Chapter Text
Naruto liked training. No he loved training, it was fun and it gave him something to do instead of just pranking the shopkeepers and the shinobi all the time. And it wasn’t that hard for the blond prankster to train, it made him feel fresh, more alive…somehow. Even after trying to run up the tree that Rema-chan asked him to.
Rema-chan had explicitly asked him to not chakra walk on her lovely willow tree but to train his chakra walking on a different tree, and that’s what he was trying to do but even after training and sweating for more than 3 hours he couldn’t do it that like Rema-chan had done, in truth it was pretty hard but he liked to train (he had just made his mind that he liked training a few hours ago). Its just one part that he hated about training and that was to meditate. And Rema-chan had guessed right that it would bore him cause it did, Naruto loved to move and to talk to someone, anyone and even at the academy he had tried to talk to any person he saw just because he wanted to make friends and also because Jiji had said, that he’ll make friends easily at the academy.
And then after that he can play with them at the park. But even though it was Naruto’s as well as everyone’s first day at the academy no tried to approach the blond kid and talk.
Naruto had embedded in his mind when jiji had told him that he’ll be joining academy that he would make thousands and thousand of more friends then they will all play in the park and then Naruto won’t ever feel the way he would feel, then everything would be alright and then the villagers won’t call him demon but today…at the academy it was not a great start, it seemed like as always no one had come his way and tried to talk to him but he at least, Naruto thinks, with a small yes that he had his best-est and the most amazing friend with him.
Rema had taught him how to walk on trees and when she had proceeded to not only reach the top but chakra walk all the way down the tree as well, Naruto was so so amazed and really excited that he had jumped up and down twice with the excitement that he was about to learn to do THAT. Many shinobi used to walk on walls this way, whenever a shinobi used to catch him for pranking a shopkeeper he would ask many times for the shinobi to teach him ninja stuff but they’d only shout back at him.
Naruto didn’t like it when someone would shout at him. He never ever liked it, he hated it but whenever the whiskered boy would go to buy his grocery or something he liked most of the shopkeepers would just shout at him, call him demon and sometimes throw things at him too. He didn’t feel the pain that much, it was always gone in am hour or so if it wasn’t bad but the shouting always made him hate the person.
But now he’ll get stronger because Rema-chan will teach him and he’s also going to the academy, then he’ll be Hokage in no time and prove to everyone that he is not a demon anymore but the Hokage. Jumping on the rough bark Naruto made a small grunt as he runs up the long tree and slashes the kunai with enough force to leave his mark.
Landing back on the green grass, Naruto looked up at all the kunai marks left by him. The blond boy grins happily at how fast he’ll be the Hokage just like his jiji. If he keeps going like this he might even get stronger than Rema-chan. Naruto is pretty sure she’ll be really happy he’ll also show this trick to that bastard called Sasuke.
He laughs heartily once more as he thinks how that dobe’s expression will be. He couldn’t wait, Naruto really couldn’t wait to show him, which gave him more energy to train more harder. He starts and focuses on the thing…energy? What’s that…thing called he forgot again. Rema Chan had explicitly made him sit and understand what it was and its uses but meh he doesn’t remember he’ll just ask her again.
Wait, talking about Rema-chan, Naruto thinks where is she? Naruto roves his ocean blue eyes around the dense forest and only notices the leather bag underneath the tree Rema asked him not to train on. He recalls that she said that she’ll be back and its been some while. She must be doing something. Naruto’s eyes widen suddenly as a thunderous screeching sound of a wild animal makes way. He turns around trying to decipher where the sound came from.
The whiskered boy knows this sound he has heard it plenty of times when he’s out in the forest, which he does a lot but has only heard it at night because it was of a fox, and fox mostly of this area were awake and preyed at night, and this was not the sound which the fluffy orange creature made before preying, so it must be nothing. With that he just shrugs and gets back on his training again, after all he had to get strong.
