Rei was currently standing on a pond, water occasionally fluctuating beneath him as he was concentrating. His upper body was exposed to show off the muscular frame of his young body while a large number of leaves covered his arms, chest, and back.
The water was only moving a lot because Kakashi and Mei were both falling into the water constantly, they had mastered tree climbing, however water walking was much more difficult, they had been focusing on this. Even Tsunade with her gifted control would sink an inch or more before slowly pushing herself back to the surface.
Rei, however, despite the fluctuation of the waters was staying at its surface, the only real shift was when the water slightly dipped and he lowered with it. Tobirama and Koko were watching all of them, Tobirama's eyes looking between all of them, but focusing on Rei.
Koko broke the silence between them to speak. "You know, sometimes I think Rei isn't a kid."
Hearing that Tobirama raised a brow before he nodded. "I sometimes think the same, but he's clearly not under a transformation, his features are too natural, and I've met his parents, I was also technically the person who delivered him. It's made me begin to think about if reincarnation actually exists, and if so. Who is he the reincarnation of?"
Koko raised her shoulders. ''I don't know, but what I do know is his talent for being a ninja is frightening."
Tobirama chuckled at that. ''I guess you only get to see his progress while training, but you know what he did? After he learned the shadow clone, he immediately began to use it to spar himself, honing his Taijutsu even further with someone, or at least multiple people that can stand up to his already impressive strength. He uses 20 clones minimum, and I have no idea how he can handle the strain. Even I can only handle 7 before the information begins to hurt my head. This includes doing chakra exercises. If I didn't know better, I'd assume he was a host to a tailed beast like Mito, the kid's Chakra is huge, let alone the intensity of it... But it's slow, but I notice that he's slowly improving himself.''
''Well, isn't that what training is for?'' Koko raised a brow, was the Hokage getting crazy already? All that paperwork may be getting to him.
He shook his head. ''No, I mean like he's evolving. There is something everyone is met with, and that is a 'Limit' to what they can do, talent, training, no matter what, you will always have a limit. But when I watch Rei, and just a gut feeling is that his limit is just a blurry line for what he must cross... Maybe his release isn't the only thing special about him? He might have a special physique like the Might family.''
"The Taijutsu family, correct? All of them seem to struggle with ninjutsu.''
"It's because despite having chakra, they can barely access it, but in return, their body even in its untrained state is leagues ahead of most others. There is also the Expansion Jutsu's from the Akimichi Clan, their physique allows the rapid expansion without fatigue, if anyone else were to try, they would find themselves extremely weak afterward, or the Nara's, due to the Yin of their clan jutsu, it's made them all incredibly smart, they alone also hold a massive amount of secret techniques due to the many geniuses in their family.''
Tobirama took a breath before nodding toward Rei. ''Rei's physique might be an evolution from his parents, or something else. But what we do know is, Rei if watered properly, will become a powerful shinobi that the village can lean on."
"Good timing too, with the war around the corner?''
Tobirama didn't respond, but a frown did present on his face.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two years had passed since that conversation, and Rei had made considerable progress, not only has he gotten to the point he can open the third gate, but he has also learned that with his evolution, the boost comes with a lot less of a strain as it does to other, so much so he completely forgot what he had said before when he would wait, his curiosity had taken to much of his time.
Despite his closeness with Mei, Kakashi, Tsunade, and even Koko. He was not on their team.
Rei was actually placed into the Anbu shortly after its creation, and then the war started.
Rei was appointed a part of the Anbu simply because he refused to not participate in the war. Tobirama had appointed Hiruzen as the teacher to the future three Sannin, but due to his involvement in the war, the three of them wouldn't see combat.
Rei had gotten to meet Orochimaru, and Jiraiya. But he and the latter did not get along well at all. Jiraiya had attempted to constantly but heads with Rei, and even challenge him continuously, only to be thrashed and abused, and in turn, made Jiraiya more powerful than his cannon self.
Orochimaru, the creepy guy actually wasn't that bad, but the immortality thing was definitely a young thing, even now he was obsessed with it.
Rei decided that he could fast forward Orochimaru's whole thing, and go straight to the end of it where he became a 'Good' guy again.
Currently Rei was attempting something that would be considered, pretty outlandish.
(Pa-treon.)