Hidden Leaf Training Grounds
"So, you're really going through with this" Sarada told her brother as she stood next to him. A smirking Boruto was in front of them, talking to Shikadai. A crowd of about thirty people gathered around them, there to watch the battle.
"Of course" Sakumo replied, he turned his attention to Boruto, who was now stretching. Shikadai moved to stand with the crowd.
"Well okay then" Sarada sighed "just remember, this is, like you said, a friendly spar. Don't use dangerous techniques, I don' think I have to get into details"
"I'm not crazy enough to use that here" he reassured. Sarada simply nodded and walked to Boruto.
"Hey" she greeted her teammate.
"Yo, Sarada" he grinned "forgive me, but I'm going to kick your brother's ass, he asked for it"
"Yeah... about that, he baited you into this fight to test your strength, and he had only heard about you, seriously Boruto, you are such a predictable dumbass" she scolded. Boruto sweatdropped.
"Well, this was going to happen anyway, I would have challenged him to a battle eventually" he tried to appear cool.
"Sure" Sarada looked away. Boruto felt like yelling at her, but that would only prove her point, so he forced himself to calm down.
"Is he strong?" he changed the subject.
"To be honest, I'm not sure..." she thought aloud "I mean, his Sharingan is strong, even stronger than mine..." Boruto gulped "but he won't use that, I told him to hold back, not go overboard. Needless to say, the same goes for you" she told him.
"Sure, sure. I won't seriously hurt your brother, don't worry" he grinned. "So what can I expect from him? Give some pointers to your teammate will ya?" Boruto insisted.
"I honestly can't tell you. I haven't seen his taijutsu, or ninjutsu... nothing of the sort. This is actually a great chance for me to see how he does in those areas" she said.
"Great, so I'm sort of a test" he pouted. He looked at Sakumo only to find him giving him a bored stare. Boruto got annoyed, god, did his attitude piss him off.
"I guess I'll leave you to it then" Sarada said as she started to walk away.
"Wait" Boruto told her before she turned around "who are you cheering for?" he said with a smirk.
"I couldn't care less about both of you idiots playing macho, I'm just here to make sure none of you go too far" she replied in a condescending manner before joining the crowd.
"Tch" Boruto huffed before he shifted his full attention to Sakumo "if what it takes for you to have some respect for me is kicking your ass, I will do it gladly" he told Sakumo.
"Like I said, stop talking so big and actually prove your claims with actions" Sakumo responded.
"That's the plan, asshole" Boruto said as he started spinning a kunai in his hand.
"Does anyone have a sword?" Sakumo asked, if this guy was going to use weapons, so should he.
"Yeah, here" Inojin said before taking his weapon out of his back and threw it to Sakumo. Sakumo caught it.
"What the fuck is this? A sword or a dagger?" he asked as he studied Inojin's short sword.
"If you don't like it, you can give it back" Inojin countered.
"Whatever" Sakumo said as he turned his full attention to his opponent.
"Enough chit-chat! Start the fight already!" someone in the crowd urged.
Boruto and Sakumo didn't waste any time after that. Both locked eyes at each other and charged ahead. Boruto's kunai connected with Sakumo's (Inojin's) sword. After connecting glares and seeing that none of them could push the other away with brute force, they jumped back and connected again. Boruto was on the offensive, trying to hit Sakumo with the kunai, but Sakumo was more than capable enough to block all of Boruto's thrusts. Sakumo let out a smirk, he didn't even need to use his sharingan to keep up with Boruto's speed. Boruto noticed, and he got angry. He would show him to ridicule him like that, he was getting serious now. The speed of Boruto's attacks dramatically increased, and Sakumo started to have trouble, after barely dodging one, he realized he had no choice and his sharingan spun into life in his eyes, Sakumo went back to blocking Boruto's attacks with ease and fought in a much more calm manner again. Boruto thrusted his kunai again, this time he used chakra to enhance the strength of his attack, Sakumo blocked, but the force behind it took him by surprise and he lost the grip of the sword, which was sent flying upwards.
"Gotcha" Boruto exclaimed as he attacked again, attempting to attack Sakumo from below and sweep him, Sakumo was forced to dodge and jumped, which left him exposed to an attack from Boruto who was right under him, or so he thought, Sakumo spun in the air and in an action too fast to see, he kicked Boruto's kunai out of his hand as well, Sakumo followed with another kick downwards, but Boruto rolled and evaded it. Boruto rapidly stood up and defended against a barrage of punches and kicks from Sakumo, all he could do was block, until Sakumo landed a roundhouse kick that knocked Boruto back.
