"En and Mitsuo have a niece, you say?"
"Yes, recently orphaned. Mitsuo figured you might be interested. Their sister recently died, and Chizu, the girl, is five."
"I see. Have her installed in the Sound village, I'm sure she'll make a lovely addition. When she gets older I'll bring her in for study."
Kabuto bowed.
"As you wish, my lord."
There were few things that could make young Sasuke surprised. Sasayaki's ability was one of them.
"Chains?" he mumbled suspiciously, watching as the white-haired boy (debatably a boy, considering how Naruto had referred to him/her the other day) threw out a chain and substituted with the log he released from the ends of one of them.
That chain style of his was unusual, not anything he'd seen or heard of before. In saying that, if Sasayaki knew his brother he was definitely someone of interest, perhaps great strength too –
"OUCH!" Sasayaki hollered as he miscalculated the swing of his own chain, causing it to arc and wrap around him before the pointy end slapped him in the face.
Maybe not so strong, after all… On the other hand, it could be a façade. No one is that stupid, surely.
Sasuke winced slightly, while Naruto burst out laughing along with Shisui. Itachi remained impassive, the picture of a perfect shinobi as usual.
"Your control over you chains must be improved," he murmured. "Why don't you and Naruto work with Shisui for a bit."
Shisui immediately stopped laughing, his jaw dropping slightly.
"But Itachii-kuuuunnn~" he mock wailed. "You always choose Sasuke! What if I wanted to work with him?"
Sasuke hoped the pride didn't show too much on his face, but if the smirk Shisui flashed him was any indication, it was evident.
Itachi was saved from answering as Sasayaki began arguing with him about his blatant favouritism.
Then Itachi turned. Sasuke perked up immediately.
"Sasuke, let's work on some genjutsu."
Sasuke nodded vigorously.
"Ok Nii-san, teach me your best genjutsu!"
Itachi's mouth twitched with the hint of a smile.
"I think we'll start with something a bit simpler, ok Sasuke?"
"Isn't my brother awesome?" Sasuke boasted for the umpteenth time as they walked to Sasayaki and Naruto's home after a particularly intense session with the two prodigy Uchiha. It was early afternoon, some shops already beginning to shut down. Still, people milled about chatting, though not as many as a weekday or Saturday.
It was Sunday.
"Well how would we know, considering he never spares a second for us!" Sasayaki complained loudly. It had been several months since Shisui and Itachi had started giving them lessons on a semi-regular basis.
"Eh, Shisui is way cooler than Itachi anyway," Naruto stated blandly, hands behind his head, eyes squinted shut as he walked. In Sasuke's opinion, he looked rather stupid, not that he would tell him that. It was funnier to let others come to that conclusion when they saw him.
Sasuke bristled and opened his mouth to rebuke him, but he was interrupted.
"Yo," a deep voice said from behind them, and the three turned to find Kakashi behind them, giving them a close-eyed smile.
What's he doing here? Sasuke wondered.
"Kakashi!" Naruto yelled, lunging for a hug to which Kakashi stepped aside, causing him to crash to the ground.
Kakashi turned to Sasayaki.
"Happy birthday," he said, and lightning fast he tossed something at Sasayaki's face and disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
He fumbled with the object, luckily catching it before it fell to the ground. It was a gift, sloppily wrapped with plain green wrappings.
"It's my birthday?" he asked at the same time Naruto jumped to his feet, clearly horrified.
"Sasa-chan, it's your birthday!" Naruto cried. "I totally forgot! I'm soo sorry!"
His birthday is today? Sasuke made a mental note to add the birthday on the eighth of February to his calendar.
Sasayaki, however, seemed unaffected that Naruto had forgotten as he ripped into the present. Sasuke hastily blurted out a congratulations, though he was ignored in favour of the stuffed dog toy that looked suspiciously like Pakkun, though slightly smaller.
Sasuke stared at it disdainfully.
Surely Sasayaki won't like that, it's just a dumb toy.
"MINE!" Sasayaki all but squealed, throwing himself onto the ground as she cuddled the toy dog, and several people stared as they walked past.
Sasuke also stared.
What was I thinking, of course he would pretend to like it, the weirdo. He is clearly acting.
Sasayaki was clearly an enigma, and he was determined to get to the bottom of… well, him. And he was getting closer, he knew he was. He was picking up on some strange things; firstly, the fact Sasayaki knew Itachi, despite the fact Sasuke was sure Itachi would have told him he knew one of his classmates. It was only by chance he had found out they knew each other, otherwise he would have been oblivious.
Secondly, he hung out with Naruto, the one No One Goes Near. Thirdly, he knew Kakashi somehow despite the fact he is in no way related and just a common street rat. And after a bit of digging, Sasuke found out Kakashi was a rather famous ninja that actually had a sharingan in one eye. Why would he have anything to do with him, let alone help Sasayaki and Naruto get an apartment?
Fourthly, Sasayaki tended to disappear for a day or so on a weekly basis doing training with some mysterious teacher. He only knew that because he had noticed his disappearances when he began hanging out with them, and normally those two went everywhere together. When he had asked Naruto, the blond had shrugged and told him it was his secret business, learning to use his chains or something.
Which was another thing, what was with that chain style? He understood the usefulness of the CC chains, since they didn't require much chakra to manipulate and things could be sealed into the end of them such as logs to substitute with, or explosive seals inscribed on them as Naruto had once done (though when Sasayaki had used them, it had destroyed the chains so he'd opted to only do that in emergencies), but what was the point in his actual chain technique?
