I sat on the roof of a house, near one of the less crowded but still used streets of Konoha. I closed my eyes, let the sounds of the civilians below bleed away, breathed in, and reached out with my spiritual energy.

I have found two things since I started this project of mine a few weeks ago.

One, I am a natural at Ninshu. It sounds arrogant but it isn't, it was just that easy for me, I almost want to say it is easy for everyone but if it was that simple somebody would have stumbled upon it over the centuries since Hagoromo.

I am more connected to my soul than canon Sasuke, maybe because I remember what being a disembodied soul felt like, maybe because I'm aware of my spiritual heritage and can tap into it better, maybe because I am Indra and some of the experience of being taught by Hagoromo himself bled over.

I have been experiencing flashes of memory more often, ever since I began trying to learn Ninshu. Most of it is intelligible sounds and sights that disappear far too fast for me to get anything out of, but sometimes I get feelings, emotional imprints that I can instinctively understand even when I shouldn't be able to.

When I first tried Ninshu, I was hit by a mixture of nostalgia and grief, one that I knew came from one of the first lessons in Ninshu that Asura and I- that Asura and Indra took part in, as well as the reminder that the teacher, Hagoromo, is long gone.

I'm not sure how to feel about Indra bleeding into me, on one hand, I'm already Sasuke plus one and Indra is Sasuke so I should just accept it as part of myself. On the other I could do without the pain of a man that has been dead for millennia, I have enough of it when I remember my family as is.

The second thing I found is, modifying Ninshu to act the way I need it to, picking up other people's emotions without giving away mine, is hard.

I managed to start picking up other people on the first day, even if it took me a while to be able to accurately decipher the feedback, but I'm still having trouble isolating myself. No, that isn't right, I can't isolate myself at all, it is just so against Ninshu's purpose of existence that I always send something towards my target.

What I can do, and it has to be some cruel twist of fate, is draw on the Void. By focusing on my memories of the Void, how it felt, or rather how it was devoid of feeling, I can prevent myself from sending something back by ensuring there is nothing to send.

That I'd rather not have to do that need not be said.

I believe that as my experience with spiritual energy grows I'll be able to bypass that by tapping into the peace I felt when I first delved into my Yin energy, essentially creating a barrier around myself to catch any feelings I send out while letting the ones I pick up through. But so far that is a pipe dream at best.

At least I was smart enough to make sure I'm practicing on civilians, I have no doubt a ninja would immediately zero in on me if civies can tell my general direction when I'm caught. Plus their emotions are much 'louder', for the lack of a better term, than that of ninja, so it is easier.

So in short: I can already use basic Ninshu, or at least I believe I can as I would need to connect to another practitioner to know for sure, and even if there was one I'm not about to let anyone have access to my soul like that.

I still can't isolate myself properly, it is very detectable, and I have to focus on one person at a time to use it and can barely feel echoes of others even when they are right next to each other. And of course, there are issues like my range is shit, I need to focus so much that I can't use it in any sort of active movement, never mind combat, and every time I lose control the spiritual energy I was using is lost.

At least it burns through pure spiritual energy, not chakra, the former I have plenty to spare, the latter not so much.

After a few moments of focus it clicked in, if I had to describe it I'd say it is like I can see their emotions. Outlines of the people I'm 'looking' at tinted with a mix of 'colors' that indicated what they felt.

If I focused on any of them in particular, I could almost 'hear' them whispering the reason for that color in my ear.

It wasn't really seeing or hearing anything, but the feeling of sensing something without using my 5 senses was so foreign that it is the best way I can describe it, like the world goes dark and I'm surrounded by colorful shades of people, seeing them on a far deeper level than even my Sharingan can.

I wonder if, once I become skilled enough at it, I'll be able to mix the two and have my Sharingan see emotions like it sees chakra. If that's even possible it will be a long time until I can.

I can even somewhat tell the level of the emotions and chakra that my target has. Emotions are fairly straightforward, the brighter the color, the stronger the feeling.

Chakra on the other hand...

Even without looking her way I can feel her coming, an extremely bright bundle of orange of all things, with a few touches of yellow and red.

But it is her silhouette that stands out, if normal civilians have silhouettes barely defined enough to spot them and the genin I once picked up by accident had one defined enough to tell his general body shape Natsumi almost feels like a perfect 3D scan of her.

She stands out to my sensing, so much so that even as unskilled at it as I am I could probably pick her out of a crowd easily.

Of course, that isn't the only thing about her that stands out.

