In the stillness of sleep, the world around Kuroichi churned with incredible visions. The sky had darkened into a sea of storm clouds, shooting arcs of blinding lighting. He stood atop a shattered plateau, his long hair whipping around his face in icy winds that could tear down trees.
Across from him stood a shinobi cloaked in a brilliant chakra cloak, with a face that was unrecognizable from the distance, except those burning eyes that glowed behind the figure's hood.
They clashed again. Each movement cracked the world beneath them as Kuroichi roared and black tendrils escaped his shadow, lunging forward and coiling like predatory snakes towards his enemy.
With a roar, bolts of lighting speared down like a heavenly judgement, pulverizing a mountain in the distance.
He couldn't hear anything, still, the enemy shinobi burst forth, blindingly fast, and Kuroichi teleported to meet them. A blade of lighting in one hand met dark rotating chakra spiraling in another. The entire horizon quaked as they met midair, their powers colliding with the force of titans.
For a moment, the world fractured, like glass cracking under too much weight. And just as Kuroichi became aware, 'I'm dreaming..,' the thought echoed only distantly, before it was gone.
---
Kuroichi's eyes snapped open as he lay still on the futon, breathing slowly, while he traced the wooden ceiling of his rented room. The early light of the morning filtered in through the shutters, and outside, the muffled sounds of sweeping and distant voices rose with the sun.
'That dream… what was that?'
He sat up, the fragments he could recall were already slipping away. His mind latched onto broken images, a mountain exploding under lighting, shadows and world quaking clashes, but these fragments didn't hold. The more he tried to focus on them, the less they made any sense.
"Just a dream," he murmured to himself, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "I've had weirder."
He dressed and headed downstairs, where the smell of miso soup and grilled fish greeted him. The inn's common room was small, with a short counter, three floor tables and windows that let in the soft sea breeze. Behind the counter stood the innkeeper, a tired looking but kind faced woman in her thirties. Her name, as he learned, was Fumiko.
"Good morning," she said warmly. "You're up early. Breakfast's ready, if you want some."
Kuroichi nodded, just a small dip of his head. "Thank you."
From the side, a younger voice piped up, bright and curious.
"You seem like you're really quiet, how come?" a young girl said, maybe eight or nine, sitting with her knees tucked beneath her. Her name was Aimi, Fumiko's daughter. "But your bright eyes look kinda cool."
Kuroichi blinked. He wasn't really sure how to respond. He hadn't talked to a lot of people yet in this world in general, especially not with any other children.
He nodded slowly, and murmured, "Thanks."
"Come on Aimi, leave little Kaito alone. He just came here, probably from outside the city somewhere."
Kuroichi, now calling himself Kaito, nodded. "Yes I was lucky enough to travel with a friend of my brother's, without anything dangerous happening. Now I just have to wait here for my brother.
"Wow, that is so cool that you were traveling outside! Have you ever seen any ninja outside fight bad guys?" she asked, her eyes sparkling with admiration.
"No," he said softly. "I've just been trying to learn new things, I've never seen any of them."
Aimi tilted her head, not entirely satisfied, but smiled anyway. Kuroichi gave another faint nod in return, then sat at the far table and quietly began eating his meal.
No more questions, just a nice warm broth and a moment of peace.
---
After breakfast, Kuroichi stepped out into the city streets, his cloak pulled slightly tighter around his shoulders. The morning air carried a hint of ocean salt, and the narrow stone roads bustled with early foot traffic. Merchants unrolling carts, women hanging laundry, children chasing each other with sticks.
He didn't attract any attention. In a side alley just ahead, he created a water clone identical with the appearance that he had already decided on the previous night. Shortly after, a sharp featured young man was trailing beside him. Kuroichi played the part of a quiet younger brother, walking alongside his family escort. The illusion was convincing enough to deter any wrong ideas.
His first stop was the market place, where he approached a well dressed merchant who sold scrolls and lacquered ink sets. Kuroichi's water clone politely asked whether there was anyone in the city offering instruction in calligraphy.
The man narrowed his eyes at them, then flicked a deeper glance at the transformed clone and said, "Unless you come from a house of standing or willing to be of service as a renshūsei, you'd be wasting your time. Real instruction is only reserved for children of the clans, nobles, large shipping families, scribes and district judges etc, and perhaps monks. Maybe there's also a few normal richer merchants here and there.
[A/N: renshūsei is a samurai trainee. They usually have to learn calligraphy, especially with them training in bunbu ryōdō (the dual way of the pen and sword.)]
The clone didn't say much, "I'm willing to pay," he said plainly.
That made the man pause. "… Hm. I know of a tutor who takes clients on the side, but she's not cheap. Most of her students are being groomed to enter court positions or noble academies."
The clone slowly nodded. "That's fine."
The merchant scratched a note onto a slip of paper and handed it over. "She'll ask you questions though. Don't be surprised."
Three more stops with polite rejections, but some useful directions later nonetheless, and finally, one address led him to a house with an elegant gate and hanging paper charms. There, a woman in her forties listened to his clones' request with skeptical eyes, until he placed several neatly folded ryō bills on the table.
"Three sessions. That's all you will be able to get with that amount of money," she said in a clipped voice.
'So that's all I can afford right now..,' Kuroichi thought as he mulled over the calculations in his head.
She examined the money, then gave him a tight nod. "We start in three days. Come here that day at the same time."
As Kuroichi left, his mind was still on his problem of a lack of money. That amount could have lasted him months, but now he maybe had only enough to afford living in the city for another 3 weeks. He really needed to get income from somewhere.
'This isn't gonna work that easily…'
He rounded a quieter alley, letting the water clone dissolve. Alone again, he moved at a slower pace, walking through the sloped back streets of Nakanoura as his thoughts deepened.
He needed to learn calligraphy. It was essential if he ever wanted to master sealing jutsu, which was a long term goal of his. But if he didn't find a way to make money quickly enough, he'd be stuck.
A city like this wasn't kind to poor wanderers, he could tell already. There were too many walls, both physical and social.
Still, there were always crack in those walls, cracks he could slip through. 'There's always a darker side to society. I just have to find it.'
He headed back to his room in the inn for now. There was no reason in moving around pointlessly during daylight. The night, after all, belonged to a different kind of people, and he planned to find where they were.
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