5 - *000000* - FICOOL

First, it didn't work for physical training, obviously. They were chakra constructs that did not affect your body itself.

Second, chakra control exercises with them only were effective to a certain point. A clone's experience doing control exercises with only 1/10 of the normal chakra won't help hardly for when you're at full capacity. One or two clones at most would be the extent on genuine progress in that field of training.

Third, Ninjutsu could be made easier to do if you repeatedly did it. Chakra acted similar to how your muscles act when doing a constant action. Muscle memory, or at least the chakra equivalent, existed with your chakra. It was the very reason the number of hand seals for Ninjutsu you were skilled at could be lowered in conjunction with immaculate chakra control.

Fourth, Nature release was arguably the only other portion where large scale use of clones wouldn't have reducing gains. Same rules apply for Ninjutsu. Chakra muscle memory means the constant returning of experience and your chakra doing an action would make it second nature for your chakra to adopt the behavior of the elemental release you trained.

Naruko would obviously be unable to follow along with something that took me more than one reading to understand fully.

So, I gave an abridged version of it so she could understand how good Kage bunshin were and for her to not think she could rely on them alone.

"Why are you helping me?" Naruko asked quietly, swallowing audibly, "Why are you doing all this?" Her eyes darted away from mine, her expression apprehensive.

Another thing that made me hate Sarutobi and several villagers. This girl didn't deserve any of this.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to bring up a subject I hated to think about, but Naruko needed to hear it.

"Try and guess who I'm talking about." I said, running my hand through my hair to push it off my forehead. "Orphan. Part of a dying clan. Looked at differently by the villagers. And nobody is helping you when you need it."

Naruko's jaw was tight as I rattled off our similarities, her eyes practically shining with understanding.

"I didn't... I," She sniffed, at loss for words, "Okay." She finally settled on that as a response.

"You aren't just something I'm going to throw to the side afterwards." I promised, uncomfortable from the vulnerability she was showing. "But, do you think you can learn this jutsu?"

Naruko wiped at her eyes and nodded, smiling wetly.

"You bet, 'ttebayo!"

A combined two hours of time was how long it took Naruko to figure it out, requiring some guidance from me.

I'd been initially surprised at how fast she accomplished it, especially at 8 years old, but I realized something.

She had me helping her.

The thought of how far she could get with my assistance, and help me with my plans, was mouthwatering.

Perhaps I could even get a blood or tissue sample when I got good enough at Iryo-ninjutsu. That could be useful.

Shrugging at the thoughts going through my head, I made my way to a training ground that was occupied, what I was about to do making me feel strange about it.

Using my chakra to stick to a tree, I walked up it and perched myself up in the tree, blinking and activating my Sharingan to watch a genin team train with their Jonin Sensei.

One of the genin was a Branch member of the Hyuga clan, judging by the eyes and her headband being fitted more snuggly to her head, and the Juken was definitely an interesting taijutsu style to watch in slow motion.

It wasn't like any other type of fighting I'd known, the positioning and movements foreign. Regular punches and jabs needed to have weight put into them to deal kinetic damage, but the Juken only required a deft touch to deal internal injury.

Maybe I can utilize a bastardized version of it with chakra scalpels. I wondered, paying close attention to the movements as she took apart the form her two teammates were using as the three sparred.

It would definitely be a curveball to use a modified Juken form with Tsunade's strength technique offsetting the lack of putting force into attacks, and chakra scalpels might be useable as a substitute for whatever technique the Hyuga used to inject their chakra into someone's tenketsu to block it off.

With the Shunshin, it looked like a mouthwatering prospect for me, and a smirk creeped up on my face as I thought of that.

A couple of low level Jutsu were used by them after the taijutsu spar, which I made sure to memorize and copy.

The Jonin undoubtedly knew I was up here, but he didn't tell me to scram yet. So, it was possible that he was helping me out like the other one had by dropping the signed pass for me to study some stuff about Iryo-ninjutsu at the library.

By the time they finished training, my eyes were aching lightly from my Sharingan being active the whole time, the throb my me squint.

I hopped down from the tree and walked home, pleased with the catch for today. Tomorrow would be more Iryo-ninjutsu training and growing my reserves, so a busy schedule of becoming a nightmare to the world awaited me.

Hiruzen tapped his fingers against his desk, lounging back in his chair as he looked between Inu and Neko.

"The two of you are here for a simple reason." Hiruzen said tiredly, his dark eyes just as sharp as usual, in spite of his fatigue from a long day. "The two of you have been running most of the shifts guarding Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruko."

The two nodded an affirmative, both standing straight and having their arms behind their backs.

"It has come to my attention from the both of and other ANBU that Sasuke has been attempting techniques that are not the... safest, shall we say."

Hiruzen stopped moving his fingers, leaning forward with a soft creak of the wooden chair he was sitting in.

"The boy is, quite frankly, bored with the academy. He is much like his brother in that regard."

The slight twitch from both ANBU, Inu suppressing it more so, clued him in to their first thoughts.

Hiruzen felt more positivity than negativity about it though. It meant that something could be salvaged from the loss of the Uchiha and the three active S-ranks of the clan; Shisui, Fugaku, and Itachi technically.

A sad state of affairs, but it was at least something that broke through the bleak canvass of innocent life being lost so cruelly.

"Something is needed to both foster his budding talent and keep him from doing so blindly. This is not an order, merely a request. Both on the job and in your free time, would you be able to offer training to Uchiha Sasuke?"

Hiruzen focused in on Kakashi, the man definitely being the one with the most free time.

"No," He replied, "I won't be able to."

Hiruzen concealed his irritation at the predictable response, not enthused by it.

I will speak with him afterwards.

"Neko?" Hiruzen eyed the purple haired woman, noting her shift in posture.

"Could," She paused and cleared her throat, "Could I have a friend assist him in kenjutsu, Hokage-sama?"

Hayate. Hiruzen thought, knowing that the Tokubetsu-Jonin was taking his recent forced restrictions hard.

An aerosol poison had nearly killed him while on mission, but a speedy use of amateurish Iryo-ninjutsu saved his life at the cost of making him short of breath from lung damage and a bad cough.

It didn't take away from him being arguably the best kenjutsu fighter in Konoha, but he definitely couldn't do missions like he could.

Giving a young boy pointers could do him well.

"If you consider him to be trustworthy, I will defer to your judgement, Neko." Hiruzen felt a smirk try and make its way to his face as Neko shifted uncomfortably, looking a bit embarrassed.

He had known of her relationship with Hayate, and it was amusing to see her reaction to what she thought was an old man accidentally stumbling across an unknown, but sensitive, topic.

"He is trustworthy, sir." She said quietly.

Hiruzen nodded his approval.

"Then you may. You are dismissed, bit not you, Inu." Hiruzen gazed at Kakashi sharply, waving for Neko to leave.

The female ANBU bowed slightly and left the room.

"ANBU," Hiruzen called out, signaling the hidden guards in the room, "Noisy Neighbor."