I can see it in her stomach, a bright while seal that easily overcomes the brightness of her emotions and even her silhouette, and is only overcome by the few motes of angry dark red leaking out of it.

Kurama.

I wonder, I doubt the fact that she was a jinchuriki would have even been attempted to be kept a secret if every sensor could spot the Kyuubi as easily as I can, so is this due to my method bypassing whatever Minato put in there to keep it hidden? Is it because of our connection as Indra and Asura? Or is it because of my connection to Hagoromo and through him the Tailed Beasts?

It could honestly be any of them, or even all of them.

It also brings up another question, I always wondered how Sasuke could have been considered the more talented of the two. Sure he started out stronger and both are pretty talented, but Sasuke had a 4-year advantage and Naruto roughly caught up by the hospital fight less than a year into being genin.

Then Shippuden happened and even without the curse mark Sasuke was stronger again, but while Naruto caught up and eventually surpassed Sasuke with his Sage Mode, he did it all by training himself.

Meanwhile, Sasuke depended on the curse mark, something he was given by Orochimaru, then depended on the Mangekyo Sharingan, something he only had because he was born an Uchiha and went through something traumatic, then the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, something he gained thanks to Itachi, then the Rinnegan, which he gained from Hagoromo.

It always seemed to me that Naruto, when given proper guidance, showed way more talent than Sasuke ever did. Sasuke spent the entirety of Shippuden coasting off of things he didn't have to train to get.

Even if it can be argued that Naruto didn't train to get Kurama and that any training he needed to do to be able to use Kurama's power Sasuke also needed to do to be able to use his gifts properly, if you put up Naruto, with his Uzumaki heritage and everything he learned, against Sasuke, with his base Sharingan and everything he learned, but take away everything both received instead of developed?

Naruto wins every time, Sasuke is good but he's just outclassed by Sage Mode.

So how come Sasuke is the more talented? I don't know what Jiraiya was up to during the training trip to let the gap widen again but both times Naruto, with just training and a fraction of the time Sasuke had, managed to catch up and surpass him.

Could it be that Naruto, thanks to having a bijuu and especially Kurama specifically, was a lot more connected to his Asura heritage than even he knew? Could it be that the skills Asura gained through so many lifetimes of combat bled into Naruto more than Indra's bled into Sasuke? He had an extra connection in the form of Kurama so it is possible.

Or maybe it wasn't Kurama, maybe it is the fact that Asura, who received Hagoromo's body, had more experience using his heritage than Indra, who received Hagoromo's eyes, had? Indra couldn't have kept the Sharingan active permanently while I don't see how Asura could have deactivated his body.

Before the Void, I had chalked it up to shonen logic. Now that this is real? I honestly don't know.

It also brings the question of does this world exist because of Kishimoto, or did he just pick it up in his dreams and thought he came up with it? Is my world from Before some kind of interuniversal nexus? Or did the humans from my world have some sort of reality-warping creation of universes through fiction power that nobody knew about?

...I'll stop with the theories now, my head hurts and Natsumi is already here.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Natsumi shouts, because of course she does.

She might not be as loud as canon Naruto was supposed to be, at least most of the time, but she still has way too much energy.

"Natsumi." I greet her. "Did you finish Gai-sensei's training?"

She laughs.

"I sure did." Natsumi confirms. "I have finally surpassed you!"

I roll my eyes.

"Hardly." I say. "I plan to fight with speed and finesse, I'm not a brute like you and Gai-sensei."

More like I don't have the years of physical conditioning or the unfair advantage that comes from being an Uzumaki Jinchuriki to give me the raw power needed to use Gai's Strong Fist properly.

She sticks her tongue out at me.

"You're just jealous that I'm better at the Strong Fist than you." She says.

That is true, she's taken to it like a fish to water, and while I have copied whatever skills she picked up with my Sharingan, it still takes training to properly internalize it into my taijutsu. Just because I can use her moves doesn't mean she can't use them better without disrupting her flow.

But I'm not going to admit that, Kami knows her ego is big enough as it is.

"What was that?" I ask cheekily. "I can't hear you over the sound of my Interceptor Fist taking you apart easily."

She scowls.

"You're just better than me because you can use your stupid eyes."

I give her a very flat stare.

"Says the girl that does the same training I do, plus extra training, and is just fine after a short break."

We have a stare-off for a moment, then break down laughing.

Then I lift the bag by my side.

"I brought your favorite." I say. "Plenty of Ichiraku ramen for the both of us."

Her blue eyes shine in innocent joy, then turn to confusion.