As far as he could see, the chains he made were made of pure chakra which would be a massive drain on his reserves, and on top of that they didn't seem to have any special properties from what he had observed. Sure, it was cool to be able to create chains at random points but why not other jutsu? It just didn't seem efficient.
Sasuke sighed and shook his head to clear his thoughts.
He would get his answers, he knew he would. It might just take some time.
It was a day in their third year at the academy, about midway through the year. Naruto was, as usual, oblivious to Iruka's lecture as he was embedded in his sixth book on fuuinjutsu, by one Minato Namikaze.
Shikamaru turned around when Iruka began writing on the board.
"Hey Sasuke, who is that group in the red light district that Naruto and Sasayaki are teaching jutsu to?"
Sasuke frowned, his eyes narrowing. He didn't tend to hang out with the Gang, they were much too dirty and uncouth for his tastes. His parents would be horrified. Still, how did Shikamaru know that Naruto and Sasayaki taught them? The six of them were discreet in all their dealings, including their lessons from Naruto and Sasuke. Even Takeshi, the youngest apart from Naruto and Sasayaki, knew not to go blabbing.
From what Sasuke had seen, Junko, the leader, always made sure to beat it into their heads the importance of discretion in all aspects of life. Akemi couldn't talk anyway considering his muteness, and Emi and Eri would know of the risks. Kiyoshi was shrouded with mystery so Sasuke was sure he wasn't the type to talk.
Which meant Shikamaru had done some of his own information gathering. Perhaps he was also suspicious about Sasayaki, or perhaps the mystery of Naruto the supposed demon.
"Friends," he replied carefully. "Why do you ask?"
Shikamaru shrugged, though despite his nonchalant demeanour his eyes were serious.
"Just tell them to be careful. You don't know who could be watching, and you know teaching chakra manipulation to civilians is illegal, right?"
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly, and he glanced at Naruto but the boy was dead to the world.
He hadn't realised it was illegal. But if he thought about it, it did make sense. Teaching such dangerous things to civilians could end badly for them, and it also meant the village could lose track of who was proficient in chakra-handling and who wasn't, thus a security risk.
Sasuke nodded slightly in Shikamaru's direction, despite the fact the boy had clearly been doing some sneaking around. Not that he could talk; that would be rather hypocritical. He was just thankful Shikamaru had brought it to his attention.
"Even if it is, we don't really care," Naruto suddenly spoke up, his eyes still riveted to the book. Maybe he wasn't so oblivious after all.
"You should," Shikamaru drawled, not at all seeming surprised at Naruto's attentiveness. "You are a well-known figure Naruto, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a watch on you at all ti-"
Suddenly Shikamaru cut off, his eyes widening as if he'd had a sudden realisation. Chouji stopped munching on a chip to look at him.
"What is it?" he asked his best friend with a frown. But Chouji was ignored.
"Where is Sasayaki now?" Shikamaru asked, and Sasuke felt his guard rising.
"That's none of your business," Naruto cut in, finally shutting his book. "And why do you care so much? Why have you been snooping around?"
Shikamaru and Chouji were probably the closest out of the rest of the class to the three of them, but that was only because they actually talked to them and didn't avoid them all the time. They had never done any outside activities with them, except the occasional prank.
"Sasayaki is a bit like your brother Itachi, isn't he Sasuke? You're always complaining about how he isn't around enough… and I heard that he's a prodigy," Shikamaru continued, abandoning his previous line of questioning. He tapped his chin thoughtfully.
Sasuke really wasn't sure what Shikamaru was trying to get at, but before he or Naruto could ask Shikamaru turned back to the front just as Iruka faced them again.
If he thought about it though, Sasayaki really was like Itachi, and he could tell Naruto was thinking the same from the odd expression on his face.
Naruto didn't pick up his book for the rest of the lesson.
Sasayaki hadn't stopped carrying the pug around since the day he'd got it, despite the laughs the other kids in the class deliberately didn't hide at his expense. Sasuke honestly couldn't understand his infatuation with the (in his opinion, ugly) stuffed toy Sasayaki had aptly named 'Puggy'. Though he supposed that as far as facades go, it really worked to lower people's guards and opinions so maybe it was a genius move, after all.
"Is it really necessary to have that here?" Sasuke sighed as they crouched outside the mysterious house Mizuki had entered all that time ago behind a leafless bush. They were on watch while Naruto studied the fuuinjutsu around the house, trying to find a way to crack it, as had become their routine every Monday morning before the two would go and do tasks with the Gang, while Sasuke would go to the academy. Junko had decided to let the two take Monday off to help the Gang do their tasks since they really needed all the help they could get, and Sasayaki and Naruto being away almost every day was a strain on them.
Sasayaki turned his head to sneer at him.
"Excuse you, Puggy is amazing and I can't leave him alone otherwise he'll get sad! Don't you know anything?"
Sasuke sighed, resisting the urge to grit his teeth, and rubbed his face exasperatedly.
"I'm leaving, academy starts soon," he muttered, and he got up and walked off. The two would finish up soon anyway.
It was an hour before the academy ended when Sasuke got called up by Iruka after Mizuki had come into the class to whisper a message to him. Then he was told he needed to go home immediately. When asked, Iruka just shook his head clueless, having been given no more details than that. Sasuke hurried home, wondering what could possibly be so important. He soon found out.
Shisui was dead.
I'm opting out of describing her training in too much detail, including the meditating she is doing. I think you can all imagine what she is doing with the Uchiha and Yugi, it will be revealed later anyway. A bit of rough time skipping here since I think I've spent way too much time on the trio as kids.
Question:
What genre(s) would you say this fic is so far? E.g. action/adventure, comedy, friendship etc.