I felt chills going up and down my body as I slowly opened my eyes. I blinked a few times before realizing that darkness was all around me. After moving my body to get into a more comfortable position, I realized that I had shackles on both my wrists and ankles.

Oh great. This again, I thought sarcastically as I curled myself into a little ball for warmth. I looked down at the shackles on my wrists before debating on their color.

Even through the darkness, I could tell they were red after the many years I had checked.

Surely that red was the color of the innocent blood that I had shed in my anger and rage.

The shackles on my ankles were blue, just as always.

That had to be the color of the tears that I had caused because of my selfishness and stupidity.

I sighed deeply before turning my head towards the sky, or what I had always thought was the sky.

Soon, my sister appeared before me in a small glow of light. A sad expression sat on her face as she hesitantly reached her hand out towards me.

With nothing better to do with my time, I reached my own arm out. I was shocked when our fingers actually touched as that was something that had never happened before. What the...?

Sakura beamed in happiness before disappearing when the glow faded into darkness.

That was... weird, I thought as I looked around hesitantly.

"Saku hasu, saku hasu..."

I still don't know who sings this song to me... Nevertheless, I closed my eyes and allowed the gentle melody to calm me down, only for it to quickly disappear afterwards.

"Someone like you shouldn't close your eyes to this."

I frowned, not bothering to open my eyes to see Itachi who was most definitely in front of me. Okay, so that was just a fluke after all.

"Get up and look - look at everything there is to see."

My eyes cracked themselves open as surprise ran through my system.

Itachi stood there in all of his stoic glory. "Look at all the hard work you put into this and let it fill you. You deserve happiness too." After saying that, he gave a gentle smile before disappearing in his usual manner - a murder of black crows.

I stared, bewildered, while trying to reason why he changed his dialogue. Eventually, I remembered that he had said that to me once upon a time in the past.

And so, Sakura appeared as her five-year-old self. A horrified expression sat on her face as she looked at the blood that covered her, some of it coming from the various wounds on her body.

I flinched away and immediately grew sorrowful.

"You shouldn't ever run away from your sins."

I squeezed my eyes shut and slumped down in defeat. I know. I'm not going to run from my sins anymore, even if will cause me to disappear from those I care about.

"You shouldn't run away from those you care about either."

I frowned before looking up at Shisui-senpai, who was giving me a kind smile.

"If something happened where they become one in the same, you must learn to live with it and live with them," he stated, his mangekyou sharingan swirling around rapidly. As that swirl drew me in, he disappeared.

I gave a small sigh before looking down at my hands. This is all changing, and it really freaks me out.

"Hah! Did you really think your sins will ever be forgiven?!"

I flinched at the sound of my own voice before curling into a ball once again.

That voice was dispelled by that song sung by the unknown person. "Saku hasu, saku hasu..."

I closed my eyes and took in the melody, allowing it to calm me down. As the words washed over me, I eventually realized the true meaning of the song. I was being healed by that unknown person.

A small light suddenly appeared in the distance before my red shackles cracked and fell off.

"It's not that your sins will never be forgiven..." The one who had always sung my song said softly.

The blue shackles fell off and disappeared into the darkness.

You have to take the first step and forgive yourself before others can do the same," they continued.

The light in the distance suddenly expanded before filling the whole area with white light.

I brought my arms up to block some of that light while squinting at the figure that stood in the distance. I hesitantly took a step forwards, and then another, and another...

The figure didn't move away, but rather started moving something around. "Over here, Ren-chan!"

My slow steps quickly turned into a desperate sprint. I still couldn't speak, but I felt words weren't needed in that moment. I just needed to reach that person waving towards me.

"Hurry up, slow-poke!" They yelled at me.

I felt my eyes burn before my vision was temporarily distorted by tears. Don't move. Don't move. Please don't move. Just let me reach you!

They dropped their arm down to their side and instead began to rock back and forth. They were still surrounded by that blinding white light, but their figure was starting to bet bigger as I got closer.

Once I got to the three-quarters mark, my eyes widened in horror.

They had stopped rocking and instead turned around while motioning for me to follow them. They then began to run away for me.