"But why not just go there to eat?" She asks.

I smirk.

"I have an idea I think you'll enjoy." I say. "Try to keep up."

Then I'm off, jumping from roof to roof towards the massive cliff that overlooks Konoha, and despite what I said Natsumi is more than capable of keeping up with me, if only because neither of us are going at full speed.

We reach the cliffside and I turn back to her with a smirk on my lips.

"Let's see if you really surpassed me." I say.

Then I turn around, and with a running start I run at and up the wall. The feeling of being able to just treat gravity as a suggestion is almost as good as the shocked expression on Natsumi's face.

"Wha-How are you doing that!?" She demands.

I laugh.

"Chakra control." I say.

Her expression darkens, Natsumi hates chakra control exercises and I can't say I blame her. In part due to the seal, in part due to her chakra reserves just being massive, she has a very hard time training it.

It doesn't help that she is all but incapable of sitting still long enough to delve into her energies like I can, tapping into the calm that comes from spiritual energy would do her wonders.

Except Kurama, there's no way I'm helping her meet the big furball this early, nothing good can come from that if the emotions I pick up from him are any indication.

"Try to keep up." I said with the smuggest look I could manage.

Then I dashed up the cliff, going slow enough to both safely maintain my control, I'm still not good enough to maintain it subconsciously and I wouldn't want to fall from this height, and to make sure Natsumi can keep up.

Wouldn't want her to give me that kicked puppy look she does, it would probably hurt more than the fall.

It doesn't take more than a minute, with me using tree walking and Natsumi enhancing her body with chakra like Gai taught us to do, for us to reach the top. And after a moment to catch our breath, Natsumi surprises me by sitting on the Hokage's stone head.

Hashirama's, not Minato's.

...Okay? We never really talked about favorite Hokages but she showed enough similarities to canon Naruto that I at least half expected her to retain his admiration for Minato.

I shrug and join her.

"So what's this about?" She asks.

I just point towards the horizon, where the sun is slowly setting, painting it in a beautiful haze of color, a natural beauty that really makes me appreciate nature in a way I didn't Before.

"I figured the view would be pretty good from here." I say.

I glance at her and see her taking it in, smiling softly and with that innocent gleam in her eye.

"It is beautiful." She says.

"Yeah." I say. "It really is."

Then I open the bag and pass her some ramen before grabbing some for me. Not my favorite but it has grown on me.

A lot like her, now that I think about it. Before the massacre I used to find her loud and annoying, not someone I would go out of my way to spend time with and certainly not someone I would ever consider a friend.

Now? I hadn't realized how lonely I was, how much the memories of both the massacre and especially the Void were affecting me until she showed up and reminded me how important human contact is.

I don't know what would have happened if she didn't, I'm effectively surrounded by enemies, and even if my blood didn't make me a target my knowledge would. My goals are all but insane and anyone I could have told would have said so to my face.

I might have snapped, done something stupid, and either ended up revealed and tortured before being sent back to the Void or kept alive for as long as they could use me until I ran out of utility and then got sent back to the Void.

I'm glad she showed up, if only because whether I like it or not she has become something of an anchor for me, to help me relax and not be constantly overwhelmed by everything about my situation.

It wasn't part of the plan, but I guess "get stronger, get revenge, get immortality" was never much of a plan in the first place, and expecting to be able to just shrug off the weight of both my clan's slaughter and the impending Void was a pipe dream at best.

And with that, the night finally fell. A nice ending for a long but fruitful day, hopefully the first of many to come.

"I spoke with the Old M-with Sandaime-sama." She said.

Oh.

"He knew about my Kaa-san." She more whispered than spoke.

"H-He knew?" I played dumb, it was the first thing that came to mind.

"Yeah." She said, her voice far more hollow than I ever heard it.

I felt bad, because I caused it, even if indirectly. And I felt good, because if I ruin Hiruzen's relationship with the girl he likely sees as a granddaughter it might inflict upon him a fraction of the pain he inflicted upon me when my family was slaughtered under his watchful eye.

And I felt even worse, because holy fuck Natsumi was my only friend and here I am feeling good about ruining her relationship with one of the few people who cared for her in her entire life.

"I'm sorry." I said, not sure exactly what I was apologizing for.

"It isn't your fault." She said.

She shook her head.

"He said it was to protect me, that she had enemies."

Oh Hiruzen, you fucked up.

Natsumi, I found, was very, very proud. Not in the "I'm better than you" way but in the "I'll make my own path" way. Something I suspected Hiruzen initially approved of because she would "make her own path to earning the respect of the village", she would prove she wasn't a monster like they said she was.

