It was another boring day in the Uchiha compound.

I had taken the liberty of using today as a much needed day of rest, but after around four hours of napping, I found myself bored of sleeping.

Naturally, since there was absolutely nothing to do what with Yoko being at the academy and mother doing who knows what, I would try to sleep through the boredom despite said boredom being caused by sleeping.

I had taken the Anbu mask and used its chakra draining effect to give me the [chakra exhaustion] debuff, which occurred when my chakra pool was drained to a level below zero, but even with the sudden wave of exhaustion, I couldn't actually go to sleep.

So, after that, I found myself grumpy, exhausted, and bored.

Not the best combination in the world.

I would have tried to use the mask to drain even more of my chakra, but I wasn't sure exactly how far I could go without just passing out. Currently, I would only go as far as -20, which left me sufficiently tired, but I was worried if I went any farther then I would pass out with the mask still on my face, which would passively drain me until I died.

Not the most pleasant possibility out there.

Luckily, I had an ability to alleviate one of those problems, the exhaustion, although it had the annoying side effect of having to talk to myself and constantly getting bloody noses.

However, I was still left with feeling extremely bored and mildly annoyed at everything.

So, I took a look at my options.

Option 1: Actually exercise.

Eh, not likely. Getting endurance points was a pain as my efforts to try to grind the stat a few times in the past revealed, and gaining strength was something that wasn't currently on my agenda.

Option 2: Go visit Yoko at the academy.

Also not likely. The trek to get there was way too long and Naruto was there today. Yeah, no.

Option 3: Wander around Konoha.

Possible choice. Already had most of the south of konoha mapped out along with some of the areas to the north like the academy. Maybe I could go to the shopping district? I did have quite a bit of money from tasks and actual allowance… Although most everything there could be bought for cheaper in the Uchiha district. There was the chance of getting lost though.

Option 4: Visit Kyo.

The most likely option. It was the end of spring, and that meant that there was a huge slew of new novels and manga out. But, only if kyo had actually bought anything new. Knowing him, though, he probably already has all the new ones. Plus, I did have a few things I needed to do at the hospital…

And so I chose option four.

This led to me walking around in the sun outside, my trusty coat over my shoulders because it was too hot to wear it properly and the background music that defined konoha playing softly in the background.

The sun was high in the sky today with absolutely no clouds to be seen anywhere. There wasn't a breeze today which was why it was hotter than normal, but it was still a nice day to be outside. Not that I liked being outside.

There was a significant lack of people walking around, but I didn't bother to guess why. Occasionally I would spot a flickering shadow which indicated the presence of the police force roaming around and answering to various disturbances here and there, but that was all the presence I had noticed, other than a lone wanderer here or there.

I had taken out my book and had started flipping through it, occasionally making my way back to the map page to make sure I wasn't lost.

I wasn't really concentrating on the information inside the book as much as I was looking at a certain page that had the corner bent for ease of access.

Said page had a wall of text in neat, small, English script.

Written on it, in no particular order, were musings, thoughts, plans, and other things that I simply wanted to write down so I wouldn't forget.

Something I had discovered about the guidebook was that when it made a new entry, it didn't use an existing page, it actually created a new one, so all the blank pages in the back were free to use however I wished.

Needless to say, I used them.

I was currently staring at a rather amusing list I had created in my time spying on Yoko and her cohorts at the academy. The list was actually just some nicknames I had created based on what songs I heard when certain people entered a specific radius from myself, with some fluctuations between the ranges.

I speculated that the ranges had to do with their individual strengths, with the ones that have more power comparatively having a larger music radius, but occasionally that rule was broken with certain targets. It mostly seemed to adhere to that rule though, which was good enough for me to avoid them if I had some music turned on.

I found it pretty funny what some people's themes were though, like chouji's, who I had written down as Robo rolled – 7 meters.

Naruto was a bit different though. He just didn't work like everyone else did. It didn't matter how far away I was from him, but if I happened to spot him, one of his two themes would pop up. No one, as far as I knew, had two songs that played for them, but Naruto apparently did. He had a pretty wide radius too, compared to everyone else, despite not actually being that strong. Maybe his overinflated chakra score helped there?

I decided to get my mind off of mister wonder orange and instead flipped back over to the map, which showed that I wasn't actually too far away from the hospital, only about fifteen more minutes at the current pace I was walking at.

I picked up the pace and soon arrived, entering through the front door to a cool reception area.

Dun dun dun~~~! Dun dun dun~~~! Dun~~ Dun~dundundundundun~~~! Dun dun dundundun~~~! Dun dun dundundun~~~!

The music, which had been playing what I had dubbed konoha's theme, suddenly changed to another familiar tune which I associated with Kyo, meaning that he was here somewhere. Good, that meant that he had brought some manga with him to read today.

I spotted kyo behind the reception desk, reading manga as per usual with a game of solitaire laid out on the desk in front of him.

Kyo heard my approach and lifted his head to face me, his glasses blocking off any view of his eyes because of glare from the lights above. "Hmmm? I was not expecting you here today, Miku-chan. What brings you to my humble abode?"

I strolled up to the counter and pulled a chair from the side to sit down in. "Bored, mostly. Got anything for me to read today?"

"Hmm? No ulterior motives?" He took a book from the ever present stack next to him and placed it in front of me. "There must be some other reason you would visit poor old me all the way over here."

"…Maybe?" I shrugged my shoulders for emphasis. "I… kind of broke the radio a few days ago. I tried fixing it but…"

"You could not. Oh how the mighty have fallen." He took off his glasses and placed them on the table. "And you want me to help because the radio is technically hospital equipment, and you know for a fact I am an expert at fixing anything that falls under that banner, correct?"

"… Yeah." I picked up the book and inspected the cover. A harem manga? Damn it, I hated those… "I tried fixing it on my own, but I couldn't get it to work."

He picked up the half a deck of cards on the table and took the top one off, inspecting it carefully. "Did you check the batteries? Or try turning it on and off again?"

I shot him an annoyed look. "Hora hora, who do you take me for? A moron?" I opened the volume in my hands and checked out the first page. Hmm… The illustrations were pretty detailed for the first volume of an author I hadn't heard of before… "I'm not some baka, you know. I did all the things you would normally do when something breaks…"

He took the card and placed it on one of the piles, creating a two card chain of a five and a six. "I never doubted your intelligence. Sometimes people miss the obvious." He leaned over in his chair. "Did you happen to bring the radio?"

I nodded and took a sealing scroll out of one of my many pockets. "Here ya go. One broken radio."

He took the scroll carefully and placed it on the table. "You know, you're lucky Ryuusei-san copied the basic design for a sealing scroll over and over. Sealing scrolls are not cheap, you know?"

"Hora hora, whatever, I don't care. Just fix it, please?"

"Hmph. Ungrateful. As I thought you would be." He unfurled the scroll over his solitaire game and placed a finger on it. "One day you will have to go out to buy one, and when you do, you will see the plight that many ninja of this village face, me included."

Quote 'hora hora, whatever, I don't care.' End quote.

A poof of smoke appeared and on top was a small, thin, rectangular object with a coiled cord leading to an ear-piece. Kyo picked up the box and dug a nail into a crack I knew was there, splitting it in two revealing some very thin wires and a circuit board. Embedded in the corner were two round, silver disks stacked on top of one another, which I knew were the batteries to the device.

"Ah. Here is your problem." He pointed at two wires on the board that had decided to wiggle their way out of their adhesive just a tad and were about a centimeter away from one another. "These two wires are too close to each other. I do not care to learn how you managed to remove the adhesive keeping the wire in place, but these two wires are close enough to cause sparks, and thus a short circuit. I believe I will have to replace the entire thing or replace the board."

I nodded my head. I had thought as much, but I hadn't been totally sure. I had experience in circuitry, having been forced to join a science team by my parents when I was in middle and high school, so I had an idea that that had probably been it. I just didn't know that they had to only be that far apart to have a spark jump between them. Perhaps it had to do with all the chakra in the air?

He replaced the back end and put it back in the scroll, returning it to me. "I will see what I can do about getting you another one." Yes! Free radio! "I will need payment however. I shall be generous and say… 3,000 ryo."

Fucking had to jinx it, didn't you Miku?