I silently screamed for them to stop as my arm stretched out to reach them. I felt my tears return as I poured the remainder of my energy into catching up with them. Don't go! Don't leave me again! Please!

They didn't slow down, but that didn't matter. They were running slow enough for me to gain on them.

My hand was close to touching their shoulder, and just before my fingers could graze their clothes, they vanished completely.

My eyes shot open as I took in a small gasp of breath. I grit my teeth as my head pulsed in the tune of my heartbeat.

A few rays of light managed to make it through the various tree trunks and leaves. Those rays assaulted my pupils, nearly blinding me.

The ground below me was cold and hard. The blades of grass were poking into various points of my skin, making me quite uncomfortable.

Behind me was a hard surface, most likely a tree. The bark on said tree was definitely not native to Konoha.

On the uncovered blades of grass, dew sat unbothered by anything else. Of course, that dew added to the sweat already on my body, practically soaking my clothes as well as the rest of my body.

I sat up with a groan while pressing the palms of my hands into my closed eyes. My thoughts ran around rampant, adding to the pain that filled my brain. Why does my head hurt so much? What was I doing? Why are my chakra levels so low? My chest hurts a lot. It's hard to breathe. What was I just dreaming about? Why am I out in a forest? Did I pass out?

Nearby birds chirped, snapping me from my thoughts.

I looked up towards the sky before my stomach growled. I immediately held it tightly while thinking, My stomach is empty. I'm going to eat myself alive at this rate. Geez. I used up a lot of my chakra yesterday and energy apparently.

The birds chirped some more, pissing me off.

"May I think in peace?!" I yelled angrily, earning silence for a few seconds. I huffed through my nose before crossing my arms. Okay. So yesterday, I trained a lot. And that reason is because...? And like a punch to the face from a very angered Sakura, the answer came to me. I jumped to my feet as I remembered that I swore to do everything in my power to gain the strength to teach that little ginger scumbag true pain. "That's twelve hours I lost... I must be youthfuuul! I shall avenge you, Lee-senpai! Hard work and determination shall beat natural-born genius! Shannaro!"

The birds in the immediate area all took flight into the air, not wanting any part of the crazy determination which was known as Haruno Ren.

My stomach growled loudly, reminding me of its presence. "Right. Food, and then yooouuuth!" I gave a war cry to the forest before deciding to teleport to the seal I kept in my room. Just before I could teleport, however, I briefly paused and thought, I feel like this is a bad idea. I then shrugged that thought off and teleported to the physical seal I made in my room. As I faceplanted into my dresser before falling to the floor, I remembered exactly why it was I always told myself to not teleport to my bedroom seal.

My chest felt like it had just been stabbed, and not the good kind either. It may as well have faced the wrath of Haku and his fucking senbons.

I groaned as I got to my feet before kicking off my sandals and walking out the door. I tripped over my own damn foot and ended up tumbling down the stairs, only to land on my face at the bottom. I groaned in both pain and pleasure as the toes of my feet touched the top of my head.

Okaa-san poked her head out of the kitchen and gave me a worried look. "That one sounded rougher than usual. Are you okay, Ren?"

"Yep," I replied as I forced my feet to touch the ground. I then used my flexibility to my advantage and flipped my body around so I could stand like a normal person.

The blonde didn't look convinced, but she let it go in order to get back to the meal she was cooking.

I followed her into the kitchen and slumped down in the closest seat. "Did you get lonely without us?"

She gave me a playful smirk while looking over her shoulder at me, amusement clear in her green eyes. "You think I wouldn't enjoy the peace and quiet?"

I gave a laugh. "Yeah, peace and quiet. With Otou-san around, that's not likely."

Okaa-san laughed at that before nodding in agreement. "You got me there."

I patted myself on the back for a job well done before deciding to change the topic. "Did Otou-san finally ask for help with the bathtub drain?"

The woman gave an annoyed sigh. "He's a man, so of course not. He still thinks he can fix it himself."

I barely bit back a snicker. "I'm a guy too, you know."

"Yes, but you're the woman in the relationship," she said, not even bothering to look back at me.

"I'm super manly!" I objected as a blush covered my cheeks.