***
I knew it was a forest and I knew there would be animals, obviously but predators didn’t cross my mind especially not foxes. Foxes that were covered in blood of a rabbit, my near silent breaths were coming in pants, but I kept still as a stone statue as the bright orange and snow white colored fox neared me. Its bloodied maw open, its clever eyes transformed into slits.
It neared my face, I knew that the large fox won’t eat me because as much information I have about foxes I know that foxes don’t prey on human and my gut was urging me to believe that it won’t try to hurt me maybe it was the way the orange beings’ knowing eyes were staring into mine or the way it moved, as if…as if waiting for my permission? I don’t know?
The stench of blood increased as it’s maw neared my neck, I stopped breathing all the way and moved not a muscle in my body, including my eyelids as it just sniffed me twice. Then as fast as that had occurred, the fox retreated and talked….it f*cking talked.
Its voice ancient but smooth as silk at the same time. Its feline eyes narrowed as it uttered literal words that were foreign to my ears but felt known as if I was supposed to know what the orange fox with blood on its maws was saying. A string of two to three sentences were uttered and then just as eerily as it had came in into my view it disappeared with a deafening shrill.
My hands in which I was holding my wet clothes were slammed to my ears to somehow stop the ear splitting scream. As the sound receded I open my eyes which were closed without my control to look at the expanse of huge dark green tress which surrounded me, in search of the fox. My eyes fall upon the small pool of blood near my feet, where the white rabbit was supposed to be but was not there anymore. That sly orange fox…It can’t be my imagination but it said words…it was a language unknown to me.
My mouth stays open as I am thinking deeply at what just occurred in front of me. I unconsciously drop the wet clothes on the soil with a loud spat, which brings me back to my senses. The Fox talked…it talked in another language in front of me and ran away with an ear-splitting shriek.
I calm myself down, breathing in and out a few times. It sounded quite same like Japanese but was obviously not Japanese. I am sure of it. f*ck…The fox talked…Am I going mad? It’s f*cking impossible that an animal talked to me but, hey, I fell from another world, what else could be more weirder than this?
I urge my frozen legs to work and I start walking on the overgrown weeds, back where Naruto was training with my wet clothes in my hand. I repeat the foreign words on my tongue, which sounds thick and wrong due to my wrong accent but I repeat it again to embed it in my memory.
It is possible that there are more languages than just Japanese in this world. I mean it’s impossible that a language hasn’t been evolved and stayed same throughout a millennia. I remove the branch in front of my face as I think deeply for different theories and possibilities that could’ve made that unusual fox act the way it did, the distant sounds of Naruto training to chakra walk can be heard when I feel eyes upon me.
I turn abruptly and look up at the long and slim branches but no one was there. I huff and start my languid stroll again, must be some Anbu that kept watch on me.
As I reached back to what is now our personal training ground? I glance at Naruto who is still training as if nothing had occurred. Didn’t he hear that sound cause I am pretty sure it was f*cking loud. I pad my way back to the bag and dump my wet clothes with a splat.
“Oi! ” Naruto shouts from high above, standing on a tree branch was pretty up, “look at me!”, shielding my eyes from the setting sun I look up and meet his cerulean blue eyes.
“That’s some good work Naruto” I yell back as loudly as I can, hiding the tremor behind my voice. I was still shaken from what had occurred. It’s bugging me to know all the whys and hows for it to be possible…for an animal to talk. I understand I somehow landed in anime but that doesn’t mean that anything can happen, that doesn’t mean that I can fly or I don’t know…um kill someone with my wand or something. It’s a different universe and it obviously follows a universal law or a physical law or something obviously.
“Keep that up and you’ll be able to master it in a few days” I shout once again as I bend down to grab the onigiri from the bag, that I had bought from a store before making my way towards Naruto’s house. Naruto shouts back a loud that he’ll become Hokage in no time if he keeps up which makes me chuckle at that. I hope that his dream comes true this time too, but his sacrifices won’t be as many as before.
After a while we snacked on some onigiri, practiced some kunai throwing and mind you that is an exercise itself because we had to go back and forth, again and again to pick up the kunais, cause we both were horribly low on it. We both had like 2 or 3 each. And especially Naruto’s cause they were in bad condition, they weren’t even sharp enough to stick inside the tree bark. the blunt metal was chipped and had tiny fractures, which could be seen.
