Being four was a lot better than being two.
Fujin could run now. Really run. His legs worked, his lungs worked, and his body finally did what he told it to. He climbed trees, jumped off rocks, and explored every corner of the small property his family called home.
His mother stopped worrying every time he fell. His father stopped hovering.
Life was good.
But Fujin had plans.
The morning it all started, he woke up early. The sun wasn't up yet. His parents were still asleep. He sat up in his futon, closed his eyes, and focused.
The system screen appeared.
He had been thinking about this for weeks. The shadow clone technique was mastered. He had used it in the mindscape plenty of times. But now? Now he had a body that could actually move.
He formed the seal.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
The chakra flowed out of him. Easy. Natural. He didn't even feel the drain.
When he opened his eyes, the room was full.
Clones packed the small space. Some sat cross-legged. Some stood at attention. A few bumped into each other and muttered apologies.
Fujin counted. Two hundred and thirty.
He grinned.
The clones looked back at him with the same grin. Two hundred and thirty versions of his face, all waiting for orders.
"Alright," he said quietly. "Here's how this works."
He split them into groups.
Fifty for kunai training. Fifty for shuriken. Fifty for taijutsu forms. Thirty for wood release practice. Thirty for fire release. Twenty for the Mind's Eye.
The clones nodded and started filing out the window.
Fujin lay back down on his futon.
The memories would come back when they dispelled. Every throw, every punch, every mistake. He would learn without moving a muscle.
It was cheating. Beautiful, perfect cheating.
---
His father found him an hour later, still lying on the futon, staring at the ceiling.
"You're up early."
Fujin yawned. "Couldn't sleep."
Kenji grunted. "Get dressed. We're training today."
Fujin sat up. "Sparring?"
"If you think you're ready."
"I'm ready."
His father raised an eyebrow but didn't argue.
---
The training ground was a cleared patch of dirt behind the house. Kenji had used it for years. The grass was worn down, and wooden stakes marked the boundaries.
He handed Fujin a wooden sword.
Fujin took it. The weight was wrong compared to what his clones were practicing with, but he adjusted quickly.
"Show me your stance," Kenji said.
Fujin dropped into position. Feet shoulder-width. Sword held two-handed. Weight balanced.
His father circled him slowly.
"Who taught you that?"
"Watching you."
Kenji's face was unreadable.
"Alright. Come at me."
Fujin moved.
He wasn't fast. Not compared to what he could do in the mindscape. But for a four-year-old, he was fast enough.
The wooden sword swung toward his father's side.
Kenji blocked it. Easy. One-handed.
"Again."
Fujin swung again. Higher this time.
Blocked.
"Again."
He tried a feint. A step left, then a strike right.
Kenji caught the sword with his own and twisted. Fujin's weapon clattered to the ground.
"Good try," his father said. "Pick it up."
Fujin grabbed the sword and reset his stance.
"Where did you learn to feint?"
"Watching you."
Kenji studied him for a long moment.
"You watch a lot."
Fujin shrugged.
"Let's go again."
---
They sparred for an hour. Fujin lost every time. But each round lasted longer than the last. His footwork improved. His timing sharpened. By the end, he was forcing his father to move, to actually try.
Kenji called a halt when the sun was high.
"You're picking this up too fast."
Fujin sat on the ground, catching his breath.
"Is that bad?"
Kenji sat beside him. He stared at the treeline for a long time before answering.
"My father trained me from the time I could hold a sword. It took me six months to learn what you just learned in one morning."
Fujin said nothing.
"You're a genius," Kenji continued. "That's not a compliment. It's a warning."
Fujin looked at him.
"The clans in the capital, the Gojo, the Fujiwara, the ones with real power—they hear about a gifted child, they want him. Either to use him or to make sure no one else can."
Fujin knew this. He had read about it. But hearing it from his father's mouth made it real in a different way.
"What do I do?"
Kenji put a hand on his shoulder.
"You hide. You pretend. You make them think you're nothing special. And when you're strong enough to protect yourself, you show them what you really are."
He stood up.
"Now. Let's eat. Your mother made rice balls."
Fujin followed him inside.
