(late October, year 50 after Konoha establishment)
Yuta came outside to the orphanage's backyard. It's a spacious playground for kids with a big open space with some trees, and some other things like swings and stuff, with a wooden fence around it. The sun was rising on the horizon, and the air was a bit chilly.
Yuta looked around and checked out the place.
'This place is big enough, I can run laps around the playground along the fence, do some basic exercises here like pushups and squats, no need to go crazy, my body is still the one of a four years old and I don't want to end up in a green spandex suit shouting "Youth!" every now and then, so this much will do.'
'Well then, my path towards becoming the strongest shinobi in the world starts here and now!' With that optimistic thought in mind Yuta start running in a moderate pace around the playground, as other kids and one of the caretakers, who were keeping an eye on the kids outside, all looked at him confused as why the gloomy kid that usually sits somewhere in the corner start running circles all of a sudden...
The stares on him were bothering Yuta a little at first, but there was nothing wrong in his mind with him wanting to train before the academy's entry exam. So, after thinking about it for a moment he thrown those thoughts out of his mind and stopped being bothered by the stares of others.
'Those kids looking at me like I'm crazy, but let's wait and see what happens during the Ninja Academy's entrance exam and later on during taijutsu classes, let's see who will be crazy then...' Yuta thought.
At first, he started very enthusiastically but after only two minutes of running his breath became ragged and heavy, his legs felt heavier and after one more minute of enduring he finally collapsed on the ground panting hard.
'Become... strongest... shinobi... my ass... I feel like I'm gonna die any second now...'
"Hey, are you all right Yuta?" The old man Manabu Koboshi, the one of the orphanage's caretakers, come to check on Yuta.
There are three caretakers in total that are working in this orphanage. The old and stern no-bullshit woman Chitose Kiba, who was in charge; then there is this old man Manabu Koboshi, who has a laid-back and dismissive attitude and always lets kids do whatever as long as they don't bother him personally; And there is one more woman in her thirties, Sayaka Kume, who usually are busy with cooking and cleaning and doesn't interact with kids much.
"I'm... I'm fine..." Yuta managed to mumble through his intense panting.
"What's got into you all of a sudden?"
"I'm... Training..." Yuta said, his breath is gradually restoring.
"Training? What for?" Manabu was a little surprised.
"For the Ninja Academy of course. I heard there would be an entry exam." Yuta said while standing up from the ground.
Manabu chuckled a little after hearing Yuta's reasoning, "Haha... I see. Well, good luck kid."
"Thanks, Koboshi-san...?" Yuta responded as Manabu was leaving without paying any attention to Yuta anymore.
'It seems old man thinks I'm gonna forfeit my training rather sooner than later... And I might've done so if that was my old world without crazy shinobi-murderers running around... But in this world - what choice do I have? Become a civilian and find a civilian job and just wait until some mad dude with a God-complex comes and Shinra-Tensei the whole village? Yeah, right...'
'Well, there is always an option to entrust Naruto to save everyone, the way the people in the anime did. Why burden myself with saving anybody, myself-included, when there is Naruto who can do all of that for free, ha ha...'
...
'Jokes aside but wasting an opportunity to learn ninjutsu and all other cool stuff after I found myself in the shinobi world would be stupid. It's like I was placed here to become a shinobi. Started with a body of a child while there is still some time left before I could enter the Academy, there is no living relatives of the original Yuta left to distract me, I'm in the top shinobi village and in an orphanage where caretakers actively encourage kids to become ninjas...'
'The narrative couldn't be any more obvious...'
After resting for a while, Yuta starts running again but this time it took even less to completely exhaust him and leave him panting hard on the ground.
'Damn... It... It would be harder than I thought...' Yuta was thinking frustratedly.
After resting for a while, he began to do pushups and then squats, though he only managed to do a few pushups, and squats were very hard to do after running. Just like that, his first training session was over in under 15 minutes, leaving Yuta completely exhausted.
'Well... Maybe it's a good thing that I have a year and a half before the academy...' He thought jokingly.
Yuta sits down on the ground with effort, his legs are shaking and almost unresponsive.
'My unfit four-years-old body aside, there is one more thing I must do today.'
Yuta tried his best to figure out about the most important thing that is weighting on his mind for a while now.