The code term meant for the ANBU to leave the room, presumably to shut up a particularly annoying neighbor that didn't know the meaning of or appreciate the virtues of staying quiet.

An amusing joke that Kagami thought to share and make it an actual term.

The four hidden exited through different means, leaving Hiruzen and Kakashi alone.

"Mask off." Hiruzen instructed, wanted to speak with Kakashi and not Inu.

Kakashi reached under the dog mask and removed a face mask.

"Willfully bend what my orders are and I will have you cleaning the sewers with a toothbrush." Hiruzen said coldly, in no mood for one of his most capable subordinate's less than desirable coping mechanisms of trauma. "Mask. Off."

Kakashi sighed and pulled off the ANBU mask, revealing his normally obscured face, his backup face mask still concealing his lower face.

"Yes, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi asked tiredly, his right eye drooping and bloodshot.

"First," Hiruzen frowned, "Get more sleep. You look like death warmed over. Second, we are both aware that you have no hobbies outside of nearly killing yourself on ANBU missions and reading, you ensured that you are rated as the worst Jonin to train Genin, so you cannot plead that you need to train others either."

Kakashi went to speak, but Hiruzen raised his hand in a gesture for silence.

"You are currently the only person that could train Sasuke to use his Sharingan, which he currently has," Hiruzen added, "You cannot use his supposed lack of having them as an excuse. Tell me why you do not wish to teach him a few things to distract him from being another statistic of prodigies making mistakes."

"I am not suited for teaching," Kakashi replied, nearly hanging his head down from the verbal dressing down, "I can't relate to kids, even intelligent ones. Itachi was different."

Hiruzen scowled at that.

"Is that why?" He asked irritably, raising a brow, "You think too highly of yourself to think your influence made Itachi into what he is. Sasuke is not like Itachi, at least from his personality."

It was the truth, but it was inverted. Itachi was the quintessential Shinobi, following orders to the letter and thriving. Sasuke had a disturbing lack of decorum in multiple ways, including spying on both civilians and genin to copy things.

It was likely from apprehension at having to interact with people. He already only spoke when necessary, except for Naruko. His reasoning for that likely spawned from her being like him in many ways, which at least had the benefit of giving both of them a friend.

"I have already provided him with assistance, Kakashi," Hiruzen stated, "Including reading material and... other things. But he needs actual guidance. Do you realize that his affinity is lightning, but he is training in Katon Jutsu because he has plenty of material for it from his clan?"

Hiruzen was aware of the Uchiha utilizing a technique to encode their manuals and other sensitive information. Tobirama had been making attempts at deciphering it without a Sharingan before the two made peace, but he had only marginal success.

Sasuke had been reading such journals, ignoring others that were almost certainly more encrypted than others.

Kakashi shook his head. "I did not know that."

"Neko will give him things to work on so he doesn't grow impatient and injure himself," Hiruzen continued, "Tsunade became impatient and nearly shattered the bones in her arm when she worked on her strength technique as a young girl. Mito had to teach her the basics of the Byakugo seal to draw her attention. Sasuke will do something similar, his behavior matches my student's."

Hiruzen did not share that it was two of his students that he saw in Sasuke.

His desire to heal people and stop people from dying was a mix of what Tsunade and Orochimaru desired. The introverted and oftentimes arrogant dismissal of civilian born students was almost identical to Orochimaru's after his parents died, but it was balanced out by Sasuke's pursuit of healing.

"Do you wish to train Naruko when she graduates?" Hiruzen pointed out, drawing a suppressed glare from Kakashi.

"You promised." Kakashi showed the most emotion he had so far, his voice may as well be a shout despite it only being a colder and more clipped tone.

Kakashi had mentioned his interest in being the Jonin Sensei for Naruko once she graduated and he was no longer in the ANBU.

"I hold overall control over every Shinobi under my command," Hiruzen reminded him, "Not even that faux council of merchants can do anything aside from complain about alleged heavy-handedness and cruelty."

The supposed Council of Civilians had no power other than certain internal revenue services that had them hated by both Shinobi and civilian alike.

The most they could threaten a Shinobi with that got on their bad side was an audit, and good luck enforcing it when the Shinobi that would be needed to enforce it in the first place would watch each other's backs. And the actual Konoha police force were currently deceased and their ashes scattered to the wind.

"I am not asking you to be his surrogate father," Hiruzen said flatly, "Set him on the right track for certain techniques. Genjutsu and Raiton will keep him properly sated until he improves enough to perhaps do more."

Kakashi shook his head.

"Rushing him through will be detrimental. Look what it did to Itachi an-" Kakashi stopped abruptly, his hand clenching.

He had nearly mentioned himself, which Hiruzen was aware of.

"It is an option, not a preferred one. He needs a safety net and a modicum of stability. The last thing Konoha needs is to lose him like we did Itachi."

Months had passed, and no information had reached him yet from Itachi. He had said he would when he had an opportunity, but that could be months still. The choice Itachi made still had Hiruzen fuming. What kind of fool thinks putting an eight year old child through 48 hours of constant emotional torture was a good idea? He was lucky that he didn't shatter his brother's mind, or worse yet, turn him into an incurably sadistic animal that would have put Uchiha Madara to shame.

"I," Kakashi sighed, pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose as he lowered his gaze and shook his head, "I will think about it. I should repay Fugaku for what he did."

Fugaku had given Kakashi a barebones journal to help him with the basics in casting Genjutsu from his Sharingan a few months after Nohara Rin died, helping the teen along in his progress.

"Thank you, Kakashi. You are dismissed."

Kakashi silently turned and left, his shoulders slumped as he exited the room.

Hiruzen stood up from his chair and started pacing around the room, stuffing some tobacco in his pipe and lighting it with a sealless flicker of fire from his fingers.

Taking a long drag, he exhaled audibly and shook his head sadly.

He was far too old for this. Naruko and Sasuke could very easily end up being on the same team, with Kakashi as their Sensei.

The chance for Sasuke to warm up to Kakashi could be set earlier, which would be good.

His progress was excellent, even if he was taking risks with the strength technique. Hiruzen kept abreast of Sasuke's continued improvement in Iryo-ninjutsu, Danzo's little spy being permitted because he was the least likely to be a foreign agent out of any Iryo-nin of middling level.

Danzo knew not to try any type of manipulation, so Hiruzen felt assured that he wouldn't have to hover over Danzo. He would follow orders to the letter after his collosal fuck up.

But the security issue made apparent by Naruko being attacked was dangerous. If such a thing were possible for her, it could happen with Sasuke.

Having ANBU actively training Sasuke served more than one purpose. Flushing out a potential mole was one of them.

Taking another drag, Hiruzen went to the balcony and gazed up at the stars, noting the brightness of the full moon as it illuminated Konoha in a beautiful and pale light.

End Chapter:

Kabuto gets introduced to the story much earlier, and Sasuke realizes how well and truly fucked he is in being caught between a rock and a hard place.

He's also saddled with Naruko becoming more reliant on him after she got attacked and his training is causing him trouble, but he's definitely progressing.