"Hora hora, who do you think I am?! A person made of money?!" I slammed my hands down on the table. "You're trying to extort money from a minor! A little girl at that! How do you even live with yourself?"

"Money is money, Miku-chan. It does not matter the age or the gender." He interlocked his fingers and placed his elbows on the table, creating a platform for his chin. "Also, I do believe it was you who came to me, not the other way around. I get to set the price."

I sighed. I knew Kyo could be a fucking jackass at times, but this was pushing it. I mean, I had been saving up money since as long as I had started getting money, so I had around five years' worth of cash stored away, but most of it had been a meager allowance that mother had given me while she was away on missions. The major bulk of my funds consisted of money I had procured from doing tasks. For some reason, I could store money I had received from completing a task in my inventory, probably because it counts as being given by the system, but I couldn't just pull those funds out at the moment. Plus I was saving those stacks for more important things.

The only money I had on me at the moment was my emergency food money which consisted of 5,000 ryo, or around 500 dollars In USD. Considering a bowl of ramen at a ramen stand was around 400 to 500 ryo, 5,000 wasn't all that much.

I grit my teeth and pulled out another scroll. "Here you go, you cheap bastard. Hope you enjoy having ripped off a kid."

He took the scroll gingerly and stashed it in his coat pocket. "Your words wound me, Miku-chan. However, I must say it was a pleasure doing business with you."

I glared at my scroll that he had taken. He always did this with everyone whenever it involved money. He would ask for the money sealed in a scroll, take it, count all the money to make sure it was all there, and then return it after a day. I assumed he used the time to mark the bills for whatever reason, but I could never make out exactly what he done to the money he had taken. It probably involved using the sharingan, that was for sure.

Kyo went back to his solitaire game, picking up his glasses and putting them back on soon after our conversation was finished. I flipped through the book, speed reading as I usually did whenever Kyo had a book for me to read. The first chapter wasn't actually as bad as I thought. It had the pretense of being your stereotypical harem manga, but instead it was more of an inter-faction intrigue manga with harem aspects.

Harem mangas still sucked though. Fucking all the same.

The next hour and a half was spent going through his pile of books, putting them in three different piles. One for good, one for bad, and one for those which I did not have enough information to give a proper decision.

Soon enough, the books were sorted, and once again I had nothing to do.

"Hora, Kyo, is there anything to do around here?" I let my head fall on my left shoulder. "I'm so bored…."

Kyo, who had been going through the Miku approved pile of books, tilted to the side from behind the stack so he could see me. "Well, I suppose I could offer you some of my workload, if you wish to do something."

I weighed my options. Stay here, bored out of my mind and with nothing to do, or walk around aimlessly with hospital equipment with around a 90% chance of still being bored while also wasting energy because I know I'll get lost again?

Choices, choices…

"Give me what you got. If I stay in this chair any longer I'm going to die of boredom."

He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. Yeah, I surprised myself too. "I did not actually expect you to take me up on that. But, since you did-" He put the book down and rummaged around under the desk, the distinct *chink*s of filing cabinets opening and closing sounding out as he did so. "-I was supposed to update the records room today, but since you so kindly volunteered, I would appreciate if you filed these."

[New task!]

Take the documents and file them in the records room!

Do you accept?

Yes

No

Kyo pulled his hand out from under the desk with a small stack of papers in tow and placed them in front of me.

I sighed, disguising a 'yes' underneath the breath. "Hora, where was the records room again?"

He pointed a thumb down the hall. "It would be down that way. Then, take the last door on the left, go down that hall, and then take another left. There should be a sign that says records room above it."

"Right, right…" I opened my coat and browsed through the bundle of scrolls inside. "I guess I'll see you later…"

My fingers walked across the top of each scroll as I attempted to find an empty one, using the tiny scribbles that were my handwriting to see if it had something in it or not.

Let's see… Paper, no… Tank? What the hell? Did I take the wrong one out of the box again?... Weapons? No… Aha! Blank! Yes! I took out the scroll and placed it against my leg.

I placed the documents against the scroll, briefly looking over the document that had been placed on top. It was a pretty standard report citing name, blood type, dental records, and other medical jargon I could care less about. All of it was written on a classic fill it out yourself form, with all of it written in pencil for quick edits except for the signature at the bottom, which was done in ink.

These forms were supposed to be updated every time an Uchiha went out on a mission, but Kyo decided to update them every three months instead, citing that it was a much better system seeing as the main hospital updates its records every three months. No need to waste effort constantly updating forms when you could do it all at once. Procrastination is the nation with the highest population after all.

Heh. Dumb jokes were dumb.

I quickly sealed them up and placed them back in my jacket, giving Kyo a back handed wave as I left.

"You are going toward the entrance."

I leaned back on my heel and swiveled myself to face where I was supposed to go. "I knew that!"

"No you did not. However, I will think no less of you."

Screw you too, Kyo.

Comments from the peanut gallery aside, I actually found it easier to reach a destination if I tried to get lost rather than path finding my way there. I assumed that there was some sort of hidden navigation skill or something, with said skill activating whenever I tried going somewhere. If I assumed that said skill had a value of 1, out of say… 20, and the skill worked by rolling a 20 sided die, then 19/20 times I would wind up going the wrong direction. However, if what I assumed to be true is correct, it first answered if I would be going in the correct direction and then if it was wrong it RNG'd a different direction. But, if I placed my goal as 'anywhere but the place I'm trying to go', then it would place my hypothesized path finding skill against that goal, and if it failed the check, instead of going anywhere but there, it would only go there.

Screw the rules, I have exploits!

Problem was, it wasn't anywhere close to being a 1/20, or a 5% chance. No, it was closer to 18%, by my estimate. Still pretty small, but much larger than 5. But, because it was much larger, I still wound up slamming my face into walls if I didn't pay close attention to the path I was taking.

Really, why the fuck couldn't I find my way to a destination like a normal human being?! And How the fuck do I still manage to go the wrong way despite knowing exactly where I'm going is and how to get there?!

Why does this have to exist!?

I had my map, sure, but even then I still occasionally found myself doing something stupid like walking into someone's house or somehow getting on top of the hokage monument if I took my eyes off of it for too long.

The hokage monument actually had a pretty nice view with a pleasant breeze blowing if you went up there in the evening.

I really wanted to keep myself from using the guidebook too often, however. It made my arm slightly uncomfortable from holding it up to my face for so long and I found that I lost track of my surroundings if I used it for too long.

So, for now, I tried to reach my destinations without it, assuming that perhaps that hypothetical path finding skill would increase like a normal skill if I managed to reach enough destinations without the use of extra help.

So far, I had yet to see any improvement.

And so, after around five minutes of wandering around the white halls of the hospital and Kyo's theme nowhere within hearing range, I realized that I was nowhere close to my destination.

Sometimes I thought the RNG system was pulling some X-COM tier bullshit simply due to the sheer amount of missteps, which would have only had an 18% success rate if I had managed to work things out correctly, I would have had to take to reach where I currently stood was pretty damn high.

I probably wasn't going to get to the records room any time soon…

Sighing, I took out a scroll and unsealed its contents, revealing the recently renamed line cutter in its hidden state.

Mother had, after some forceful persuading, told me to get used to using the sword by continually sending it out and re-sheathing it.

I had a bad habit that carried over from my previous life that actually helped out here. Said habit was that I always needed to have something in my hands to play with or else my hands would start to shake and make any task I wished to do nearly impossible because of how unsteady my hands were if I didn't have anything in them for a while. At school, I would take my pencil and send it around my thumb over and over while at home I would keep a free hand, if I was reading or just browsing the internet, occupied with a solid glass baseball sized globe.

In this new life, my hands, luckily, didn't start shaking if I didn't have anything in them, but I would still feel my hands itching for something to mess around with if I left them alone for too long. So, despite abhorring actually doing any sort of training, I found myself liking this training because I now had something to play with while I walked.

I pushed the button, sending out the blade, and then spun it around my wrist, catching it as soon as the handle passed by my hand once again. Then I did it again, except this time I added an extra spin, sending it around my wrist twice before catching it.

High dexterity certainly has its uses.

I took a finger and ran it against the edge of the blade. Mother had said she had replaced the blade with a dull version of it, but one could never be too sure…

Satisfied that it was indeed dull due to the lack of blood spurting from my finger, I walked down the hallway, hoping to eventually get to my destination.

