Let go of excess, let go of weight, let go of speed, to understand you.

Chapter 2: Dream Of Ashes

It was a calm morning at the breakfast table when Sasuke decided to ask his father something.

"Hey, dad?"

"Hm?" Fugaku didn't look away from the newspaper, only affording Sasuke a brief glance to show he was paying attention. He could afford to show the bare minimum of physical attention for now. Mikoto was out hanging the laundry in the backyard anyway.

"I.. have a weird question to ask." Sasuke started, fidgeting awkwardly in his seat across from the Uchiha clan's head at the breakfast table.

"Define 'weird'."

"Like.. weird dreams?"

Immediately, his father stiffened up, a complicated series of emotions flickering across his face, before a small sigh left him. Folding the newspaper in half, Fugaku set it to the side as he gave Sasuke a fairly serious, if oddly regretful look. "I was afraid it would come to this."

"Huh?"

"Perhaps I should have known you would ask about this one day. It is only natural after all. Inevitable even. I had hoped I would not have to be the one to talk to you about this however." Fugaku said slowly, closing his eyes with a frown. "Such a shame. Especially since your mother busy in the backyard with something so I cannot simply leave this to her."

Immediately, Sasuke became worried. Did his father know already? Was.. was the dream about the redheaded man that serious? Was he an omen? Was it a bad one? Was it some sort of odd curse within the Uchiha clan?

"Very well, we may as well get this over with." His father said with a sigh, before he looked at Sasuke with a mournful grimace. "Now.. there comes a time in a young man's life when he starts growing older, and starts... having odd dreams, and urges-"

"Wait what-"

"-and sometimes he starts thinking about girls in a certain way, perhaps boys too, though preferably not since I would like grandchildren at some point, and he may start growing hair in odd places-"

"W-wait, no no no, not that kind of dream, not that kind of dream!" Sasuke panicked, his face bright red as his arms flailed up, palms out as if he was trying to stop an attack. Fugaku paused, blinking as he stared at his son.

"Not those kinds of dreams?"

"N-no! Mom already gave me that talk a couple months ago! It's something different!"

"Ah. I see." Fugaku nodded, turning his head to the side as he closed his eyes, relief visible on his expression as he muttered under his breath. "Thank Kami."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched a little. Why did the one time he got to see his father more emotional than normal have to be because of a misunderstanding?

"Well then, with that out of the way." Fugaku cleared his throat, moving past the brief moment of awkwardness, and fixed Sasuke with his usual stoic look. "What kind of dreams then?"

"Uh… dreams of.. a redheaded man. A blacksmith. Working a forge."

That got his father looking a little more serious. His brow furrowed in the same way it always did when he received a displeasing missive from one of the clan's messengers. "A redheaded blacksmith."

"Y-yeah!" Sasuke nodded, his hands resting on the table. "I've.. been having dreams of him. They're always short, but he's kind of rude. He calls me a brat all the time and teases me for being scrawny. I.. I'd normally just say they're dreams but mom mentioned that she'd had a dream of something similar once when she was younger.. so I was going to ask.."

"If I ever had any similar dreams, I'm guessing?"

At Sasuke's nod, Fugaku sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. There was a moment of silence before the man opened his eyes again and shook his head calmly. "No. I have never had any dreams quite like that. Perhaps it is just a coincidence. Or your mind is trying to subconsciously motivate you to train more so you can look less 'scrawny'. You don't have enough protein in your diet. You are rather thin compared to most other children in the clan."

At hearing this, Sasuke seemed to both deflate with disappointment yet also with relief at the same time. He wasn't quite sure whether to feel disappointed that there wasn't actually more to the dream, or just a little irritated that even his own father basically called him scrawny. "Oh. Alright then."

"Now you should run along, or you'll be late for class." Fugaku said as he gestured for Sasuke to run off, before he picked up his newspaper and began to read again. His son nodded before kipping up to his feet and running off to the house's entryway, slipping on his sandals.

"And Sasuke?"

When his son turned back with a confused glance, Fugaku fixed him with a stern look. "You would do well not to mention these dreams to anyone. Some people are superstitious and can see reoccurring dreams as an ill omen. And our clan is... quite superstitious."

"Oh.. okay. I won't tell anyone." Sasuke nodded firmly.

"Hn." The Uchiha clan's head nodded back, and he watched as Sasuke smiled a little before running off to school. Fugaku waited a few moments before sighing, setting down his newspaper and massaging his brow.

"A redheaded blacksmith…"

He walked out of a decrepit and ancient Uchiha clan house, wandering towards a large shack. Heading inside, drawn by the sound of metal being banged against metal, he saw wall upon wall of swords, and a scarlet haired man hammering away at an anvil.

