After seeing Shao, Aunt Mikoto thought I might have discovered one of the greatest secrets in Konoha. She glanced at Naruto and sighed. And Konoha had a lot of secrets!

"What was that?" Sasuke asked his mom. Unlike Naruto, Sasuke tried to hide his excitement. He failed. "Isn't he a civilian? Why can he do ninjutsu? Why didn't he need hand signs? What kind of ninjutsu was that?"

Sasuke had lots of questions. Like me, he had noticed the strangeness with the water and wind.

"I believe that was senjutsu," Aunt Mikoto said.

Sasuke looked confused. It was rare seeing him hear something he didn't already know.

"Sen… jutsu," Sasuke repeated, testing the word. His eyes flashed. He abruptly looked up. "Sen… like sennin?"

Aunt Mikoto nodded.

"Impossible," Sasuke said, face serious. "Sennin is for the greatest shinobi of all time. Not even Brother is a sennin yet. How can a civilian be a sage?"

Aunt Mikoto did not know. She brought a hand to her chin, looking curious herself. It was indeed a mystery.

She had studied Shao with her own eyes. His chakra pathways looked like mine—sealed. He wouldn't be able to mold chaka.

But…

What Aunt Mikoto did know was that chakra didn't only come from our bodies. Chakra was everywhere in nature. And senjutsu was about the chakra in nature.

It certainly looked like the chakra in nature was moving, no?

"That still makes no sense!" Sasuke said, huffing. "How can someone who can't even control their own body's chakra, control the chakra around them? How can someone who can't do ninjutsu, do senjutsu?"

Aunt Mikoto smiled warmly. "That's a good question. Maybe we should ask him?"

The other kids had gotten to Shao first.

Ino was very much in love, switching between complimenting Shao and warning Naruto. She told Naruto that he better not ruin the secret.

Naruto was also very much in love, switching between complimenting Shao and getting very insulted by Ino. As if he was a tattletale! Of all the people to look out for, it was Ino the gossiper!

Ise didn't care who it was. She held her pencil threateningly and said if word of this got out, she was going to shank them all. Even if she died, she would come back as a ghost and haunt them forever.

She scared them good. Naruto paled at the ghost part.

Ise was holding onto Shao tightly. I realized she was scary because she was scared. There was a reason Shao had kept his ability a secret. If the village knew, Ise would lose him all over again. But he wouldn't be taken to some correctional facility. He'd be taken somewhere worse.

"Shaochin?"

Shao turned around. Aunt Mikoto smiled.

"My son would like to ask you some questions, if that's okay?"

Shao glanced down.

Sasuke got flustered.

"Can you… explain how you did that?" he mumbled politely.

"Did what?"

"Control the wind and water."

"I didn't."

Sasuke stared at him, trying to tell how badly Shao was lying.

Shao wasn't lying.

"I can't make anything do what it doesn't want to," Shao said plainly.

Sasuke stared harder. His brain tried to understand and failed. It tried again and failed again.

"The water… wants to go still for you?" Sasuke said flatly. I could tell if his mom wasn't right there, he'd be much ruder.

"Lift your hand?" Shao asked.

Sasuke did.

"Did you control your hand?"

"Yes." Sasuke paused. His answer sounded awkward.

"Your hand wants to raise for you?"

Sasuke didn't know what to say to that. The question made no sense. Just like how Sasuke's question to Shao had made no sense.

Sasuke struggled.

I was surprised. Sasuke was smarter than me. In our past training, he picked up everything immediately.

I didn't understand why he wasn't able to understand this.

Control. Command. Force. Power. These were shinobi words. Shao was not a shinobi. So these words had no meaning here.

Shao was saying, stilling the water was as easy as lifting his hand. Shao was saying…

"You are the wind and water," I said.

Shao smiled. He gave a look that said, bingo.

He was more than that, I realized. He was also the fire. He was the earth. The mountains and sea and sky.

After all, chakra… chi... was everywhere. It had existed before the first ninja, before the first people. And it would continue to exist after the last ninja, after the last people.

Even though Sasuke struggled to understand, I could tell he badly wanted to.

