Chapter 22


"Looks like this story is wrapping up quite nicely. Unless someone says something that counts as foreshadowing..."


Sprawled atop his bed, Masaru lazily flicked through the thick book, eyes gliding over the words without really absorbing anything. After an extended training session that ran late into the evening he had gone home exhausted but eager to continue learning, and as such he decided to peruse some of the books he'd taken from his mother's study.

While he never knew Ryoko as a kunoichi, the books she'd amassed suggested she possessed an incredibly diverse array of skills for an Uchiha. Even as a child he knew she served as a bit of an eye doctor for the Uchiha clan, and her vast collection of books and handwritten research notes on the Sharingan served as testimony to this. Yet for every document she had on their clan's history and doujutsu, ten more seemed to exist on a variety of other subjects.

Scrolls bearing the symbols of other villages and showing various elemental jutsu, most likely pilfered from fallen foes. Textbooks dedicated to the interactions between various poisons and the human body. Copies of complex speculative theses by various figures on the nature of the chakra. Old journals recounting sightings of now-extinct kekkei genkai. Uchiha Ryoko seemed to have at least one document on every topic a shinobi might need in the field.

Above all else though, her favorite subject seemed to be fuinjutsu. Complex diagrams featuring intricately scripted designs filled the pages, with small notes scribbled in the margins pointing out the various facets of the seals displayed and voicing her own theories and ideas on variations. His finger traced over the neatly handwritten characters, his features softening as he stared at the familiar script of his mother's hand.

Masaru suspected a fuinjutsu master would find her notes incredibly useful, but seeing as he couldn't understand a word of the complex technical jargon and long formulas, he couldn't be sure. Still, he found her familiar handwriting strangely comforting.

The sound of the front door opening caught his attention, and he snapped his head over his shoulder in alarm. Within seconds he'd leaped off the bed and pressed against the wall by his open door, a kunai sliding into his hand. His heart thudded as he listened intently, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

"Masaru, I'm back," a familiar voice called, and Masaru perked up as all tension faded, a giant grin lighting up his face as he rushed into the hall. Sasuke stood in the entrance of the apartment, dropping his backpack on the kitchen counter. Surprisingly, he hadn't come alone, as Naruto and Sakura also joined him in depositing bags on the counter.

"Hey, Masaru!" Naruto greeted cheerfully, flashing him one of his sunlight-incarnate grins. "Man, it feels like it's been ages since we last saw each other!"

Sakura offered a more demure smile, looking almost sheepish as she waved at him. "Hope you don't mind us coming over unannounced. Naruto didn't want to go back to his apartment alone, and my parents are out of town at a friend's wedding right now so I'd be going home to an empty house too."

Still slightly surprised by their presences, he blinked and quickly shook his head. "No, it's okay. I'm just surprised, I guess?" Shrugging, he asked, "So how was the mission?" The trio stiffened slightly at the question, exchanging pointed glances.

"You might want to sit down," Sasuke advised solemnly, and with that Team Seven launched into a recounting of their glorious escapades in Wave.


It had been one of the stranger debriefings of Hiruzen's tenure as Hokage.

Yamanaka Inoichi and Nara Shikaku stood behind him as he sat at his desk, their stances casual and relaxed but their eyes calculating as they listened to Kakashi recount his experiences in captivity. To the side Hyuuga Hiashi watched the Copy-nin intently, veins bulging around his eyes as he monitored his chakra with the Byakugan, while Tenzo stood behind his former captain as a silent but supportive presence.

"He kept insisting we used to work together," Kakashi commented once he finished his tale. "The only sensible conclusion I can reach is that he's a former Leaf ninja, but one who's listed as dead. He never gave me any solid hints to his identity though."

"If he truly considered himself an ally, he wouldn't have concealed his identity," Hiashi decided aloud. "The fact that he refused to identify himself is strong evidence that he has no loyalty to Konoha."

"I don't think it's that simple," Kakashi replied, frowning under his mask. "The way he spoke, I get the impression that he feels his life would be endangered if specific parties in Konoha learned he's alive. That's why I asked to keep the specifics of the encounter under wraps until a more thorough investigation could be done."

"That still suggests he considers Konoha a threat, though," Inoichi murmured, but his teammate huffed a small sigh and folded his arms.

"Not exactly," Shikaku said. "There are definitely individual factions in Konoha with different agendas than the Hokage or general population. I can think of a few scenarios where someone could be loyal to the village. For example..."

His eyes roved about the room, landing on the Hyuuga clan leader. "Let's imagine a member of the Hyuuga's Branch house found a way to remove the Caged Bird Seal. They have nothing against Konoha, but by staying in the village they'll inevitably be discovered and forced to have it put back, or possibly even get executed. So to avoid that, they fake their death. If the Hyuuga clan ever learned of their survival, they would lobby the Hokage to send a search party to apprehend the man as a traitor to the village."

"Ah, do you really want to use that kind of example in front of the Hyuuga clan's leader?" Tenzo muttered, awkwardly rocking on his feet while darting a glance in the ever-stern man's direction.

