Chapter 912 - 10

New chapter up and it's a little more relaxed than the others, though still containing the normal Sasuke-ness in the others.

Other than that, typical plug-in about how this was up on my discord server a week ago, etc. Also, I'll be posting a link to a story I've yet to publish tomorrow on my server. If you want to see it months ahead of time, join the discord.

This is the link, just remove the space: discord /2XN2rzuFpM

Anyway, here's the new chapter.

/

"Makeitstop! Makeitstop! Makeitstop!" Naruko almost screamed, finally managing to shatter the minor illusion I put her under by pure accident when her chakra flared enough to make my eyes squint from being unaccustomed to seeing that amount of chakra abruptly flash with my Sharingan.

I fought the urge to recoil away, bile climbing up my throat as I saw the look of near terror on her face as she fidgeted and had her arms clutched close to her.

That wasn't supposed to happen. She had requested I show her how to break out of Genjutsu, even when I advised not to. So, because I didn't say no, I ended up scaring her.

"I warned that it can feel uncomfortable at first." I said quietly, clenching my teeth when my mind started to draw parallels with Itachi for some asinine reason.

I'm not torturing her to kill me, so shut up.

The wave of queasiness at terrifying her eventually faded away, and I approached the shivering blonde delicately.

"I didn't like that." She mumbled, rubbing her arms vigorously like she was cold. Her shoulders were hunched and she still didn't look up at me. "I really didn't like that, 'tt-tebayo."

She's still shaking.

Her breaths came in short gasps and she looked like she was ready to run, none of them good signs.

"Let's not train with visual Genjutsu until you're ready." I said gently, awkwardly setting my hand on her shoulder to hopefully reassure her.

It seemed to have worked, because she stopped shaking like a leaf and let her hands fall to her side slowly.

Once I was sure that she had calmed down enough, I voiced my curiosity.

"Any idea why you reacted badly to it?" I asked, already having a few working theories.

I actually only had one real theory, and it wasn't one I was going to share with her at all because of the sensitive nature of it. Kurama didn't react well to Genjutsu, especially ones from a Sharingan. There was a very good chance the faint amount of off colour chakra I could see from her radiating an outlandish amount of chakra mixed with her own was Kurama's dripping out of the seal, so maybe the caustic reaction to my Genjutsu was from that.

Naruko shook her head. "I, well, I don't know." She looked down, her eyes staring at her feet. "I just felt really uncomfortable, like something was poking all over me like when you get a needle shot, but everywhere."

In spite of her having just come down from a freak out and her overall demeanor, I couldn't help but nearly crack a smile. The way she said it was funny; Needle shot.

"I don't think we need to try that again." I said, to which she looked up at me. "Probably need to find something else for you to occupy your mind with so you don't cause trouble."

"Yeah, you're righ-" She started to say, before pausing and realizing what I just said. "Hmph." The girl crossed her arms, giving me another adorable glare as she pouted.

I at least figured out some playful teasing was enough to draw out her more brash and confrontational aspect. It had been an observation I'd made over the last year that her stewing over something was very bad, but a visible look of irritation meant it was more surface level negativity and I could help her use it constructively.

So at least she wasn't too badly rattled by whatever atypical reaction she had to ocular Genjutsu.

"Caught that, hmmm?" I smiled, before frowning when my bangs got in the way of my eyes and I pushed my hair aside. It wasn't long enough to tie back, but it was close.

As I thought that, Naruko's expression shifted like she just remembered something.

"Wait, aren't you supposed to be doing your sword stuff before lunch?" She asked.

…

Shit.

"I… forgot." I grimaced, cursing internally. I'd been busy with Naruko, answering questions that were niche ones to her but were basic to me, and hadn't even thought of my own schedule. "I need to go then."

With that, I turned my back to her and activated my Sharingan once more, my hands raising up to form hand seals.

"Can we still have lunch at Ichiraku's?" Naruko asked quickly, making me pause.

"Uh, yeah." I said it like it was obvious. "It's normal for us."

It had become part of my dedicated schedule, and there was no reason to interrupt it.

I then completed the necessary seals for a Shunshin and shot towards my next destination, blurring across the outskirts of the village in the pattern I'd scoped out to not crash into anything.

/ (SCENE BREAK)

Arriving at the particular training grounds Yugao often had me go to, I saw a guy who looked to be around Yugao's age from a distance, wearing a flak jacket and with a sword strapped to his back while the sun shone down to bathe the grassy terrain in a bright light.

Undoubtedly Hayate.

It was a pity, from what Kakashi told me, what happened to him. Up and coming prospect through the academy, A-rank material Shinobi all around, and was almost S-rank in Kenjutsu at just 18 years old.

Then a poison attack last year scarred his lungs.

He'd still be a dangerous and capable Shinobi, but any and all attempts at endurance were gone with that. I knew people in, well, I guess my old life that had lung scarring from pneumonia and it absolutely destroyed their ability to exert themselves; at least Hayate could use chakra to ease the strain.

Shaking those thoughts aside, I made my way to him at a steady pace and signaled towards him with the typical ANBU sign for greeting that Yugao taught me to use.

Hayate's eyes tracked me as I closed the distance, looking at me with an unguarded expression of curiosity.

Now that I was closer to him, I noticed the paler complexion, the almost ashen colour to the skin directly under his eyes, and more shallow breaths that could barely be noticed because of my ears picking up the slight huff of his exhale.

"Hello, Gekko-san." I said politely, bowing my head slightly as a sign of respect. Old habits instilled by my mother and father hadn't lessened in the slightest over the last… nearly two years.

It had already been that long.

Hayate chuckled and smiled, clearing his throat and covering his mouth to muffle the faint cough he let out as he did.

"Yugao told me that you're a budding Kenjutsu prospect and that she could use some help with guiding you in the right direction." He said clearly, his voice not appearing to be as affected as I had preemptively thought it would.

That's one way to put it.

"She'd be right." I replied, noticing how he was still looking at me appraisingly. "I've heard nothing but positives from her and Inu about your skill with a sword, Gekko-san."

"Call me Hayate." He requested, groaning under his breath, "I don't really care for formalities, and it makes me sound old."

My mouth twitched upwards, my eyes fixed on his as steadily as I could manage.

"Okay, Hayate. I assume you'll want to see firsthand what Yugao has mentioned about where I'm at with technique?" I folded my arms together and stood up a little straighter as I finished.

Hayate nodded. "Seeing and hearing are two distinct things; you have your bokken, right?"

I nodded affirmatively to the question.

"Storage seal." I stated casually, pulling said article of chakra conductive paper and ink that Kakashi coached me in drawing out of my pocket.

It was annoying in how everything was supposed to work with the seal, and it was downright aggravating that it took me an entire day to figure out how to make the simplest one when Kakashi was walking me through how to do it, but Naruko managed to dissect and understand how to make one by looking at it for 30 minutes.

But it didn't matter, I was able to make cheap, but usable, ones on my own.

With a quick pulsing of my chakra through my fingers, the scroll opened up and deposited the wooden training sword in my hand.

Hayate hummed and adjusted his balance, taking a couple steps back.

"Alright, show me your stance." He instructed, eyeing me intently.

I didn't reply, simply following his commands and gripping the hilt, adopting a standard defensive guard.

"Good, now shift to the hawk guard."

My wrists shifted the blade up in a high guard that Yugao showed me, my eyes boring into Hayate's.

"Acceptable. I'm going to give quick fire commands, you are to follow each one and string together each kata fluidly."

I could guess that he was going to use the ANBU terms, or whichever terms Yugao did, of the different katas I've been taught.

"Yes." I muttered, my breath steady and level as I prepared for the next string of orders.

And they came quickly. The moment I shifted into one, another demand followed. My bokken moved in a near ceaseless motion, weaving an intricate web around me that whistled faintly as it cut through the air.

"Repeat the last ten." He said abruptly, walking to my left and still paying attention to me alone.

Damnit. I thought, trying to remember how it went. The first four were the same, but as I did the fifth one, I caught a blur of movement in my peripheral that turned out to be Hayate; his sword crashed down at my shoulder, where my blade wasn't at.

I hastily twisted my body and jerked my arms, barely getting the very bottom of the bokken in position to block his blade. But that didn't stop me from staggering and almost falling from the loss of balance and impact.

"What was that?!" I demanded, backing away and glaring at him.

"You're not doing it properly." He said, sighing as he shook his head from what wasn't quite exasperation. "One, you messed up the fifth one; the proper one would have had you stopping the hit no problem. You also didn't have enough strength or balance in your movements, surprise sent your form crashing down."

A low growl of annoyance started to build up in the back of my throat, none of what he said feeling pleasant.

Yeah, I understood that what he did, attacking without warning, was a perfect way to see if I had started to develop proper reaction speed and instinctiveness. But it didn't mean that I enjoyed having a 3 ft long steel weapon come careening down towards my face.

"Try again, but I'm going to be randomly trying to attack." He said, lowering his sword to point out to his side as he held it in one hand. "I need to make sure it wasn't just an off moment."

