Another few days and you were out of the hospital.
Your legs were still not healed well enough to walk on. And you still had the bandage covering half of your head, but that would get removed later that day. So you had to stay in a wheelchair for perhaps a week they estimated.
But it was easy to roll around. The village was pretty flat and as a ninja, you had strong enough arms. As you rolled into the classroom, you could see the worry on their eyes.
Hinata raised her hand in the air.
"Yes, Hinata," Iruka said.
"Will he be okay?" She asked.
"Yes, the doctors are certain he'll recover. No need to worry about that, class. But he'll not be able to participate in every activity till he recovers."
"You better get better Sota, I've gotten a lot stronger since you've been gone, I'm going to kick your ass," Kiba warmed your heart there. Despite pushing everyone away, you were kind of part of the class for the first time.
"Kiba, stop bragging, he could beat you while in a wheelchair," Shikamaru told him.
Thanks for the trust Shika, but don't push me in any necessarily challenges, that would be Troublesome as you say.
Japanese was the only useful class you had here really. And even here you didn't feel you learnt much, it was easy to keep up with the lost material. Especially as you'd been provided with the missed schoolwork while at the hospital. So safe to say, school was going to be useless till you could move your body around again.
You got some comforting smiles during the day and you took Matatabi's words to you and smiled back but no one approached to talk to you.
-x-
Later that day you were back at the hospital.
"How did the day go, any problems?" One of your regular nurses asked.
"No," and if there was, you wouldn't give them any reason to keep you here even longer.
"Good, then we start removing some of your bandages," she said and rolled you towards a mirror so you could see for yourself.
One green eye peeked back at you with your red hair peeking up. How could Danzo deny your similarities? If it wasn't for the fact that you didn't want Naruto close to him, you'd dare him to dye his hair red as a prank to solidify the picture.
The nurse started to pull on the bandages, finally getting fresh air on your skin like shedding a second skin. Finally getting your depth vision back.
But it wasn't a green eye that meets you, but a vibrant yellow one.
You growled into the mirror, making the nurse take a step back.
Damn you Matatabi! You knew exactly what she was thinking. Giving you a little gift as a reminder that she saved you so you'd be grateful towards her in the future.
Though if your eye was destroyed in the attack, this was better than nothing or Danzo sneaking in a Sharingan into your eye socket.
Though you didn't really have to worry too much, the cat was far from as well known as Kurama as she had never attacked the village. So hopefully no one would make much out of it. And in your class, only Sasuke had probably looked enough at your eyes during spars to notice any change.
The issue was more putting on a signpost for Akatsuki. And unless you were Tsunade, trying to hide your appearance for any amount of time was never going to work.
You had little wish to destroy your eye again to hide it. You quite liked your depth perception.
As you left the hospital you saw Shisui approaching you.
His eye meeting yours, not like in a romantic comedy sense. But rather to address the elephant in the room. Your new eye.
"How?" He asked.
"Furry little problem," you answered.
"Does it have any special powers?"
"I don't know, just discovered it. I doubt it, it's probably just decorative, so now our eyes match,"
"How do you feel about it?" He asked.
"I don't like it. Hey, stop pushing me!" You exclaimed.
"I just wanted to help you," he said.
"I've been unable to move on my own for days, so I want to be in control myself. Sorry, I know you just wanted to help," you smiled at him.
-x-
You were a bit surprised when you saw Shikamaru approach you the next day after school.
"Sota, my father is out of the village for a mission, so I don't have any to play Shogi with, do you want to give it a try?"
"I don't know how to play," you answered.
"I can teach you, so what do you say?"
"Okay," it could be fun.
It was a bit of a distance to where he lived, but not that bad.
He pushed away one of the chairs in front of the table so you could fit and began setting up the board.
"We're supposed to capture each other's king", he said pointing to the two king pieces.
The nice thing with playing Shogi when actually proficient at Japanese was that every piece was nicely labelled and not just confusing scribbles one would have to learn.
"Every piece can move differently. The king can move one step in any direction. The lance can move forwards as far as he wants but he cannot jump over pieces," he explained each pieces' moves by pointing to it and showing some legal moves.
It was kind of like chess, but more like the Crazyhouse variant as you could put captured pieces back on the board on your team instead of a normal move. And unlike chess, it wasn't just the pawns that could promote, but in return, each piece had their own promoted state and wouldn't become queens, in fact, there were no queens in this game. And promotion wasn't always beneficial in this game unlike chess as certain pieces would lose part of its mobility in exchange for other movement options.
Safe to say, this was complicated.
"Do you think you'll get it?" he asked.
You nodded.
"Just ask if you forget how to move a piece."
"Okay, who's starting?" You asked.
"You can start."
You'd no idea of any Shogi opening theory, so you started like in chess and moved a pawn to give your officers a chance to escape.
There was no surprise that your king didn't live a long and prosperous life, as Shikamaru quickly cornered him.
"Play again?" He asked you.
You nodded and this time you tried to help him set up the board, but you limit yourself to the pawn line as that was the only one you could properly remember.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"It's alright, I just need to get better so I can have more fun with it," you said and made your first move.
"You can have fun with something even if you're not the best," he told you and replied with a move of his own.
"I know, I just want to have a fighting chance in whatever I do."
"That's fair."