As I walked down the hall, the light growing and shrinking as I passed under the bulbs above, I thought back to the day that mother had first shown me exactly what the blade was capable of.


"It's going to rain soon."

I had been napping under a tree, as per usual when I had finished my part of the training. However, a strong, chilly gust of wind had rushed by my face, causing me to snap my eyes open and wake up rather irritated because of how uncomfortable the tree was.

The tree hadn't been too comfortable a spot, but since mother and Yoko were currently occupying the training dummy, my favorite napping space had been taken.

Thus, I had to settle for a distant second best.

I had then proceeded to wipe the dirt off of my pants and lift myself up off the ground using the bark of the tree, a nearby low branch also helping in getting my sore body up from the ground.

The branch had shaken, releasing some vibrant green leaves into my face.

After finally standing in a fully upright position, I had noticed that the sky above, which had been clear other than few stray clouds, had become swamped with a blanket of angry grey.

I really liked it when it rained. Rainy weather was hands down my favorite kind of weather, but I couldn't really enjoy it outside as that meant getting wet and possibly getting a cold. No, I had to go back home.

I looked off toward where mother and Yoko had been training and noticed they were still sparing with some bokken, the thwacks of wood hitting wood greeting my ears before I had locked on to their location.

Once I had found them, I had walked over to them and revealed to them the state of the weather.

"Yes, Miku-chan, I can look up too." Mother had stopped blocking all of Yoko's attacks and instead used her sword to lean on. "If you had been awake, then perhaps you would have heard me say that we would be leaving in thirty or so minutes."

Yeah, sure. Like you didn't take into account me sleeping and just wanted to reprimand me for doing such. "Hora hora, training makes me tired. Really tired."

"Really, Miku, why can't you be more like your cute little imouto over here?" I watched her flick her head over in Yoko's direction, who had taken up my spot under the training dummy to rest up. "She's also tired, but she isn't sleeping the day away like you always do. Instead, she trains. What do you do, Miku?"

I kicked the dirt, sending a miniature dust cloud up into the air. "Whatever… Can we just go home now? It's starting to get cold."

Mother raised an eyebrow and rested a gloved hand on her camo pattered military styled pants. "Really? You're actually cold? I seem to recall a certain four year old once telling me that she loved cold weather and that freezing temperatures didn't bother her."

She remembered that? Of course she did… "I stand by that statement. However-" I shifted my gaze over to Yoko. "-She does not. And also, I find beds infinity more comfortable than a tree. So there's that as well."

Yoko straightened her back ever so slightly. "Not… cold…" She stated. " …Continue?"

No, she was definitely feeling the cold. Her hands were shaking ever so slightly and she kept attempting to hide her mouth in the collar of her jacket. Yoko was more of a summer person after all. I knew mother could see that as well.

"Well, your sister does have a point Yoko… I think we should wrap it up a bit early then." Well that was easier than I thought it would be. "However, I wanted to show the two of you something special today. Sit down and get comfortable. Oh, and Miku, give me your tou-san's sword."

I carefully sat down, spreading my legs and letting out a breath as I did so, the breathe just barely visible because of how cold it had become. I reached behind my back and pulled out the sheathed sword from a hidden pocket on the jacket I had been wearing.

I tossed it to her and she snatched it out of the air, extending it to its full length.

"So, now that the two of you seem comfortable, let's start." I saw a pop-up blink into existence above my head, but I ignored it, knowing it probably had to do with whatever was going on right now. "First off, as you may have guessed by now, this isn't any ordinary sword."

Huh. No way. Couldn't possibly have figured that out.

"This sword's greatest strength lies not in its ability as a stealth weapon, but it its utility and modular design."

"You've been practicing this, haven't you?" I commented flatly.

She flipped the sword down and stabbed it in the dirt, smiling as she did so. "Funny you should say that, actually. I said the exact same thing to your tou-san when he showed me his completed design. He gave me the same run down on this thing that I'm about to give you." She pulled it out and sheathed it. "So, let's start with the basics. As a sword, it's actually pretty average, maybe even less than so. It might be made out of some pretty sweet stuff, but it's hollow on the inside, so it doesn't have the same weight as other swords. I can swing it and I could probably cut through the dummy behind me no problem, but that's because I have what many call 'an absurd amount of strength.' You've made a few nicks in it with your own swings, and that's probably as far as you're going to get with that until you raise your strength a bit."

But strength is like the hardest one to grind skill points for! And why dump points into that when I could just put it in intelligence, dexterity and flexibility? Those seem to be working out pretty well...

"Anyway, as I was saying, this sword is actually more of multi-purpose tool than a sword. The reason I say that is because of this." I watched as she flipped the handle and pointed at the pommel, where the spools of wire were hidden. "These spools turn the weapon from a cool hidden sword to a really cool assassination weapon."

I tilted my head. "You made a distinction between sword and weapon. So you're saying that the sword isn't really a sword?"

Her head shook. "No, it is a sword. You use it as a sword, you swing it like a sword, and it's got all the components of a sword. But, that's only half of what this weapon is. There is another layer that makes it so much better." She pulled apart the handle, activating the manual release and letting the sword drop out of its container, extending it fully. "Perhaps you've noticed some seals on the inside? Ryuusei actually paid someone a lot of ryo to get these seal put on here. You have to put some chakra in them in a very specific order to activate them though, so pay close attention."

She tapped a couple of the seals on the inside in a triangle pattern and closed the hilt again. "There we go!" She extended the sword to the side and swished it around a couple of times, as if activating the seals on the inside had changed its weight. "Yeah, definitely still works… Still a pain in the ass to swing…"

"Tough to swing?" I questioned.

I was both curious and a little scared at the idea of the sword which I had been using for a while suddenly becoming difficult to swing by a grown woman. And not just any woman, but a woman who had a solid 82 in the strength attribute.

"Ah, don't worry about it." She started to swing the sword again. "It's not heavier or anything. Well, it is, but not by much. Probably to you it would feel like a huge difference, but once you're older it won't feel like too much of one. Anyway, it's not the weight that's causing the problem. It's the spools of wire."

The wire? How would- oh. Yeah, that could be the reason…

"…wire?" Yoko spoke up. She had apparently moved out of her spot near the post and had scooched closer to me, now almost leaning into my side. Huh. Maybe the cold was actually getting to her more than I thought it did.

She brought the sword closer to our faces and showed us the pommel where the wire was hidden, displaying the box where the wire was showcased. Inside, I could see that it was spinning incredibly fast, confirming my theory. I found it strange that I couldn't actually hear it spinning despite how close I was, however. I decided to just attribute it to the casing and the seals.

"You're using the spools like a gyroscope." I stated. "… Why?"

"Well someone is well informed…" Of course I was. I took physics and had years of scouring the depths of the internet to satiate my boredom. "Yes, I am. Why don't you tell Yoko what a gyroscope is, since she seems to be confused on the matter?"

Oh, right. She wouldn't know. She's still six despite how many books she's read. "Alright. A gyroscope is a spinning disk used to conserve momentum on an axis. In other words, turn it a certain way and it'll resist turning that way. Problem is, the way the spools are currently facing, it really shouldn't be a problem to swing it vertically."

She nodded. "Correct again. As long as you swing the sword with the spools parallel to the sword, it isn't an issue. However, my goal wasn't attempting to swing it; it was attempting to rotate it with my wrist. Still strains my wrist a bit to do it…" Ah, that makes sense. "And you can rotate the spools on the inside. The blade is light so it won't stand a chance against heavier weaponry, but if you move the spools using the switch, then it becomes magnitudes easier to block attacks."

"I don't recall seeing any switches…"

She looked upward and teetered her head back and forth at that. "Well, technically it isn't a switch, per say. It's more of an indent you press that just so happens to correspond to where the thumb would land when you grip it. You wouldn't have noticed because the sword is still too big for your hands. If you press it, the spools will become parallel with the ground no matter which way you hold the sword. Press it twice, it'll change to be parallel with the sword." She demonstrated by showing us the spools as she pressed the extremely shallow indent that I had apparently never noticed. "You can change it in combination with the other 'switches' if you wish, but I found those two to work the best."

