A/N: The day the last chapter went up is also today, I have a lot of writing energy so I will start right away on making a new chapter. Hopefully I don't take a year. (the fuckin irony)
Thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 2, I haven't actually looked yet but am super happy to see how many people actually liked it/were waiting for me to make another chapter. Love you guys.
4 months into 2020: Well school has been a shitshow, with the Coronavirus running rampant through my state. Sorry for the wait, between nursing school and moving back home I have had zero time to put this chapter out. I may not have this reach 10k words like I usually try to, reaching that threshold seems to be a struggle for me. However I always feel guilty when I see someone sub to this story so I am going to do my best to update more frequently.
Well it's near the end of 2021 that I am finishing this chapter, I am sorry to all the people that have been waiting for this to come out, nursing school really has me by the balls. But here you go. Now I need to study for an exam so I should go.
I passed the exam
Chapter 3: The Huge Problem
Experimenting was one of my favorite parts about being a shinobi. Being able to test and explore how certain jutsu work, how chakra interacts with… well anything is fascinating. However, the problem with experimentation with jutsu is that oftentimes, things go very wrong. As such, one must be very cautious when experimenting. Something that I apparently am not capable of.
After the events of the previous day I took a few days off of typical training to explore the new abilities the Sharingan gave me. This doubled as wasting time, waiting for Naruto to be released from the hospital. He was already healed fully and conscious (thanks to the kyuubi no doubt) but wasn't talking much, likely suffering serious mental trauma from the whole ordeal. Saskue and I had gone to visit him but the staff informed us that he needed at least one more day away from people, and that later in the day we would be allowed to be checked out. My father had tasked me with bringing Naruto to the compound before too late so we could make arrangements to help him.
This gave me the perfect period of time to figure out how my Sharingan worked. Most notably, the abilities I had added to it. We all know the abilities of the base Sharingan, increased vision, increased reaction time, ability to see chakra, access to advanced visual genjutsu, and copying of jutsu.
My sharingan however was inferior to almost any other Sharingan when measured in those base abilities. This was by design. I knew that the base sharingan was already pretty gross in terms of being overpowered, and adding another almost entirely different kekkei genkai on top of it? Busted, straight up OP, broken as hell.
So I purposely reduced the base abilities of the sharingan, and on top of that the 2 unique Mangekyou abilities I normally would receive, would be reduced to 1. So you ask "what, pray tell, is the kekkei genkai you have been hinting at for all this time?"
It's… kind of complicated. I eventually dubbed it 'Material Style'. It also is the reason for my eventual moniker, Sora Uchiha of Solid Lightning. The kekkei genkai, as simply as I can put it, is the ability to manipulate one's chakra to turn it into a physical substance. You might ask me, 'well can't you just use earth or water ninjutsu to create a physical substance?'. Yes in fact I could just do that, however, as I had thought even before coming to this universe, that is limited to what the specific jutsu is capable of doing. The 'Material Style' is inherently unlimiting in the fact that it can be utilized with base chakra and any kind of natural manipulation. Also, that defeats the point of my lightning affinity, there are no Jutsu that I could find or have ever seen in the Naruto manga or anime that solidifies actual lightning chakra (aside from chidori variants… shut up)
Even I didn't entirely know what the kekkei genkai was fully capable of. The explanation I had given Gabriel was more of an expectation of the style and the way I wanted it to work based on the physics of this world, so more general rules than a set in stone ability. I wanted to be able to create things and actually do experimentation in this world, it would have been far too boring to already know EXACTLY how everything worked.
The general rules I gave Gabriel were fairly simple. I wanted to be able to incorporate my lightning style into it, I wanted to be able to have full control over transforming my chakra, and I wanted it to come in stages. (I.E number of tomoe and the mangekyo variant)
Other than those expectations I had left it up to Gabriel to decide the rest, as well as how the other physics would take place. So knowing that I had access to it I decided to begin testing it out some.
I left my house and traveled to training ground 8. I wandered over to the area Saskue and I had practiced in and set down the supplies I had managed to sneak out of the house with. Several soldier pills, various kunai, a small roll of explosive tags, and a sealing scroll. Non-shinobi were not allowed to obtain the soldier pills or the last two items but I happened to know the code to the main clan vault so it wasn't an issue obtaining these items.
I sat down after my test objects were set in place and observed the area. Saskue had done serious damage when we last trained here. The bush he had set on fire was half burned down, the shore of the pond (if you could call it a pond) was singed black. He evidently had some trouble aiming his jutsu but that didn't matter for now.
The tree line was about four hundred feet away and the only flammable objects in the near vicinity was a dummy, set up in the middle of the pond/lake, and the tree that Saskue had napped under. The only thing not burnt to a crisp or lightly singed was the dummy, however considering that there was a patrol of retired shinobi that had a habit of repairing various training ground equipment, I wasn't all that surprised.
The dummy would be great for later but I knew I needed to buckle down and get to work. I sat down and activated my Sharingan, the whole world seemed to slow slightly but I shrugged it off. Staring at my hand I began to push out chakra and imagined a thin coating around it. Slowly the haze of chakra around my hand condensed and formed a thin coating on the outside of my hand. I began to get excited but suddenly the material liquified and poured off of my hand in a heartbeat.
