Naruto: Kage of Kages

As he abruptly sat up in Mito’s bed, Shiki struggled to grasp the unfamiliar surroundings.

It seemed like his state of deep focus, while certainly miraculous, took its toll. Now that he was out of it, Shiki felt completely mentally exhausted.

Mito, despite being forcefully pushed out, was not shaken at all, her mental resilience proving itself solid and strong.

“Be calm, child, you are not in any trouble.” She calmly spoke though she could feel Shiki seemed to be quite calm . . . Or perhaps he had simply not processed everything yet.

‘As far as the child knows, he passed out in the middle of a forest and woke up in an unknown place to a face he had no way of recognizing.’ Mito thought to herself.

“I am called-” She attempted to speak again but Shiki preempted her.

“Uzumaki Mito-sama.”

Mito’s eyebrow rose with a question.

“And how would you know that?” She asked.

“When I reactively pushed Mito-sama out, the collision of our spirits seems to have given me some insight over Mito-sama.” Shiki replied.

He was telling the truth. Though he first identified Mito inside his mind from his knowledge of the series, the following event led to him grasping what he could only describe as a piece of the “Truth” of the individual known as Uzumaki Mito.

“How curious . . .” Mito pondered.

She could tell he was not lying, or at the very least, that Shiki himself believed what he claimed to be the truth.

Perhaps, having another gain, possibly deep insight on her and her secrets should have bothered Mito but the way she saw it, Shiki was just a child, a very likeable child with a pleasant feeling spirit and soul so it did feel problematic at all.

Besides, it was all the result of an involuntary reaction to her intruding into his mind without permission.

Even if she took that action to help him, Mito had no one to blame for possible consequences other than herself.

“I sensed a fallen child in the forest from my mansion and had a servant bring you here to try and see what was wrong.” Mito explained the situation.

“So, would you mind telling me what happened?” She inquired.

Shiki shook his head in response, indicating that he indeed did not mind and proceeded to explain his process of using chakra in an attempt to deepen his meditation.

Mito looked at him with a bit of a strange look.

Her face did not reveal that but Shiki could “feel” she was looking at him like so.

Apparently, Mito too, noticed he realized that as well.

‘Looks like that insight he got on me was really quite good if it allowed a child to read me so easily.’ She thought.

‘But still . . . What kind of child comes up with those kinds of ideas without any sort of guidance?” Mito wondered.

She truly doubted genius alone could explain that away but she had no other more plausible explanation.

‘I was not watching him since the beginning so it is very possible he simply picked up the basics from a shinobi that visited the orphanage and built upon that.’ Mito concluded.

After she quickly sorted her thoughts, Mito intuitively reached an unspoken understanding with Shiki where she ignored some of the stranger aspects of his existence and he would pretend not to notice the things Mito seemingly let slip which only he could pick up on.

“So how about I adopt you into my household?” The redhead skipped several supposed steps with a sudden suggestion.

Calm as she was, being an Uzumaki, Mito was a woman of action, perfectly willing to gloss over minor details she considered unimportant.

Shiki’s presence was spiritually healing for her so Mito decided to keep him close since the incident that just occurred introduced them to each other. That was it.

‘She has definitely been using her Uzumaki sensory abilities to watch me for a lot longer that I realized.’ Shiki’s understanding of Mito truly seemed quite effective as he could just intuit things about her.

Mito herself was very sensitive to the thoughts and emotions of others due to her sensory abilities as previously said and so, she naturally picked up his accusatory probing glance but just as naturally, the redhead pretended to miss it.

Acting ignorant for the sake of convenience was an art she had perfected.

In the end, Shiki only had a gut feeling to go on and the proposition was something he would very much appreciate so he let it go.

“Thank you Mito-sama. I would love to become a part of the Uzumaki household.”

“So polite.” Mito praised and so, the decision was made.

Shiki checked his status, seeing the results of his self training before heading towards a new life.

*

*

The change was concentrated on his stats with the only other differences being Taijutsu as Shiki had gotten a good grasp on how to move with precision and use chakra to enhance his body.

His hidden jutsu was noted on his status as well, with a very low mastery rate as it was still in the early stage of development.

As for the stats, the only thing that surprised Shiki was his chakra potency increasing because it is generally one of those things determined at birth. Though that would not be a limitation for him, the boy had no idea he could increase it this soon.

‘It seems my enlightenment-like state affected me in ways I don’t fully understand . . .’

*

The adoption process was smooth and easy though it raised several eyebrows.

As a critically important individual for Konoha, every action Mito overtly took would be heavily scrutinized.

But in the end, inducting a young orphan as a servant to the Uzumaki branch of Konoha which was currently limited to just herself, did not seem like anything significant.

And so, despite raising eyebrows, it ultimately came to nothing. As for covert investigations, probing around the possibly greatest sensor currently alive, was not a very good idea.

Even old men with severe cases of paranoia knew better than that.

Shiki wondered how his life would change now that he had a home and if he would have duties as a servant of Mito as he officially was just that.

Mito on the other hand, had a very clear idea on how she wanted things to progress and so she offered a trade he couldn’t refuse.

“From my trip into your mind, it became very clear that you do a lot of experimental training and have talent as well as great commitment to growing as a shinobi and developing new jutsu.” The Uzumaki matriarch started.

Shiki merely nodded, wondering where Mito was going with the conversation.

As for the breach of his privacy, he held no real grudge or dissatisfaction, it had been done to save him from perceived harm and nothing too important was peeked at.

“What I want you to do is stop all that experimentation for the time being.” Mito continued.

Shiki opened his mouth to speak but the older redhead held up her hand calmly, motioning him to wait and fully hear her out before responding.

“Experimenting without solid fundamentals is very dangerous. So until I determine you have mastered all these fundamentals, I want you to promise me not to experiment further.” Mito said.

“If you make that promise and keep to it. I will grant you access to the non restricted section of my personal jutsu library.” She continued.

“Just so you know, my personal library contains copies of all jutsu records left by my husband, the First Hokage’s Senju clan, the personal records left behind by my brother-in-law, the Second Hokage, in addition to my own and the Uzumaki’s jutsu records.” The redhead added.

‘I wanted to immediately begin to verify the improvements I made to my breathing technique within my enlightened state as well as try out the self-genjutsu but . . .’ Shiki thought to himself.

‘Even if it is just the non restricted section, it no doubt contains a ton of knowledge other clans and villages would kill for.’

With such temptation there was only one choice for Shiki.

“Okay Mito-sama. I promise not to experiment anymore until Mito-sama thinks I have completely grasped the fundamentals.” He declared.

With a dignified but gentle smile, Mito nodded at the expected response, worded very politely too. Quite unlike a four year old child. Chakra helped with mental and physical development but it was still an anomaly for a child to act like Shiki.

Still, Mito did not mind and even appreciated the mutual understanding established between herself and Shiki, something impossible if he was mentally too childlike.

“Then shall we begin our lessons?”

+++++

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