Inojin jumped and retrieved his sword that was spinnung in the air and heading towards the crowd. The crowd was speechless, most of them couldn't even keep up with such a fast paced battle. Sarada was impressed, not by Boruto, whose moves she knew all too well, but Sakumo's. She should have expected as much, after all, he fought a ton of shinobi and had a fully matured Sharingan. Still, his taijutsu was beyond impressive, Sarada didn't think she could have pulled off the mid air stunt quite as easily as he did.
Back to the other two, Boruto stepped back from Sakumo and formed a cross like sign with his two hands.
Shadow Clone Jutsu!
He exclaimed as ten Borutos appeared after a cloud of smoke. Sakumo stared, another ninja trick he didn't know about. He remained calm as the ten Borutos charged towards him. He counter attacked one of them and it simply disappeared in another cloud of smoke, Sakumo's eyebrow raised as he was still trying to figure out what this technique was. Sakumo was no fool, he would not engage on all of them at once, he deliberately evaded and only attacked if he could on one at a time. He noticed that these clones were significantly weaker, individually, than Boruto was... when he was one. He smirked as he figured out that he might be 10 people now, but the strength of one of them was 1/10th of his normal strength. Sakumo dealt with all of them, he landed a punch on the last one expecting him to be the real one, but it disappeared as well. That could only mean... Sakumo turned around to see the real Boruto charging towards him with a ball that glowed on his hand, he didn't have much time and did the only thing he could, he stared at Boruto's eyes. Boruto collapsed before he could reach Sakumo with his attack.
Genjutsu, Sarada noticed. Still, she was surprised that he would counter a rasengan in such a weird manner, she would never do that because it was too risky, and even if it landed, Boruto could easily...
Sakumo was punched by Boruto and fell down.
"Surprised? Genjutsu won't knock me out for long pal, I'm your sister's teammate and I was trained by your old man, you should know better than expecting to win with sharingan genjutsu" Boruto exclaimed. Sakumo got up and saw Boruto's right eye. His iris turned from blue to white, and his sclera from white to black. Great, another weird eye to add to his mental collection.
"So you have visual prowess... too" Sakumo pointed out.
"Yeah" Boruto confirmed "your Sharingan ain't half bad, you could read everyone of my movements, but now, let's see how your visual prowess stacks against mine" he said as he adopted a fighting stance that Sakumo instantly recognized from the woman he fought before.
Boruto's moves were completely different, attacking with his palms instead of his fists, making it difficult for Sakumo to counter them. All he could do was dodge, so he jumped back and got some distance, fighting close range was not a good idea. Sakumo examined his options, when he had to fight from long range, he used genjutsu, but that didn't work out well last time, and Boruto would be expecting it now. Before he could plan his approach, Boruto started performing handseals.
Water Style: Water Wall!
Sakumo could only stare in awe as Boruto spit an absurd amount of water from his mouth, Sakumo jumped upwards as the wave of water that Boruto created passed through. He looked at a smirking Boruto, and he caught sight at what he would call ninja stars in his hands, which appeared to carry an electric current. He was falling down and he saw that the floor was wet.
Shit. Was all he could say as he landed and Boruto threw the shuriken at the ground. Next thing Sakumo felt was being shocked and collpasing.
Boruto walked towards him, yeah, Sakumo was able to sit up, but that was a hell of a shock he received and he was not in any shape to fight anymore. He had lost. He looked up to see Boruto holding two of his fingers up.
"This is what shinobi do after a battle" he explained "just wrap your fingers around mine" he instructed. Sakumo nodded and he did so. Boruto pulled him up "so, do you respect me now?" he asked with a cocky grin.
"Just a little bit" he growled, Sakumo did not like losing. Boruto simply huffed with a cocky smile and walked towards the crowd.
"I won" he announced, making the victory sign with his fingers. The crowd cheered and gathered around him. Sakumo glared, it did annoy him.
"So, you lost" his sister appeared next to him. Sakumo didn't answer "why didn't you use ninjutsu to counter his attack?" Sarada asked.