Gripping the hilt until my knuckles almost creaked, I started back up again and maintained my focus on going through the katas, having strength in my movements, and I also activated my Sharingan to prepare for the inevitable surprise attack.

The katas were gone through with the same skill as I usually maintained, the movements as precise as I can manage with my Sharingan active.

"Repeat!" Hayate commanded, my arms swiftly guiding my blade into the first kata of the pattern once more.

I hit the third when I saw a faint doubled over image of Hayate, almost like a mirage, take a step towards me.

The warning from my Sharingan reading his movement was enough for me to prepare for the lightning fast lunge, which I sidestepped and knocked aside, drawing my blade back up to protect my chest.

Hayate grinned widely, stepping back and taking a deep breath before exhaling loudly.

"Good." He said, his eyes zeroing in on mine and squinting for a moment. "Make sure not to be over reliant on your dojutsu. Being able to read your enemy's movements is good, but you need to make sure you're fast enough for your body to react to what you're seeing."

"That's why I train with Maito Gai." I replied simply, still maintaining the guard position in case of a surprise attack.

Hayate just laughed, letting his sword rest at his side lazily.

"That's funny." He kept on snickering, "Did Yugao tell you to say that?"

I didn't laugh, I just remained silent and stared up at him.

His amusement quickly evaporated under my silent look.

"Oh," He said, deflating some and looking a bit awkward, "I didn't realize he was taking students as young as you."

"He's not technically," I said, putting my off hand on the center of my bokken to distribute the weight to both my arms, "He helps on some of his off days and gives me some pointers on endurance training safe for me to do."

He might have been a training junkie, but Gai was no idiot. He probably knew as much about fitness and safely honing your body into a work of art as Kakashi knew about Ninjutsu.

"Ah, that makes more sense." Hayate said, still looking a bit awkward as he shifted his body weight to his right leg. "He didn't really seem the type to take an apprentice instead of a genin team."

That did not give me reassurance. Gai was… okay to be around, but the thought of him as a Jonin sensei for me was frightening to say the least.

"But that will make things easier for training if you have better than normal physical conditioning." He pointed out, looking rather positive as he said that.

"That doesn't instill excitement for training." I said flatly, giving him a deadpan look.

The Tokubetsu-jonin just laughed at the look I gave him.

"Trust me, you'll enjoy every benefit it reaps."

Wanting to still keep to the illusion that I wasn't actually borderline desperate to be as dangerous as possible to ward off getting killed by the different threats on the horizon that extended all the way up to possibly being my sort of grandmother, I just shrugged my shoulders.

"I guess you're right." I said tiredly, putting on a bit of a show like I didn't want to argue. "Ready to get started again?"

Hayate smiled.

"Sure."

/

"Pleeeease." Naruko begged, the hyperactive blonde shaking my arm with enough force to almost knock me from my seat. "I promised to help them and I can't remember how you explained it to me."

I gripped the side of my desk tightly, my teeth grinding together as the blonde that I needed to remember was openly sought out by me, not the other way around, was now driving me insane with her request for me to fix what she started.

She wanted me, Uchiha Sasuke, to take time out of my day to help a few curious students about a chakra control technique trick to make leaf sticking easier.

The fact that I was sounding that pretentious in my head at this point didn't improve my mood any bit either.

"Why do you do this to me?" I mumbled under my breath to no one in particular, taking a few deep breaths to keep calm.

I didn't want to help a bunch of brats figure out how to do the most basic of stuff. If I wanted to experience having a child be wholly reliant upon me for education, I'd wait a few years and knock a woman up to have a kid, then I'd experience the wonder of wiping an infant's ass until I taught them how to successfully not shit themselves.

"You remember what I said about how you can help them, but I won't?" I asked, looking at her with a flat expression.

The tone I used obviously made her uncomfortable, because she looked away. But almost immediately, it shifted to annoyance and she gave me a slight glare.

"I forgot how to explain it, okay? I just want to help them because they asked, and it's not like it'll be harder than talking to me." She huffed as she finished, still fixing me with that trademark glare.

I scowled at her attitude, not liking it at all. But honestly, wasn't this what I wanted, her not being completely obedient and emotionally reliant upon me?

Intellectually reliant? Undoubtedly. She wasn't stupid, but damn was there much to be desired. But it wasn't that bad, I just didn't want it to become a habit where she turned to me for help for everything.

It could be beneficial to appear somewhat concerned for them, come to think of it.

I didn't not care about the other kids in my year, I just couldn't be bothered to feel compelled to help them because of some odd sense of responsibility from them being 'Canon' characters or any such nonsense. I wasn't compelled to overthrow my old life's government for drone striking civilians overseas, and I wasn't compelled to divert my time and focus to helping a bunch of difficult to be around kids…

Unless I hard focused on one.

Odds are, Naruko and I will be on the same team. Presumably, we're getting another teammate in our year like usual. So, the question was which one would Sarutobi assign. I'd prefer Shikamaru; lazy, and annoyingly so, but he was also the closest in being self-reliant mentally compared to all the others in our year.

It's not to help them, it's so the third teammate won't be useless.

I was just being honest with my motives as my mind raced through different options, all the while Naruko waited for my response.

I was selfish, yes, but I wasn't a savage that would eat a baby on live television or something grotesque like that to better myself. I was just apathetic to being a saint.

Letting out a slightly embellished groan, I answered Naruko. "Fine, I'll help some."

"Yes." Naruko grinned, elated at what she probably thought was her convincing me to be selfless.

"But if I'm helping, you're going to assist me with demonstrations." I said clearly, eying her closely. "It means if I need to show chakra sticking or certain grapples and other things, you're going to be my little pet to experiment on." I added the last part with a touch of affection to be funny and I laughed slightly.

Naruko recoiled away from me, scowling uncomfortably.

"Don't say it like that." She continued to scowl. "You look creepy when you do that."

"Do what?" I frowned, furrowing my brow.

"Smile with your teeth." She clarified, looking closer at my face with an unsettled expression still as her eyes traced along my eyes and features. "It doesn't look right, your eyes don't smile."

Okay… that's fucking rude. If I hadn't been aware of how Naruko could accidentally sound rude, I probably would have said something just as insulting as she accidentally sounded. As it was, it just made me more sad than anything else.

And there was no way in hell I was going to practice smiling in front of a mirror.

"Noted," I eventually settled on saying, looking towards the other academy students that were currently watching me and Naruko, "So, ready to show everybody else some training tips?"

Naruko smiled and nodded.

"Yep!"

I stood up from my seat and Naruko and I both walked over there, the four that Naruko had talked with; Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and Hinata looking at me curiously.

Returning the look, I asked a simple question.

"So you're wanting some help with training?"

/ (SCENE BREAK)

"Let him in." Hiruzen said clearly, signaling for his ANBU to let in the teacher that had requested an audience with him.

The ANBU nodded and walked out of the room, heading to the waiting area guests and those with sizable contracts that warranted a personal audience with the Hokage would usually be told to wait in…

Or Shinobi under his command seeking to speak with him.

After just a brief delay, the ANBU escorted Umino Iruka into the room. The comparatively young teacher looked a little nervous, judging by him adjusting his flak jacket once more when it already looked well maintained and clean.

"Sandaime-sama." Iruka bowed his head respectfully. "Thank you for affording me some of your time."

"When one who is in charge of the rearing of the next generation of Konoha Shinobi requests a meeting, I make an effort to give some of my time to them." Hiruzen stated, offering a polite smile to the man.

The much younger of the two looked much more relaxed as that was said, a faint smile appearing on his face.

Hiruzen then turned to face the ANBU next to Iruka. "You may return to your initial post."

The ANBU nodded and made a hand seal, shimmering almost out of view with the camouflage Jutsu common amongst the group and assumed his position.

Now that the ANBU was absent, or at least in an illusory sense to make most of the conversations appear less awkward from eavesdroppers, the old veteran of multiple wars looked at the man who could almost be his grandson.

"You wished to speak of Uchiha Sasuke?" Hiruzen asked, steepling his fingers and leaning forward.

"Yes sir, I do." Iruka stated, cutting to the chase. "I believe it would be in Sasuke's best interest to be pushed ahead a year."

Hiruzen hid his frown, taking a slow breath and mulling through an initial thought.

No. He is not ready. Naruko is good for him, and being moved ahead will destroy any sense of stability he has regained.

Sasuke was undoubtedly capable of excelling in the year above. Quite frankly, the boy could potentially sit his graduation exam now without too much difficulty.

"You have informed me before of Sasuke's boredom in class concerning the general education given not related to Shinobi affairs," Hiruzen said, his expression a dull and expressionless sheet of neutrality, "As well as nearly all of the basic Shinobi ones too. But are you not concerned about upending the fraction of the normality he still maintains?"

Iruka paled slightly at the pointed question, before he closed his eyes for a moment and seemed to center himself.

