Chapter 12


"As a kid, you spend every day waiting for graduation so you can be free. Then when you graduate, you realize you're not actually free because you still have to work for a living. At least you don't have two to four hours of homework every night though."


Reporting to the Hokage proved slightly more nerve-wracking than Masaru expected. A chuunin serving as his assistant waved him into the office with barely a glance in his direction, and when he entered he found the Third Hokage hunched over a pile of paperwork. He set it aside when he saw Masaru though, offering the boy a warm smile as Masaru stood to attention.

"Hello, Masaru-kun," he greeted. "I'm glad to see you. I'm sure you're quite anxious to discuss your future."

"A little," he allowed, nodding slowly. "Um... Aren't genin supposed to be in teams?"

"Normally, yes. Konoha values teamwork immensely, as you're undoubtedly aware, so we try to place heavy emphasis on it for new genin, hence why we only pass teams. However, in your case we are admittedly averse to sending you back to the academy." His brow furrowed, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"Why?" he asked after a moment. 'Is it because I'm an Uchiha?' bitterly echoed in his mind, but he would never ask out loud. While Sasuke had grown rather compliant with the constant praise and attention lavished upon the name, Masaru had quickly tired of it. It irked him that people seemed to value him based on the fan on his back rather than his own individual skills. If he got promoted due to his heritage alone—well, that might be the last straw.

"Because frankly, I do not believe it would be wise to completely separate you from the other graduates in your age group." Masaru blinked. That was unexpected. "The current batch of rookies show a lot more potential than most new graduates, and I doubt we'll encounter another group with raw talent quite like this any time soon. It would be more beneficial for you to continue to work and grow with this group.

"Besides," he added with a small smirk, "I think sending you back wouldn't help you much at this point, since you have already shown yourself to have skills that are quite close to a fresh genin."

"I have?" Masaru questioned blankly. Rather than respond, the Third reached for a folder sitting atop the mounds of paperwork topping his desk and slid it over to the boy, an amused twinkle in his eye. Something about the elderly man's face made Masaru's stomach twist, and he hesitated before taking the folder. He visibly tensed when he opened it to see a police report inside, a photo clipped to the top page showing a bed with shredded sheets and stained in ink.

Swallowing, he slowly raised his head to meet the Third Hokage's gaze, his face dull and impassive. "Mizuki-sensei deserved it," he declared flatly, his bland expression portraying no remorse. The Third arched an eyebrow.

"I take that as a confession."

"I stand by what I said." The Third Hokage smiled slightly at that, allowing a small chuckle to slip through as he took the folder back.

Over the past few years, several teachers at the academy had found themselves the victims of a mysterious vandal who had earned the moniker of the "Black Ink Vandal." The culprit would wait a few weeks between each incident, and somehow managed to avoid being seen by neighbors. While annoying, the crimes had never been serious enough to merit a full-blown investigation, and the juvenile nature suggested the culprit to be a student anyway.

In fact, Masaru probably would have gotten away with it if not for his decision to target Mizuki three months ago. Officers inspecting his apartment found a hidden drawer in his dresser with documents connecting him to Orochimaru, and that had led to the uncovering of a scheme to steal the Scroll of Seals and flee Konoha. Worse, he had been setting up Naruto to fail the exam to use as a scapegoat. It had been a nasty wakeup call for the village, and led to several more in-depth investigations around both the academy and the vandal to see if the vandal knew about it.

On the bright side though, it gave the Third Hokage the idea to have someone try to teach Naruto the shadow clone jutsu. He knew the youth had been struggling with regular clones due to his large chakra stores, but that same issue made him a natural at creating shadow clones. Because of that, Naruto had finally been able to pass the exam and become a ninja.

This boy has helped Naruto even more than he realized, Hiruzen thought wryly as he glanced at the stone-faced Uchiha boy. He'd never seen Naruto smile as brightly as he had when telling him about his new friendship, eagerly reporting every development in their budding relationship at each meeting. It had saddened the elderly Hokage when they seemed to grow apart after the massacre, but the revelation of his identity as the vandal disproved that.

After all, Masaru specifically targeted the teachers who treated Naruto unfairly, starting with the very first man to separate them on that first day back in the academy. In hindsight, the trend was obvious. Their bond posed yet another reason to keep Masaru with this year's graduates, among more... practical reasons. Hiruzen could reflect on that later, though.