"More switches?" Great, more shit I missed. Well, it's not like it would have mattered if I had found them until know. From what I can tell, it didn't even work until she activated the seals. "Where are those located?"

She pointed at the four deep grooved that were on the sword to keep a solid grip on it. "These indents are 'switches' as well. Just squeeze them and send some chakra to your fingers and they do different things. The top three are meant to control which spools are spinning and how while the bottom one is there to judge how hard you're gripping so you don't accidentally activate something when you don't want to. The top one controls the left most spool, the middle one controls the middle one, and the third one controls the last of the three."

"Wait, don't tell me… I'm guessing that if you press the top one with the thumb one, then it'll rotate a certain way and if you do the same except with the middle finger, it'll rotate it another way." And if my logic worked out… "And, I suppose if you use the fingered switches without the thumb, they control speed and direction it's spinning? Either by amount of pressure placed or the amount of times squeezed?"

She smirked. "Correct." Hah, victory! Da da da da da da dadada~~! "Not so bad to wake up every now and then, right?"

I frowned in response. No. Sleeping was magnitudes better than being awake. It was fact. I've tested it thoroughly and plan to continue testing it until proven otherwise.

"Hahahehehe… Miku-chan, you're making that cute face of yours again." I returned my expression to its neutral state. "If only I had brought the camera… Ah well, there will always be more chances…"

Like hell there will!

"Anyway, you are right. If you squeeze them independent of the thumb indent, they do indeed control the direction they move in. The speed, however, is set to a certain rate because they are powered by an internal store of chakra stored in a seal under the spools which can be replenished by just pushing any old chakra in. You can increase it by adding chakra through the triggers on the handle, but those are only temporary. As for what their used for…" She beckoned us to get up and follow her over to the tree line. "The simplest thing they are used for is actually entirely internal. You may want to stand back slightly just in case, you two."

I heeded her warning and took a large step back, keeping an eye on mother as she moved next to a fairly large tree.

"Normally, when you use this sword, it doesn't have all that much power in sending the sword out. After all, why would you need it to? No need to accidentally break a bone or dislocate your arm because the blade simply shot out too fast. But, because it only has so little force behind it, when you attempt something like this-" She placed the blade against the tree and pushed the switch to send out the sword. "- nothing happens. But, if you happen to activate the spools and send some chakra to them as so-" She made a show of gripping the handle of the sword to us, twitching her fingers against the dark wood for emphasis. "Then you get something like this!"

She once again placed the sword against the tree and pushed the button.

I heard a crack sound out and suddenly wooden splinters burst out from the other side of the tree, with the largest piece flying out and landing around three meters away. I leaned to the side to see the carnage the sword had wreaked in the other side and found myself not disappointed, as the bark had been blasted off, leaving the much brighter inside bare to the elements. A small pile of sawdust had settled at the base of the tree, with a visible cone of debris stemming from it.

I heard the distinct 'shink' noise of the blade returning to its container and turned to see mother, who had walked around the tree and viewed the scene, smiling gleefully as she did so. "Heh. Not as good as the mass drivers over in T&I, but a pretty close result, if I do say so myself." Yeah, I doubt I would ever have the strength necessary to actually hold that without blowing my own arm clean off… "I wouldn't recommend doing that in an actual battle scenario unless your opponent is wearing heavy armor and has forced you into close combat, but damn is it satisfying. Oh, and you don't have to worry about accidentally losing your arm. I put a decent amount of chakra into that, and you have nowhere near the amount I have, so at most you would probably be able to accidentally sprain your wrist or perhaps dislocate your shoulder."

Pain was pain. No way am I ever going to do that. Ever.

"So, next was probably your tou-san's favorite part about this sword. I told you he liked fishing, right?" I nodded and she reached in the pouch attached to her left thigh and took out what looked to be miniature tri-pronged hooks. "These hooks are something Ryuusei made to use in conjunction with the sword. The hooks can collapse into the center stem so they're pretty easy to store." She pushed one of the prongs in to demonstrate. "Now, watch this."

She took a hook and ran it along the base of the sword. Then, she pulled it away to reveal that the hook now had a wire attached to the base of it. "Easy. It's as simple as placing it against one of the grooves on the bottom and moving it across. It catches it every time, unless you do it wrong or it broke. I hope you don't manage to do either."

Yeah, I would hate to have to fix that. It's way too complicated for me. Not that I wouldn't be able to. I'm sure if I had enough time I would… Probably.

She reached into her pocket again and pulled out something again. This time, however, she pulled out a glove that had the fingers and knuckles made out of metal instead of cloth. The metal, I realized, had the same metallic sheen as the blade and the handle, meaning it was made out of the same metal.

I had the urge to gauge it but held back, seeing as I would probably get the glove in the future to gauge it all I want in my own time where I won't have to whisper yes over and over whenever the pop-up came up.

She took off her own glove placed it over her now bare left hand, making sure it was snug and clenching and unclenching her fist a few times to doubly make sure. She then took the hook and placed it on the jutting tip of the guard. "This here is probably my favorite use of the wire that doesn't involve killing anything because of just how fun it is. I know you've been wondering why the blade has such a strange shape, with that piece at the tip? Here's why."

She released the blade from its container at the speed I was used to seeing instead of what I assumed the speed would have been had she sent chakra through it. It fully extended, as normal, but at the bottom tip where the tiny bit of metal jutted out was the hook, resting at the tip of the blade.

"I'm sure the both of you have already guessed what would have happened had I used the stronger version of sending this thing out, right?"

I nodded. So, I can pretend to be a steampunk assassin and an undead ninja dedicated to revenge? Can this weapon get any better?

She reeled back her arm, putting it high above her head, and moved her left leg back, getting in a throwing position. "Here we go!"

She launched her arm forward, sending the hook careening through the sky, the wire creating a large arc behind it. It soared all the way across the clearing, into the sea of trees that surrounded the clearing.

Mother tugged a couple of times on the sword, nodding her head as she did so. "Looks like I caught something. Wouldn't you agree?" I nodded in awe. "I believe I caught myself a tree branch. Now, depending on the wire, I could activate the spools and cut the branch clean in half. However, I didn't use the thin wire. I used the thicker one. And because I did that…"

She pushed the two of us out of the way and held on to the sword with both her hands. Her arm suddenly shot forward and her body followed, travelling at a relatively fast speed.

Seems I will need to add a parachute to that list of shit I need. Not that I would really need it as a ninja. After all, they get around fast enough on their own two feet. I just want one just 'cause.

Puns. Delicious, delicious puns.

Soon enough I heard another high pitched noise and looked up to see a glint of metal. The tree behind us ruffled, and putting the pieces together, I pulled Yoko out of the way and took several very large steps back.

Half a second later and a blur passed overhead, before slamming into the tree, sending bark flying. Mother had apparently decided to show off and had decided to pull off a Liu Kang, kicking the tree using the momentum created by the wire's pull. She had then proceeded to backflip and land directly in front of us.

"…dangerous…" Yoko stated.

Mother rubbed the back of her head and put on an apologetic smile. "Eheh… Sorry about that. I didn't think I put in that much chakra. Especially considering most of my chakra is sealed… It has been a while, I suppose." She stretched the sword out to her side and used one of the sword's abilities to pull the wire back into it. "Anyway, that is probably the most useful and simplest way of using it. It doesn't require hand signs, is simple to execute, and once you get used to the pull, you can chain them together for some real fun."

"I can guess." If I ever happen to see a large humanoid creature attacking the walls of Konoha and eating the populace, then that sword will be the first thing I will grab. "What else can you do with it?"

She shrugged. "A lot of things. You can turn it into a bow, cut a tree or group of trees in half, make a chainsaw, puppeteer your own body, create wire traps… a lot of different things, really. Some of them I can't actually do because I don't have the right chakra type to do them, but it can still do a lot of different things without needing that."

Wait wait wait, hold on, back up. "Are you joking? I can understand the cutting trees business because you could just wrap wire around them and just activate the spools, and maybe the puppeteer thing, but the bow and the chainsaw? What?"

