Author's Notes
Hi, everyone, it's been a while. Sorry for the long break, but at least some of good came out of it, because the first couple drafts sucked. Notes and plans are at the end of the chapter. Let's hop right in.
Thanks go to Masashi Kishimoto for creating this wonderful world that we can play with for fun and no profit.
Chapter 3
Sasuke opened his eyes.
The wooden ceiling was still there, as were the walls, as was the silence. His house was right in the middle of the Uchiha compound. The village was another world existing beyond the outer walls, and only the Hokage Tower and the Hokage Monument were visible looking down at the sprawling buildings. The sun peeked through the windows, admonishing him for oversleeping. He checked the clock. It was five in the morning—an hour later than the time he usually woke up.
Sasuke rubbed his eyes, sighed, got up, and stretched for ten minutes. He opened the wardrobe and brushed his fingers across the row of yukatas before settling on a light-blue one with black grass patterns. He wondered if Naruto had ever worn a yukata or any kind of kimono for that matter. Probably not, if the quality of his teammate's equipment was any indication.
"Teammate," he said, tasting the word on his tongue. "Hn. Still sounds strange."
He walked to the traditional sliding doors to his room but didn't open them. Instead Sasuke bent down, found the nail and the string that was tied around it. Carefully, he unwrapped the string while keeping tension on the string. He then re-wrapped it around a small lever on the wall and pulled, adding just the right amount of tension. Something clicked, and kunai slid out of the slots around the entrance to his room. He took them, laid them on the table, and walked into the hallway, carefully keeping off the tiles with pressure plates under them. He got to the door of his parents' bedroom.
"Mom, Dad, I'm coming in," he said.
The room was as they had left it. The bed was made perfectly, the adjoining closet was closed, but there were documents strewn all over the tiny table in the corner. His father had sat there nearly every evening working on the paperwork he hadn't wanted to leave at the office. Sasuke sighed, picked up a soft cloth off the shelf, and started dusting the room. The carnations on the bedside table were still fresh, so at least he didn't need to replace those. He went to the kitchen.
There were rooms on either side of the hallway, and about half of them were trapped. He wondered if his new sensei would help with concealing which room he slept in. It probably wouldn't fool the likes of his brother for long, but at least he'd get a bit of time. Sometimes ten seconds was all that was needed, as Itachi would say.
Sasuke brewed himself some tea. He carefully monitored the temperature to make it suitable for the calming blend he was working on. He added the leaves and checked the time. In the two minutes it took the tea to gain just the right aroma, he walked to the front gate—avoiding all the traps—and picked up his mail. He smiled: there were only two scrolls this week.
He got back to the kitchen, took the tea leaves out of the water, blew on it, and began eating. His back was straight, like his parents had taught him, but he was forced to drink his tea with a cold sandwich he had taken out of the fridge. Both his mother and father had been great cooks, and Itachi cooked too. Back then, there had been no need for Sasuke to learn, and now he was too busy with training. He sighed. It was good his parents couldn't see their family heir eat bread with lettuce and ham. They would have disapproved. He had a meeting at a restaurant today, so he ate less than usual.
After breakfast, he unfurled the scrolls. The Meiku were trying to push their youngest onto him. He groaned. The girl was only five, and they weren't anywhere near the most influential families of Konoha. Did they think that stubbornness would somehow let them win against an Uchiha? And why the hell would he even get engaged to a five-year-old? The second one was more interesting. The Imaru were the ninja clan in charge of Konoha's banking. Their family had rather low Chakra reserves, but they compensated for it with financial acumen and knowledge of poison. Their heir was sixteen, and they wanted him to meet her.
Sasuke hummed. This was one well-done letter.
He took the Meiku proposal, threw it into the fireplace, and burned it with a brief Katon burst. He then took up his brush and wrote a reply to the Imaru.
Dear Sir
Thank you for the offer of help in revitalizing my clan. Unfortunately, I am not ready to start a family at this moment. I do not yet have the power required to keep my clan safe.
When I get it, I will be sure to remember you, should your offer still stand.
