CHAPTER 12

Nearly a month has passed after Naruto and Sasuke released the Infinite Tsukuyomi and they all returned to Konoha. The atmosphere in the village was different as everyone enjoyed the peace and tranquility after the war while working in rebuilding the village and treating the injured.

Misaki and Tetsuya were walking side by side towards the training grounds after helping in the hospital all morning.

"Okāsan, are you sure you don't want to go home and rest instead of watching me train?" Tetsuya asked her mother.

"I'm not tired." She answered with a smile. "Plus, who's going to train you better than your own mom? I know better than anyone what you might be capable of, and that's because you have inherited both your mother and father's best skills." And after the Sage of Six Paths confirmed that you'll become one of the strongest shinobi of all time, I need to make sure you stay on the right path. I don't know if it'll be you or your unborn little brother that will turn against the other in the future. She thought while keeping the smile on her face.

"Anyway," She continued. "I'm not the one who's going to train with you today so I'll be fine. In fact, your training buddy has just arrived."

At that moment, Tetsuya noticed Lee running towards them. "Misaki sensei! Tetsuya-kun!" He yelled.

"Hi, Lee-kun. Thanks for coming in such short notice." Misaki greeted him.

"Lee-san is going to train me?" Tetsuya asked looking at her.

"That's right. I want you to work on your speed, your natural speed without the aid of chakra or ninjutsu. The quicker this is, the better you'd be using ninjutsu. And since you're my son and a descendant of the Second Hokage, I know you'll be faster than any other shinobi."

"Really? That fast? You really think so, okāsan?"

"I know so, Tetsu." She answered while patting his dark hair.

"Let's go, Tetsuya-kun. Get ready because I'm not going to take it easy on you." Lee announced while giving him the thumbs up with a smile.

And hour later Lee has completed his 'warming up' regime, leaving Tetsuya gasping for hair and almost ready to drop.

"Don't tell me you're tired, Tetsuya-kun! We're just getting started, the fun starts after the warm up!" He said.

"Eeh?! That was the warm up?" Tetsuya complained.

"Of course! Now we're going to work on your reflexes. I'm going to come at you at my highest speed. Let's see if you can avoid my attack."

Before Tetsuya could respond, Lee started running in random directions but at such speed that Tetsuya found it hard to follow his movements. At aleatory moments, Lee would slow his pace for a millisecond to make himself clearly visible. At times, he will materialise to the young boy's side, others to his front and other times away from his reach.

After getting tired of guessing where Lee was going to appear next, Tetsuya closed his eyes and took a deep breath to activate his Sharingan. However, before he did, Misaki spoke.

"No Sharingan. Concentrate on your surroundings, use all your senses to follow Lee-kun. Learn not to rely only on you Sharingan, it consumes a lot of chakra and, in battle, you have to conserve as much as possible. Sight isn't the only way you can see him, you have your hearing to pinpoint Lee-kun's light steps, your touch to feel the slight changes in the wind on your skin as he moves…"

Tetsuya did as his mother said, expanding his senses like an invisible orb that surrounded him. The moment he sensed Lee approaching him from his back ready to grab him, he narrowed his eyes and tensed, ready to take on Lee's attack but in an instant, he found himself at Lee's back while the shinobi in his green spandex seemed to be trying to grab air.

"Huh?" Lee turned to him. "You teleported?" He asked him but he didn't know how to answer, he wasn't even sure what's just happened. Looking behind Lee, he could see Misaki staring at them with wide eyes.

"You- can teleport? I haven't even teach you the flicker technique, and that took me years to master! And yet you can teleport with such ease?" She exclaimed running to his side. "You're truly are gifted, Tetsu." She added in a mixture of awe and worry.

It was almost terrifying how exceptional his abilities were and how effortless he came to tap into them. As quick and straightforward it had been for her to learn new techniques she had also struggled along the way at one point or another. However, it didn't seem even the sightless challenge to her son. The Uchiha bloodline was even more powerful that she ever imagined after seeing the results in him.

"Hey, you guys!"

She turned to find Kakashi and Sasuke walking in their direction.

"Kakashi!" She greeted him. "Sasuke? What's going on, you're out of prison?"

"Yes, we've applied a jutsu that stops him from gathering chakra until the kages decide on his verdict. It's the same that's used in the Blood Prison. Until then, he'll be staying in a residence where he'll be monitored, although we trust he'll do no harm." Kakashi replied.

"I'm glad. I didn't want you to spend your days in that cell." Misaki said looking at Sasuke. "Actually, it's good you're here because I wanted to ask you if the Sharingan gave you the ability to teleport."

"Not my Sharingan. But after the Sage gave me some of his power and I awoke the Rinnegan I could, why do you ask?"

"Well… Tetsuya just teleported to my surprise."

"He did? Just with the Sharingan? You sure it wasn't just a body flicker?"

"100%. As a matter of fact, his Sharingan wasn't even activated."

"That's incredible." Kakashi murmured looking at Tetsuya. "Since you're a heir of Hamura and the Senju clan and his father was an Uchiha… wouldn't be Tetsuya also able to unlock the Rinnegan?"

"I've wondered that myself." Misaki answered. However, before she could say anymore, something caught her attention. There was a movement behind her that she neither hear or sensed and when she turned to look, she found a young man she didn't recognise standing there like he'd been watching them for a while. He had a medium build and height and features that wouldn't make him stand out from a crowd. His dark clothing looked like from another village, but not one she could identify. His dark hair was mostly covered under a hood but a katana was clearly visible attached to his back.