My first few throws were sh*tty and even at the end of the day, I couldn’t count on my fingers as to how many times the kunai was embedded on the target board which was a tree, but I hope that tomorrow when I meet Shisui again I’ll ask him to teach me two main things: first: it’ll be the the Kage Bunshin cause I can’t keep up like this and I have the excellent opportunity to multitask so why not use it and secondly: how to throw kunai the right way, by the time kunai throwing session was over my wrist was throbbing, i could barely move it like a normal person without wincing.
I think I must’ve sprained it or something but being a child had its perks so I hope it’ll heal in a few days or so.
***
Shisui was f*cking tired. Tired of everything from the pressure by Shimura Danzo, his clan, the Hokage, from the clan head, everyone, even his mother was forcing him about sh*t he didn’t want to think about.
Running on 2 hours of sleep for the past two days has made him cranky so he walks at a slow pace, making his way back to his beloved village, due to which he is sure that he will one day die from all the stress that is placed upon his shoulders. Being on a solo mission always had its perks but also had higher risks of death but the black haired Uchiha always tried to choose solo missions, it somehow gave him a sense of control over the mission, he could complete it at his own pace just like he was doing now. If he were to be with his Anbu team right now they would’ve already reached the Hokage towers, to make it back to the village as fast as possible.
The missions on the other hand were never kind to him, why would they be? After all being a shinobi meant to kill, it meant to be a tool of the village, it meant to assassinate people he didn’t know anything about, only the outline of the crimes they’ve committed not the reasons and sometimes to kill innocent people that were only in between of higher peoples schemes, but Shisui in truth tried his best he, always, always tried his best to dig and know about every wrong deed the man he was about to kill had done, but sometimes he didn’t have a choice… sometimes a mission would ask the prodigy to kill a mistress just because she knew too much about the feudal lord or something.
Sometimes in such conditions he wouldn’t really have a choice but to somehow fake their deaths and give an innocent soul a second chance. Shisui tried his best to keep it all under covers because it takes just a second for everything to go downhill. Being a shinobi always meant to be ready for anything and everything.
The Prodigy Uchiha makes out a long, tired sigh kicking the pebble in his way. He wanted to change this system. He wanted to make a change, leave something that he-to imprint it in this wretched shinobi world. After gaining his most probably highest level of power he saw things-he saw things in such clarity and in such depth, that he was…amazed, and surprised of what type of things were hidden from his eyes-from everybody’s eyes’ through his Mangekyou Sharingan . How their eyes were shrouded, only showed laymen the things the people in higher power agreed to.
He saw how the council works, on blood and unjust murder but in the end Uchiha Shisui was just a tool of this village. He killed people in order to protect the village, gave sacrifices from the shadows so that the village that he was born to protect and love would rise high, stay happy and protected. That’s what he yearned the most but…he wanted to make things right too. He hoped…he seriously hoped that one day he would be powerful enough to change this system so that children won’t get to see what he did at such a young age.
So that children won’t have to be mindless killer machines at an early age like him or have a childhood as broken as that jinchuriki.
He hoped.
The huge, dull green village gates comes in view as the Uchiha breaths in and out twice then shun shins towards the Hokage towers to give an in depth report of his successful mission. Then maybe he’ll treat himself and his smaller cousin with some dango, if his so called smaller cousin won’t be busy due to his duties.
Hell, he was so pissed off when Itachi was offered the spot on the Black ops Anbu that he wanted to beat some sense into Uchiha Fugaku for agreeing on making his son a f*cking Anbu at the age of 11.
He scoffs as he signs the papers given to him at the mission desk, proof that he completed the mission and if something happens so he’ll be held accountable and all that sh*t. Getting out of the building through double glass door, Shisui breathes in deep as he fills his lungs with much needed oxygen, his eyes moves around his village.