Uchiha Clan Head,
Uchiha Sasuke
The new signature would take some time to get used to. He was a Genin now—a legal adult. He could sit on Council meetings, get plastered, and visit pleasure houses. He smirked, wondering how the other newly minted Genin treated their new freedom. His new freedoms didn't mean jack to him.
He got outside, practiced his family's Taijutsu katas for half an hour, and headed into town. On the way he gave his response to a letter courier Genin who bolted off to the Imaru homestead.
He got to Yakiniku in fifteen minutes and was happy to go inside. There were far too many fangirls in the streets, and he could use a private booth, a tomato salad, and a well-roasted chunk of meat. A mop of blond hair was sticking out in a corner. Naruto was standing, staring at the entrance, looking not in the least bothered by people sneaking glances at him and whispering. Sasuke again wondered what that was all about.
"Hey, bastard, over here!"
"Dweeb, for God's sake," said Sasuke walking closer. "You are making a scene. Sit the hell down."
Naruto pouted and narrowed his eyes, but he did drop onto the sofa. There were less turned heads now, which was good, because Sasuke hated attention. Not like he could somehow become something else except the Last Uchiha. At least, people bitched about Naruto's pranks, so if the orange menace stopped them, they might lay off him. Though villagers did seem to hate Naruto a lot more than his juvenile jokes warranted. He had once seen a shop owner chase after the blond with a meat cleaver after Naruto painted his dour shop front orange. Both colors looked like crap, so Sasuke didn't understand what the fat man had to be upset about.
He was about to order when the door to Yakiniku opened, and a pink-topped bundle of hero-worship entered looking straight at him with fire of love and devotion in her eyes.
"Damn it. I completely forgot that thing was with us," he said.
"Shhh, don't be rude, Sasuke. We are a team now, better believe it."
Sasuke's brow twitched at the verbal tick. Fangirls made him sick.
"One day," he said. "I'll snap. I'll take a puppy, walk into a manicure parlor, and skin it alive in front of these damn airheads. See how they'll worship me then."
Naruto slowly blinked at him three times, turned away, and waved at Sakura who had crossed the restaurant at that point.
"Sakura-chan, I saved a seat for you," said Naruto.
He pointed next to himself. When Sakura moved to sit next to Sasuke, he growled with such animalistic fury that she instantly plopped down near Naruto. There might have been Inuzuka among his ancestors. It was possible, he supposed, especially if some Uchiha girl had gotten very drunk.
"Don't worry about the bastard," said Naruto. "He's prickly as a porcupine. Don't you think it's great I'm not like that?" he asked, spreading his hands as if to show off his awesomeness.
Sakura only snorted, and Sasuke had to agree. That orange jumpsuit was the most ridiculous ninja attire he had ever seen, and he had seen a guy in green spandex running around Konoha screaming about youth, while his suit allowed anybody count the growing hairs on his ass. Okay, maybe Naruto's clothes weren't that bad.
"So, I guess being late is sensei's thing?" asked Naruto.
"Seems so," said Sasuke. "Dweeb, you promised me an explanation."
Naruto picked up the menu in the most pathetic attempt at deflection Sasuke had ever seen. The boy took out his toad-shaped wallet, counted the money, then looked at the menu again. He sighed heavily. Sasuke ignored all of it.
He said, "Don't worry, dweeb. There are seals all over this place, made before most Fuinjutsu masters got killed. Nobody can hear us outside this booth, and we are in a corner, so they can't read lips." Sasuke leaned in. "It's a Bloodline Limit, isn't it?"
This jolted Sakura out of her paralysis, and she looked at Naruto. "You have a Bloodline Limit, Naruto? Why have I never heard about it? Everybody brags about Bloodline Limits. Except Hinata, but she doesn't talk at all."
"I sort of have one." Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "It's difficult to explain."
Sasuike snorted. "Let's order then. I doubt our sensei will appear in the next hour. Shit. I expected someone with better work ethics."
He noticed Naruto stare at the back of the waitress who had taken their order. His eyes moved like he was reading something, and it was far from the first time Sasuke had seen him do it. She shrugged her shoulders as if she was trying to get something sticky off her back and hurried to the kitchen.