"Ninjutsu?" Sakumo raised an eyebrow.
"Right, you're not familiar with our terms. You know, like elemental attacks?"
"You mean spitting water out of your mouth like he did?"
"Yes"
"Yeah, I can't do that" Sakumo replied.
"What?" Sarada's mouth was wide open "You can't use ninjutsu? You're shitting me" such a level of taijutsu and genjutsu? Taking on Hanabi and Rock Lee? And he couldn't use ninjutsu? Then again, with his Mangekyo Sharingan, he really could take on such opponents without knowing ninjutsu couldn;t he?. Still, being able to fight at such a level and being incapable of doing basic ninjutsu attacks, it was unbelievable. Sarada couldn't help it. She started laughing.
"What's so fucking funny?" Sakumo was furious.
"Sorry, sorry... it's just, hard to believe, that's all" she said as she calmed down "guess you have a pretty good reason to become a shinobi now, huh, brother?" she teased.
"Fuck off" he barked.
"Jesus, calm down, no need to be so angry... let's get outta here now that everyone's around Boruto, I guess you don't want to stick around and explain your loss to everyone" she said as she knew that Sakumo was pissed.
"You think?" he mocked as he stood up.
"Come on, let's go home, I'll heal you up when we get there"
Uchiha Clan House
Sarada and Sakumo entered their house. Sarada was surprised to hear the sound of the TV.
"Anyone home?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm in the living room" Sakura's voice answered.
"What are you doing here mom?" she asked as both entered the living room.
"It seems that I have only morning shifts now. Shizune insisted, since..." she looked at her son "Sakumo! What happened? You're covered in bruises!"
"He fought Boruto" Sarada answered for him.
"What? You just met and you're already fighting? You silly boy! Sit here and let me heal you!" she commanded. Sakumo obeyed, seeing her mad, frankly, kind of scared him. A green glow came out of Sakura's hands, and it did make Sakumo feel better.
"It's not that bad, that loser only managed to shock me with some weird technique, if he hadn't caught me with that-" he complained.
"Yeah, that technique? Dad taught Boruto that. I don't know it that's ironic or pathetic" Sarada teased. Sakumo glared again.
"Shut the fuck up"
"Don't talk to your sister like that" Sakura scolded him. "So you lost?" Sakura asked him. She was honestly not teasing him, it kind of bothered her that her son lost to Naruto's, it did disappoint her.
"Yes, because, get this, Sakumo can't use ninjutsu" Sarada explained.
"Really?" Sakura asked, amazed.
"Can you stop that? It's not a big deal" Sakumo complained.
"You really hate losing huh?" Sakura smiled "don't worry, I'll teach you ninjutsu and you'll get a rematch"
"Whatever" he looked away. Sakura couldn't help but reminisce. Sakumo with that expression because of Boruto was the spitting image of his father about 20 years ago.
"So you were saying mom? You have only morning shifts now because...?" Sarada asked her mother.
"Oh right" Sakura said as she finished healing Sakumo "Now that... Sakumo's with us, Shizune thinks I should spend more time at home" she explained.
"Makes sense I guess" Sarada shrugged. A sudden grunt of Sakumo interrupted the conversation, he was covering his eyes and looked like he was in pain.
"Sakumo! Are you alright?" his mother rushed to him.
"I'm... fine" he tried to calm them down "it happens to me sometimes"
"Let me see" Sakura told him, Sakumo looked hesitant "your sister and your father have pain in their eyes sometimes and I fix them up, don't worry" she comforted him. Sakumo nodded and let her put her hands on his eyes. Sakura reached and scanned his optical nerves with her chakra. She gasped. They weren't tired or chakra depleted like Sarada's and Sasuke's... they were... dead. No chakra flowing through them. Then, it hit her. Of course.
"Is everything alright mom?" Sarada asked, the gasp her mother let out, it was worrying.
"Yes" Sakura answered "listen, I'm taking Sakumo to the hospital, but don't worry, it's not serious"
"Why?" Sakumo asked.
"I have to give you a special medicine" she told him, Sakumo looked annoyed "don't you want that pain to go away? Come on, let's go" she said as she got up. Sakumo grunted and followed her.
Hidden Leaf Hospital
"How often does this happen to you?" Sakura asked as she flashed a light into Sakumo's eyes.
"I don't know, it comes and goes, but not very often" he answered.
