No romance between these brothers ever.

I have plans for Kagami, a lot of them actually, all really interesting and fun and powerful. Nothing like you can guess, it hasn't been outright stated but it is there.

Shino was by no means a social creature, in fact, he tended to hate talking loudly at all. Ever since losing Torune to Danzo, any social skills he had started to develop had wilted painfully. He was far too aware of this fact, most saw him as creepy and weird and more. However, looking at the very distressed face of one Kagami Uzumaki while Naruto was bragging about graduating to Shikamaru Nara made his heartache. He respected Kagami, always had, unlike Naruto who was obnoxious and hard to tolerate, Kagami was patient, calm, and studious. He trained harder than almost all of them, studying at any and all breaks, never taking recess or anything of that sorts. He did all he could to mitigate the neglect from hateful teachers and so on.

'Damn it...' He thought to himself, standing. 'Why am I doing this?' Moving, he calmly strode over to Kagami and sat down. "Can I sit here?"

The boy, stunned, nodded. "Sure, I guess."

Nodding, Shino leaned in. "You're jealous."

"Huh?"

"Of Naruto, passing despite never trying... I get that, I think many of us are. I know I am, but I am also smart enough to see that he will never excel. Naruto has no foundation. He has no basis for being a ninja. Your taijutsu is excellent, you are the only one that can fight Sasuke and not lose in a few minutes. Academically you beat Sasuke in a few areas. Your replacement is by far the best in the class, you are the only one that does not mask his replacement with smoke. You are as fast as Sasuke and physically stronger. You are physically the strongest person in the class, by a large margin, and your chakra levels are only inferior to Naruto's in size but not in power or density or control.

You are also more liked, I cannot speak for everyone, but I do have ears. The Senseis prefer you, most of the students prefer you, I prefer you. I know Naruto gets the attention, the blessings of the Hokage to get away with everything, but you will be the one that shines since you actually work hard. You have a basis for being a ninja, you are the one that puts in effort and power."

Kagami gaped at him, his eyes suspiciously wet. Taking a deep, calming breath he smiled at Shino. " Thank you... do... you want to spar? I know you like fighting."

Shino nodded, giving his own rare smile to the boy. "I would be honored to spar with you, but not today. We have to meet our Senseis and who knows what they will have us do. We will find a time later for that."

"Why bring this up now, tell me this now?"

"I noticed that you seemed upset while Naruto was bragging about graduating with his new jutsu, whichever jutsu it is. I have seen you get upset in the past, though you hide it well... I felt... obligated to help a classmate, I wasn't sure how but I realized this might be my last time to help and so I did. It is that simple."

"Well, thank you for that, Shino..."

""

'Well, that was nice.' For once, Kagami felt sort of decent in the class. Of all of the students, he really only respected Sasuke and Shino, no one else seemed to take their studies seriously and neither were bullies or jerks. Sure Sasuke was quiet and broody, but he was not mean to him at all. Shino had always been respectful and decent overall. Hearing Shino's kind, attentive words meant the world. 'Not that it was enough to keep me in this stupid village, If ANBU denies, me, I am gone, Ru or not... I hope."He shivered, knowing how dangerous that dream would be. Knowing what he did now, it seemed impossible that he would ever be allowed to leave the village. 'That they would allow a powerful weapon like me to leave just seems... unlikely.'

Twenty or so minutes passed and a very injured Iruka walked into the room, giving a speil that Kagami mostly tuned out. It was on patriotism and loyalty and blah blah blah. He never really cared for the obsession with loyalty to their shithole of a village. He only wanted to be ANBU for a chance to be judged on his merit and to help his brother's goal ( no matter how unlikely it seemed) loyalty had nothing to do with it.

He only listened in to hear Naruto was on Team Seven and waited to hear his name...

"... And since there was extra people, Kagami Uzumaki you are to enter the reserves. That means that you will be substituting on the various teams as needed if they have an injured student or a clan ninja that is training with their clan. You are to report to the Missions office every day at eight for your assignment."