"No, I don't think it will be an issue. Delaying his progression will probably only do harm in the long run. He is polite, astute, and motivated to be excellent; and Naruko and a few students are also doing better because of his influen-"

"Ah, yes." Hiruzen interrupted, ignoring the frown that appeared on Iruka's face. "You informed me of that change two weeks ago. Do you not think that it would be preferable for Sasuke to stay in his own year of students if he has begun to open up?"

Hiruzen had been extremely relieved when instead of jealousy which could so easily sprout from a student suddenly jumping ahead in ability, the clan children had been mostly unaffected by Naruko's progress. The one major change was that the girl had convinced Sasuke, who Iruka noted as looking to be under duress the first time, to offer insights that were slightly ahead of the curve on techniques, endurance training safe for children their age, and a few assorted things that were beneficial to them.

Iruka paused, not responding to the accurate statement by his superior.

"I… don't know." He eventually admitted, his eyes looking down.

Hiruzen knew Iruka meant well, but the better choice was to not offer Sasuke that opportunity. To choose between speed of progress or interaction with what may just become friends; it was not something a young Shinobi in training should think of after experiencing a traumatizing event.

"There is nothing to be ashamed of, Iruka." Hiruzen said gently, but not relenting in his decision. "You wish for the best for Sasuke. But right now, I feel as if he should be kept where he is now. If events change in the future, I may reconsider."

Iruka nodded his understanding, but he still looked put out by the rejection.

"I understand, sir."

"You may go." Hiruzen dismissed him, knowing that Iruka would come to understand that he was right. Sasuke needed time to still adjust emotionally, at least as best as he could.

At the dismissal, Iruka turned and left the room without saying another word, disappearing around the corner.

Hiruzen reached for his pipe and reignited it with a twitch of his fingers, sparking some fire chakra at the end of the digits.

Taking a long drag from it and eying the drawer that had a few promotion approvals needing signed, Hiruzen thought of the monotonous work ahead of him and scowled.

Whether it would end early tonight or not, he didn't really care. Tomorrow would be a relaxing day where he could take Naruko to Ichiraku's and bask in the boundless energy and enthusiasm she had for life.

Hopefully she was having a better evening than he was.

/(SCENE BREAK)

My fingers dragged across the slab of meat, the entire section I touched sagging as the internal connective tissue split apart from the chakra scalpel I just used.

I sighed happily and repeated the technique until I finished what I wanted to, glad that the months of training helped me to lower the number of seals to two without compromising the cutting effectiveness of the technique.

And of course, Naruko had to ruin my moment of pride in my accomplishment.

"Please stop playing with the meat and show me what to do." She requested impatiently, tapping her fingers against my kitchen counter at a rapid pace.

She was currently wearing, much to my disconcertation after I had already told her to, my mother's preferred apron over her orange t-shirt.

Whatever, just ignore it and don't break your promise, Sasuke. I scowled under my breath as I thought that, keeping my mouth shut and groaning at the interruption because I did offer to help her with something she wasn't the absolute best at.

Cooking.

"I wasn't playing, I was training." I replied, catching the eye roll from the blonde like it were a beacon going off in front of me as she didn't bother concealing her total lack of belief.

"You were smiling, so it's playing." She intentionally heightened the pitch of her voice like she was talking to a child, or at least one younger than we both were. "Now help me like you promised."

Ever since I had started helping her talk with the other students, she had stopped being in a state of polar mindsets, those two being either extreme shyness bordering on timid, or standoffish and borderline abrasiveness; which was good, admittedly. When she was uncomfortable in the social interactions I'd witnessed her being a part of just a few short months ago, she had been quiet and shy, with plenty of fidgeting from struggling to remain still. It was quite strange actually, to see some of that lack of social anchorage from a third person perspective.

But after I had helped her break the proverbial ice with a few of the students, in particular Shikamaru, Choji, Hinata, and Kiba, she had started to open up and practically shined when explaining what I coached her to say. She'd even begun talking with and interacting with them on her own, not even including me…

Which was exactly what I had wanted, wasn't it? I didn't want her to be beholden to me alone, yet I wanted her to be tied to me so I could have a close ally in the future and nullify the threat she could pose.

So why was I upset that she didn't talk with me for an entire day because she was busy?

And now her more outspoken streak had her responding back at me. I really didn't like being put on the back foot by her like this, she was basically making fun of m-

…

I stopped that line of thought. I was being a socially awkward introvert and completely blind to the atmosphere so I could sate my curiosity on my skill level in Iryo-ninjutsu… on a piece of raw meat that was going to be dinner. Of course she was amused by it.

Yeah, I think Itachi rattled more screws loose than anybody had ever thought. Or maybe I was uniquely insane when exposed to the Tsukuyomi.

"Sasuke. Hand. Off. Meat. Teach. Me." Naruko forcibly pulled me away from my musings over my presumed insanity by poking my shoulder roughly, making me flinch away.

"Ow." I jerked away, rubbing my shoulder with my free hand. "I don't think you understand how strong you are now."

Naruko didn't respond, but the azure glint in her eyes didn't exactly leave me enthused.

I've created a monster.

"Let's just get on with this." I eventually settled on, almost ready to toss the properly tenderized and sliced meat into the pan that was currently on the stove. "And for the record, I was tenderizing the meat and slicing it using chakra instead of that." I pointed at the meat tenderizer to the left of Naruko's hand, and the cutting knife was still left in the wooden sheath or whatever it was called.

Naruko just huffed, tugging at her hair that was now grown out from being less than the length mine was when this whole mess started, to roughly just past her neck over the last year.

She had finally opened up enough where I found out what happened. Evidently, someone had poured glue on top of her head a week before Itachi did what he did. It had stuck and clumped her hair so much that Inu had been forced to cut a sizable portion of her hair away as she had been bawling hysterically.

All I needed was a name or face, then I'd probably emulate the red Indian ancestors of the past life's bloodline. But that could wait until after I teach Naruko how to cook a dish she'd never made.

"If it tastes weird," Naruko's voice broke through the brief, but bloody, thoughts going through my head. "I'm blaming you."

I just rolled my eyes, having been able to curb my more sinister thoughts while grabbing the properly sliced meat with my bare hands and setting the pieces into the pan with a light sizzling noise from the pan being hot.

"The cookbook is alright," I gestured with my head towards the book propped open at the very back of the counter on a stand, making sure Naruko still understood, "But hands-on observation and directions are the best to teach. So, since you can't tear the inside structure of the meat apart like I did, just repeatedly hit it with the tenderizer."

At the use of the word for said object, Naruko flicked her gaze over to the metal device, a grin appearing on her face that seemed to make her eyes shine.

"It looks like a hammer." She pointed out unnecessarily.

"Yes, but it's a meat tenderizer." I said, calmly addressing what she said.

"A meat hammer." She snickered, intentionally trying to poke at me. "It's a hammer, but for meat."

I really need to not make her think laughing at my expense is a fun pastime. So, I just didn't reply to the intentional attempt at riling me up.

"Either way, you put the temperature at this degree." I pointed directly at the temperature gauge, but I didn't twist the handle to turn up the heat. "You turn it, because I have blood on my hands."

"Okay." Naruko bobbed her head excitedly, leaning forward and doing as instructed, and turning the heat up to the necessary level.

The sizzling of the meat grew a little louder and I told Naruko to watch it while I washed my hands in the sink. I used my forearm to turn it on, then I rinsed as best as I could before grabbing the bar of soap and cleaning my hands the rest of the way.

I then finished and went back to the stove, grabbing the wooden spatula my mother preferred to use and made eye contact with Naruko.

"You'll want to mix the meat around so all of it gets cooked." I explained, giving an example as I began stirring it around and mashing it some, before repeating the process. "You try." I handed her the spatula, taking a step back to let her stand on the stool I had been on so I could actually see what I was doing.

"What about the other food?" She asked uncertainly, pointing at the boiled rice on the back grill of the stove and the four still to be cracked eggs that I set aside.

"I already boiled the rice, so it's fine. The eggs are when I show you how to poach them, which will be after we cook the meat." I explained, stepping back a bit to give her more room while I eyed the stove intently.

The memories of being around my father's height threw me off somewhat when I realized I was too short to see the stovetop and needed a stool, but it wasn't an issue right now and I took in the smell and sound of the supper I was helping Naruko make for us.

Naruko did as I had shown just a moment ago and flipped the slices, albeit less fluidly as she was doing this for the very first time.

"Am I doing it right?" She asked quietly, her face not visible to me, but she sounded unsure and somewhat apprehensive.

"You're doing perfect." I told the blonde softly, smiling as I did so to make myself feel better as I grabbed the older stool my mom had stood me up on when she did exactly what I was doing with Naruko; teaching a kid to cook.

Setting up the stool, I stood right behind Naruko and looked down past her shoulder, watching her do something that I had done under the guidance of my mom.

'Hold it like this, Sasuke. You don't want to hurt your wrist when doing it. There we go, just like that. I'm so proud of you.'