The only thing differing this round was that you were less unsure about the pieces' move-set, but you still lost hard.
"Again," you mumbled.
"Alright," he said.
And another loss for you.
"O hi Shikamaru, I see you've got a friend over. You didn't tell me that you've made a new friend," You looked up and saw a woman who looked like Shikamaru's mother.
It didn't seem like he had anything to say.
"You answer me when I talk to you Shikamaru."
"Sorry mom, I've not talked to Sota before today."
"That's better. Have you invited him for dinner yet?"
"No mom," Shikamaru said.
"I'm sorry about him. The dinner is soon ready, so go and wash your hands so we can eat."
"I'm fine," you replied.
"Rubbish, Shikamaru never brings friends so I'll never get to know them. I've more enough food now that Shikaku isn't home," she said.
Her eyes weren't very comforting, at least Danzo eyes were emotionless. Maybe you could become friends with Shikamaru, but it wouldn't do if his mother hated you.
"I guess I'm hungry, food sounds good."
"See that's not that hard, now go wash your hands, boys."
Shikamaru helped you over the doorstep and lead the way to the bathroom. When you reached the sink you noticed a problem. There was no way of reaching it.
"I've got a bit of a problem," you said.
"Oh… How do you solve it at home?" He asked you.
"I have a basin I fill with water so I can wash my hands in that."
"Oh, I don't know if we have anything like that," he said and went to look through the drawers.
He grabbed a hand towel, wet it and put some soap on one end.
"Give me your hands," he told you and you reached out so he could begin to wash them. Being quite thorough. "Mom is quite picky when it comes to cleaning under the nails."
He then made sure to wash off the handlebars on your wheelchair before washing his own in a normal manner.
"I hope it's okay that I push you so that you don't dirty your hands again?"
"It's okay," you replied.
The food did smell delicious, so maybe this wasn't such a bad idea.
"Itadakimasu," the three of you greeted before you're allowed to touch the food.
It was kind of a stew with rice on the side if it tasted as good as it smelt, you were in for a treat.
"So I hear you're on the top of the class?" She asked you.
You nodded, it was rude to speak with your mouth full of food, so you slowed down in order to answer any other questions in a timely manner.
"Your parents must be proud of you."
"I'm an orphan."
"Oh, it must be hard," she continued.
"I don't know anything else," you said. It wasn't really true for you, but it was true for Uzumaki Sota. It would probably be a bit more problematic for you growing up with parents when you were far from a real six-year-old.
"It's just a bit surprising, one wouldn't expect an orphan to do so well. Most are no good troublemakers, but of course, you're one of the good kind. Not taking anything for granted and put some effort into your life and not expect everything to be handed to you just because you've lost your parents."
The food suddenly didn't taste so well anymore.
"It's bad what happened to you, attacking a classmate like that is unheard of, and getting away with a slap on the wrist. Getting expelled would be a mild punishment for that boy, he's nothing but a troublemaker. A perfect example of one of the no-good orphans out there."
You half paid attention to her while just stirring around with the food, but you didn't miss a word of what she was saying.
"Eat properly Sota," she commented before continuing. "Same with that Uchiha friend of his. Just shows how out of control the clan is that the son of the police chief was involved in something like this. They are policing us, but who is policing the Uchiha? There is too many of them, I'm just glad they mostly keep to themselves when they're not patrolling. My friend had her bag stolen a few weeks ago and the Uchiha police haven't done anything to find it. Wouldn't surprise me if they stole it themselves."
Something in your belly began to stir, and you couldn't tell if you were about to vomit or release Matatabi onto the dinner table. Even if she deserved the former, the later would be really really bad.
"I need to go to the bathroom, I'm not feeling that well."
"I hope it wasn't my food, though given how little you've eaten it was probably something you've eaten earlier today. You should check your fridge for old food and smell it before eating it. If it smells bad it's probably gone bad."
You had noticed the side door when you got back from the bathroom earlier, so it was your way out without her noticing.
You carefully slid the door open and it was quiet enough for no one to hear. It did end up in the back garden and you carefully went around the house the other direction to not pass the kitchen window.
"Where did he go, he's been in there forever?" Shikamaru's mother asked her son.
"I think he left," he answered.
"What a rude kid, I guess there is something you need a firm hand from a parent to learn.
-x-
Shikamaru hadn't said anything during school today. And you were kind of happy about it. Now it was just one class left before you could home. And given it was ninja training, it was probably another day of you just watching while the others doing stuff.
"Today we'll be running laps around the track," Mizuki announced. "Sota, you'll join in today too."
It was nice to have something to do, so you took this as a pleasant surprise.
You weren't able to keep up with Kiba today, but you did your best and it was good training for your arms. Your speed, in general, was something you really needed to work on. It wouldn't matter if you got strong in other ways if you couldn't keep up with your enemies. So just tying Kiba wasn't good enough.
But at least your endurance wasn't a problem so you were able to keep a solid pace till Mizuki called off the day.
Shikamaru approached you, looking a bit tense. "Sota, I'm sorry about my mom yesterday. She can be a bit much when dad isn't home. I didn't know she would act like that, I don't have friends over much."
"It's okay," you replied.
"So should we do something today. We could watch the clouds?"
"It's overclouded and it's about to rain, we won't see much," you replied.
"You're right, stupid question," he said.
You began to roll home again.
