The orphanage now had over ten orphans. Besides the old dean who could barely move, only Nonō was taking care of them.
As "The Walking Witch", Nonō had naturally discovered, through half a year of close contact, that Sora was much more mature than ordinary children. Fortunately, people in the ninja world matured early anyway, Sora was just even more mature.
But considering that Sora came from a village where everyone else had been wiped out by rogue ninjas, it was reasonable for him to be more psychologically mature. Therefore, Nonō did not treat Sora like a child at all, but rather like a little helper who could lend a hand.
If Sora knew what Nonō was thinking, he would probably complain that it wasn't a matter of being "more mature". The people from that village were truly all gone, all killed by the rogue ninjas.
The original owner of this body had died too. The one living now was just Sora, whose soul had crossed over.
"The new ones?" Sora asked curiously as he walked towards the kitchen. "War orphans again?"
"Yes, a border conflict... Neither parent made it back."
Sora's footsteps halted. He was all too aware of the cruelty of the ninja world. The Third Great Ninja War hadn't erupted yet, but small scale conflicts were already frequent.
"I'll help," Sora nodded solemnly.
Then he immediately reverted to the playful, cheeky expression he reserved for those he was close to. "But sis, can I have an extra piece of bread tomorrow? The training is too intense, I can't handle it!"
Nonō was amused by him. "You, you're only five years old, but you talk like an adult."
"This is called mature and steady!" Sora puffed out his chest.
'Nonsense, I'm a person with a mental age of nearly thirty, of course I'm steady when pretending to be a kid.'
In the kitchen, Sora wolfed down the warm food.
Nonō sat across from him and suddenly asked, "Did something good happen today? You seem to be in a good mood."
Sora paused his chopsticks, remembering Kurenai Yūhi's tear stained little face, and couldn't help but smile. "I found a lost little rabbit on the road and sent it home."
"A rabbit?" Nonō blinked in confusion.
Sora waved his hand. "It was a little girl named Kurenai Yūhi. Her father is a ninja, his mission was delayed, I think. She was so worried she got lost."
A look of understanding dawned on Nonō's face. "The daughter of Jonin Shinku Yūhi... I've seen that child before, she's very sensible."
Sora's interest was piqued. "Sis, you know her father?"
"Yes, I've seen him a few times at the hospital before."
"He's a very skilled genjutsu user. Kurenai will probably inherit his talent in the future."
"Genjutsu, huh..." Sora became thoughtful. In the original story, Kurenai's genjutsu was indeed excellent, but unfortunately she didn't have much presence in the later parts. However, with a variable like him now, it was hard to say how the future would unfold.
"By the way," Nonō suddenly became serious. "You've been training too frantically lately. I've seen the injuries on your arm. While hard work is good, overtraining will harm your body instead."
Sora touched his arm through his sleeve, which was already mostly healed, and quickly changed the subject.
"Don't worry, I know my limits."
"After all, I'm the man who will become 'Konoha's Green Beast'!"
Guy, I'll borrow your title for now...
Nonō laughed at his chuunibyou declaration. "What a strange title... Go to sleep now, you have to get up early tomorrow."
"Yes, ma'am!" Sora gave an exaggerated salute, making Nonō laugh again.
...
Early the next morning, Sora was woken by a commotion. Rubbing his eyes, he walked out of his room and saw three unfamiliar children in the courtyard, all around his age, standing timidly beside Nonō.
"Are these the new ones?" Sora walked over, looking them over.
Two boys and one girl, younger than him, wearing ragged clothes, tear stains still fresh on their faces.
"Yes." Nonō gently patted one of the boy's heads. "This is Kenta, Takeshi, and Reiko. Starting today, they are our family."
"Family..." Sora noticed the little girl named Reiko tremble slightly upon hearing that word.
The harsh reality of the ninja world was once again vividly displayed before Sora.
After helping Nonō settle the three children, Sora went to the training ground to begin his daily training. However, this time the training volume was doubled!
His previous training volume, plus rest time, took about three to four hours. Sora estimated doubling it would require at least seven or eight hours. If there wasn't enough time, he would just reduce the rest time!
Wasn't this how Zoan type fruits were developed? Train until you don't die, then train like you're trying to die! Just go for it!
Time passed slowly in the day after day of training. Sora spent his mornings helping Nonō look after the other children and learning some basic knowledge of the ninja world. In the afternoons, he went to the training ground for hellish training. After dinner, he returned to his room to secretly develop the abilities of the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon.
It is worth mentioning that Kurenai Yūhi came to the orphanage to find him from time to time, clearly considering him a very good friend...
Because Sora had the mental age of over twenty, he definitely couldn't play the little games children play with Kurenai, just like with the other children at the orphanage.
But Kurenai always loved to stay at the place where Sora trained, watching quietly from the side. When he rested between training sessions, she would take out the snacks and fruits she brought and eat them with him.
Sora gradually grew accustomed to Kurenai's presence. Of course, he had no other thoughts about it now, but children always grow up, and in this world, children matured early anyway, especially girls.
He might not have any ideas, but that didn't mean others didn't...
Noticing Kurenai's slightly flushed face when she looked at him, wasn't it just like how Hinata looked at Naruto?
"Asuma..."
Thinking of Asuma, who was Kurenai's childhood friend in the original story, Sora always felt a little strange.
...
After dinner, Sora returned to his room and began the daily training and development of the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon.
Sora divided the development of the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon into four steps.
Human Form, Hybrid Form, Full Beast Form, Awakening.
Step One: Human Form. Mainly train physical abilities, and imbue attacks with elemental damage, such as the flame, lightning, wind blades, and water vapor the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon can control. Can also disguise these as similar ninjutsu.
Step Two: Hybrid Form. Further develop combat methods after transformation based on Human Form. Can freely control which body parts transform, briefly fly, and have enhanced elemental control.
Step Three: Full Beast Form. Large scale elemental bombardment, super strong defense, super high speed flight.
Step Four: Awakening. Same as Kaido, environmental domination, mixed element ultimate techniques, unlimited stamina, recovery power, extremely difficult to kill completely.
Moreover, in the later parts of One Piece, awakened Zoan type fruits introduced the ribbon/streamer setting. Kaido's extremely strong fruit ability might not even be the true awakened form!
Let's just say Teacher Kaido suffered from appearing too early~
And to put the above four steps simply, they are:
Human Form -> Taijutsu Expert (Close to Jonin level)
Hybrid Form -> Close Quarters Combat Dominator (Base Guy + Sasuke's elemental enchantment)
Full Beast Form -> Natural Disaster Level Combat Power (Jinchūriki level)
( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°) Awakening -> Six Paths Level!
Of course, this was just the general development plan and benchmark standard Sora came up with based on his knowledge of the two anime.
If he could later acquire techniques like the Eight Gates Formation or Lightning Release cell stimulation secret arts, things suitable for a Zoan type fruit, combined with the Fish-Fish Fruit, Model: Azure Dragon, he would definitely be stronger, not weaker.