He knows that it’s really prideful to know what a prodigy Uchiha Itachi is when he became a genin at the age of six and then proceeded to become a chuunin but that was where the clan head should’ve made a stop. Proceeding to make him Jonin and then the Anbu at this age was just…unethical.
And he…Shisui couldn’t do anything…he couldn’t shield his cousin from the horrors of the world. The black haired Uchiha looks down at the path he was walking towards knowing that it was fruitless. Soon pale off-white roads with tiny gravels transistions into grass as he enters the graveyard. The memorial stone was shining brightly in the evening sun, his eyes automatically finding its way towards his dead teammates’ name on the memorial stone. Shisui’s pale fingers hover over his right eye at the horrible memory.
These eyes…his Mangekyou Sharingan, only evolved when his dear friend and rival died. It was all his fault…he had withheld his aid in the moment of envy and weakness. It took a second for the enemy nin to finish him off, Shisui closes his eyes.
He was tired.
But he stayed standing there for some time, thinking…a lot of thinking. Stepping away from the memorial stone, still battered and dirty from his mission he makes way towards that…girls’ house.
He was…conflicted whenever he thought about the kid, which he wasn’t often. It was somewhat hard for him to decipher her. That day when she had asked him to teach her, there was such absolute resolve in her eyes that he was…shaken, she was barely 5 to 6 years old and had such yearning in her grey eyes. It looked like she had a goal in her mind and was ready to do anything to see it completed.
The Hokage had asked to keep an eye on her and she was the second child that he was given to be watched as a mission since he got into Anbu. The second she entered the supermarket instead of an extremely expensive retail shop for the clothes, he understood that she knew what she was doing. He watched how she went all around the village buying all the supplies, necessities to live alone, without any guardian.
Shisui knew that the kid will be fine all alone. He liked that thing about the kid, she was stubborn and somehow knew what she was doing. No doubt Rema did have plenty of space for improvement but he didn’t tell her all the tips just like he used to do with Itachi. He won’t be making the same mistake of making another genin at a mere age of 5.
But that didn’t mean he won’t train her, cause he knows if he didn’t then she won’t back down but he’ll train her slowly and steadily at such a pace , when she’ll be mature enough to pass the genin exams. He will make sure of that, Shisui thinks as he watches her bruised and battered walking along with the village jinchuriki. Looks like she must’ve befriended the jinchuriki at the academy, and by the looks of it they were training.
Crouching on the roof of a two leveled building he could see the jnchuri-blond kid was talking loudly to the brown and white haired girl beside him, moving his hands up and down trying to imitate someone, which makes Rema laugh heartily in return. Looks like Shisui’ll have to give her a hell of training tomorrow because they had a shoji game. he couldn’t wait to see what type of moves are under her sleeves.
At the end of the path they both parted their ways waving their goodbyes, warm shades of blue peeking heavily on the evening sky. He jumps off the roof and lands smoothly on the ground, where those two were standing.
Suddenly the hair on his nape stands up, without a second thought he skids to his left just as a flash of a kunai passes beside him where his head was just a millisecond ago, instead of a loud thunk it clanks at the ground. His eyes lands on the little girl at the end of the path with brown hair and white ends. Did she really just throw a kunai at his face?
“Looks like I’m still not perfect at this” Rema announced, with a smirk, hands clasped together behind her back, innocently.
Children are f*cking scary.
***
Unlike tomorrow I bought sh*t load of scrolls and books at the academy and packed two full-fledged bentos because I don’t want to repeat my embarrassment of the way my stomach was grumbling like a monster yesterday even after I snacked on some onigiri in the middle of training. The other one was for Naruto because snacking on ramen now that we have started training won’t help us get stronger, a good diet is important now.
We had stayed there and trained for some more, then had made our way back towards our own homes. On the way I had reminded a total of 3 times to not forget to complete his home work as the sensei’s at the academy were not merciful, even at first days.
No wonder the dropout rate in the first years was higher than necessary. When we both parted, I had already sensed Shisui just before Naruto and I parted our ways and for some reason, I just had to scare him, it just felt like how a child would do, I guess, so I threw a kunai straight towards his face but instead of impaling itself on the fence behind him it just fell down.
