In a corner of Konohagakure, a five year old boy stood silently at the counter.

Although his eyes were closed and he seemed to be sitting crosslegged while sleeping at work, in reality, he was simply meditating. Even with his eyes closed, he still took everything around him with a clarity that not many people could ever do in their whole lives.

The sound of each flap of a bird's wing, the flowing river carving a path between rocks, the soft and cool breeze of the morning sweeping the dust on the streets, every sound was distinct and clearly divided in his ears. Like the lyrics to the sound of the nature.

Slowly, the crystal blue eyes opened, revealing a flash of cyan light within them that lasted an entire second. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone there to notice it.

Blinking his eyes, he seemed to look at the empty space in front of him, but in reality, he was staring at the screen that only he could see.

[Meditation cycle completed, talent +1]

Ever since the day he came to this world, he already had this golden finger.

The system called Taoist Path was very simple, so long as he meditated for an hour once everyday, he would get a permanent boost in his Taoist talent.

So long as he never slacked off and continue to persist, one day, he would be able to become an immortal ancestor and traverse the sea of stars to visit the various worlds far away!

And according to the system, the closer to the Tao he is in his daily life, the more benefits he can get. Even enlightenment is possible! By then, he might even be able to create his very own cultivation technique!

That's right, create, not getting one.

The system doesn't have the ability to create anything, at most, it can improve his talent and Heavenly opportunities, the rest depends on himself, which means that it might take years before he can even begin actual cultivation like those protagonists in the novels he liked to read in his previous life.

But he isn't too worried about it. Although a single point of talent everyday feels useless, after five years, he had long noticed that both his memory, learning ability and physical body had been improved significantly. Even if might not be considered a genius yet, he's definitely among the above average group in Konoha.

In another five years, ten years, or even twenty years, he would definitely surpass the talents of everyone else! By then, he wouldn't have to worry about much in this world, besides the Otsutsuki, no one will be his opponent!

Leaving the fantasy world in his mind, he noticed that someone had come inside the store.

"Good morning, grandma!"

"Good morning, Yuta, how is it? Did you sleep well last night?"

In front of the counter, an old lady with a hunched back asked with a sweet smile on her face.

"Hm, thank you for taking care of me yesterday, grandma!" Shaking his head up and dow, he nodded and bowed slightly.

"Ara, you're so polite, Yuta-chan!" With a chuckle, grandma Haruko pinched Yuta's face, making him frown slightly in anger, which just made her smile even brigther.

"Grandma, I'm not a kid anymore..."

"Ah, is that so, then why does Yuta-chan look like a little boy for me?"

Embarrassed, Yuta could only turn his back to grandma and pretend to be angry.

"Haha, okay, okay, grandma will stop, okay? You don't have to continue pouting. Yuta is a grown up now, isn't he?"

Yuta nodded in agreement, counting both his lifes, he should be ten years old now, so of course, he's definitely a grown up!

Or so he thinks.

Smiling at this cute scene, grandma remembered something and in a startled manner, she quickly reminded him. "Ah, look at me! I almost forgot. Yuta, let's go, today's your first day of classes in the ninja academy!"

"The ninja academy?"

Hearing those words, Yuta also remembered about this matter.

"This... What about the store?"

"Don't worry, your grandpa Hiromi, can take care of it!"

"Well, okay." Nodding, he hurriedly left the back side of the counter and followed grandma through the streets.

Konoha is a very big place. Although it's referred to as a village, it's no exaggeration to call it a city. The size is definitely three or four times bigger than what was shown in the anime, not to mention the size of the place, even the size of the population is bigger.

He and his family lived in the poorest area which is the southernmost corner of the village. Although it's the poorest, the situation wasn't too bad, they still had dignity and food on the table.

It's just that the houses are uglier, and there's less planning on the infrastructure and the urbanization.

Rows of stacked houses were all done by unqualified people cutting corners to save money, so everything here gives off a sense of twisted shapes and sizes.

As they approach the center, things get a lot better. There's more trees and plants, the houses are all standardized, with big water reservoirs on the ceiling and even an occasional air conditioning unit could be spotted from outside the better looking buildings.

Likewise, the streets get bigger, and the clothing becomes prettier as well. Compared with the Coarse Wool of gray, black and white colors they wore, the people from the center and other regions of Konoha all wore, cotton and linen clothes with varying colors and even some embroidery, occasionally you could even see a few people wearing jackets or cloaks with golden threads woven into the fabric in various elegant and exotic shapes.

Sighing at the sight, he couldn't help but envy them, once he becomes a Ninja, he will definitely take his family away from the southern district and bring everyone to live in the North, near the Hokage building where they could appreciate the view of the Hokage mountain and the benefits of the better roads.

As he silently promised himself, he and his grandma finally arrival at the Ninja academy on the northern region of Konoha.

"Then, I'm going now grandma, see you later!"