"Hello?"

The man paused, before slowly turning, fixing amber eyes upon Fugaku. Brow furrowed, the man opened his mouth, but all the young boy could hear was the crackle of static and the grinding of metal.

Fugaku clasped hands over his ears in pain, the child grimacing at the horrible sound, barely noticing the disappointed look the redhead had. As the man turned away and returned to his work, the loud sound of metal being hammered and blades grinding against one another began to push Fugaku further and further away from the shed, and everything began to melt into darkness.

"A coincidence… hmph…" He scoffed to himself, roughly snapping the newspaper open more before he started to read again. "Just a myth..."

Every now and then, for the past few months, Sasuke dreamed of the redheaded man. And with every occurrence, he became more and more convinced that there was more to this dream than he first suspected. Even after that conversation with his father, he was sure there was something there, some sort of secret he wasn't grasping. He'd never had a dream where he could feel the wood under his feet, the heat of the forge, and the calm breeze in the air. It was all too real.

The man never tried to introduce himself again, not after the first time ended in failure. Anytime Sasuke entered this dream, he always found the man either working hard or lazing about.

Most of the time, it was the former. He'd wake up on the tatami mat in the living room of the house and then he'd walk out to the shed to find the man there as usual, hammering away, sparing time to tease him and ignore his questions. But sometimes, he'd walk out to find the man on the veranda, enjoying some onigiri, or dango, watching the moon.

Sometimes, like right now.

"Where do you even get those?" Sasuke wondered aloud as he walked up to the veranda where the blacksmith sat, taking a seat near him, feet dangling off the edge. "This is a dream. Are there dream merchants around here too?"

"Ya know, by saying this is a dream, you technically answered your own question." The redhead rolled his eyes, taking a bite out of his onigiri, a smidgen of red visible inside. Tomato onigiri? "But to answer for real, I make 'em, obviously."

"But how do you get the ingredients? Where do you get them from?"

"Awfully chatty and curious for someone who thinks this is all just a fantasy."

"Hn." Sasuke narrowed his eyes as the redhead smirked, before he looked away. "...it has to be a dream… why are you so sure this isn't a dream?"

"I'm damn sure I'm not just some made up fantasy man some brat who isn't even a Genin imagined up." The man drawled, dusting some stray rice flecks off on his pants. "I know who I am."

"But you can't even tell me your name. Can you even prove you're not a dream?"

That question seemed to make the man pause, before he smirked a little. "I think I have a way. Let's have a little bet, brat. I prove that this isn't just some dream, and I win. You prove otherwise, and you win."

"How?" Sasuke narrowed his eyes in confusion, brow furrowing.

"I'm gonna teach you a Jutsu."

If there was anything that got Sasuke excited, it was the prospect of learning Ninjutsu. His eyes widened, and an eager look formed on his face before he quickly squashed it into a suspicious one. "How are you going to do that?"

"Well, if I teach you a Jutsu I know, then I'm real, right?" The man smirked smugly, resting his right elbow on his matching knee, chin propped up in his palm. "After all, if you manage to learn something in a dream and use it in real life, then it has to be real on some level."

"…fine, doesn't hurt I guess. Teach me."

"Ah ah, we're makin' bets here, brat. What's the point of a bet without a prize?"

"A prize?" Sasuke's eyebrows rose up, before he scowled. "Fine. If I win, you stop bothering me and I stop dreaming about you."

"Deal. If I win though…" The man grinned cheekily, eyes closing. "Ya' gotta become my apprentice."

"Apprentice…" The Uchiha heir frowned a little. "I want to be a Shinobi, not a blacksmith."

"Oi oi, you can be both. Haven't ya' ever heard of a Shinobi Blacksmith? Who do you think makes all your weapons? Kunai and shuriken don't grow on trees you know. Neither do the Ninjato and Wakizashis of the Uchiha clan."

Sasuke's brow twitched, before he huffed and nodded. "Fine. Deal. Teach me this imaginary Jutsu."

He didn't like how much smugger the man looked now, or the mischievous glint in his eyes.

When Sasuke awoke the next morning, he felt tired. Sore even. His mouth burned a little.

Turns out, learning an imaginary Jutsu in a dream? Stressful. Just like real life. Especially when you can still feel everything in the dream. He could feel the Chakra burning his lips and lungs, and the ache in his head from the light chops to the back of his skull the blacksmith gave him whenever he did something wrong or whenever he was about to accidentally blow himself up.