Rather than make me feel almost nauseous from remembering such a potent and deeply intrinsic memory I had of just my mother and me, not Itachi, my father, or anybody else, I felt a surprising relief as I watched Naruko succeed at something with my help.

Suddenly struck by an idea, I blinked my eyes and activated my Sharingan to memorize every detail of this moment. Everything, from the individual specks of vapor coming up from the sizzling helping of beef, down to the faint glint of light that shimmered off of Naruko's hair, I saw everything with an unmatched clarity, and I didn't realize until I had already done it that I had leaned into Naruko and wrapped my arms around hers, subtlety guiding her movements.

She had stilled for a moment, taking a sharp intake of air, before she relaxed and we were standing silently next to each other.

Something I noticed was that she used a strawberry scented soap for her hair that I could smell from just being a few inches away from her head.

"Grab two pinches of salt and pepper each." I whispered into her ear, which she did and dropped them into the pan. "Now stir it in and add the cayenne pepper when I tell you."

My clan generally preferred spicy food, and this recipe was no different. But the amount of spices I was having her use wasn't even half what I normally used when I fixed this, because it'd probably have her frantically chugging milk to not puke from how hot it'd be.

"Now flip them." I instructed, the unknowing Jinchuriki flipping the slices of meat to continue cooking them.

"Good." I complimented her, feeling totally at ease for the first time in awhile. "I'll make a chef out of you."

Naruko giggled at my proclamation, looking up at me and smiling brightly.

"I have a good sensei." Her smile was like a megawatt light directly in my face, and her eyes sparkled happily.

There was nothing I could think of right now at all for the future. Whenever I made a decision, I always had an eye on the future for the benefits and risks involved; it was a science.

But not now.

The only thing I could think of right now was how at peace I was, with a happy and bright girl joyfully taking to my cooking lesson better than even I did when my mom showed me.

The rest of the evening went by with the same blissful atmosphere, nothing that existed in this world being able to pull me from it.

/ (SCENE BREAK)

Kakashi watched through the window of Sasuke's home from a sizable distance away, listening in with the assistance of a handy Raiton technique that could read the sound vibrations off of glass that came from a person's voice.

It'd been trained well enough that he could understand what each flicker of the light meant when his Sharingan was open, making it child's play to understand what the last loyal Uchiha and his Sensei's daughter were talking about.

And judging by the subdued, but visibly present, smile on the boy's face throughout the 'training session', it had been good for him.

To think it was the hyperactive blonde that finally got the kid to relax. He thought amusedly. The irony of a girl that was the complete polar opposite of Sasuke in almost every meaningful way on personality wasn't lost on him. Frankly, this was probably good for both of them emotionally, not just Sasuke.

The bead of light rippled in the pattern of a laugh, matching up with Naruko tilting her head and body back into the chair with her mouth open and her eyes closed.

She looked like her mother so much that it was painful for him. The hair and eyes may have been every bit of her father's, but that smile and face was her mother through and through.

You would be so happy that she and Mikoto's boy are getting along. Kakashi blinked rapidly, a soft smile making its way onto his face. He wasn't particularly close to Uchiha Mikoto, but she had visited Kushina every week and he'd seen firsthand how close the two were.

And now their children were friends.

Kakashi continued to do his duty and monitor them, an ever present and unseen specter hovering over the two orphans and innocent children undeserving of the experiences they had weathered at such a young age.

/ (END CHAPTER)

Nothing else important to put at the bottom. I hope you enjoyed and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, everyone.

Raging. Like ReplyReport Reactions:Dacraun, MikeXM25, Nngflowers and 779 othersRagingSmurfOO7Dec 23, 2022NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 10: Training the brats, and music time New View contentRagingSmurfOO7Not too sore, are you?Jan 14, 2023Add bookmark#338New chapter out and there's not much else to say. Join my discord server to get chapters a week ahead of time. So, with that said, I hope everybody enjoys.

This is the link, just remove the space: discord /2XN2rzuFpM

/

"Where is it!" I snarled angrily, tearing through the storage room and throwing a box of clothes at the wall to get it out of my way.

Aside from a solid thumph, nothing else happened to distract me from the icy hot fury burning through me as I kept trying to find where the fuck it was.

If Itachi took it…

It was mine! Mom said she'd teach me how to use it, not him! It belonged to me more than it ever would be to him.

I'd call the bastard a son of a bitch, but it wouldn't be true.

"Fucking fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" I ended my tangent by punching a hole through the closet door and looking again, pushing aside the clothes still hanging up.

Stupid Itachi. Stupid village. Stupid world. Couldn't I ever catch a damn break from being reminded of how much of a useless relative Itachi was? He tortures me, kills our family, and now I realized he took mom's erhu without me knowing!

He stole my sanity, my family, and something so worthless, yet priceless, as my kaasan's erhu.

With his stupid face hovering in my thoughts like an indelible specter, I jerked the last bit of clothing and came across something that had me almost crying out in shock and terror.

The same crimson red eyes and face that haunted my nightmares was looking at me, before I looked closer and realized what it was.

Without saying a word or making a sound, I punched the mirror and shattered the glass, the broken image of my own face not changing how angry that final rubbing of salt in the wound made me.

Instead of continuing to trash the backroom to find my mom's musical instrument, I just left the house and ventured, deciding it'd be an excellent use of my day off to go murder a tree or rip something apart that wasn't an animal.

/

If I said that a wise man had once shared his wisdom with the world by saying, "Personal freedom can be found in the act of freeing others", I'd be a damn liar because one, I'm pretty sure I came up with that quote and I was neither a man in a technical sense or wise in the slightest; and two, because it was a steaming pile of bullshit.

The second part was illustrated no better than at this very moment as my already frayed and temperamental nature was put to the test during lunch break under the bright September sun.

"Shikamaru, if you don't actually put some effort into it, I won't bother wasting my time." I said firmly, shooting a glare at the Nara.

Said boy just sighed, slumping up against the tree as he failed to stick to it with his hand. "It's just too troublesome to deal with."

A month. An entire month had passed where I've been volunteering my time for Naruko's sake to help a few of the receptive students that had an interest in me providing a little help. Of course Naruko didn't think anything of it when asked about how she got better so quickly.

'Oh, Sasuke is helping me with taijutsu, he also invited me to his home for training.'

Whatever possessed that girl to clarify that some of our training sessions were at my house, I have no idea. That little tidbit overnight made every single girl aside from Hinata, because thank God for her being the only girl to not be interested in me, despise and envy Naruko.

As of now, I couldn't tell if my open hostility towards some of them left a clue that I wouldn't tolerate them being a nuisance to Naruko. But if it didn't, I wasn't looking forward to loudly talking about how I can't stand girls who are mean to my friend.

I was also starting to think that dealing with the girls aggressively trying to get my attention when giving them taijutsu pointers was preferable to helping Shikamaru. Naruko and I had ended up flipping a coin on who got to deal with him, it was that bad.

It was ridiculous! Shikamaru wasn't interested at all, dragged his feet on doing the steps necessary, and was only good at comprehending and knowing what he needed to do; nothing else was positive.

I should've put a Genjutsu on Naruko to make her think I won the coin toss.

"Either you deal with me being as… troublesome as you say everything that isn't Choji or a cloud is, or I'll find out exactly where you live and tell your mother that you're being rude to me." I threatened, pointing directly at him to get my point across.

Shikamaru shifted his bored and annoyed expression into a scowl, the threat obviously being more than a little aggravating to him.

"Tro-"

"Troublesome, yeah I know." I interrupted, looking to my left to see Naruko on the other side of lovely and friendly section of the outdoors that was the academy obstacle course we'd at for our current lunch break, and she was visibly having a better run of things judging by the sparkle in her eyes and the wild movements she made with her hands while speaking to Choji, Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru, and the newest addition after last weak; Ino.

I honestly didn't know what to think of her. Ino was... a special case. She'd vocally argued with Sakura that she was better at taijutsu than her, right after Kiba got beaten by Naruko the third time in a row that cemented her as second only behind me. That sparked an argument on which one of the girls was next best, disregarding Hinata, and Ino had barely won. That ended up evidently making her desperate enough to go to the most tomboyish girl in all of class for help.

And the way her smile fell when I told her to ask Naruko politely for help and to not bother me was actually pretty amusing.

The Yamanaka, along with Sakura, were intolerable to me. I could not stand any more than brief interactions with any of the girls that had that stupid affection and crush for the silent and 'cool' boy that ignored them. I'll let Naruko deal with them until a more complicated topic, like something related to rudimentary Ninjutsu, comes up.

"Ugh," Shikamaru groaned under his breath, "You know I didn't want help, right? Naruko just kept pestering me and I thought you'd be less troublesome, but you're worse."

I just gave Shikamaru a deadpan look, fighting the urge to roll my eyes.

"Something you should understand, Shikamaru," I said slowly, wanting it to properly sink in, "Naruko just wants what's best for you because she's happy and cheerful, and wants to make friends. I, on the other hand, just don't want you to be killed, not because I care about you as a friend, but because I don't like people dying."

