"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."

"How?"

He just looked confused

"You're not supposed to be… alive," you muttered.

"Someone may wish me dead, but I ensure you that I'm perfectly alive," he said.

"I'm sorry,"

Hizashi began to untie his forehead protector and the cage bird seal was revealed.

It was no surprise to you, but you were no less drawn to green ink on his forehead.

Unprompted he began to tell. "It is what separates me from my brother, our chains, the main house's way to control us."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I've heard that you're on the way to becoming a seal master. Think about how your power is being utilized. It may be used on your loved ones. If I could find a way to remove the seal from Neji, I would, damn what the rest of the clan think."

Was he asking you for help? Could you even help him? One thing was for sure, Neji deserved better, much better than his previous life.

"Don't worry, I'll never use what I learn to hurt the people," you smiled at him.

Judging by the smile you got back, it seemed like he approved.

-x-

"Follow me, Danzo told you as you entered the tunnels the next day.

You were lead to a new door, it would be the second room you'd visited down here, ignoring the toilets.

He opened it and motioned for you to step in before him. The room was as big as your own, so perhaps there was some truth in his claim that every room was the same size.

Based on the floor, you could see it was set up like an arena. In one end stood a masked Root member gazing out, looking at no one.

"What do you want?" You asked Danzo.

"I want you to fight him," he said and held out a short tanto.

"I don't know how to use it."

"Improvise. Draw blood and don't get hit. As you're a beginner, they'll go easy on you."

The Root agent drew his sword, a much longer katana, with a blade 3-4 times longer than yours. What was he thinking? The blade was longer than your arm. The one thing you knew about any kind of melee combat, reach was king and you had none.

"No, I cannot do it, I'll only get hurt!" You exclaimed. It was time to take back control and not let Danzo push you around.

"Very well, I'll tell the Hokage that you're not ready. I had hope in you, but that was misplaced. Forget about graduating anytime soon."

"What?!" You called out.

"You cannot avoid a mission because you fear pain. You're not ready."

No… That was not the plan. Getting kicked out of here and be stuck in the academy for years would not be fun. Even if you could find a safe place to talk to Itachi within the village, this was not good.

"I'll do it," you grabbed the sword from Danzo. You didn't want to, but what choice did you have?

You took a closer look at your opponent. It was worse than it first looked like. He was outfitted with the standard ANBU protective wear, which severely limited where you could hit them. You were completely exposed, i.e. fucked. But you had to try. You were shorter than them and their legs were exposed so there was some chance.

If Danzo's goal was to make you hate him, he wasn't doing a bad job.

"No ninjutsu, seals or similar. Only your sword and your body."

You held the sword in front of you as far as you could. There was no sign that you should start, your opponent just walked slowly towards you. You had no idea what to do. Try to block it and counter, maybe?

Before you could reach the sword were right in your face. It cut right above your nose bridge, similar to the familiar scar on Iruka.

Fuck, how could you deal with this speed? To avoid getting hit in the face for real, you put the sword in front of your face to block the next hit.

But your opponent went for your exposed forearm this time.

"Fuck", it wasn't deep, but you clutched it with your left arm to limit the bleeding. You had to think fast. He was to fast to block, you needed to dodge.

You rolled to the side to get out of his immediate striking range and and to take advantage of your smaller size.

You had to put some distance between you and rethink your approach, so you ran towards the other side of the room. But you didn't get far before you could feel the blade slicing across your back.

"Auch!" You cried out falling to your knees. What the hell could you do? Even standing up would just give them a chance strike again.

But sitting there wasn't the solution either, as you got hit in the back again.

"Stand up," Danzo commanded you.

You had to do it, you got on your feet and turned towards the Root-agent again.

The tip of their sword was already coloured by your blood, and you knew it wouldn't end yet. You couldn't reach them, but maybe you didn't have to. As quick as you could without revealing the plan, you hurled your tanto towards their legs.

Before you could react to the situation, they had reached down and grabbed it by the handle. Perfect execution without touching the spinning blade.

"Fuck…" This was your chance and now you were without a weapon.

They quickly threw it back at you, handle hitting your forehead perfectly. It hurt, but it could have been a lot worse.

Before you could think about your next move, you felt the blade hitting your arm again. Still shallow cuts, but it hurt nevertheless.