"Your voice cracked," the blonde pointed out.

"No, it didn't!" I screeched, my voice cracking even worse that time.

Okaa-san gave a sarcastic hum as I died from embarrassment on the spot.

I huffed before crossing my arms, only to feel pain course through my chest in a more pleasurable way. "Anyway... I'm not going to be home as often. I'm undergoing some pretty intense training."

Her green eyes quickly met my amber ones and pierced through my soul. "You better not be planning to do anything stupid, young man."

"Of course not. I'm just going to avenge my senpai," I explained as determination and youth ran through my veins.

"Definitely something stupid..." The blonde mumbled dejectedly as she turned back to her cooking.

I released an offended gasp, only for her to wave me off.

"Go take a shower. I can't stand to smell your stink anymore," she ordered.

I frowned at her before heading to the bathroom. I grabbed a change of fresh clothes and a towel on the way, of course. After stripping myself of my shirt, I decided to take in a casual sniff to see how bad it smelt. I physically recoiled while giving a small gag. "That shit is pungent, holy fuck. How could I not smell that?"

But I digress.

I took my shower and made sure to carefully wash down my wound while debating if I should have tried doing my own stitching before Tenten-san fucked up my chest even more than it already was. I also debated the meaning of life and how I was going to shove my newly-found wood powers up Orochimaru's ass to retaliate for him being a (giant dick-faced, snake-like bitch-bastard that only deserved to suffer in the deepest and darkest pits of hell for the rest of his miserable snake life) piece of shit.

As I was just finishing drying off, someone pounded on the door to the shower/bath part of the bathroom.

"Occupied," I stated before wrapping my towel around my waist. I then opened the door and stared into the unamused expression of my twin. "Yes?"

"You've been hogging the shower. Other people like to be clean to," she sassed before her eyes moved down to my chest wound. Her face twisted up in worry while she stared at the many stitches.

"It's not as bad as it looks," I said out of instinct, only to receive a punch to the face.

"It's even worse than it looks, idiot!" Sakura yelled angrily. "You nearly died!"

"Nu-uh!" I objected as I bounced to my feet. I got my clothes slammed in my face before Sakura stormed past me into the shower area.

She slammed the door, which literally hit my ass and caused me to jump forwards.

"Ow!" I yelled, only to be ignored. I huffed indignantly before wrapping up my wound and then getting dressed. I returned to the kitchen and saw that Otou-san had taken his usual seat at the table.

He and Okaa-san were bickering about the bathtub drain again.

"Otou-san, just ask for help already," I demanded blankly.

"You too?!" The dull-pink-haired man exclaimed in shock as he turned to look at me while I took my seat.

"Yes, me too. It's been two weeks since we've had problems, and some people would like a bath without worrying about whether or not the drain will work," I stated as I crossed my arms.

"You and Sakura have been gone for a week. How did you know I didn't have anything figured out?" He questioned with his own crossed arms.

"Because you can't do plumbing to save your life," I replied honestly, albeit a bit harshly.

An invisible arrow shot through his heart at that. "Oh, the pain. I think I'm dying. My own son turning against me... What has this world come to?"

I rolled my eyes with a soft chuckle at his dramatics. "Yeah, yeah. Woe is you. The world will end soon."

"Hey, cut me some slack. You can't do plumbing either," Otou-san accused.

"That's right, and I fully acknowledge that fact. I also know that I fail completely at electrical work." I then smirked and boasted, "However, I do know several things about construction now."

"Oh, really?" He mused, his blue eyes shining brightly with the hope he'd get new material for teasing and joking around.

"That's right. I helped construct a major bridge from the Nami no Kuni to Hi no Kuni," I said proudly.

"And when, exactly, did this happen?" The man with his hair in the shape of a sakura flower questioned.

"Back when Sakura and I were gone for three weeks on that one mission. Because our client needed to be guarded, I helped keep him safe while constructing the bridge that would save him and his people from ruthless oppression," I explained while remembering all the fun times that I had over there.

"Didn't Sakura mention that one girl...?" Okaa-san trailed off as I looked over at her in confusion.