"Wait," he said and you turned back towards him. "We could go see the deer."
You watched him, not sure what to say.
"Mom won't disturb us, she's not involving herself with the animals unless she must."
"It could be nice."
"Do you want me to push you, your hands must be sore after today?" He asked you.
You took a look at them and realized that they were starting to get warm. "I guess it would be nice, they are starting to get a bit red."
"Just wait a bit so I can take a shower."
"Alright," you answered.
Shikamaru was done in maybe 5-10 minutes. It didn't feel that long to be honest. And you didn't blame him, a nice shower was nice after physical activity but you didn't have that chance. Though the light drizzle from the rain cooled you down a bit.
"You're ready?" He asked from behind you.
You nodded.
"You know, the teachers won't notice if you slow it down a bit."
"I don't want to slow down, I need to catch up what I've lost and then more."
"You're weird."
He was perhaps right, but being weird isn't that bad.
The rain was starting to pour down stronger now, but you didn't mind and it didn't look like it affected him either.
You were almost there, you could see the forest not too far into the distance.
"Just don't do any sudden movement or any loud noises or else you scare them," he explained.
"Okay."
As you got under the foliage, you got some protection from the weather. And you got a glimpse of them further inside the woods.
Shikamaru put his finger in his mouth and whistled for them, and one after the one several deer started to approach you.
You'd eaten deer meat before, quite tasty, but never seen anyone this close up.
Shikamaru had gotten a bag of seeds from his backpack and was now holding a handful for them to lick up.
"Do you want to try?" he asked, handing you the bag.
You nodded and grabbed it. Then took a handful of seeds in your hand. The animals were a bit wary. Sniffed around, not sure what to do. One of them took a look at Shikamaru and with a subtle nod from him, your hand tingled as it licked up the treats in one go. You grabbed another handful and another one grab the chance. Then one more to feed the last of them, this one had a quite impressive set of antlers.
You took your chance and started stroking his muzzle. He seems to like it judging by its expression. He looked happy at least.
Then he pulled away, what did you do wrong? You looked towards Shikamaru, but he wasn't paying attention to you, he was busy attending to another deer.
Was he going to attack, getting impaled by a ninja deer was not how you wanted to die, but Shika also said you shouldn't scare them.
He got closer and then you could feel his wet tongue running up your cheek. This was quite nice. You could probably quite enjoy this life. But there was a nagging feeling that you should have stood up for your friends the previous day.
-x-
You didn't have to stay in a wheelchair for long. After perhaps a week, you were free to do whatever, declared fully recovered.
Thank you Matatabi you tried sending your thoughts to her. You appreciated her help, you wouldn't be standing here without her, you were just not thankful enough to foolishly release her.
Something was stirring in the bushes, was that blue fur you saw? Or was this just the cat messing with you again? But it wouldn't hurt getting closer. Move slowly towards it to not scare it.
There was nothing there, you crouched and looked closer into the bushes, but nothing. It shouldn't be that hard to notice a blue animal?
You heard rassling again. How did this animal manage to get from bush to bush without you noticing?
You should stop following it, but now you were kind of invested. Just keep sight on the where it could run instead of focusing as much on the bush itself. Sneak slowly towards it like a ninja.
Slowly and steady you approached it, there was no more movement, so this was your chance.
But before you could reach it things started to change around you, your brain getting fuzzy, but you kept on walking till reality snapped back around you. Around you were dirt and stone walls, and yeah, Danzo towering over you.
"If you can't tell an illusion from reality you won't last long," he said.
"They don't teach us that at the academy."
"You should ask your Uchiha friends for help. Though over to other business. I was able to secure you a copy of the seal you wanted and a room. Follow me."
You walked a bit further into the tunnels before Danzo stopped before an empty spot on the wall and placed his hand on it.
A glowing hand later, and a door opened up from nowhere. He then signalled you to get in.
The room was quite large but barren. In the nearest corner was a desk and chair along with shelves of materials. Another one with small boxes with unfilled name tags. Similar to what you have had at home, just scaled up. And a sink to wash your hands and drink if you got thirsty.
"It's quite big," you said.
"Its to confuse attackers so they can't sense which rooms are important and which isn't with earth jutsu alone."
Was that really a concern?
"I'll be back in a few hours," Danzo said and left the room. Leaving no door for you to exit.
Being locked in here was a bit worrying, but Danzo wouldn't attempt anything here. The Hokage wouldn't let him steal a Jinchuuriki and if you disappeared while being down here, Danzo would be the top suspect guilty or not. So this should be the safest place to be in regards to him, right?
You sat down at your desk and noticed the scroll and lighter laying there. Better get to work.
Taking a look at the seal it looked confusing at first. But it was just an illusion. The complexity looked like a result of sloppy sealing or obfuscating. Or perhaps making it take up less space.
It consisted of the normal fire absorption and some trigger mechanism. There was only one fire symbol, but it was used twice. Both to absorb and detect fire.
So in that way, it was a useful construct. Replace the fire with something else and you've done most of the job. But you'd still want to clean it up if you could.
But given that it was your first try, you'd just copy what you'd been given. Though it was annoyingly big if you were to create these en masse.
It took some time getting it down, future attempts would hopefully be much faster.
But what were you going to do now? Did it need any other activation? Better just test it.
With a flick of the lighter, the original scroll activated and swallowed the flame before you could even see anything.
