His gaze made you freeze in place, unable to stand up. All you could do was the shuttle further back.
"Uzumaki Sota, nice to meet you," Danzo said and looked down at you.
You wanted to run, but your body refused.
"What do you want with me?" You asked, as your mouth was a lot more careless than your body. Your voice, however, was shaking and did nothing to hide your fear.
"You don't have to be afraid of me. I don't want you any harm," he said.
Liar!
"I don't want to join Root," you told him.
Why did you do that? His expression didn't change any, of course it didn't. You needed to stop the shaking. Stop being so stupid Sota, focus. Close your eyes, if you can't see him he wouldn't be there right. Of course not, it was too late to escape the curse of object permanence.
You tried breathing in and out, he wasn't saying anything. Why wasn't he saying anything? None of that mattered. You rolled over onto your knees, opened your eyes and then full speed away from him.
-x-
It was stupid to mention Root, but too late now. You could hope that by mentioning its name, it would discourage him from recruiting you later on. You weren't sure what he'd think. Maybe that the Hokage had warned you or something and he'd take that as a sign that the Hokage would protect you?
But it was you that bumped into him. Maybe he didn't want anything to do with you and you were just overthinking stuff? He wasn't interested in Naruto at this point, so why you? And now you only pissed him off by being rude to him for no reason. But unlike Naruto, you weren't a terrible student so what what was the truth...
Itachi was right, it was stupid of you to progress this fast, and now it was too late to turn around. There were too many eyes on your back to suddenly hold back since if it was something Konoha liked, it was messing up their young prodigies. And if Danzo was seeking you out, you could be the next messed up kid on the list.
-x-
Two things were certain in life as the Hokage. Death and Paperwork. And Hiruzen would quite like a distraction right now.
And the gods seemed to have answered him as he heard familiar knocking on his door.
"Come in," Hiruzen said, despite knowing from the familiar knocks that this wasn't the distraction he was looking for.
Danzo stepped in and locked the door behind him before he sat down in his regular chair beside the Hokage.
"It's about Uzumaki Sota, someone seems to have been feeding him classified information," Danzo said.
"And what classified information should that be?" Hiruzen asked.
"He knows about Root. I think someone is trying to make him fear me," Danzo said.
"You are a quite intimidating person," Hiruzen commented.
"So is Uchiha Fugaku, and the kid doesn't seem affected by that man. He crawled back when he saw me and ran away quickly after telling me 'I don't want to join Root'. I want a list of who has been in contact with the boy," Danzo demanded.
Sarutobi went to one of his bookshelves and pulled out a binder before going back to his desk.
"This is all the encounters the boy had the last year, is that sufficient?" He asked Danzo.
"Let me take a look," Danzo replied.
Sarutobi unsealed the lock and handed it to the other man who began to read.
"Lots of meetings with Hatake the last week. What's what about?"
"He has been teaching the kid sealing as he quickly outgrew what Genma could teach him. But Kakashi seems to hate the boy, sure you want to suspect him?" Hiruzen explained.
Danzo continued looking further back in the book.
"There are other potential suspects. You forced me to remove the seal after he left Root, so he'd be free to tell the boy any secrets. Can I see the transcripts of his conversations with Hatake?" Danzo asked.
"There is no reason to give you those, besides he could just have omitted anything incriminating," Sarutobi said.
"But sloppy work could give signs of wrongdoing," Danzo interrupted.
"I'll have someone analyse his reports and then I'll talk to him. You're staying away from Hatake until further notice. You'll not be of any help when you've already made up your decision."
As Danzo was leaving the office, Sarutobi gave him one last warning. "Don't do anything with Sota behind my back."
-x-
One moment you were waiting for Kakashi, another moment you were thrown to the ground before getting your face pushed into the dirt.
"Do you know what kind of problems you've caused me now?" Kakashi crouched down and yelled at you.
"No," you muttered under the weight of the jounin.
"I don't know how you know about Root or why you were stupid enough to mention it to Danzo. But if you dare throw me to the wolves and blame me. You're going to suffer and you will quickly learn that your young age won't protect you."
"That's enough, let him go!" Shisui called out from behind the trees.
As Kakashi lift the pressure you turned towards your new friend. Sharingan ready and sword out.
