You woke up by someone knocking on your door. That couldn't be good, right? It was probably Danzo again, back to mess with you even more.

You had to prepare for that bastard, so you looked for your sword. But didn't you drop it? It didn't matter, you should still have Crow's sword in one of your seals. It didn't take long for you to locate the seal and eject the sword, all while the knocking continued outside.

You slowly walked towards the door with the sword in hand.

The knocking outside kept on going. "Sota, open up please," it was Raidou's voice, but you doubted it was really him. The real Raidou was probably still mad at you for calling out Kabuto as a spy.

You unlocked the door and grabbed onto the katana with both your hands, ready to strike at the bastard pretending to be your sensei.

You put a grin on your face as the door handle went down and the door opened.

"Die Danzo!" you yelled and slashed your sword downwards towards your target.

The fake Raidou quickly grabbed his own sword and blocked your attack.

"Sota, stop, I'm not Danzo," he said.

That was exactly what a fake would say. You withdrew your sword and tried thrusting it into him again. His height should make it hard to deflect such a low blow.

Fake Raidou side-stepped your attack and kicked your in the stomach, pushing you backwards.

"I'm sorry Sota, but you need to snap out of it," he said and rushed to your side, and put his hand on your forehead. A spike of chakra hit you, and when you looked back at him, any idea that this was Danzo was gone.

"What happened?" You asked and clutched your stomach, "It hurts."

He laid a glowing hand our abdomen and began to explain. "Genjutsu. Why are you all bloody?"

You turned around and looked into the mirror behind you. In it, you saw your red hands, large splatters of blood on your PJ and bloody fingers marks on your face caused by your double. Wait, wasn't that just a dream and didn't you smash the mirror yesterday? You looked around you and there were no glass shards anywhere.

What was real, what was fake?

You clutched your head and curled up on the floor. "You're not real, none of this is real, this is just another dream," you mumbled to yourself.

"You're not dreaming Sota, you're awake," Raidou tried telling you.

You shook your head in denial. "I'm still sleeping, I'm still dreaming."

"Stay here Sota, I'm going to get help," he said and ran out.

How to wake up? All this was layers after layers of nightmares. Just unfolding like reverse inception.

The pain in the stomach was going away, this was just a dream, so of course it was going away. If you just kept sitting still, then maybe nothing more bad would happen in this dream.

A bit later, two sets of footsteps entered the room.

"I tried dispelling the genjutsu, but it only worked partially," Raidou explained.

"Let me take a look at him," you could hear someone say and put a hand on your forehead. It reminded you of Inochi.

You felt his chakra invading your head.

"Everything is fine here. There is no sign of any interference, neither from any jutsu, nor from the cat," Inochi said.

"So what you're saying is..?" Raidou asked.

"Yes, no one is messing with his head, or at least not directly," Raidou said and another wave of chakra entered your head. "This is not a dream Sota, you're awake."

"I know," you said. Why would they tell you that? You had just woken up from your dreams, so of course you were awake.

"Good. Raidou, make sure he doesn't experience any pain till he goes to bed tonight," Inochi said.

"Why?" You asked. It wasn't his job to make sure you got hurt. Getting hurt was a normal part of ninja training.

"Nothing Sota. Raidou, do you mind if you step out a bit and make sure no one eavesdrops on us?" Inochi asked. "And that includes you."

"No problem Inochi," Raidou said and left your apartment.

"So what's wrong?" You asked.

"Shin talked to you before he left, right?" Inochi asked.

You nodded.

"And did you tell you what was going on?"

"Yes," you said.

"And?" He asked.

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone," you said.

Inochi let out a big sigh."If you're going to hide something, lie better, you're giving it all away by saying you're not supposed to tell anyone. All I need to do to get to the truth is to poke and probe till you give up your secrets," he said before stopping himself. "Sorry about that tangent. I know that he did what he did because he was ordered to. So now that I've shown that I know, can you confirm to me that you know?"