Credit where it was due, because Shikamaru didn't ask for clarification like he didn't understand what I was getting at; he understood full well why I'd have an aversion to people dying.

At least people who I got along with, that is.

"This isn't fun for me either." I carried on, sighing in annoyance at feeling compelled to share with Shikamaru so he'd actually put a little effort into it. "So if I can deal with helping you out instead of doing something that might actually be productive for me, then you can suck it up too."

Shikamaru just looked at me tiredly without responding at first, not appearing to be enthused by what I said. But it wasn't like I was going to relent, because the thought of Naruko being upset by Shikamaru seemingly rejecting her help didn't sit well with me.

After a few seconds of us silently staring at one another, Shikamaru deflated and sighed audibly, looking up at the sky almost longingly where a cloud was slowly making its way across the deep blue of Ouranus' domain.

"I can't offer you anything to not sic your girlfriend on me if I say no." He muttered in resignation.

What?! My eyes widened in shock at what I just heard the boy say. Had I just misheard him?

"What did you just say?"

"You're friends with Naruko and nobody else, you help her with things, and you've had her over at your house supposedly," Shikamaru rattled off with a bored look, still having his arms folded behind his back and his head looking skyward, "And you act like my dad does with my mom when you're around he-"

I took several steps towards him and stared directly down at him, sending as hateful of a glare as I could muster without activating my dojutsu.

"Don't ever say that again, especially to anybody else." I demanded in a hushed tone. The last thing I needed was Naruko being embarrassed to be around me, or heaven forbid actually believe that was what my actual thoughts were.

And the last part of what he said before I interrupted him was downright mortifying. I could just about feel my cheeks warm from someone making a comment about that.

Was that how the other students saw us?

Shikamaru just rolled his eyes, sighing in exactly the same pitch and length as every other sigh of annoyance.

"You really are easy to distract." He pointed out, his eyes flicking towards my left.

I followed his line of sight and noticed that Iruka was ushering in the students, with Naruko ignoring him and walking towards us at a quick pace.

The smile on her face, the bright blue eyes that were fixed on me, and the overall shiny demeanor she displayed in contrast to me; Shikamaru's comment echoed in my head as I felt the urge to shrink away under her happy gaze.

He's just being a dick. Don't pay any mind to it.

"Sasuke!" She said my name happily, before turning towards Shikamaru. Instantly, her expression darkened and she sent him a frosty look. "Did you annoy him and be lazy?"

The Nara didn't respond, which was odd. He tended to smart off when he got called lazy. I turned to look at him, and I barely stifled a scowl of exasperation.

Shikamaru had evidently fallen asleep in the all of 10-15 second interlude between me talking to him and Naruko reaching us. Honestly, it was almost impressive, but not to someone like me.

Unless he was doing it to intentionally tweak me.

"Naruko," I said slowly, trailing my eyes from her over to the fast asleep Shikamaru, "Do I have permission?" The very simple question was asked in the most casual tone I could give.

Naruko looked suspicious at first, before she noticed the faint smirk on my face. Then, she grinned at what she deduced was my likely request. The nod she gave was all I needed and I looked down at Shikamaru, making a hand seal to manipulate my chakra to mimic lightning.

I then leaned down to be right in his face, a predatory grin on my face.

"WAKE UP!" I shouted directly in his face, jabbing my lightning coated fingers into his shoulder.

A scream bordering on feminine was torn from Shikamaru as he jolted upright, flailing his arms as best as he could to get away from me.

Whatever ironclad mask I wore around everybody else melted away instantly and I started laughing hysterically, barely keeping the frame of mind to activate my Sharingan to burn the image in front of me into my head.

Naruko was also laughing, almost wheezing as she almost fell forward while I stared at a wrathful looking Shikamaru, his hair standing on end and his breathing coming in rapid gasps from him being startled.

It took a great deal of effort, but I managed to stop laughing, but it felt like I was holding back a floodgate that had seemed to build up for months and was only released today. All the annoyance towards Shikamaru was gone, I just felt… light.

"Lesson one," I said, my lip quivering as I almost lost it again as my eyes spotted a few faint sparks of static dancing through his hair, "Don't go to sleep around me."

Shikamaru just ground his teeth, before standing up and dusting himself off.

"Troublesome, the both of you." He mumbled.

"Sasuke! Naruko! Shikamaru! Get inside now and stop playing!" Iruka shouted, gesturing for us to come on in.

Shikamaru finished giving me a resigned look, before sighing and shaking his head. "How did you even do that?" He asked, not looking at me as he started walking towards our Sensei.

"Training." I shrugged, giving Naruko a faint smile as she walked right next to me.

I could hear the frown on Shikamaru's face just from his voice, not even needing to look at him as he replied to my flat statement.

"That's Raiton Ninjutsu, how'd you learn that this early?"

Much to the vexation of Shikamaru, I elected to not answer the question because of how obvious the response would have been. Training really had paid off for me in so many ways, and party tricks to mess with a total lazyass was one of the less notable ones.

The three of us reached Iruka, who pointed towards the open door for us to go through, which we did and rejoined the rest of our class for another riveting day of indoor training.

/ (SCENE BREAK)

"You really should take care of your hair more," Ino chided her, "It might actually look good then."

Naruko felt her face flush from the spike of irritation at what Ino had just said, the lesson she was giving on maximizing the control gains made for leaf sticking blowing up spectacularly when her chakra flared with her emotions. The leaves completely disintegrated under the force of that internal energy that all Shinobi used, leaving a faint scent of ozone and an extremely annoyed blonde.

Fixing her eyes onto Ino's turquoise ones, Naruko managed to not say something snippy in front of Hinata and Kiba, who were currently the only other two listening in right now. Shino had been more reserved than even Sasuke was on his bad days and hadn't joined the little outing, and Choji was giving Shikamaru much needed company as the two most intelligent students systematically drove one another insane.

"Noted." Naruko succeeded in keeping her tone neutral, almost sounding like Sasuke did when he'd give a one word response.

Whether Ino was being mean like the other girls that were jealous of her and brought up how her hair was still shorter and looked bad compared to what it was, or was just honest about it, it didn't matter. Getting sheared like a sheep was on her list of things to never experience again, and reminders weren't needed or wanted.

But at least Inu had repeatedly whispered that he was sorry as she cried, so she knew he wasn't a jerk.

"Um, Naruko." Hinata's quiet tone was barely heard by the blonde Uzumaki, but it drew her attention back to the present. "Do you need new leaves?"

It was then that Naruko noticed that Hinata was holding out her hand with several leaves resting in her palm.

"Oh, uh, thanks." She replied awkwardly, trying to play it off by smiling and accepting the leaves. She then used her chakra to balance them on her fingers, while explaining what she was doing in the process.

Hopefully they could soon learn that wall walking technique she'd finally been able to manage with Sasuke's help.

At least the good help. She thought, shuddering at the memory of the first attempt Sasuke made at helping her with chakra exercises. He offered books. Books! Those things were cursed beyond all belief, and she couldn't understand how her friend could bear to look at them with his Dojutsu that he said burned every single little detail in his mind. Gai accidentally kicking her in the face during a spar made her head hurt less than trying to read that chicken scratch gibberish Sasuke swore would help her.

If anything, that might explain why Sasuke was such a weirdo at times. Too much devil book influence.

She might have pouted and thrown a bit of a tantrum, and maybe threatened to put an explosive tag she pinched off a genin at one point on the book, but it at least got Sasuke to actually explain it better than the demon book.

Without the blonde realizing it, a pair of familiar onyx eyes were staring at her back, the owner of said eyes disregarding his previous task to focus on the girl.

/(SCENE BREAK)

"Well, this is lunch break and I'm hungry," I said to my audience, taking a large bite into a chunk of precooked meat that tasted like spam as I was speaking to the gaggle of brats in front of me, "So I'll be eating while explaining this because you kept asking Naruko and she didn't know as much as me, evidently."

Me, Naruko, and about a half dozen other students were sequestered under the tree with a swing hanging from it while all the disinterested kids were doing whatever on the other side of the walled field that was the academy training and sparring yard.

But what I was doing at the moment was me holding up to the agreement I made with Naruko. She didn't know how to best articulate the intricacies of elemental affinities and things like that, so she was parading me in front of the others so I could be the one to explain to them in a way that wasn't overly clinical like how Iruka might explain it.

"I'll make this as quick as I can, how many of you know about elemental affinities and the details surrounding Ninjutsu?"

Only Shikamaru raised his hand, but he looked bored to an immense degree.

All the others; Ino, Choji, Hinata, Kiba, and now Sakura, who was earlier giving discreet glares at Ino from across the small span of space that made up the students, were looking at Shikamaru curiously.

Wanting to know the details, I addressed the Nara specifically. "How much do you know?" I asked.

Shikamaru just shrugged. "More than them, but not as much as you."