But he was excited to learn anything, really. As annoying as the old man was, knowledge was knowledge, and he could use this to be a Shinobi like Itachi. Especially since the old man apparently taught him an 'ancient fire style Jutsu'. Right.

'It was just a dream. I can't actually do it. It probably isn't even a real Jutsu. It didn't even need any hand-signs!' Sasuke thought to himself as he got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to wash up. Not that all Jutsu required hand-signs, but he only that ones that didn't have any existed, and that was about it. 'And if it really is some ancient Jutsu, I shouldn't have the reserves to pull it off anyway. Not completely.'

And yet, despite that thought, he found himself oddly excited. Today was a weekend, so he had no classes at the academy. After breakfast, he went out under the pretense of playing. He tried to corner Itachi into training him, but as usual, a tap to his forehead and an apology was all he got.

He was starting to get a little worried, Itachi was working a lot lately.

Without anything to do, he walked out into the village proper, and found himself walking towards the lake. Nobody was around, none that he could see at least. Not that it mattered. Walking upon the jetty and reaching its edge, he looked out at the water. It should be safe to try out a Jutsu here, right? Nobody was around.

"It's just a dream. An imaginary man taught me an imaginary Jutsu. That's it. Its not going to work.." Sasuke muttered to himself. Face scrunching up, he growled a little before he began to mold the Chakra in his chest. His hands slowly formed into a Ram sign just so he could better channel his Chakra. Even if it wasn't a necessary hand-sign, it let him concentrate a little better.

"Focus it all in my lungs.." Sasuke muttered, remembering exactly what the old man taught him. It came almost naturally. He didn't have much Chakra, but apparently this Jutsu would still work even with his amount. Or so the man had said.

'Katon!' Sasuke breathed deeply through his nose, his eyes narrowing as he reared back a little, hands clasped still in the Horse sign.

'Haijingakure no Jutsu!'

What followed was utter hellfire for his mouth..

A cloud of burning ash spewed from his mouth, blasting out out in chaotic waves that gathered over the lake, rapidly thinning out the further they got before dying out in a weak sputter and crackle. Sasuke, so caught off-guard by the fact that it worked, was barely able to realize that everything burned. His throat was scalding, his eyes watering as he felt his lips dry up. He lost control immediately as the clouds petered out, scorching his lips as he began to cough out smoke and embers, almost collapsing onto his knees as he hit his own chest. The ashen clouds that spread out over the water died before they even got more than a meter away from him.

"O-owww! A-akh! Hakh! Khah!" Sasuke hacked and coughed, his lips stinging, his throat burning, eyes tearing up as smoke filled his vision and escaped from his mouth and nostrils. It hurt so, so much more than in the dream. His body felt weak, unbelievably tired even. His vision was watery and blurry, heat stinging his eyes. Was this Chakra Exhaustion? Had he used up ALL his Chakra with that? No, if he used up all of it, he'd be dead, right? Or was death what happened after trying to draw more Chakra from an empty wellspring? He was a little too dazed to remember exactly how Chakra Exhaustion worked.

What the hell did that old man teach him!?

As he swayed and tried to clear his throat and regain his bearings, his foot stepped too close to the edge of the jetty, and he found himself tripping and falling over the edge. With a loud splash he landed in the water, letting out a garbled yell of surprise as water filled his mouth when he instinctively tried to breath.

On one hand, the burning was quickly dying down thanks to the soothing, crisp cold water.

On the other hand, said water was also filling his nose and mouth, he was flailing and disoriented, he couldn't see properly, he had no idea what was up and what was down, the water was going to fill his lungs and he was about to drown-

A hand grabbed his and began to yank him. Panicking, eyes shutting, Sasuke just flailed and kicked at the water, trying to swim in the direction the hand was tugging him, unsure if it was someone trying to help or if the Shinigami himself had come to collect a dumb brat that managed to drown himself in a lake. Within seconds that felt like hours, he felt his head breaching the water, causing him to cough and splutter as he tried to take in big gulps of air.

"Hey, are you okay!?"

The voice of a young boy asked, or rather, yelled right in his ear. Sasuke coughed again, eyes still shut and ears now ringing, nodding as he did his best to keep afloat. "Y-yeah-hakh-"

"C'mon!"

That same hand tugged him in a direction as Sasuke followed. He felt one of the wooden poles that held up the jetty bump against his face, and his hands grasped at the wood as he tried to climb up blindly. Thankfully, the other boy had managed clambered up to the jetty before him and was helping pull him up.

Before he knew it, Sasuke was back on merciful dry wood, coughing and wheezing as he wiped his eyes, finally able to open them, vision blurry.

"Sheesh, you almost died there!"

