The Legacy of The Uchiha

Past and Future

"You know you've found someone special when you can just shut the fuck up and share a comfortable silence."

Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction)

The night that Naruko spent at Kento's came and went with most of it being spent in silence as the body of Kento's mother was removed from the home and the two sat in mostly silence. Such a night was a rarity for Naruko as she normally was loud and energetic, but the display from earlier sucked the energy straight from both of them.

Kento appreciated the silent company to a degree as it gave him a slight distraction from his own thoughts. The bitter loneliness of his life held off until she left before he was stuck contemplating what exactly to do with his life.

His mother had desired for him to hold onto his dream of becoming the best medic in the world, but what was the point? He had nothing, worth living for in a world without his mother.

A dream like his was clearly foolish: how could a person hope to stand against death and expect anything but heartbreak...what good was all those hours he spent training his chakra control when in the end it wasn't good enough...he wasn't good enough.

But what Kento wanted didn't matter, not anymore, and what his mother wanted was clear...he was her legacy, the only legacy of the Tanaka clan that had long since the Third Shinobi World War had left the family broken into pieces and scattered amongst the great nations as refugees. His mother's family was the only sect of the Tanaka clan to choose Konoha as a place for reestablishing themselves, and his grandparents long since passed away, leaving Kento as the only reminder that his mother ever existed.

Memories of her began to overwhelm his pysche. His hands came up to clutch his head as he began to pace aimlessly as he remembered her.

A eight year old boy sat in complete darkness with a small piece of paper crumbled up in his hands as tears spilled down his cheeks and the only sound that came from the room was his erratic breathing.

The door creaked open, a very young woman popped her head into the room as the light behind her made her brown hair shimmer as she looked to the small boy who hid under his cover feigning sleep.

"Kento...Kento, do you want to talk about it, baby?"

The boy merely rolled over to his other side and the crumbled paper crinkled at the sound of his movement. The mother took a step into the room and the door shut behind her as she then turned on the light to the room which caused the tears that rolled down his cheeks to be illuminated as Kento clenched his eyes shut tight.

His mother took small steps closer to the bed before she stood just above him and wiped his tears away, "You can tell me anything baby. I won't judge you, I just want to know what's wrong so I can help you." Kento finally opened his eye and glanced at her warm smile which began to comfort his anxious mind.

"You promise you won't be mad?"

"I promise."

Kento finally conceded and uncrumpled the paper and then handed to his mother before breaking his gaze from her eyes as he focused on the wall as his anxiety peaked. He knew that she would break her promise, after all who could love a failure? After all he was just a civilian stuck with people like the Hokage's daughter and the Uchiha, he just didn't belong.

"I'm not mad at you, just disappointed."

He knashed his teeth against each other, "Why? Because I'm not like the clan kids? You don't think I belong, do you?" his nails dug into the flesh of his palms as blood leaked out into his hands.

She put her hand on his as a sign to stop hurting himself. "I'm disappointed in your grades because I know that you're better than that, and I believe that you could be better than those clan kids by a mile if you trained as hard as you could."

"You're lying!"

"You know about the Fourth Hokage, right? He came from a small clan just like ours with almost nobody behind him and he managed to outwork all the Sannin to become the most powerful ninja in all of Konoha, and I believe that you can be just like him."

Kento's frown began to dissipate as a small smile formed in it's place, "Wasn't the Sannin Jiraiya a...dead last, just like me?" his mother blushed. "Yes, yes he was, but I wouldn't recommend the pervert as a role model."

"What if I fail...I don't want to disappoint you, Mom."

The two pairs of eyes meet, "So long as you stay true to yourself and follow your dreams I will never be disappointed in you. It's a special thing to be able to chase your dream, most people never get the chance to but I think that you're more special than you will ever know. I really believe that you can be great at whatever you choose to be, and if that isn't as a traditional ninja then it's fine to me. I always thought Tsunade was the best out of the Sannin anyways."

That day meant more to him than he had ever expected. Never did he believe so fervently in his ability to succeed that it actually caused him to pay attention in class and not give up whenever he couldn't find immediate success...it was so easily hidden away when he had to become a man that his dream became something that he had to do instead of something he wanted to do.

He could remember the first incident that had started him on the path of being a medic as opposed to a regular ninja: the first time he ever saw a man die...

