Chapter 2. 2:
...
Just as I was getting home after a pleasant walk…
"Kiba!"
I recognized that voice instantly. Deep, raspy, with that typical tone of an old man who doesn't ask if you can do something… he just expects you to do it.
"Kiba, come here and grab these things."
I let out a sigh…internally, of course. I had just come back from eating, and he was already putting me to work. My grandfather is a firm believer in "hard work builds a ninja"… or a child laborer, depending on how you look at it. Not that I could see, ha.
Jokes aside, a part of me still screamed that this was child exploitation… but I'd long since learned to ignore that voice, using the logic of a world far too different from Earth to make sense by Earth's standards. Even in the One Piece world, kids worked from an early age.
"I just got back and already…" I muttered, stretching my hands out toward the boxes I knew he was going to hand me.
Two boxes. One with kunai, the other with wood. Heavy, but nothing I couldn't handle. Naturally, no normal seven-year-old could lift them. But then again, kids here aren't normal. At this age, even with their chakra undeveloped, most children in this world have above-average strength. And let's not forget my vitality bonus. Oh, and I had unlocked my chakra a while ago. So yeah, this was pretty easy to carry.
"You can complain all you want after you drop those off at the Kitamuras," he said, like he was doing me a favor. After handing me the boxes, I sensed him heading back into his tool shop… or hardware store, as I like to call it… since he sells pretty much everything ninjas and civilians in the village might need… from kunai to building supplies, whether for houses or for the puppets used by many of Suna's ninjas.
In case it wasn't clear yet… my grandfather has that gruff, old-man charm of someone who doesn't believe in showing affection.
Yet,he may not demonstrate much, but he certainly worried more than once when he found out about the overly intense and insane training sessions I was doing. Although that didn't stop him from putting me to work.
But hey, he literally raised me after I lost my parents in this world. They died years ago, shortly after the First Ninja War… ambushed during a mission in enemy territory. I hadn't even turned two when that happened.
They say the war ended, but the tension lingers. Covert attacks, gray-area missions, constant pressure between villages. No one wants another open war, but no one's sitting still either.
So yeah… My parents survived the hell of the war… only to die in the post-war mess. The irony of this world.
Really sad…. for them. As for me, I never got the chance to truly know them, so I didn't form any deep attachment.
Do I miss them? I couldn't say. Like I said, there was no real emotional connection.
Sounds cold, but it's the truth. I focus on the people who are actually in my life now.
It might sound inconsiderate, but again… it's honest. I'm not the type to pretend to mourn everyone. Nah, I'm more the kind who cares about those I'm actually close to.
The rest… extras, as Bakugo would put it. ha..
Yeah, sometimes I wonder what it would've been like if I'd reincarnated in the My Hero Academia world. But no complaints here. Like I said, Sunagakure isn't all that bad.
And at least I'm in a period of relative peace…
Which reminds me… I'm quite a ways before canon.
I don't have exact dates, but I estimate I'm around 30 or more years before the main Naruto storyline starts.
How do I know?
Well, the First Shinobi War ended about nine years ago, and one of my academy classmates is Rasa. Yeah, that Rasa… the future Fourth Kazekage. Gaara's dad. Currently a promising future genin-in-training and a year older than me.
Oh, and he's also from the Jiki clan. Surprise surprise, huh?
Though, it's not much of a shock when you actually know Suna's history, not just what the Naruto anime shows. The Jiki clan was one of the few clans in Suna, and many people recognize it more by the Kazekage clan name, since all three Kazekage were part of it, the first one being also the clan's original leader.
As for Rasa, he was obviously the son of the current clan head.
Me? Nah, I was just the son of one of the clan's kunoichi. That's right, my mother was from the Jiki clan, and my father took her surname because… well, he didn't have one of his own, coming from a humble background.
And in case it wasn't clear yet… yeah, I'm deeply rooted in the anime's prehistoric timeline. Which has its pros and cons.
Con: My knowledge of canon is practically useless right now.
Pro: I have more freedom to act. Fewer fixed plot threads to follow.
And you know what?
That's kinda progress too.
In my One Piece life, I died three years after arriving.
Here, I've already made it to seven.
Seven years of surviving, growing, eating shawarma, hauling boxes, training, learning all kinds of things and using my senses like a blind damn ninja Daredevil in the middle of the desert for all sorts of tasks. Not exactly epic, but it's still progress.
And in this world, that's already a win.
Of course, there were frustrations along the way.
I tried using Haki multiple times, in all kinds of ways, but never got any positive results… so yeah, Haki wasn't available to me here. Neither was Rokushiki… nor any other One Piece technique or power. Which sucked. A lot.
But hey, at least I found out I still had [Gamer's Mind] and [Gamer's Body]. As for [Observe]… well, I still haven't been able to confirm that one, since I haven't been able to use it. You know, because… I'm blind.
Furthermore, I may not have been able to use any skills or techniques from the world of One Piece, but I could still apply some things to my taijutsu in this world, enough to stand out from the other Suna ninja who didn't focus much on taijutsu so I evidently easily surpassed everyone in the academy in this, even those older and bigger than me.
Oh, and last but not least… something that, to my pleasant surprise, did carry over from the One Piece world: the Jiki Jiki no Mi powers I had managed to acquire and eat before Eustass Kid ever did.
That's right. Apparently, the system had mercy on me or something, because I couldn't understand how I could still use those powers… Yes, I possess this world's "magnet release" kekkei genkai… but Jiki Jiki no Mi powers are… well… far more powerful than the basic magnetism the magnet release grants in this world.
Sure, I had lost the awakening ability, but this wasn't a big surprise. Besides, the Jiki Jiki no Mi's powers were as strong as ever, capable of doing almost everything they could before; the only thing holding me back was the amount of chakra I possessed as I now seemed to rely on chakra to make use of them, but this alone was an astronomical advantage.
So yeah… This world and the system had taken my sight, sure.
But it gave me back power… pure, magnetic, undeniable power.
And I intended to use it as my ace in the hole. Reason why I had decided not to display my true magnetic power to anyone, though I had planned to demonstrate a similar capability to that of the third kazekage and his control of the iron sand just to gain his favour, which would clearly only be a modest extension of my true power and capacity to use magnetism.
However, that would be only for when I graduate and not now when I'm still working and learning as much as I can, from sealing to puppetry.