He really thought Kakashi was going to hurt you. He wasn't really going to, was he? Or was it you that didn't understand the gravity of the situation and just depended too much on non-existent plot armour that you got cocky and arrogant? He wouldn't get away with killing you. But lots of people killed knowing they'd get caught.
He helped you up before addressing Kakashi again. "If you don't go straight to the Hokage and resign as his teacher, I'm going to report this and launch an official police investigation against you. You know perfectly well what my clan thinks about you. Don't give them a chance to take revenge."
Kakashi the 'Eye Thief' walked away, hopefully for the last time, and Shisui turned to you again.
"Let me take a look at you," he told you and rubbed away the dirt from your face.
"Some scratches, but you're not bleeding, so you should be fine."
"Its…" you said before getting interrupted.
"It's not your fault. Kakashi is an adult, one of the best, he should know better."
-x-
In the next weeks, you were on your own when it came to sealing. And it was perhaps for the better. You got a lot done by yourself. You could make stuff faster and than ever and had made neatly labelled boxes to put your stuff in. Small explosives, medium and big ones. All ready for when you became genin. Though the latter might be a bit too dangerous, any teammate could underestimate their effects and someone could get hurt.
The child in you really liked watching stuff blow up. If it wasn't for the fact that Deidara was an Iwa-nin and would join would join Akatsuki, you could probably have become best friends in the future.
The only Jutsu left mastering of the academy three was the clone. Sasuke and your other classmates had become more and more of a joke as your sparring against Itachi had improved. Only for you to figure out how much he had held back against you.
All in all, life was going great for you.
-x-
Sasuke waited till you had left the classroom for the day before approaching Naruto.
"I need your help," he said to the other boy.
Naruto was smiling towards him as he got some attention. "I'll help," he replied.
"The asshole. He's stealing my Nii-san from me. Help me take revenge." Sasuke said.
"What should we do?" Naruto asked.
"I hoped you had any good idea. You're always pranking people and annoying the adults."
"We could check his room, he's an orphan like me, so he lives alone. But we might get caught."
"Hnn, he's always out training after school, so he won't get back till its dark."
Naruto showed the way for Sasuke as the walked towards your place.
"How do you know where he lives," Sasuke asked.
"I wanted to be his friend when I started the academy so I asked Iruka about were he lived. It didn't go so well," he said turning to Sasuke to expose his red eyes.
Sasuke didn't pay much attention and turned to your door, but it would budge. "We should have stolen his key."
Naruto pushed Sasuke away and stuck something into the lock. After a few seconds of rattling, Naruto could open the door.
"Everyone thinks I'm a loser. But they're wrong," Naruto responded to Sasuke's thoughts.
The two of them looked around in your somewhat messy room. Sasuke's eyes were drawn to your boxes of explosives.
If you wanted revenge, you went big. So he grabbed the last box down from the shelf and looked inside it. There wasn't many in there. But one was enough for Sasuke.
"Come over here Naruto. Look at this," Sasuke said and held out one or your seals.
"What's that?" Naruto asked.
"We put some chakra through it and then it goes BOOM and he'll get scared and piss his pants," Sasuke said and waved for emphasis.
"It's perfect," Naruto replied. "We can take him down and show him that he's not as good as he thinks he is. He'll be fine right? Pranks aren't supposed to hurt people."
"I've seen Itachi using them, they're not that dangerous at distance."
-x-
You were just walking home as you saw a bright flash around you. Followed big a deafening blast and you were shot forward.
Everything hurt. Trying to move anything hurt. Your ears felt like they bleeding. Your mind was all fuzzy. Till all slipped away. Was this the end. Killed in an assassination attempt in your own village?
-x-
You were floating in some kind of water and your body suddenly felt fine again. From the corner of your eye, you could see blue fires lighten up the water.
Was this how death felt like?
Starting in the water of the womb, ending in the water of…
"Are you going to just float there all day boy?" A grand voice called out behind you.
You turned around in the water and saw something you would never expect to see.
"Matatabi…" you stuttered while pointing and the giant cat in the distance. "What are you doing here?"
"Who told you my name?" She asked and flashed her teeth towards you.
"You, I think, I'm not sure. It's a long story."