You ducked down and tried kicking your sword away from them so you could grab it easier. Though you were welcomed by a kick in your guts sending you a few feet away.

He stepped on the handle of your sword, making it even harder for you to retrieve it.

You could see through this trick, there was no need for you to go after it while being guarded like this. If you stepped away from him the Root would follow. You had to stop thinking about this as a sword fight, it was a game. A cat playing with his prey, and you were the small mouse in this scenario.

The cat released you only to chase you again. So how could you take advantage of this?

You did as you tried earlier and ran towards the other end of the room. Again you were struck down, but you tried to keep the pain away and just got up and ran again, but this time in a different direction. You needed to clear the path between you and your blade so you could try to win this.

You were hopeful as you were approaching it without getting hit. But out of nowhere, your opponent was in front of you, striking once in front of your face without hitting anything, but instinctively you put your arms in front of your face to block and on the next hit, the pain gave away your mistake pretty fast.

"Aaah!" You cried out. This was hopeless, there was only one thing to do.

"I give up!" you called out to be sure Danzo heard you.

"There is no giving up in a real fight, continue."

"Please, keep me from graduating if you want, I cannot do this."

"You're not getting out of here before you win. If you're incapable of fighting, you'll be patched up in here till you can give it another chance."

What did he want from you? You would get curb stomped no matter what.

Thinking back to your spars, was there anything you could do?

Wait there was, against Itachi you used the walls to your advantage.

Working through your pain you ran towards the closest wall and began to climb it till you reached the ceiling. You couldn't say for sure, but it looked like your opponent couldn't hit you without getting up here themselves. You could use this.

You moved right above where your sword was lying and then sat there for a moment. For the first time in the match, your opponent let you breathe properly. But as you got a bit more relaxed, the pain started to surge again.

"Please, let this plan work…" you muttered under your breath.

Your opponent got tired of waiting and picked up your tanto. "Fuck"

With a flick of their wrist, they threw it at you.

But you were high enough up to gain some reaction time. With your right hand, you tried to grab it as it reached you. You were aiming for the handle but hit the blade. It dug into your hand and your grip quickly loosened. You had to react quickly to grab it with your other hand before you drop it to your hand. You were bleeding profusely and trying to close your grip only lead to surges of pain, but you pushed through it. You had your sword back, but you were set back further than when you started. You were still crap with your left arm. Your disadvantage was just getting worse.

You were not safe up there, you hadn't noticed that the Root agent had jumped into the air to hit your leg before the sword had dug into your body and you were falling back down.

It was not a smooth fall. Despite the floor being made out of dirt, it hurt badly.

The longer you fought the weaker you became. Trying to stand up was a challenge in itself now with your leg.

There was only one thing left, one final move of desperation. You picked out your target, hit upper leg was your best shot.

Taking a heavy breath in, steeling yourself against the pain, letting the adrenaline do the job and charge at them. It didn't matter that you were left completely open, they'd hit you no matter what. Being evasive was hopeless, it was impossible to be on the defensive when you couldn't even see the attack coming. No, you had to be on the offensive.

You felt no pain as you closed in on them. You were too focused to be bothered by that. You had overcome pain, now you need to overcome your opponent.

You were close enough you were for sure, your eyes on their leg and with your best of your ability to strike them. You couldn't impact as much force with your left arm, but when you saw the tiny drop of blood at the end of your sword, you knew it was enough, it was over, you had won.

Then the pain came back, your stomach hurt like hell. You looked down only to see the Katana impaling your stomach. Everything hurt more and more and you were now unable to stand on your injured leg. You slid down the sword and hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.

-x-

When you wake up again the pain was unbearable. The floor was wet, from your blood perhaps?

You lied down on the ground so your injured leg could rest on the other.

"Good evening Sota, I almost feel bad for you if it wasn't for the fact you asked for it."

Why did the stupid cat always have to behave like this?

"I didn't ask for this, I didn't want this to happen," you muttered back, hoping her stupid giant ears would hear you despite your reduced volume.

"Danzo gave you the choice to back out, and you didn't take it. So I'd say you just deserve what coming at you."

"Everything hurts, please help me," you cried.

"I'm not sure if you deserve any help. If I bail you out from any stupid decision will you ever learn? I warned you against Danzo, but did you listen?"

"I'm sorry, just please," you mumbled.

"I wonder if the others have to deal with such an impossible kid like you."