"Yes, he did it to have a cover story as a spy," you said.

He nodded. "I apologize for what happened, you getting framed like that wasn't supposed to happen, it was not part of the plan."

"Fugaku was able to piece together that I was framed very easily, as whoever was behind it did a bad job planting evidence," you said.

"I hope you won't take out your anger on Ino, I'm sorry that she attacked you. Rest assure she did get punished for it."

"Thanks," you muttered back.

"I'll have to go now," he said and left your apartment.

From outside you could hear him talk to Raidou. "I'll be in my store if you need me."

Raidou went back into your apartment and closed the door. "Now that he's gone, can you explain why your clothes and face are bloody, I can see it doesn't come from you?" He asked.

"I don't know, I had a dream or maybe not a dream. I can't tell if any of it is real or not. Did I kill someone?"

"I don't know. I'll keep an ear open. If the police find something, I will have to be honest with them and tell them that you might be responsible, you understand that right?"

You nodded. He was no Danzo who seemed to be willing to cover for you no matter what.

"Wait," you exclaimed, there was one way to figure out if tonight's events were real. The scroll in your pocked.

You checked your left pocket, nothing there. So maybe some hope. But as you reached into your right, you were not so lucky.

Maybe it was something completely different? But as you unrolled it you saw the same thing The same assassination order with your image from last night.

You dropped the scroll and took a few steps backwards. "No... no.. no., there really was an assassin after me, and I killed them," you mumbled.

Raidou picked up the scroll and looked at it. "This is fake. No assassin would bring something like this on their mission. They'd memorize your appearance by heart and they wouldn't need this to recognize the only red-haired ninja your height."

"Why did you come here today?" You asked.

"I'm your sensei, I felt you'd learnt a lesson and I decided to check up on you. I'm just glad it was me that knocked on your door, had it been Naruto this could have been quite ugly," Raidou said.

So he didn't know that Naruto had seen you and definitely wouldn't knock on your door. But what if he had? Wait, that was a dream, wasn't it? Naruto had seen you with your bloody sword and then you had gone home broke your mirror, which was no longer broken.

Oh shit, you almost ruined the future. You felt yourself shaking.

"Calm down Sota, it didn't happen and that's all that matters, and your swordsmanship is poor enough that most other ninja would have dodged it fine," he said. "I'm going to get someone else to check on you so you won't be alone. I'll be looking for a mission we can take as you really need to get away from the village for some time. Does that sound fine?"

"I'm not sure. But yeah, I cannot hurt Naruto if I'm not here," you said.

"Good, I'll inform you when we've gotten a mission. Goodbye," he said and left.

-x-

Sometime later you heard knocking on your door and you decided to not try to attack anyone this time.

Outside you saw the friendly face of Itachi. "Hi, Sota. How are you? Raidou asked me to check up on you."

"Hi," you mumbled and yawned as the lack of a good night sleep had caught up on you.

"Mother has invited you and Naruto over for lunch," he said.

"Naruto? I don't think he wants to see me," you said.

"He's with me now," Itachi said and stepped to the side. "Will you come out for a bit at least?"

You didn't feel good about facing him, not after the way he ran away from you last night. But saying no would just make it worse.

You nodded.

Naruto was looking down at his feet mumbling something you couldn't hear. He seemed quite nervous and was rubbing one foot onto the other.

"Hi," you said carefully while keeping your distance to not spook him.

Naruto looked up and took a step back.

This was a bad idea. You turned around to go back in.

"How can I become Hokage if I'm afraid of my friend and my family," Naruto called out and ran towards you embracing you in a hug, holding good onto you. "I was scared tonight, seeing you like that. But Itachi told me it wasn't really you. Or it was you. This is all confusing, can you explain again?"

"A lot is happening to Sota these days that's hard to deal with. It's like if you fill a cup of ramen too much and it causes a bit mess," Itachi explained.