"Go, child, and remember to study well."

Hearing grandma's serious reminder, Yuta nodded to show that he understood and he set off without looking back.

Similar scenes were repeating all around. Being the first day of classes, many parents came to see their children off to school.

"Good luck, Kakashi, remember to make lots of friends."

A duo of white haired parent and child talked to each other near the entrance.

"Congratulations, Guy! Do you see this, it's the culmination of your efforts in the form of budging youth! Study well and show your youth!"

A family wearing green spandex cried loudly, inevitably attracting a lot of attention.

"Kurenai, remember to always be steady, a good ninja is not the one who rushes to fight, but the one who properly assesses the situation!"

A serious middle-aged man warned his red-eyed daughter carefully in a deep voice.

Soon enough the crowd dispersed as the children all went in through the gate.

At the backyard, all kids were gathered by the Chunin and Genin staff and soon, an old man wearing a white and red suit with a hat covering part of his face appeared.

"Is this the hokage?"

"Wow, he's so old!"

"Do you think he's powerful?"

Listening to the words flying around him, Yuta also looked up with some expectation, after all, he had watched the anime and read a little bit of the manga, so he always imagined what would it look like to meet the old man in person.

But soon, he was disappointed. How could such a strong person look so frail and old?

Just as he was doubting the old man's abilities, he seemed to have heard a cough, and right after, the Hokage begun his speech in front of the crowd.

He spoke of leaves and fire, burning forever as long as the leaves continue to sprout, so on and so forth.

He couldn't recall much of it all, except that by the time it had finished, he had almost fallen asleep, and it seemed that he wasn't the only one, although quite a few children seemed to have drunk a litter of caffeine and were all excited with flushed faces.

Clearly, although he's old, the Hokage still has a lot of popularity for those kids.

Afterwards, the staff called the children by name, forming several lines, and each group was taken away by one Chunin instructor alone.

After walking through a few corridors, Yuta and the other kids in his group were all led to a classroom with the words '1-A' engraved on the door.

"Everyone, pick a seat for yourself and sit down in silence." The teacher spoke seriously as he climbed the podium where his table and the blackboard were. "Also, remember the location of this classroom, from today till the day of your graduation, you will always study here."

Nodding, the anxious and shy kids didn't dare to disobey and quickly found seats for themselves.

Since no one knew each other yet, the process was very quick and silent.

Nodding at this, the expression on the teacher's face finally relaxed and he showed a smile.

With a chalk on his hands, he walked to the blackboard and wrote his name on it.

"From now on, I will be your Chunin instructor, my name is Hanekawa Saburo, but you can just call me Saburo-sensei."

With that said, he looked at the students full of anxiety and fear, and quickly thought of a way to let them calm down and integrate into the classroom's atmosphere.

"Since we will be together for such a long time, it would be best if we knew each other." With a smile, he sat down on his chair and continued. "I will start, and then, counting from the right, everyone can introduce themselves one by one.

You already know my name, a thing I like is tea, something I don't like is hot weather, and my dream is to find a gentle wife. Now it's your turn."

On the rightmost corner, a kid stood up shaking, and after gritting his teeth, she finally spoke. "My name is... Inuzuka Yui. I like blue flowers, I hate when people trample on them, and my dream is... well, I want make my parents proud and become a powerful Kunoichi, and show everyone that Komaru will definitely be very powerful in the future!"

As soon as those words fell, everyone heard a loud bark and a fluffy golden ball of hair appeared from within her jacket.

Upon a closer inspection, it was actually a golden retriever kind of dog!

Seeing this, Yuta was quite surprised, from his memory, it seems that most dogs in the Inuzuka clan are more like Akamaru who shouldn't even be born yet at this time, still, he felt there was something fishy about this. Could it be that other types of dog aren't very strong in the eyes of the Inuzuka clan?

Soon, many people had spoken.

Kakashi was just like his future self, with a condescending and uncaring attitude, his answers were basically no answers at all and he only told his name, which, granted, was enough to make many girls have heart shaped eyes when they looked at him.

Guy was the loudest, he spoke about youth, the benefits of wearing green spandex and made everyone pale when he suggested that everyone should use one, before finally revealing his dream of becoming the strongest Taijutsu shinobi.

After that, no other introduce was worth noting, except maybe for Mitarishi Anko whose dream was to become rich and retire in a house made of candies.

Laughing secretly, Yuta almost forgot that it was his turn to speak.

Standing up quickly with some embarrassment on his face, he eyed the crowd and spoke quickly.

"My name is Shigarai Yuta, what I like is the philosophy of the Way of Virtue, what I don't like are villains who disturbes the world and brings suffering to all living beings, and my dream is to start my own sect dedicated to the Way, or how I like to call it, the Tao in Konoha! So everyone can pursue freedom of spirit and heavenly virtue while protecting our beautiful village!"

...