Finally managing to get a hold of his breathing, the young Uchiha turned his head to look at the person who might have just saved his life.

It was a boy alright, same age as him. A kid with blonde hair, bright blue eyes, stupid goggles on said eyes, and weird whisker marks on his-wait a minute...

Oh Kami damn it.

"You're... Uzumaki?" Sasuke blinked the tears out of his eyes, rubbing them again, hoping that when he opened them once more, the blurry blonde figure wouldn't be the class' biggest loudmouth and troublemaker.

Nope, still him.

"Yep! Naruto Uzumaki!" The boy grinned, tugging his goggles off his head. Those things weren't even swimming goggles, why'd he even bother putting them on?
The boy was clad in a black t-shirt and orange shorts, and was completely barefoot. Once his goggles were off, his grin turned into a bit more of a sneer when he focused those eyes on Sasuke."Oh hey, I thought it was you. I'd recognize that duck-butt hairstyle anywhere."

"My hair isn't a duck's butt!" Sasuke protested with a glare, before immediately starting to cough again.

"Whatever you say, ducky." Naruto giggled, sitting back with his legs out, appearing to just bask in the sun a little. "Aren'tcha gonna thank me for saving your life?"

"Hmph…" Sasuke grumbled, wiping his mouth a little before crossing his arms, looking away. Of all the people, it had to be him.

Sasuke wasn't super familiar with Naruto Uzumaki. He knew he was loud. Unbearably loud. Causes scenes in class. Performs unreasonably complicated pranks that he somehow manages to pull off without anyone noticing at first. Not until it was too late. He always tried to show off and show up other people constantly. Him especially. Even though his skills as a student were so, so abysmal compared to most of the other students. The few times they sparred in classes, Sasuke would always utterly trounce the blonde.

But.. still. He did save him from drowning so…

"…fine. Thanks. Don't expect me to owe you anything." Sasuke huffed as he looked back at Naruto, who just grinned back.

"Uh huh, whatever you say, you still owe me one." The blonde laughed, before leaning forward with an excited gleam in his eyes. "Anyway what was that Jutsu you used? It looked awesome!"

That got Sasuke to pause, and his mind began to catch up with what he'd… just accomplished. Blinking slowly, he felt an odd sense of trepidation rise. "You.. saw that?"

"Hell yeah I did! I was just walking by and then I saw you on the pier just.. barfing out a whole cloud!" Naruto scooted closer, hands lifting up and gesturing excitedly. "Just, fwoosh, dark clouds! They looked like they were burning too! They didn't go out that far and were pretty small but it was so cool! Can you teach me that? Cuz, you know, I saved your life and everything."

"I said I wouldn't owe you anything!" Sasuke complained, while his mind started to swirl with thoughts. Naruto saw him perform the Jutsu. He'd actually pulled it off. Well, sort of. He technically failed it in the most catastrophic way any Uchiha could fail a Fire Release Jutsu. But it worked. If he hadn't lost control, and if he had more training, he could guess how much better the Jutsu would perform...

But it worked.

Meaning that Jutsu was real. Meaning the old man was right.

Unless he wasn't, and it was still a dream, and he'd just invented a new Jutsu himself somehow.

Yeah, that sounded more appealing.

"I can't teach it to you anyway. Its.. an Uchiha technique. Family only." Sasuke continued, clearing his throat. He was immediately met with a displeased, disappointed and defeated look from Naruto, who put on a remarkably good impression of a kicked puppy. A remarkably good impression.

Unfortunately for him, the Uchiha preferred cats anyway.

"Aw man.. that sucks.. must be nice, having a family to teach you techniques.. no wonder you're top of the class.. jerk.." Naruto muttered the last part quietly, though not quietly enough to escape Sasuke's hearing as the raven haired boy's brow twitched, veins popping in his forehead.

"Look, I'll pay you back.. some other way. Not now though. I.. think I need to head home. My throat really hurts." Sasuke coughed yet again, rubbing at his jugular as he slowly stood up.

"Right, right. You better pay me back though! It's not everyday you get saved by a future Hokage, right?" The blonde grinned as he kipped up to his feet too, shaking out the bottom of his drenched shirt.

"Future Hokage.. right.." Sasuke mumbled. That was another thing he knew about Naruto. He was.. Obnoxiously adamant that he was going to be Hokage one day. Who didn't have that dream? It was a natural one. But Naruto declared it with so much certainty and vigor, it was almost like it was a fact when it left his mouth, rather than a desire.

As if this... this dobe could become a Hokage.

"I know, right? Anyway, see you around, smoked ducky!" Naruto flashed him a two fingered salute before he ran off, ignoring Sasuke's indignant splutter at the nickname.