And obviously the horror on his face was just worth the threats he made afterwards.
(complete it they talked on when to meet and tomorrow and asking if she is ready for the shoji game *smirk*)
I plop down on the not so comfy chair in my room to get started with the reading of the day, after talking about when to meet for training with Shisui tomorrow, Shisui and I had gone our own ways, because I was hella tired and Shisui looked…fatigued as well, there were heavy eye-bags under his eyes and was looking pale. I wonder if he was not sleeping enough? Even though I wanted to tell him to take care of himself, but I obviously couldn’t say something like that to him, I don’t think so i should cause we weren’t on that basis of friendship yet.
So here I am, my tummy full with the dinner I made, on a chair to read books which I had borrowed from the library. On the way home I had made a trip to the library in search for books on historical linguistics, for some reason it felt important to look into what language the fox was trying to say.
The second I opened the book, it dawned upon me the reason the fox had talked. That was so dumb of me not to figure it out that I now live in the world of summons and summons do talk…very well but I didn’t know that some of them talked in different languages or it must be a different dialect.
I won’t know until that fluffy orange fox comes back to scare the sh*t out of me again. Or it all must be just a huge coincidence that it entered this world and talked to me, because from what I know summons live on a whole different plane.
The sly fox must’ve just uttered something useless. I indeed did not close the book after the realization but instead read more about the evolution of languages, the more the info the better after all I’ll be living here for a long time…if I don’t die, I guess? Other than that the book held not a great amount of new knowledge. Just, how it evolved from extremely hard and long sentences with extreme respect to normal slang and short statements, which normally happens with most of the languages in the other wor-my last world?
I had returned the introductory books on fuuinjutsu and had borrowed some more scrolls and by the time I entered the apartment I was tired down to my bones, which was not surprising. My training with chakra had only started three days ago so it was clear that my body was still not used to its use.
***
I hide my yawn behind my hand because a woman in her mid-thirties with huge round glasses was teaching science. Her bouncy brown curls were moving back and forth as she was explaining the really basic science stuff about the push and pull of a ball on a surface and that did not bring pleasant memories of school but I was immersed in this scroll which was based heavily on past fuuinjutsu masters. I had an inkling that the Uzushiogakure would be talked about so when the scroll read:
“Uzumaki Mito was also one the most legendary and strongest seal master in the shinobi world. She was the daughter of the Uzumaki clan head and also the wife of the First Hokage. Her exceptional skills in fuuinjutsu were at the highest level. Many of the techniques used nowadays in fuuinjutsu were created by her.”
Uzushiogakure no sato…also known as the village of longevity, I sigh. Another place demolished, burned just because of fear. Killed and massacred just because the other villages were afraid of their power. With how much I remember in cannon, Konoha who was an ally of Uzushiogakure couldn’t send reinforcements in time to stop the attack, which led to its demise.
The day went forward and by the time I was finished with the last period Kaito-sensei had again come in the class and had handed me some extra worksheets to complete, with a kind smile on his face. He hadn’t talked to me about the last worksheet that I did so I didn’t ask about it either. I stuffed the papers with less care than I would to a book and started towards the meeting point.
At lunch I had asked Naruto to go and train at the same place we did before and I would meet him later, its not that I don’t want that ball of sunshine to not meet Shisui but unfortunately the Uchiha are not at a good place currently, seeing from screen is really different than watching it live in front of your face. Its plain and simple the Uchiha are f*cking hated by everyone from the shopkeeper to the beggar at the end of the street.
They are looked upon with such malicious eyes and even if Danzo gets wind that The Uchiha Shisui was seen at an unnamed training ground trying to train The jinchuriki…the consequences will be unimaginable. So I will not take such a risk and I know that Shisui knows that Naruto is my friend but I won’t let them meet each other as long as I can. This was the main reason I was hesitating before asking Naruto to join me and train because this…thing can go worse than worse.