In short, she hated when people took agency away from her, she's fiercely independent and stubborn beyond belief. She could recognize when she needed help and wasn't above accepting said help but she wanted to choose it herself.

And most of all, she hated being coddled, she saw it as admitting she was weak and needed protection.

I understand why Hiruzen would try that argument, as far as keeping her fondness and ensuring she kept it quiet, likely because it wouldn't be too hard to connect the blonde daughter of Kushina to Minato, it was a pretty solid choice.

But telling a little girl that hates being seen as weak that she had to live without knowing anything about her late mother for 8 years because she needed protection, that definitely wasn't.

"I can't believe he lied to me like this." She says, pain clear in her voice. "I trusted him."

I just bring her closer, the best I can do now is just try to comfort her.

"He was one of the few people that cared for me." She says. "The closest thing I had to family."

"You looked up to him." I say, understanding a lot more than I'd like to.

Natsumi picks up on this, looking confused for a moment before realization and pitty flashes in her eyes. We haven't really talked about the massacre, I really don't want to bring it up and for as blunt as she sometimes is she can understand people's feelings in a way I can't ever match, and I can see their emotions.

"Sorry." She says. "I shouldn't complain, you had it much worse."

I frown.

"No." I say. "My circumstances shouldn't stop you, just because others are in pain doesn't mean your pain is invalid."

She looks at me, and something tells me I touched on something very important.

I ignore it and continue.

"You deserved much better, whatever the circumstances were you didn't deserve this and it is an atrocity that it was forced upon you against your will." I say. "You are just as important as anyone else and you shouldn't have to suffer for their sake, especially not without anyone even asking if you were willing to do it!"

That Hiruzen hid her heritage from her is bullshit! She had every right to know, and if he was afraid that she wouldn't keep it to herself because she was trying to win the villagers' respect then it was his own damned fault that he was so weak a leader that a little girl had to handle being feared by almost everyone because he couldn't even explain to the sheep he rules over that she was the only thing keeping them from also dying at the hands of the Tailed Beast that killed her families, not the Tailed Beast itself.

Natsumi's entire situation is everything but fair! If her life ends up being similar to Naruto's it will just be a collection of times where people all but forced burden after burden upon her, made her believe she had to take it all with a smile, then demanded that she save them.

Naruto didn't ask to be Kyuubi Jinchuriki, yet it was forced upon him a whole hour after he was born. He didn't ask to be hated and feared by the villagers, yet Hiruzen tricked him into thinking he owed something to them and that he had to earn their respect, all the while taking the abuse with a smile.

He didn't ask to be the child of prophecy, yet Jiraiya used the fact that he would do almost anything to have someone who cared for him to sell him on his bullshit idea of peace and then died and left it to Naruto to figure it out.

Even canon Sasuke, Naruto was so indoctrinated into the mentality that he had to take up every burden that despite not having anything to do with Sasuke's quest for revenge and only really having something resembling a positive relationship with him for a few months he was willing to take fatal blows and risk his life to have Sasuke focus his hatred on him.

Naruto's entire life was defined by people forcing him to take burdens and make sacrifices so they don't have to, and he was so desperate for affection that he did it with a smile just so they'd give him the time of day.

And from where I'm standing, Natsumi's life is going in the same direction.

I grab her by both shoulders and look her directly in her blue eyes, shining with something I can't quite place.

"In fact, if you ask me, you are much more important than most people."

"Why?" She whispers.

"Because you are the closest thing to family I have left, my best and only friend." I say. " And I would never ask you to suffer for my sake."

Tears stream from her eyes as she looks at me like she has never seen me before.

Then I shake my head.

"Sorry." I say. "I don't know what came over me, it is just..."

"No." She says. "It's okay."

We both turn back to the Horizon, the sun is long gone and the moon shines bright tonight.

She leans her head on my shoulder, ramen long forgotten.

I almost don't hear what she says.

"Thank you."

-[TGaE]-

"Yosh!" Gai said. "Are you two ready?"

Natsumi and I both nodded.

"Begin!"

I moved first, I wasn't so much faster than her that she couldn't keep up but I still had a noticeable edge in terms of speed. I feinted with a left hook only to immediately twist around with a right kick to her side.

She easily blocked with her leg before launching her own kick my way. I used my knee and elbow to trap her leg and went for another punch only for her to catch it and leverage her superior strength to launch me over her head.

I moved with the throw but ended up standing with my back to her, an opportunity that she didn't miss as she went for a punch to the back of my head.