It seemed that I would need to train a lot more to not disrupt the jutsu and even more before it was battle ready. The success I had had two nights prior was most likely because of the 'First time effect' some jutsu had, where they work way too well the first time, then require a lot of training in order to replicate the results. I continued to form the coat around my hand until I felt confident that it would continue to stay solid if I messed with it at all. Closing my eyes I imagined the exact feeling of a latex glove, as best as I could remember, opening my eyes again I forced my chakra to change.
The coat of chakra material wavered a bit, threatening to turn into a liquid but eventually took on an elastic feel. I smiled and took the chakra glove off of my hand.
Gathering the glove into my hand I closed my fist and imagined a marble about the size of a baseball, much harder than the original coat of chakra. I felt a slight draw of my chakra and felt the ball form in my hand. Opening my hand I observed the ball. It was mostly clear, but had a slight tint of blue. Smacking it on a rock a few times without causing a dent or and cracks proved its durability.
A question formed in my mind. Could I reabsorb the chakra I used to make this? If so, how much would I get back, and how much was eaten up just making it?
I gripped the ball tight and stared at it. I imagined the ball disappearing, nothing happened for a couple of seconds but suddenly the ball wavered and disappeared. My sharingan saw the chakra that had made up the ball suddenly appear in its place and I willed it back through my tenketsu and into my chakra network. The chakra had begun to dissipate into the atmosphere already but followed my will and came back inside my tenketsu. Evidently part of my kekkei genkai was to have greater control outside of my body.
I quickly took inventory of my chakra, it seemed like I had only lost a tiny amount of chakra, likely what was needed to change the material and form it. This gave me another idea but there were several other tests that needed to happen before that could be thought about.
This proved several theories that I had hoped were the case. Changing the properties of the material as well as initially forming it took a small amount of chakra. I could reabsorb the actual chakra that had turned into a material, a certain amount of chakra was necessary to make a certain amount of mass, and when the technique needed more chakra it automatically took it from my chakra pool.
The next test I wanted to try was condensing a chakra ball the same size and density of the last to see what changed. I quickly formed another and willed it to a smaller size. The whole thing wavered and fell apart this time turning straight back into chakra which I frantically reabsorbed. I repeated this process until it stopped turning back into chakra and began to shrink. The ball, as it shrunk, became darker and darker blue. When I was done the ball had shrunk to the size of a pea. Mysteriously the ball was much lighter than it originally was. As if it had lost a significant amount of mass.
It seemed that I didn't have control of the density of the material or that I just couldn't control it well with my level of Sharingan. I tried to test this theory and was immediately proven right as a massive chunk of chakra left my system as soon as I attempted to increase the density. Which only succeeded in making it weigh slightly more.
This proved that density was something I couldn't mess with much right now, so I decided to forego testing it further.
I made another chakra ball in my hand and pictured a sake cup. I watched as the ball responded and formed in the shape of a cup. I held the cup in my left hand and put my pointer finger just beyond the lip. Picturing water I forced some chakra out of my finger and watched as the cup was filled to the brim with a light blue liquid. I touched it and it roughly felt like water, it was a tad sticky but I would be able to fix that later. . I quickly reabsorbed the cup and liquid, I could test that more later, other things were more important.
This time I placed my fingers together, the tips touching each other, and imagined threads coming from each. Similar to chakra threads that puppet users deploy. I slowly pulled my hand apart and sure enough each pair of fingers had a tiny chakra thread attached. Most of the strings snapped right off the bat and wavered out of existence, leaving no chakra to reabsorb, however one stayed together until it was about a foot in length. They seemed rather weak and I honestly didn't think they would be that valuable in the long run so I decided to save practicing chakra threads until later.
I gathered up the explosive tags and stood up. I couldn't quite walk on water for any extended period of time, so I was forced to jump on top of the dummy in the lake. I leaped on top of the dummy's shoulders and placed my hands on its chest envisioning armor plating on it. I felt a large draw of my chakra and the material began to form from my hands. The armor came out similar to the armor worn by the first Hokage and Madara. The armor appeared to be a light blue color, with smooth plates. Nodding to myself I quickly made a helmet for the dummy's head, not willing to lose it quite yet.
I ripped off a tag and set it directly on the dummy's chest armor. The tag was a C-type, roughly the same power as a hand grenade on earth, but with no shrapnel. It was mostly used as a distraction in actual combat, yet could do massive damage when directly attached.
I leaped back to the shore and looked at the dummy. I muttered "Kai '' and made the appropriate hand seal. A few seconds later the seal exploded, enveloping the dummy in smoke. After the smoke cleared I was extremely pleased to see no real visible damage on the dummy or armor. A black mark was left right where the tag had been placed, and a few plates were slightly cracked but other than that nothing was wrong. After leaping to the dummy again I placed my hand on the armor and envisioned the cracks reformed and watched as the cracks began to seal themselves together. I grabbed a tag, a B-type had the explosive equivalent to a few sticks of tnt, placed it on the armor and leaped back. A large shockwave ripped out upon activation and covered the entire lake in smoke.
Once it was cleared I broke out into a shit eating grin. The armor, (while incredibly damaged) had survived the explosion. Many cracks led off from the center of the blast and various plates had completely disintegrated into nothing but the dummy underneath was completely fine. A little singed in the places the armor couldn't completely cover, but fine.
I reabsorbed the armor and noticed that a huge portion of the chakra I had spent making it was gone. This proved to me that the durability of the chakra made items was directly proportional to how much chakra was used in its creation, which was an interesting thought to say the least.