While they waited, Naruto said, "Look, it's a big deal."
"Tell me how you learned Fire Breath in a day," said Sasuke. "It took me two weeks. With scrolls and the Uchiha affinity for fire."
"Sasuke-kun, why are you talking to him but not me?" asked Sakura.
Sasuke turned his head to her in a mechanical motion and said, "Because he isn't useless."
The girl folded upon herself like a wilting flower and seemed to retreat into the sofa she was sitting on.
"Sakura-chan…" Naruto said. "Bastard. Take that back."
Uchiha looked at him. "Why? Naruto, her Taijutsu is atrocious. Her Chakra reserves are pathetic. She doesn't know any Ninjutsu except the Academy Three. Are you even ready to kill, Sakura? And I don't mean the rabbit they forced you to feed and kill and eat this year. A human being." He paused. "Without the cooking and eating part."
She raised her pink head a little, "Shinobi are expected—"
"You see what I mean, Naruto." Sasuke slowed down, and let his voice warm a little. "I suppose it could be worse. She was of some use yesterday."
"Sasuke, nobody is ready to kill," said Naruto.
"I am. But that isn't the issue here. In our entire class, the only people who take or job seriously are me, you, and Shino. Everybody else is dead weight. As they are, they will get themselves and their teams killed. So, Sakura, if you don't like being called useless, then stop being useless. Train more or die."
Luckily, soup arrived at this point and interrupted the conversation. Why did people always get pissed when he told them the truth? The entire Academy carried themselves like they lived in some rainbow-and-sunshine world, and he knew it to be a lie, but when he called them out on it, they said he was a jerk. It was true in general, of course, but there was nothing bad about telling people their deficiencies, so they would get out of his face.
"So, you've been watching me, Sasuke-kun?" asked Sakura.
Sasuke blinked. What the freaking hell? Did she even hear what he had said? Perhaps there was a Genjutsu placed on her. He reached out to Sakura, touched her shoulder, said, "Kai!" and channeled a burst of Chakra into her. She just looked at him like he had just made her day. Sasuke groaned.
"She is a fangirl," he said. "Fangirls don't deserve a fast death."
Naruto resumed eating, but he took a long look at Sakura. Sasuke wasn't surprised. It wasn't every day you discovered your teammate, who you were supposed to depend upon, was borderline insane. Except Naruto was doing that thing again where he was staring into air and moving his eyes like he was reading.
"Holy shit, Sakura," said Naruto. "You know this isn't normal, right? Sasuke just insulted you. Maybe, you should, you know, talk to someone? I read about this, it's a Medium Fangirl Disorder. If left untreated, you may end up stealing items from the object of obsession, commissioning a body pillow, eliminating competition, provoking the object into violent outbursts for the sake of attention, or kidnapping and raping the object,."
The girl went red again, swallowed her soup, and pointed at him. "You are just jealous because of how great Sasuke-kun is."
"Yeah, right, sorry. Say, Sakura."
Sasuke blinked. Apparently, somebody had been smart enough to identify fangirlism as the malady it was. Although Naruto reading about psychological disorders was about as believable as giving up on ramen. If his teammates went on like this, he'd have to do something about it. There were too many ways Naruto's general weirdness and Sakura's obsession could jeopardize a mission.
"Dweeb, if you don't stop evading, I'll force the answer out of you. Remember I was top of our class when it came to desensitization training."
Naruto shook his head. "I'm not changing the topic, bastard, but, for the record, making that rabbit commit suicide was impressive. It's just bizarre how Sakura stares at you. Anyway, I'm not smart enough to explain how what I do works." He shrugged. "Ero-sennin could probably do better, but he's not here, so—"
"Perverted mountain hermit? Who is that?" asked Sasuke.
"Ah, right, you don't know him. It's Jiraya of the Sannin, but he is really a pervert. He writes this over-the-top smut that is just ugh—"
"Hold on," said Sakura. "Jiraya of the Legendary Sannin?"
Naruto's remaining food was getting cold, but the boy didn't pay it any mind. Sasuke saw he was nervous, but not in the usual about-to-get-caught way. It took him a moment to place the facial expression. Naruto looked vulnerable.