So asking Naruto to train alone once in a while won’t be that hard but casting off suspicion from Shisui….I’ll have to make up a good excuse for that and I would’ve thought more deeply about it if I hadn’t realized that Shisui can’t interact with The jinchuriki of the village so late. Or else I would’ve thought up some good reason but now I’ll have to give a lame excuse.
Ugh I don’t even know how everyone doesn’t even feel disgusted calling a mere child the jinchuriki again and again. I walk towards training ground 5, asking along the way hoping that I was on the right way. Today I’ll learn how to make a Kage Bunshin.
The sun was still high in the sky but not that cold, as it was currently fall in the village, people were bustling back in forth bringing in harvests. I breathe in deeply and as I inhale the brilliant fragrance of breads and d goods being baked my tummy grumbled. The Village was most likely the prettiest in autumn and I am sure of that, even though I haven’t seen the village in different season but all the hues of oranges, yellows and mandarins was just calling me to grab a large cup of coffee with a good romance book and spend my time in the park while reading it, but I can’t do that…not today maybe someday but obviously not today.
I enter the large empty training ground, walking slowly and take it in, it’s…just really big. I’ve seen it several times on screen but right now it looks like its around 60 to 50 yards long and 30 to 40 yards wide. The grounds were surrounded by huge dark green and orange colored trees; most of which were covered in harsh kunai and shuriken marks on their stumps. I plop down beside a tree along with my bag, looks like Shisui was late, that means I have more time to read. If only it was a romance book and I had some iced coffee it would’ve been perfect but that was not the case and coffee was extremely expensive here.
Which meant that I won’t be able to buy coffee not until I am a genin which is really depressing. I take out my flask and chug some water and make myself comfortable as much as I can with my back on the tree stump to read the last scroll on fuuinjutsu now I’ll only have to practice a ton of seals to just scratch the surface on fuuinjutsu.
The fluffy clouds in the too blue sky were roaming around instead of giving coverage from the bright sun and Uchiha Shisui was still not here yet. I groan loudly, I’ve been waiting for that teenager for the last 30 minutes and he’s still not here even though I’ve completed the scroll.
I stand up and walk further up and start up my warm-ups and some katas, stretching my arm I suddenly feel something fast dashing towards me, instantly I swish to my right and hear a kunai whiz past my head.
I look forward only to find one more coming towards me, having not enough time I stupidly try to grab it with my hand. The kunai slashes past my right hand, goes smoothly without touching me, I think. I move fast and grab my own kunai and look for the person who just threw TWO freaking real kunai’s at me.
I don’t get the time to think and guess who the perpetrator must be because I can clearly see the grinning face of Uchiha Shisui.
“This is what you get for throwing them at me.” He booms loudly with a hearty laugh, hands on his hips; he walks up towards me.
“I could’ve died”, I shout with horror, I really could’ve f*cking gotten hurt or something, I lower the kunai and feel stinging in my hand. I look down to see blood seeping from my palm and down to my wrist. “Look at what you’ve done.” I hissed.
Nearing me he tch’s loudly when his eyes fall on my wound but he still had a grin plastered to his face. “Now you can learn three things from this” he puts up his first finger, “Wounds can look really bad at first glance but are not always but that doesn’t mean that you should wholly ignore them,” he puts up his second finger, “and second this is what happens when you treat me as your personal kunai board,” he leans down and grabs a small flask from his shinobi pouch on his leg.
“And third, due to this exercise,” he emphasizes, “you’ll know how to treat small wounds which you’ll be receiving every once in a while from now on.” he lifts my hand up and pours some water to clean the wound. As the water slides down my palm, I don’t even register pain, being just a shallow cut, enough to draw blood but not hurt badly.
A part of me is not that surprised that he’ll test me like that; by getting violent, after all that is what I’ll be facing in the near future. Blood did not fear me that much and I hope it won’t be a problem for me in the future either. “This doesn’t mean I won’t use you as a kunai board” I say gleefully.