A four year old boy with light black hair breathed in the cold winter air an exhaled with his breath coming out as a a steam like cloud. He shivered as the cold air made his exposed skin burn up as he kicked a small can as he stood outside the door where his mommy had gone in with a strange man about twenty minutes ago.

It was a frequent occurrence for him to wait for her outside of rooms for short periods of time, but it wasn't so bad since his mommy had bought him a nice winter coat so he wouldn't be as cold anymore. He hoped that soon mommy would buy him a pair of brand new gloves that didn't have small holes in them that the air would get into.

He didn't like the looks of the few people who would walk by and look at him with a sad face. They would say bad things about his mom and then try and convince him to follow them, but he promised his mommy that he would stay exactly where she asked of him.

"Give me your fucking money!"

Kento's felt a chill run down his spine. It sounded like a man was close...really close. He wanted to knock on the door so mommy would let him in so he can be safe, but he said that he wouldn't do anything...

"Stop! I don't have any money." He began to tremble in anger...he wanted it to stop. Slowly he crept close to the end of the alley, right where the sound had come from. He peaked his head around the corner for a second to be met with a man with a mask holding a man with a ripped coat who looked even worse off than he was by the throat with a blade held in his right hand.

"You have no money? Our little gang offers you protection for that little cart of yours and you don't even have enough money to pay us back? We've been plenty considerate too."

Tears formed and his breathing began became erratic. He brought his trembling hands up to his face and held them over his mouth.

"I just need more time, how about by next week? I CAN GIVE YOU THE MONEY BY NEXT WEEK!"

The masked man chuckled darkly, "I was given the task to off ya if you didn't have the money. I'm gonna enjoy this." a loud thud was heard as the masked man let a curse escape his lips as the man punched him in the chest.

He then heard a guttural scream and the sound of the knife piercing flesh multiple times as one man cried out for help. Kento fell to his knees as his eyes couldn't hold back the tears any longer.

He heard one of the men running away and Kento then peaked his head back around to see the man in the torn up winter coat on the ground with blood pouring out of several stab wounds. His eyes met with the glossed over blue eyes of the man who looked into his eyes with a strange look that he was incapable to describe.

"Don't die, mister. I can get you help!" He promised the man, he felt bad that he did nothing to help him...it was his fault that it happened, maybe if he stood up to the masked man he could have stopped it...but he was so scared...

He stood from the man's body and ran to the door he was supposed to wait at and started knocking at the door frantically. A man said something inside that Kento didn't understand, but then his mother said something back to him and he then heard soft footsteps towards the door that opened to reveal his mother.

"Baby I told you that you shouldn't knock while I work—" She took notice to the blood on his new jacket, "What happened! Are you hurt?" she looked him up and down for any injuries before taking a deep sigh of relief after finding none.

"M-Mommy there is a hurt man! We gotta help him." She took a few steps outside with her arms holding the warmth of the small room against her body as she followed her son to the end of the alley where they found the injured man with his hands held tightly against his wounds which still leaked out blood despite his best efforts.

"Look away, NOW!" His mother shrieked before guiding him back to the room and Kento saw the man he had heard inside throwing on his winter coat, "The hell did you do, kid?" his mother clutched him even closer against her body.

"Kane, somebody got stabbed in that alley out there! Go check him out and we can call for help."

The man eyed the boy, "Did the kid see it?" he gave a weak nod to the man before shying away from his gaze.

"Calling for help might not be...in our best interests. The kid can show me the guy, you stay here Mika."

"He shouldn't—"

"THE BOY HAS ALREADY SEEN IT AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!"

His body began to shake once more as he felt the fire of the man's tone. His mother then tapped him on the shoulder and tried to reassure him with a smile, "D-Do as he says, Kento: he's not that bad...really." he nodded at her and walked out to the alley once more as the man followed him to the man who was barely clinging to life.

"Shit he was carved up good." He turned to Kento, "You saw the guy who did this, right? What was he wearing?" he gave a small nod before furrowing his eyebrows as he remembered all that he could about the man.

"He wore a scary black mask that hid his face from the nose up and he wore a black shirt with a coat and black pants. He ran that way," he made a gesture to the exit of the alley which lead to a small market place.

"Leave the bastard..." The man said with venom after hearing the description of the masked man. "He's too much trouble to help, besides he looks like he couldn't even afford the help of the Shinobi Medic anyways, and they're the only ones who could have a chance at patching him up at this point. You did good staying out of this, just pretend like it didn't happen and things will be alright."