"Yeah, the Hokage asked him to help," said Naruto. "You remember how I skipped school for two weeks a while back?"
Sakura said, "Yes, Iruka-sensei told us you had a concussion during training and needed rest."
"Right, so what actually happened is my Chakra started going out of whack. You know how I have a shit-ton of stamina, right?"
"Tell me about it," said Sakura. "I can't forgive for making Sasuke-kun look bad."
Naruto ignored her. "Well, it turned out I had as much Chakra as a Jounin, but I had absolutely no control—nobody teaches it worth jack at the Academy. No leaf-sticking, wall-walking, that sort of stuff."
Sakura nodded, for once taking the dweeb seriously. "Our Jounin teachers are supposed to take care of that after they decide what kind of techniques to teach us."
"Right, but that was a year ago, so no Jounin-sensei for me. It got bad, Sakura-chan. I stopped sleeping, I practiced Academy Ninjutsu till I dropped, I even stopped enjoying ramen. The Old Man saw me, and he could tell what was happening, so he called Ero-sennin."
Sasuke moved to interrupt Naruto but then thought better and just gestured for him to continue.
"So he came in, took a look at me, and said I could die from Chakra overload. He tried draining it, but it wasn't much use, so Ero-sennin came up with this super-advanced Seal. Took him a week of work, and I thought he'd keel over by the end, but he did it."
Naruto looked around to make sure nobody could see them and lifted up the hem of his white shirt. He channeled a bit of Chakra, and a complex pattern appeared on his bare midriff. The symbols were so small, Sasuke could make them out only thanks to his unnaturally sharp eyesight. He saw Sakura go a little pink, and thought there could be hope for the kunoichi. The image wrapping across Naruto's stomach looked like a dragon coiling around a spiral. The dragon made three loops and each next one was made of smaller and smaller symbols.
Naruto said, "He designed it in four days and put it on me in three. Ero-sennin still has no idea if he got it right. He didn't sleep much that week."
Sasuke leaned in closer, but it didn't help. He could tell an exploding tag from a Seal used to transport goods or dead bodies, but those seals had very basic structure. An anchor, a couple brush strokes indicating purpose and connectors tying the image together. There were hundreds of symbols visible on Naruto's stomach and the Seal clearly stretched beyond the visible patch of white skin.
"I think this thing was supposed to suck my Chakra into a Genjutsu that would help me learn stuff. Make the important bits stand out, improve my memory. Sort of like the Sharingan."
"Oh? That is interesting, my little minion," said Hatake Kakashi who was lounging in a chair next to Naruto.
The blond jumped in his seat and nearly sent the remaining soup flying everywhere. He turned and stared it their teacher. "How in the name of Kami did you get here?"
"M-m-m, I walked? And then sat down. You three should really pay more attention."
"Bullshit," said Sasuke. "That was a Genjutsu."
Kakashi rolled his only visible eye. "Naruto, please continue. It's not nice to leave a story unfinished, you know."
Naruto grumbled a bit. They ordered the main dish—Sasuke picked yakisoba with pork—and went on. "So, it was an experiment. Ero-sennin even said so."
Kakashi smiled that weird eye-smile of his. "Fuinjutsu is mostly a lost art. Jiraya is one of the few remaining masters, true, but Fuinjutsu relies on libraries and scrolls and records of experiments. Most of that stuff is burned or sealed behind barriers that nobody can open."
"Sensei, wouldn't the barriers fade in time?" asked Sakura.
"And that is why you are the cutest of my minions. Yes, in time we might get a Fuinjutsu revival, but it should take a couple more decades until the work of Uzushiogakure starts losing power. Something pops up from time to time, don't get me wrong, but not the good scrolls. They protected those properly."
Naruto said, "Well, anyway, Ero-sennin succeeded. But it turned out that because the Seal was this big and complex—"
Kakashi groaned.
"Sensei, are you alright?" asked Sakura.
Kakashi took a bite without taking off his mask somehow. Sasuke was tempted to try a Genjutsu dispel. Maybe there was no mask in the first place.
