The sun was already up when I finally noticed I hadn't slept. Ink had dried on my hands and across the table like a second set of fingerprints. The scroll Minato-sensei left me resting beside another one, smaller, bound in red cloth. Kushina-san's notebook. I'd almost forgotten she forced it on me after Obito's funeral.
"If you're going to stare with that eye forever, at least learn how it works," she'd said, shoving the book into my chest. "And when you're done brooding, finish my notes. Someone should."
I hadn't been ready then. Maybe I still wasn't, but guilt was no longer a reason to stop.
The apartment smelled like solvent and cheap instant ramen. I sketched a design on parchment—spiral seal mirrored around my left temple, the lines connecting down my cheekbone into my chakra network. Kushina's margin notes were written like a scolding: "Eye drains too much; regulate like a valve, not like a bloody cork."
"Valve it is," I muttered.
By noon my living room looked like a crime scene of calligraphy. The first attempt failed immediately: chakra backlash, a bright spike of pain that made the Sharingan flare open on its own. But I didn't stop. I swore under my breath and tried again on my shadow clone.
It took three clones to help. They were the ideal scapegoats as I carved the new seal directly onto their skin. When it was finally stable, I pulsed chakra through it. The world dimmed. The drain stopped.
For the first time in years, silence filled my head.
I reactivated the eye, light flooded back, sharper than ever.
"Thank you, Kushina-nee," I whispered. "You were right. Valves are better than corks."
Morning brought another D-rank. Naruto was thrilled and jumping like a monkey much to the dismay of the fox, Sasuke was moody, probably one of those days, Sakura looked like she had a forehead examination by Ino.
'Poor bastards', I thought. D ranks are stupidly annoying especially for an S rank ninja but since it's the jinchuriki and the last uchiha on my team, I got at least a C rank for missions pay without doing anything. It disguised the mission to maintain the village's aesthetic integrity into a community service.
While they worked, I leaned against the fence and pretended to read Icha Icha, toggling the new seal every few minutes. The chakra feedback buzzed like a bee under my skin, stable, responsive.
The hum rippled outward. Sakura's chakra brush jumped in her hand, spattering red paint across Naruto's face.
"Narutoooo, you dumbass!" she yelled.
Naruto froze, dripping crimson streaks. "What did I do this time?!"
I calmly muttered, "Collateral damage observed; subject painted accidently".
Sakura gawked and said to Sasuke. "Did he just call me a subject?!"
"Scientific terminology," I corrected.
A red Naruto scowled. "You mean sabotage!"
I shrugged. "Science progresses through sacrifices."
The rest of the mission continued in awkward silence. My seal held perfectly.
Another training day – Tree-Walking, Face-First Edition
Between D-ranks, I put them through chakra-control drills. Sakura was flawless within minutes. Sasuke and Naruto followed soon after. Naruto… provided entertainment. Every time he slipped, the thud echoed through the woods.
"Focus your chakra evenly," I called, balancing upside-down on a branch while marking time for my suppression seal.
"Easy for you to say!" he yelled back, hanging from one leg before tumbling.
"Practice makes perfection," I said.
By evening, the clones had gathered enough data, the activation limit ten minutes before feedback. Not perfect, but better. The Sharingan rested quietly behind the valve seal, like a loyal hound finally leashed.
The reservoir seal frightened me more than the eye suppression. Tsunade's version stored chakra through years of constant feed; Kushina's notes suggested a smaller, faster circuit—dangerous, incomplete. I spread the red notebook open on the floor. Her handwriting looped warmly across the page.
"If you ever try this, remind yourself to breathe. Do not forget."
Even in ink, she was still caring for me and yet I couldn't even properly take care of sensei's only child. 'What a useless disciple I am' I thought grimly.
I drew the pattern over my sternum, each spiral burning into skin with heated ink. The smell of iron filled the room. Chakra surged through my chakra coils, then balanced itself, glowing faintly violet through the fabric of my vest. When I released it, a second pulse of energy rolled through me, strong, clean, short-lived. It worked.And it hurt like hell. Guess Konoha didn't steal everything from the Uzumakis.
Tora the cat scratched Naruto again. A rare smile broke emo Sasuke's lip, Sakura scolded Naruto and I wondered what's the age of Tora the cat. Even I saved that same cat twice, it makes you wonder if this damn cat experimented with hashirama cells. Is it hagoromos pet or something. I timed the seal's endurance while pretending to supervise. Ten minutes, fifteen, twenty the new pattern held steady.