"W-What if we help him! You got a first aid kit? We can save him."

"The only way you're saving that bastard is to complete the Academy in five minutes and then train in the Medic corps for one minute. It's too late."

"I'LL DO IT MYSELF!" He growled out before running back into the room only for his mother to stop him before entering the bathroom. Little did either of them know that his eyes flashed bright red for a split second as the child raged.

"What's going on baby? Is everything alright?"

"I-I want to help the man, but HE won't let me..."

She smiled at him sadly, "You can't save everyone, sometimes people are too hurt to heal." Kento sobbed, "That doesn't mean we should do nothing..." she brushed his hair with her hand. "You're really brave to try and help a stranger like that and I'm proud of you."

"I should have done something...anything, but I was too scared..."

"One day you will be able to help people like that man...just not right now. You still have to grow and learn a lot, but one day you will be able to make a difference. Do you want to go home?"

Kento nodded 'yes' to her and then rubbed his eyes with his hands. She gripped his hand and lead him to the door, walking right past the angry man who looked at his mother with deep anger, "I still got half an hour." she glared back at him. "I'm leaving. Keep the money, asshole."

It was that day that taught him two things: one that life was not fair, and that he hated being helpless. The mental scars had never truly left him whenever he remembered a man dying in the gutter because he couldn't afford decent medical care. It was the first of many, but that was the one that stuck with him the longest because of his inaction and inability to save his life despite having every opportunity to do so.

Later that year on his birthday his mother had told him that she saved up enough money from her work to send him to the Academy when the time came. That gift was a path out of poverty, and he knew what she was doing so that he could one day become a shinobi...and it became clear what he had to do: he will honor his mother by doing exactly what he promised to her.

He had to pass. He would achieve his dream, and in order to do that he had to learn two whole new jutsu's by morning...at least they both relied heavily on chakra control.

The Bunshin was a simple enough trick...it just took the smallest amount of chakra possible, a task which was simple enough...except the fact that he had no material to study, and he had very little recollection of the hand signs...and the test was tomorrow.

It was going to be a looong night...

The Next Day

When Kento woke up he found himself face down in his notebook and a small puddle of drool leaking out of his mouth. The alarm clock had been the source of his rude awakening. What happened? His memory of the night before had been hazy as he spent much of the night digging through his limited resources for any information into the jutsu's that he needed

Eventually he did find the instructions crudely scribbled down by his past self in a fit of boredom where he actually paid attention to Iruka instead of his own interests.

He spent almost all night practicing the techniques...and eventually he did get the skills down. The henge took the bulk of his time since the bunshin was a simple chakra division. The last thing Kento recalled doing was practicing for the written test portion that came before the application test.

Today was the test...today was the test! Kento's eyes shot completely open as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He knew the punishment for showing up late on a test day: automatic failure, and he could not afford to fail.

If only he didn't live almost at the exact opposite end of the village...his legs pushed forwards with all his strength as his eye sight turned into tunnel vision as his mind became engrossed in panic. His lungs burned and his stomach begged for him to refuel as he had forgotten to eat dinner.

The human body was capable of incredible feats when it was pushed to it's limits. This was an example of this as his body pumped his low chakra reserves to their limits in order to get his body moving fast enough to give him a chance to make it in time.

Adrenaline was a hell of a drug.

After several more minutes of pushing his body to the extreme the Academy finally came into eyeshot. Kento's lungs burned as he took one more gasp of air on the homestretch towards the school.

He threw open the door to the Academy and as soon as the classroom came into sight he was met with the pissed off glare of Iruka. "It's a shame, Kento. I really wanted to pass you. I did, but how can I pass a shinobi who is too lazy to show up for a mission."

"Sensi—"

"I'm sorry, but you've failed. I cannot in good conscience pass on a shinobi who could possibly place his comrades at risk. You just had to show up on time, and then you would have had a chance to take the exams like any other student."

His stomach began to twist into knots as his fists clenched in anger. How could he have let this happen? Despite his intentions he managed to fail...his mind was overcome with grief...his promise he made to his mother meant nothing.

The helpless little boy that he had been suppressing for so long began to rear it's ugly head once more. Kento had no desire to allow Iruka to see him in this state so he turned back to the doors he had come through with his shoulders slumped in defeat.