"Oh!" Otou-san exclaimed before a large grin came to his face. "That little girl that developed a crush on you~."

I narrowed my eyes threateningly at my old man. "You know I don't swing that way."

The man slumped over. "I'm never going to have grandchildren."

"I bet Sakura's going to have a kid," I replied without mercy.

"But what about the Haruno name?" He whined at me.

I gave a lopsided frown as I looked away. "I guess I could adopt a child..." I then gave a hum while rubbing my chin. Or maybe children. Two boys sound good. Hmmm... What would their names be? How far apart in age should they be? If I do get kids, should I stop being a shinobi so I could stay in their lives? But what about my husband? What would he want? Would he want two boys? What if he wants a girl? I want my two boys, so would two boys and a girl be fine? Is that too many children? How much money would it cost to raise three children? How much will the prices of everyday needs rise in the future? Will I make enough to support my family?

Otou-san burst out laughing, snapping me from my thoughts. He hunched over while holding his gut, humored tears clear in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Okaa-san was chuckling softly as she put the dishes on the table.

I felt the blood drain from my face as Sakura came in while snickering. "Please tell me I didn't say any of that out loud."

"We heard everything," Sakura replied as she sat down next to me.

The blood returned to my face, if only to turn me red with embarrassment. I groaned while covering the majority of my face with my hands. "Please, don't tell anyone. I'm never going to live that down."

"Oh yeah? I'm sure the others would love to hear about this," Sakura teased with the shit-eating grin I always wore while teasing her.

"No!" I screeched as I stared at her in horror. "Anything but that! I'm the sarcastic asshole on the team, not the pushover baby that thinks about my future! They can't know about this, or else it'll throw off the team dynamics! How would you feel in Uzumaki-kun suddenly used his brain?! It would be devastating!"

Okaa-san swatted my head before scolding, "Inside voice, young man."

"Sorry," I apologized before turning back to my sister.

She was clearly contemplating my words as Okaa-san finally sat down at the table. Finally, she gave a sigh and said, "Yeah, I understand. It would be really awkward if they learned that."

I gave a sigh of relief.

"I'm going to tell them," the pinkenette declared.

A giant boulder mind as well have crashed down onto my head at that point.

"Alright. Breakfast is ready to go," Okaa-san said as she picked up her chopsticks.

We all thanked the gods for our meal before digging in.

I was a human vacuum that sucked down all the food I could. I needed the energy, especially if I was going to get a good hold on my mokuton. Remembering that I had mokuton, my head snapped around to my parents. "Are we, at all, related to the Senju clan?"

Both of them looked taken aback by my question. They then looked confused and shared expressions before turning back to me.

"Not that we know of, why?" Otou-san questioned.

"No reason. I was just curious," I replied with a small shrug.

"No matter how much you ask kami-sama, you're not going to be related to Senju Tobirama," Sakura said with a slightly annoyed expression.

"That's Senju Tobirama-sama!" I corrected as I pointed at the monster dramatically. "And if you can fantasize about being an Uchiha, I can fantasize about being related to that badass of a second Hokage."

She smacked me for revealing her "secret" to our parents. "Shut up! Your brain was clearly scrambled from fighting!"

"Speaking of which-" I leaned towards her, a serious expression on my face. "-how is Lee-senpai?!"

Her expression suddenly changed, and she looked away from me. "From what I heard, he's still sleeping in the hospital. The medics said that... that he's... He's never going to be able to be a shinobi again."

I clenched my teeth as anger filled me to the brim. I managed to hold everything back, however, and silently finished my meal before excusing myself. I silently walked through the streets until making it to the training grounds Lee-senpai's team would always train at. I paced around there, my body filled with nervous energy as I waited for something unknown to even myself. I was just a ball of pent-up anger and nervousness, and I had only waken up an hour earlier in the day.

After pacing around for about half an hour, the remainder of Team Gai had showed up, both Tenten-san and Gai-sensei following after a stoic Neji.

"Ren! What are you doing here? Shouldn't Kakashi be teaching you for the upcoming exams?" Gai-sensei questioned, snapping me from my pacing.

I looked over at him blankly before stating, "Kakashi-sensei is training Sasuke. He set up a sensei for me, but the guy ditched me for a week."