Sasuke also gets informed of a potential mole in the ANBU, making him more guarded around our band of masked spooks.

The Kage bunshin explanation is my take on how they can be used to train. It makes it where they're useful, bit not absolutely beoken to the point that everybody would work on building up their reserves to train with them.

I also went with the Uchiha having a bunch of Jutsu knowledge built up trope, but I gave a reason for why Canon Sasuke didn't train with all that knowledge. A version of what Hagoromo did with the shrine. Imagine how much it would have mentally tortured Canon Sasuke to try and read these different things to help him avenge his clan, but all the world's knowledge at hus fingertips means nothing when it looks like gibberish to him.

Talk about grim and horrific. It definitely reinforces a despairing mindset and feeds feelings of inadequacy.

A few hints about a potential fighting style Sasuke can pursue get dropped. I'm pretty sure it's quite unique for a SI, so I'm excited to try it out.

ANBU training an MC, whether an SI or Naruto, isn't uncommon. but I'm going to have fun writing my own twist to it. Having multiple people that are experts in different facts of combat would definitely be a type of thing Hiruzen or any Kage would have helping out a socially stunted prodigy to both improve him at a better and more consistent rate, as well as try and forge connections to the village so he doesn't go rogue for a weak reason.

I'm also going with the civilian council being a toothless organization that does nothing but handle certain tax things and complain. Basically a typical bureaucratic organization of pencil pushers. They won't be a thing AT ALL, just a throwaway comment that I can mention later.

But, that's about it, comments are very much welcome and I hope you enjoy. Have a wonderful day.

Raging. Like ReplyReport Reactions:Medotarek, Dacraun, SlytherinKnite and 783 othersRagingSmurfOO7Nov 29, 2022NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 5 New View contentRagingSmurfOO7Not too sore, are you?Nov 30, 2022Add bookmark#133"You're doing really well, Sasuke." Kabuto smiled faintly, inspecting my handiwork.

The dead rat I was working on managed to be revived after a few seconds, before its heart gave out once more from its age.

It was progress, much needed progress at that.

The last week since I taught Naruko how to use Kage Bunshin was much less hectic and draining than what I had initially thought, mainly because I no longer had to constantly walk her through nature release for wind while also juggling my own stuff.

She finally managed to get a leaf to get partially cut, several dozen clones working at it to speed things along.

The girl wasn't stupid, but she definitely wasn't smart by any academic measurement. No role model and little formal education shaped her into what she was, Ashura's innate nature not helping things either.

But, if Ashura's chakra influenced her, it meant Indra's was doing the same to me.

I didn't know what to think of that. The thought of killing Naruko, or anybody, because of an outside force made me feel nauseous.

My thoughts faded into the background as I looked up at Kabuto, avoiding his gaze.

I had forgone my glasses inside, knowing it would have been weird for a 9 year old to wear sunglasses in a building. I genuinely didn't like looking people in the eye, so I would just stare at their chin or not look at them.

"It's not fast enough." I mumbled, letting the faint glow of green chakra fade as I set my fingers on the table. I didn't need to fake my irritation. Sure, I was progressing quickly, but I needed to improve my control so I could use the strength technique and get to the Byakugo seal.

"Don't sell yourself short." Kabuto said, offering his support which was obviously rehearsed, "You're just a kid that started on this, what, six months ago?"

It was actually a little under six months since the massacre, but I wasn't going to split hairs over that detail.

"You don't need to pretend like this is enjoyable; babysitting a kid." I muttered, knowing this was probably tedious for someone like Kabuto.

He played the part of a somewhat decent teenager in Iryo-ninjutsu, but I knew he was definitely already very skilled at this age. Training me was likely boring for him.

ROOT, and likely Orochimaru at this point, was surely a factor.

"Nah," Kabuto shook his head, but I turned to look down at the dead rat before he finished speaking, "It's like I'm training a little brother." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder, causing me to freeze from being both touched and what he said.

'Nii-san, can we train some?'

'Not right now, Sasuke. Maybe some other time.'

I jerked violently at the contact and backed away from Kabuto, my heart racing.

"I'm sorry," Kabuto said quickly, looking almost genuinely concerned, "I didn't mean anything by it."

"It's... I," I swallowed and blinked repeatedly, feeling a lump in my throat, "I don't like being touched."

Physical contact, especially when I wasn't expecting it, made me extremely uncomfortable.

And I never wanted anyone to refer to me as their little brother again. Itachi's position as my brother was dead; killed by his loyalty to Konoha over not torturing me like a good little Shinobi.

"Oh," Kabuto blinked, looking away from me, "I understand."

Sometimes, I could almost be convinced that Kabuto genuinely was concerned about me.

We went back to going through lessons on Iryo-ninjutsu and practical uses in improving or slowing blood flow to parts of the body, my progress being noted again as we finished up for today.

"Never think that you're some annoying little kid," Kabuto said, glancing at the clock for a moment, "It's a joy to help along someone that will be better than pretty much any medic there is. They'll say your name with the same respect as Tsunade-sama."

I forced myself to maintain constant eye contact, blinking slowly as I looked at his dark eyes.

"Thank you." I said, turning around to leave, "Next Saturday?"

Kabuto replied with an affirmative and I walked out of the room, the comparison to Tsunade bothering me more than I thought it ever could.

She lost everyone that could be called family, and she became a useless alcoholic that could have saved so many people if she was here during the Kyuubi attack.

I won't let my loved ones die again. I promised to myself for the millionth time. I will restore my clan and...

My mind blanked as I exited the hospital and went to my house, wanting to train some more.

I couldn't think of anything truly past that on what I wanted to do in life. Six months of constant training to be a killer and demigod in every meaningful definition and yet, I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do after I turned 16 or so and presumably stopped the moon bitch that is my spiritual grandmother from ever even being revived. Screw fighting her, I'm going to stop her from getting brought back by Zetsu.

But still, I didn't know what to do after.

9 years old and already having a philosophical crisis of having no purpose in the world for the majority of my future life. I would never see my clan fully restored in my lifetime, and the thought of the current Konoha benefitting from my triumph and clan made my skin crawl.

I bumped into a civilian that wasn't watching, the man starting to swear.

"Bite me!" I snarled, glaring at the man as he froze in fright.

I turned away and stomped towards my home the rest of the way, finally arriving and going to my backyard to the target I used for my Fire release.

I made the proper hand seals and shot a compressed fireball at it, seeing it completely obscure the log.

The flame died seconds later and I saw that it scorched through the bark, turning it black.

What am I even doing? I thought to myself dejectedly, falling on my back without trying to catch myself.

I wasn't like the Sasuke in Shippuden that took on Madara with Naruto. I was the one that got shit stomped by Orochimaru, had to be a weak and desperate coward to use a mind rotting curse mark to fight an insane redhead Jinchuriki, and got beaten into the ground by Itachi like nothing.

I shivered at the thought of being put through it all again, my breathing suddenly quickening.

What if he was here? What if that wasn't the first time he was back in Konoha?