"Oh," Naruto exclaimed. You were not sure if he actually got what Itachi was trying to say, or if he now thought that the brain was a big lump of ramen.

Naruto let go of you and it was time to head for lunch.

"Naruto, shouldn't you be at the academy now?" You asked.

"I wasn't feeling well this morning, so Itachi talked to Iruka and let me have the day off," Naruto said.

"I also didn't want him to talk about what he had seen," Itachi explained.

"Our class already thinks you're evil, so Itachi didn't want me to make it worse," Naruto said.

You really had fucked up. There was a small window where your classmates had respected you. Between the time they saw you as a bully and now that you were a villain in their eyes.

"Naruto," Itachi hushed him.

"But it's true," Naruto said.

"I don't think he wants to hear it," Itachi said and nodded towards you.

"Oh," Naruto exclaimed. "I don't think you're evil," he said with the brightest grin and you couldn't help smiling back at him.

The Uchiha guard let you pass without issues, and Itachi guided you to his house as usual.

"Just sit down you three, the food is as good as ready," you heard Mikoto say from the kitchen.

As you found a place to sit around the dinner table, Mikoto came in carrying a large plate of onigiri and sat down.

"So how is school lately Naruto? Sasuke doesn't like me much," she asked him.

"Yesterday, they put a big strange box in our classroom and I could hear Jiji's voice, and he wasn't hiding in it, he was in his office. Rad… I forgot what it was called, I didn't pay much attention to sensei explaining," Naruto said and took a bite of his onigiri.

"Radio," you corrected him. "We brought a guy from Suna working with them on my first mission. I guess the village is going to use it to make long-range communication easier. We visited a signalling tower on the road to Suna that used coloured smoke, I guess they work, but radios would be easier."

"So you can use them to talk to people far far away?" Naruto asked.

"With enough radio towers yes," you said.

"So when you, Itachi or Shisui is away, I can talk to you?"

"It doesn't work like that. Only one person can use it at a time, so you'd only be able to use it if it is important."

"Oh," he said, looking a bit disappointed.

"How is your leg doing Sota?" Mikoto asked.

"I think it's almost recovered now, I'll probably need to have it checked on soon as the prosthetic is starting to get a bit ill-fitting," you said and took a big bite of your food.

"I'm happy to hear it," she said. "Everyone enjoying the food?"

You nodded along with Naruto and Itachi.

"I'm happy to hear it. Don't eat too much, I've something else you'll probably like Sota," she said.

Probably dango, definitely dango.

You finished your onigiri and declined to take another one. If you were more hungry after the dessert, you could rather take another then.

It looked like Naruto was thinking the same as you, and Itachi was not going to let you wait either.

"It's more in the kitchen, so you don't need to worry about Sasuke and Fugaku," she chuckled.

"I want your surprise," Naruto said. "It's ramen right?"

"It's not ramen, just give me a second," she said and went and got three bowls and put it in front of you.

And just as you expected, delicious balls of dango. "Thanks, it looks good," you told her and stuffed some balls in your mouth.

"Thank you. I know things aren't easy for you these days, so I decided to try making some to cheer you up, it doesn't hurt that Itachi is a big fan too," she said.

"It's not ramen, but it's good," Naruto said.

"You're silent Itachi, is something wrong?" She asked.

"No mother," he replied and took a bite of his dango.

Mikoto turned back to you. "I think you should come over here more often, I'm worried for you."

"I'm going on a mission very soon, and Sasuke doesn't like me here," you said.

"I will wait till you're back then," she said. "And don't worry about Sasuke, he cannot be mad at you forever,

"Do I even get a choice?" You asked.

"No, I'll come and get you no matter if you say yes or not, I cannot let you fall into darkness," she said.

"I'll make sure to come then," you said.

"Naruto, I think we should go to back to the academy now, you're better now right?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah, but I was going to get the day off," he mumbled.