He took a seat on a bench in front of the school and began to shudder in anger...what could he possibly do? No direction...no purpose...no reason to live. His physical pain became apparent to him as his stomach began to ache once more due to lack of food.

"Where were you? Did you pass or something?"

Kento broke his forlorn stare as he was confronted with the grinning face of Naruko Namikaze with a new headband fastened to her forehead.

Her pity was the last thing that he wanted, "I failed." he turned his head away from her gaze completely. "WHAT! How did you fail! You can do that super awesome trick but you couldn't do a bunshin and henge! I can teach you real quick and then we can get Iruka to let you test again really quick."

"I failed because I didn't show up...and the last thing I want is to be passed because you can get your father to pity me enough to mess around...I tried but I guess I missed my alarm somehow, and then with where I live—"

She refused to back down, "It isn't pity if you have a reason to why you're so late! It's almost impossible to make it from your place to here, believe it!" he growled. "THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO! I'm a failure, I will always be failure. I never belonged for a second."

"That's not true—"

"Naruko, leave your classmate alone. I have something to talk to him about."

Mizuki stood with a half apathetic, half irritated look on his face as he gave a small frown to the girl. Obviously the girl didn't want to comply but messing with an authority figure when she was so close to graduation was a less than ideal decision and she then backed away and went off to the rest of the class.

The Chuunin's face instantly lessened in tension as a small smile took to his lips, "I heard about your predicament, and I have no interest in allowing you to fail so I think that we can do a special field test that will replace the final exam and then you can become a Genin." Kento immediately chuckled at the man.

"There is no such thing as a field test, I'm not stupid, but I want to know what you're doing."

Mizuki flashed a shuriken hidden in his vest to the boy, "I'm more than a match for you, don't try anything!" Kento turned his head slightly sideways. "I don't want to stop you: I want in. My mother is dead, this village means nothing to me if she isn't in it."

The treasonous shinobi gave a toothy grin to the boy, "Good, there is a very specific scroll I want you to take from the Hokage. We need something to offer to Orochimaru in order for him to take us on as his disciples." Kento nodded to the man.

"Simple enough, where do you want to meet up?"

"In the woods outside the gates. We move to Hidden Sound as soon as we meet up."

"Fine, see you then."

Mizuki turned away and retreated away from the school. As soon as the coast was clear Kento snarled in disgust: Orochimaru is a gross creature who was almost everything he hated about this world! The bastard had caused so much pain...Kento took a deep breath to collect his mind and ward off the painful memories of his youth that were caused by the Snake.

If anything this was the chance of a lifetime: he had vital information and the ability to show his capabilities as a shinobi. Orochimaru was Konoha's most wanted criminal and if he could provide a lead then his dream might not be impossible to achieve...and if he wanted to have a chance he had to capture Mizuki and make him squeal.

Unfortunately doing this alone was simply an impossibility: his ninjutsu and taijutsu were significantly below Chuunin levels and genjutsu would simply not be enough. Which meant that he needed a partner...

Naruko was his only choice: the girl could get him the scroll and physically the two of them together could defeat Mizuki, besides she was the only one he knew...the only one he could give any sort of trust...not that he could trust her completely: he still had fear that her interest in him was simply a mask in order to continue being the happy little princess with her little human charity case.

His mind now clear, he stood up and walked down to a bored looking Naruko who was sitting with a bunch of guys standing around her completely fanboying out. Her face was stuck in a blank glare as her eyes met an equally peeved Sasuke Uchiha who sat on the bench across the yard from her with fangirls all around.

"Come with me," Kento extended his hand out to Naruko after breaking through the line of pissed off fanboys who all looked on with anger as the 'Dead Last' came and made an attempt at talking to Konoha's princess.

Naruko grinned at Kento and took the boy's hand and pulled him away from the pissed off fanboys, "Important business! Back away from me!" she laughed. Kento felt blood rush to his face as the girl's loud voice garnered plenty of attention from the group surrounding Sasuke, even the brooding Uchiha looked on with a small measure of intrigue.

Kento was dragged like a rag doll for miles as Naruko pulled him as far as possible from the loud crowd of fanboys who tried to make chase. The area they were in by the time Naruko stopped running was one that he wasn't all to familiar with. Food stands were everywhere along with fruit stands with several apartment builbuilt high around them.

"Just a little further and we can talk about whatever you need to talk about."