He ruffles my hair a bit then takes out a small canister. “It’s an ointment every ninja should have. It can stop infection, even if it’s a shallow cut, like yours” he says, pointing at my hand, “it’s important to apply it.” He hands me the small brown flat can, “Here, take it” he says with a stern expression. “You’ll be needing it”
I apply a small amount of it on my cut. The black haired Uchiha in front of me then opens a scroll. I try to stand on my tiptoes to take a look on what’s written but his hands just hover over it then smoke rises from it. “These” he points “-are some weights”.
Handing me all of them together, I nearly fall down from the damn weight, “you’ll be wearing these from now on; everywhere from the academy to when you are eating.” , he orders, “And now- Come on wear it already.” I sit down and start strapping the weights on my legs and arms.
“And now, we’ll first start with your measly stamina.” He says giddily as if excited for the torture he will be making me go through. “Today you’ll just run”
“Hey, I wann-” I try to make my intentions clear about the Kage Bunshin but he just interrupts me as if I didn’t say anything; “You stop when I tell you to stop”
“But-” I try to interlude.
He fists out a silver watch clock from his trousers pocket. “Start now”
I start running at my max speed, my muscles screaming at the intense running suddenly but I run and run around the training ground with all my strength which was a highly idiotic move. He had asked me to run that must’ve meant for a long while and now I had wasted half my energy on the first 5 minutes into the run.
I spectate as the Uchiha walks and plops down at the same tree I was residing at, using my satchel as his own comfy pillow and grabs the book that I was reading on fuuinjutsu.
Running on now tired legs, I watch as he just puts the book back and lies down on the grass and goes to sleep…I guess. I don’t stop running; jumping over his legs I start my 3rd lap then a 4th but the Uchiha prodigy makes no movement in stopping me from my torment. And just for a reminder the ground is HUGE and running with weights on I don’t think I’ll make it to 10th lap.
After a few more laps I forgot the count but I don’t stop running, mouth dry as the Sahara and sweating heavily as I jog more laps even after Shisui started snoring loudly. I don’t come to stop but instead fall down in a heap of limbs as my legs gave out from the insane amount of usage all of a sudden.
The cool grass against my back was steadily seeping the coldness into my warmed up body. I close my eyes and breathe in deeply. I stretch my body and my joints crack. This is so tiring; I could sleep just here under the open blanket of the sky. Distantly I hear the crunch of grass and boots coming my way, I open my eyes and Shisui is looking down at me with an eye shattering smile.
He opens his pocket watch and checks the time, “Well, this is fine you’ll get better at it in a few days” he bellowed as he crouches down and continues “I hope you remember that you are against me at shoji today”
I groan at that.
“Come on Rema-chaaan” he continued, “We’ll be making a trip to someone else’s house because I”, he pointed his thumb to himself, “don’t have a shoji board.”
“Hai, hai, Shisui…senpai” I agreed. At that his eyes started to shine with sparkles in them. Wait how the heck did he even do that? I think to myself as I stand on unstable legs, how am I even supposed to raise my feet with these heavy-ass weights on?
“Besides” he nagged, already walking ahead, without even waiting for me to stand fully. “There is also a child same as your age there, but thank god he’s not as feisty as you.”
Wait, child? Someone elses’ house, I don’t remember Shisui having any family other than his parents maybe? Then who were we visiting? Is…it possible? I shake my head at the thought but if I’m thinking right, we might be on our way to the House of the Uchiha Matriarch.
Moving my leg one after the another, I clear my head. What if I get the meet the heir too? Uchiha Itachi, though I doubt he’d be residing at his house because as far as I can remember after joining the Anbu Black ops he had been immensely busy but there is a chance. Anyhow I have to talk to him or at least try to be friends with him and I’ll also meet Uchiha Sasuke…Sasuke, he had borne immense hatred for his brother, which lead to his defection from his village, then proceeded to kill his only remaining kin; his brother.
This time I won’t let him fall to the curse of hatred, he will grow up to be a Konoha shinobi…or whatever he wanted to be after all he had no other choice but to be a shinobi, being the child of the head of the clan and then to get enough power to kill his brother.