"For how I got here, didn't your Kage tell you that?" she asked.
"I know, but you're not supposed to be in Konoha, you're supposed to be in Cloud. Into a girl named Yugito. She's not dead is she?"
"I don't know any girl named Yugito. I was previously sealed into an old woman from the Cloud. But we never talked and I don't know happened to them," she said.
"Oh… I'm Uzumaki Sota and I'll try to be a better Jinchuuriki," you said and held your hand out towards here.
"You know, I've been cramped here forever, with all this dreadful water. Can't you help me out a bit, loosen the seal a bit so I can go outside and stretched my feet?" She asked. "I hear that the nature around your village is wonderful."
"I'm not getting tricked so easily, I wasn't born yesterday," you replied.
"You're sorely mistaken. Wouldn't you also want to go out sometimes if you were locked inside a cell for years? You want to be a good Jinchuuriki, but you only want to take my power and not help me back. No wonder you can't make friends kid."
"I…" You tried answering.
No, you're not getting yourself getting guilt-tripped by a giant blue cat who would take revenge on humanity the second she got loose. But guilt still tore on you. You were acting on knowledge you weren't supposed to know about. So your brain is pushing you one direction and your mind another.
If you weren't transported here from the real world with all the memories of canon. Would Sota have given in at this point and doomed Konoha?
No, you needed to address her properly, no reason to be afraid.
"The village has trusted me to keep you contained. I hope we can someday fight together like partners, like friends. But you're not being honest with me. If I remove the seal I die. You're not being a good tailed-beast you know." you said.
"Very well. Sounds like you're too heartless to trick," she replied.
"I'm not heartless!" You yelled back at the stupid cat.
"Then show it!"
"I can scratch your ear?" You offered, cats like that, right?
"You don't deserve to scratch my ear," she roared.
"Then I've nothing. Can I get out now? We can talk later again," you said.
"You almost died. With the power of my chakra, you healed fast enough to not bleed out before medics could save you. But you've been nothing but ungrateful towards me. Without me, this would have ended up with you disfigured and you could just forget about becoming a ninja, but with my help, you'll get out of this without a scratch."
"I'm sorry", you cried out. "Let's talk again another day. Just please stop messing with my head."
"Or what, you'll realize that you're an evil kid and change your ways?"
"No… it's an all a trick. You're trying to trick me," you mumbled. You could get away from her. you just needed to swim away. Ignore her taunts. You'd nothing to say in response. She was right, you were an awful kid.
What if you just let yourself drown. This wasn't a real place, just a place conjured up in your mind. If you passed out here, you could maybe escape? Or at least no one could see you cry underwater.
-x-
You could hear beeping around you. You were safe from Matatabi. You took a deep breath in and then out.
You tried opening your eyes, but only your left eye would obey. Same happened when you tried moving your arms. Moving the left one went fine, moving the right one lead to immense pain. You shut your eye and started screaming in response.
You heard people rush into your room. A soothing liquid flowed into your veins and things started to feel much better and you could open your eye again.
"Try not to move, please. Are you still in pain?" A medic-nin asked you.
"I'm fine. What happened, I got caught in an explosion, I thought I was going to die. Was the village attacked?"
"No. Two of your classmates broke into your apartment and stole some of your explosive tags," they explained.
"Who?" You asked. You knew who, you just needed to get the confirmation before accusing anyone.
"Sasuke and Naruto. They're already getting suspended and will for a long time. I need to go look at the other patients. Though you have a visitor, should I let them in?"
"Yes," you answered.
You moved your eye towards the door and saw Itachi.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault," you said.
"Sota, you're not the fault that Naruto and my brother attacked you," Itachi said.
"I'm an awful person, I only got what I deserved."
"Sota, you're not an awful person. What can you possibly think you've done to deserve this?"
"I bullied him, then I rejected Naruto's friendship, I can't make any friends on my own," you cried out.
"You changed, you're no longer bullying anyone. You are a friendly person around your friends. You don't owe Naruto your friendship, you're too different to get along. And you know that. Blaming yourself might make you feel you've control over your own fate. But that doesn't make it true."
"I just had a nightmare, big blue cat told me I was awful and heartless," you said.