…

You can kill him later. Not in front of the others.

"Your participation is appreciated, Shikamaru." I deadpanned, noting that Ino was giving Shikamaru a death glare.

"Basic rundown:" I took a drink of water and cleared my throat. "Our chakra is capable of behaving like the five basic elements; fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning."

"But Iruka-sensei already said this at the beginning of the year!" Kiba said loudly, while Akamaru made a light yip sound from on top of his head. "It was kind of boring."

I didn't immediately respond, but I saw the desperate pleading look from Naruko that I don't walk away from helping.

Yeah, Kiba was right. We actually learned about basic elemental release knowledge at the beginning of the year, but not actual noted displays of Ninjutsu other than what we were expected to learn in the academy.

Probably an oversight on the curriculum's part. Very few things could motivate a kid to focus their mind on something quite like blasting a wall apart with a bolt of lightning, replace the wall with a wall of earth, and then glass the entire thing with a fireball.

Or maybe they didn't want idiotic, wet behind the ears, brats blowing themselves up or burying themselves alive.

Who knows.

"Boring, eh?" I asked rhetorically, before deciding to get things started a little earlier and reaching in my pocket to pull out a rudimentary storage scroll.

Fuck Mizuki seeing it or not. Orochimaru already knew I was interested in things ahead of the reach of most conventional kids, and it wasn't like a ten year old Uchiha being adept at a C-rank Katon Jutsu was that surprising.

"This is a storage scroll," I pointed at it unnecessarily, before pulsing chakra through my fingers to force the seal open and depositing a log about a foot wide and three feet tall, "And this is a log."

I then promptly picked up the log, tucked it under my arm, and went through hand seals to Shunshin a short distance. I then stood the log up and flickered back towards them.

Everybody other than Naruko looked at me like I had grown a second head.

"The Jutsu I just did is the Shunshin." I explained, already cooking up a brilliant, and not completely untrue, excuse on how I knew it that early on. "It's a somewhat controlled enhancement of your body with chakra, notably the legs, to help propel you forward at rapid speeds. Normally it's not something academy students would learn, but my cousin Shisui was good at it and gave me a few tips on it bef-" I abruptly paused, suddenly feeling cold as I thought of the last time I saw my older cousin alive.

I wish I had spent more time with him.

The awkward silence was almost deafening as I couldn't think of what else to say, but Naruko thankfully flicked her gaze towards where the log was and pulled me out of my stupor.

"But this is for you, Kiba." I managed to say, turning around and going through the needed hand seals.

Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu.

An extremely condensed ball of white-yellow fire shot from my mouth and struck the log with an audible howl and a crack like thunder from the air being flash heated from the flames.

The rush of heat expanded air blew through my tied back hair and kicked up some dirt as it washed over me and the other students, several squawks and exclamations coming from them, with one or two expletives slipping out from Kiba.

Once the wave passed by us, I smirked at my target, or what was left of it after my Jutsu.

The fireball had been condensed down to the size of a basketball with a long tail to it like a comet, and it had sheared through and incinerated the top half of the log, with the base being a scorched black ruin.

Mizuki turned out to be the one currently watching over us while Iruka was probably inside, because I turned to look when I heard a shout of surprise that came from the other side of the field to us. But that honestly didn't matter to me because it was just a reveal that I knew a D-rank and C-rank Jutsu fairly decently at 10, it wasn't like I belted out a Chidori or Raikiri.

" That," I said clearly, amusement bubbling up in the recesses of my mind as I looked at the extremely quiet Kiba, "Is what you can do if you actually pay attention to the basics. That's a C-rank Katon Jutsu that I learned when I was 8. It's actually a tradition for Uchiha to learn it."

This was probably the most vocal I'd been to a group in years now, but I didn't have that betraying feeling of caginess right now that usually made me averse to group interactions.

"Now, ready to listen after I was interrupted?"

Multiple nods from them was the reply I received.

"Everybody's chakra naturally gravitates towards one element in particular, such as mine, which is lightning." I made an example of that by sparking lightning chakra in my fingertips. "But as shown by what I just did to Mr Log behind me, you can train your chakra to act like other elements with time and effort... as well as impeccable chakra control." I added the last part in an intentionally forceful fashion to hopefully get them to realize how valuable good control was.

Again, I was sort of going over stuff Iruka already went over earlier, but with more additions to hopefully encourage them.

"Um, Sasuke." Hinata raised her hand, looking more than a little nervous as she gazed wide-eyed at me. "A question."

I never really paid too much attention before, but Hinata's eyes really were strange to see. Simultaneously odd, yet calming to look at; almost like a shining set of pearls, come to think of it.

"Yes, Hinata?"

"How… long did it take for you to manage to perform that Jutsu?"

"A few weeks for the fireball, and several weeks for the Shunshin." I replied, almost preening at how proud I was that I managed to improve my Shunshin enough for it to be combat effective. My spars with Kakashi had gotten very fun ever since I started making targeted flickers to try and pierce his guard.

"The Shunshin took you over two months to do without tripping over your own feet while changing direction, Sasuke." Naruko cut in, shooting me a wink as Kiba and the other boys snickered.

Hinata at least looked a little less daunted at learning the techniques I did, but I could feel myself get instinctively aggravated and I frowned at being subjected to the receiving end of a joke.

"And did you bring the papers?" The blonde added, deciding to stand up and walk over to me.

"Yes, I'm not forgetful and leave things where they shouldn't be." I said absentmindedly, hearing a suppressed huff from the girl at me making that thinly veiled barb towards her. Not my fault she forgot to put my eggs back in the fridge last week after she wanted to try making eggs on her own and turned my kitchen into a mess; and I ended up drinking them raw with some milk and honey later after she put them up hours after the fact and was hugging the toilet all day because of it.

With the Uzumaki Jinchuriki put in her proper place, I fished out the rolled up collection of chakra paper in my pocket and pulled the rubber band holding them all together off.

I then handed them to all, save for one, to Naruko so she could hand them out to all of them.

"This is chakra paper." I held up my own sheet as I saw Naruko hand them out to the six. "I'd give a history of it and how it was first discovered, but lunch break isn't long enough so I'll just be quick. Long story short, it reacts to chakra. You can judge what your chakra affinity aligns with by pulsing your chakra through it like when you're doing leaf sticking exercises. Go ahead and try, you go first." I pointed at Hinata.

The girl let out a faint 'eep' noise at being put on the spot, but complied.

"Wait, Sas-" Naruko started to say, but it wasn't fast enough.

With a slight pulsing of her chakra, the Hyuga heiress looked closely at the paper, but yelped and dropped the paper as it ignited, Kiba and Choji also jerking away since they were the closest to her.

Oh, I didn't warn them. Oops.

"I forgot to mention that the paper would ignite if your affinity's fire." I said uncomfortably, feeling my face heat up in embarrassment.

I just did exactly what I had accused Naruko of doing, forgetting something so obvious that I bordered on ridiculous. At that moment, I wanted to learn Doton just so I could sink into the Earth, I was that mortified.

Naruko saved me once again as I failed to continue the chain of sentences, but that was also down to Hinata sending me an uncharacteristic glare that was more than a little off-putting.

"Quick thing; fire will ignite, water makes it wet, earth will make it crumble, lightning… crinkles? And wind cuts." The normally hyperactive Jinchuriki explained at a rather fast pace, but it got the message across.

All of them decided to just do it then and there, not going in a proper and steady order like I was wanting.

It's chaotic. I thought internally, feeling my face twitch at the unforeseen adjustment to what I had envisioned was going to happen, and it originated from a certain orange clad blonde.

Chill out, you don't even want to help, remember? Naruko and chaos work fine, so just roll with it.

The line of thinking lasted for at most a second, so I didn't miss anything when I forced my mind back to the present and I saw all the different reactions the papers made to the chakra of the half dozen ducklings I was trying to teach to fly.

Kiba had earth. Ino, water. Choji, earth. Shikamaru, fire. Sakura, earth.

"Looks like Ino is the odd one… out." Naruko purposefully delayed the last word, her already expressive blue eyes practically glittering with a faint maliciousness targeted towards the other blonde of the group.

I don't even want to know. I kept my thoughts to myself as Ino huffed under her breath angrily. Whatever catfight or whatever the hell was brewing wasn't something I wanted involved in, so I elected to move on from what my eyes were telling me.

"That complicates things a bit, but not impossible to work with." I said, drawing a hopeful look from the Yamanaka. "Everybody else seems to have earth and fire, which is very good. Shinobi with a fire affinity have no issue learning earth and vice versa. But water is a little tricky, because it's a polar opposite to fire as well as being weak to earth."

None of the latter half of my explanation helped calm down Ino in the slightest. The girl had progressively grown paler, with her eyes shining with emotion.

"Then how am I supposed to do anything?!" She exclaimed, looking almost ready to cry.