I'm more than familiar with her style by now, however, so instead of trying to turn I immediately dropped and used my hands to push myself off the ground, launching a two-legged flying kick to her chest.

She blocked but still grunted and was pushed back, giving me enough time to get to my feet and lash out with a kunai, a dull wooden practice kunai but still something unpleasant to get hit by.

The time she used to slap away the kunai let me get inside her guard and tap her a few times in the stomach before I had to retreat.

Natsumi might be able to shrug off my hits pretty easily but I can't ignore hers, ever since she sent me to the ground with a punch to the stomach Gai told us to stick to taps as we do in the academy.

On one hand, I really can't afford to use kiddie gloves during training, I'll need to be able to handle much worse in the field. On the other, Natsumi is very strong, as in punching as hard as a normal fit adult male with no chakra despite being an 8-year-old girl strong, so I can't say my 8-year-old body doesn't appreciate not being used as a punching bag.

That is something I noted about shinobi, they have a general resistance to blunt force. Well, chakra boosts their resistance to pretty much anything but especially blunt force, it is why despite every shinobi above genin being magnitudes stronger than even the fittest civilian taijutsu exchanges are still a thing.

One of my kicks at full power could cave in a civilian's skull and I'm 8, ninja like Gai that dedicate themselves to taijutsu can punch through steel and concrete like it is cardboard. That probably explained why Tsunade felt the need to create her super-strength technique, if the average block is more durable than a wall, just hit with enough force to bring down a mountain.

It isn't my preferred style of combat, I tend to favor speed and technique over brute force, but I can't say it isn't effective.

It is also why I plan to pick up a sword eventually, outside of the cool factor of being a badass swordsman bladed weapons are a lot more lethal than blunt force trauma for shinobi, part of the reason for Kunai being standard equipment and for most villages having swordsmanship be a common skill to have.

Now that I think about it, only Konoha and Iwa don't have a swordsmanship tradition. Almost everyone in Kumo can use a sword to some capacity, Kiri has the 7 Swordsmen, and while it isn't Suna's preferred way of using it poisoned swords are far from uncommon for them.

The Uchiha used to have a few swordsmen but it never spread enough to be considered a village or even clan-wide thing.

It helps that I will be able to increase the sheer lethality of a speed-focused shinobi with a sword by channeling lightning through it.

"First hit, Sasuke!" Gai-sensei announces.

Natsumi and I return to our original positions and I can see the gleam of annoyance in her eye.

This time I let her come at me first, as much I favor overwhelming offense and my taijutsu reflects that the Interceptor Fist is primarily a counter attack-based taijutsu style, and it wouldn't do to just assume I'll be faster than whatever I face and not train to react to attacks.

I slap away her first punch, the second, then I jump over the low sweeping kick, then I realize my mistake. The Strong Fist is primarily focused on power, and as Gai was more than happy to show us power is just as much about momentum and leverage as it is about raw strength.

Instead of aborting the movement and giving me time to get my balance like I expected her to, she merely uses the momentum to fully spin around, rotating at the balls of her feet as the second kick crashes into my hasty block.

It breaks through my guard and leaves me wide open for the taps to my stomach and chin, Natsumi then gives me a smug look as she sweeps me from my feet and lets me fall on my ass.

Yeah, I really need to work on that countering strong attacks.

"Well done, Natsumi-chan!" Gai says. "The flames of your youth burn bright!"

"Do you really think so, Gai-sensei?"

"Of course!"

Perhaps unsurprisingly, introducing a ball of sunshine and nigh-unlimited energy that was Natsumi to someone just as energetic and "quirky" as Gai came with some downsides. The main one being how they seem to intensify each other.

I can't help but shudder when I think about how Lee will eventually enter the picture.

We are about to go another round when I stop for a moment and decide to risk it.

"Gai-sensei?"

"Yes, Sasuke?"

"Can you teach me how to use the Gates?"

He pauses.

"How do you know about them?" He asks, uncharacteristically serious.

I can answer that, I had it prepared for a while now.

"I read about your father."

For a moment his forever cheerful facade breaks, and while he doesn't scowl I can see the strongest shinobi in Konoha, the one willing to break his body in every battle, beneath the usually goofy Gai-sensei.

"He was a hero." I quickly continue. "He gave his life to save a team."

Maybe directly lying to Gai like this isn't a good idea, but I can't exactly tell Gai that I think his father is stupid for sacrificing himself like he did, no matter what he was trying to achieve.