I started looking around, feeling someone's eyes on me.

His eyes.

Would he do it again when I didn't expect it?

'Tachi, why have you done this?!'

I sat up straight and clenched my fists, my fingers digging into the ground painfully.

The silence. The stench of blood. I could practically taste it and I was shaking like a leaf from remembering it all.

I won't let fear guide me. I stood up and forced my chakra to flow through my tenketsu, trying to saturate my bones and muscles.

My fist struck the log I used for toughening my hands, a small stab of pain coming from the point of impact.

Fear is the mind killer. I sent another punch, ignoring the ache in my knuckles.

I got into a pattern of punches and kicks, sweat starting to build up on my face as I kept it up nonstop, still desperately trying to use my chakra to strengthen my hits.

No one will ever dominate my mind again. I punched as hard as I could, the wood not giving.

Growling, I punched just as hard again, a sharp pain going up into my entire hand.

Breathing heavily and covered in sweat, I took several deep breaths and went through the motion of healing my hand, knowing I cracked something.

At least I wasn't thinking about anything that set me off now.

"He isn't the most emotionally stable." Inu commented towards Neko, the two concealed as they watched the youngest Uchiha struggle to continue his chakra control exercises while doing what was an admittedly impressive display of control for someone only doing it for the last several months.

Neko sighed and looked at Uchiha Sasuke with pity, remembering the state she had found him in.

So many bodies, including infants that were clutched to the chests of their mothers, their throats cut.

She nearly cried out in relief after finding Sasuke alive, even after she witnessed so much senseless murder.

"He needs someone to help him." She stated, "The Sandaime gave us orders, so I'll start first."

Inu didn't say anything else, remaining in his usual laid-back posture.

Uzuki Yugao removed her mask and clipped it to her side, walking up towards Sasuke to fulfill the request the Hokage had for her.

I stopped my chakra exercise and let myself slump to the ground, my fingers twitching constantly.

Again, I hate Tsunade's book despite how much it helped. I already felt that my reserves were growing faster than what they were when I did tree walking and the other exercises genin did, but I felt like I was on the edge of pissing myself accidentally from how flighty I felt from constantly forcing my chakra to flow throughout my tenketsu at a fluctuating pace.

Fuck it. I grumbled, standing up and walking to the corner of my yard because I couldn't be bothered to go into my house to piss.

I did my business and pulled my shorts back up after finishing, turning to continue training some more before paying Naruko a visit.

It felt tedious to basically be maintaining my sort of friendship with her, but she intrigued me in some ways. She had pretty much the same attitude as Naruto, his colouring, and the distasteful liking of the colour orange. But I was still at a loss on why I was in a world that wasn't the Canon one.

It screwed with my head quite a bit. I saw Naruko as normal, having been the loud and abrasive girl in class, but I also knew that the blond Uzumaki in my class wasn't supposed to be a girl.

You're just going to melt your brain. Just chill out.

A chill suddenly went up my spine and I turned around, looking at the old storage building that was across the street from my backyard.

A young woman in armour and a familiar set of gear with purple hair that went past her shoulders was walking towards me, a mask clipped to her side and a sword on her back.

It was the exact type of gear Itachi had.

I fought the urge to activate my Sharingan, not wanting to reveal it yet as I dissected who this was.

It took only a fraction of a second before I realized it was Yugao, the girlfriend of the first proctor with the cough.

Trust none, save for Inu.

"Who are you?" I asked slowly, my remaining chakra flowing under my skin steadily in case I needed to shoot a fireball at her. I wasn't trusting whether it was actually her or if she was a threat.

She lifted up her hand slowly to show she didn't mean any harm, her eyes staring into mine.

"My name is Yugao, Sasuke," She introduced herself, keeping her hands visible as she spoke in a soft tone, "The Sandaime asked that I help you some if you would want some guidance."

I continued staring at her, not lowering my guard.

"What are the two animal faces I don't make cookies into for the ANBU that guard me?" I asked quietly, my fingers curling to preemptively move towards making the first hand seal for my fire Jutsu.

Yugao looked taken aback by my question, but she recovered quickly.

"There's only one," She replied, her eyes flicking away from mine for a moment, "And it's a weasel."

I felt the tension in my shoulders loosen, my fingers relaxing as I realized it wasn't an imposter.

"Why did the Sandaime send you?" I asked her.

"Uh," Yugao blinked, pausing at the question, "I already said why. To help you with some training if you want."

"No, you misunderstand," I shook my head, my eyes narrowing, "Why you? What made The Professor consider you to be skilled enough to entrust any of my progress towards your success or failure?"

I could tell the way I was speaking unsettled her. She was fairly new to this ANBU stuff probably and was likely selected because she could relate to a kid better.

After a moment's pause, she answered.

"I'm skilled in kenjutsu, am a sensor, and know some basic Iryo-ninjutsu." She replied, "Do any of those interest you?"

Spying on me. No surprise. I gritted my teeth at that. I had been researching sensors and had tried to find some basic katas to learn for kenjutsu over the last couple weeks.

Of course Sarutobi would see everything in the village.

"So, instead of guarding me," I said in a deliberately slow voice, "You'll be training me?"

Yugao nodded.

"These aren't orders, by the way," She said, "The Sandaime asked if a few of us could give a hand every now and then when we're off duty."

What?

"You..." I blinked at that reveal, surprised by it.

"That bastard did unspeakable things," She said, both of us knowing full well who the aforementioned bastard was, "So the best thing I can do is help you become the best Shinobi you can be."

None of them understood completely how deep the scars ran that Itachi created, but this felt fine.

I took a deep breath and dropped most of my hostility, making an effort to sound polite.

"Who are the others?" I asked, injecting some of my subdued optimism into my tone.

"Inu is another ANBU that might help some," She clarified, "And if you take a shining to kenjutsu, another swordsman can teach you some stuff. He's probably S-rank with a sword."

I carefully weighed how I was going to respond to that. I'd initially been neutral to positive when thinking about Kakashi because I knew what he was like. But Naruko only ever mentioned that she sometimes saw a silver haired ANBU guarding her at times, not that he actively helped or comforted her.

Letting out an exhale, I gave my answer.

"Can it wait until tomorrow?" I asked, accepting it, "I just finished training and don't want to hurt myself."

Yugao tilted her head in curiosity, looking at me closely.

"Yeah," She eventually said, "That will be fine."

Yugao turned her back and lifted up her hands, her chakra shifting some. I immediately activated my eyes, not caring if anybody was looking at this point.

Do it. I thought hungrily, my eyes fixed on her back intently.

I watched in slow motion as she made specific hand seals and her chakra circulated through her legs and she seemingly disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

A grin appeared on my face as I just obtained one of the first Jutsu I needed to master in order to reach S-rank. Shisui utilized that and had S-rank speed at 15, but I had the benefit of knowing what I wanted.

I could try it out tomorrow. Right now, I needed to check in on Naruko.

"Your balance is still a bit off." Sasuke said, sitting in a chair as he watched her go through the basic katas she had been trying to learn.

