Chapter 2: To Get Stronger
"And who can tell me the shinobi who decided to name the village, Konoha?" A medium amount of hands raised up but Umino Iruka decided to pick the one who didn't even have his hand raised.
"Sasuke."
"M-Madara, sensei." Sasuke said after quickly recovering from a small bout of drowsiness.
"Correct, class is dismissed, everyone I want you all to continue studying for the history test next week, including you Naruto."
Naruto could only give him the sheepish of grins before being the second to last person to leave. Iruka approached the young Uchiha, still recovering from his bout of sleepiness.
"Sasuke have you been having trouble sleeping lately, I don't mean to intrude but you seem drowsier for the past week or so."
"S-sorry Iruka sensei, I've just been sleeping later than usual. It's not because I find the classes boring."
"Sasuke." Iruka put his arm on Sasuke should firmly and went face to face with the young Uchiha. "I understand the kind of emotions you must still be feeling. That feeling of grief may never go away but we can still try. So if you need someone to talk to, just let me know and I'll be happy to listen." A distant child-like whining could be heard.
"Iruka senseiiiiiiii you promised we'd go get ramen if I stayed during class."
"I'll be out soon, Naruto just give me a minute."
"Thank you sensei, it means a lot but don't worry. I really have been sleeping late because of too much reading."
"Well alright then, but still, let me know if anything is bothering you." And with that, Sasuke began walking home by himself. The young Uchiha had in all honestly begun enjoying the long walks back to his apartment. Being able to set his own pace, enjoying the scenery, it had been a long time since he actually felt good about anything but taking these long walks had helped. Still, Sasuke still felt a little bad about having to half lie to his teacher about why he's been so sleepy for the past few weeks. While it was true that he had been reading too much to get proper sleep, what he was reading wasn't the usual Academy material.
"My goodness, THIS is what they teach in the academy now? Half of these textbooks are older than me and Hiruzen combined!"
It was still weird, for Sasuke at least, to see a man like Danzo refer to the Hokage to his first name, not even the three legendary Sannin did that, instead using his last name, Sarutobi. This only increased the amount of respect the boy had for him though. Danzo had power unlike Itachi or even his father, Danzo's power came from his experience and age. He was an old man in a profession where most people die young. For many, Hiruzen Sarutobi was the Professor, the second God of Shinobi right after Hashirama Senju, but for Danzo, Hiruzen Sarutobi was and still is his overly idealistic war buddy from decades passed.
"Kid, who's one of your teachers?"
"Iruka sensei."
"Hmmmm, Iruka is a good shinobi and a decent man, a rare combination in this world which probably explains his passion for teaching. Hiruzen tells me he's denied multiple Jonin promotions so that he can continue teaching but I'm sure even he can only work with so much with these kinds of textbooks. I'll be back in an hour. Start preparing dinner."
When Danzo came back, he was carrying a small stack of books, well, books might be too generous, they looked more like journals and notebooks than proper textbooks.
"These are all classified Shinobi books, ghostwritten by professionals who know what their doing, all anonymous except clans. Gifted Chunins, Jonins, even some Kages have a hand in writing these. Get started once dinner is over."
Sasuke still wasn't sure if he should thank Danzo or not. On one hand, these were really good books. Danzo wasn't lying, these were written by people who knew exactly what they were talking about. The books covered a variety of subjects that all interested Sasuke from shuriken throwing, disarming traps, to proper chakra management and taijutsu techniques. Nearly half the books contained stories from anonymous shinobi's that entertained the child for hours on end and subtly warned him on the things he should and shouldn't do, like for example, refuse any and all missions from Lizard Country, those people were weird. Most interesting of all, however, were the notes and annotations made by a who's who of talented Ninja. Signatures from the Nara, Inuzuka, Yamanaka, and Hyuga clans were just a few of the shinobi who have had their say on those books. Most important of all though, were Uchiha signatures! Sasuke was overjoyed that people from his clan had their say on these books, it made him realise that they were also a part of Konoha, a feeling that he never truly had even when his clan was still around.