---
The clones worked while Fujin lived.
Every day, two hundred copies of him trained in the forest. They threw kunai until their arms burned. They practiced fire release until the trees charred. They built forests with wood release and then burned them down again.
And every night, when the clones dispelled, the memories came flooding back.
The feel of a kunai leaving his fingers. The spin of a shuriken in flight. The way wood sprouted from the earth like it was alive.
Fujin absorbed it all.
His father kept training him. Once a week at first, then twice, then every morning. Kenji was a good teacher. Patient. Precise. He never asked where Fujin had learned the things he knew. He just watched, corrected, and pushed.
"He's getting too good," Mika said one night. Fujin was supposed to be asleep. He heard them through the thin walls.
"He's a child," Kenji said.
"He's our child. And he's special."
A pause.
"I know."
"What happens when someone notices?"
Another pause. Longer this time.
"I don't know."
---
Fujin heard the fear in his father's voice. It made something cold settle in his chest.
He opened the system shop.
He needed more power. Not to fight. To protect.
The shop greeted him with the usual blue light. He scrolled through the categories. Jutsu. Bloodlines. Items. Bijuu.
He stopped at the jutsu section.
[A-Rank Jutsu – Locked]
[B-Rank Jutsu – Available]
He frowned.
[A-Rank Jutsu requires Level 30 to unlock.]
He was level twelve.
He scrolled to the Bijuu section.
[Five-Tails: Kokuo – Locked]
[Six-Tails: Saiken – Locked]
[Seven-Tails: Chomei – Locked]
[Eight-Tails: Gyuki – Locked]
[Nine-Tails: Kurama – Locked]
[All tailed beasts beyond Four-Tails require Level 35 to unlock.]
Fujin stared at the screen.
A lock. A stupid, arbitrary lock.
He closed the shop.
Shukaku's voice came from inside his head.
"Problems?"
"There's a lock on the good stuff."
"What kind of lock?"
"Level requirements. I can't buy anything above B-rank. Can't get more tailed beasts until level thirty-five."
Shukaku laughed.
"So you're stuck."
"For now."
"Sounds like the system wants you to work for it. Use what you have."
Fujin sat back on his futon.
He had a lot. Four tailed beasts. Wood release. Fire, water, earth, lava. The Uzumaki chains. The Mind's Eye. The sage body.
But compared to what Sukuna would become? Compared to what the Heian Era could throw at him?
He needed more.
But the lock meant he couldn't just buy his way there. He had to earn it.
"Fine," he muttered.
---
The next morning, Fujin changed his approach.
He still used shadow clones. Two hundred of them, every day. But instead of spreading them thin across every skill, he focused.
Fifty clones worked on mixing the tailed beasts' chakra. Shukaku's sand with Matatabi's fire. Isobu's water with Son Goku's lava. Combinations that shouldn't work, forced together until they did.
Fifty clones practiced wood release until the forest around their training ground looked like a battlefield.
Fifty clones worked on the Mind's Eye, pushing its range further, deeper, sharper.
Fifty clones trained in taijutsu. Not techniques. Fundamentals. Footwork. Balance. The way a punch started in the legs and ended in the fist.
And Fujin, the real Fujin, worked on his body.
He ran every morning. Not fast. Not far. But consistent. He did push-ups until his arms gave out. Squats until his legs burned. He stretched, breathed, and pushed his physical limits further than any four-year-old should.
His father noticed.
"You've been exercising."
Fujin was doing pull-ups on a tree branch. He dropped to the ground.
"I want to be strong."
Kenji crossed his arms.
"You're already strong."
"Stronger."
His father looked at him for a long moment.
"Who are you trying to beat?"
Fujin thought about Sukuna. About the future. About the monster his brother would become.
"Myself."
Kenji didn't look convinced. But he nodded anyway.
"Alright. Then let's train."
---
The weeks passed.
Fujin's routine became a rhythm. Morning runs with his father. Sparring sessions that grew longer, harder, more competitive. Afternoons of shadow clone training while he rested. Evenings with his mother, listening to her stories, watching her cook, pretending to be normal.