With this knowledge I remade the armor and pumped roughly half of the chakra I had left into the dummy. Which was about the same amount that most advanced genin had access to. The armor on closer inspection appeared to be far more detailed. Each plate had some sort of runic design etched into it and it glowed a darker blue than the previous armor. I took some time observing the armor. I hadn't intended on the armor being this detailed, I hadn't even envisioned the etching, I was very curious to know what this meant about my Kekkei Genkai. Why adding more chakra makes it more detailed, why would it not only affect its durability when that is what I specifically was trying to make happen.?
What that meant and why the design appeared without prompting would be tested later. All I knew was that this armor was superior to the last set. Grinning, I grabbed the last explosive tag, an A-type, I jumped back and slapped the tag on the dummy with flourish. Flipping to the shore I confidently activated the tag. My grin faltered immediately as I felt a huge chakra spike right where the tag was sitting.
'Wait… how strong were Model A tags again?' I thought right before the tag lit up and proceeded to blow each of my senses out. Knocked back a good thirty feet I barely registered that I was soaking wet as I slammed into the grass with my ears ringing and completely blinded.
Suddenly a sharp pain streaked through my head as if a nail had been driven through it and I slipped into unconsciousness.
Storm clouds crackled with lightning, the light illuminating the forest below. The world was dark and the wind howled, the trees violently shaking as the gale threatened to tear them from the earth.
I looked around 'Where… where am I?' I thought. I realized that I was floating high above a forest. The forest did not look like the one that surrounded the village and had exceedingly large pine trees. Suddenly a burst of lightning ripped from the sky and hit somewhere in the trees. Then another, and another, until the area originally hit by lightning was a sea of electricity, it was unlike anything I had ever seen. Hundreds of lightning bolts fixated on a single area. The tall pines began to burst and shatter, in many places small fires popped up, only to be blown out again by the gale.
A figure burst out of the sea of lightning, streaking across the top of the trees at an almost imperceptible speed. By no will of my own I was drawn toward the figure floating some distance from them. Suddenly, another figure, no, a ball of lightning tore across the forest floor underneath the first figure, its sheer speed far outpacing the first. Tendrils of electricity seemingly gripping the trees around the ball, further propelling it in its insane blitz. One tendril gripped a high hanging branch which caused the ball of lightning to scream into the sky.
The first figure turned around in midair and hurriedly whipped out a series of hand seals. The ball of lightning, which was about to hit the first figure, suddenly disappeared. The figure right away whipped their head upwards, following their gaze I looked up and saw the ball of lightning appear out of the clouds, streaking towards the earth at the same insane speed as before.
As it tore its way downward I got a better look at it and realized that it was a person. Completely covered head to toe in dark blue armor, crackling and arcing with tendrils of lightning. An odd feeling came over me as a theory of what, or who this person was, came to me. The person struck their hand out and a glowing ball roughly eight feet in diameter formed. A tendril streaked out and latched onto the ball, changing the person's direction and catapulting them again towards the figure who had still not touched down. The ball disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, and the tendril of lighting retracted back to the armor.
The first figure ran through a series of hand seals, the same as the last, and extended their hands towards the lightning person, seemingly intent on pulling the same move as before. However this time the armor on the lighting person protruded wings, wings that heavily resembled a fighter jet from my past life. They proceed to maneuver themselves away from the area that the first figure was extending their hands towards. The figure attempted to move their hands to follow the person, to no avail. The wings left two streaks of power behind them as they maneuvered the person at the same incredible speed.
The first figure abandoned whatever technique they had been attempting to use and ran through another. This time the figure themselves disappeared. The lightning person held out their hand and summoned a what appeared to be a glowing blue fuma shuriken, the shuriken began to float with small crackles of electricity arcing between the blades and started to spin, in less than a second the stationary shuriken was a buzz saw, spinning far faster than would be possible to do by hand. The lightning person looked left and launched the shuriken at a patch of trees. On impact with the area, lightning began to literally pour of of the sky, creating another sea of electricity
The lightning person hovered in the air for a second, as if pausing to feel something. When their head suddenly snapped in my direction, their red glowing eyes seemingly searching for something, searching for… me. The person turned their head away and with even more speed than previously displayed tore off to the new sea of lightning. Only a few seconds later they were out of sight, and the world began to fade to black.
Groaning I shakily got to my feet, my head was still throbbing and the world was spinning. Model A tags were far too much it seemed, they were the standard tag for war; so it was no wonder it knocked my lights out. However, this had sobered me up, this jutsu was not unbeatable, it was strong, and had near limitless utility, but was nowhere close to unbeatable. Suddenly realizing I was soaked I groaned and took off my shirt, wringing it dry and putting it back on. What was that dream though? 'Was… was that me? That was the largest question I had, was that a vision of the future? Who was the person I was fighting… holy shit is that what I can do with materia-' I stopped my train of thought as I realized something was wrong and stiffened.
"You know A-Type tags are illegal for non-shinobi to have, right?"
I jumped and my head whipped toward the tree in the clearing, just now sensing the ninja. It appeared to be a younger shinobi, sitting on one of the branches, however I couldn't make out any details, based on the ninja's voice I determined that they were female. Thinking about the dream would have to wait.
Cursing under my breath I responded " I didn't realize it was an A-Type tag, I'm sorry" Doing my best to look apologetic.
"Based on your stockpile of supplies, I believe you're lying… not that I care that much if a gaki like you blows himself to smithereens though" The ninja hopped off of the tree branch and landed on the ground.
I shook my head, I must have hit my head harder than I thought, because there was no way I was that lucky. To meet another important character in such a short timeframe?
