Chapter 1. Uzui Kiyoshi
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"Is this a new type of hell?"
It is tiring.
It is so painful.
Damn!
He is here, running in a forest which is covered with snow due to last night's hail, even before the sun is out.
And it's not like he wants to do it. He is being forced to!
"I got reincarnated and this is what I get! It would have been better if I wasn't reincarnated at al---!"
But before he could even complete his words, he felt a very familiar feeling.
A feeling that became his best friend in his second life.
The feeling of blacking out.
"Damn... I am blacking out..."
...
A familiar roof.
The smell of herbs and groans of others echoed in the room. He was once again in the infirmary. From the time he started his "ninja" training, he spent more time in this infirmary than in his own room. And fortunately or unfortunately, his brothers weren't much better than him.
"Ouch! This pain..."
He tried to move his body, finding stinging pain stopping him. As a man, well now a child, there was no way he could take this kind of pain. So, he didn't waste any more strength trying to move.
The morning training truly took a toll on him. Or rather, it would take a toll on anyone.
So early before the sunrise, when the snow had yet to melt, run kilometers to do what?!
To become a ninja?!
Sorry, if that's what it takes to become a ninja, he, Uzui Kiyoshi, doesn't want to become a ninja!
Interrupting his thoughts, a group of people in white garbs entered the room. Soon, they took a needle and started to poke the arms of all, including Kiyoshi, admitted in this room.
"What is this? Medicine?"
While his brothers were silent, perfectly embodying the code of the cool and silent ninja, Kiyoshi obviously wasn't the one to stay quiet. But the doctors weren't talkative enough to reply back to him. They left as they came.
And fortunately, Kiyoshi didn't need to ask what they gave him. Because he got the answer to it.
"T-This.... Arggh! What is this stinging pain?! Don't tell me..."
He looked at his arm, slowly becoming blue and numb, and his eyes widened with anger and shock.
Those bastards gave him poison?!
Shit!
Not only do these guys make children run kilometers in the freezing cold but also give them poison all in the name of making a powerful ninja?!
"This damned crazy Uzui clan!"
That's it! It is getting too out of hand!
He, at any cost, has to escape from this damned clan!
...
"The moon is up."
The night came and a day went, all in pain. And Kiyoshi tried to sleep, but couldn't. Not that his poisoned arm was the problem. It was the others' which was the problem.
"It's so noisy."
Though a bit annoyed, he didn't complain. Because instead of anger, what he felt was pity.
"What a tragedy for them and for me to be born in this clan."
Uzui clan. Once a renowned ninja clan, abandoned by the times. Times are changing and old professions like ninja are disappearing. And in the midst of this crisis, his father, the so wise patriarch of this clan, thought: Huh? This must be happening because we aren't producing exceptional ninjas!
So, he started to train... no, torture his kids, to make them exceptional ninjas. And he? He is behind it all, screwing his beautiful wives, yes, not wife but wives, making sure the raw materials are enough for the mass production of ninjas.
And that's the only part of this clan that makes Kiyoshi's heart full of hope. This clan practices polygamy.
And that means...
"Hehehe...."
Still, putting aside the polygamy thing, Kiyoshi looked at the patients, kids of the same age, brothers from different mothers.
"Uzui clan..."
At first, he really didn't know where he got reincarnated. Finding himself in the training to become a ninja, it was obvious to guess this world as "Naruto".
But there was no "Uzui" clan in Naruto.
Kiyoshi thought it must be one of many small ninja clans that perished or went extinct through the times and didn't appear in the plot.
Soon, he understood that he wasn't in "Naruto". All because he heard a single name... Uzui Tengen, one of his brothers.
"I am in Demon Slayer?"
And then old memories hit him. The plot points of Demon Slayer and the backstory of Uzui Tengen. The clan where the training methods were so terrible that all his brothers died, leaving just two. And without a doubt, he, Uzui Kiyoshi, was one of the brothers who died according to the official plot.
"With these methods, no doubt all of them would die. Hell, it's even a wonder that two survived."
It showed the fact that even though Uzui Tengen claimed himself to be untalented, he was anything but ordinary. Otherwise, how could he survive this hell?! Even he survived all this because of his power.
"It seems my body got a bit adapted to the poison."
Adaptation.
A terrifying power to have. But unfortunately, his adaptation wasn't as powerful as portrayed by Mahoraga or Doomsday. Their adaptation is quite quick and instant. But his wasn't that fast. It took time. And he didn't have any self-healing abilities.
If it is not life-threatening, as long as he persists for a bit of time, he can adapt to it. That's why even after all these torture training methods, he gritted his teeth, accepted the pain and didn't allow his will to give up. And his body slowly started to adapt to these cruel methods.
As much as he disagreed with all his "father's" training methods, those were working for him though not for his brothers.
Out of all his brothers, only two, Uzui Tengen and another whose name he has yet to know, are somehow resilient enough for his father's methods. That's why he couldn't help but look at his brothers laying in beds just like him.
If nothing is done, without a doubt these kids would die. If not now, then in the upcoming future.
"Sigh. This makes my mind a bit sour."
Should I do something about it?
The thought crossed his mind, but then Kiyoshi dry laughed at it.
Do something about it? What can he even do?
"I better sleep and take some rest. Who knows what torture they are going to try tomorrow?"