By evening, with the clones I tested simultaneous activation: reservoir release with eye suppression. The feedback nearly fried my clone's chakra coils; I lost a clone and half a bookshelf ( Jiraya's books).
"Every improvement costs a body," I muttered, rubbing ash off my sleeve.
Another D-rank, another fence. This time Naruto painted slogans instead of boards, until I toggled the seal again and the brush burst from his hand, splattering his own hair.
He glared. "You did that on purpose!"
I smiled behind the mask. "Coincidence. Maybe your chakra's rebelling."
Sakura acted unamused but her inner self was snorting like a hog. Sasuke muttered, "Tch!!, Pathetic."
By the end of the mission, the eye seal operated seamlessly.
The final test combined everything. Seal the eye. Feed the reservoir. Release.
Chakra flooded every limb until veins glowed faintly blue under skin. For a terrifying second I thought my body would rupture, then the flow steadied. I could breathe. It was faster this time. Laughing quietly, I collapsed against the wall, exhausted and alive. "You always said I needed to rely on others, Kushina-nee," I murmured. "Guess shadow clones count. Lord Second you truly are an amazing Hokage. "
When I woke hours later, the clones had cleaned up. One left a note:
Next project: practical application.
Dusk draped the village in amber when I bit my thumb and slammed my hand to the floor. Smoke burst outward, familiar scents filled the room. My loyal hounds.
Pakkun emerged first, squinting up at me.
"Kakashi," he said, wrinkling his nose. "Your apartment smells like burnt parchment and poor life choices. What the hell happened here? Did that green pervert and you did something unholy? Your father would be disappointed."
I ignored all the bitching of Pakkun, "Progress,Pakkun, progress" I replied. "You still complain like an old man."
"I am an old man," he sniffed. "What now?"
I unrolled a series of tiny tags. "New formula. You and the others are going to help me test distance markers. Hide them where I can't find it."
Pakkun eyed the seals warily. "You sure these won't explode?"
"Eighty percent sure. Why?Are you going to put it in bath houses?"
"That's not comforting. Nope I know that the old man would be watching, You like to do experiment without him right?"
"Yes, Progress Pakkun progress, Old people may not like what I am about to do." "Kakashi, did you inhale any of the Hokages stash?" "Fuck you Pakkun"
The first test was simple: a ten-meter jump. I placed the tag at one end of the alley, focused chakra, and blinked forward. The world folded; space rippled. My clone reappeared beside the tag, slightly dizzy.
"Ten meters," I said.
Pakkun huffed. "Congratulations, you just invented walking faster."
We tried again, thirty meters. By the third attempt, fifty meters, it was almost smooth. Pakkun's fur bristled but his paws hit the ground cleanly. "You are imitating your sensei, but you are doing this all very fast. "
"I always knew the principles. I just didn't have enough chakra to burn, I didnt wanna butcher his jutsus" Pakkun muttered, "kakashi I'm biting you, if you are going to get sad again."
"I'll add it to the risk assessment." i replied.
The tests went on for weeks but I got the hang of it.
Pakkun and the pack watched my training all the way.
"You are almost your sensei except for his range."
"Maybe I should call myself the White flash"
"You even have his naming sense."
"I hate you Pakkun"
One of the dogs snickered," Oh we know you like the acorns."
Mutts, loyal they say. They don't know they are mocking a God Killer.
Between Missions
The week blurred into motion and repetition.
Mornings belonged to Team 7's endless D-ranks: retrieving Tora the cat again, clearing weeds, repairing fences the genin had broken the week before. Naruto complained, Sasuke glowered, Sakura tried to keep order. I used every errand as an experiment.
While they bickered, I hid chakra-tags under barrels, across rooftops, at street corners—an invisible constellation of coordinates only I could sense. Each time I passed a marker, I bled a trickle of energy into the reservoir seal, feeling it thrum stronger.
Naruto never noticed. Sasuke did, but said nothing; I caught his eyes narrowing whenever the air shimmered near me.
"Sensei," he asked one afternoon, "why do you vanish sometimes when no one's looking?"
"Stealth practice," I said.
He didn't believe me, but the excuse satisfied him long enough for me to tweak another formula.
After weeks of practising I wandered into the Mission hall with a whining Naruto and a drunken Tazuna. And the A rank mission begins.