"Well, in the case of vandalism the usual punishment is community service," he commented aloud. "Those jobs happen to be pulled from the same pool as D-rank missions, with the main difference being the lack of pay, so we may as well promote you to genin now so you can start padding out your records." Masaru slowly nodded, his posture relaxing minutely as he accepted this.

"But... don't I need a team?" he questioned.

"Usually, yes, but this would certainly not be the first time we passed a single genin. In times of war we occasionally assigned early graduates to apprentice under jounin, and today we still occasionally place individual graduates into immediate apprenticeships if they show a talent in a highly specialized field, such as medical ninjutsu." Masaru frowned slightly as he listened, his face contemplative.

Ninja tended to specialize in certain fields or talents, whether it be a basic fighting element such as ninjutsu or taijutsu, or a more career-oriented skill such as interrogation or infiltration. Academy teachers began encouraging students to consider their future specializations from a young age, so Masaru had spent plenty of time thinking about his own. None of the fields that interested him would merit a one-on-one apprenticeship though.

As if sensing his thoughts, the Hokage breezily continued, "However, that won't necessarily be the case here. One of my top jounin recently got injured and won't be allowed on active duty for a while, so he's agreed to train you for the next few months until we can make arrangements for a proper team. Until then, to help acclimate you to teamwork you'll assist other genin teams in running D-rank missions. Do you have any questions?"

Taking his time to absorb the small flood of information, Masaru slowly shook his head, and the Hokage smiled. "Good. In that case—Kobayashi, come in." As he spoke a man suddenly appeared at his side in a blur of motion, making Masaru jump in surprise.

The new arrival seemed rather innocuous at first glance, with short brown hair and almond-shaped black eyes and dressed in the standard jounin uniform. Bandages wound around his forehead beneath his hitai-ate and his left arm dangled in a sling held to his chest, his sleeve cut short to accommodate the bandages. "Hello," he greeted, offering Masaru a smile. "My name is Kobayashi Gaku. I'll be in charge of instructing you, Masaru-kun."

Swallowing, Masaru slowly nodded, his eyes flickering to the Hokage nervously. "Seeing as everything's settled, I'll leave you two to it," he told them. "Now if you'll excuse me, I unfortunately have to get back to work." He gestured to the piles of paperwork with a rather rueful smirk, and Masaru's new teacher nodded.

"Of course. We'll take our leave now." Turning to leave, he gestured for Masaru to follow, and the boy shot the Hokage a final hesitant glance before doing so.

"As I said earlier, my name is Kobayashi Gaku," Gaku began. "I enjoy studying architecture, and dislike oily foods. I currently live alone, and my main aspiration is to serve Konoha to the best of my ability."

Masaru nodded at the short and simple introduction, a bit relieved he didn't go into a great deal of detail. Gaku already seemed to be the kind of person who didn't waste words, which suited him fine. His teacher nodded at him, and Masaru felt a brief surge of gratitude to have been on Team Eleven if only because that made it easier to know what to say the second time around.

"I'm Uchiha Masaru. I like cats, studying history, and... looking at art. I don't like mushy romance stories, and... the color red. As for hobbies, I like..." Watching Naruto and terrorizing his tormenters, visiting Obito's grave. "...Reading and bird watching."

"Good to know," Gaku said. "You forgot one part though: what kind of ninja do you want to be?" The boy averted his gaze, chewing his lower lip.

"I'm not entirely sure yet," he replied hesitantly. "But... I know what I don't want..."

"And what would that be?" Gaku pressed, and Masaru sucked in a sharp breath, squeezing his eyes shut. Earlier with his original team he had avoided answering the question, and he was tempted to evade it now, but... This time was different. He'd be spending a lot of one-on-one time with Gaku-sensei, and even if he avoided it now he knew the topic would inevitably come up again.

"I don't want to put anyone else through this," he whispered to Obito, kneeling in front of the headstone with his hands fisted in his lap. His body and voice trembled, his unruly brown bangs falling into his gaze as his head bowed. Every person had someone who cared for them. Every time someone died, another would suffer, whether it be a close sibling or a virtual stranger who admired them from afar. "I... I don't want to ever cause this kind of pain."