"Yes, because you weren't feeling well. Isn't the last part of the day the most fun?" Itachi asked. "You need to practise if you want to catch up to Sasuke."

Naruto got suddenly much more attentive. "Thank you for the food Mikoto," he said and leap out to put on his shoes.

"I guess I should be leaving then to," you said.

"Just wait a minute, will you? I want to talk you without them here," she said.

"That's fine," you said and put another piece of dango in your mouth.

With the door closed behind them, Mikoto turned her attention to you.

"I'm happy that you and Itachi are good friends. And you're always welcome here no matter what happens, so don't feel alone no matter what Danzo makes you do. But if you ever hurt my family," she said and flashed her Sharingan while everything else went dark, "I'll show you no mercy."

In a blink of an eye, everything was back to normal again.

"Let me just pack some of the dango so you can have some for later," she said with her usual friendly voice and went into the kitchen.

You considered sneaking out, but you didn't really dare right now. Though you could at least put your shoes on and wait.

"Here," she said and handed you a box of dango before hugging you. "Stay safe."

"Thanks," you mumbled back and left the house.

-x-

Later that evening Raidou knocked on your door. "It's me, can I talk to you a bit?"

"Sure," you said and opened the door for him. You saw him standing a few feet more than necessary away from the door.

"I've gotten a mission for us tomorrow, I want you to meet up inside the Hokage tower at about 7 am. You don't need to bring anything but some clothes and your weapons, everything else will be taken care of. And no sword, I'm taking your katana," he said and took your blade that was laying on a shelf.

"Sounds good," you said.

"One more thing," Raidou said and looked over his shoulder. "I was going to tell the Hokage about Danzo, but he's not in the village for the moment. So I'll have to wait till he's back, but I will fix this I promise."

"Thanks," you said.

"Now I'll let you get ready for bed. Good night," he said.

"Good night," you replied back.

You had no intention to go to bed, you didn't want any more bad dreams.

-x-

You arrived early at the Hokage tower the next morning, as you were tired of sitting in your apartment was getting boring. And you really didn't want to fall asleep.

You took a sip of ink and took out some pieces of paper, you could at least get some practice done while you're waiting.

You look around in the room to get some motif and decided on some of the flowers. Yours weren't perfect, but they got better with each attempt.

"Good morning Sota, you're early," Raidou greeted you. "Anxious about the mission?"

"No, I just cannot sleep properly and I did try to take a run before bed, it didn't work," you lied. You were not going to tell him that you'd not slept at all tonight.

"Oh? Hopefully you'll be able to sleep better outside the village," he said. "The others should be here soon."

You stayed silent and Raidou picked up one of your drawings.

"Where is your brush?" He asked.

"In my bag," you said.

Raidou laughed, "I didn't mean it that way. How are you making them without a brush?"

"Oh," you exclaimed and pushed your fingers onto another piece of paper, creating another flower, a much better one than the ones you started with. "Danzo taught me, I don't want to make seals in here in case something goes wrong, so I'll practise with flowers instead."

"If only he shared more of his knowledge with the rest of the village he," Raidou paused for a moment to look around him, "he might weight up for some of his awful behaviour."

"It was either learning this or get beaten," you mumbled.

"Don't worry Sota, we'll fix this," he said and held around you.

Just about then, Torune and Kabuto arrived with a man following right behind them.

"Good morning Sensei, we decided to wait for the client outside, just so he wouldn't get lost," Kabuto said.

"Thank you, I hope you're ready Gyosha-san?" Raidou asked.

"Yes, this isn't my first time dealing with ninja. He's one of yours?" He asked and pointed to you.

"Yes, I hope you don't have any problems with that," Raidou said.

"Nothing like that. The closest I've ever come to dying was being ambushed by kids his age during the last war. Sneaky bastards from Hidden Stone, you couldn't see them coming, I barely managed to get away before they struck my wagon. I thought I was safe as I was far from the conflict. My only saving grace was that they were too busy looting my stuff to chase after me. I lost a lot of money on that, but I know better now. So as long as he doesn't sneak up on me I won't have any problems with him."