She guided him towards a small stand and took a seat, "This is one of the few places I can go where people don't hound me all of the time! They got pretty good food here too." Kento gave a nod.

Once both placed an order, Naruko turned back to Kento with her same bright smirk from earlier remaining firmly in place.

"What is it that you wanted to tell me about."

"Mizuki is a traitor, and he has a lead to Orochimaru."

Naruko's blue eyes widened, "What! Are you sure?" he nodded once more. "He tried to fool me into stealing a scroll as some type of replacement test. I knew better and pushed out his true intention: he wants to gift the bastard with the forbidden scroll that the Hokage has access to."

"What! I always knew Sasuke was trouble!"

"Not that bastard: Orochimaru!"

"You're talking about the Orochimaru, right? The monster who ran all those labs?"

"Yes, and if we can stop Mizuki and bring him to the Hokage then we might be able to find out exactly where the Snake is hiding."

"ALRIGHT! This is my first step to becoming Hokage! We can do it!"

Kento's lips curled into a small smile as he watched the girl's enthusiastic reaction. Her personality was...uplifting, even in silence her presence had done a world of good for his mental state when she stayed with him in the wake of his mother's death.

"So how are we gonna get him?"

"He wanted to meet just outside the gates so I could hand off the scroll and then we would go to the Hidden Sound, though I'm sure he would betray me: he has no reason to take a kid like me with him. I suppose we could talk to your father and try and get him to support this...though he'd probably just give the task to ANBU..."

Something about that last part confused Naruko, "I guess they would," she heard the slight waver in his confidence at the end of his statement. "Do...do you want to do this yourself?"

"...I can't afford a chance to redeem myself to slip into the hands of ANBU. If I don't do this then I might never have a chance to be a shinobi...and I'll never have a chance to live out my dream, and then I would have broken my promise to my mother."

"You're a fool." The arrogant tone of Sasuke Uchiha chided. "Do you honestly think that the Hokage would promote you based off recklessly handling information like this without speaking to him about it?"

"Bastard! What the hell are you doing here? We didn't ask you to follow us!"

"Your blabbering gave me the perfect exit, besides I wanted to see why the dobe was so interested in the failure, you haven't disappointed me yet."

Kento rolled his eyes, "Fine, I suppose I could tell the Hokage. I need the scroll anyways, but if you came along then it wouldn't be so reckless, would it?" the Uchiha's curiosity peaked.

"What does that mean?"

"Think about it: you are both far above normal Genin in terms of skill. If I brought you along then we should easily be able to handle a lowly Chuunin. It might even be a good test of skill for you."

Sasuke had two buttons to press: the insult button, or his massive ego. Kento knew that about as well as anyone who had spent more than ten minutes with him, and Kento had been stuck silently watching from afar in the classroom as Naruko and Sasuke would bicker from time to time for years.

Those interactions had created a negative opinion of the two outright, which was compounded by the advantages both of which had in life. His bias against Sasuke severely diminished after he had heard of what happened to his clan when they were younger. He could sympathize with the boy losing everything, but that didn't mean that they were friends: Sasuke's attitude only became worse over time.

It took him years and many stolen medical books to realize that Sasuke's arrogance had been a coping mechanism. After that realization Kento was mostly sympathetic from afar: despite the blood line and heritage he knew that on the inside that they were both equally as empty.

"Fine, let's go see the dobe's father and convince the man to let us do this."

Minato's Perspective

"...You're kidding me right?" It wasn't every day that my daughter did something to completely blow my mind and expectations—no that was almost every other hour that it happened— and to be frank this time wasn't completely her, no I also had to credit the two boys, the last two people I ever expected her to do this type of thing with: Kento Tanaka, and Sasuke Uchiha 'The resemblance of Itachi and Shisui was strong to say the least' especially Sasuke since my daughter had a rivalry with that boy that could one day match the vigor of Madara Uchiha and Harishma Senju. I only hoped it didn't end the same way...

"Lord Hokage, this information is all true. Mizuki will be off to Sound tonight if we don't then we might never have another chance to locate Orochimaru."

The boy Kento's face betrayed him: his tone was calm and collected, but his face told a story of pain and anger directed towards Orochimaru, did the boy lose someone?

"What do you know about Orochimaru, Kento? This sounds a bit more than someone trying to do their part to bring down a criminal...it seems almost personal."