His body changed. Muscle definition where there should be baby fat. Stamina that shouldn't exist in a four-year-old. His father noticed. Said nothing.
The clones kept working.
By the end of the third month, the fifty clones practicing chakra mixing had figured out combinations. Sand and fire made glass storms. Water and lava made steam explosions. Wood and sand made forests that buried enemies alive.
The wood release clones could create structures now. Walls. Traps. Weapons. They practiced until they could grow a forest in seconds.
The Mind's Eye clones had pushed their range to the edge of the village and beyond. Fujin could feel every curse within a mile. Every sorcerer. Every flicker of cursed energy.
The taijutsu clones had drilled the fundamentals into muscle memory. He didn't have to think about footwork anymore. His body just moved.
And Fujin, the real Fujin, ran. Jumped. Lifted. Pushed.
[Strength: B-]
[Speed: B-]
[Durability: A]
His physical stats were climbing. Not as fast as he wanted, but fast enough.
He still couldn't break the locks. Level fifteen now. Still fifteen levels away from A-rank jutsu. Twenty levels away from more tailed beasts.
But he wasn't frustrated anymore. He was focused.
---
One night, he sat in the mindscape with Shukaku. The other beasts were quiet for once.
"You've changed," the tanuki said.
"Have I?"
"Before, you were always pushing. Always rushing. Now you're... calm."
Fujin looked at the water beneath his feet.
"I realized something."
"What?"
"I can't rush this. Sukuna isn't born yet. The Heian Era isn't going anywhere. I have time."
Shukaku scratched his ear.
"And that doesn't bother you?"
"It used to. But now I'm using it. Every day I get stronger. Every day I learn something new. By the time I need to move, I'll be ready."
The tanuki smiled.
"You sound like an old man."
"I feel like an old man sometimes."
Shukaku laughed.
"Fair enough."
---
Fujin opened his status.
[Status: Ryomen Fujin]
[Age: 4]
[Level: 18]
[XP: 2,800/3,200]
[SP: 68,000]
[Titles: Jinchuriki of Four, The Hidden Prodigy, God of Seals]
[Bloodlines: Uzumaki (Pure), Uchiha (Pure), Senju (Pure)]
[Jinchuriki: Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku – All Stable]
---
[HP: 35,200/35,200]
[CP/CE: 52,800/52,800]
[Natural Energy Reserve: 8,400/8,400]
[Regeneration: S]
---
[Physical Stats]
Strength: B- (Limited by age. Potential: S+)
Speed: B- (Limited by age. Potential: S+)
Durability: A (Sage Body Enhanced)
Stamina: S+ (Uzumaki + Senju + Sage Body)
Perception: S- (Uchiha + Mind's Eye)
---
[Skills & Mastery]
Cursed Energy Control: S-
Uzumaki Sealing Chains: S+
Uzumaki Sealing Arts: S+
Mind's Eye of Kagura: S-
Wood Release: S-
Fire Release: A
Water Release: A (Isobu)
Earth Release: A (Son Goku)
Lava Release: B+ (Son Goku)
Chakra Mixing: A-
Taijutsu Fundamentals: A
Hand Seals: S
Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu: S+ (Mastered)
Natural Energy Absorption: Level 7/10
---
[Chakra Combinations Developed]
Sand + Fire: Glass Storm
Water + Lava: Steam Explosion
Wood + Sand: Sealing Forest
Fire + Water: Pressurized Blast
---
[Passive Traits]
Uzumaki: Massive Vitality, Enhanced Lifespan, Sensory Prowess, Sealing God
Senju: Rapid Regeneration, Colossal Energy Reserves, Life Force Amplification
Uchiha: Keen Perception, Fire Affinity, Refined Control
Sage Body: Passive Natural Energy Absorption, Enhanced Durability, Stamina Regeneration
---
Fujin closed the screen.
He had one more year. One more year before Sukuna was born. One more year to prepare.
He lay back on the water and closed his eyes.
The natural energy flowed into him. Slow. Steady. Patient.
Tomorrow, he would run. He would train. He would push.
But tonight, he would rest.
Shukaku's voice came from somewhere far away.
"You're getting there, kid."
Fujin smiled.
"Yeah. I am."