"I feel like I'm dying, why am I still injured in here, I wasn't last time?" You asked.

"You're not dying, you're too important for them for that. You know you're injured this time, that's why you're injured in here. I guess I'll help you."

"Really?" you said picking your head up and looking at her.

"I might have been a bit too harsh on you, but I do it because I care, a good friend doesn't let their friend commit the same mistakes over and over again. I'll push some of my chakra into you, you'll feel a bit of a tug and then you need to draw on it as your seal prevent me from using my chakra without your consent."

"Thanks,"

"I'll bring you back in a moment, you'll feel something in a few seconds."

-x-

Gone were the lake and Matatabi, and you were now on a bed somewhere underground you guessed.

There was no feeling of bleeding, just cloth pressing upon your body and the same pain as before, though a bit subdued. You had been patched up and given new clothes by the looks of it.

You looked down to see if you could see your midriff. If that bastard put you into the root clothes…

But he didn't, everything was well covered by your black shirt and while your black pants looked like something from the uniform, it wasn't that bad.

The tug Matatabi promised sprung to form inside you, and as she instructed, you began to pull it through your body. The pain immediately began to reside and was replaced by a soft pleasing feeling. The more you pulled on it the better everything became, and you saw a blue cloud forming around you followed by shouting. She was a good cat after all.

You continued to pull on her chakra for a few more seconds before something hit your forehead and everything shut down. The good feeling got replaced by pain again, but you could feel some noticeable changes.

You stared at the Root in front of you. They may have thought that she was trying to escape, and put a seal on you, but they were wrong, she just wanted to help you. Or perhaps they knew and didn't want her to help you, but rather that you stayed in pain?

The Root agent left you again to you and your aching body.

But you weren't alone for long as soon after Danzo appeared in your vision.

"You're awake I see," he said. "I'm disappointed by your horrible performance, I had expected more of you."

You glared up at him.

"But still you passed. I hope to see more effort from you in the future. Is that clear?"

You continued staring.

"Is that clear?" He repeated with a raised voice.

"Yes," you got out.

"Very well, your teachers have been informed that you're not able to attend your classes while you're recovering. You will not be served food before tomorrow. Failure has consequences."

With that, he left you again.

You should stay away Danzo. Everyone was seeing that apart from you, even your clones realized it. If you could just figure out another way to study Fuuinjutsu, you didn't need him anymore.

Now you just needed to wait here till you got let out again. Your stomach was rumbling at the same time as it was hurting from the impaling.

But there wouldn't be any food today, and there was nothing to pass time with, so you just had to try to rest. Ignore the pain, ignore the hunger, and just try to sleep.

You were tossing around in your bed for what felt like hours. Things weren't getting better, just worse.

"Sota," you heard someone whisper to you. Your nostrils picked up the smell of food from behind and you rolled around to see who it was.

Another Root was crouching down at you holding out a bowl filled with meat and vegetables in some sort of broth. It smelled nice, that was enough for you.

"I'm not allowed this, but I couldn't watch you suffer like this. Just please don't tell Danzo anything, it will get me in real problems."

"Don't worry, I'm not telling on you," you smiled at them.

"Do you need help to eat or are your hand better now?"

You tried stretching your fingers in and out, things did seem better.

"I'll try on my own," you said and grabbed the chopsticks and began eating. But it didn't go so well. Your grip locked up, and you dropped both the food and the sticks. The Root was quick to grab them before they hit the dirty floor.

Getting feed was a bit embarrassing, but you just had to accept it. It was tasty, and you felt bad when you had to stop eating.

"I'm full, thanks for the food," you told them.

"You know, if there is something you want to talk about you can ask me. Your secret is safe with me, I cannot tell on you without implicating myself."

"What's your name?" You asked them.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you."

"Can I see your face?" You then asked.

"We're not allowed to reveal ourselves without permission, I'm sorry."

It was worth a shot. There was much that bothered you. And they seemed nice.

"I'm unsure about Danzo, I feel I shouldn't come back to this place."

"Why is that?" They asked.

"Today, I thought I was going to die. I did my best but all I did was to make Danzo unhappy. I just fear everything will get worse and I should get out while I can."

