Chương 3

Rei woke up the next day with a splitting headache. His mother was beside him, looking at him when he woke up.

"Mom.." Rei called out. He felt a constant flow of power through his body, which was both foreign and natural. This was a very weird feeling, which he couldn't explain.

"Rei.." Hana called out in a low voice, "My child.. How do you feel?"

"I.. I feel amazing but also have a headache." Rei smiled sheepishly. He was just happy that his mother didn't seem to be hurt anywhere or lose something. And he could also tell that she wasn't in any of control or losing her ability/chakra. Hana didn't respond immediately. Her eyes remained on him, not just as a mother anymore but as a medical-nin trying to make sense of something that simply shouldn't exist. Her hand moved slowly, first to his forehead, then to his chest, sensing again, confirming again.

It was still there. Stable now… but unmistakable. Chakra. A huge amount of chakra for a five-year-old boy.

"…Amazing?" she repeated softly, "…Rei… tell me exactly what you mean by that… and how are you feeling?" Rei shifted slightly, pushing himself up with some effort. His head still throbbed, a dull ache that refused to leave.

"I mean… I feel lighter… stronger… like my body understands something it didn't before…" he paused, searching for the right way to describe something that didn't have proper words, "…like I suddenly know how to use something I didn't even have yesterday." And those were his true and honest words as that was the feeling. He knew he couldn't avoid it, as the clauses in the contract was read by her too. Silence settled between them.

"…Rei… yesterday, you didn't have chakra like this."

"…I know," Rei replied just as calmly.

"…Then explain it to me." There was no anger in her voice, no panic either. Rei held her gaze for a moment before letting out a small breath.

"…That paper…" he began, and that alone was enough for Hana's expression to tighten again, "…it's my ability. When someone signs it… I can copy part of what they have."

"…Part…?" she asked quietly. She had read the clauses before, but at that time she considered it as a joke.

"…Half," Rei answered, glancing down at his hands as he flexed his fingers, feeling the unfamiliar yet strangely natural flow within him.

"…half of their abilities… skills… even their body constitution… and chakra."

"…You're telling me," she said slowly, choosing each word carefully, "…that I signed something… and you gained half of what I have?"

"…Yes." Another silence followed, longer this time. Her hand rose to her temple unconsciously, as if pressing against it would help her think better.

"…This is…" she started, but stopped midway, because there simply wasn't a word that could define this.

"…Rei… how did you get this ability?" Rei paused, just for a second, before answering, "…I don't know. It just… appeared yesterday… like something inside me woke up." Hana watched him carefully, her eyes searching his face, looking for hesitation. But there was none.

"…Awakened…" she repeated under her breath, her thoughts shifting direction now, trying to place this within something she understood, something that belonged to this world. And then it clicked.

"…A kekkei genkai…" Rei didn't react outwardly, but internally he noted it. That explanation worked. Better than expected. He was trying to find a word for that kind of ability, glad that she took it upon herself to reach a conclusion. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"…That has to be it," Hana continued, her voice steadier now as her mind latched onto something familiar.

"…an inherited ability… something unique to you… something that awakened early…" Her gaze softened as she looked at him again, not just analyzing now, but seeing him.

"…Rei…" her hand came up, resting gently on his head, "…do you realize what this means?"

"…That I can survive?" For a brief moment, Hana blinked, caught slightly off guard by the answer, before a small breath escaped her, almost a laugh, though it carried more weight than humor.

"…That too," she admitted quietly, "…but more than that…" Rei didn't say it, but he knew that in order to survive in this world, he needed some kind of help. He was born to a no-name family, and this would help him survive what was about to come. Or at least it would help him, a no-name ninja.

"…it means my son has something extraordinary… something rare…" Rei didn't argue. Because she wasn't wrong. If he could go after big names, it would be like living in luxury. He knew the plot and that made it even better.

"…Can you control it?" she asked after a moment.

"…Not fully," Rei replied honestly, "…but I understand it. And it will take a lot of time to control it."

"…Then we proceed carefully," she said, her voice returning to that steady, professional tone.

"…no more experiments without telling me."

"…Okay." She studied him once more, confirming that his condition was stable, that the chakra flow—though new—was no longer chaotic.

"…And Rei…"

"…Yes?" A faint, tired smile appeared on her face.

"…next time, warn me before you rewrite the human body in a minute in my living room."

"… I'll try." Hana let out a quiet sigh, already knowing the truth. This child of hers, who seemed to have awakened a kind of ability she had never heard of before, was more secretive and level-headed than any other child she had witnessed in her life. Right from the time when Rei had started to talk, she had noticed that his curiosity wasn't in small toys but rather in books and history. She still remembered when Rei had made Daichi promise him to take him to the library instead of some kind of toy store.

He had insisted. And was quite forceful at that. Thus she knew that Rei would do anything to achieve his goals. Now that this new ability had shown up from nowhere, she knew that Rei would be busy trying to control this new thing. She only needed to make sure that her son would not go down the wrong path, and help him whenever he needed her. After all, she was the mother of the child who had just awakened a kekkei genkai (?).

"… You won't." A few days had gone by since then, and Daichi still hadn't shown up, and Hana was feeling a bit suffocated, seeing her child trying hard to control the power which his very young body now held. Rei was doing everything possible to perform the transformation jutsu and change himself into the body double of Hana herself, and failing miserably, but she never discouraged him. What her son was doing was already way ahead of his age.

He hadn't even joined the Academy yet, and here he was, still able to at least step onto the gate of jutsus that were supposed to be performed during graduation. Though she could also tell that it would take some time for him to master them, as he didn't seem to be as much of a genius in shinobi skills as he was intellectually. But she didn't care much about it. She had already gotten confirmation that her son could share the contract with multiple people and that there was no limitation to it.

She was already thinking of many candidates—her friends, her own colleagues even—ready to throw them under the proverbial "butcher's knife" just so that her son could become the most powerful genius ever in history. Of course, if Rei ever learned what his mother was thinking, he would roll his eyes. He didn't want quantity just for the sake of it. Though his body would be 100% compatible with the abilities gained, that didn't mean he would just hunt people down for fun and assimilate them into his body.

The secrets would never be out—the contract would make sure of it—but he still felt a bit uncomfortable asking some random person to share their abilities and skills. He would select his contracts with the future in mind. Though he wouldn't mind if someone came in his way to share the contract, he would definitely not go out of his way for a no-name shinobi.

Besides, just this one contract had already made him sweat bullets, and the full assimilation itself, from what he could gather, would take at least one year—and this was just to reach half of his mother's ability. He couldn't imagine how hard it would be to master multiple ones at the same time. So for the time being, he would just concentrate on his mother's abilities… and maybe his father's.

He could tell that it was weighing down on his mother's conscience that she wasn't able to talk about it to any third person. Thankfully, his father was on a long-term mission and would be back home much later. So for now, he was alone with his power and just the supervision of one pair of eyes. In a way, he was glad that he had been born into a random shinobi family, with no huge clan ties. Imagine him being born to the Hyuga or the ill-fated Uchiha family.

Danzo would come for his head almost on the second day if he ever came to know that a young genius had suddenly appeared in such an influential family.

"Dog- Boar - Ram" The transformation jutsu failed. Again.

"Rei.. I think you are being too heavy on yourself." Hana, who had just arrived from work saw her son trying that same jutsu that he had been trying for 4 days now.

"Eh! And I am still failing." Rei didn't even turn his head as he performed the hand signs required to transform.