"Sota, cats are cute little assholes," he said. "But you shouldn't believe what they're telling you all the time."
"Can you move your arm?" He asked you.
As you replied "yes", he pulled out a stick of dango to hand you.
"Thanks, you're a good friend," you replied as you grabbed the stick of deliciousness.
"There is something I need to come clean about. I might not be the best timing, but I feel it's better to get over with it. Know that it won't change anything. Just promise me that you'll let me finish talking?"
"I will," you replied.
"You may wonder why I befriended you months ago. The truth is that I was told to seek you out by Danzo to befriend and report back on you. But that doesn't mean I never saw you as a friend. I don't really know why he was interested in you."
"I'm the two-tails' Jinchuuriki," you told him.
"Should you really be telling me that? That kind of stuff is definitely classified," he said.
"No one told me that I couldn't tell anyone. I just learnt about it. I talked to her. She tried making me feel guilty about everything, it worked."
"Don't talk to her again will you?" He asked you.
"She needs a friend too, she just needs time. She saved my life," you said.
"You're a strange kid. She is awful and manipulative towards you and you still want to be her friend. Don't you see that makes you a good friend, not a bad one?"
"I guess," you replied.
"And you still want to be my friend even after what I told you?"
"Yes."
"Then you are a good forgiving friend. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," he said.
"Thanks," you mumbled.
"I hope you'll forgive Sasuke too. He didn't know how dangerous what he did was. He was mad at me for spending so much time with you and not him. He's not a revengeful kid," Itachi explained.
It was finally time to tell Itachi the truth.
"Sasuke is all about revenge," you said.
"What do you mean?" Itachi asked.
"He'll do anything to get powerful enough to kill you."
"Why would Sasuke want to kill me, he loves me?"
"You're going to do something horrible by orders of Danzo to protect him and the village."
Itachi didn't say anything for a while, just sat there and thought about what you were saying.
"When?"
"In two years," you explained. "Unless something changes for the better or worse."
"I'm sorry, but you must be wrong about this. Let's not talk about this again. And if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, you really shouldn't be so open about it. There are ears and eyes everywhere, and I just told you that I'm spying on you. Why do you trust me so much?"
"I know the future," you said.
"I'm going to call off the mission and tell him that you figured me out. But I'll still be your friend. And don't think for a second that our friendship isn't real."
"Thanks,"
"I need to go watch Sasuke and Naruto. They'll have to do chores around the village till their suspension is over. I'll come back tonight," Itachi said.
Without anything to do and the effects of the treatment, you just wanted to nap, hopefully, you wouldn't wake up to her again.
-x-
Sudden knocks on your window woke you up later that night. You looked outside, trying to not move too much around. It was pitch dark both inside and outside, but you could see the glowing eyes of Itachi's Sharingan. Where had he been?
He stealthily opened the window and stealthily entered the room.
He moved right next to you and whispered in your ear. "Sorry, I'm late. You were right about earlier. Danzo let me go on this mission, so now he wants me to spy on my own clan to figure out what they're up to. I want to hear everything you know one day, but we'd need to take that outside the village, we can't take any chances. I can't request you on a mission before you graduate. I just hope no one is onto us yet."
Itachi turned off his Sharingan and everything became dark again. You couldn't even hear him leave. He wasn't sneaky ninja for nothing.
-x-
Itachi didn't visit you again before the afternoon the next day, but some dango made you forgive him right away. He was right about one thing, stuffing balls inside you made you happy.
"I'm sorry, Naruto and Sasuke spent too much time arguing today, they had to make up for it for staying longer. Things are not going well, Father is furious, he thinks Sasuke is being too heavily punished. He doesn't understand that Sasuke got rather easily away from it. Any two other students would have gotten kicked out of the academy for good," Itachi explained.
"Do you know what happened. I assume the Hokage talked with all four of you?" You asked.
"Yes. Since Father is the clan-head and chief of the Police, any case involving Sasuke can't really be dealt with within the clan. It doesn't help that my father insists they'd process it fairly. So he's pretty mad about that.
"I'm trying to calm him down and get him to understand that this is good for my brother. He worries about how this will affect Sasuke's education. We've both gotten strict instructions to not teach him anything to make up for missing school, and one of us have to watch over them each day as they're performing their punishment. So far father hasn't done his fair share."