"Danzo can be a bit harsh I know, but it's a valuable lesson. He should perhaps just go about it in another way though. I remember well the first time I thought I was going to die. Bad intelligence put me up against a much stronger enemy, but thanks to Danzo I was prepared. I had dealt with the stress before and managed to figure a way to cope with such a situation and get out alive. I did lose the fight in the end but managed to keep standing till reinforcement arrived, it ended with us winning. If that had been the first time I'd experienced that kind of dread and hopelessness, I wouldn't be alive now. You may be lucky and never experience something like that yourself, but it is better to be prepared than to depend on luck, don't you think?"

"I guess you have got a point," you said. "But why a sword, I don't see how that will complement my skills very well."

"It's not about the weapon, but throwing you at deep waters. Though it wouldn't hurt learning a bit, even if you're not using swords yourself, it will make it easier to face off swordsmen later on."

"I'm not sure, I'm not sure how comfortable I'm with them after this."

"You better not let Danzo hear that, or he'll push you to you are comfortable. But don't worry, your secrets are safe with me."

"Thanks."

"Things will get better from here on and I'll keep a watch over you, okay?"

"I guess."

"Good, I have to leave now."

Things were going in your direction, Matatabi seems to have turned around and become more helpful, and you've gained yourself an ally. Danzo was still an ass though.

-x-

You had managed to hide your injuries from your class, now was the time to see your friends again.

"Sota, you're alright?" You turned your head towards Shisui.

"Yeah, I'm fined," you responded.

"What happened there?" He pointed to the bandaids on your nose.

"Nothing happened."

"Nothing?" He asked. You didn't like the look on his eyes and you couldn't exactly decipher it. Worry was the obvious guess, but there was more than that, and it bothered you that you couldn't read him. Was he annoyed by you?

"I can't tell," you replied.

"Fine…" Shisui paused. "Do you want to come over, Itachi is trying out some new dish he learnt on a mission?"

"Sure," you said and followed him.

-x-

As you took off your shoes and put your slippers, your limbs were starting to hurt a bit and your bandages were getting uncomfortable.

Inside the door, you could smell Itachi's cooking. If it tasted as good as it smelled, you could understand why Itachi wanted to share his experience.

Before you could greet Itachi, Shisui was dragging you into the bathroom.

"Off with your jumper," Shisui commanded.

"Why?"

"I saw the bandages," he stated.

You sighed and took off your jumper and your t-shirt. Exposing your upper body.

"Wait here a bit."

Why did he have to see this?

A moment later he was back with a first-aid kit and some other stuff under his arm.

"Do you have bandages other places too?"

"Yes, on my legs," you said.

"Alright, off with your pants too.

You obeyed him, there was no use protesting.

"I'm going to take off your bandages and clean your scars, okay?"

"Okay,"

It wasn't really a question, he quickly began to unravel the white cloth. It was a nice feeling to get the constricting bandages off and get some air on your skin.

You could finally scratch your itching skin.

"Be careful, don't scratch your wounds, okay?"

You nodded.

"What's going on here?" Itachi asked from the door.

"Take a look at him," Shisui said.

"Oh…"

"I'm sure you've seen this before lots of times on the battlefield," you said.

"Usually we don't need to hit our opponents this many times to take them down," Shisui answered for both of them.

"My sensei," Itachi tried to say.

"Your sensei was a sick fuck that enjoyed hurting you, there was a reason your father made sure you'd never see him again. Itachi, how many of his lessons have you given Sota?" Shisui asked.

"A few, Sota was fine, mostly," Itachi said.

Shisui sighed. "Just stop it right, don't do anything towards Sota you wouldn't do against Sasuke, okay Itachi?"

Itachi nodded.

-x-

The next day was the first time you had seen Genma in a long time.

"Hi Sota, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine. But remember what you promised me?" You asked him.

"No…" he replied.

'Senpai' you motioned with your mouth.

"Are you sure that you've gotten better than me already?"

"Maybe," you replied. To be fair, you had no idea how good he really was and you felt your progression hadn't been that good. But it was fun to tease him.

"Alright Senpai, the Hokage wants to see you, do you want me to follow you?"

"It's okay," you replied and walked towards the tower.

But someone was following you.

"I said you didn't need to follow me," you turned to him.

"I'm going the same way anyway, so why not walk together?"

"So it wasn't really a choice, just you being polite?"

"You can say that yes."

"Do you know why the Hokage wants to talk to me?"

"Not really. So how exactly is your Fuuinjutsu going?