Their sensei said, "Yes, I'm fine, Sakura. I just realized where this is going. The Seal is sentient, isn't it, Naruto?"
Sasuke felt his jaw slacken. Sure, they said anything was possible with Fuinjutsu, but sentient Seals? Surely, Kakashi was screwing with them.
Naruto waved his hands as if to keep him and Sakura from bolting. "What? No. It doesn't think. It's more like a computer. It remembers stuff for me and helps me master skills and jutsu."
Sasuke cupped his chin and stared at Naruto without saying anything.
Naruto said, "What? Spit it out, bastard."
"So, how precise is this? If you see a book in a page, can you recall it later perfectly?"
"No, not really. But I can save a summary in the illusion."
"And if you see a skill used?"
"If it's something I could do, then I can copy it and start training it instantly. It's how I learned your Fire Breath technique. It starts really crappy but improves damn fast."
He noticed that Sakura was looking at him without her usual annoyance. She dragged a strap of meat around her plate for a bit before asking, "Naruto-kun, what if somebody cancels it? It's a Genjutsu, right?"
Kakshi shook his head. "What the hell do they teach you kids these days? Seals such as this one… It is invisible unless Naruto channels Chakra into it. And it isn't on the skin, not really."
It was time for Naruto to be surprised. "What do you mean? It's on me, isn't it?" He peeked under his shirt and checked it was still there. "See? There it is."
Kakashi sighed. "Naruto, if the seal were really on your skin, then one well-placed slice would disrupt the whole thing. Jiraya would have never made the Seal, or else the Hokage would have kept you in a basement somewhere. It was drawn on you, but now that the technique is complete, it has bonded with your Chakra network. It can't be removed, no matter how drained you are or how many times somebody screams 'Kai!' at you."
For once, Kakashi didn't look like he was in a mood for joking. The orange book was nowhere to be seen, and though he sat leaning back and draping his hand over the back of the couch, he wasn't fooling Sasuke.
"Mind if I take a look, Naruto?" asked Kakashi tapping his head protector. "This eye is very good at seeing Chakra outside the body."
Naruto looked uneasy for a moment, but he eventually nodded. Sasuke cursed inwardly. Had he allowed the crazy girl sit next to him, Kakashi would be opposite them, and he would be able to see. But no, because he shunned the insane, he now had to lean over the table to catch a glimpse. Kakashi inhaled, reached for the head protector and pulled it up. Sasuke saw a bit of red iris, and heard Naruto and Sakura gasp. Shit, if only he could get closer.
Kakashi turned to him. "Sasuke-kun, do you mind? I know the eye thing is weird in an endearing way—"
Sasuke didn't hear anything else. The familiar eye stared at him, the three tomoe swimming in a sea of crimson around the balck hole of the enlarged pupil. The relief he had been expecting didn't come. Instead he felt air hitch in his throat.
He couldn't breathe, and the walls were moving in. Everything smelled of blood, couldn't they see that. He glanced and Naruto, and saw what was inevitable. Sasuke, standing over the corpses of his teammates, because they were naïve, they were weak… Just like he had been. Only those weren't his teammates, those were his parents and cousins and uncles and everybody else. He needed to get out.
Somebody slapped him in the face, and his head jerked and hit the back of the couch. He blinked and found a tomato-colored Sakura in front of him, looking down at the table.
"S-sorry, Sasuke-kun," she said. "It's just that you looked like you were having a panic attack, and I remembered the lessons."
Kakashi reached over the table and ruffled her hair making a thorough mess of what she must have spent an hour on. "Maa, you are too cute Sakura. Like, literally, too cute. You shouldn't apologize for helping your teammate according to protocol. Right, Sasuke?"
Sasuke was still rubbing his left cheek. He was sure there was a red imprint on it. "Right. It's not a problem, Sakura."
Kakashi stared at him until he caved. "Thank you," he said as quietly as he could.
His teacher nodded, closed his normal eye, and turned back to Naruto. He took out a small notebook and made a couple notes in a script Sasuke didn't recognize.
