"Sasuke?" Iruka says, putting down the test he was grading and looking me in the eyes. He says a bunch of words before and after my name as well, which I think amount to "what can I help you with", but I'm not 100% sure.
Fuck me, a full week in and I still can't speak to the natives.
"Help. Read" I say, thrusting forwards a children's book, specifically chosen because I don't recognize much of the kanji. Iruka tries to hide it, but I can see the quick eye flick he makes between me and the paperwork waiting for him on his desk.
I take the initiative and make the decision for him, crawling into his lap before he can wave me away.
Reading with Iruka is probably the highlight of my week. Between the training, the incessant yelling I'm forced to listen to on the off days I show up to the academy and the never ending Tsukuyomi moments, this was probably the first time I wasn't stuck in go mode.
Iruka's voice is oddly soothing, and the repeating patterns in the book are honestly hypnotic in their own right. I feel myself drifting off, but it's like I can't be bothered to stop it.
A break would be good for me.
For the first time in forever, I feel rested after waking up.
The talk with Iruka after is slightly awkward, but I'm out of there before it gets too weird. Turns out he just sat there for a while, marking papers after I dozed off. I'm definitely going to give that guy a raise in the future.
Everyday, I wish I had inherited Sasuke's memories. Beyond the difficulty I have with communicating with anyone else, my chakra is… well it's completely fucked. I know meditation is a big part of chakra creation, what with the whole spiritual power component of chakra, but whatever Sasuke did to get his chakra going is completely lost to me.
Didn't the kid manage to spit out a whole ass fireball at this age? Crazy feat if you ask me.
It's not even like his body forgot how to do it. Being able to subconsciously produce some chakra is the only reason I can give for my Sharingan still working properly, but every technique takes more chakra, or tighter control than what I'm capable of mustering.
I need to get the basics down. Itachi left me a lot of data to sift through, but at the end of the day I first need to get a foundation to stand on before I can start mimicking what he showed me in Tsukuyomi.
It takes me weeks to become conversationally fluid in pseudo-Japanese, and weeks more on top of that to be able to read basic text.
But that's all I need, really. Basic Japanese unlocks the dictionary, and with the dictionary comes every word in the written language.
Blue fire burns in my chest. I feel it's heat, woah that's hot. Them's chakra networks are beautiful, all lit up like that, aren't they?
Now split off some of that blue fire. Stretch it out, swirl it around, work it like it's dough. Slowly spread it oooout… aah that's it.
Calling what I was doing meditation was probably inaccurate as it was more so an exercise in visualization. I imagine that this process would've been much harder if not for my sharingan. That thing lets me look at chakra networks without real restriction, giving me a very good visual idea of what was going on in there.
Complete hacks.
The scrolls told me not to bother with trying out techniques until I was comfortable with internally manipulating chakra, so that's what I did. They suggested to start with creating chakra, then moving chakra throughout the body, moving chakra to specific parts of the body, and finally shaping the chakra with the help of hand signs.
Would you believe that the log swap is 5 hand seals? How did anyone save their lives in a split second with 5 hand seals? Answer - they didn't.
If I'm understanding the scroll correctly I don't actually need hand signs to do jutsu, it's just that shaping the chakra, especially for more complex jutsu, can be ludicrously difficult to do without hand signs to help with the Chakra shaping. But since I can turn on the eyes and just look at how the chakra is getting shaped, a fun side project is to get rid of the hand seals.
Well, I say "side project". Once I'm at the level where getting rid of seals is a possibility it's automatically becoming the number 1 priority.
40. 41. 42. I think that's 43? Lets call it 42 to be safe. 42. 43. Holy shit it burnsss 44.
I collapse to the ground, exhausted. 44 pushups. I could do 44 pushups.
As a 6 year old.
"Naruto, you idiot! Get away from me!"
On the one hand, I can practically feel the hands of fate wringing my neck. Especially with the perfect recall that comes with Sharingan, every time I close my eyes I can see - in extremely vivid and stomach churning detail - what happens to the nobodies that get caught in the crossfire.
Every moment is precious, and with all the resources at my grasp my speed of improvement can be multiplied tenfold from what Sasuke got in canon. I wouldn't ever be Itachi level, at least not by graduation year. That guys natural intelligence is just so far out of my league that it isn't funny - which makes making the most of every moment even more important.
"But Sakura, I just wanted to ask-"
"No I want to play your stupid ninja game!"
On the other hand…
I let out a sigh, and prepare myself for an incoming headache. But honestly, knowing that kid is sitting alone on a swing looking like that is going to be an even bigger pain in the ass.
"Hey. Naruto, right?"
"What do you want Sasuke." He grumbles, kicking at a rock. That's… actually a good question. What the hell did I have in mind 5 seconds ago? I stand there thinking for a good couple seconds, before I choose a random action and commit.
"Tag. You're it." Naruto looks up at me with wide eyes, disbelieving.
"What, you chicken? Bet you can't -" at the drop of a hat Naruto launches himself at me, and I barely twist out of the way of the Naruto cannonball.
I hear him scrambling up behind me, and the chase is on.
Alright, I'm gonna fucking say it, that Naruto kid is a demon. Why the fuck is a kid able to be this fast and maintain - holy fucking shit he's on me again. I twist out of the way of another one of his tackles, and he goes down harder than normal.
"Hey Naruto, you good? That didn't sound - " and the little shit leaps up at me, catching me completely off guard and dragging me to the ground.
I sit there, stunned at how hard he committed. Before running off over the horizon, Naruto turns back for a moment and blows a raspberry at me.
Oh no you fucking don't.
I never do manage to tag the little bastard back.
A/N I can avoid writing dialogue copium.