" But I have to say that the Jutsu you were practicing looked intriguing, let's blow up some more shit" Anko Mitarashi said with a sadistic smile.
'... make that unlucky' I thought miserably
"Uh sure ninja-san, if you would be willing to watch me that would be a great help" I said, no actual hope that she would just watch, but it was worth asking.
Her ever-widening grin did nothing to ease my mind. She walked over and stuck her hand out
"Anko Mitarashi, chunin, nice to meetcha gaki"
I stuck out my hand "Sora Uchiha, very nice to meet you Anko-san"
I finally got a good look at her, and it took a concerted effort not to stare at her chest. If my math was correct she was roughly eighteen and she seemed to already know the effect her dress had on men. The trench coat covering the almost see through ninja mesh and the khaki mini-skirt did borderline nothing to cover her figure. I hadn't had this problem before as I was still a very young child and my body had not developed any real sexual urges up to this point. I marked that down in my mind as something I needed to either kill for now or suppress as much as possible. Being horny was a liability to a ninja, much more so for a supposed five year old, but again, thoughts for later.
She stood back and looked me up and down, she had an odd look on her face and asked "uh… gaki can I ask who your father is?"
I nodded, kinda knowing how this was about to go.
"Fugaku Uchiha"
She looked a little pale and turned around. She bent over a bit and put her face in her hands and began to mumble to herself.
I sighed, every time I got injured during experimentation (which happened a concerning amount now that I think about it) people would always overreact upon finding out my parentage. This time was nothing much so I concluded that I would just deny any offer t-
"FUCK YES! I AM GONNA CORRUPT THE FUCK OUT OF YOUR KID FUGAKU, YOU BASTARD!"
… I sat kinda shocked, I mean I knew she was a bit crazy and Fugaku could be… well Fugaku, but this was the last reaction I had been expecting. She was still turned around and had started laughing maniacally. I chose this as a great time to make my escape, before she just chose to straight up kill me, I couldn't take the chance, so as quickly and quietly I could I attempted to slink away. I made it about 40 feet from the woman before I heard.
"Striking Shadow Snake Jutsu"!
Abandoning stealth I made the fastest leap I could muster, yet it was nowhere near enough. The green snakes wrapped themselves around my waist and pulled me right back into Anko's tight embrace. She gently stroked the back of my head and cooed " Oh Sora-kun we are gonna have soooooooo much fun together"
Genuine terror enveloped me and I mumbled into her sizable chest "I- I need an adult" I instantly knew that was the wrong thing to say as I could literally feel the grin widen to impossible lengths.
"I am an adult" was the only reply I got.
Several hours later
I limped my way towards the hospital, adding seven lacerations, eleven snake bites, two black eyes, a sprained ankle, severe chakra exhaustion, and a split lip to the probable concussion I had already suffered due to the explosion from earlier. All generously provided by one Anko Mitarashi.
While she was quite… unrelenting in her efforts to train me (and herself) she was an incredible partner to stress test my jutsu on. She had no reservation on not holding back and fully came at me with the intent to maim. Not for any malicious reason that I could discern, but more the fact that that was just who she was. To be honest it was quite refreshing, and horrifying, but I appreciated her nonetheless. Because of her interest in my new jutsu I learned invaluable info about how it functioned.
Firstly, the armor was great in terms of general defense. It blocked essentially all shuriken and kunai. ( Upon realizing this Anko decided that I would be a great moving target) However, when it came to her snake's fangs the armor did essentially nothing in its original configuration to stop the senjutsu powered fangs from plowing straight through it (hence the eleven snake bites). Another really cool feature that I discovered was that the armor fixed itself naturally if I pushed chakra into the area that was damaged. However, this took some time and actively took concentration away from my opponent to pull off, which in the meantime gave my opponent the perfect place and opportunity to strike, to which it should not come as a surprise that Anko took advantage of it every single time. Therefore I would have to be very careful or plan around it.
(And before you hear 'senjutsu' and freak the fuck out, no Anko herself cannot use senjutsu chakra, but her summons can, did you not pay attention in the story?)
Slashing weapons didn't do much to the armor but over time began to wear it down, after playing with the shapes I could create with the Material Style I was able to create a small patch of chainmail with my chakra. This required significantly more mental effort and chakra to produce than my base armor however. The design of my armor needed a lot of work as well, as Anko pointed out. The protective plates were uneven and not even close to symmetrical, the joints were very poorly constructed. Upon actually wearing the armor these flaws became evident pretty much immediately, as my range of mobility sharply dropped, and the joints constantly broke at my top speed. At a glance one would say it looked like the first hokage's armor, but any real inspection would reveal a cheap imitation, barely worthy of being called armor. It was a miracle that it held up to the model B tag. Still, as Anko pointed out, beyond impressive considering the fact that I was 5 and had "just discovered" this kekki genki. The fact that it mostly stood up to a model B tag at all was evidence to her that this new style had incredible promise.
I currently struggled with making any kind of usable weapons however, the kunai were bent and shattered easily, the shuriken did not fly straight and the swords I made snapped at the first sign of stress. Anko pointed out that I should talk to a blacksmith in town in order to resolve this issue. She promised me that she would keep this a secret until I wanted to reveal it, predicated on us meeting up to practice once every two weeks when possible. I even made her swear on dango that she wouldn't tell anyone.