"Don't call me tha-and he's gone." The Uchiha boy blinked, watching as Naruto all but sprinted off the jetty and into the village proper. Huh. He was pretty fast. No wonder he evaded capture after committing pranks so often.

Sighing and shaking his head, Sasuke began to walk up the jetty, aiming to head home.

He refused to admit that dream was real. But.. that Jutsu… if it really was supposed to be an ancient one..

There was only one other way to check if it was real.

"Dad?"

'Kami preserve me.' Fugaku groused to himself mentally as he sipped from his tea. "Hn?"

"Do we have.. any books or records on famous Jutsu invented by the Uchiha?"

The clan head's eyebrows rose up a little. A question about Uchiha history? Curious. Sasuke was a diligent student, mostly, but he was still young, and as such he was only ever interested in the practical side of the clan's teachings. Ninjutsu and the like. Never politics or history.

"What brought this on?" Fugaku asked as he set down his cup. Sasuke hesitated, never a good sign but he was a child so that wasn't out of the ordinary, before he looked up at Fugaku.

"I just.. I tried doing a fire Jutsu today and it didn't come out right."

Fugaku's brow furrowed and his eyes finally picked up what he hadn't noticed before. Sasuke's lips were red, dry, and a little cracked from heat. He could spot a blister or two forming. His eyes were also a little red, which could be from crying, or it could be from smoke. Finally, he could faintly smell the scent of ashes coming from his son. Telltale signs of a fire Jutsu gone wrong.

Very wrong.

"Sasuke, I told you that you cannot learn Jutsu without supervision. Fire is dangerous. You're lucky you did not scorch your lungs. Or worse." Fugaku chided his son with a serious tone, watching as the boy flinched a little before nodding.

"I-I wasn't trying to do any specific Jutsu, just.. tried molding my Chakra and spitting out a bit of fire. I thought it wouldn't hurt since it was just a little."

"Hn. Clearly, that didn't work out." The man sighed, shaking his head, before lifting a brow curiously. "Still... were you able to breathe out any fire?"

"Not fire, but ashes. A burning cloud of them." The boy admitted, grimacing. "I coughed a lot after that. There was a lot of smoke. But I did it over the lake so nothing would get burned!"

Ashes?

Fugaku's brow furrowed. A fire Jutsu gone wrong usually was a splutter of flames and some smoke. But a cloud of burning ashes? That sounded far more deliberate. Especially since there weren't many Jutsu that took that sort of form... and the ones he knew of...

"Hn. Good. Perhaps you are ready to learn the Grand Fireball then. Not now however. Likely after you've fully recovered from almost burning your throat." Fugaku nodded, watching as Sasuke's expression shifted to an excited one. He'd been begging to learn that for ages. "So why ask about famous Uchiha Jutsu?"

"Oh.. well using fire Chakra without any Jutsu made me think about how hard it must be to invent a new Jutsu, especially since what I tried... didn't even come out as flames. So I wanted to see what kind of Jutsu the Uchiha clan made. Famous ones, old ones, that kind of stuff... to see if there was anything similar to what I did." Sasuke smiled a little, though there was an odd twitch to it. Fugaku felt a small hint of suspicion. His son was telling the truth, he could tell that much. Sasuke was a terrible liar. But it felt like there was more to this.

Did Sasuke want to invent his own Jutsu? A childish idea.

Though if he ever succeeded in that, Fugaku would certainly be the proudest father in the entire clan. Probably. Depends on what he ends up inventing.

"Famous Jutsu.. well.. there are a few. Though what you described is more specific, so that narrows it down." The clan head started as he crossed his arms, eyes closing as he began to sift through his memories and knowledge of the clan's history. Of which he was very informed on, as the head should be. "As you know, the Uchiha clan is one of fire, and almost all the Jutsu we have are fire element, and of course Genjutsu thrown in due to the prowess of the Sharingan."

Sasuke listened eagerly, leaning closer as he rested his elbows on the table.

"But if there was one Jutsu.. I suppose there is one of the ones invented by the clan's greatest, most legendary leader. One of the founders of Konoha itself." Fugaku's eyes slowly opened. "Madara Uchiha."

"Madara?" Sasuke blinked, the name sounding foreign on his tongue. "You've never taught me about him. I don't think we've learned about him in history class either.."