Wait, how did the Hokage light his pipe with this security in place? There might be some other changes to the actual seals used in the office.
You reckoned that if you powered chakra through the detection part, it should work.
You weren't completely sure how much chakra you needed. But that was another part to test out later and how it affected different seals in the different parts of production. So, for now, you poured in a solid chunk.
And lit the lighter again. Not a flame and you could see the trapped fire glowing red inside your own seal.
But as you lit the lighter yet another time, there was no second activation from either scroll, just a burning flame. That was no good. A bunch of small fires could overload any reasonable defence you'd create, in a ninjutsu denial of service attack.
Splitting it into several parts should do the job. Detection, storing and multiple storage cells. You also had to work on getting them out of there again. As they currently looked like they were stuck.
Though back to your own creation.
One step at a time. First, separate the current two interwoven seals and test those properly.
You had no idea how much time you'd spent locked inside. The act of cleaning up the messy seal took forever. With your head yelling at you at almost every step. Forcing you to restart several times as you performed irreversible mistakes.
But in the end, you had something promising. The original fire absorption seal mostly unchanged, bar a few connections to the other part of the seal. Now it was time for another test.
And it worked and you raised your hands in joy.
"Good job," Danzo spoke behind you.
"How long have you been there?" You said and pointed accusingly at him.
"Ten-Fifteen minutes and you didn't notice that I was standing right behind you,"
"I get that you're sneaky bas…" you stopped yourself. No need to insult the man after helping you. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to call you that."
"How do the Hokage light his pipe?" You asked.
"So you noticed that? You can deactivate the seal by the use of chakra. You'd want to remove that part if you want to use it defensively. But that would need to wait for another day. I'll show you how to leave and enter the tunnels."
"Come on, can't I stay a bit longer?" You asked with a pout.
"No."
You got up and followed Danzo out the door.
As you got outside, Danzo touched your back head and you felt a prick.
"It's the key for leaving and entering this place. Try not getting followed and don't disturb anyone else you meet in the tunnels unless they talk to you. Don't go exploring, not that you'll get far without the necessary seals to give you access and perception to see the real layout down here. Don't try to make your own keys and don't study anything you shouldn't. Is that understood?"
"Yes," you said understanding the gravity of the situation. You were probably within the tunnels of Root and he didn't want you sneaking around.
Your status as a JInchuuriki couldn't protect you against everything. An unruly rebellious one could be worse than having none at all. And Konoha had one spare.
"Someone will be here to help you inside your room again tomorrow. You'll get access later."
As you walked further toward the entrance, you noticed what looked like a transparent cloth covering the way forward.
As you moved through it, the landscape around you started to change, instead of the dark stone walls, things became greener around you till you there walking through the trees again. Behind you were the same kind of portal. You better keep a good look at the road home so you could find your way tomorrow.
You were bored already as your home was stripped from any kind of fuuinjutsu supply, why didn't Danzo want you there longer?
-x-
The next day, it was time for your first spar in a long time.
And you were matched up against Kiba.
"Finally Sota, time to prove that I'm the new top student."
You turned towards Iruka. "Sensei, I feel this is is a bit unfair fight. Kiba should get a teammate to make it fair."
You'd practised against Itachi with both one or two shadow clones. You had lost of course but after a while, you could at least put up some defence against him.
"Sota, fight Kiba properly and don't try to show off."
"It's okay for me," Kiba stated. "If he wants to get humiliated even harder. Hinata, will you help me?"
"Alright kids, let's have a lesson on what happens when you underestimate your opponents."
Kiba and Hinata stood on each side of you and as soon as Iruka gave the signal, Kiba charged at you. But you countered by kicking him back. Which Hinata tried to follow up with a punch, an insecure punch that didn't accomplish anything. Their coordination really needed some work.
Your goal was to get both of them on one side of you, which you managed by dragging Hinata out of the way. From there, you were quick to exert enough pressure to push them both out of the arena.
You turned towards Iruka who had an embarrassed look on his face. He clearly wanted you to lose, but he quickly composed himself.
"Good job Sota. Now Kiba, next time you should take your opponent more seriously and not start off bragging. And when choosing a teammate, partner up with someone who can complement your skills, not because you find them cute."
Kiba was too red to give any response.
But you'd have to say it was more fun than usual.
-x-
And talking about fun, it was time to continue working on seals. As you moved back to Danzo's base you made sure that no one was watching your movements. And soon you were back into the tunnels.
A much taller Root agent stood in front of you and took a look at you before moving forward to lead you to your room.
He put his hand on the door and opened it like Danzo did the day before. And again it locked behind you as you walked inside.
It was time to work on your defences. And the process was quite similar to what you did with Kakashi's mask.
And with many repeated attempts to please the voices in your head, you had a seal who should be able to absorb incoming explosions.
You went into the shelves and picked out a normal-sized explosive tag from one of the boxes. It looked like they had brought your previous stash in here.
You took Kakashi's lesson to heart and did not put your trust it untested. You knew that if you put it in near furthest corner, the blast couldn't hit you. So you put both seals in the corner and walked back to your desk.
And after folding your hands into a snake, nothing happened. Which was exactly what was supposed to happen. No explosions. You did it!
You picked up the seals and took a look at it. One had absorbed the explosion of the other. Leaving the original inert with some parts missing but quite intact in fact.