It had been a very productive day indeed. However, I now needed medical attention, as I had possibly overdosed on soldier pills as well. Upon entering the hospital I was quickly brought to the shinobi wing, the hospital staff knew me well, as I was pretty regularly in there. They didn't even bother checking my ID. They just took me right to the Uchiha wing to get treatment.
A ninja medic that specialized in Uchiha care (there are around 500 active uchiha ninja, there are going to be medics that specialize in taking care of them) went over to me and checked everything. After a few minutes of running through a diagnostic jutsu her hands began to glow green and I could feel my body begin to patch itself back together. About 10 minutes later I was released and allowed to leave the treatment room. I now wanted to check on Naruto.
Now I would like to use this moment to explain something of how being in a clan works that I think you all would appreciate. A lot of policies differ when it comes to clan rules, but there are several things in village clan law that are constants. Each prominent clan has a specific wing in the hospital that is dedicated to their care. If you are a member of a clan, you do not pay for medical treatment, your clan pays for your recovery, no matter how you received the injury, be it experimentation, training related, random injury, accidents, or directly caused by a mission. The clan pays a reduced rate than one normally would as they actually employ the medical professionals that work in their specific wing. So other than paying the salaries of the medics all they really need to pay for when treating a member is whatever materials are used. For clan members this is pretty much all encompassing, as long as you have an active or veteran shinobi as a direct relative. That rule pertains to a lot of rights and benefits as a clan member, this is in an effort from each clan and the village to ensure that per family they will get at least one shinobi. However this goes two ways, as each active shinobi will have to give up 20% of their mission pay and monthly salary (not including bonuses or rank changes) to their clan.
Now for the half of the shinobi population who are not clan members, they are not entitled to these benefits. However, there are certain programs that have been set up in order to help non-clan ninja. All orphans are entitled to a monthly allowance that is taken directly from the Hokage's bank account. That way it cannot be tampered with and the money will go to them and them alone. The goal of which is to make sure that by the age of 18, (or if they graduate from the ninja academy) they have enough money to thrive. Other programs like physical therapy are provided free to all shinobi. The hospital however charges these shinobi straight out of pocket. However, if the injury occurs in the line of duty, the village takes 50% of the cost, with no deduction to the ninja's pay.
Ninja who are crippled permanently are given a monthly allowance. However this is not handled directly by the hokage due to the cost. It is handled by the council, which unfortunately involves… the dreaded civilian council. I had really hoped that they weren't that bad. I was incredibly let down. The amount of corruption in that group of 12 was insane. However, that's a topic for another occasion
Mini healthcare rant over.
I made my way down the hall towards the private citizen side and entered the Hokage section. The Hokage section was set aside for VIP's, family/friends of the Hokage, and a specialized room for the Hokage himself. I checked in with the anbu manning the front station and got the go-ahead to visit Naruto. I had found out that Naruto was placed in this section every time he was injured, which brought some questions and frustrations towards Sarutobi to mind. At the end of the section was a bed with a light on, all other beds unoccupied and lights off so I knew which one I needed to go to. I knocked on the table set outside to let Naruto know I was coming in.
Opening up the privacy curtain after I heard no response revealed Naruto, covered in blankets in his bed, and facing the opposite direction. I walked to his bedside and placed a hand on his shoulder. Naruto immediately stiffened and quietly said
"I feel better now, please just leave…"
"Well it's good to hear that you're feeling better, are you sure you want me to leave?" I said
Right away Naruto spun around and sat up in his bed. "SORA!" he bellowed. He wrapped his arms around me and held on for dear life. I smiled and returned the hug. Naruto continued to hug me, and I could feel his arms trembling, as well as the small wet patch growing in my shirt which I chose to ignore for his sake. He sat in my arms for a few minutes before he pulled away, attempting to sneakily wipe away the tears in his eyes.
"I-I was scared that you wouldn't want to see me after what happened."
I looked him in the eyes and smiled, "Naruto, I wasn't lying when I said that you are my friend, even though I just met you, you are someone precious to me, so I will protect you."
Naruto smiled for a few seconds before the smile began to fall from his face. "What about you parents, won't they tell you to stay away from me?"
I guiltily decided to not tell Naruto about that part of the conversation between my father and I the night before.
"Actually it's quite the opposite." I said, "You remember that my father is the head of the Uchiha Clan, correct?"
Naruto nodded in confirmation, a semi-confused look on his face.
"Well after what happened, I had a talk with him, and we are going to try and figure out what we can do to help you. I have to talk again with him tonight, hopefully with you, and then we have to talk with the Hokage to find out what we are legally allowed to do"
Naruto began to smile while I was talking, and afterwards he was positively beaming. He immediately launched himself out of bed and ripped off the gown he was wearing, I turned to give him some privacy (not that he seemed to care), and listened to him pulling on his clothes and gathering up his belongings. Once he was done we left and checked Naruto out of the hospital. I was well accustomed to the process of checking out of the hospital so it only took a few minutes to get Naruto out. He stayed close to me the entire time, rarely moving more than a foot or two away from me. He seemed nervous and agitated whenever an adult came near and generally seemed like he wanted to avoid everyone. The adults were not helping in the slightest, as they glared at him and muttered hateful words under their breath.
I asked Naruto if he would like to get some food before we visited the Uchiha estate. He emphatically nodded yes, I laughed and turned in the direction of the Ichiraku ramen stand, knowing that he would want that above all other meals. After eating, we began to walk towards the clan compound and I noticed Naruto's general demeanor deteriorated. I could tell that the looks of the villagers barely fazed him, but the idea of walking into a clan compound must have terrified him. As we approached the front gate Naruto was looking at the ground, refusing to make eye contact. I smacked him on the back and gave him a gentle smile.