"I won't," you said and look up at him.

"We should get going," Raidou said, "pick up your stuff Sota."

You threw the drawings in the trash and followed them outside to where he had parked his wagon. Two horses were standing in front and seemed eager to get going as the merchant walked up to them and rubbed their muzzle.

"We need to check your wagon before we leave," Raidou said.

"Is that really necessary? You can trust me," Gyasha said.

"Now I start to think you've something to hide. Kabuto, I'm putting you in charge of this, and please show Sota how it's done."

"Alright Sensei. Sota, the things we're looking after is any medicine, weapons and drugs that's not accounted for. Gyasha, I need your import form and are there some discrepancies you'll want to tell us about before we find it ourself?," Kabuto asked the merchant.

"No no, everything is in order here," the merchant said and handed Kabuto a scroll.

"This says he's with him ten swords that are not to be sold in the village. So we're looking to see if anyone is missing, or if he's too many," Kabuto said and began looking through the wagon in any possible hiding place.

"Nothing seems to be hidden away, so that part is fine, "

"Why are we checking for this, he's a merchant right?" You asked.

"We don't allow merchants to export weapons from the village risking a shortage, and we don't want any weapons of unknown quality or risk the blacksmiths in the village getting outcompeted. So while they can bring their goods into the village, they need to prove they've not sold anything and that's what we're checking for," Kabuto explained.

After going through everything else on the list, Kabuto turned to Raidou. "Everything seems to be in order sensei, so we can leave now."

"Sota, hop onto his wagon and be ready with your bow," Raidou told you. "This is a chance to use what we practised. Fire a warning shot first, and if they don't back down, aim closer. No one approaching a ninja escort has good intentions in mind and anyone that keeps chasing us after being shot at by explosives is a huge danger."

You nodded. You were not sure if you liked the idea of shooting at real people, but he had a point.

"I'm not sure if I want him on my roof," Gyasha said.

"He's light as a feather," Raidou said.

"It's not that, he's just making me a bit jumpy," he said.

"He has got a bad foot so I don't want him to be running all day, and this makes ambushes from behind less likely. I'll keep one eye on him, so you have nothing to worry about," Raidou said.

Keeping an eye on you, was that to calm him down, or did he really think it was necessary?

"You're right, it's over a decade since, I cannot be afraid forever," Gyasha said.

"Alright, jump on Sota, and make sure to not fall off. It will get easier when we get up in speed," he told you.

Gyasha got into the front of his wagon and grabbed onto the reins of the horses and made them start walking.

As you left the village proper, the wagon began to pick up speed and you needed to hold on for a better grip to not fall off. But when the horses were no longer was speeding up, it was no issue at all. It just provided a breeze behind you as you looked for anyone suspicious.

It was nice to not having to walk, but not having to focus on running also meant that you got much faster bored and it didn't help that you were getting more and more sleepy. Maybe picking up a conversation would help you stay awake?

"You don't feel worried about getting robbed Gyasha? We're not the strongest team and your goods seem to be quite valuable," you asked the merchant and let out a yawn.

"Not at all. I'm mostly hiring you guys because my insurance company requires at least C-rank protection. No one would be stupid enough to attack us and if they do, either you deal with them or we hand over the wares voluntary and I get paid in full by the insurance company. You just need to vouch for me that I have been robbed by someone you couldn't handle. So if you were worried or expected any action here, you'll be quite disappointed," he said.

"So I'm just looking out for nothing?" You asked as you looked for any movements in the vegetation behind you.

"It's best to not take any chances at all. Even a small risk can become great when you take thousands of trips during your career. I'd probably hire a team even if I wasn't required to now that I think about it."

"I see," you said and kept starring at the leaves, where someone moving in there or was it just the wind?