So you couldn't go straight ahead an recharge it without redrawing parts of it. But you should keep it for later study. There were so many obfuscated seals that made dealing with them much harder, but with one element gone, things should be easier.
You had to decide if you should focus on using the stored explosion or increasing the capacity. There was also the question about what would happen if your seal was too small to handle the explosion you gave it.
Before you could make any decision a large plate of food was set besides on you on the desk. Various fruits, some berries and of course dango along with some coloured drink.
You turned to the Root agent who was just standing there, perhaps wondering if there was something other you needed.
"Thank you Root-san," you replied. It was a silly name, but you couldn't make out what his mask was, so this was the second-best option.
You hated to admit it, but it was kind of nice here, maybe there was no reason to fear Danzo after all.
It wasn't too long until Naruto's birthday, a bit more than a month you reckoned. You should think of something to cheer him up with. One thing was seals itself, what if you could embed it in some nicer item, something that you could gift Naruto.
Some sort of blowpipe or flute could work, roll up a scroll of some sort inside a metal canister. Letting Naruto both absorb and shoot fireballs, that couldn't hurt, could it?
It would be a fun project, DIY ninja tools.
The only thing you knew that could help you here was storage seals. And if everything fit logically together, fire absorption seals should share attributes with storage seals, and what's left when taking those out of the picture would be the mechanism to store and expel the items. That should work, right? Better be quick about it if you wanted to test it out before Danzo kicked you out for the night. And before you forget, better stuff your pants with some explosive tags before you leave so you can play with them later on, smaller ones just to be safe.
-x-
Instead of going back underground the next day, you went to one of the nearby training grounds. You were alone, at least for now. You'd no idea how these kinds of things worked and if you had to reserve it or not. And If multiple people wanted to use the same grounds, were you supposed to figure something out together, or just let the lower-ranked yield to the higher-ranked?
Tying tags to the kunai was a bit of a tedious task. Unspool the thread, cut if with the kunai and thread it into both holes before tying a solid knot.
If you ever became a Jounin-Sensei, would you be allowed to delegate menial tasks like this to your cute little genin?
Become Team 7's sensei to save them from Kakashi.
Though if you planned to have someone prepare your equipment, Naruto and Sasuke was probably not the best pick, as they would probably stay far from explosives for a long time.
You lit the fuse of one of the tags and threw the kunai at a poor tree that you had decided would your poor victim for today.
It was not very satisfying, the explosions were small and it was a poor tactic. No one was going to stand still and wait to get blown up. And if you actually hit someone with it, you'd have success, but then the kunai would do the job just as well with little help of the explosive tag.
If you could colour the explosions, it could at least be decent fireworks, but this was nothing.
But you had nothing else to do, so why not just blow them all up. If you waited a bit before throwing, you could bake the explosives, but not worth the risk if something went wrong, even if these wouldn't cause you too much harm.
No, you wanted something safer, but that was a project for the future. So you just picked up another kunai and repeated the process.
It did start to cause some damage to the trunk, but Konoha wouldn't suffer from you destroying some trees.
"Can I try too?" You looked behind you and you could see a little girl face and hands full of bandaids.
"Sure," you replied and picked up a kunai for her. "You channel some chakra into the tag and then throw."
"Thanks," she said and carefully grabbed it. "Name is Tenten by the way."
You probably should have noticed her twin buns, but at the same time, the future 'Weapon Mistress' shouldn't be hurting herself that much. Or was this how she had ended up as good?
She was at least careful with the tag and didn't delay long after lighting the fuse before throwing it.
When it blew up, she let go of a loud squeal.
"Sensei doesn't let me play with these, tells me it's too dangerous," she commented.
"They can be if you're not careful," you replied.
"But I'm older than you, it's not fair that you're allowed but not me."
"I made them myself, and these are weaker than normal. I wanted to be careful, but these are just boring."
"Really? Cool. Can you teach me how? if I make my own, sensei can't tell me that I'm not allowed to use them."
You don't want her safety on your consciousness, and just now you noticed the first-aid bag she had over her shoulder. The familiar red cross was exchanged with a doctor symbol.
Someone should really teach her how to handle sharp objects and not leave her to trial and error.
"You should ask some of the teachers at the academy, they might be able to help you," you said. "Who is this Sensei?"
"Sensei is Sensei, he's an old man who watches over me."
"Yeah, but what is his name?"
"I just told you, he's Sensei. Just like Iruka Sensei or Mizuki Sensei. He's probably their father or something."
You wanted to say something, but that would just make you look like an ass. She was young, thinking that they were all named Sensei was excusable and a bit cute.
"Can I try another one?" She asked.
You nodded back and watched her throw another one with great enthusiasm.
"He's good with weapons, he made this for me," she said and retrieved an unusual kunai. "It's made out of silver so I can defeat ghosts."
"Are you afraid of ghosts?" you asked.
"Not anymore, with this, ghost better be afraid of me," she smiled.
"If you want, you can blow up the rest of the kunai."
"Thanks," she said and hugged you.
"Ouch," you exclaimed as something struct your back.
"Oh sorry, I'm still a bit clumsily with knives, but I'm getting better," she said and grabbed a bandaid to cover the small cut.
"It's fine," you smiled at her and sat down while she had fun with the explosions.