On the other hand, those books may have been a bit too good. Sasuke cursed not having a strict curfew because it meant being enamored reading the shinobi books until 1 or 2 AM. That combined with his hatred of mornings was not a good combination for anyone let alone an academy student needing to wake up early for his classes. Thankfully it seems like Danzo has plans to pause his readings and put focus on other subjects.
It was almost evening by the time Sasuke reached his apartment, after unlocking his door he opened to see Danzo, as usual, but also a strange man in a mask. He was wearing the traditional Jonin flak jacket but from the looks of it, he looked somewhat uncomfortable wearing it.
"Good timing Sasuke, I was just about ready to explain the situation to our friend over here."
"Who is he?"
"His name is Kakashi Hatake and starting next month he'll begin working on your Sharingan."
"Yo."
"Wait, dad used to tell me about you. How you stole a Sharingan and used it as your own during the war."
"Do you believe him?"
Surprisingly, Sasuke shook his head sideways.
"Already doesn't believe in his parents, I told you he was a good kid."
"I guess so." And with that, Kakashi's body flickered out of Sasuke's apartment, leaving the boy astonished.
"Will I-"
"-When your older and have the stomach for it. Sit down, I'll get some tea ready."
"Boy, do you like talking to people, be honest with me."
"Not really, no…" Sasuke always seemed to be an introverted person, even before the massacre.
"Me neither, Hiruzen was always the extrovert between us. But one of the most important things we have to learn is to do things we simply don't like for the purpose of our goals. In addition to your training, I'd like for you to begin talking to your classmates more, specifically the ones from actual clans. It doesn't have to be a lot, just enough to where you can strike up conversations if you have to." Sasuke was confused.
"May I ask why, sir?" Danzo sipped some of his tea
"A key part of strength is bonds. A good ninja is able to disconnect their emotions to accomplish their goals but a great ninja uses their bonds to further themselves into being better, to know that not only is your life in danger but the people you care about is as well pushes ninjas to step up or fall. I want you to start developing these bonds as soon as you can." Hearing such words unfortunately caused Sasuke to cringe somewhat, it's only been since the massacre, when he lost the bonds to his family. Fortunately, Danzo understood and placed an arm on one of Sasuke's shoulders.
"I know, it's still hard, even now. To grieve does not make you weak but to not at least try and move past it does. Are you weak, Sasuke Uchiha?"
"No sir, I am not weak. I will make new bonds and I will protect them with my life." Sasuke's eyes flared up, his incomplete sharingan was active.
Not to be disrespectfully, especially towards someone who's passed away but Danzo would honestly call Fugaku a blind fool. Here he was, having a child who was willing to do anything for acknowledgement from his father, a child who was willing and able to accomplish anything as long as he was given validation and Fugaku decided to ignore him in favor of his older brother. It had been two weeks since Danzo had advised Sasuke to begin talking to other children of his age and already he brought someone home.
"Today we started sparring and we got paired up. After we were done, I asked if he wanted to hang out after school. A lot of people were shocked, even Iruka sensei. But I didn't care what people thought of him, he doesn't deserve loneliness."
"Interesting, he doesn't look like he's from a clan, what's your name boy?"
"It's Naruto Uzumaki, gramps! You guys got any heatable ramen?"
Danzo almost spat out his drink. NARUTO UZUMAKI?! SASUKE BEFRIENDED THE JINCHURIKI? It was almost surreal that Sasuke would already be befriending Minato's child. Forget training, if Sasuke and Naruto become best friends they can probably FORCE Konoha to appoint them Hokages right now!
"You knew Grandpa Hokage when he was our age?! Does that make you a million years old?!"
"Naruto, show Danzo some respect. He can't be a million years old."
"Well then how old is he?"
"I don't know, a hundred?"
Okay maybe give them ten more years or so...
To say Kakashi has so far lived a rather interesting life would do it no justice, looking back, it would honestly be hilarious if not for how goddamn sad it was. In just a span of two years he had pretty much lost nearly everyone important to him, Obito, Rin, Minato, all dead. If not for Obito's sharingan, he honestly wasn't sure if there would be anything stopping him from sinking into despair. But then Danzo had decided to give him the task of training the last surviving Uchiha, Itachi's younger brother. It made sense, after all, who else other than him currently possess a fully matured sharingan in this village but something else about Sasuke interested him. When the two began sparring, Kakashi was of course holding back, Sasuke was still an Academy Student and it would feel especially cruel to treat it like it was life or death, still, that didn't mean he made things easy for the kid, he wanted to prove to Danzo that this whole experiment was a bad idea, that Sasuke should just continue living his normal life until he graduated and that he wasn't ready to step up.