"I managed to help Naruko," I said quickly, acting hastily to not have an uncomfortable situation happen in front of other kids, "And our affinities are opposite; wind and lightning. So I can probably think of something." The sudden jerking of her head to look back up at the accidental promise to help her made me cringe internally…

I'm a dumbass.

I also neglected to point out that I just gave Naruko notes on Futon and gave her tips on Katon exercises personally, but Ino didn't need to know that.

Still feeling the urge to recoil away, I moved on like nothing had happened.

"Fire is the most common affinity in Hi no Kuni, so fire will be the easiest to get in-depth information on honing. But the most important thing to do is chakra control."

I then went on a lengthy explanation that chakra control was vital for young Shinobi, no matter how boring it was.

Control meant bolstering your muscles and physical stamina with greater ease, it meant stitching wounds together, it meant illusions could settle upon a target's mind with a featherlight touch, and it meant that even the lower tiered bracket when it came to reserve size could contend with, if not match, the elites.

My brother, vicious and stupid bastard that he was, exemplified that like no other. Had I not been antsy about ever bringing him up, even to Naruko I had to force myself to, I would have used him as an example of what a comparatively 'weak' heavy hitter could accomplish.

"So, yeah, that's about it. Those annoying and boring leaf sticking exercises will eventually work up to walking on vertical surfaces." I took a few steps to my left and walked up the tree, then up the branch until I was hanging by my feet and looking at them all upside down. "And the third tier that graduated genin training under a Jonin sensei do is water walking."

I didn't elaborate that I'd been able to do it for a year without issue.

"Most of those scary, legendary S-ranks that Konoha has produced required good chakra control, and they used the same training techniques the academy teaches us now. Iruka-sensei may sound dull at times, but the Sandaime, chosen student of Senju Hashirama, selected him as our teacher and approved of the curriculum for a reason."

I may hate the old man myself personally, but I didn't have any qualms about using his good name for my own gain in backing up what I was trying to get across to the kids that were currently hanging on to every word I was saying.

"Jiraiya-sama has naturally immense reserves, Orochimaru is a genius, but Tsunade-sama used her chakra control to become the greatest medic of her generation and be capable of breaking down buildings with a single punch. All of that comes from her chakra control, so doing the boring stuff prepares you for the cool stuff later."

That was… about it. There wasn't anything else to say, Naruko could explain anything else.

"I need to eat now." I used that excuse so I could stop being looked at, the attention now suddenly being strainful on my personal comfort.

I basically zoned everything out when they all started talking amongst themselves, with Naruko now being the center of questioning about advice.

The rest of that day passed as usual. I did more Kenjutsu training with Yugao after I left the academy, and I kept at it on breaking objects with my fingers enhanced by the chakra strengthening technique… That, and I took the blonde hellion to Ichiraku's to massacre the ramen.

/(SCENE BREAK)

"I said I want to access the papers in storage." I said clearly, fighting the urge to start swearing at the bitch currently assisting me.

I was at the Shinobi village equivalent to a bank and I was trying to open up one of the half dozen vaults that Sarutobi had rented with my permission to store all the belongings that were now mine, and this stupid assistant manager wasn't letting me go in because of 'procedure' or whatever line of bullshit she was trying to feed me.

Ten minutes of arguing, and nothing was changing.

"I'm sorry, Uchiha-san, but it would be against policy for me too-"

"Do I look like I care about your damned policy?!" I demanded, not caring that I was causing a scene as a few genin and chunin who were depositing or picking up money stared at us. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke, and I want to open up a scroll with papers and journals, specifically a Bingo book."

"I got one." A fresh faced chunin just a couple yards away offered, reaching into his pocket.

Not. Helpful.

"I need an older one, specifically at least ten years old or more." I said flatly, not looking away from the woman old enough to be my mother. I would have been polite to the chunin who offered, but my blood was running hot right now and I was focusing on not trying to punch a hole through the marble counter and make my way to the back of the building to get my stuff on my own.

"Oh, okay." The chunin said quietly, going back to whatever he had been doing before.

The teller was unamused by my icy glare, and she spoke again.

"I will repeat myself, Uchiha-san, you can't just request a same-day withdrawal from storage. Resealing large quantities of objects takes time."

My teeth were clenched so tightly I could almost feel my jaw pop. I didn't care that it would inconvenience them, I'd be willing to throw the hellacious amount of money I have at it to make it worth their time.

"I will literally request a D-rank mission for multiple genin teams to clean up the remaining stuff in whatever seal is popped open so your staff won't have to. I need a bingo book today."

"Then you should have said something in advance." She replied simply, before gesturing for me to leave. "Now if you don't mind, other customers are waiting."

The hatred I felt in that moment was indescribable. I could feel my chakra reacting to my fury at denial, and it was like molten lead simmering through my tenketsu.

How dare she not let me have access to my stuff!

So caught up in how pissed I was, I slipped into English as I leaned and got on my toes to more easily look up at her through the chakra conductive enhanced glass.

"Bitch."

Without saying another word, I stormed out of the building. My hand shoved forward as I reached the door and I pushed the door wide to get the hell out of there. I then instantly made a beeline to an alleyway 40 or 50 yards ahead and to my left, my Sharingan active as I tried to scan for anybody following me.

It didn't look like anybody was following me. There was nobody but civilians randomly walking about, so I kept going.

The back alleyway I reached turned out to be where a restaurant threw out its garbage, judging by the large dumpster by the back door that led out of the building. Other than the moss growing on the old and weathered brick on the buildings, there wasn't anything in particular that stood out.

I glared at pretty much everything in sight, my breath unsteady as I tried to calm down from how angry I was. Too many people were in the streets by my own standards, because they were preparing for the ten year anniversary of the Kyuubi attack.

After I got to my temporary destination and was satisfied enough that nobody could see, I turned to the dumpster that was in front of me and I slammed my hand into it, clenching my fingers down as hard as I could. The sheet steel groaned and bent under my hand's impact, but nothing more.

The nerves from the tips of my fingers and all the way up into my neck tingled and burned from the sharpened influx of chakra fueling the supernatural strength of my bones and tissue, and my own caustic anger at that fucking bank!

As I prepared to drive my fist through it, my Sharingan taking in every little imperfection and detail of the oversized pile of shit metal bucket, an errant but unwavering thought flashed through my mind.

I still need a damned picture.

The task I had set for myself still wasn't complete, not even remotely. Beating a dumpster like it stole my last 20 wouldn't change that, so I was basically acting like nothing more than a chimp beating against the glass at a zoo.

Slowly coming back into my own thoughts, I pried my fingers off of the dumpster, wincing at the sound of each and every joint in my fingers popping.

Time was of the essence. I could sate my anger on something or someone else later, but now required a more important mission.

I took off running to my house, rapidly trying to come up with a new plan.

/(SCENE BREAK)

I stood rooted to one particular spot in my hallway, not making any sound as I was lost in my thoughts on what to do while I looked straight at the dreaded door that led directly to my parents room.

Most of today was a complete bust. I ended up raging at my inability to find a picture and had ended up burning off my mercurial temper by going to the edge of the woods and proceeded to beat a tree to death for three hours until it had been reduced to pulp; the only reason my hands weren't in the same state was that I could insulate my joints and fingers better than I could actually harden my strikes, so all I had was superficial cuts on my hands that I promptly healed after murdering the poor, innocent tree.

The fact that my emotions were burning this hot made no sense to me, and it actually frightened me a bit as to the source of it. Not even Itachi caused me to violently lash out at something to tear apart.

It was Naruko's tenth birthday tomorrow, and I was unable to get her what I knew she would desperately want. A picture of her father was out of the question, but Uzumaki Kushina was definitely an easy one to get…

Or at least I thought it would be.

Fuck the bank teller. I wasn't going to admit to being wrong over something I was perfectly well within my right to claim aggrieved status over. I offered to do the sifting myself, and I was basically told to scram.

Bitch.

The anger at least felt better than dread, so I kept thinking of the bitch's face as I summoned up the emotional fortitude to push the door open and walk in, confident that I'd manage just fine.

Literally the first thing that hit my senses was the faint scent of my mom's perfume that had me reeling mentally like I took a hammer blow to the head.

'Tachi, why!'

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…" I practically chanted to myself on repeat as I tried to fight off the encroaching memories of that night, the wet, metallic scrape of steel against bone and the death rattle of the last exhale; sounds burned into my head by the Tsukuyomi.

Fighting the urge to vomit up my supper of spiced meat and vegetables, I rushed towards the closet, feeling a pair of crimson eyes on me that were fixed within a pale and merciless face throughout the entire ordeal. I tore through the items on the floor, tossing aside old baby clothes of mine and broken toys kept for nostalgia, until I mercifully got the box I was looking for.

Godhelpmegodhelpmegodhelpme. I could feel his gaze boring a hole into my head as I shut my eyes and took off running out of the room with the box of pictures in tow.