"How long are they being suspended?"
"Twice the time until you recover completely. If you had been anyone else, that could take a long time. Hopefully, my father will calm down when he sees you're a quick healer. And he will get permission to start teaching Sasuke when you're back at the academy and can start your own training again."
"Why is the Hokage doing this, doesn't he want us all to be our best? Doesn't make sense to deny Naruto and Sasuke training," you said.
"There has always been a rivalry between ninja, even in the same village. The Hokage was very clear on the fact that Sasuke's crime should not give him any benefit in catching up to you."
"You should try talking to the Hokage about this, how you fear this will create a bigger rift between the Uchiha and the village and figure out something that can weight up for this situation. I don't want to be the reason everything goes wrong even earlier."
"What do you suggest?" Itachi asked.
"I dunno. Give some Uchiha an undeserved promotion, name a bridge in your father's honour. You can think about something. Maybe…" you stopped yourself from continuing.
"Maybe what?"
"Offer Sasuke the chance to graduate early alongside me. He'll fail I'm sure, but it will show your father some respect."
"I hope you're right, if my baby brother is being put in danger due to early graduation, I'll make you buy your own dango."
"You wouldn't dare!" You said.
-x-
Itachi had other stuff to do. You couldn't exactly do any training in your current state. Not that the nurses would approve of sparring in the hospital bed. So safe to say, you were bored again.
Your next visitor was a bit more of a surprise.
And not the good kind of surprise. Like some foreign prince wanting to give you money. No, more like the kind of surprise people get when they find nasty stuff in their food.
"We look like twins now," you greeted Danzo.
Turns out that the man didn't appreciate a good joke, he didn't even smile.
"Good evening Uzumaki," he said.
"Evening," you replied. If he wanted to be more formal with fewer jokes you better listen to him.
"Is there anything you want to tell me?" He asked.
"No," you said. The less that man knew the better.
"Are you sure about that, as that's not what I've heard," he said.
"And what have you heard?" You wondered.
"I want to know it from you rather than base my actions on rumours," Danzo said. All the telltales of a bluff. But he knew stuff, Itachi had probably told him about the cat. He was just testing you, and you knew better than to get on his bad sides. You should probably not have told that joke earlier.
"I meet with the two-tails. She wanted me to release her, but I said no," you explained.
"And when was this?" He asked.
"After I got attacked. I woke up in a lake surrounded by bars with her seal on the outside. Then she taunted me."
"So it wasn't she who told you about my organization. So who was it? Kakashi right?"
"No it wasn't," you said.
"He threatened you didn't he?" Danzo said.
"Yes, he told me to not put the blame on him. I don't know how I know. My memory loss made me remember other's memories at the cost of forgetting myself. I don't think you've any traitor to deal with."
"What more do you remember that you shouldn't?" He asked you.
"I only remember people's names. That's how I knew your name too," you said. You were probably not a good liar. But he seemed to be a man that could work with half-truths. And letting his targets think they got away with it.
"You've no one to help you with fuuinjutsu lately, is that right?"
"I've managed to get some stuff done on my own."
"Like what? Your apartment was checked for any other dangerous items. But all that was found was explosive tags. Some quite potent ones. But nothing special."
"I might have gotten a bit hooked on them. Explosions are fun as long as you don't get caught in your own."
"Do you know who Uzumaki Mito is?" He asked you.
"Yes," you said. Not daring to lie.
"I once had the chance to study under her. I could help you," he offered.
Why did he think you'd want to be around him more than necessary? The only reason you weren't running away from him was that you couldn't.
"She isn't my secret grandmother or something?" You asked.
"No. You're too young for that. I don't know your heritage. You seek to graduate early right, how is that going?"
"I still can't get the hang of the clone Jutsu. And with the two-tails, it is probably impossible."
"You know there are ways around it, but you won't learn that jutsu before you're a jounin."
"Shadow clones?" You asked.
"So you've heard about it. But I can influence things. I and the Hokage are old friends. If it's up to Hiruzen, he'd have you wait till you're twelve like anyone else."
"I can just ask Itachi or Shisui for help," you said.