Naruko growled under her breath, muttering about it being too hard.

"There's a difference between being hard and impossible." Sasuke scowled, because of course he heard her. "I wouldn't have given you that manual or sparred with you if I thought you were too stupid to do it."

Naruko gave him a slight glare as she looked at his dark eyes, not knowing whether he meant it the way it sounded.

"You can say it nicer." She huffed, not liking how Sasuke would make small comments like that.

"I'm not a nice person." Sasuke responded, folding his arms across his chest.

"Liar." She pointed a finger at him in accusation, "You helped me, so you're not some jerk with stupid hair, 'ttebayo."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, sighing audibly.

"I was training and I haven't showered, Naruko," He looked at her with an annoyed expression, "I know intelligence doesn't suit you at times, but use you brain when can."

Naruko started to say something, but she stopped. Why was Sasuke doing this?

"Good," He smiled slightly, leaning back further in the chair, "Don't let insults get to you. Actually, don't let anything people say get to you. Their opinions don't matter because you don't matter to them."

The way Sasuke sounded was a bit unsettling. He honestly sounded like he didn't care.

"That's kind of mean." She said, pulling back on her bangs to get it out of her hair.

Sasuke snorted, slowly standing from the chair and groaning.

"I need to take it easier," He muttered to himself, before walking closer to her, "The only opinions I care about come from people who will be at my funeral, everybody else can go to hell for all I care." He finished coldly, his eyes holding an iciness to them that had her fighting the urge to shrink away.

For all the times Sasuke helped her out, she could see there was something in him that he was struggling with. He was cold to almost everybody, got bored easily and was always tense, almost like he thought he was being watched.

Naruko didn't know what to say to Sasuke. What he said was unnerving.

"A civilian doesn't know me," Sasuke clarified, his tone softer as if he noticed how worried she felt, "If I dropped dead right now, I think there's only one person in the world that would really miss me, feel sad at never being able to see me again, and cry." The raven haired boy in front of her stilled for a moment and took a shuddering breath, before looking away from her.

Do... Do I mean that much to him? Naruko wondered silently, watching Sasuke's back as he paced for a moment.

"Think of everybody you know that truly cares for you," Sasuke eventually stopped, looking back at her again, "The Hokage, the Ramen owner... Ichiraku? Their opinions are the only ones that matter."

When Sasuke laid it out that way, it made her see it differently now. The civilians thought she was a monster, but she wasn't. Jiji, Teuchi, and Ayame-chan knew she wasn't; they cared about her.

"But what about you?" She asked softly, realizing Sasuke didn't have any family anymore, "Your family isn't here no-"

"Don't." He hissed, his eyes boring into hers. "I'm trying to teach you something, Naruko, so don't bring that up " He dragged his hand through his hair rather violently as he clenched his teeth.

"Please, don't get mad at me." Naruko requested, quietly annoyed at him acting that way. "Can you just tell me what you're trying to teach me? You think weird and I don't know what you want."

Something about the last thing she said had Sasuke letting out a short laugh, his shoulders sagging as he looked suddenly upset.

"I shouldn't have gotten mad," Sasuke mumbled, "I got bad sleep and I'm sore from training, but it's not an excuse."

Naruko was willing to not stay angry at him. He looked genuinely regretful and was her only friend.

"Could you tell me what you want me to understand?" Naruko asked, almost pleadingly.

Sasuke sighed and nodded.

"Being nice is a good thing most of the time," He explained, "But there comes a time where you shouldn't be. The civilians hate you for some reason, but I know it can't be because you're a bad person. Not everyone puts a smile on their face everyday and gets on with it, some get vicious and say harsh things. I'm like that." He said the last part quietly.

"I get a rise out of impulsive people when I know what to say," Sasuke continued, "And that reveals a weakness of character."

"Eh?" Naruko blinked confusedly, not understanding that.

Sasuke made a show of groaning dramatically, making her furrow her brow.

"You unintentionally did that." Sasuke cracked his knuckles on his left hand, his jaw tense, "You know I don't like talking about certain things, right?"

Naruko nodded, remembering how he reacted just a minute or two ago to her mentioning his family.

"And there's things you don't want to talk about, yes?" He raised a brow at her.

She looked down and mumbled a yes, feeling cold at the memory of being attacked on different occasions.

"Both of our reactions are a signal that there is something that we either hate or are scared of." Sasuke's voice cut through to her, snapping her out of it, "Enemy Shinobi could take advantage of that."

"How?" Naruko tilted her head.

"Do you know what a Genjutsu is?" Sasuke asked suddenly, sounding serious.

Naruko shook her head.

"Uh, well," Sasuke looked like he was thinking how to explain it, "To put it simply, Genjutsu is when you use your chakra to manipulate another person's eyesight, hearing, smell, and things like that."

"Okaaaay." Naruko followed along, looking up at Sasuke curiously.

"Think of what somebody can do if they know what you are scared of," Her friend implored, "What if they knew what would scare you and made you feel it again and again?"

Naruko gasped in horror, realizing why Sasuke was telling her this.

"Don't let people exploit a weakness," He said firmly, "There is evil out there in the world, and it will hurt good people whenever it can. We just need to make ourselves be and look as scary as the monster."

He's thinking of his brother. Naruko knew enough from overhearing people and actually being around Sasuke that he absolutely despised his brother, and for good reason.

"So, the first step of hiding a weakness," Sasuke looked directly into her eyes, "Is to conceal it."

Naruko was about to ask for clarification, but she paused and thought about it. Sasuke would want her to figure it out for herself.

He said 'good' when I didn't respond to his comment.

"Don't react when something is said?" She asked questioningly, feeling warm when Sasuke grinned and nodded.

"Don't react, or laugh it off like it means nothing. Mock them and make it sound like everybody does it. Make them feel like a fool for thinking they could hurt you with something so stupid." Sasuke looked positively excited from what he usually was.

Naruko smiled widely at this new form of help Sasuke was offering her. She could eventually fight off the civilians that sometimes hurt her because of him teaching her, and she might not be afraid of them saying terrible things about her.

"But enough about that." Sasuke waved his hand, stretching his arms out and groaning.

"Stupid growth exercises." He hopped on his toes and let out another groan. "How well are you coming along with your Wind release?"

Naruko grinned widely.

"I can cut the leaf further." She giggled, bouncing happily. "It's actually fun now."

"And what do you say for me giving the Shadow Clone Jutsu?" Sasuke asked amusedly.

"Thaaaank yoouuuu." She said in a singsong tone, making a cross seal and making a dozen.

Aside from them arguing sometimes, her clones were awesome. They worked on splitting leaves and it was neat to see how she actually moved when she was using taijutsu.

Sure, it was rougher and less smooth than Sasuke's, but she started to understand the need for a constant and steady movement of punches and kicks.

"I'll still make more progress on my own without help from clones." Sasuke laughed.

"Oh yeah," Naruko put her hands on her hips, "Bet on it, 'ttebayo!"

The two trained together for about an hour, Sasuke not doing any Ninjutsu training or anything related to chakra.