“I’m not feisty” I corrected, folding my arms, I ask, “And how did you make those” I gesture to my eyes, “Those…sparkles”
“Well it was only a genjutsu. It’s one of the main jutsu categories which uses chakra. Unlike ninjutsu…” he turns and looks down at me, “You know what ninjutsu is right?”
I nod my head, then he continues before letting me speak, “So unlike ninjutsu, the effects of genjutsu are not real, there only sensory illusions” he mutters looking at me back and forth, making sure I understand but I interrupt “Yes and to do that the person controls the chakra flow of the enemy nin’s nervous system, which affects their five senses.” I finish off, “I know Shisui-senpai, when I know what fuuinjutsu is; I must know what genjutsu is too” I concluded with a grin.
He just laughs off while scratching the back of his head at the same time to brush off his second-hand embarrassment. “I forgot that you are one sly rascal” he pointed out then he reaches down and ruffles my hair playfully, at which I swat his hand away. Walking forward, I keep my eyes away from people who were looking at me with disgust in their eyes just because I was walking with an Uchiha.
It’s just unbelievable how a while ago this same person, this same child was treated as a war hero for participating in the second Shinobi war, proceeding to be known as The Shun Shin no Shisui, then only a while later he is being called a traitor, a conspirator in destroying the village. It just shows what some measly rumors started by Danzo can do to the civilians, just how much control he has over the population of Konoha. He doesn’t comment at the looks we’re being given.
“So, how’s the academy going? You already started pissing off the teachers by interrupting and giving all the answers, you nerd?” he asks.
I try to shove him with my chibi hands, which was practically impossible, even though he was a 13 year old, but he was a shinobi and it was hard just to even nudge him. The difference in this world and my…old one is huge, I mean he is still a child; as seen from my worlds’ perspective but here; when a child becomes genin, they are then stated as an adult no matter the age.
It’s just…really cruel. I kick the small pebble that was in my way, looking at my shinobi sandals I just shake my head, it’s not worth thinking about now, I’m just wasting my time thinking about it. I have to focus on the task ahead. My legs quiver due to the extra stress that they were going through today but I push the pain back and look around, people were still bustling back and forth, bringing in harvests and preparing for holidays, preparing for the incoming winter.
“Nah, I haven’t done anything like that, its just so boring at the academy.” I droned. “Teach me a Kage Bunshin” I say it out of the blue, as we were walking towards Mikoto’s house. He turns and looks down at me, something in his face changes when he sees the expression on my face, as if he was afraid, but he turns away before letting me decipher his emotion. “I wanted to ask you to teach me that today but you instead made me run for more than four hours” I continue. I’m pretty sure he’ll teach me, because he knows that I want to become a genin, fast.
“No”
“What?” I ask, coming to a stop
“No, I won’t teach you” he repeats, increasing his child-like yet mature voice.
“But why?” I question, “have I not been a good student or do I have no potential?”
“No, I won’t be teaching you that, it’s extremely dangerous for someone your age.” Shisui
“Shisui senpai, look,” I emphasize “I know I can do it on my own I just need your help to tell me where I’m wrong, that’s all”
“I understand, that you want to learn that but it’s too early, I know how to train effectively” he says with a fake smile on his face. Why can’t he understand that I want to learn it, learning this will make me multitask, it will make me do stuff two times faster and I know that I have enough chakra to do it too. I stare at him, my closed fist shaking with anger.
“I would like to know the reason”, I make out
“No, Rema this is off the table I won’t teach u something so dangerous this early”
“Why not? You think I’m not capable of learning it” I say defensively
“You’re too young for this” he shouts. Murmuring behind us increases, civilian and shinobi alike are watching as the scene unfolds.
Folding my hands I look at him and sigh, “Fine”
“What? You’d listen to me this easily?” he asks, looking kinda…offended.
“But”, I continue, “if I win the upcoming shogi game, you’ll have to teach it to me” I challenge.
“Ugh, you really are a sly rascal” he says, “Challenge accepted” he confirms, confidently.