She lifted the sword and pulled on the hook that had found its way back to the guard. "Alright. Let me show you something you probably missed." She twisted her wrist so that the blade's tip was now not but a few centimeters away from my nose. "The tip that's jutting out at the edge is actually two pieces of metal pressed tightly together. Run some chakra directly at the tip though…"

She took a couple of steps forward and moved it so it wouldn't impale my face. Then, she positioned it so that it was now parallel to her body and right in between us. She took a finger and pressed down on the lip of the piece of metal. Slowly, I could see a very tiny hole start to open up, possibly about as wide as a pin head, which eventually split down the middle and revealed that she had been correct with the assertion that it had originally been two pieces of metal.

"Then you take this wire and place it in here…" She slid the wire into the newly created divide. "And close it back up again. It'll close back up as soon as you take chakra away, which has the unfortunate side effect of locking the wire in place. But-" She took the slack and hook and removed the hook from the wire. Then, she took the wire and inserted it back into the base. "-Because there is always a small amount of chakra running through these wires because of how the system works, you can do this!"

I didn't actually see anything immediately, but after a few seconds I could see tiny fluctuations in the light reflecting from the wire, indicating that it was indeed moving.

"The wire runs in a loop back into the spool. This is the thick wire, so it doesn't have as much cutting potential and I'm not putting any elemental chakra in it, but even with just a little bit of force-" She swung her arm in the direction of the tree, and it went right through half of it without showing any signs of straining herself. "-and you get that. Won't stand up to an actual sword, but it'll cut through most things you'll find out there."

She left the sword running for a bit and not but a few seconds later did the wire finally return to its resting place. "As for the bow, it's not that much more complicated. Just take a wire, put it in the same position up there, and instead of putting it in the same spool, you put it in a different spool. Your tou-san usually switched out the wire to be the same thickness on both spools though, because some wire is actually thin enough to cut the wire you put in. All the wires in here are currently the same thickness though, so it shouldn't be a problem."

She went ahead and did as she said, taking out a wire and putting it through the loop, followed by placing it back in the base.

"Then, all you have to do is split the handle so that it touches the sword to make a proper handhold and… you have a bow!" She presented to us the makeshift bow in her hands. I have to admit, I'm kind of impressed. "This position doesn't give you access to the indents that let you control the spools though, unless you want to try to fit your fingers in the gap between the edge and the handle. To use it, you just take an arrow and use it like a regular bow. If you tug on the string twice, it'll make it so that the spools will try to pull it back as hard as possible and create an absurd amount of tension, which will let your arrow fly as straight as possible."

I had to admit it wasn't the most practical way to make a bow, but I could see the possibilities of having a long ranged option. So the sword had short ranged, medium ranged, and long ranged options. Yeah, I liked this weapon. I liked it a lot.

Then, I felt something cold and wet land in my hair. I shot a hand up to my head and tapped the area where I felt the chill emanate from.

Water.

"Kaa-san, it's starting to rain. Can we go now?"

She quickly returned the weapon to its normal state with a few flicks of her hand and nodded in response. "Yes, let us go. I don't think your imouto can last any longer out here."

I leaned back acutely and saw Yoko shivering in the corner of my eye. Yeah, definitely time to go.

I was about to turn around and head back to the house when I heard mother yell out behind me. "Miku, catch!"

I turned around in time to see her lob the compartmentalized sword to me and snatch it before it could hit me in the face. However, I had apparently underestimated the strength of the throw, as instead of keeping my arm in the air, it instead pushed my hand back and slammed it against my face.

"Oww!"

"Oh, sorry Miku! I did say that it would be heavier." Damn right it was heavier! It feels more like I'm trying to carry around a gallon of water instead of a brick… "One of the seals is a weight seal, so just press the seals in the reverse order to deactivate them, okay?"

I quickly opened it up and tapped the seals that she had indicated. As soon as I had done that, I felt the pressure on my left arm lessen.

I felt a hand press down onto my head. "You know Miku, if you can't carry that sword with the seals activated, we might have to do some strength training…"

Oh dear science no. Strength grinding?! Fuck that shit. No fucking way.

Mother apparently did not read my expression of distaste. "I'll take your silence as an okay! We start tomorrow!"

I groaned.

Another drop of water fell from up above.


The sword had indeed proven to be extremely useful. Dare I say it, might have even felt a spark of fun within the depths of my soul during training. But, then sword training ended and all was back to normal.

I had learned a few more things about the sword since then as well. Turns out the level discrepancy I had noted earlier was actually because the system seemed to disassociate the idea of using a weapon versus using a sword. Using the blade as a sword required level forty for mastery, despite being a level eighty plus weapon. However, mastery as a weapon actually required one to be level eighty, which I was nowhere near currently.

As for the training, it was mostly just mother using the sword to quickly get between places and then having me try to copy her while also doing some katas to get used to the weight of it after the seals had been activated. The former reminded me a lot of the days where I would just sit on my computer and try to rocket jump in TF2 or attempt surf maps in counter strike, except in real life.

There was a lot of slamming into trees. And tripping. And letting go of the sword. And forgetting to chain the pulls.

As a certain prince of tennis once said, I still had a ways to go.

The latter was more torture than anything else. Sure, I had gotten my strength up to ten using all the points I had accumulated, but it was still fucking heavy with the seals activated. I was not going to get used to it any time soon.

At least using gauge on it revealed that with seals the strength requirement to use it was 20.

As for the glove, mother had stated that father had created it as a means to lessen the strain on his wrist as well as keep his fingers from being chopped off from the wires. Apparently they couldn't be cut and had some seals on them that acted like shock absorbers, but the glove itself was too big for me to use currently. I had gauged it and it had basically given the same information, except that it also had the ability to place a wire spool on the back and use wires that way as well, but mother failed to mention that.

Perhaps she didn't know? The glove didn't seem to have a slot to place a spool in, but I had missed the indent, so there was always a possibility…

I also noticed something else that was kind of strange. Ever since I had changed the name of the weapon, the 'unbreakable' aspect of the sword had disappeared. I had no idea why it disappeared or what changing the name had to do with it, but apparently now the sword could break, which sucked royally.

Who knew what else had changed.

I stopped walking and looked up to see where I was, trying to get my bearings after having walked a while.

"Huh. That was pretty quick."

Above me was the sign for the records room, the letters glowing softly in stark contrast to the black background.

I gripped the handle and went inside, noting that the lights were already on.

I could see a wave of dust wash through the air as I moved the door, revealing the abandoned state of the room. Leaving the room unattended for three months had caused the room to build up a staggering amount of dust, which I knew it had from my previous visits to the room.

I was pretty used to dust, considering how much of it caked my room, but the amount of dust in the records room tickled my nose. I ducked my head down into the collar of my jacket to try to keep the dust out, but that still didn't stop the ever present feeling that I was going to sneeze.

I walked quickly, deciding I wanted to get this over with quickly.

The records room itself was made up of about three shelves of tightly packed documents and two desks with files on them.

I flicked the sword and returned it to its sheath, placing it back in the pocket I had taken it from. I took out the scroll and lobbed it at the table where the files where, the scroll unrolling itself across the top of the files that had been resting there.

Said files were the files that Kyo had taken the pages from to update, so all I had to do was just place the right file in the right folder and place it back on the shelf in the right spot.

It was easier than it sounded because the folders were always arranged so that the leftmost file on top would go to the blank spot furthest to the left, starting from the top. The one under it would go in the next spot from the left, going down that shelf. This would continue to the next stack and the next until they were all filed.

Given that the papers Kyo handed me were organized so all I would have to do was follow the order top to bottom and left to right, the task itself wouldn't take more than ten or so minutes.

I took out the papers from the scroll, grabbed the wooden chair that had been hidden in the corner, and sat down at the empty desk, wiping away the dust and creating a small rainbow out if the absence of the stuff.

I quickly patted my jacket to remove the line of grime that had accumulated on it and sneezed a few times because of all the dust.

I leaned over and pulled the table to the side of me, the wheels on the bottom squeaking irritatingly as I made an L with the desks. Once that was done, I took a file and a form and placed them together.

It was a monotonous task, but I had nothing else to do and I already said I would do it.

There was actually something pretty neat with these documents. If I happened to gauge one, it would either give me a new sheet with some basic information, or it would update it so that it matched the sheet. The system was pretty smart about it, too, because occasionally it would have pop-ups saying things like contradicting information should it actually contradict a person I had gauged before.

It only worked on people I had gauged before though, so if I gauged a paper and got a brief bio from it, I couldn't be sure if it was correct or not.