'Where the hell is my supposed ability to control time damn it? ' A cold fear started to take root in his heart, 'What if... What if that was a lie... Or a fluke... Or I just can't use it at all...'
...
'I must clam down!'
...
'I should be able to figure out how to use this ability, otherwise there wouldn't be any sense of me being able to choose it, right?'
...
'I hope so...'
...
'What a main character in a novel would do in this situation?'
'Meditate and try to look for it "inside"? Find myself in a dangerous situation and hope it activates on its own?'
'Well, mediation it is! Although I don't really know how to "meditate", at the very least I could try, there is not much else for me to do after all.'
...
Yuta tried his best to clear up his mind and relax. He adjusted his position to sit more comfortably, closed his eyes, concentrated on his breathing, slow and steady. All sorts of thoughts were popping up in his mind, some of them are tinged with a bit of scepsis, some with a bit of frustration and fear.
As a couple minutes passed, his mind started to relax and let go of the thoughts and Yuta tried to sense something inside, anything unusual, any trace of the new ability that should be there, somewhere...
"... Yuta!"
Yuta almost felt something, something like a forgotten thought that slipped from his mind, something elusive like a dream that left only a vague feeling after waking up...
"Yuta!"
"Huh?" Yuta opened his eyes after someone shook him by the shoulder.
"Yuta, are you fallen asleep or something?" Old man Manabu asked with frustration visible on his face, "It's chilly, go inside or you might catch a cold!"
"Okay" Yuta replied tiredly while feeling frustrated and angry at Manabu for interrupting him in a crucial moment. He felt that he was about to figure something out the next moment before being interrupted like that all of a sudden.
Yuta stood up and walked with some effort to the orphanage's entrance under Manabu's judging look.
After entering the orphanage he went into the corner, sit down and hugged his legs and rested his head on his knees, closed his eyes, trying to get back in that previous state of mind, but it was much harder now, there is some kids that are playing around and making noise, and there is still the lingering frustration after Manabu's interruption as well.
As Yuta concentrated and time was passing by, half an hour had passed, he wasn't able to reproduce that feeling from before, and all sorts of thoughts flooded his mind, refusing to subside.
'God damn it Manubu!' Yuta screamed in his mind frustratedly.
There is nothing left for Yuta but to abandon the idea of figuring out his ability right now, and he left it for later.
Later that night, when Yuta was in bed and it was relatively calm and quiet, he concentrated on his breathing and tried to meditate again.
After a couple minutes his mind gradually calmed down and all the thoughts started to slow down and disappear, he tried his best to "look inside", to find an answer he was looking for.
A few more minutes passed, and finally the strange and elusive feeling he felt before reemerged again. Yuta concentrated on it, trying to get the hang of it and figure out what it was. It was something cold, but not freezing-cold or unpleasant kind of cold, on the contrary, it was a soothing and relaxing cold feeling, like entering a river during the summer heat, it offers pleasant cooling, rest and peace...
It is hard to describe as Yuta didn't felt anything like that before, this strange feeling comes not from his body, and nor from the outside. He doesn't know where this feeling is coming from, if he has to say something, he would say that it's coming from deep inside, it's a part of him, an integral part of his whole being he felt like...
It is elusive, hard to get the hang of it, but Yuta felt a strong instinctual desire to "grasp" it, to "pull it closer", and the more he tried to do just that, the more frustrated he felt, because no matter what, he couldn't "reach" it, as if he lacks something to do so, like his imaginary arm is not long enough to reach it or something...
After a few more minutes of unsuccessful efforts Yuta opened his eyes, a strong frustration was evident on his face, he sighed deeply...
'No use... There is definitely something there if I'm not going crazy! And I can't grasp it!'
...
'Is that the ability I'm looking for? What else it could be... It's not chakra, at least I don't think it is, chakra should be in the body, but that feeling is somewhere... Somewhere "deeper inside" if that is a correct thing to say...'
...
'Maybe I'm just not ready to grasp it, maybe I would be able to do so later... I felt like I definitely able do it, but I'm lacking something...'
...
'Well, while the result is a failure, it's not a complete failure to be exact. I confirmed that something is there, that I assume is my Time Control ability. It is dormant and while I could reach for it, I'm still unable to grasp it... For now, at least...'
With that optimistic thought Yuta's exhausted mind fell asleep almost instantly.