Inhaling through his nose, he opened his eyes and turned to face his new teacher, his dark gaze burning with steely resolve. "I don't want to be an assassin. I don't want to be a front-line soldier expected to kill at a moment's notice. I don't want to be put in a position where I have to kill someone unless it's to protect to my life."

Gaku raised an eyebrow at his declaration. "You may have chosen the wrong career path then. As a shinobi you'll have to kill people, it's part of the job description."

Even as he spoke Masaru shook his head though, his face still set in stony determination. "I know that, and I'm not saying I won't ever kill anyone," he countered calmly. "I'll do it to protect myself and my comrades, and if I'm ordered to kill a target by the Hokage, I will. I'm not stupid, I know I'll have to kill people someday if I become a ninja. But I don't want to be in a role where I'll constantly have to choose whether or not to end someone's life."

He wouldn't cause that sort of suffering for anyone else if he could avoid it.

Gaku regarded him silently, his gaze contemplative and scrutinizing. Eventually though he nodded, seeming to accept the answer much to Masaru's relief. "Alright. You sound like you've put a bit of thought into this, so I can accept that. There are plenty of positions where you won't be expected to kill on every mission, like infiltration and sabotage. We'll worry about that later though. For now, our main priority is training so you can at least match with other genin."

Masaru nodded and straightened with a firm, "Yes, sir!" And with that, his first day of training as a genin began.


The regiment Gaku developed was surprisingly simple, and they quickly settled into a steady routine. With only one arm cleared for usage Gaku couldn't participate as directly as they might like and mainly just supervised, instructing Masaru on how to do something and providing advice and corrections as needed. That proved to be enough for their needs though, at least for the time being.

Each session started with Masaru demonstrating basic taijutsu strikes using wooden dummies as targets, while Gaku would correct his form and technique or give advice to improve it. After that they would spar with Gaku acting as a moving target and moving purely on the defensive. Befitting his jounin status Gaku had no trouble dodging and deflecting Masaru's blows with only one arm, but frankly he had no illusions of successfully hitting a jounin so he didn't feel particularly bitter about it.

He loved every second of it. Fluidly alternating between kicks and punches, leaping into the air with a spinning kick and flipping over Gaku's head. Landing and sliding across the ground while dipping into a low sweeping kick, using handstands to give his kicks extra leverage. Sparring had always been his favorite activity at the Academy, and even if he could only practice his offensive skills right now he loved it.

Mostly, though, they spent their sessions improving his aim with projectile weapons and increasing his chakra reserves.

"The Sharingan will allow you to copy numerous ninjutsu," Gaku explained as the young Uchiha sat cross-legged on the ground, several leaves sticking to his arms and face, "but that won't be very helpful if you can only use a few before passing out from chakra exhaustion. This exercise, while basic, helps build your reserves and also improve your control." Masaru merely nodded, his attention focused on keeping the leaves from falling off.

Their first week passed fairly quickly like that, the training rather basic but still leading to small, steady improvements. On the sixth day Gaku dismissed him and told him to take the next day as a break, with promises of his first joint D-rank at their next meeting. He returned home feeling a bit tired but satisfied, happy to enjoy a day off.

Sasuke, on the other hand, seemed a bit less pleased with his own day.

"Um." Masaru just stared blankly at Sasuke, unsure what to say. Mud covered him so thickly he almost couldn't see his cousin's clothes and limbs, his face the only area clear of dirt which gave Masaru a clear view of his irritation. Grunting in annoyance, Sasuke trudged into the apartment straight for the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. Masaru just stood lamely in the kitchen as he listened to the water run, highly confused by his cousin's state.

Half an hour later the water turned off, and he heard a muffled noise of frustration. "Masaru, can you get some clothes from my room?" Sasuke called, and the brunette quickly obliged, stepping into Sasuke's bedroom to grab a clean shirt and boxers. Knocking on the bathroom door, it opened and his cousin quickly snatched the clothes before shoving out his old, dirty ones.

By the time Masaru dumped it in the laundry hamper Sasuke had emerged and stood in the living room, toweling off his damp hair. "What happened?" Masaru asked curiously, and Sasuke scowled in irritation.