"It is fine," Hiashi informed him crisply. "In my opinion, Nara-san poses an incredibly valid and plausible example, and it is in fact a scenario my clan has considered many times in the past. It is why we insist so heavily on evidence of a member's death in the events where bodies cannot be recovered."

"Actually, I think that example aligns quite closely with my own theory," Kakashi murmured, and the gathered ninja leveled keen looks on him. The Hokage frowned as he hunched forward, steepling his fingers under his chin.

"You believe the man to be a survivor of the Uchiha," he stated quietly, voicing the words on everyone's mind.

"I do," Kakashi confirmed just as quietly.

Grave silence fell once more as they considered the implications of the possibility, and why he would not want Konoha to know of his existence. Behind him Hiruzen could feel Shikaku's keen gaze boring into his back, and to the side Hiashi also offered him a knowing look. Hiruzen didn't react to them, closing his eyes as he mulled over the situation.

When he'd read the first report that had been delivered by one of Kakashi's ninken three days ago, his mind had instantly reached the same conclusion as the Copy-nin. And from there his first thought naturally went to Danzou. If an Uchiha had survived the massacre, then Danzou would undoubtedly try to eliminate them. The mere fact they considered Konoha dangerous would suggest they knew too much for his old friend's comfort.

"You're too soft," echoed a long-gone voice in his head. "Right now people are suffering because you are turning a blind eye to the actions of your so-called friends! At this rate, innocent blood will spill and Konoha will suffer because of your inaction!"

Hiruzen kept his thoughts to himself, unwilling to share his suspicions with anyone present and instead letting them stew on their own contemplations. Clearly Tenzo did not like the conclusions he drew, because his face twisted in discomfort and he spoke up feebly. "We don't have absolute proof that it's an Uchiha. Kakashi never got a look at his face thanks to that mask. And even if he does turn out to have the Sharingan, it could easily be implanted."

"All the same, I don't know how many non-Uchiha could fit those qualifications," Shikaku remarked calmly. "Kakashi said that before the procedure, his captor consulted several notebooks, and I would bet my life that they belonged to Uchiha Ryoko. She showed me her research a few times, and she put seals on a lot of her more sensitive notes. It's impossible to read them unless you have your chakra keyed into it and know the proper sequence of hand seals to deactivate them."

"So in other words, whoever kidnapped Kakashi would have to be someone Ryoko trusted," Inoichi reasoned. "That should lower the number of suspects, so it's a start."

"It does," the Hokage agreed. Ever neutral and pragmatic, he continued, "However, that is only assuming the notes did belong to Ryoko. We cannot absolutely eliminate the possibility of it being another party."

"I think Ryoko's the most logical option though," Kakashi interjected, casually reaching for his hitai-ate and sliding it upwards to expose his implanted eye. "I can't think of anyone else who would have access to the resources and possess the knowledge necessary to figure out how to do this."

As he spoke the three tomoe of the Sharingan rapidly expanded and clouded his eye, shading the distinct blood red iris an inky and dormant black.


"And so then the townsfolk raided Gato's place and set it on fire!" Naruto finished with an enthusiastic grin, slurping ramen noodles happily. Masaru just stared at him in mild shock, his mind whirling. Team Seven had spent the past two hours regaling him with their escapades in Wave over cups of instant ramen, and to call it overwhelming would be an understatement. Between Kakashi getting kidnapped and their unusual strategy to employ Naruto clones for everything, they had quite the C-rank mission.

"And I thought working with Ino was bad," he mumbled, sagging in his seat. Sakura perked up at the mention of her best friend, looking at him curiously.

"You worked with Ino?" she asked, and the brunette nodded glumly, making her smile apologetically. "Sorry about that, she can be a bit... forward." Masaru raised a single eyebrow at her, his face silently projecting 'A bit?' with visible sarcasm. "Okay, a lot. I'll... try to work with her on it." Sakura turned back to her food but suddenly paused. "Hold on a second. If you're allowed to work with Team Ten, then does that mean you might work with our team?"

The question gave the other three genin pause, staring at the lone female blankly as the gears turned in their heads. Then Naruto leaped up with a loud cheer, pumping a fist into the air. "Hell yeah! I don't even care if it's pulling weeds, running a mission with Masaru will be awesome!"

"That's only if our sensei agree to it," Sasuke pointed out flatly, and Naruto nearly crashed to the ground. "According to Kakashi we got ahead of most of the other genin thanks to Sakura figuring out how to walk on trees with chakra, and we're moving on to elemental jutsu after we get down water walking. So they might want to have Team Seven work on our own a bit until Masaru can catch up some more."

"Oh, right." Naruto sank into his chair with a dejected groan, not even the half-full cups of instant ramen able to lift his mood. Masaru, however, seemed strangely thoughtful as he gazed at his empty bowl, something Sakura didn't miss.

"...Masaru?" she ventured, startling the boy. "Are you okay?" Masaru blinked at her before scratching the side of his face, his lips quirking into a small smile.