"Naruto I know that this might be scary, but these aren't just random villagers, they are my family, they may not all know you, but I'm sure with time and my say so they will like you. They are good people, just… whatever goes on, do what I say okay?"
Naruto still seemed unsure but nodded at me nonetheless. We entered the estate grounds and I had hope, the compound guards seemed a tad agitated, however said nothing as Naruto was right behind me. The head guard (a distant cousin by the name of Yoshida) approached me and Naruto as we had taken a few steps through the gate
"Sora, may I talk with you for a second?" He gestured to a guard shack a few yards away and I nodded.
"Naruto, can you wait right here for me? I know Kano will watch over you for a sec" I said gesturing to the nearest guard who seemed startled at the task but faked a smile towards me. I smiled at Naruto as well who seemed a tad spooked that I had to leave.
I followed Yoshida to the spot, which was seemingly his office. He did not close the door which I was thankful for as it allowed me to watch Naruto, who was shifting around nervously
"What do ya need Yoshida?" I said to the older Uchiha who sat down in his chair. He gave me a frustrated look, and took a deep sigh. "Sora you need to get that thin-... that kid out of the compound now."
'Well shit' I thought, 'Fugaku forgot to mention that Naruto would be coming to meet him with the other higher ups.' This could complicate things, but I had a new trump card that worked out very well.
"Why is that? I asked as innocently as I could bear. Yoshida gripped the table in frustration but attempted to calm himself down and speak gently "Well you see Sora, that kid is a troublemaker, he pulls pranks on everyone, and it's been decided that he isn't allowed in the compound"
"By who?" I asked right away, still feigning innocence. Yoshida seemed a little taken aback by my question and spluttered "W-well the higher-ups of course, such as your father, as well as several of the elders". I put a hand to my mouth and let out a "hmmm... then I guess I was mistaken when I heard my father ask me to bring Naruto to see him once he was released from the hospital. I will let him know that Yoshida says Naruto can't come and see him" I smiled as I watched Yoshida's face pale a little at the mention of my father, and began to walk out of the office. Yoshida grabbed onto my shirt and pulled me back "Sora, your dad asked for you to bring that… prankster to see him?" He seemed to think for a second " Well I'm going to have to ask for permission anyways, I can't allow him to enter without permission from a person above me in the clan."
He started to stand up but stopped when I said "Oh there won't be a need for that Yoshida, you have one right here." He started to ask what I meant but didn't get far as I turned on my Sharingan. "O-oh, uh congrats on awakening your sharingan Sora" Yoshida said face palling a bit more.
Let me explain, just like in the Hyuuga clan, in the Uchiha there is a pecking order, mind you without the enslaving family members part. At the top is the clan head which was currently Fugaku. Next were the elders (past clan heads, or high ranking shinobi from the clan), then was the clan's heirs (I will come back to this), then the head of the police force, then the police force, then the Jonin of the clan, and then where Yoshida was, and last the guards. The guards had control over a few things, who came in and out of the gate (anyone in a higher position could overrule it), minor policing inside the compound (of course overruled by the actual police force) and upholding certain clan rules. However, these pecking orders only apply to members who have an active sharingan. Meaning that Yoshida, who had no idea I had awoken it before, had been talking down to me, telling me what to do, when according to the clan customs he was sworn to uphold the pecking order. Technically, even though he had no idea, and had no way of knowing, I could demote him myself and force him back into the general Konoha force.
However, I chose not to antagonize Yoshida anymore than this, he was actually a very nice guy once you got to know him, even though he was as biased as the rest of the village. I excused myself from the still pale Yoshida, reassuring him that he was okay, and walked out back to Naruto.
I approached Naruto and the guard, Kano, and deadpanned when I saw that Naruto had apparently gotten over his fear and started bugging him in the only manner that Naruto knew how, incessant questions and asking to play. Apparently, Kano had given up, because his head was resting on the wall, eyes closed and massaging his temples, as Naruto played with a kunai. As I approached, Naruto beamed at me, "Sora!" He yelled and ran to me, still holding the very sharp kunai. I gingerly took the knife from his hands and tossed it towards Kano, who caught the blade and quickly put it away with a sheepish look.
"You were right! Your family is awesome, Mister Kano let me play with one of his kunai."
"I noticed" I said flatly, shooting Kano a withering look, to which he refused to meet. Little jackass probably hoped Naruto would accidentally stab himself if he let him play with one. Something would need to be done if Naruto was to be accepted by the clan, I didn't know what that was yet, but I would work on it.
"Will you teach me how to use a Kunai?" Naruto said, innocently beaming at me, which caused me to rouse from my thoughts. I smiled as I began to lead him down the main path to my house. "When it comes time, I will show you what I know, but really I'm still learning the proper technique." A small lie, I could throw a kunai to academy standards a year ago, but the advanced stuff needed to wait.
As we walked past the uchiha markets I caught many Uchiha clan members talking and shooting Naruto glares. I urged him on and chatted with him the entire way so he didn't notice the glares. I saw many faces recognise me and cringe at the sight of Naruto and I talking, this was going to be about as hard as I thought. Now I just needed to see what Fugaku had been able to work out in regards to Naruto.