"I'm working on it, though I guess I lack a bit of inspiration. It is hard to scale things up as the bigger some seals get the more space is taken just for the connections, and I still don't know how to store attacks efficiently. Do you have any ideas?"

"Is senpai asking me for advice?"

"Come on," you said back.

"You started it by being a brat. But no, I don't have any idea what you're working with even. You just need to be patient. You're still quite young, you've plenty of time to get better in the future. Just improve on what you can improve on."

"I guess you're right. I just feel I need to be prepared. I'm going to be genin soon and need to be able to defend myself properly."

"You're just seven, sure it isn't a bit too early?"

"Six, when did you graduate?"

"I was about ten-year-old I think. You're not going to be dealing with missions that are too dangerous for you. If everything goes to plan. You could all be sleeping during your first battle and your sensei should be able to deal with any threat easily."

"I would hope to be useful on my team and not just holding them back,"

"Part of being a genin is to learn, so don't worry too much about now being able to contribute, okay?"

"Okay."

As you got to the reception outside the Hokage's office, Genma walked up to the secretary "guarding" the office.

"You can go inside, the Hokage is ready for you," the secretary told you.

You nodded and walked into the office.

"Nice to see you Uzumaki, sit down please."

You felt a bit exposed in the chair. Was this the first time you meet this man? You and Naruto were both Jinchuuriki, but it kind of felt like the two of you were treated quite differently.

"Now, I understand you've been training with Danzo for the last months, has everything gone fine?" The Hokage asked you.

Not at all, but you couldn't tell the him that.

"Yes," you answered.

"Have you been threatened or forced into doing something you've not wanted to do?"

"No," you lied.

"I heard you got injured again, what happened?" He asked.

"I was practising sword fighting against one of Danzo's agents."

"You seemed to be hit quite a lot, why didn't you quit earlier?"

"I…" what could you say. You did not want to piss of Danzo. He might get a slap on the wrist for doing this to you, but you wouldn't get away that easily.

"I wanted to win. If I were a jounin defending my genin, I couldn't just run away, I would have to stay put defending them till the end."

"Very well. Seems like my worries were unfounded. Just one last thing, how are you doing with your dental hygiene, do you remember to brush morning and evening?"

What a weird question coming from the Hokage, but you just had to deal with it.

"I might be a bit sloppy sometimes," you admitted. Electrical toothbrushes was another thing you missed in this world.

"Let me take a look," he said.

"You don't have to, I'm fine."

"I insist," he said and walked up to you. "Open your mouth."

In his right hand, he was holding a metal rod that he used to look around.

"Hmm, it doesn't look too bad."

Then from nowhere, you felt a strong pricking on your tongue and you flinched back a notch.

"I'm sorry, my hands aren't always as steady as they once were."

"It's okay," you replied.

"I guess there is no reason to hold you back anymore then, off you go."

That night you made sure to spend extra long with your nightly brushing. It was not the start of a new habit, just a temporary arrangement after being judged on your teeth.

And within the white foam, you noticed something black on your tongue. You filled your mouth with water to clear out any toothpaste.

You stuck your tongue out to see better, and right in the middle was a black X. He tricked you, he wasn't worried about your dental hygiene, of course, he wasn't. He used the opportunity to put a fucking seal on you.

There was only one person who could help you now, and you hated to say it, but you really had to see Danzo now.

-x-

You had told the Root-agent that you wanted to see Danzo, claiming it was important, as in couldn't wait till tomorrow important. So now all you needed to do was to wait.

You might have exaggerated, but you were technically a child and should be given a pass. You were shivering a bit inside your room. You hadn't thought about getting properly dressed before leaving, thus still in your t-shirt. Perhaps you should bring some more clothes down here for situations like this? It was getting colder and colder outside, so ensuring warm clothes were important.

But at last, you saw something moving on the wall, and you really hated to admit it, but you were kind of glad to see Danzo now.

"So what's wrong?" He asked.

You struck out your tongue to show him.

"Hiruzen?" he asked.

You nodded.

"What does it do?" You asked.

"I don't know," he answered.

"Can you remove it?

"I need to see the Hokage about it first, now go home."

"Is it doing something bad?"

"Probably," Danzo replied.

That was all the answers you could get tonight, no need to keep Danzo awake any more. Not that that bastard slept, anyway.