"Do I refer to you as Yugao or Uzuki?" I asked her, not knowing what was preferred.

"Yugao is fine," She shrugged, laying out a few different sized bokken for me to try out, "I'm not technically on the job and I don't care for formalities."

I nodded at her response and I inspected the different types, having only a barely trained eye for the differences.

I knew there were some meant for two-handed wielding, others for one hand that involved stabbing, and others for slashing or cutting. But I had no idea what suited me.

"These are for your current height and size, by the way," She rattled her own sheath gently, "So don't compare it to mine."

It was funny that she said that as I looked closer. A frown creased my brow when I noticed they still looked oversized.

"They aren't relative to me in the same way yours is," I pointed out, "These are shorter, but you're much taller."

"Very good," Yugao complimented my observation, "That's because chakra makes your joints, muscles, and bones stronger than civilians or Samurai. You can handle the increased weight compared to them, the only impediment is stature."

That made sense actually. Probably why some people used comically large swords like Samehada or Kubikiribocho.

Deciding to go with the type Canon Sasuke used, a Chokuto, my mind provided, I picked it up and held it in an attempted mimicking of how I saw a few of my clansmen hold it over a year ago.

"You sure you want to try that one first?" Yugao asked, glancing down at me with an unreadable expression.

I nodded silently, holding it in a rough two-handed grip.

"Okay," She said, "But first," the purple haired ANBU adjusted my fingers to hold it differently and tapped my knees. "Your balance needs to be different. Here."

The next couple minutes involved Yugao moving me around to keep my balance, the action difficult because of how close she was to me.

Focus. Focus. I tried to force myself, but I was struggling to not snap at her reflexively from how on edge I was at being touched.

Once I finally was able to get the stance right, she helped me along with certain katas that worked best for my sword.

"One." She lifted her blade upward, presumably striking an enemy, "Two." She spun it sharply around with a wrist movement to strike an invisible target's shoulder. "Three." She stabbed forward, lowering her sword and giving me a smile and a nod of encouragement.

It was very simple, but each movement flowed into the other, no waste at all.

"This is a basic attack movement." She demonstrated it again, but much slower and explaining how you could immediately shift into a defensive parry if need be, or continue a flow of cuts and stabs to keep an opponent in constant retreat.

"Defending will be much easier when you awaken your Sharingan." She explained, pausing when I frowned.

I was tempted to tell her. Sarutobi was bound to find out eventually, and secret keeping might screw me over when I needed assistance.

Decide, Sasuke. I told myself, hating my indecision at telling her or not.

"Is everything alright?" Yugao asked softly.

"I..." My words failed me, my resolve to say it dying on the tip of my tongue, "It's nothing." I finished quietly, looking up at her expectantly for more instruction.

Yugao shrugged off the awkwardness and continued to teach me the basics, the training carrying on for I don't know how long.

Eventually, she called a stop to it, my wrists aching from the constant movement.

"Well done," She said happily, "You grasped it fairly well for someone with no experience. Do you have anymore questions before we do the next training session?"

"No." I muttered quietly, "But thank you for helping me."

Yugao nodded at the thanks.

"No problem. The next thing is sort of a question. You have anything to ask about other stuff that isn't Ninjutsu? Inu mentioned he would probably give you a few pointers, and he's good at Fire Release."

"My affinity is lightning." I replied in response, deciding to be honest about that.

"Oh?" She looked suprised at that, "I didn't realize that. Working on a second nature release at 9 years old is pretty impressive."

"Necessity breeds excellence." I shrugged, "I have more manuals on Katon Jutsu than anything else, so it was safer to do that than accidentally stop my heart, get brain damage, or nerve damage."

"That's rather morbid to say, don't you think?" She said rhetorically.

"I don't really care that much how I sound, it's just simple fact." I replied, not wanting to elaborate further.

After an awkward few seconds of silence, Yugao broke it uncomfortably

"Well," She rubbed the back of her neck, "Inu knows plenty of Raiton. He can get you on the right track. He's pretty good at most things."

"But you specialize in kenjutsu and..." I stated as I tried to think of what else, "I'm already working on Iryo-ninjutsu, and I'm not a sensor."

"Just accept the help without overthinking it, kid," She laughed, sounding genuinely amused, "You look adorable when you're frowning and thinking."

I visibly scowled at that, another snicker coming from her.

"You look like you're pouting now." She was shaking slightly from holding in another laugh, but she kept grinning.

I just didn't say anything. I was getting teased and it was forcing me to interact.

"I'm ready to continue some more kenjutsu if you still have time." I finally said, drawing a huff from her at what I said.

"We did that for a couple hours, and I can see how shaky your fingers are from fatigue."

Giving her a soft glare, I kept making eye contact as I made deliberately slow hand seals, forming green chakra around my fingers.

I let the healing chakra sink into the soft tissue of my hands, helping to heal the strain of exercise.

Tsunade's little journal said that muscle fatigue could be somewhat treated with typical Iryo-ninjutsu. Sure, I used probably several times the amount Tsunade would have needed to, and it definitely wasn't as well done as she could, but it did get rid of the aches.

"There." I said, letting the chakra dissipate once it finished sinking into my fingers and wrists.

"Unless you want to get scar tissue buildup in your joints and have it painfully removed through your skin," Yugao said sharply, "I'd recommend you not continue to do that until you get better chakra control."

I twitched at what she said, my fingers clenching almost involuntarily.

"I didn't realize that was a possibility."

"Well, it is." Yugao sighed in irritation, glancing at me differently now. "I get that you want to keep training, but you need to be careful. Wait until your chakra control can be considered Jonin level, then you'll be safe to do it."

I frowned at how far that was from now. I was at varying levels of Chunin on pretty much everything that wasn't Ninjutsu on my studies, and my reserves would outstrip everything at the rate they were growing from the exercises I was doing.

But it could easily be a year or more before I reached even the beginning stages of Jonin level control techniques from what I'd gathered from reading ahead in some particular manuals.

And that was me being very optimistic.

"Leave it to someone helping me out to destroy my naive hopes that I had discovered something revolutionary." I muttered sardonically, somewhat glad that I had been set straight. The last thing I needed was to injure myself.

"That's what a teacher's for." Yugao snorted, putting up her sword. "You want to test your taijutsu?"

I shrugged and nodded, holding up my hands in a ready position.

"I just need to scope out where you're at, 'kay?" She adjusted her stance and narrowed her eyes.

The wind was barely blowing around, the sun shining bright as I took a deep breath in preparation.

"Begin." She said, stepping forward and throwing a controlled punch at my face.

I ducked under it and raised my arm, pushing her arm away with difficulty as I leaned in and kicked at her gut.

She predictably avoided my kick, pivoting on her leg and lashing out with another punch that transitioned into a spin that had her leg swinging at my temple.

The punch stung as I barely stopped it, her foot skimming off my brow as I barely avoided getting my bell rung.

A constant pattern of trading punches and kicks ensued, my taijutsu form being painfully incomplete without my Sharingan active.