Gaping, Kagami looked at Iruka. "You are saying I get no consistent teacher... again? That I am being screwed by this village... again?"

Iruka looked uncomfortable. "Well... yes, on the first part."

Shaking, he managed to stand. "Am I needed today?"

"No, you aren't, you get the day off... "

"Do I have access to the jutsu library?"

Iruka nodded. "Yes, you do, just show your card."

Nodding, Kagami hurried out of the room, not caring that he had made the tiniest of scenes, he was pissed, he was tired and he was done being treated like crap by this shithole of a village. They were wearing any traces of loyalty he may have forgotten to scrap away in the past.

'Screw them, I will just teach myself, as I have been for the last seven years! I will be powerful on my own, skilled without their help and then I will shine, I will rise and either go into ANBU or I will defect... but when? I need something, a big something... a smokescreen so I am not detected by the Leaf until it is too late... but Naruto... damn it, I need to think about myself, he is a big boy that can make his own choices... I need to make my own choices... I need to be free.'

""""

"The most promising new student, Sasuke Uchiha. Is that him?"

Hiruzen nodded as they looked into his crystal ball. "Yes, he's the one."

"He's the only survivor left from the Uchiha clan." Kurenai said, her voice mellow and just a little sad.

"That's right."

The crystal ball's image shifted until it revealed a very irritated Kagami. "You are saying I get no consistent teacher... again? That I am being screwed by this village... again?"

The boy's rage, his pain echoed in every word and not a person held back a flinch. Kurenai looked up at the Hokage. "Why is he being put in the Reserves. We all have seen the collective grades, he was only beat by the Uchiha boy and not even by that much in most places. He would easily claim second, his replacement was noted to be better than some chunin's and he is outright the physically strongest of his class, stronger than even his twin by a sizeable margin."

The Hokage. "The other teams were preplanned, on some level. Some we just know will fail, others will be idealized tracking teams or Ino-Shika-Cho and so on. There wasn't a place for him, despite his good grades. I did what I could, at least with reserves he had train himself and get many good teachers like you all."

A few of the Ninja looked disgusted, but none of them were dumb enough to say anything about it,... though many, many disagreed...

:::

Despite the librarian treating him to a glare, Kagami relished in the library's essence. All this knowledge, this power, this collection of potential! It took everything to not cackle madly, as it was he finally at a place where he could gain the power needed to fulfill his dreams one way or another. Skipping down the isles, he found his way into the taijutsu section and start to peruse.

Within about ten minutes, he left the library with five scrolls and two books. Two scrolls on generic taijutsu known as Shifting Leaf for defensive and offensive Katas, a scroll on chakra control exercises, a scroll on the body flicker which was oddly a d rank jutsu despite it's incredible use and history of being spammed by the Fourth and Second Hoakges, a scroll on the usage of Katanas since ANBU used Katanas, a book on advanced anatomy ( useful for ANBU), and a book on advanced physical conditioning written by someone named Chen.

Excited, the boy hurried to his personal training field and got started. He had already trained in conditioning for the day, so he decided to start on the chakra control exercises. He knew he had a lot of chakra so he figured it would be a good place to start to master the Shushin.

"The Tree climbing exercise... doesn't seem to hard... get a running start at the tree while channeling chakra to stick onto the vertical surface... okay... it's like the Leaf concentration exercise to the extreme. I can do this." Rushing he got about halfway up his tree before having to throw himself back. "Okay, that was a bust... but still, it says most people never get more than a third at first... progress." Gathering his chakra, he focused his mind and did it again... making it just slightly further before flipping off. "Damn... okay... I can do this... I got this... I got this. I could manage those stupid clones despite my chakra levels, I can do this stupid exercise... I can do this... I got this."

He would end up making it to the top of the tree by the end of the first hour... however the scroll defined mastery as being able to calmly walk up the tree without the momentum of walking and that would take well into the night...

But damn it, he would do it.., and no one would stop his rise. Not figuratively, not literally...

Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.

This was really fun to write. I love him having a goal, ANBU, no matter what happens it will help mold him and that is why he has a dream. He needs it to sustain himself...

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.