The boy shut his eyes, "When Orochimaru operated in Konoha all those years ago the people in the East End where I live had been an easy source of...test subjects, and he made people all around us start to disappear...they had a nickname for him: The Monster of The East End, they called him." his eyes opened once more to reveal the full extent of his anger.

"I only ever had one friend as a child: his name was Shinku, we used to hang out and tell scary stories...well as scary of stories as five year olds could tell...we used to talk about the Monster of the East End all the time...I never thought that a ghost story could be so real, and that bastard had taken my only friend and turned him into a damn lab rat!"

My initial reaction was sympathy: the boy had suffered a great deal...a great deal that could have been avoided with my action. It shamed me greatly that I had allowed scum like Orochimaru to live in my village for so long and experiment on the people I swore to protect.

It was only after the Third died to seal the Fox that Orochimaru became brazen enough to increase his activity in such a reckless manner that we became aware of the things that the traitorous Sannin had done.

My daughter had tears rolling down her eyes and even Sasuke had a small frown on his face, though he made his best effort to conceal the show of emotion.

"I offer my apologies for the pain Orochimaru has caused you. His evil has greatly troubled my tenure..."

This group was the one I wanted to become the heroes of the next generation, the ones who would one day become the greatest shinobi to walk the face of the earth...I'm only a little biased in my desire for my daughter to be the child of prophecy and slightly better than the other two...and then one day she will avenge her mother and bring balance to the world by killing that masked bastard who killed my wife...

I gave a sigh: I suppose since Kento had failed the Acadmey's test it meant that in order to establish the Team 7 that we needed it meant that I would have to give him a test of my own, and capturing a Chuunin with information leading to an S-ranked Missing-Nin definitely outweighs doing the most basic of jutsu, which I'm sure the boy already knew...now why he had shown up late was another story.

"Fine, I will give you the scroll so long as you promise to work as a team: Kento since it's your information you will take the lead, you two follow orders or else we will have trouble, understand?"

Sasuke gave me a perturbed look, "Lord Hokage? Why would Kento lead if his skills were the worst of the three of us?" I wanted to tell Sasuke that Kento had managed the near impossible: getting Naruko and himself to work together. If that wasn't indicative of who was the leader then I might just have to reconsider my qualifications for this job...less paperwork is appealing. I supposed I owed an excuse in order to save the chemistry.

"Because this mission will be Kento's test to prove his worth as a shinobi. You agree that if you were in his position that you would want to have control of your own destiny?"

I needed to speak to the boy in private: he had to know what he was getting into by putting himself in between two prodigies with... a complicated history.

"Naruko, Sasuke, please leave so I can speak to Kento alone, thank you."

Naruko huffed and stood up from her seat while Sasuke silently obeyed. I hope that they don't destroy my tower, it would take forever to fix the place if they got at it in here.

"So how did you convince those two to work together? They've been bickering and distant ever since the Massacre."

I took note of him shifting in his seat, "Well I've been in class with the two for years...Naruko's taken some interest in me, and I'm sure she told you about what happened..." I nodded: Naruko's message about Kento's dying mother lead to an emotional conversation yesterday...it made me wish that I could have been the one who died that night so Kushina could be here with our daughter now.

"Sasuke was unexpected...I really didn't know what to think, but the prospect of testing himself against a Chuunin was something that he wanted to do.

"They used to be the best of friends...but I have to say that I'm surprised that somehow the relationship they once had is still there, just different...I hope that they can find that happiness again."

I pulled the scroll out and handed it to the boy, "Make sure they don't kill each other or you for that matter." he nodded back to me.

"I won't let you down, Lord Hokage."

End of Chapter

Hello everyone, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, the last of which before the, "Offical." formation of this new Team 7. Though you will get to see them in action at the first part of the next chapter and then they will form teams in the second part of that chapter.

As for Sasuke's character he became involved due to actually having a backstory with Naruko from when they were younger which lead to a bond that is holding on by a thread due to Sasuke's change in personality that happened after the massacre.

S/O to, "Blood Bag." and "The Boy on the Team." I paid homage to those characters by using their names for two characters that had a deep influence of Kento so you could say it's a meta reference. (Kane and Shinku.)

I've figured out what I'm going to do for most of the story and it will not be an easy ride. I'm a fan of characters who develope over time and sometimes those developments won't be a positive thing...