"Jiraya really outdid himself this time," Kakashi said. "I've never seen anything like this. Didn't even know it was possible. There are streams of Chakra coiling all through your body, Naruto, with a lot of them going into your brain. I'm no Tsunade, but this is a more than just a Genjutsu." He shook his head and smiled. "I guess we'll just test it out in the field then. You can go, brats. The bill is on me."
Sasuke moved to rise. He needed to get out, to breathe.
"Not you, Sasuke-kun. We are taking a walk."
His sensei was smiling, and it looked sincere, but Sasuke new better than to trust a Jounin's smile. He grumbles and followed Kakashi outside. Sasuke had been expecting a lecture of some kind, but his teacher stayed silent.
Before he knew it, they stood in front of the Memorial Stone. Kakashi squatted and checked the flowers laid at the bottom.
Kakashi said, "These will wilt in a couple hours. Inoichi shouldn't entrust something this important to his kid. The girl is far too bubbly."
"Why have you brought me here, Kakashi?"
"No honorifics, Sasuke-kun?"
"Screw honorifics. You didn't even give us any training. How am I supposed to get stronger like this?" He paused, seeing his teacher stare at him. "What, is sitting in front of a slab of rock going to help me?"
Hatake shook his head and slumped his shoulders, "Ne, Sasuke-kun. I come here after missions to talk to my old teammates and my sensei."
Sasuke huffed. "Have you got no friends who are not dead? This is just a stone. Grey, old, and covered in pidgeon shit half the time."
There was a dangerous glint in Hatake's eye, and even in his irritation Sasuke knew when to shut up. It was just that Kakashi was infuriatingly confusing. There was too much of a gap between his porn-loving carefree persona Sasuke had seen and the capable A-Rank Jounin he was supposed to be.
Kakashi said, "I am here three or four times a week. A couple of hours each time. How many hours do you spend in front of a memorial stone, Sasuke-kun?"
He snorted. "Have you been listening? I don't talk to rocks."
"You live in a compound that had been built for one of Konoha's largest clans. A compound where every single one of your family members except Uchiha Itachi—don't look away, Sasuke-kun—was killed. You have no servants and no friends. How many hours a week do you spend in front of your memorial stone?"
Sasuke looked down at his geta. "Shit," he said.
"Just a bit of advice. Use that supposedly genius head of yours before accusing other people, Sasuke-kun. It will kip you alive when you meet somebody who can bite your head off and isn't as nice as your kind, loving teacher."
Hatake smiled, moved closer, and reached for the top of his head. Sasuke tried to dodge, but the Jounin was much faster.
"What the hell is wrong with your hair?" asked Kakashi. "It looks like an eggplant exploded."
Sasuke was finally able to get away. "You are one to talk, sensei." He futilely tried to pacify the unruly locks, but they didn't want to go down.
"Maa, my hair is a lightning rod for awesome Raiton techniques."
Sasuke blinked. Actually, he could see that. Hiding ninja wire in that mop, getting some heat insulation… He shook the stupid thoughts out of his head. Weaponizing hairstyles would wait.
"Can I go, sensei? I need to get some Katon practice."
Kakashi shrugged. "You are a free man, Sasuke-kun, except for when you are my minion, of course. Naruto is usually practicing at Training Ground Twelve at this time. You might want a partner."
His teacher put his hands in a hand seal and flickered away in a swirl of leaves. Sasuke began walking back to the Uchiha compound but stopped after ten minutes. Damn Kakashi for messing with his head. He turned around and headed to the Training Ground Twelve.
He found Naruto in the middle of an empty clearing practicing Fire Breath. The boy would pick up a pebble, throw it onto air, make the hand seals, inhale, and fire a stream of flame large enough to immolate a cow. Sasuke frowned. Was Naruto's affinity fire? Maybe he was a bastard Uchiha after all, and his abilities were a kind of Sharingan. They were perception based, after all.
As he got closer, carefully approaching from the back, he saw wisps of blue drift off Naruto's form with every attack he made. After ten more Fire Breaths Naruto groaned and fell on the ground on his back.
"Dweeb," Sasuke greeted.
Naruto pointed to him with his right index finger. "Bastard! What are you doing here? I thought we had a day off."