His presence was completely masked so she couldn't gauge his chakra or strength levels and this made her all the more wary. Something she couldn't pinpoint clearly was telling her that this person was a lot more powerful that he looked. Maybe it was the intensity behind his eyes she felt as he was looking at her. Misaki took a step back to protect Tetsuya while Kakashi and Sasuke moved to her flanks, they seemed to have had the same conclusion.

"Who are you? And how did you get into the village unnoticed?" Sasuke questioned.

The mysterious man slowly looked at each of them before locking eyes with her once more. "Who I am and where I'm from is not important. Now…" He commanded looking at Sasuke. "For your own sake, it'll be best if you don't interfere because you can't use jutsu so you'll just be on the way." He declared and Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Who told you that?" Kakashi asked.

"That's not important either." He answered which made Kakashi grit his teeth.

"Then why are you here?" He kept pushing for a real answer.

The moment Kakashi blinked, the enemy moved forwards with his katana in hand aiming at Misaki. She quickly jumped backwards to avoid the strike and once she landed she readied her own katana. In front of her, Kakashi and Sasuke had intercepted the attack with their kunai and it looked like even though it was two against one, they were barely managing against the enemy.

The man applied chakra to his weapon and as it began cutting through their kunai, Lee and Tetsuya jumped above him on a combo attack from his rear based on ninjutsu.

Just as they were going to make contact, the enemy yelled "Chidori current!" Chidori!? The question run on everyone's minds. An electric discharge flowed from the man's entire body allowing him to affect all four attackers. It was so effective than even the lighting users, Kakashi and Sasuke, were affected momentarily, forcing them to fall on their knees. Lee was thrown back before collapsing on the floor while Tetsuya struggle against the jutsu. In a movement so quick that the Sharingan barely registered, he managed to get rid of his opponents by a series of kicks and punches that send them all flying away in different directions while Misaki watched with wide eyes.

Sasuke tried to gather his chakra but the jutsu that had been applied early started to work against him and became paralysed by the pain running through his entire body. There was no way he could fight. Kakashi was the first to recover but after a few swings with his kunai he was quickly defeated by the man's katana, slicing part of his chest.

Misaki didn't have any other choice but to attack him straight on with her weapon. Working on any jutsu was out of the question. As the baby inside her grew everyday, she found it almost impossible to gather any chakra. She could only hope that whatever field he had build around him was enough to protect him from any damage. But if she died, he was too young to survive. She was four months pregnant and while she wasn't showing yet but she could clearly feel the life inside of her.

Using the flicker technique that came naturally for her and that didn't require that much chakra anymore, she teleported to the enemy's back ready to stab him but when she pushed her katana forwards it only found an empty man had disappeared.

"That won't work on me since I'm faster than you." The man said close to her ear. Her heart skipped a beat from feeling the heat of his breath on her skin. The enemy had such speed that it was hard to believe. How was that possible? She knew all the shinobi that were almost as fast as her but the ones that could surpass her were now dead.

She felt a chill run down her spine and it didn't have anything to do with the cold blade of his katana touching her neck. Her heart seemed to stop, this was it. After having survived a series of attacks on Konoha, a shinobi war, a genjutsu that put every single human on Earth to sleep, an unknown shinobi that came out of nowhere and somehow had defeated three strong ninja in a matter of minutes was going to end her life in front of the people precious to her. They were all looking with wide eyes as they struggled to move a single muscle, the look of pain in their eyes cutting deeper than the katana at her neck.

The enemy's hesitation gave her a bit of strength to find her voice. "It's alright. Kill me now. It's clear I was your target from the beginning. I won't ask why, but I beg you, when you're done don't hurt these people in front of you. So please, end this now and get out of the village before they recover and resume their pointless attacks that will also end their lives-"

Before she finished her sentence, the man appeared in front of her, his katana withdrawn but with a new resolve in his eyes. Placing his hand with the palm up in front of his body, he gathered chakra there in a similar way that Naruto prepared his Rasengan. However, the blue chakra turned red before being engulfed in flames just before he pushed forward towards her in what seemed like a movement in slow motion.

The moment she thought the powerful jutsu was going to make contact with her body, Tetsuya materialised in front of her taking on the fire Rasengan-like ball straight onto his chest.

Both the man and herself gasped at the same time then looked down at the young Uchiha. The enemy stopped the jutsu instantly to avoid any more damage but Tetsuya's shirt was already shredded to pieces and his chest was completely burnt.

"Stupid boy." The masked man muttered while Misaki yelled her son's name and held his wavering body. Tears streamed down her face, completely ignoring the enemy who was observing the scene. Even in pain, Tetsuya didn't lose sight of the unknown man.

"You seemed to have picked up on okāsan's habit of jumping in front of danger at the very last moment." Misaki told Tetsuya. "Now I can see what everyone was feeling when I did that." She said with a chuckle despite her mood.

"I'm not here to kill weak boy." The masked man said as he looked to his right. Misaki didn't have to look, she could sense Naruto in Tailed Beast mode, Shikamaru and the others approaching their location. It seemed the enemy could as well.

"I don't have the time for a full-on battle that will bring unwanted attention. But this isn't over, I will return to finished what I started and complete my mission." He added before disappearing in a puff of smoke.