As we reached the clan head building I heard my mother call Sasuke for dinner. Motioning for Naruto to follow along we entered through the front door. As we rounded the corner to our dining room Sasuke's head snapped towards us and his eyes widened. He leaped from his seat and grabbed Naruto into a hug. Naruto stiffened slightly at the hug but seemed to calm down and accept it after a second. " I was worried about you man" relief evident on Sasuke's face as he pulled away from Naruto. Naruto began to respond to my brother but I decided to pay attention to how my mother was reacting to Naruto being in our home. Surprisingly, she seemed totally unperturbed about Naruto, simply smiling at the two boys chatting.
Naruto for his credit noticed Mikoto and began to introduce himself.
"Hello… you must be Sora and Sasuke's mother, it's great to meeth you. '' His eyes widened as he realized that he had messed up by biting his tongue. True to her nature Mikoto just smiled and bowed her head, totally ignoring his mess up. " It's great to meet you as well Naruto-kun, Sora and Sasuke have told me a lot about their new friend." That had Naruto positively beaming as he excitedly began to talk to Mikoto. It was a great relief to see how he had rebounded from how he was in the hospital, as well as how well he got along with my mother. However, my mother was not the largest problem in my family, that would be Fugaku. Itachi would not be joining us for dinner as he had left on an overnight mission.
Fugaku entered the dining room, his evening robes on, and froze for a second, eyes resting on Naruto for several seconds before moving on and taking his seat. Naruto nervously stood and introduced himself (without the mess up this time). Fugaku did the same and politely nodded. We began to eat, it was a rather hearty meal of steak, a salad, and soup. Predictably, Sasuke picked out all the tomatoes in the salad and ate them, to which only Naruto seemed surprised. The conversation was surprising, as it seemed that Fugaku didn't mind Naruto in the slightest. A far cry from what I expected.
Mikoto asked several questions asking about his housing arrangements and various other details about his life. With each answer I could tell she was feeling worse and worse about it, as well as Fugaku to a certain extent, as his expression became more and more grave. Fugaku spoke up when the topic turned to shopping and told Naruto that he was more than welcome to shop at the in-clan shops. A hard look on his face, no doubt despairing at the idea that he let his friend's child get taken advantage of. Naruto brightened up and seemed happy at that, but seemingly didn't understand how large of a deal that was. In the history of the clan in Konoha only a handful of people had been allowed to shop within the clan grounds. Plus, this way Naruto would get fair prices. Fugaku couldn't directly tell his clan member shop-owners what to price certain items, but he very easily could stop them from ever price gouging the poor jinchuriki.
The rest of the meal went smoothly and as we all finished up, Naruto offered to help Mikoto clean up. It seemed like Naruto was desperate for my family's approval but again Mikoto gave him a gentle smile and accepted the offer. Fugaku glanced at me and gestured for me to follow him, leaving Sasuke to chat with Naruto and our mother.
Fugaku was silent until we reached his study. I closed the door and sat down as Fugaku stared at me with an unreadable look. "Sora, can I be honest with you?" A little confused, I nodded yes.
"If I could kill every single one of the civilian council without severe backlash I would without hesitation."
I was a little dumbfounded, this was not the way I had predicted this conversation to go at all, especially since I was literally five. Fugaku seemed to relax a little and allowed his posture to slip.
"Those conniving, rat-faced, piles of shit have the audacity to tell me that I am overstepping my bounds, to try and help Naruto. Thank kami that the Hokage overruled a lot of their objections, however there is only a little that we can do. Due to his orphan status, normally we would be able to adopt him with little to no issue. However, due to his status as a jinchuuriki a lot of issues popped up, especially with how he is viewed in the village, and how we are viewed."
I was aware of how the ninja population felt about the Uchiha clan; it was not missed by many involved in the 9-tails attack that Kurama had been controlled by the sharingan. Fugaku had to testify many times that the Uchiha had nothing to do with the 9-tails attack, the hokage believed the clan without question, yet the council (some from the clan side and all of the civilian council) had remained skeptical. The largest voice of Uchiha hatred was predictably Danzo, who had made several attempts to push for in depth investigations into the clan. This translated to a general resentment towards the Uchiha clan. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about this, I knew what was coming but could do nothing but watch.
"I know father, I am aware of how some ninja and council members think of us. I have done some research on the 9-tails event myself and knew that due to this there would not be much we could do to help him."
Fugaku stared at me for a while before sighing, "There isn't much that you don't notice huh" he shifted in his cushion, "There are however several actions we can take in order to improve his life. Hokage-sama has informed me that giving him an allowance would be breaking the law, however, under advice from the Hokage I have made the decision to double your allowance." Shooting me a meaningful look which I understood completely. "We also are not allowed to give him a home to live in, that one was particularly driven home by Danzo. However I don't see an issue with Naruto eating with us and spending the night on occasion" another look was sent my way. "He needs no help with medical treatment at the Hokage has taken over that, and lastly, what we discussed at dinner he will have free access to the clan compounds shops, I will make it abundantly clear to the clan that I will not tolerate any kind of discrimination towards him." I nodded and thanked Fugaku for helping Naruto and excused myself. Before I was able to fully leave the room Fugaku called out to me. "Sora, I know you are smarter than you usually let on, and I failed to see it until now, but thank you for bringing Naruto to me, it… it means a lot to care for my best friend's son." I nodded at him and smiled "Of course dad, I want him to live a good life, I knew you would as well."