Sasuke began warming up. "We should train," he said. "We'll never get better if we just lie down while the world goes ahead."
"I guess…" said Naruto, and then his face brightened. "Listen, could you help me with Fire Breath? I'm barely progressing, and it's annoying like hell."
Sasuke thought about it. "What's in it for me?"
Naruto tapped his chin two times. "I could teach you Shadow Clones? But it might kill you. You need a ton of Chakra to use it like I do. Oh, I know. You live alone, don't you?"
Sasuke blinked. "Yes."
"Well, I know a bunch of household Jutsu. Picked them up around the village when I got this ability. Shinobi are like super-busy, right? So there is stuff to heat up food instantly and to blow dust out of your room, and spray dishes clean with pressurized water." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't use them much, because I always end up overpowering them for some reason, but I bet you could use them. You have way better Chakra control."
He facepalmed. "Dweeb, you need a brain-mouth filter. Sure, we can trade, but don't just spill everything in the open. Someone might be listening."
At least Naruto had the grace to look sheepish. "Right, right. So, Fire Breath is C-Rank, and what I have is D-Ranks mostly."
"I thought you would have picked up more, living in a ninja village and all."
"It doesn't work like that. There are prerequisites." Naruto grimaced at the word. "I would have just asked the Old Man to show me dozen A-Rank Ninjutsu, and then I would be the coolest ninja ever. But no, first I have to master all this crap, or my ability won't work on the stronger Jutsu. Okay, another go."
Naruto jumped upright and began practicing his Fire Breath again. Sasuke had to give it to him, the dweeb had power, but that was about it.
"Stop," he said. "Naruto, you are bleeding enough Chakra that I can see it. Your form is good, but you move like a puppet going through the same motions."
Naruto frowned. "I know, bastard, but I need to learn it like this first. Then I can sort of watch myself doing it and really get the technique, but when I learn it by watching someone, I just copy it."
Sasuke shook his head and put his hands in a bear seal. "Watch me then. I'll show you variations. You spamming an attack like this will get us murdered. Some asshole will probably just predict the trajectory of your attack and throw Sakura in there. Although we might end up with somebody competent from the reserves instead. But those are reserves… Ugh. Let's practice."
They spent three hours on training before Sasuke had to stop or risk Chakra exhaustion. Naruto was about as tired as he was, but he had blown through far more energy. As Sasuke walked back to the Uchiha Compound, he remembered Kakashi's words.
He decided to eat dinner at Yakiniku.
End of Chapter Notes
If you like this story, leave a favorite or a review on your way out. Feedback makes me warm and fluffy inside and willing to sacrifice a bit more of my normalcy to the gods of writing. Now that I know what this story will be like, the next chapter should be done in a couple of weeks. Long notes follow.
###
I'm back. Sorry for the long absence.
I'm focusing on my original work right now, but the reason I didn't publish this chapter three weeks ago is because my first two drafts sucked. In the end, I caved in and started writing notes. I deal enough with them when working on my original fiction, but Naruto is so damn big that I couldn't just go on writing the fic without some sort of support. Oh, I tried, but it turned out into a mix of sexplosions and moping—a concoction that causes addiction and migraines.
There is simply too much awesome in Naruto, which I blame on Kishimoto abusing the Rule of Cool. It's a shounen wet dream with giant shuriken, ninjas, Harem Jutsu, and a lot of stuff that doesn't make any sense. We love it for what it is, but writing fanfiction for it is tricky. Throwing some cool mechanic that doesn't make Naruto completely OP doesn't change much in the ocean of Bloodline Limits and fishnet stocking armor.
So I did some work behind the scenes. Characters, conflicts between groups, plans—that sort of thing. You shouldn't notice it, except that the chapters I'm publishing won't be a chaotic mess I got when I tried to just keep writing without stepping back and taking a look at the entire story.
I respond to PMs here and pokes on Twitter and Facebook (links in profile), so if you want to say hi, don't be shy.
Now to find the inspiration to write the notes for my Star Wars fic so that I can past the block in that story too.
Stay shiny and until next time.