"Have you experienced loss of vision? Or blurry vision?"
"When the pain comes, yes"
"Ok..." she said as she put away her equipment.
"So?" he asked.
"I'll go get the medicine, I'll be right back" Sakura said as she left the room. She took out her cell phone and speed dialed her husband.
"What" Sasuke's voice said after a couple of rings.
"Well hello to you too Sasuke, it's your beautiful wife" she rolled her eyes.
"Kind of busy here, did something happen?"
"Yeah... Sakumo's eyes..."
"The Mangekyo" he finished for her "how is it?"
"Not too bad. I'll give him the medicine, but you need to talk to him about it, ASAP"
"Okay. I should come home tonight for dinner, I'll bring it up"
"Are you sure? Sarada...?"
"Yes, she should know about it, too"
"Okay... I'll see you tonight then?"
"Yeah"
"Love you"
"Hn" he hung up. Sakura rolled her eyes again. Why couldn't he just say it? Anyway, she headed to her office and looked for the formula she needed in her files. How long had it been? To her it felt like it was just a couple of days ago. When she traveled around the world with Sasuke, when they just started their life together. It was during those days where they went to the Howling Wolf Village. It was a very special place to Sasuke. There she learned more from the good man that his brother Itachi really was, and met Kina, an actual friend that Sasuke made there. It warmed her heart, to learn that Sasuke was not as heartless as it seemed, even in his darkest days. There, she acquired the formula for the eye drops to alleviate the side effects of the Mangekyo Sharingan. Kina offered it to them, since it would be possible that one day they would need it. And here she was, that day had finally arrived. Back then, the scenario looked very distant, as well as improbable, it was crazy to think about it. Lost in her thoughts, she snapped back to reality and found the formula. She found the right ingredients and prepared the eye drops. She made her way back to her son after that.
"Here" she announced as she entered the room with the eye drops.
"Is something wrong? You took long and I'm not dumb, you look worried" Sakumo told her.
"I guess that yes, there is something wrong. Your father will tell you about it tonight, but don't worry too much about it okay?" she smiled.
"Okay..." he gave her a weird look.
"Now, open your eyes" she instructed. Sakumo looked nervous "something wrong Sakumo?" she tilted her head.
"I'm not... comfortable, with things, touching my eyes" he spat out nervously.
"Really..." she smirked.
"Don't start teasing me like Sarada" he glared.
"Don't worry, I won't" she restrained a laugh "look Sakumo, considering the pain you are experiencing, trust me, you won't feel a thing" Sakumo wouldn't budge "Sakumo Uchiha, stop being such a baby and open your eyes" she provoked him. Of course, it worked. Uchiha boys and their stupid pride, they were so easy to manipulate.
"Look, it's not just because of the pain okay? It;s that the sight of something touching your eyes-"
"Done" she said as she finished.
"Really?" he asked, he didn't even notice it.
"I told you you wouldn't feel a thing didn't I?" Sakumo just nodded "now, when you start feeling this pain, just apply the eye drops okay? Worst case scenario, you can get your mother to help you" she winked. Sakumo just grunted.
Uchiha Clan House
"I'm home" Sasuke announced as he closed the door behind him and took off his Police Captain jacket.
"Oh honey" Sakura greeted "you're just in time for dinner"
"Welcome home dad" Sarada greeted as Sasuke sat down in the table. Sasuke nodded.
"Do you like tomatoes Sakumo? Your father and sister love them" Sakura said as she placed the food on the table.
"Yes" he replied as they all started eating their dinner. There was silence. Sakumo decided this was as good time as any "erm... Father" he would have to get used to that.
"Hn?" Sasuke grunted as he looked at him.
"Mother told me you have something to tell me" he said. Sasuke sighed.
"Straight to the point..." he commented "I did promise you I would tell you about the Mangekyo, didn't I Sarada?" Sarada nodded "that pain you are feeling Sakumo, it;s because of the Mangekyo Sharingan"
"Why?"
"The Mangekyo Sharingan grants the user great power... such as the Amaterasu and the Susano'o, before you awakened the Susano'o Sakumo, you awakened a power in each eye didn't you?" he asked
"Yeah... I ignite the Amaterasu with my left eye, and I can control it with my right one" Sakumo answered.
"Just like your old man" Sasuke told him.