"...I, uh, already learned to walk on water from Gaku-sensei," he admitted sheepishly, and the trio of genin snapped sharp looks at him.

"Wait, what!?" Naruto blurted, jaw dropping. "No fair! I mean, that's awesome, but, Kakashi-sensei didn't help a bit!"

"He probably would have soon?" Shrugging, he continued, "The only reason Gaku-sensei taught me is because he wanted to teach me something other than the basics. Most early genin training is just building up teamwork, and I can't really do that without a team. Walking on trees and water helps build your chakra reserves faster than doing the leaf exercise, too, and that's one of our main goals right now."

"That makes a lot of sense," Sasuke muttered thoughtfully, and shrugged as he picked up his chopsticks again. "I half-expected you to say you got it from your mom's books."

"His mom's books?" Books never failed to capture Sakura's attention, and Masaru nodded at her.

"Yeah, she had books on a lot of stuff and I keep a bunch in my bedroom. I can't even understand all of them though." Pausing as he noticed the bright sparkle in her eyes, he hesitantly offered, "Um, I can show you some of them if you want...?"

"Yes, please!" Sakura chirped cheerily, and before he could say another word she'd leaped up from the table and dragged him away. Masaru felt his face heat up as they entered his bedroom because holy crap, he had a girl in his room. A girl. With no blood relation. In his bedroom. His room.

While he discreetly assessed the space to make sure none of his underwear was on the floor or anything, the source of his current state of distress remained oblivious to the turmoil she caused as Sakura's gaze instead trained on his bookshelf. Mouth falling open in awe at the sheer number of volumes lining the shelves, she glanced around the room and quickly strode to his bed, picking up the book lying there.

"Offensive Applications for Fuinjutsu?" she read aloud as she glanced at the cover. Opening it, she flipped through the pages and her eyebrows quickly knitted together. "This is all really complicated. Can you understand any of this?"

"I don't understand any of her fuinjutsu books," Masaru informed her blandly, a bit calmer now that he'd determined his room to be void of any embarrassing messes. The reference to the book stirred his memory though, his eyes wandering to the map behind her. Following his gaze, Sakura released a small gasp and quickly closed the book, a look of awe on her face as she viewed the map.

"Woah, this is beautiful," she breathed, and Masaru smiled slightly as he joined her.

"Yeah. My mom painted it." Climbing onto his bed, he leaned over and traced the black markings bordering the illustration. "These markings are some kind of seals, but I don't know what they do. I only noticed it recently. I was actually going to try to activate them right before you guys arrived."

"Wait, wouldn't that be dangerous?" Sakura questioned, frowning. "I mean, for all you know it could be like a really complicated explosive tag."

"Maybe, but... I don't think so? My mom had a lot of issues, but she wouldn't spend hours painting something just to add a seal that'd destroy it." The young kunoichi frowned slightly as she studied the map, but after a while she shrugged.

"Well, in that case, let's give it a shot." Surprised to hear her approval, Masaru glanced at her in mild shock before smiling and turning back. Placing his palm on the center of the illustration, he flared his chakra and let it seep into the paper, quickly retracting his hand. The genin held their breaths as they watched it.

Nothing happened.

Sagging in disappointment, they released quiet sighs of disappointment only to freeze at a loud shout from Naruto. "Teme, your butt's glowing!"

Exchanging startled looks, Sakura and Masaru quickly raced out of his room to find Naruto crouched on a wall and pointing at Sasuke with a look of shock. The normally stoic Uchiha twisted his head to look at his backside in disbelief and sure enough, a blue light emanated from one of his back pockets. He quickly reached into it and pulled out the pseudo-omamori, revealing a bright blue light emanating from the character for "protection".

"What the hell!?" he sputtered, looking just as shocked as Masaru felt. Next to him Sakura's throat went dry, her eyes widening as comprehension suddenly flickered in them.

"...Sasuke, flare it with chakra!" she told him, and he shot her a quizzical look.

"What the hell are you—"

"Hurry! Before it fades!" Still confused and skeptical, Sasuke frowned but after a moment he did as told, and the light flashed gold before fading. Even as he did it Sakura spun and raced back to Masaru's room, the trio of males quickly following after her.

Any questions died on their lips as they entered just in time to see a gold light suddenly pulse in the central character at the bottom of the map. Rippling along the seals in a counter-clockwise motion around the map, the glow briefly flashed blue as it surged up the right side. A blue light flickered into existence atop the stylized leaf representing Konoha, the kanji for "protection" appearing next to it.


Hey guys, with this the Wave arc is over and a new mystery appears! I might post a chapter full of omakes this weekend though, not sure yet. We'll see. By the way, if you're looking for another fun OC-centric fic that's not an SI, I recommend "Ain't no rest for the wicked" by LazuliQuetzal. It's a time travel fic about an ANBU cannon fodder, and it's actually one of the fan fics which inspired me to write Echoes of Light (despite having totally different premises). I highly recommend it, it's a great read. You can find it in my profile under my favorites!