All Of The Worlds Will Be Mine

The morning sun climbed slowly over the eastern horizon as two figures cut through the winding paths of Uzumaki Village.

Renji Uzumaki and his son, Elric, had already reached the outskirts—an open expanse lined with rustling trees and jagged stones, the training grounds long used by the clan's finest. A faint wind carried the scent of dew-kissed grass and distant ocean salt, gently rustling the red leaves overhead.

Renji slowed his pace slightly, his eyes drifting to the small figure running beside him.

Elric's face was glowing with anticipation. His short red hair bounced with every energetic step, and his breathing was starting to get ragged from the sprint. Yet his eyes remained fixed forward, lit up like lanterns. Pure, unfiltered excitement coursed through his veins—after all, today was the day he would learn his first ninjutsu.

Renji watched him silently.

A soft, nostalgic smile tugged at the corners of his lips. There was something about Elric's expression—so full of hope and determination—that tugged at an old memory. A face… both familiar and distant floated up in his mind.

A child, just like Elric. Bright eyes, laughing in the courtyard of the Senju compound. His cousin—yes, from the Senju clan. They used to play together, throwing stones at trees and pretending to be great shinobi.

But that child… had died young.

Only seven years old, and already taken by the endless conflict between the Senju and Uchiha.

Renji's smile faltered.

The world… it really is messed up, isn't it?

The Uzumaki were fortunate, he reminded himself. Their clan had always been powerful and with there unique location, in fact, that they were rarely forced to send their children to war. While other clans armed their toddlers with kunai, the Uzumaki still let theirs chase butterflies.

He remembered the changes that came later. After Senju Hashirama, the man of dreams, the god of shinobi, built the Hidden Leaf Village alongside Uchiha Madara, things had started to shift. That move set a chain reaction—every nation scrambling to build their own hidden villages.

Wars didn't stop. In fact, they got bigger. More organized. More brutal.

But thankfully, fewer children were forced to fight.

Still... how messed up is it that this is considered "progress"?

Renji exhaled quietly, his heart heavy.

As a boy, he too had dreamed big—perhaps even bigger than Hashirama himself. He wanted to go beyond him. He wanted to end all wars, to create a world where children never had to pick up weapons, where shinobi could live peacefully with their families.

But dreams like that?

The world laughed at them.

The world chewed up people like him—too weak, too idealistic, too soft—and spat them out. Dreams as high as mountains needed strength just as great. And Renji had once believed he wasn't strong enough.

But now... now things were different.

His eyes softened as he looked once more at Elric's smiling, panting face.

Even if I couldn't change the world... maybe I don't need to anymore.

Maybe seeing Elric grow up happy—that's more than enough.

Without saying a word, Renji leaned forward and quickened his pace.

A burst of speed.

He surged past his son in a heartbeat, his crimson cloak fluttering in the wind behind him.

"Hah! Come on, Elric! Pick up the pace or I'm leaving you behind!" Renji called back, a mischievous grin on his face.

"D-Dad! Wait up!" Elric huffed, pumping his legs harder.

Okay, okay, I've read this a hundred times. Channel chakra to the soles of the feet, enhance speed and strength. Easy... right?

He closed his eyes for a moment, focused on his legs, and tried to mimic everything he'd ever seen and read. The flow of chakra—it was there, raw and untrained, but pulsing with energy.

And then—

"Ha!"

He slammed his foot down on the earth.

CRACK—!!

A sudden boom exploded beneath him as chakra surged too forcefully. The ground cracked, forming a small crater beneath his foot as raw energy erupted with reckless force.

Physics, however, remained a cruel mistress.

The blast of energy launched him upward and off balance, and in the next moment—

THUMP!

Elric met the dirt.

Face-first.

With all the grace of a sack of potatoes, he skidded into the ground. Dust flew into the air, a poor victim to the mighty power of chakra miscalculation.

Renji froze at the sound.

He stopped mid-stride and turned around, eyes wide.

A beat passed.

Then another.

And then—he saw it.

There was Elric, his legs tangled awkwardly, his face half-buried in the soil. Dirt clung to his eyebrows, his hair stood in comical angles, and his entire expression was twisted in the kind of despair only young children and failed ninja know.

"P-Pthu! Bleh!" Elric sat up, spitting clumps of dirt from his mouth.

"Why does it taste like worms?!"

Renji blinked.

Then chuckled.

Then burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Pfft—PWAHAHA!"

"H-Hey! Don't laugh! That was my first time trying it!" Elric shouted, cheeks burning red as he tried to brush soil off his face.

"I-I know, I know... sorry...!" Renji gasped between laughs, bending over with a hand on his knee. "But—hahh—that was glorious...!"

He walked over quickly and helped his son to his feet.

"Maybe next time," he said with a smirk, ruffling Elric's messy hair, "try not to break the ground and your face."

"Ughhh…" Elric groaned. "I thought I was gonna blast off like a lightning flash. Not faceplant like a potato sack…"

The two of them stood there for a moment, one sulking and one laughing, the morning sun shining down upon them.

the dirt, the failure, and the laughter...