I didn't bother gauging most of the papers because that would needlessly fill up the guidebook with people that were going to die soon, but if I came across someone interesting, then I gauged it and passed it on to its folder.

No names stood out to me in the first stack, but as I was going through the second one, one particular name stood out to me.

Itachi Uchiha.

He was something of an enigma in the compound, really. His tune, with that opening drum beat that had been beat into me after so many times of playing the song's namesake so many times, had an extremely wide radius around him. It was actually harder not to notice when he was around than when he was, and because of my irrational fear of him, if he was around I either completely avoided him or I ran back to the house, abandoning anything that I was planning on doing that day until he was gone.

Sure, I had gauged him once or twice, but that was only when I was forced to be in his presence, like when I'm forced to attend a party or something similar, so my information on him was pretty scarce.

What I did have on him certainly put him on a tier higher than any other ninja I had gauged in recent memory, aside from the few times I had seen the hokage when he made a public appearance.

Name: Itachi Uchiha (Level 90)

Multi-class [genius] (fire)

Rank: S

Status: Jounin (anbu commander)

Health: 20,321/20,321

Chakra: 20,332/20,332

Equipment:

Anbu Flak Jacket (matte gray)

Uchiha shirt (dark blue)

Uchiha shorts (grey)

Anbu Boots (black)

Strength: ? Endurance: ? Agility: ? dexterity: ? flexibility: ? intelligence: ? charisma: ? chakra: ?

Ninjutsu: 95/150 Genjutsu: 100/150 taijutsu ? kenjutsu ? bukijutsu ? Fuinjutsu ? Senjutsu ?

Traits:

?

Abilities:

?

Jutsu:

?

Biography:

Born June 9th

Male

Blood type: AB

Just the little information I had made Itachi look like a scary opponent. Fucking level 90 and a solid 100 in genjutsu.

Itachi was hardcore.

And those stats had been from a while ago. He had no doubt gotten stronger since then, so there was no doubt in my mind that there was no way I would ever get strong enough in the short amount of time I had left to deal with him personally.

Itachi's file didn't have anything new on it. Just an injury report (he had suffered from some minor cuts) and an updated BMI. I tossed his form into the file and placed it on the shelf where it belonged.

There was, however, one thing that bugged me about Itachi's data. Naruto's chakra score currently sat at around the 90's plus the extra bonus he got, yet his overall chakra level was only 6-7000ish. Itachi's was 20,000, and I'm pretty damn sure he didn't have any of Naruto's insane bonuses. Did that mean that chakra scaled with age? Or maybe rank? Or was it a chakra control thing?

Fuck this system. It's too damn complicated.

Ignoring that for now, I moved on. The next file I found that interested me was Yoko's, whose file was near the end of the stacks.

I knew her file was updated every three months because she always came for check-ups. Her health recently had improved greatly due to the medicine and that jutsu of hers, but she still needed to come by every four months or so to make sure she wasn't over exerting the strain on her heart.

Since I made sure to gauge her daily, I already had an accurate picture of her abilities. Gauging something with outdated information would just be a waste of chakra.

But that didn't mean I couldn't do the reverse…

I looked around the desk to see if there was a pencil that Kyo may have left and found one hidden under the desk I had pulled to my left. The tip was a little dull, but that was okay and the eraser was still functional.

I made a quick edit to Yoko's file, just erasing the very top line and writing something else so that information would line up I the future. Then, I went over to the shelves and dug out my own file from it and made a similar edit.

I quickly placed both back in their proper files and placed them back where they belonged.

Once that was finished, I went to work on the final few files and put the tables back where they belonged, exiting the room soon after.

This time I decided I didn't want to wander the halls for a million years, so I took out the guidebook and flipped to the map page.

I wasn't planning to return to the lobby immediately, so using the guidebook would cut the time I spent wandering around by a shit ton, by my closest estimates. Perhaps even a metric shit ton, if I rounded up.

Keeping a careful eye on the guidebook, I took several turns until I was in front of a very familiar set of numbers.

I entered to the familiar scene of a pale, gaunt looking man sleeping soundly in a bed.

Dan Dan dan~~~ Dan dan~~ Dan Dan Dan~~~ Dan Dan~~~

A nostalgic tune filled the air as I walked over to his bed.

I suppose it fit him. Mother did always say that he would have preceded a simple life, away from all the fighting. He never did, because he had a duty to attend to, but since that guy's theme was playing, perhaps he truly did wish to just run away from it all... From duty, from honor, and just make a life on a farm somewhere where war could not touch him ever again...

I grabbed a chair and sat down, letting out a deep breath as I did so.

"Hey, tou-san. Nice to see you again. It's been a while."

I paused, as if expecting an answer.

Duuuun~~ dun duuuun~~~ dun duuuun~~~ dun duuuun~~~

"I've been doing okay, I guess. Kaa-san has been pushing me pretty hard lately, but I guess it's been kind of fun. That sword you made is pretty cool, you know?" I leaned back in my chair, cracking my back. "Kaa-san said Yoko didn't have the grip strength to use it yet, but I think she just doesn't want Yoko to get hurt. Getting cut by tree branches and stray rocks tends to cause wounds, which then tend to cause infections, and Yoko doesn't have the best immune system in the world..."

Dun dun dun duuuun~~~ dun duuuun~~~ dun duuuun~~~

"I've read a couple of books recently. Nothing too interesting. Yoko's been asking me for more books recently too, but all the books recently have been complete crap. She even asked kaa-san for some books. She never asks her for anything. I think Shino has something to do with it..."

Dundunduuun duuuun~~ Dun duuuun~~~ Dundunduuun duuun~~ Dun dun dun dun~~~

"… It's hard… living like I am. I go by, day to day, doing nothing most of the time. I know I should be doing something, but then I think, what's the point? And just go back to sleep. I feel like I'm suffocating half the time, and drowning the other… I could be training, going to the library, anything really… But I choose not to." I felt a smile tug at the corners of my mouth. "I'm pathetic. Really, I am… How would you look at me, if you were awake? Disappointed, like kaa-san? Or would you let me continue to live like this? Just dangling on the edge…"

Duuuun~~~ Duuuun~~~ Dun Duuun~~~

"… I guess I'll see you later then. Maybe next week. Bye, tou-san…"

Duuuun~~ dun duuuun~~~ dun duuuun~~~ dun duuuun~~~

I got up from my chair and left, carefully closing the door behind me.

I leaned against the now closed door and sighed, letting my hair fall in front of my eyes.

He was still as asleep as ever, continuing his crusade through the world of dreams, never waking due to the poison in his system.

Visiting tou-san always felt like an endeavor to me, but I tried to do it as often as I could. Despite feeling like rocks were going to start spewing from my stomach every single time I went in there, I felt like I could just tell him anything and be at peace, at least for a little while.

But that wasn't the only reason I went in there. I had also been trying to find out exactly who had poisoned him and why, and as of a month ago, I had an inkling as to the answer to both those questions.

I wasn't completely sure, but the signs were there, right in the data section of the guidebook. If I took everything I knew about the manga and applied it to the information I had received, then the pieces of the puzzle were placed together and a picture was made.

But there was truly nothing I could do, if I was correct. If the situation had been simpler, then perhaps I could have woken him up and Yoko and I could have a father figure in our lives again, but I was positive I was correct.

Especially since that piece of evidence was so damning.

But again, there was nothing I could do. The person who had been poisoning him would die in due time, that I was positive about, but Ryuusei would also die with him.

After all, there would only be two survivors in the end, those two being Sasuke and Itachi.

That meant that he would die here, in this hospital, on that day.

Why the hell was I so fucking worthless?

I took a deep breath in and after holding it a second, let it out. Self-deprecation was good and all, but spending the day depressed took too much effort. I was better off just letting it go…

I bounced off the door by arching my back and took a step towards the lobby, map in hand so that I could get there without losing my way.

Soon enough I was back at the entrance and Kyo was still reading through the stack of books I had left him.

"Ah, done with the task I set for you?" He asked. "You took a bit longer than I thought you would have. Did you happen to get lost again?"

[Task Complete!]

Take the documents and file them in the records room!

Rewards:

4 exp.

Would you like to continue?