And it showed.

My forearms started to ache as I kept defending, Yugao's leg suddenly shooting forward too fast for be to avoid or stop.

Her foot struck my gut and drove the air from my lungs, a choked gasp being forced from my mouth. I fell to the ground and started coughing, trying to breathe through the pain of my gut seizing up.

"Sorry." Yugao said worriedly, kneeling down to check on me.

"S'okay." I almost wheezed, finally managing to draw an unimpeded breath. "I'm good."

I stood up unsteadily and looked up at her, my hand on my stomach.

"Well?" I asked, stifling a cough as I gazed at her face.

"You're taijutsu is good for your age." She admitted, looking at where I was holding my stomach for a moment, "Good form and you were creative, but you need more experience sparring and to grow into it some more."

I accepted the details, secretly preening at the complimentary language even when I knew she was doing it to butter me up.

"That's it for the day," Yugao pulled out a bottle of water from a storage scroll on her back, tossing it to me, "I know you're going to do more control exercises and stuff like that, so I won't tire you out completely."

I muttered a thanks and took a gulp of water, exhaling audibly as I wiped some sweat off my forehead.

"Any advice on that?" I asked hopefully, wanting any input on what to do.

She was an ANBU. If there was any small thing I could do to squeeze out some more progress, she would know how.

If not, I could ask Kakashi when he got around to showing himself.

"Try focusing on the tenketsu in you fingers sometimes," She offered, readjusting part of her hair that fell forward when we were sparring, "Full body chakra training helps your reserves more and prevents your other tenketsu from being smaller, but it's the ones in your hands and feet that are most used."

I nodded along, understanding the principal behind it no problem.

"But ask Inu for the details on what to do," She grimaced, adjusting her posture minutely, "I don't know exactly how to explain doing it other than you need to get your tenketsu accustomed to shifting chakra through them when using Ninjutsu."

Does she not realize I understand the concept of chakra muscle memory? I thought to myself, my eyes widening slightly.

"Is it similar to muscle memory for different types of nature release training with Kage Bunshin?" I cut to the chase and flat out asked, not caring about decorum.

The purple haired ANBU looked shocked at what I said.

"I... I didn't realize you were that far ahead in theory, and I didn't realize you knew about Kage Bunshin." She added the last part in a concerned tone as she looked at me appraisingly.

"I'm supposed to be the latest of my clan's endless supply of prodigies," I laughed hollowly, snorting at how cynical I sounded, "But is it similar?"

Yugao, still having traces of her initial surprise showing in her posture and expression, nodded.

"Yes, that's the best comparison. It's just that one is for your chakra itself while the other is for the tenketsu your chakra travels along.

Aerodynamics of a car work even better when you have a properly paved road. I thought humorously, my mind supplying that as an example.

"But I need to get going." She said, preparing to make her exit, "Keep going through those katas until they become second nature to you, and Inu will give you some help with Ninjutsu stuff in a few days."

"What does he look like?" I asked, continuing to act like a nervous and untrusting child. It was unsettling to me that I wasn't acting all that much.

Yugao made a hand seal and Henged to look like a silver haired man with an ANBU dog mask on.

"This is what he sounds like." Yugao adjusted how she actually spoke, not just changing her voice to sound like Kakashi. She also mimicked his bored tone.

She then dropped the Henge and gave me a smile.

"I'll see you soon, kid." She then darted away, disappearing in a purple and grey blur.

Now that I was alone, I picked up the bokken I was given to continue training with, the wooden sword feeling somehow right.

Even if I had a massive influx of memories, I still seemed to be Sasuke to my core. This sword design seemed to call to me in a way I didn't understand.

It might also be that I knew I could use it one handed and free up my other to make half seals.

That sounds fun.

I made a decision to sate my curiosity on how much progress was needed on a certain Jutsu I copied, so I put the bokken in my bedroom and hoofed it to a new destination with a new change of clothes in my arms.

I was at the banks of the Naka river, my shirt removed and my sandals were switched out for some old ones that weren't my good ones.

Damn, you look so scrawny. I eyed my reflection distastefully, seeing my scowling expression in the water.

I was a typical athletic 9 year old, and I looked very different from what I thought I should look.

And I was practically shining from how obscenely pale I was.

Turning away from the water, I closed my eyes for a moment, focusing on activating my Sharingan.

My eyes opened and I saw everything in front of me with immense clarity, my hands raising up to form the necessary hand seal.

A bunshin formed next to me, eying me lazily.

"Just don't hit a tree." It sighed, "I don't want to put your face back together."

"Show a little faith." I scowled, fighting the urge to punch it and make a new one. "You are watching the makings of a god."

There was nobody that could match my potential. I possessed the chakra of the firstborn son of a deistic figure among superhumans, and I had something that resembled a genius intellect from simply being me; Uchiha Sasuke.

I went through the proper hand seals, mimicking Yugao perfectly.

Shunshin no Jutsu.

I shot forward at a lightning pace, the beginning of a grin fighting to creep up on my face.

For a glorious fraction of a second, I felt like a god. I pulled it off.

Right at about fifty yards was when something went wrong.

My left foot dragged against the dirt slightly and I tripped, flying ass over tea kettle as I got dragged across the ground from my momentum.

I finally stopped my painful forced movement and my back was on the ground, the air driven from me violently as I gasped when trying to breathe.

My ankle was burning and my back was killing me, all of my willpower going into not vomiting from the pain as my vision spun.

My bunshin stood over me, a weak keen coming from me as I tried to speak.

"Puny god." The bastard with my face muttered, glancing down at my ankle.

I wanted to flip it off, but I didn't trust myself to move.

"Hold still." The bunshin instructed, going through hand seals and beginning the process of healing me.

A minute or so later, I was fine, the bunshin standing up and pulling me to my feet.

"Again." I said, my need to get better at this overriding my caution in a rare display of impatience.

"What happens when you break something?" The angel on my shoulder that was the bunshin asked irritably, not impressed.

"I'm sure the ANBU watching us right now will carry me to the hospital and get me sorted out," I said, "And I'll get your experience back from healing my bruises. It's a win win."

I didn't pay attention to the reaction from what was probably the bunshin that was embodying my more cautious side.

I repeated it again, wanting to pull off what Shisui did to become an S-rank at an early age.

I'm surprised by his recklessness. Kakashi thought, seeing the youngest Uchiha fall for what was now the 23rd time.

At the rate he was going, Sasuke was going to pass out from chakra exhaustion before he actually hurt himself, which would actually be preferable. Kakashi didn't really like the prospect of carrying the boy to the hospital.

As Kakashi continued to watch the boy slowly become less abysmal at using the Shunshin, graduating to being simply terrible, he ran his mind through the likely scenario behind him using this particular Jutsu.

The Sandaime suspected that Sasuke learned how to make Kage Bunshin by accident in the hospital following the massacre. High emotions and fear could have been enough for him to accidentally activate them when the old man made one.

But the Shunshin on the other hand was used by Yugao the first time Sasuke met her. Kakashi noticed him staring directly at her.