-x-
You were clutching your list of supplies as you walked towards the underground base, no school today, so more time to work. Danzo promised to help you out, but he had yet to really teach you anything. You didn't need that kind of help right now. Just getting some stuff, as long it didn't come with more demands.
"Root-san, could I talk to Danzo?" You asked one of the guards in the tunnel.
"I'll inform him. He'll join you in some hours," they said and opened the door for you.
While you were waiting you picked up your homework. It was boring and pointless, but it needed to be done.
After that, it was back to trying to expel the fire from the seal, as this was a bit harder than you expected. And when Danzo made his presence, you kind of had gotten some progress in the matter.
"What did you want?" He asked you.
"I need some stuff," you said and handed him the list.
He read through it in front of you. "I should be able to help you here, what is it for?"
"Just a weapon I want to try to make, it's supposed to be a gift to someone," you explained.
"I'll see what I can do."
You didn't see him anymore that day.
In the proceeding days, you spent all your time working on it while you were not at school. Danzo had secured you what you needed and the day before your deadline, it was done. Everything worked fine, now you just needed to find Shisui to fill with fireballs.
-x-
It was finally time to sneak through the night like a ninja trying to find Naruto's apartment, and at the same time not making Naruto's ANBU guards suspicious.
You got to his door without any issues and hang a small package on his door handle.
Happy Birthday Naruto
From Sasuke.
That would hopefully work, Sasuke would probably correct Naruto, but at that point, Naruto would already be thankful towards him.
You were glad it was weekend so you could go back to bed.
-x-
October the 10th was far from Naruto's favourite day, it was, in fact, the worst day of the year. Not because anything bad happened, but because people were supposed to be happy on their birthday.
So after he woke up, he picked up some clothes from the floor and got dressed, before leaving his apartment.
As he turned around to look at his door. He noticed the package hanging from the door handle.
He had of course seen this kind of things before but never gotten one himself. Taking a look at a label, Naruto saw Sasuke's name written on it. Without caring about locking his door, he ran towards the Uchiha compound keeping a good grip on his gift like it was the most precious thing he owned.
Running past the guards, ignoring their yells and continued running towards Sasuke as he saw him walking along with Itachi. Before Sasuke could react, Naruto was embracing his classmate in a hug, though thanks to his momentum, both of them fell to the ground.
"Thank you," Naruto mumbled.
"What's going on Naruto?" Itachi asked and lifted the blond boy up from Sasuke.
He just held out his gift so Itachi could see and Sasuke was quick on his legs.
"So are you going to open it?" Itachi asked.
"Oh," Naruto replied and carefully removed the wrapping paper revealing an orange box inside and inside were something looking like a steel flute along with a folded up piece of paper.
He picked it up and looked at it and turned it around.
Uzumaki was engraved on it, along with a small Uzumaki swirl.
"I love it," Naruto exclaimed and put the flute to his mouth. But it wasn't sound that appeared out of it, but a tiny fireball. A warning shot from your end.
"Cool!" Sasuke exclaimed.
"The next one will be bigger so be careful with it, it is not a toy," Itachi said with his nose down in the instruction manual. "You should have about 10 charges, and you can absorb fireball fires at you by sucking instead of blowing the flute. It says it should hold about 20 charges turning over the small instruction manual you've made so he could take a look. It was mostly small pictures of Naruto illustrating its use with some text for clarification.
-x-
"Morning Sota," Itachi greeted you later that day as you were taking run around the village. It was nice to get some sun on your body since you didn't get that much of it underground. And the weather was quite comfortable this time of year as long as it wasn't raining.
"Morning," you replied back.
"So, anything you want to confess?"
"Nope."
"So you don't know who gave Naruto his present?"
You slowed down a bit. "How did he like it?"
"He loved it. So why give it to him in Sasuke's name? Why not your own?" He asked.
"I don't know. I just don't want to."
"Can you try to explain why you don't want to?"
"I'm a bad influence," you said. Meaning you'll probably find some way to mess up his character arc for the worse.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, you're a good person."
"Naruto is going to be a hero, save the world, it is his fate. And that won't happen if I mess things up."
"There is no such thing fate Sota, nothing is written in stone. I don't see how you think you'll doom the world by becoming friends with Naruto."
"I want him to be happy, but I don't belong in his life. And its too late now," you said.
"Naruto seems to be a forgiving person, he'll forgive you for rejecting him if you want to be his friend. Sota, you're making a friendship out to be harder than it is, Naruto just wants someone to call a friend," Itachi explained.
"I was thinking if I could help them out a bit, they could be good for each other. Naruto wouldn't be so lonely," you said.
"You're already helping them you know. They got closer to each other during their suspension. They got the push they needed. Naruto seems to be good for Sasuke, he'd be good for you too, just please give him a chance will you?"
"Maybe," you said.
"Then come with me, Naruto is over at our house today."
"I don't know, I don't know what to. I don't want to mess up the future if I mess up stuff I can't see the future anymore."
"Forget about the future, think about the present. Whatever we need to do to save my clan will mess up much more than this. You assume you'll change the future for the worse, perhaps being Naruto's friend will make everything better."
"Okay, I'll come with you."
"Thanks, they're waiting for us,"
-x-
You took off your shoes and entered Itachi's home.
Why did you agree to this?