"For good reason. The history of Madara Uchiha is.. tinted in various hues of honor and dishonor. While he was the greatest warrior the Uchiha clan had ever had, he committed acts which also caused the clan and the village as a whole to ostracize him." Fugaku sighed, picking up his cup once more as he took a slow sip. "You likely will never learn about him, seeing as both the clan and Konohagakure seem to wish to erase him from the annals of history and their memories. Though we keep records of him and his deeds, the village's elders prefer to vilify him. He was a man whose Sharingan had reached unparalleled visual prowess. He wielded a great Gunbai warfan that he used to fan his own fire Jutsu, and could even use it to deflect and redirect enemy Ninjutsu right back at them with a single swing. In that age of warring clans, before Hidden Villages of Shinobi, an Uchiha was worth twenty regular Shinobi, and Madara was worth a hundred Uchiha. Tales speak of him as a one-man army, his visual prowess mighty enough to hypnotize and control even the Nine Tailed Fox, and force the beast to fight for him when he battled the First Hokage."

"He could control the Kyuubi?" Sasuke's eyes widened, his heart stuttering. The Kyuubi was a force of nature, a great beast that the entire village reviled. When he was a baby, it'd attacked the village and caused widespread destruction, before the 4th Hokage apparently sacrificed himself to destroy it.

The fact that a man, an Uchiha, was powerful enough to control such a thing.. along with all the other impressive feats his father had touted.. it sounded almost mythical.

"It is said in our records that when he controlled the beast to fight Hashirama Senju, he perished during that battle. His body was never recovered, and their battle was so cataclysmic that in aftermath, all that was left of their battleground was a massive valley, in which two ancient statues of both Madara and the First Hokage now stand. That place has since become known as the Valley of The End." Fugaku explained, watching with mild amusement as more and more awe filled his son's beady eyes. If he'd known all he needed to get Sasuke enraptured in a history lesson was grandiose tales of overwhelming might, he'd have done this way sooner.

"Can we go there one day?" Sasuke asked with a big smile, hands clenched into fists near his face with excitement.

"Likely not until you are much older, and much stronger." Fugaku shook his head, his answer immediately causing Sasuke to frown. "Due to that place being the grave of the strongest Uchiha to ever live, and also being a monument of disgrace for his betrayal against Konoha, the clan sees it as a cursed place. It is said that any Uchiha who travels to the Valley of The End may be cursed by Madara to become a traitor to the village, or be driven mad by their own Sharingan as it shows them vivid and horrifying images of-."

"Fugaku, are you telling Sasuke a scary story?" The sudden arrival of Mikoto peeking out from the kitchen caused Sasuke to jump a little. Fugaku shot his wife a flat look.

"I'm teaching him history."

"Scary history?"

"It's just clan history Mikoto."

"Hmm, alright. Try not to scare his appetite out of him, I'll be upset if he can't finish the food I'm preparing!" The Uchiha matriarch smiled and returned to the kitchen. Fugaku sighed a little, before fixing his stern stare on his son again.

"In any case, you wanted to know about Ninjutsu, yes? There was one in particular that Madara was said to favor, and supposedly taught to his closest compatriots. It is said that he invented it as a method to render the need for smoke bombs obsolete for the Uchiha clan due to the Senju Clan monopolizing the means of both purchasing and crafting proper smoke bombs. Unfortunately, due to the fact that nobody knows the hand-signs, and Madara had apparently grown so adept at using it that he never even needed to weave any when he cast it, the Jutsu is unfortunately now seen more as a legend, forgotten by time. Without anyone knowing the actual hand-signs, it is harder to figure out how it was performed. It is among the several different Jutsu that Madara either invented or utilized that the clan has tried time and time again to recreate it, only to create many of the lesser fire Jutsu we use today."

Sasuke nodded slowly, and Fugaku noted an oddly nervous look on his son's face. "And.. what was it called?"

"The Hiding In Ash Jutsu. Haijingakure. With it, he was said to have covered entire battlefields in burning clouds of ash... much like you apparently almost succeeded in today. Though I assume to a far, far lesser degree."

Curiously, rather than awe or pride, all the blood drained from his son's face instead. Before Fugaku could ask him what was wrong, Mikoto peeked back out of the kitchen. "Lunch is ready!"

"T-thanks mom." Sasuke replied as he abruptly stood up, before bowing briefly to Fugaku. "Thanks for the lesson dad."

With that, the boy scampered off to the kitchen, leaving Fugaku confused and suspicious.

"Hn. Perhaps the name intimidated him. Or perhaps the sheer scope of it and Madara's history caused him to grow intimidated…" Fugaku reasoned to himself, frowning down at his now lukewarm cup of tea. Before he could think any further on it, the front door slid open and Itachi walked in, the teen weary and tired, having just returned from a mission.

Setting his cup down, Fugaku decided to think on those thoughts later. For now, he had to debrief his eldest son.