The black-haired man frowned at my response. "You aren't his favorite?"

"I'm a sarcastic piece of garbage. What do you think?" I asked with a deadpanned expression.

"Don't say those things about yourself! They aren't youthful at all!" The man with well-defined cheekbones scolded loudly.

I hummed before narrowing my eyes. "If you had to set up a sensei for your other students, you wouldn't pick an asshole that ditches your student within an hour of getting to know them, right?"

"Of course not!" He exclaimed, making me nod to myself.

"Just as I thought! Kakashi-sensei is an inferior teacher!" I announced before putting my hands on my hips, my eyes directed towards the rival of my senpai. "So Neji, are you actually going to train, or do you think you can breeze through the finals?"

"Of course I'm training. What exactly are you doing, hm?" The Hyuuga shot back at me, his pupilless lavender eyes narrowed at me.

"Nothing! My fucking taichou bailed, my sensei also bailed, my senpai is in the hospital, and my sister is planning to ruin my life!" I yelled while flailing my limbs about. I then paused and looked at Tenten-san. "Hey, do you have any weapon suggestions for me? I need something larger than a kunai, but not quite a sword's length."

She raised one of her brown brows at me. "What exactly would you be needing it for?"

"...Stuff," I replied after a small moment of silence.

Her brown eyes clearly reflected the several apocalyptic scenarios she thought up.

"It's not going to be anything illegal," I lied.

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, her hands placing themselves on her hips. Yep, she had the woman-intuition at the young age of thirteen that told her that she was being bullshitted.

"Probably," I added in despite knowing it was totally going to be for illegal uses.

Tenten-san gave a deep sigh while finally relenting. "Fine, I won't ask." She straightened herself up and looked at me seriously. "Do you know what a tantō is?"

I released a loud gasp as my entire life fit together like finished puzzle

"I didn't ask if you found the meaning of life," the brunette mumbled, but I internally waved her off.

"A tantō... Of course. It's long enough so that I can reach a good distance, but short enough to keep me from being out of my comfort range. Though, it does weigh more and my wielding will be a bit faulty until I can get used to the proper movements. I also need to build up familiarity with the grip as well as the necessary muscles." I gave a small hum while rubbing my chin, countless factors racing through my mind as I began to plan out my practice.

"I'm assuming that's a yes to the tantō idea," Tenten-san stated with a raised brow.

I nodded eagerly. "Yes, thank you. I'll work on that later. Ugh, I have so much to do, but so little time. A month isn't really long, but I need to look up seal information, learn how to control my new jutsu, figure out how to properly wield a tantō... The list is endless."

"Did you say new jutsu?" Neji questioned, causing me to tense up a bit.

"...No..." I replied while looking back at him with a straight face.

His eyes narrowed threateningly as shadows fell across his face. "You learned a new jutsu in one day?"

"Technically, no," I answered with a small shrug. "I just modified it so that it'd work more efficiently. But thank you for reminding me to I need to find a scroll so I won't have my head shoved up my ass during the finals."

"Can you tell me?" Gai-sensei questioned in a loud whisper as he slid next to me.

I looked over at him suspiciously before asking, "You won't train Neji to counter it, will you?"

"It'll stay between us," the man with rather well-defined cheekbones promised, a sparkle in his eyes.

I looked at the other two with narrowed eyes. "Hm..."

Tenten-san rolled her eyes before motioning for Neji to follow after her.

I watched them walk a good distance away with their ear covered. I then looked at Gai-sensei and stated, "Bloom." I quickly sprinted away without giving him the chance to fully process my words.

Once I got back to town, I immediately went to the weapon shop that was recommended by practically every ninja in Konoha. I entered the place and strolled over casually to the place where the tantōs were kept. I looked over their selection carefully, weighing each of them out with my grip while inspecting their length, durability, flexibility, and dexteterity.

Once I decided on the one I wanted, I took it to the front desk and rung the bell. I fished around my back pouch for my wallet and began to pull out the needed money when a woman came up to the counter.

"Are you sure you want that one?" The woman questioned as she looked at the blade with a raised brow. She pointed over to the section of kunais that were displayed and inquired, "Aren't those what you're looking for?"

