"Honey let's get ready to go to Arita's apartment so you can play with Chojuro" Yura grabbed her jacket from the armoire.

Zitsukani looked at his mother, he wanted to stay alone but what mother would leave a 1-year-old alone?

"Ok" opening his mouth a cute baby voice emerged.

Grabbing his hand they walked out the door and travelled through the all too familiar hallway, and knocked on the all too familiar door. This had been his life for the past year, nothing more, and nothing less. If not the gossip from his mother's work he would be a missing nin-baby.

It was not that he didn't care for his mother, but reprogramming over twenty years of independence couldn't be done in one. Getting cleaned was already embarrassing enough.

After a few seconds, a blue haired woman, Arita opened the door. Seeing her every day I could already tell something was wrong.

"Yura can you come in for a moment?" Arita's voice sounded choked.

Furrowing her brows slightly Yura pulled Zitsukani into the apartment. "What's wrong, is everything ok?" Looking at her friend's appearance she began to worry.

Looking at Chojuro playing with a piece of string on the bed, he walked over, while still listening to the conversation.

"I stopped getting letters from Okura two weeks ago, I fear the worse" Unable to complete her sentence tears started to stream down her face.

Yura instantly pulled her into a hug and began rubbing her back. For some reason, both women started to cry.

Looking at the two of them he felt slightly confused, you know most of the ninja in Naruto have parents, but you never saw them. Looking at his crying mom he felt the same burning pain in his chest; the bond between a mother and child was scary.

Seeing the oblivious Chojuro, he wondered how his presence would affect his future, will he still become the sixth Mizukage? That was too far into the future that it was not even worth thinking about. All he knew about the second year of the war was that Akatsuki was formed, which meant Yahiko was still alive.

Clenching his tiny fist he took a deep breath. "Everyone is getting stronger." Releasing his fist a smile formed on his face "But just because you started early doesn't mean I'll fall behind." Whispering to himself, he tried to steel his resolve.

Chojuro looked at him with snot dripping from his nose, unsure what all those words meant.

Shaking his head, he grabbed Chojuro's shirt and cleaned his nose. At least if this guy does somehow remain a strong shinobi, he could hold this over his head.

"I have to work now too, the money has stopped coming in."

Hearing the conversation pick back up, Zitsukani's ears twitched.

"Don't worry about that, you can come work with me at the restaurant, the boss was just saying how he needs more help."

Arita's eyes brighten but soon dimmed again. "What about the kids?"

Yura frowned, forgetting the crucial point of the problem. "I" she hesitated for a moment "I met someone at work the other day, she said she was looking for kids to train, to get them ready for the academy. She seemed nice enough, and when I go to work today I can write her and ask the boss about your job."

Amita frowned, her eyebrows sinking further and further. Looking over, she saw Zitsukani fixing Chojuro's shirt, causing her face to ease a little. "These are difficult times, and no matter what they need to grow up strong. Ok, let's do It." Releasing a breath, her shoulders dropped slightly and the tension in her shoulders relaxed.

"Ok, I'll go make the arrangements." Yura nodded her head slowly before leaving the apartment.

Watching her leave, Arita walked to the bed and laid down while covering her eyes with her right forearm.

Zitsukani could hear soft cries, but that wasn't important, what was important though, was what his mother was doing. What had his birth changed? Was his mother ever supposed to have a child? But she was pregnant already, his death couldn't have caused her pregnancy, because if his thoughts was correct, his character creation just matched him with parents who could give him his results.

Taking a breath he calmed down, this was harder than he thought. Being around someone with a big destiny was troublesome, especially if you didn't want to change it yet, because whatever happened to this kid, it took him to the top, and he wanted to ride his coattails for a bit.

Sitting on the ground, he began to stretch. He didn't know if exercising would damage his body, but stretching would definitely help him in the future.

Chojuro tapped his shoulder "Play."

Looking at the kid he thought for a moment. "Ok"

Chojuro sat in front of him and handed him an end to the string.

This was the only thing they ever played, as neither of them had any toys or games. Grabbing the string he began focusing chakra into his hand, after a year of practice he could distribute chakra to different parts of his body without hand seals.

While he molded his chakra and trained, Chojuro tried to pull the string from him.

"Heh hehe hehehe" with a broad grin on his face he pulled with everything he had. Because Zitsukani was using chakra, Chojuro wasn't even able to budge his hand.

Forming the Seal of Confrontation, he tried to pour chakra into the string, but could barely extend it a few centimeters.

"I wonder how much chakra a normal person has." He mumbled to himself. He knew that everyone had a maximum chakra, a point where no more practice would increase their base amount. The question was, did he have a limit?

Using both hands, Chojuro began to shake the string, completely breaking the chakra he put into it.

Smacking his lips he looked at the string "It's harder than I thought."

Putting more chakra into the string, he tried to extend his control and after a few minutes, he began to run out of chakra. Controlling chakra in the body did not use a lot, but trying to pour it into a foreign object and failing used a lot.

What he was trying to do was a watered down version of puppet strings, but puppet jutsu was not so easy to achieve.

As his chakra ran out Chojuro ripped the string from his hand.

"I win I win!" Chojuro jumped to his feet in excitement.

All the noise caused Arita to sit up. Seeing her son celebrating caused a smile to form on her face.

"Chocho mommy is going to start working soon, so you and Zitsu will be playing with someone else too from now on, ok?"

"Mom play, Cho like play!" He ran over and grabbed his mother's leg while jumping up and down.

Zitsukani felt exhaustion wash over him. Chakra depletion didn't K.O him anymore but it did zap his energy. Closing his eyes he looked at his menu

[Health 100] [Chakra 135] [Stamina 101]

Over the year he had learned that looking at his menu didn't pause the world. The more chakra he had the faster it increased, and stamina had barely risen. The only thing that didn't move was health, so he started to believe everyone had 100 hp. No matter what, if your head gets cut off, you die unless you have a special jutsu or body composition, and he had neither. All the fan-fic he had read, they always had a Kekkei Genkai, but he had none of that, well not yet, there was some interesting stuff in the Ninjutsu perk tree.

Opening his eyes, he continued to stretch, laying a solid foundation was good for the future, and If he couldn't level up he planned to have the best foundation possible.

Chojuro continued to bother him, but he just got him to stretch with him.

And like that hours passed.

Standing up he looked at the door because this was the time his mom usually returned. Sure enough, not even two minutes later there was a knock on the door.

Arita opened the door, revealing Yura's figure, but next to her was an old woman with a face full of wrinkles. Her hair was pure white and tied up in a bun, she was wearing a black kimono with blue trim and blue sandals.

Zitsukani frowned because he had no idea who this woman was.

"Arita, this is Madame Yan, an elder from the city council."

"Madame Yan please come in" Arita's eyes went wide as she moved out of the way.

Clasping her hands behind her back, Madame Yan walked inside. She didn't say any words but just watched the children.

Yura and Arita looked at her back with bated breath, their children's future hang on her decision.

Zitsukani looked at the woman, unsure of what to think because his chakra was empty and he looked slightly haggard.

Chojuro looked between the old lady and his mom, trying to figure out who this new person was.

"They are both ok." She finally opened her mouth, revealing a kind elderly voice.

"We will leave for the training camp today, and you can only see them once a month, are you ok with that?" She turned to look at Yuna and Arita.

Looking at their children for a moment they both nodded their head. "Ok"

Hearing the answer, a small smile formed on Zitsukani's face.

Editor: Scarlet Goddess