As he woke up on the tatami mat of the decrepit old house, Sasuke realized that at this point, he shouldn't have been surprised that he'd have this dream two nights in a row. Except it obviously wasn't just a dream now, was it?

When his father told him the name of that Jutsu, an ancient, incredibly useful Jutsu invented by an Uchiha who fought toe to toe with the First Hokage, Sasuke felt his heart pound and his vision swim.

The clan had been trying to recreate the Hiding In The Ash Jutsu for generations.

And he'd just been taught it by some old man in a dream.

"It's startin' to sink in, isn't it?"

Sasuke jolted upright, finding said man kneeling by the fire pit in the room, apparently preparing some sort of soup.

"You-"

"Hold on." The man lifted a finger, stirring the soup, before lifting up his ladle. The broth was thick and viscous, with chunks of meat in it. Not a soup then. A stew maybe? Either way, the redhead took a brief sip of the broth, before nodding and continuing to stir it. "A'ight, continue."

"You.. you're real. You're not just a dream. You're.. who are you?" Sasuke stood up, glaring at the man.

"I'm just a simple blacksmith, brat."

"Liar! My dad told me about that Jutsu you taught me! He said Madara Uchiha invented it, and he only shared it to people he trusted!" Sasuke exclaimed, pointing at the cooking blacksmith. "So how do you know it!? You're not even an Uchiha! How could you even teach it to me!? Did you know it was going to backfire when I used it in real life!? How are you in my dreams!? If you were alive when he was then.. then you should be long dead from age at least! How is a dead person in my dreams!?"

The man didn't answer, simply stirring the stew for a few more tense seconds before he picked up a bowl and poured some of the hot broth into it with the ladle. His eyes glanced at Sasuke, quirking a brow. "You done?"

The boy bristled, pouting angrily.

"Cool. Anyway, here." The redhed held out the bowl to Sasuke, who squinted at it before he gingerly took it. Sitting down, he took a cursory sniff at it. It smelled too good to be a dream. Or maybe the fact that it smelled so good was because it was a dream.

Taking a small sip, he paused. It tasted so, so much better than his mom's stew. The mere thought of such heresy immediately made him feel guilty and he mentally apologized to his mother, before he took another sip.

Yep, still too good and tasty to be true.

"Now, you're not exactly wrong. I'm not a proper Uchiha. Not by blood at least." The man said as he poured himself some stew, also passing Sasuke a spoon before he took a sip from his food, humming. "See.. I married into the clan."

"Oh." Sasuke blinked, before nodding. While outsiders marrying into clans wasn't… unheard of, it was generally a last resort to prevent… what did his dad call it.. inbreeding? That, or it was for political reasons. Status, money, that sort of stuff. If an outsider married into a clan, it was either because the outsider had something the clan wanted, or they're part of a political arrangement, a marriage to act as a union and alliance between one clan and another group. But even then...

"That doesn't tell me who you are! You taught me the technique so you must have been close to Madara. But I've never heard of any redheads in our clan's history."

"You hadn't heard of Madara either. Not to mention, your dad did tell you that Madara was ostracized in the end. What do you think would have happened to the people closest to him?" The man asked, lifting an eyebrow as he sipped from his food again. That question made Sasuke paused, before frowning.

"I… guess they'd have been treated the same way... Is that what happened to you?"

"Nah, I left long before Madara decided to sic the giant fox on Hashi." The scarlet haired man shook his head, ignoring Sasuke's questioning look at the oddly personal sounding nickname for the First Hokage. "I was more of a hermit anyway. But.. Madara was a friend. He did a lot of good things.. and a lot of bad. I did the same, for him and the clan."

Smiling wistfully, the man gazed into the fire below the cooking pot. "I may have been an outsider from another clan entirely, but the Uchiha became my real family."

Sasuke stared at the man who was apparently an Uchiha by name, possibly one of his ancestors even, suddenly feeling more regretful for acting petulantly.

"Still, he wielded some of my finest work. Even if I wasn't a fan of it when I was forging it. I'm better at making blades see, but that Gunbai of his... probably my best blunt creation, unless I count Kabutowari I guess. Dealt some real damage in the clan wars, I'll tell ya' that."

"Wait, his war fan? Your work? You made that?" Sasuke blinked, before realization finally set in. "You're.. not just an ordinary blacksmith. You were Madara's blacksmith."

"I was the Uchiha clan's blacksmith, kid. Every blade that everyone wielded, I forged. Every katana, every kunai, even the shuriken and sickles, I forged every single weapon the clan had. Me and my apprentices." The man grinned, taking a deeper sip of his stew before letting the chopped up beef chunks inside fall into his mouth from the drained bowl.