I walked out and found Sasuke showing Naruto a random shuriken technique with one of the blunted shuriken. I observed them for a bit before I spoke up, "Saskue if you hold your wrist a bit lower it will curve better" he shot me a glowering look that held no actual malice. "Shut it asshat" To which I laughed and Mikoto scowled. Naruto came up to me and asked "What did you talk to your dad about?"
I smiled and responded, "Just talking about ways we can help you out, speaking of that we have an extra room if you would like to spend the night" I glanced at Mikoto who just smiled indicating that she was up to speed with what Fukagu had told me. Naruto beamed at me, gripping me around the waist in a tight hug. Popping off of me he exclaimed, "I would love to, what am I going to do about stuff to get ready for bed though? All of my stuff is across town at my apartment." I smiled, "Don't worry Naruto, we have plenty of extra toiletries for you to use." Naruto seemed very pleased and hugged me again. The rest of the night was spent with the three of us hanging out and chatting. Mikoto prepared a dessert for us much to Naruto's delight. I got Naruto's bed set up and he very quickly fell asleep, it seemed that he was very comfortable around my family already.
I laid down into my bed and reflected on the day. Far too much had happened, between testing my jutsu, meeting…. well, being traumatized by Anko, and helping Naruto today has been a lot. That vision I had seen however, I needed to talk to Gabriel, what the hell was that. I closed my eyes and thought 'Gabriel'. After a few seconds I opened my eyes and found myself… well almost blinded again. "Damn it Gabriel, would it kill you to lower the lights in here once in a while?" I groaned covering my singed eyes. I could feel his smile as he said "Well it IS heaven, what did you expect?" I groaned as I slowly reopened my eyes, getting more adapted to the lighting, "So Sora, what can I do ya for?" I got comfortable in the chair I had appeared in, " I want to know what I saw when I hit my head today, that wasn't just some dream, that felt far too… real."
Gabriel, who no longer was doing paperwork, and gave me a long look. He then sighed and stood up strolling to the other side of the room. "Sora there is much about this process of rebirth that is unknown to even me. You are the first human that I have helped with rebirth, so to answer your question I am not entirely sure, however what I can say based on what I saw and what I know, I believe that is a vision of your future, or at least a possible future of yours."
"Wait so the person in the blue armor was… me? I mean I assumed because of the abilities and all but holy shit I'm gonna be strong… sorry"
I apologized as Gabriel shot me a look, apparently cursing in Heaven was frowned upon, who knew? Gabriel turned back around and sat down. "There are many things not known to the archangels, we are sent as vessels of God to do his will, but even we are not told everything. I am not even entirely sure how my own involvement with your case will affect you, however I can reasonably assume currently that what you saw is a possible future. If you see another vision like this again I will know, but I would like you to come to talk with me."
He glanced at me and I nodded, he continued by saying " For right now there is no way for you to figure out who you were battling, I will discuss this with my higher ups but for now just chalk it up to a demonstration of how strong you can become, however, and I am not implying that you have not worked hard, you will need to work incredibly hard to get to that point, and with that I am going to send you back."
I nodded again and said goodbye to Gabriel as Heaven faded around me. I felt somewhat worried that not even he knew what my vision was, but I was assured at the hospital that my head was fine after getting hit. After pondering what Gabriel had said I closed my eyes and went to sleep.
The next day started off well, Naruto, Sasuke, and I got up late and ate a hearty breakfast. The plan was to have Naruto come with us for morning training to observe and start exercising (at his request). This plan however was paused momentarily when a uchiha guard member entered my fathers study, and quickly after my father left with a cold look on his face. I knew that something was happening so I slunk my way after Fugaku as he left the house. I heard him stop and begin to speak with several people. I peered through a window and saw Fugaku was speaking to several civilian council members, however the person who stood out to me the most had a cane, bandages covering the right side of his face and was wearing a sling, it was that bastard Danzo. After opening the window I was able to catch certain parts of the conversation. From what I could gather the council members had seen (likely was root agents) Naruto enter the compound and not leave. While the civilian council members ( a short fat and wealthy man accompanied by an older woman) were screeching at Fugaku, Danzo was staying calm and occasionally speaking. I could tell that Fugaku was livid but was handling it well until Danzo made a comment that made Fugaku stiffen. I was unable to hear the comment but as Danzo turned to leave his eyes met mine. I felt a huge chill down my spine as his eyes did not leave mine for several seconds. After he broke eye contact and began to walk away I was able to breath out the breath I was unaware I was holding.
For all of my knowledge of the Naruto universe Danzo absolutely terrified me, his strength as a Ninja aside, just the sheer presence of him and what I knew of his organization scared me. No one knew all the cards he held, I was sure that whatever he said to Fugaku was a problem. This was confirmed to me when Fugaku entered the house and didn't even stop to look at me, only saying " We have a problem" as he passed by. He entered his study and closed the door. I walked back to Naruto and Sasuke with a smile pretending that nothing was wrong. As we walked out to the training field my mind was racing, what could he have said to Fugaku to elicit such a reaction? What was the problem? The only thing that came to mind was further suspicion of the Uchiha clan, which would only exacerbate the issues already at hand. I had hoped that nothing much would change due to my involvement with Naruto, however it seemed that problems were already popping up. If this was to affect the timeline in a significant way then that would seriously be a huge problem.
End Chapter 3: The Huge Problem
A/N: Well holy shit this took way too long to get out. Sorry for all those who have followed this story, life has very much gotten in the way. Have a happy new year and I hope you all enjoyed it. I can't promise much but I will attempt to be better about uploading. - Valaxis