"Are you ready to give up?"
But Sasuke didn't give up, he had gotten his ass kicked repeatedly but he was still standing each time, ready for more. Like Kakashi, Sasuke also lost everyone dear to him in just a short span of time, even shorter than Kakashi did and yet he still fought to take his life back. He wasn't ready to give up and his sharingan, incomplete it may be, showed that resolved burned brightly no matter what Kakashi could throw at him.
"Is that all you got!"
Kakashi had to admire the kid's determination but unfortunately, Danzo wanted results, and that result was at least two tomoe sharingan matured Sasuke by the end of the month. Kakashi was gonna hate himself for this but there's no other way.
"Y'know, I'm glad Itachi did it."
Sasuke froze.
"W-what?"
"The Uchiha were a clan of egotistical bastards but they were right about one thing though. I did steal a sharingan, from my best friend too, as he was dying I stole it and gave one to myself. And now that Itachi's wiped out your clan, the sharingan will be my legacy."
"S-shut up!"
"Your weak, y'know why Itachi decided to let you live, not because he wanted you to kill or anything like that. He just thought it would be entertaining seeing you suffer in pain, unable to do anything right and to be honest, it really is. Your a pathetic excuse for not just a shinobi, but for a human bein-"
"GO TO HELL"
Finally, a fully two tomoe sharingan Sasuke charged at Kakashi, kunai in hand, ready with the express purpose to kill. Seeing Sasuke's eyes, Kakashi instantly went in and disarmed the young Uchiha and immediately went straight to hug him. Realising the intent behind Kakashi's words, Sasuke let go of his resistance.
"I'm sorry."
"K-Kakashi sir?" Kakashi covered Sasuke and decided to show him his sharingan eye, visibly with a tear over it.
"Shhhh just let it out, let everything out."
On that day, for the first time since the massacre, Sasuke cried.
"Does it ever get easier."
"Honestly, I don't know, but one thing's for sure. You are not alone, you never will be, I'll be walking right beside you on the road to recovery. It won't be easy, and it'll take a long time but it's important we try."
"Okay."
"K-Kakashi sensei?"
"Yeah?"
"Where did you get your sharingan anyway, if it's okay to ask."
"Hmmmm, I could explain it but let's go to the person who gave it to me."
"R-really?"
Kakashi nodded and both Kakashi and Sasuke soon reached the Memorial Stone, a monument in Konoha listing all the ninja who died in service to the village. Quite unusually, the location was what seems to be a training ground of all things. A bizarre place to hold a monument in Sasuke's opinion but nonetheless.
"It's good to see you again, Obito. You too Rin, I hope your both happy somewhere. I guess you didn't expect to see me again so soon but I brought company for a change."
Sasuke took a good look at the Memorial Stone, it wasn't special, just a stone tablet with a list of names. One including an Obito Uchiha.
"Sasuke, meet your cousin Obito. He was the one who gave me his sharingan during the war."
"H-hello cousin Obito, it's good to finally see you. Kakashi sensei's sharingan is really strong and so is he, so you don't have to worry about that anymore. Y'know, when I was younger I heard people didn't like you, all because you weren't completely devoted to the Uchiha clan, but..."
"I don't care what people have to say, I wish I had gotten to meet you when you were alive. I heard from Kakashi sensei you wanted to be Hokage when you were older, despite being one of it's two founders, there's never been an Uchiha as Hokage."
"But I'll change that! I don't know how, I don't know if I can. But I'll try, even if we're all nearly gone, I'll be Hokage if I have to, I promise you. Someone with the sharingan will be wearing that hat one day and I'll make sure of it."
After paying respects, both Kakashi and Sasuke began heading back to Sasuke's home for the day.
"Have you visited your parents since that day?"
"Not yet."
"How about we meet them next week, bring some flowers with you."
"O-Okay."