You could already smell the ramen. Why couldn't you turn around not risk ruining Naruto's day? But behind you were Itachi to push you forward till you were inside the living room.
Naruto turned towards you and gave you a look.
"I'm sorry for rejecting you, will you still be my friend?" You said and closed your eyes, if he rejected you, you'd rather not look at his face.
But he said nothing. Neither a yes or a no.
Though you felt arms embrace you and you could smell the ramen from Naruto.
"I'll be your friend bastard, you don't ignore family you know."
He kept his focus on you and now it was his turn to be nervous, you could feel his head shifting. "I'm sorry me and Sasuke attacked you. I didn't mean to try to kill you. I just thought it would knock you out and you'd be fine. I just wanted to... " Naruto said but lost his words in the end.
"I forgive both of you, I'm okay and stronger than ever," you smiled at him, not that he could see it.
He let you go and you could take a closer look at him. First now, you noticed that Naruto was taller than you. Wait, if you both were six when you got here, and now Naruto was seven. When was your birthday?
"I'm glad you two are finally friends, come and sit Sota so you can get something to eat too," Mikoto said.
Mikoto's ramen was delicious and Sasuke wasn't glaring at you as much as usual, you had no idea why though. Naruto seemed really happy through the day and Mikoto had made delicious dango.
-x-
"Iruka-sensei, I was wondering about something," you said as Iruka was collecting his paper after class.
"Go ahead," he smiled at you.
"When is my birthday?"
"Oh… Let me see," he said and sorted through his papers until he found what he was looking for."
"Ah, December 27th, the same day as Hinata."
"Oh, I'm the youngest in the class. I just thought…" you mumbled.
"Something wrong? Nothing wrong with being the youngest in the class, you're strong, no one dispute that."
"Nothing is wrong, I just hoped I was a bit older. I was at Sasuke's house and celebrated Naruto's birthday with him, so I was just wondering."
"I'm happy to hear that you're friends now. He needs every friend he can get. How are you and Sasuke doing?"
"I don't know, does it matter?"
"I just don't want Naruto to get hurt if things get worse between you two."
-x-
Next time you visited the underground tunnels of Root, Danzo was there waiting for you.
"It's time for me to upheld another part of my promise," he stated as he opened your door.
"Huh?"
"Shadow clones, unless you don't need it anymore?"
"I do, let's start."
"Note that this is a dangerous Jutsu for people your age, trying to teach your classmates this will kill them. Hiruzen won't let you graduate if you murder one of them."
No, that's how you graduate Root. Did he really suggest that he himself didn't care if you did something like that? Hinting to you, hey, if you kill one of them I'm going to bail you out?
"I get it," you replied, rather than Go fuck yourself that would be appropriate if that was his insinuation.
There was no reaction from him. Could he read you and choose to pretend there was nothing sinister behind his words or was there nothing to notice. That's the tricky part of subtle facial expression, no real way for you to notice your own.
What followed was hours of practice, ensuring you didn't accidentally create too many or didn't mess up in other ways. You hate to say it, but Danzo was actually a pretty decent teacher.
When he finally left, you were able to do things your way. You summoned a single clone.
You kind of want to take a good look at yourself. Mirrors could only do so much. You walked around it observing it from every direction.
"Stop doing that, you're making me uncomfortable," your clone said.
You didn't have to listen to your clone. Danzo did put a seal on the back of your neck, so why not study it? You moved your hand to move your clone's hair out of the way.
"I said cut it out!" Your clone yelled at you and punch you.
You clutched your stomach and glared at it.
There was something weird about this clone, it didn't feel like you, even if you understood its actions.
"What happened before we got hit in the head?" You asked, if this was the real Sota hidden inside you, you could finally get answers.
"I don't remember. You know that perfectly well," it answered.
Perhaps not, but it was clearly more temperamental than you. Or perhaps not, it just acted more on its emotions than you did. You couldn't deny that sometimes punching people would be a satisfying act, but that sort of response would lead to all sorts of problems and was simply not right.
Maybe you were asking the wrong questions. Or rather, you were asking questions about the wrong person.
"Who am I?"
"You are me, so why act so strange?" It said.
So you could at least agree that you were strange to each other.
"I'm your clone, doesn't that mean I should be like you?" It asked.
"You should, but you also know that you're a clone, so there is bound to be differences, right?"
"You should ask Danzo, he probably knows."
"I don't think we should, if something is wrong, it's better he doesn't know," you explained.
"If you say so," It paused and rubbed his armed. "I'm sorry I punched you."
"It's okay," you said. This was really going to be weird. And it was clear that you couldn't properly trust your clone, as it perceived people differently than yourself, could it end up betraying you mid-battle too? But why apologize? Based on how Sota had acted in the past, it seems like the other you wouldn't care too much about people holding a grudge against him.
"Can I trust you?" You asked.
"I'm not sure if one can trust anyone, I'm confused. You're telling me that I shouldn't trust Danzo, but why do you act like he can be trusted?"
"I don't trust him."
"Then why are you here locked inside?"
"I can leave whenever I want."
"Then leave," the clone grunted.
You folding your hands and dispelled it.
"Stop messing with my head," you muttered out into the empty room. "I'm in control."
-x-
After finishing the academy the next day, Neji approached you as you were leaving. "You're Sota right, do you mind if we spar?"