Yes

No

"Hora hora, stop assuming I got lost again. I took a detour before I got here, alright?" I mean, I did get lost, but that didn't really matter. "Anyway, yeah, it's done. I'm going to leave because I've spent way to long here already, so bye."

"Wait, before you go, please take this with you." I took a few steps backward and leaned my head back to see what Kyo wanted to give me. "It is Yoko's medicine. I doubt you would want to come back here in two days to pick up the next batch, so why not take it now?"

I quickly took the bag and stuffed it in a pocket, nodding at Kyo for his thoughtfulness. "Thanks. I'll see you later then."

"Goodbye."

I walked out the hospital doors, heading in the direction of home.


"What?"

"I said that you're going to be staying somewhere else for a month or two, depending on how long the mission I'm taking is." Mother restated. "Are you sure you washed the shampoo out of your ears?"

It had been a few days since I had visited the hospital, and today had been proving to be just as boring as every other day until Kaa-san had come home surprisingly early. I had been home alone, so I had decided to take a shower and had come out with a towel wrapped around me to see her lying on the floor in front of a Go game, a bottle of sake in hand.

She had laughed, of course, and had sent me back to go get changed and then come back because she had something important to discuss with me. Since it sounded really freaking important, I decided to screw drying my hair for thirty minutes and instead just wander around with my hair still wet.

I could clean it up later.

Eventually.

Maybe.

"Hora hora, I heard you the first time. Also, why do you insist on putting your hair dyes right next to the shampoo? I almost used one of them…" She had told me a long time ago that sometimes using henge just wouldn't cut it, so she used a combination of hair dyes, makeup, and colored contacts to blend in. "It's just that you've left on moth long missions before. Why the change?"

She beckoned me over to sit across from her, so I did as she asked and sat down in front of the game she had set up. "It's complicated, really. There were a whole lot of stipulations when I joined this clan, you know? I have to keep my chakra sealed to the point where I can only do a few genjutsu, I have to follow the clan head no matter what, I have to go to the hospital each month to make sure I'm not pregnant, and a whole slew of other shit that just makes it a bitch to deal with."

Oh shit, she was cursing. Yeah, this was serious.

She took a long drink directly from the bottle she was holding and passed me the pot of black pieces that had been hidden by her side. "So, two days ago the third Hokage calls me up to his office and hands me a month long infiltration mission. Usually, stuff like this is pretty normal, but I'm part of T&I and we have a little more leeway with stuff like this because of village secrets. I refused, of course, seeing as I promised you and Yoko I would stay for the summer, but the old man said it was fucking mandatory." She took a white piece and placed it on the board, right near the center. "Now, there are only a few reasons why this would happen. One, this is a really important mission that the hokage believes I have the capacity to complete. Not that I doubt my skills, but I believe there are others that have a better skillset than I do in matters such as these. Two, this was ordered by my department, and I highly doubt that. Third, and probably most likely, is that the clan has ordered that I take this mission."

"Hora… Mind explaining that last one?" I took a stone and placed it next to hers. "How could the clan order the hokage to take a mission?"

"Well, technically they can't. They just bent the rules a bit." She took a piece and placed it next to her original piece. "Sometimes when a client asks for something, they'll ask for something like 'I want an Uchiha to be on this mission' and pay extra to do it. This is then sent to that ass Fugaku who then either asks for someone to take the mission or chooses someone and sends the missive to the hokage. I'm not really an Uchiha, but the client doesn't know that and I am good at infiltration. Plus, I can't actually lose those precious eyes of theirs since I married in, so it's a win-win for everyone, unless the client finds out I'm not really from the clan. In that case, the fault goes to me for letting that out as we're all screwed if that itty bitty tidbit gets out. I personally don't like it, but hey, that's how it will fucking work out."

She took another long gulp while I played my piece. "But that doesn't really explain why I'm sending you away, does it?" I shook my head. "Yeah… Well, this isn't the first time this has happened, but this is the first time that the clan has sent a rather large wave of people out on a mission. Mostly any ninjas who have married in, like myself. Have you noticed the lack of people around here recently?" I nodded, watching as mother placed another piece on the table. "Yeah, that would be because they're all out on missions. So, the only rational conclusion I can come up with is that the main branch wants us all gone for something. The main branch never really clued any of us in, anyway, so to just kick us out like that would imply they're up to something. I don't know what that something is, but I don't want the two of you to be in the compound while that's going on."

I felt a heavy pain settle in my chest as she said those words. It was going to happen soon. Really fucking soon, if what she said was indeed correct. Since everybody died, then that means that I only had a month or two left until it happened.

Holy shit. Holy fucking shit.

It was going to happen.

"Miku? Miku!" I snapped my head upward to see the concerned face of my mother. "You okay? You look pale."

I nodded. "Yeah… I'll be fine…" I noticed that my hands had started to shake and took a deep breath to calm my nerves. "Where am I staying again?"

"You remember Anko, right?" I nodded. "Yeah, well, she owes me after the last time she dumped work on me, so you and Yoko will be staying with her. She was a bit reluctant to do so, but I managed to convince her. She probably won't even be in her apartment half the time, so you won't even have to interact with her if you don't want to."

I took a piece and placed it on my thumb, flipping it like a coin and then catching it as I contemplated whether I should take the classical approach or branch out. "No, it's fine. Her place is probably closer to the academy anyway, which means less walking for me. Doesn't explain why I can't just stay with your family though."

Really, any place was closer to the academy than our house. It was all the way on the south side of Konoha, while the academy rested on the north end. If I didn't have the guidebook, I think I would be spending days wandering around trying to get home.

"…That's also pretty complicated. Basically any child of the Uchiha has the ability to unlock the sharingan, so on the slim chance you happen to activate it inside the compound, there would be a huge clusterfuck that would happen soon afterwards." I placed my piece in the center, following the classical method. "It's a lot easier to just leave you with someone like Anko, who I also happen to trust and wouldn't cause any unnecessary paperwork."

Ah, yeah… That would make sense…

Then I remembered I had wanted to ask something. "Oh, by the way, I wanted to ask… can I have some Ryo? Some of my clothes have gotten a bit small…"

She looked at me questioningly. "Didn't I buy you some clothes last week?"

I nodded. "Eh, yeah… About that…. I kind of… forgot where I put them… I looked around after I put them in the scroll, but then…"

She sighed. "Fine, I'll get you some clothes later." She flicked a stone on the board, placing it right next to my own. "So, now that that's over with, I guess this will mark one of the last games I'll play with you in a while, huh?"

I smiled.

"Yeah, I suppose it does…"

The last game I'll ever play with mother…

*clack*

Guess I'd better try my hardest…


Naruto gripped his head as another surge of pain swept through it.

"Naruto! Are you paying attention?!"

He cracked open an eye to see Iruka staring at him, along with half the class. This also had the problem of making his headache worse as the light seemed to bounce around his skull, amplifying the pain with every bounce. "Naruto? Are you sure you're okay?"

Suddenly, just as quickly as it had appeared, it went away. He shook his head to make sure there was no residual pain before answering. "Sorry Iruka-sensei. I've been getting these headaches recently and they really hurt, but then they go away."

Iruka smiled. "Well, at least you aren't sleeping." His smile soon turned into a frown, however. "If those headaches persist though, come visit me after class, okay? You seem to be getting them a lot recently."

Naruto heard a few murmurs of 'attention hog' and 'baka' go around, but he chose to ignore them. After all, none of them could ever be as great as he was, and he had the stats to prove it!

He hadn't even seen anyone in the academy with as much chakra as he had!

…His other stats were a bit low, but he had so much chakra! And that was good for something, right?! That meant he could do a whole bunch of really cool jutsu without getting tired!

"-and I suppose I will cut our lesson a bit short. We'll continue this after lunch."

Wait a second, lunch?! Naruto looked toward the clock to see that it was indeed lunch. He had been spacing out for the past hour or so because lesson were just so boring and had only really broken out of his stupor because of the headache he had received.

His headaches had started to become more and more frequent. Usually they would appear maybe once every few days, but now it felt more like they were happening every single day

Luckily they were short, so they didn't bother him too much, but now he was really considering using some of that money he got from all those tasks to by some medicine from the shop with all the things in it. He had bought some from once when he had accidentally cut himself with a kunai for what felt like a fortune, but it had not only stopped the pain as soon as he took it, but it also healed the wound he had as well!