"How do you awaken the Mangekyo?" Sarada spoke up, she didn't have the details.
"I told you the sharingan responds to deep emotion... to awaken the Mangekyo, you have to experience something huge, terrible... to be specific, the death of a loved one"
"I knew it. I awakened mine when my parents died" Sakumo observed. Sasuke nodded.
"And you? Dad?" Sarada asked, looking at him with a very serious expression. Sakura remained silent. This was something her husband had to do by himself, not that she had much to say, anyway.
"When your Uncle Itachi died, that's when I awakened it" that give Sarada some answers, why Sasuke wouldn't talk much about him, he clearly loved him very much and his death greatly affected her father. "Anyway... we were talking about the side effects"
"Side effects?" Sakumo asked.
"Yes. In exchange for great power, the Mangekyo will eventually lose their light" Sarada and Sakumo raised an eyebrow "Long story short, the use of the Mangekyo Sharingan leads to blindness"
"What? You mean I'm blinding?" Sakumo practically yelled.
"Not necessarily. Sakumo, you are already experiencing the side effects. You must not use the Mangekyo Sharingan. Only use it if your life is in danger" he told Sakumo with a very serious expression. Sakumo gulped and nodded.
"But wait..." Sarada caught everyone's attention "dad, I've seen you use it, and I can only imagine how many times you have, why aren't you blind?"
"There is a way to escape the curse. There is such a thing as an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, which I have... You need to implant other Mangekyo eyes, ideally your sibling's eyes, to never go blind"
"That's... fucked up..." Sakumo commented.
"You mean... your eyes, are not yours, but Itachi's?" Sarada asked. Sasuke nodded.
"As I said, Itachi died. When I started blinding, I transplanted his eyes, and that's how I got these..."
"Is that why your eye is... purple?" Sakumo asked.
"No" Sasuke answered as he pulled his hair away from his eye and showed it to his son "this is a Rinnegan. The ultimate level of the Sharingan"
"And how do you get that?" Sarada asked him.
"This eye... was given to me by the Sage of the Six Paths, it is not possible for an Uchiha to awaken this without... extremely unlikely circumstances"
"Sage of the Six Paths? What are you talking about?" Sakumo asked. Sarada was simply lost.
"That is something I'll have to tell you some other time. It's a very long story that you wouldn;t understand right now" Sarada sighed. His father was not going beyond that point. There was another silence after that.
"So what would happen if Sarada and I simply swapped eyes? Would none of us go blind?" Sakumo asked.
"Sarada doesn't have the Mangekyo. Anyway, we are talking about last resorts, you don't want to go around experimenting and swapping eyes, eye transplants are a very complicated and nasty procedure, you can ask your mother" the attention was passed to Sakura and she simply nodded "look Sakumo, just don't use the Mangekyo if you can okay? Your eyesight is not suffering much yet and you have the eye drops, stick to good old ninjutsu, for your own sake"
"He can't even use ninjutsu yet" Sarada said with an evil smirk. Sakumo glared.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.
"Exactly that, Sakumo doesn't know how to use ninjutsu. He has superior taijutsu and genjutsu skills, but he can't use ninjutsu!" Sarada answered.
"That is... rich" Sasuke said as a chuckle escaped from him.
"You wouldn't find that funny if you knew that that's the reason he lost to Boruto, honey" Sakura informed him.
"What? You fought Naruto's son and lost?" Sasuke asked him. Sakumo just looked away and Sarada nodded.
"And you know what Boruto used to defeat him dad? He used lightning style on shuriken, I believe you taught him that didn't you?" Sarada added.
"What?" Sasuke's eyebrow twitched. The loser's brat defeated his son with a jutsu he taught him himself? "Unacceptable" he let out. Sasuke would train his son and there would be a rematch "I guess we have to do something about that"
"Yes" Sakumo announced. His mind was made up. His recent fights showed him that he still had a lot to learn. He would have to learn about shinobi, and fight like one... he would never be humiliated by someone like Boruto ever again "I want to become a Hidden Leaf Shinobi" he announced.
Of course, Boruto would be the trigger for this decision. Sakura and Sarada smiled, because he had finally made this decision. Sasuke smirked.
To be continued...
Author's note: This chapter has a reference to the novel "Naruto Jinraiden: The Day The Wolf Howled" a good read that I cannot recommend enough.
