." She spoke with venom in her voice; the frustrations of failing over and over had already pissed her off many minutes earlier.
"Maybe you need to cool off and concentrate." He told the girl. It looked like she had been lit on fire; her raven hair stood up on end, and a cold feeling seemed to radiate off her.
So this is a chakra? He thought as the cold sensation passed over him; shivers ran down his spine, and his hair stood up, forming goosebumps over his entire body.
"Hisai!" The voice of Arashi said from behind Kazu. The girl instantly calmed down to a reasonable degree. Her rage had completely disappeared, but there were traces of fear.
She is scared of Arashi, huh? I wonder why that is; he seems like someone you shouldn't be scared of.
"Um, I'm s-sorry." Hisai told Kazu with a small bow.