It only had five pills though. That really sucked.

He got up and walked over to where his two newest friends were, taking a bowl of piping hot ramen out of his inventory while doing so.

He had discovered a while ago that if you stuck something in the inventory, it always came out the exact same way you put it in, so now he had a sizable supply of already cooked ramen just waiting to be consumed.

Another neat thing he discovered was that no one seemed to notice whenever he took something out of his inventory or question where it came from. He didn't bother questioning it, so he just went with the flow.

"Hey guys! What's up?" He sat down on a chair and flashed them a smile. "Today I got myself some pork ramen! What about you two?"

The first to speak up was the girl on his left, the dark blue haired Hinata Hyuuga. "A-ano… I have some rice…"

The person opposite to Hinata spoke up next. "I did not bring a lunch with me today, Uzumaki-san. My father informed me that I would not need it as we were doing survival training starting from when I returned back home."

Naruto nodded slowly. "Yeah… Okay."

Naruto heard the door behind him open up and in walked the one person who Naruto had come to hate almost as much as that loser Sasuke.

"…" She stared at him menacingly before taking a seat next to Shino, placing her box shaped bundle on the table and carefully undoing the knot on it it.

"Well, hello to you, too! Couldn't even bother to say hi to me, huh?"

She glared at him once again and went back to her lunch, once again not verbally responding to him.

"Uzumaki-san, please do not antagonize Yoko-san." Shino shifted his glasses. "I do believe we have had this conversation many times and you still fail to listen. She does not like to speak, so please refrain from doing so around her."

Naruto glared in her direction. It wasn't fair! He had been trying to raise his relationship score with her for the past few months and all he had gotten was a stone cold glare and the occasional word here or there. It didn't even move from its spot at all, no matter how hard he tried to get it to budge. It just stayed at -10 forever, never going up or down at all.

Why couldn't she be more like Hinata? He only had had a few conversations with her and his relationship score was already at 56 with her! That was almost as high as ojii-san's! Even with Shino he had more luck, with him managing to get a solid 12 with him, and talking to him felt like talking to a robot!

He angrily took a bite out of his ramen, quickly gulping it down as he did so.

There was a brief flash of '+50 health' in the corner of his vision, but that slowly dissipated as he ate.

He didn't get it at all. He had apologized a long time ago, yet she was still angry. Heck, he even said it was okay that she nearly burnt don his apartment and all she did was look at him before walking away!

Really, why was he even putting himself through any of this in the first place? Oh yeah, so he could find that hora hora guy… And Naruto Uzumaki never gave in!

So why in the world could he do nothing about the girl sitting across from him?! Was his charisma score not high enough?! It was the highest in the class next to Sasuke's, but it was kind of low…

And his next level up was so far away too…

It seemed like he would never be able to solve this mystery, at least he wouldn't before that happened…

Wait, that? What the heck was he talking about?

He shook his head and continued eating. He could worry about stuff like that later. Right now he needed to get his relationship score up with Yoko-san and then maybe he could worry about what was going on with his head.

Really, nothing was working, so what could he do? Maybe if he just left her alone it would go back up again? No, that would be dumb…

He glanced at Shino, who seemed to be busy talking to Yoko. He didn't get it. They seemed to have a pretty good relationship with one another, so why was he having such a hard time?

Wait a second, Shino was on good terms with her… Yeah! He would ask Shino! He would probably know!

A smile spread across his face. How had he never thought about this before?! Yeah, there was no way this plan wasn't going to work!

But he couldn't talk to Shino here. No, he would do it after the academy had ended and she was gone.

He took another bite of his ramen. Yeah, today was going to be a good day!


"It is because, Naruto-san, you are insincere."

Naruto had managed to find Shino as he was leaving and had asked him why Yoko still hated him. It had taken some time to convince him to help him, but luckily he managed to convince him otherwise.

"What do you mean?!" He replied. "I'm totally sincere! I'm sincere all the time! Sincere is my middle name!"

Shino stared at him.

"Sincere. Being truthful with your feelings." Shino stated. "Naruto-san, I have seen your interactions with Yoko-san and you have been anything but sincere. If you truly wish to make amends, do not treat her like a goal and instead treat her like a friend."

Naruto was confused. He wasn't being truthful? Well, he did suppose that the only reason he tried making friends with her was because he wanted to find that one guy, but…

"But how do I do that?! I don't understand her at all! Every time I try to make friends with her all she does is look at me and then walk away!"

Shino shook his head. "As I have stated, every time you have tried you are not looking to make friends, but to accomplish a goal. Yoko-san is a very sensitive person. She may not be the best at talking to other people, but she is highly sensitive to other peoples' emotions. She knows that you would only use her and that is why she does not like you."

Naruto held his head in shame. Yeah, he guessed he kind of screwed up there, didn't he?

"Okay, okay… I guess I kind of was wrong…" He sighed. "But I really do want to make friends with her though! Come on Shino, you have to help me!"

Shino stared at him from behind his sunglasses for a while before sighing. "If you really wish to make friends with her, then instead of talking, listen. Observe. Yoko-san is at her core a very simple person with very simple pleasures, so if you are truly serious about wanting to make friends, then please heed my advice." Shino looked up at the sky and then turned his head back toward Naruto. "I am already late for training. Goodbye, Naruto-san."

Naruto stood still as Shino walked away, too busy trying to think about what he had to do. So, all he had to do was watch her for a while? How would that help at all?

Naruto shook his head. Shino was really smart, so if he said it would work, then it should. Starting tomorrow, a quiet Naruto Uzumaki would walk through those doors!

He hated being quiet though… Well, at least he could still prank after class was over.

Speaking of pranking…

Naruto took off down the road, smiling as he thought of what he would do to the academy once he had gotten all the supplies together.


Halloween Update! WOOOOOOOOOOO

This chapter has been brought to you by: nui's theme, berserk sign, DU HAST, sea shanty of the one eyed no armed wench, hall of the swing king, and bad apple.

So, this chapter was supposed to be longer, but I cut out two sections and placed them in the next part. Not sure when I'm going to finish that particular part, but meh.

Hinata won the Narutobowl! WOOOOOHOOOO! Go best girl! (At least I hope she did. Please kishi, no troll)

Been busy playing bayonetta 2. Havent gotten smash bros yet cause im waiting for the wiiu version, but I think it'll be worth the wait.

So, i've recently started up a fic called "The Clock Tower Records." Unlike this fic, I fucking LOVE IT. Every time I look at it it gives me a warm little tingle in my heart. It's basically an SCP version of the type-moon verse where I just dump all the ideas I have about Nasu's world and put them there, but I love it~~~!

So, uh... probably have around two chapters left now... I just realized how much I wrote. Like what the fuck? Did I seriously write that much for something I hate? Huh...

ALL ACCORDING TO KIEKAKU THOUGH.

So, My cheknov's armory has basically been set up as of this chapter. All I need is one more thing next chapter and we're good to go...

Still need a beta because I hate reading this. Blarg...

Cardinal sins #4: THIS FUCKING SCENE. EVERY FUCKING TIME.

3rd walks in with tiny babi Narus

BEHOLD, YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR!

(council that doesnt exist in canon): DOES IT WEIGH AS MUCH AS A DUCK? IT DOES? BURN THE HEATHEN. (Something about a screaming banshee here)

blah blah blah hero blah blah blah some metaphor between pointy object and storage space blah blah blah S-class secret

Danzo: Danzo believes it should go in Root!

Judge 3rd says overruled!

Danzo: Curses, Danzo has been foiled again!

3rd takes Nurutu away.

flash forward years later

3rd: I haz failed you Nurutu. I should commit sodoku but muh village

EVERY. FUCKING. TIME.

Cardinal Gripes #93: Please, do not start your summaries with 'what if'. We already know that the story is a what if, its fucking fanfiction. give me what it's about without asking that question.

(I would put this in cardinal gripes, but it isn't really a gripe): Every time I go into the archive, and i'm sure most of you do as well, you can instantly spot someone who's from which archive based on the summary. not saying it's bad, but each archive has a little quirk to it, like harry potter has that dumb exclamation point thing and pokemon has a shipping name for everything, while KHR has numbers for ships. Just something I've noticed.