"We had a D-rank to catch some dumb cat," he grumbled, his eyebrow twitching at the memory. "At one point we sighted it on the opposite side of a pond so we decided to cross it to save time. It turned out to be deeper than it looked." Masaru blinked, really not expecting that. A long moment of silence followed before Masaru turned and started walking for the door, making Sasuke frown. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to visit Uncle Obito and ask for him to watch over me on my first D-rank," Masaru replied, shooting Sasuke an impressively deadpan look over his shoulder as he opened the door. Then he yelped as he felt a fist collide with his chest, jerking back in shock and snapping his head forward. A surprised Naruto stood in the doorway, his fist hovering in the air.

"Huh? Masaru?" He blinked dumbly, and then his eyes slowly slid over to his still-hovering fist. Cue instant panic, his eyes growing wide as he jumped back with a startled shout. "Agh! Masaru! Sorry, I was trying to knock on the door! Honest! I didn't mean to hit you!"

Of course his panic made Masaru start to freak out as well, his own face screwing in alarm as he waved his hands in a reassuring gesture. "I-it's okay! I was just trying to open the door and it didn't hurt so it's okay!" As the two boys faced each other with obvious growing panic, Sasuke appeared behind his cousin to shoot Naruto an unimpressed look.

"Dobe, what are you doing here?" he demanded, and the sudden question made them stop and turn to look at him in surprise, their momentary panic gone.

"Oh, right!" Naruto quickly fished through his pocket and produced a flat, pouch-like object, shaped like a shogi tile and covered with blue silk. "After you went home I found this and Kakashi-sensei said it was yours." Sasuke's eyes widened and he quickly snatched it from him, but not before Masaru spied a silver patch embroidered onto one side with the kanji for "protection" in elegant script.

"An omamori?" he murmured, his brow furrowing. Usually people bought the amulets at shrines for good luck or protection, but as far as he knew the only shrine Sasuke ever visited was the Naka Shrine.

"Something like that," his cousin muttered, thumbing the amulet with a strangely soft look on his face. "It's... an old gift." He left it at that, carrying it to his bedroom and slamming the door.

"Gee, you're welcome," Naruto grumbled sarcastically, grinding his teeth in irritation, but paused when he noticed Masaru looking at him. For a moment they just stood in awkward silence, until eventually Naruto stepped back and rubbed the back of his neck. "W-well, uh, anyways, that's all I came here for, so I guess I'll just be... going now, eheh."

Flashing a sheepish grin, the blond turned and quickly started down the hallway. Masaru's shoulders sagged slightly, wondering if maybe he should go after him. As he tried to gather his nerves though, he heard the door to Sasuke's room open and his cousin suddenly appeared next to him, dragging the surprised brunette into the hall. "Oi, dobe, wait up," he called, making Naruto freeze and turn to look at them in surprise.

"Huh? What's up?"

"You haven't eaten dinner yet, have you?" Sasuke questioned, making both Naruto and Masaru blink.

"Uh, no, not yet," he said with a wary look, understandably suspicious of the sudden apparent concern for his diet. "I was gonna head to Ichiraku's after this—"

"Change of plans, you're getting something from that teriyaki place instead," Sasuke interrupted. Masaru gaped at him in utter bewilderment, while Naruto's jaw dropped before he abruptly clamped it shut and scowled.

"Oi, teme! What's this about? You can't tell me where to eat!"

"I can when I'm the one paying." The blunt declaration made Naruto nearly fall over, and now Masaru's jaw hung open. Sasuke? Being generous to someone other than him?

"Uh... Sasuke? Are you... Um..." Trailing off, he looked at Sasuke helplessly, too confused to find any words. Fortunately, Naruto had no such issues, crossing his arms and squinting at him suspiciously.

"What are you up to, teme?"

"Don't read too much into it," the black-haired Uchiha replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I already planned to get takeout anyway, so might as well get you some too."

Approximately three point five seconds passed as Masaru stared at him before his brain finally processed the statement. Oh. Of course. Turning to Naruto, he blandly translated, "He wants to thank you but thinks he's too cool to actually say it out loud, so he's buying you dinner instead."

Sasuke shot him an irritated look while Naruto snickered. "Phew, what a relief!" he declared with an exaggerated sigh. "For a second I thought the world might be ending!"

"Shut up," Sasuke growled, smacking them both on the head before stalking down the hall. The pair exchanged glances and then broke into snickers as they trailed after him, their faces lit up with large grins.