"No," I objected while placing the tantō onto the counter. "I would like to purchase this blade in particular, please."

Her brow raised higher before she finally shrugged it off. She rang me up and told me my price, which I paid begrudgingly.

I then departed as fast as possible and practically sprinted to the top of the Hokage Monument. Once there I made a kage bunshin that would do a little infiltration for my benefit. I then opened my tantō, setting the sheath aside for the moment, before making several more kage bunshins. I had them each go their separate ways and practice only one move with the tantō.

One doppelganger swung in a straight line down while its counterpart swung up in a straight line. Another swung down from right to left. A different one to the two prior swung down from left to right. A certain clone swung from the bottom left to the upper right while another swung from the bottom right to the upper left. One more swung from right to left while a different one swung in the opposite direction. One stabbed the air before it. Another stabbed the air behind it. Of course, those were all performed with my dominant right hand. Naturally, I also needed my left hand to hold that kind of muscle memory, so I made another batch of closed that would work on that.

I knew that the muscles I developed wouldn't transfer from the clones to myself, but I also needed to focus on the other task that I was undertaking - or rather my original bunshin was undertaking. I needed to gather information on several different topics from the ANBU-protected shinobi records hidden away in the Hokage Monument, so my kage bunshin was going to infiltrate it and recover all the information it needed at any expense, save for getting caught of course.

As I sat meditating with tantō in my lap, I recalled the joke Okaa-san would always make to Sakura and I.

"We're heading out to play," I stated as my twin and I got our sandals on.

Okaa-san poked her head into the front hall while smiling. "Behave while you're out. If you can't behave, don't get caught."

"We'll behave," Sakura promised, though I didn't actually back up that promise.

The woman chuckled down at us, not knowing that her words had impacted her son in a very particular way.

I smirked as I sat with my eyes closed, saving up what little chakra I had left so I could later try to get a grasp on my mokuton.

Naturally, I also needed to read a book on the trees native to Konoha since my trees looked as though they came from a slightly different origin. Perhaps it was some sort of gene mutation that caused my trees to be slightly different, but it could have also been because I only had the very basics of knowledge on the kekkei genkai. I needed to obtain a scroll from Tenzō-taichou once he decided to bother himself with training me.

Time seemed to crawl by as I got a tan on top of the monument. I used that time to get in tune with the rhythm of the world.

Rhythm connected everything. Since each individual thing had a rhythm, it had to find a way to fit its rhythm in with everything else. When the rhythms fit together, everything worked. However, when the rhythms didn't fit together, there was disaster in that particular area. Things broke apart when the rhythm was not there, or did not agree from thing to thing.

Now, a shinobi had very specific use for such rhythms when using a blade. A shinobi should have been able to find those rhythms, and know how to work with them. It resulted in being able to cut whatever the shinobi wanted, even if that thing happened to be a mountain.

Everything was about rhythm, though chakra did help in making your rhythms more powerful.

I allowed myself to continue with my meditating until my original bunshin's memories came back to me with a suddenness that I hadn't expected. As I sorted through those new memories, my chest tightened up.

I released a harsh gasp before my focus on everything else crumbled. My rhythm had been thrown off balance, and it would be a while until I could truly get it back.

I sheathed my tantō before rushing over to the Hokage's office. I was filled to the brim with a multitude of emotions as I barged into his office unannounced.

Thankfully no one else was in a meeting with him at that time.

I ignored his surprise and walked over with sharp and narrowed eyes. "I can't believe you did that..."

His brow furrowed as confusion covered his face. "What are you talking about?"

"Five years ago... I know what happened during the major... incident," I stated while looking down at him mercilessly.

A serious expression came to Hokage-sama's face before he lifted his hand up a bit. "You're dismissed."

I felt the presence of the four ANBU members leave and waited until his hand had returned to the desk to start the end of the world. I lifted my head up as a snarled came to my lips. I glared down at the man fiercely, a firey rage certainly ablaze in my amber eyes. "So... Which one of you sick fucks suggested that massacring his entire clan was the best possible option for Itachi-senpai?"