"And cause them to get in trouble for teaching you a jutsu well above your level?"
"I guess not," you said.
"Think about my offer. I can set up a little workshop for you," he offered.
"My own room works perfectly well," you countered.
"You almost got killed by your own work. You won't be allowed to continue studying in such an unsafe environment," he said.
"So it's either becoming your student or not doing any fuuinjutsu at all?"
"Think about it for a few days will you?"
What to do, what to do…
You could learn a lot from him. But he's Danzo. He never does anything without ulterior motives. He'd probably work on manipulating you over time to join Root by changing your perception of him. Make you grateful for his help. And the terrifying part is that it would probably work.
And if you said no. You'd be stuck in the academy for ages. Never really progress in Fuuinjutsu and be quite ill-prepared when Akatsuki comes for your asshole cat.
You needed to talk with someone else about this.
-x-
In the next days, you had no visitors. No signs of either Shisui or Itachi. Only yourself and miles of bandages.
Though there wasn't only bad news. They'd freed your right arm so you had a bit more mobility, even if it was a bit stiff still. And being able to sit up in bed was quite nice after being forced to lie down for days.
The nurses had provided you with some colouring books to keep you occupied as you quickly finished your homework. Could you make seals with crayons or did it have to be ink?
The nurses would probably not appreciate it if you started to produce explosives in your bed after an explosive accident.
You should start working on making seals that could absorb explosives automatically so this wouldn't happen again. But currently, the fire absorption seal you knew required a manual trigger. But Kakashi did mention seal in the Hokage's office to prevent a Kage to set fire to his own paperwork. If only you got your hands on one of those.
But they were hidden and you wouldn't get your hands on them. Though Danzo could…
No, you were no Sasuke. Making deals with the devil to gain power was stupid. But making deals with the devil to gain knowledge was another case.
Why was the urge to learn so strong inside you?
You just needed to work on defending yourself from manipulation. You said no to Matatabi, you can say no to Danzo if things go too far.
Just up the offer to include that seal.
Then it was just waiting for Danzo to visit again.
In the meantime, start on colouring in the three Sannin. How old was this colouring book to still include Orochimaru? At least it was fun to give the man pink hair.
As much as you wanted to experiment with more seals, it wouldn't be good if the nurses confiscated your only entertainment.
-x-
After another couple of days of no visits, Danzo appeared in the room with you again.
"Good evening Uzumaki," he greeted.
"Evening Danzo," you replied, not wanting to offend the man even more than you'd done. You wanted on his good side for once.
"So have you gotten some time to think about my offer?" He asked.
"I've," you said.
"So?"
"I'll accept it on one condition, I want to learn how the fire suppressing seals in the Hokage's office work," you said.
Danzo responded by closing his eye.
Thinking. Thinking too long.
"I don't see the harm, I'll see what I can do. Though in return, keep this between us. For everything you're asking me, some trust and confidentiality is a small price," he finally said before leaving.
-x-
It wasn't till Itachi visited two hours later you realized how stupid you had been.
It wasn't because no one liked you that you hadn't gotten visitors. It was because Danzo didn't want you to discuss the matter with anyone.
Too late to change your mind now. And despite everything, you were convinced you'd come advantageous out of it. So why ruin it with paranoia? He might just want to help you grow for the sake of Konoha, especially now that you learn the truth about yourself.
Danzo would probably find out and figure a way to punish you if you told Itachi anything.
How would he know though? Itachi isn't spying on you for him anymore. But…
Better not risk it.
"What are you thinking about Sota?"
"Your cute face," you said.
"Keep your secrets," Itachi smiled.
"Where have you been, it has been quite lonely here you know," you said.
"I and Shisui were called on a mission the morning after I visited you last time. I had sadly no chance of telling you beforehand," he explained.
Proving your previous thoughts perfectly.
"You're now. So did that mean your father had to watch Sasuke all week?"
"Yes, he was not happy about it. But I did as you suggested and talked with the Hokage. He seemed to approve, he just needed to think a bit about it. He has invited father for tea later today. So we'll see how that's going," he said.
"I hope everything goes well. I don't want to lose you."
"You won't lose me, we'll find a way to solve this," Itachi said and put a hand on your head to comfort you.