Given that Sasuke was only a 9 year old child, Kakashi knew for certain he wasn't looking at Yugao because she was an attractive young woman. He looking at her that way only when she Shunshined away to leave.

He will need to be taught proper decorum in copying the techniques of allies. Even if Kakashi had done it on several occasions, he hadn't gone out of his way to do it. Enemies were fair game, but comrades deserved some measure of consideration.

So long as Sasuke didn't begin to see others as simply a tool to obtain more techniques, everything would be fine.

A shout of profanity came from Sasuke as he fell once more, falling partly into the water this latest time.

The younger brother of Itachi dragged himself away from the shoreline, mud caking his entire right side and his hair clumped with mud sticking to his face.

"Mah, you are an idiotic child." Kakashi rolled his eyes as he muttered it out loud to himself.

"We will doing some more leaf sticking exercises." Iruka announced, drawing collective groans from several students.

This included Naruko, and my sentiments were the same.

"It's a waste of time, 'ttebayo!" Naruko shouted, making me want to groan at all my progress on her seeming to mean nothing.

It'd been a few days since Yugao had been giving me guidance on training, and Kakashi still hadn't showed up.

She came by again, with more kenjutsu training, and said he got delayed by something.

Suffice to say, I was in an irritable mood. I needed some hands on advice on Raiton, and the lazy bastard was probably doing fuck all in front of the memorial.

Maybe I can bring Naruko to the memorial to pay respects to her mom on a regular basis to take away his quiet time.

As my evil little mind cooked up ways to stab at the emotional wounds of somebody that was starting to piss me off, Naruko tapped my shoulder like she was trying to stab me.

"What?" I asked irritably, rubbing my shoulder.

"Tell Iruka-sensei that I can do leaf sticking perfectly fine!" She practically demanded, her anger directed at the students who were snickering at what they expected was a lie by her.

"Iruka-sensei." I said in a bored tone, not wanting to even be doing this. "Naruko can do leaf sticking." I then laid my head back down and tried to sleep.

Naruko wasn't amused by me literally repeating what she said almost word for word and she poked the side of my head, making me flinch.

"Pay attention." She frowned, her blue eyes staring into mine.

I sighed and muttered the word troublesome under my breath and looked up at Iruka, who was looking at me expectantly.

"I let Naruko learn some stuff from one of my father's books." I lied easily, "She can do leaf sticking without any difficulty at all. Just have her try it."

To make my point on how absolutely wasteful it was on time for me to do this, I grabbed a sheet of paper off the ground with my foot by using chakra, raising it deliberately slow to my hand.

"My head hurts," I turned to Naruko, hoping she got the message, "I'm going to pull a Shikamaru." I ignored the scoff from said boy next to me and laid my head back down, needing a nap.

All in all, I got a good half hour nap while everybody else had to do chakra control exercises that I would have been able to do in my sleep even months ago.

"Sasuke-kun, can you teach me what you did?" One of the civilian girls asked, looking both excited and nervous about talking to me.

I looked at her with a bored expression, having been sequestered away from everyone under the shade of a tree, eating my lunch on my own.

"No." I answered simply, taking a bite out of the ball of boiled rice I made just this morning.

"But-" She started to say, but I cut her off.

"I am not a teacher," I said coldly, not caring that the girl flinched at my tone, "I taught myself how to do something I'm quite good at, which nobody else here can do like me. Please, stop bothering me and let me eat." I then ignored her and took another bite.

The girl sniffed and practically ran from me, probably about ready to cry.

I'd made kids cry before, but that was probably from me being subconsciously terrifying to them because I had the dead progenitor of the Uchiha clan attached to me since birth. No matter what Itachi or my parents said, it always made me feel bad when babies would not let me hold them without screaming and crying.

At least I had a possible reason for it aside from being inferior to Itachi in another way I couldn't explain.

Stop it. I cursed internally, not liking those thoughts at all. At times, I caught myself comparing myself to Itachi, and finding myself lacking.

The thought that I was naturally that way, even with my understanding of why Itachi did what he did, wasn't a pleasant one.

Finishing up my lunch, I glanced at Naruko, who was attempting to try and explain to Shikamaru about the technique behind leaf sticking.

Judging by Shikamaru's deer in the headlights look and Naruko's exasperation, she wasn't explaining it well and Shikamaru probably felt like a hostage.

Shrugging at another person getting tormented by the avatar of chaos that was Uzumaki Naruko, I sat back and relaxed, casually thinking of the next several weeks of training ahead.

End chapter:

Not particularly long of a chapter and it's mostly filler type stuff to introduce the next small arc of Sasuke getting some training from the ANBU.

So, Sasuke begins to try the long and difficult task of manipulating Naruko into thinking less naively about things and to get her to support his line of thinking more. Hiruzen, you done screwed up.

Sasuke will be getting some assistance from a couple ANBU, and Kakashi is potentially on his case about Sasuke using his Sharingan for less than selfless reasons.

On my Discord, I'm running a poll on what unpublished story I'll be making available. Feel free to hop on in. And I'll eventually be making chapters for my stories available to server members a week or so before posting them, probably by around New Year. Link to my discord is here : discord.gg/2XN2rzuFpM

Anyway, that's about it. Here's a new chapter and I hope you all of a fantastic day.

Raging. Like ReplyReport Reactions:SlytherinKnite, Dacraun, Gwwyn and 787 othersRagingSmurfOO7Nov 30, 2022NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 6: Predator, or prey? New View contentRagingSmurfOO7Not too sore, are you?Dec 2, 2022Add bookmark#173Naruko gripped me tightly as we made our way to the memorial, my arm starting to go numb from her holding me.

I had asked her why she was scared of going here, and her response was downright adorable.

She was scared of ghosts.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have told her that ghosts weren't scary because they didn't haunt areas, they could just be reanimated with a Jutsu that the Nidaime created.

She hadn't let go of me since this.

I silently wondered how she'd react if I told her that I myself was technically a ghost inhabiting the body of the reincarnation of somebody who was dead several times.

It didn't require a superior intellect to know she'd react as well as a cat tossed in an ice cold bath.

"We're almost there, don't worry." I said softly, knowing how nervous I was when I first came here.

But I was on my own now.

We reached the memorial and my eyes traced along the names, spotting the one I was looking for.

Uzumaki Kushina.

"Right there." I pointed towards it, Naruko's eyes following my hand.

A faint gasp came from the blonde, her grip slackening as she stepped forward, almost like she was in a trance.

"Kaasan." She whispered, her hand pressing up against the cold stone.

Naruko then started shaking, a faint sob coming from her.

"It's not fair." She said, wiping at her eyes furiously. "I never got to meet you."

She started talking at a rapid pace, barely understandable as her body was wracked with tremors.

Naruko was openly crying now, my breath catching from how much it was reminding me of my own thoughts.

Not wanting her to be completely alone, I walked up to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder, feeling her shaking under me.

"It's not fair, Sasuke." She mumbled into my sleeve, hiccuping slightly.