"Uhh, okay," you said. It would be good to try yourself against someone other than Itachi for once.
"Follow me."
It wasn't a familiar road through the village, but you hadn't wandered that much around in the last months. After a few minutes, you could see the walls of the Hyuuga compound. Two clan-members standing guard.
"Who is that," one of them asked Neji and pointed at you.
"It's a friend from school, we're going to have a spar," Neji answered.
Friends? But you just meet.
"Don't cause any trouble," one of them told you and before stepping away."
Was this because you were an outsider? Better not overthink this and just follow him to his home.
You took off your shoes and followed him inside. The inside was quite nice looking, similar to Itachi's home. It would make sense that both traditional clans shared the same kind of traditional interior design.
"The Dojo is in here," he said and lead you in another door.
The room was quite spacious and you got in the middle of the room alongside him.
"Ready?" He asked.
You got into a comfortable stance and replied back, "Ready."
Before he did anything else, he activated his Byakugan. It was kind of cheating, but it didn't matter. If you wanted to be strong, you needed to be able to defeat Neji with or without his magic eyes.
He was taller than you, but you couldn't let you be intimidated by the size. He was still a small child, that shouldn't face you.
He let you get in the first blow it seemed like.
But as you tried to hit him, he grabbed your wrist and span around before leaving you flying.
You managed to land on all four and quickly got on your feet again.
But this was no turn-based combat, there was no pause for you, he went on charging at you. Your only chance here came from the fact that Neji had a limited skill-set. You were not facing a 13-year-old Neji with Kaiten and a gentle fist, but an 8-year-old still early in his training.
But no matter your attempts, he was quicker than you and whatever attack you launched his eyes could see and counter it. But he had still not managed to immobilize you back.
Time to play dirty. Forming the clone seals, you summoned nine helpers.
Neji's eyes widen by the sight of ten of you. But he quickly gained composure. His defence was not good enough. Of the nine clones charging at him, he managed to stop three of them. But the remaining six got him to the ground and you were prepared to step in if he dispelled any more. But every limb was held down by at least one clone.
"Good work, no wonder why you're…" but you couldn't hear the last part.
As you dispelled your clones, your vision turned black and you hit the floor.
-x-
"You finally decided to meet me again, I thought you had forgotten about me," Matatabi asked you as soon as you entered her mindscape.
"I don't know how to visit you," you explained to her.
"But did you try?" She asked, her eyes looking straight at you.
"I guess I didn't," you had to admit.
"And what about Tenten and Shikamaru, why have you neglected them. They're easier to visit than me?"
"We only meet up once, we're not really friends?"
"That's just what you like telling yourself. It's too late now, they'll just see you as an untrustworthy friend who never bothers to spend time with them," she said.
"It doesn't matter, I don't need them as friends," you told her, you had others.
"And then Itachi and Shisui, you're spending less and less time with them."
"I've been busy studying and I guess they've been busy too."
"But the one man you shouldn't trust, you're getting closer to. What fucked up kid are you?"
"I don't trust Danzo, I know he's up to no good, but he's my only path to graduate and get stronger."
"You know there is another part to get stronger?" She asked.
"Huh?"
"I can help you, I help my friends, unlike certain rotten kids."
"I'm not rotten!" You cried out.
"I can help you become a better friend too unless you want Itachi and Shisui to abandon you too?"
"I don't," you replied.
"Admitting you've got a problem is the first step to fixing them Sota. You seem to struggle with thinking everyone has a hidden agenda and is trying to trick you," she said.
"What if they are?" You asked because you were certain she had a hidden agenda.
"You're a paranoid Sota, this is your exact problem!" She yelled at you.
"I'm sorry."
She visibly sighed. "Why don't we do a simple trust exercise?"
"Huh?"
"Touch the seal. It's completely safe, they wouldn't secure me with a seal that would break with a simple touch, would they?"
"You're right," you replied.
If you wanted to be her friend you needed to show some goodwill towards her. Put some trust in her. Naruto touched the seal guarding the Kurama's gate without any issues. You said you were going to be her friend, you're going to do it. Not due to some silly nindo, but rather your refusal to get one-upped by a cat, no matter how big.
You stepped forward towards the gate. Water started to rise below your feet lifting you up closer to it.
You put your hand on the piece of paper, careful to not channel any chakra into it in the process.
"See not that difficult kid. Now grab the corner of the seal," she suggested.
Why did the stupid cat have to trick you at every point? No, you weren't going to call her out on that.
"I'm afraid I'll slip and accidentally tear it off," you excused yourself.
"Very well, that's understandable. Just know you've been lied to. You won't die if you release me, you'll only die if I'm being forcefully extracted from you."
More lies, but no reasons to call her out on that. Be friendly with her and maybe she'll be friendly back with some work.
But just as you feared, you lost your footing and you started to fall. The water was gone, same with Matatabi.
-x-
It was like your body was hitting the ground, but that was just reflexes in your body.
"How are you?" You heard someone ask you.
Opening your eyes you saw a familiar face. "Oh, Hiashi," you exclaimed. It was a bit of a surprise that he was here, but it was nice that his relationship with his nephew wasn't that bad at this point. "I was just overdoing it with shadow clones, but I'm fine."
"Oh, you must have mistaken me from my brother. I'm Hizashi, Neji's father. Nice to meet you."