One of the biggest limits for a ninja was how much chakra they had. Once their chakra was gone, their power was gone. But the chakra from nature was vast and endless. To know senjutsu was to have all the chakra in the world.

It meant being able to move the mountains and sea and sky as easily as moving your hand.

It would make you the strongest person alive.

Stronger than the Hokage.

Stronger than Itachi.

"Do you teach?" Sasuke blurted out.

Naruto overheard. He jumped in, bumping into Sasuke. "Hey, hey, if you teach him, teach me too," he said excitedly, pointing to himself.

Ino and Sakura stepped in too.

"Wait, we also want to know!"

Shao thought about it. "I suppose you can learn it…"

Before they could get too excited, he smirked.

"... if you're okay with giving up a few things."

"Like what?" Naruto asked.

I realized I already knew the answer.

"Meat."

Shao was impressed I caught on so fast.

There was more.

"Violence too," I whispered.

Animals and people were a part of nature too.

If nature was the same as your hand, killing an animal was the same as chopping off your own hand. Hitting another person was the same as hitting yourself.

You could be the strongest person alive, but you would never be able to fight again.

Not even in self-defense.

Shao wasn't going to be offended if they said no. It was hard to survive in this world without fighting. There was a reason we hadn't met anyone like him before.

In fact, he might just be the very last one.

"Okay!"

Everyone turned to look at Naruto, who was still staring at Shao with star-struck eyes.

Naruto's favorite flavor of ramen was miso anyway.

"Make me a sage!"

"I thought you wanted to be Hokage," Sakura mumbled, brows furrowed.

Naruto whipped his head. "You know?"

Sakura looked caught and embarrassed.

"Everyone knows," Ino said, hands at her hips. "You say it every day!"

"Oh. Well, I want to be a sage now."

His classmates collapsed.

For Naruto, the decision was easy. He liked lights. He liked explosions. And he wanted to be in the cool kids club.

"Please, boss?" Hands clapped, he looked hopefully back and forth between Shao and Ise.

Ise huffed. "Maybe."

Naruto punched the air. Maybe meant yes!

Naruto chatted excitedly as my dad escorted him and everyone else home.

As Shao walked, he tinkered with his yo-yo. He clicked all the pieces back in place one by one. One of the pieces didn't stick quite right and popped out.

I caught it. I handed it back.

"Shao?"

"Miss Rep."

"Your ability… can you teach me too?" I asked.

He looked at me.

Embarrassed, I explained that not being able to do ninjutsu made me feel helpless at times. The jail cell needed substitution. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't do anything.

So to know there was another way besides ninjutsu…!

"You don't need me."

"Huh?"

Shao smiled, looking at the piece of his yo-yo.

"You already have the best teacher," he said. "And you're already better than I am."

Shao said sure, he was connected better to some things in the world. But I had a better connection to other parts.

"Your friend risked his own life for mine. He did it without hesitation." He glanced at me. "Because you'd do it without hesitation."

Shao didn't think Ginjiro was the only person who had become my right hand, just as Ginjiro was not the only one who had me as their left hand.

He clicked his yo-yo together.

Shao told me his grandmother had warned him to never reveal his ability to the shinobi. Not even in the face of death.

They wouldn't understand, she had said. They would break him in hopes of understanding him… understanding him on their terms.

That day at Ryuu's grave, that day he touched the incense… it was the first time he had ever gone against any word of his grandmother's. Who would have thought he'd reveal himself to the Uchiha clan of all people.

But the world had changed since his grandmother's time, he felt.

He no longer thought it was impossible for the shinobi to understand.

I had changed his mind.

"It's one thing to move heaven and earth," he said. "It's another to move people."

The former changed landscapes.

The latter changed humanity.

.

.

A/N: This concludes my 13 summer updates. When I come back, I will continue onto the last arc for Part IV — the Goodbye arc — before going to Part V.

Part V, the Finale, will be the last (and possibly longest) part. Part V will be the most mature in both language and themes. It will be the darkest. Things will become increasingly complex in the first half before rapidly reducing towards the ultimate conclusion in the second half.