By dumb luck, I didn't trip and fall with my eyes shut and I escaped into the hallway. My momentum caused me to ram my shoulder into the wall, but I didn't care as I focused on remaining standing as my legs were shaking horribly. My hand lashed out at the door and I managed to slam it shut, my eyes barely opened to see the handle. Once the door clicked shut, I came to a decision within a second or two and let my shaking legs give out. And I unceremoniously dropped to the floor, trying to calm my breathing.

"Son. Of. A. Bitch." Each word was enunciated by an inhale and exhale of breath, but I was still trembling from head to toe. A repeat of the phrase slowly pulled me out of the near death spiral, and I was able to stand on my own after a few minutes.

It would have been better if I had done it earlier and grabbed the box before I absolutely needed it. This was a complete and total nightmare, and the worst part hadn't even been gone through yet.

I was never going to do this again. I'll do this for Naruko because she deserved part of her past returned to her, even if it was a remnant of it. But never for anybody else, she was special and unique compared to this cursed hellscape of a world.

Even if I was pretty sure the scent of perfume had to have been when she knocked something over when she stayed over two nights ago, and that's what caused my bad reaction.

Taking a deep breath, I stooped down and picked up the box of photos before I made my way to the kitchen table.

Pulling the lid off, I took a shuddering breath and steeled myself for what would undoubtedly have me crying like I hadn't in a long time.

/(SCENE BREAK)

"Sasuke," Naruko pulled her friend by the hand forcefully, almost dragging him along towards the shop she was wanting to go to for her birthday, "Come on, hurry up!"

Sasuke pulled back on his arm, a faint pop coming from his wrist. Naruko instantly let go and it almost caused the quiet Uchiha to fall backwards, but he caught himself before he fell.

Naruko cringed at the scowl that appeared on his face, the colour contrast between his eyes, hair, and the paleness of his face being made all the more unsettling by the flash of blazing anger that smoldered under the surface.

Or maybe it was a trick of her vision, because Sasuke groaned in a way that meant he was only mildly inconvenienced or annoyed.

That was one of three distinct grunts or groans she could translate in place of an exclamation or shout. One for an affirmative or acknowledgement, another for faint amusement, and the one for annoyance.

"When are you going to remember what I said about how much stronger you are because your chakra is strengthening your body?" He asked rhetorically, hissing as he rotated his wrist clockwise and wiggled his fingers.

"Um, oops?" Naruko blushed, unable to provide an explanation. It wasn't like she meant to. It was still weird to her that her chakra and her fitness had made her very strong compared to Sasuke, and the adjustment to that wasn't going well.

What if she accidentally broke something, or some one?!

"Whatever, where are we going?" He waved off any lingering annoyance and looked at her expectantly after asking the question.

Naruko came out of her stupor at her friend casually dismissing what she had been worrying about, much to her relief.

"Um, music shop!" She managed to exclaim, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand while she held Sasuke's with her other, more gently this time.

She noticed a tick mark appear at Sasuke's temple, a smile threatening to break across her face at successfully messing with him by calling it a 'music shop' instead of its actual name. The store sold music instruments and was owned by an older guy, but not quite as old as Jiji, named Nakamura.

And she wanted an instrument to play after she heard Gai talk about a few when she was recovering from a gloriously exhausting run across the village. They sounded fun.

At least that was what she'd tell Sasuke. She'd heard Gai mention, almost absentmindedly, that music had helped him through loss, and it had given her an idea on to help her best friend with some of those times where they'd be walking to Ichiraku's and he'd freeze while looking at siblings hugging or laughing about something, or parents with their kids.

Sasuke was completely silent as she led him through the streets of Konoha and she ignored the looks she was receiving, some confused at the sight of her grinning happily with Uchiha Sasuke in tow.

They reached the store in record time and Sasuke was finally set free of her grip, a look of suspicion on his face as he looked at the entrance to the building and the slightly out of shape state the sign was in from weathering.

"Has this fallen on tough times?" He mused aloud, his gaze still sweeping across the front of the establishment.

"Nooo." Naruko rolled her eyes, "You just don't like their style, 'ttebayo."

She'd asked that almost exact same question to the owner. Thinking about it, she probably sounded rude and that was why he got annoyed with her, not because of whatever reason the villagers hated her.

Sasuke looked skeptical, but he just shrugged his shoulders instead of saying anything contrary.

"Then let's go in, I guess."

Yes! She thought triumphantly, walking as quickly as she could without looking impatient and got to the door, pushing it open with the unmistakable chiming of a bell as she did.

/(END CHAPTER)

Some more fluffy goodness as Sasuke, whether intentionally or not, is trying to make this the most memorable birthday Naruko has ever had. Time will tell if he succeeds in this accidental endeavor or not.

So I hope you all enjoy. Peace!

Raging. Like ReplyReport Reactions:MikeXM25, Dacraun, Uthalem and 597 othersRagingSmurfOO7Jan 14, 2023NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 11: Happy birthday New View contentRagingSmurfOO7Not too sore, are you?Feb 17, 2023Add bookmark#368Just in case a couple people might be concerned about Sasuke's emotional state, last chapter and this one all happened within a few days. There's a reason he's in a more vulnerable emotional state.

As usual, this was made available a week ago on the 10th on my Discord server. Join to get earlier access and a server exclusive thing or two.

This is the link, just remove the space: discord /2XN2rzuFpM

Anyway, that's all. Enjoy the chapter.

(LINE BREAK)

With the two young Shinobi in training making their entrance, a generic greeting came from Mr Nakamura behind the counter, the man that Naruko suspected was a retired Shinobi from the collection of slash scars across his right arm sounding bored, not to mention his choice in having a senbon for a hair pin to hold back his shoulder length greying hair.

But she was confused when she heard Sasuke scowl and mutter behind her about something called Daton and SinTsunade, or something like that.

Weird. Does Sasuke know this place or something?

Gai had mentioned this store by name. Supposedly, this was one of the more popular places for Shinobi customers to go when repairing their instruments or buying replacements.

If Mr Nakamura was a Shinobi before, then that made sense. But why would Sasuke know and not mention it to her, if he did know? Unless he was just being weird.

After that oddity that hopefully didn't come from all those icky theory books had passed, Naruko watched Sasuke intently as he looked around the store for the first time. She could already imagine how he was taking in the details of the interior.

Wood flooring, beige painted ceiling and walls, and several vertical display cases with assorted instruments in them, organized by quality and the instruments themselves.

"Hi, Mr Nakamura!" Naruko called out politely, expecting Sasuke to parrot her with one of those responses that almost sounded pre-recorded when he wasn't feeling up to being involved in a conversation.

But he didn't even do that, he just quietly went over to a section of instruments and was looking at them without saying a word.

Honestly, it had her a little worried seeing him like that. Something must have been on his mind that he hadn't been willing to share, but she didn't want to press either in case it put him in enough of a foul mood to not be with her on her birthday.

Putting that thought aside, she walked up to the counter and smiled at the man.

"I've come to a decision on what I want to buy!" She said happily, having done what she had been recommended to do by the man the last time she was here; look at the booklet he'd given her and listen to some of the instruments played at the, well, it was a nightclub, but they did serve adult drinks to the Shinobi and civilians. She'd spent a couple nights, not telling anybody, sneaking in there to listen to the different impromptu and amateur bands playing music so she could get a better read on what instruments made what noise and what could be done with them.

"Oh?"

"I want a shamisen." She kept smiling, having liked how quick and energetic it sounded when being played by a few different people she'd listened to.

Plus, she thought it looked funny when one of the guys she saw playing, who had similar looking hair to Sasuke, had whipped his hair around by violently bobbing his head while playing notes with such intensity that she thought he was going to break the strings.

All she needed to do was convince Sasuke to do it, then she would have never ending entertainment.

"Then I'll help show you through the collection of ones I think will suit you." He said, walking around the counter and towards the section that houses the chosen type of instrument. "Also, did your shy friend mention what he was interested in?"

"Um, no?" Naruko replied quietly, having not asked Sasuke what he was personally interested in. All he had told her was that he was going to be purchasing something very specific in question here that wasn't related to him buying her whatever she wanted. It honestly was annoying how adamant he was that he was going to pay for her choice of instrument today.

'I'm getting a present, alright? You're turning 10, so quit whining. We can trade, I'll get you something for this birthday and you get me something when I turn 100.' The argument was fruitless. Sasuke refused to budge, so she relented.

"Hmmm, then I shall need to offer assistance to him after you've found what fits you here." He said neutrally, casting a glance over his shoulder in hopes of spotting Sasuke's head behind one of the shelves. Evidently, he didn't see him because he turned to look forward once more and gestured for her to follow him to a collection of shamisens displayed in a glass case.

What followed was a rather surreal experience for her, as she was handed different shamisens with varying shades of colour and a few other different aesthetics, but with overall the same design.

After what it felt like an hour of testing different ones out, 'playing' a couple offkey notes to test each one out, she finally settled on the one that was orange… naturally.

"I do apologize for it taking so long," The owner of the store said with a hint of sheepishness after they had finished up, "One of my employees didn't place the proper ones in place, I hope you don't mind."