"Could.. could his fan really deflect Ninjutsu?"

"Not quite. It converts the Chakra of incoming Ninjutsu into raw Wind Style that blasts back at them. It could reflect raw elemental Ninjutsu but its main use was as a Wind Style weapon to compliment Madara's Fire Style Jutsu. I had to bust my ass with that, went through a dozen different prototypes to get the Fuinjutsu on it juuuust right. I don't usually work on wooden weapons but this one was special. Carved the thing out of a very... special sort of tree." The man nodded proudly with a small sigh, setting his bowl down. "You should've seen the look on his face when I told him to test it out before I sent a fireball at him. He deflected it into a gust of course, but he was so pissed, just about ready to beat my ass into the dirt, until he realized what he just did and that kind of weapon could do on the battlefield. Then he was only slightly pissed that I almost set him on fire."

Sasuke listened curiously. This all felt so surreal. He'd just heard of this legendary Uchiha figure from his father, now he was hearing about him from someone who'd known the man. It made the almost mythical figure sound more...

...human.

"But anyway, you didn't come here to hear an old man ramble." The redhead said as he smirked at Sasuke. "You lost the bet. You know what that means."

Sasuke huffed, nodding as he quickly finished his delicious stew, idly wondering how eating in a dream would affect him when he woke up, before setting the bowl down. "Fine, I'll be your apprentice. Can you tell me your name now? Maybe explain how you're here too?"

"Eh, when you're ready." The man waved his hand idly, raising a brow. "You accepted that pretty quickly though. Was kinda' expecting more whining and pouting."

"If you really were Madara's Shinobi Blacksmith, you have to be strong. Or at least... you must know a lot." Sasuke guessed, before grinning. "If this really isn't a dream, and I can really learn stuff from you… I'll definitely be a powerful Shinobi like my brother. I could make weapons for him!"

"You really wanna be like Itachi, huh?" The man hummed, idly scratching at his chin. "I don't think he'd need or want any weapons from you though."

"What's that supposed to mean!? Wait how do you know his-"

"Eh, don't worry about it. Anyway, off your ass, time for the first lesson. Kenjutsu." The man stood up, putting a lid on the cooking pot before he walked off towards the courtyard, his haori flowing in the calm breezed. Glancing over his shoulder, he flashed a smirk at Sasuke. "Let's see if you've got any worth in you as a Shinobi Blacksmith. It ain't all just forging. You need to know how to wield a weapon too. If you can't swing a blade, you sure as hell shouldn't be making any. Let's get started, brat."

"Stop calling me a brat!" Sasuke growled as he stood up and followed after the man out into the courtyard, barely catching a suddenly appearing wooden sword that the man tossed at him from somewhere.

This all still felt surreal. And he wasn't even sure he wanted to be a blacksmith. But…

'This man made a weapon that could deflect Ninjutsu. He has to be strong. If I learn from him, even if it's how to make weapons, I'll be better off than not learning. And then when I next train with Itachi or dad, I'll surprise them with how strong I'm getting! And when I graduate from the academy... I'll be even stronger than that!"

Maybe then Itachi would train more with him. Maybe then his dad would say he's proud for once.

Either way, Sasuke felt a drive to learn.

These were turning out to be the best nights of not-sleep he'd ever had.

I was tempted to just make Sasuke learn the Majestic Flame Destroyer and had even written it so that he did, but then decided to change that at the last minute to the Hiding in Ash Jutsu just because it sounds weaker and more reasonable for him to be able to learn. I can't find any other users of the technique other than Madara on the wiki so I have to assume that either its so old that people just forgot about it, or Madara literally invented it and is the only one who knew it. I know Asuma has his own ash related Jutsu but that one was probably invented by him.

Plus I just think it'd be cool if Sasuke knew that technique. Especially at such a young age. If you disagree, that's fine. Doesn't change anything though. But one day, one day, I'll have Sasuke learn the Majestic Flame Destroyer, because damn it, if other people can make fanfics about Naruto being a godlike OP mess, then I can make Sasuke something close to that. In due time. At some point.

Also, I suck at writing how kids talk.

Anyway, if anything seems off from canon, that's cuz either I'm twisting it a little and taking liberties to suit my narrative purposes, or because its been a while since I saw classic Naruto and I'm a tad rusty. Such as Madara's Gunbai, which was apparently an ancient weapon passed down the Uchiha family even back in his era for generations. Here though, I thought I'd make it one of Muramasa's many creations... because I can.

Either way, ciao all.

Also for once I'm writing about a Servant I DO have in FGO, he's amazing and he's as fun to use as I'd always hoped he'd be. Bless.