It does seem to bring something of a proud smile to Gai, at least.

"Yeah." He says. "That he was."

"I read he was a genin, but used the gates to defeat a bunch of S-ranks."

"What are the Gates?" Natsumi asks. "Some sort of technique?"

Gai sighs, and given that this is Gai we are talking about it shows how seriously he is taking this.

"The 8 Inner Gates." He starts, "Are 8 special tenketsu spread across the body."

He points towards the left side of his head.

"The Gate of Opening, located on the brain's left hemisphere. It removes the user's mental limiters and allows their muscles to operate at their full capacity."

He gestures to the right side of his head.

"The Gate of Healing, located on the brain's right hemisphere. It increases the user's physical strength and re-energizes the body."

He then points to the back of his neck.

"The Gate of Life, located on the spinal cord. It increases blood flow and amplifies the energizing effect."

He turns his back to us and moves his hand down.

"The Gate of Pain, located on the spinal cord. It drastically increases speed."

He turns back to us and places his hands on his abdomen.

"The Gate of Limit, located on the abdomen. It further increases all physical parameters."

He moves his hand to his stomach.

"The Gate of View, located on the stomach. It continues to increase all physical parameters."

His hand moves further down.

"The Gate of Wonder, located beneath the stomach. It increases all physical parameters even more."

Finally, his hand rests above his heart.

"The Gate of Death, located on the heart. A forbidden technique that my father used to save many lives, including mine. It grants a massive boost in all parameters, pushing even a genin to a level above the 5 Kage, at the cost of heating up your body so much that you burn yourself to ash from the inside out."

Then he turns to me.

"Why do you want to learn them?"

There is no trace of the usual Gai-sensei, he is judging me and is making no effort to hide it.

I pause, there are many reasons I want to learn them. They are powerful, and if one of my plans comes to fruition I will be able to ignore all the backlash from every gate short of the Gate of Death. And even if it doesn't I know for a fact that with sufficient training it is possible to use the lower gates for short bursts of power at the cost of just stamina loss.

I'm also very curious about chakra, this mixture of physical and spiritual energy that allows for superhuman feats, ignoring the laws of physics altogether, and even downright doing the impossible. This power that is what gives me hope that my goal of immortality is possible.

I want to learn as many techniques as I can, and while my priority now is useful techniques, when I become immortal I'll have plenty of time to master as many techniques as I want so there's no rush, the gates are both a generic enough power up that it isn't like I can't use other techniques along with it and powerful enough that it will be an incredible card to have even if I treat it as just an ace in the hole.

"There are things I need to do." I say carefully, knowing I don't have to spell it out. "Dangerous things, I'll need to be a lot stronger if I am to do them."

Playing on the revenge angle wouldn't be my first pick, but Gai is a jonin for a reason. Outright lying is far too risky to do carelessly, and as far as half-truths go this is my best option.

I very deliberately glance at Natsumi.

"I lost a lot of things." I say, not suppressing the flash of emotional pain that comes from remembering the Massacre. "I can't lose any more, I won't allow myself to."

Which is true, I won't allow myself to lose my life and go back to the Void again, I'll do whatever it takes to become immortal.

I also won't allow myself to lose this girl that grew on me, am I exaggerating it for Gai's sake? Maybe, but she is both too useful and my only real friend to just lose her that easily.

I can't read Gai's face even with my Sharingan still active from the fight, I might be able to with Ninshu but I'm not risking it.

After a moment of silence he answers my request.

"No." He says.

I go to interrupt him but he stops me.

"You aren't ready, and you're also far too young to safely use even the first gate."

I pause to consider it, I might be in pretty good physical shape, but I'm still an 8-year-old.

"That's enough training for today." He says, and in other circumstances I'd be shocked. "Go home and rest, I'll be away for the next few weeks on a mission so keep up your regiment."

We start walking away, the atmosphere not leaving much room for jovial conversation.

"Oh, and Sasuke?" He calls after me. "If, by the time I return, you still want to learn them I will help you prepare."

"Really?" I ask.

He gives me a sympathetic nod.

"You weren't the only one he betrayed." He says.

I nod and leave with a satisfied smile.

-[TGaE]-

With some free time now available, at least until Gai came back, I decided it was about time to do something I had been putting off for a while now.

Learning jutsu.

Call me a perfectionist, but ever since I first tried to use the transformation jutsu and ended up using a lot more chakra than I needed I decided I wasn't going to try again until my chakra control was significantly better.

And well, while I wouldn't say "can barely perform tree walking" to be good, it is still a lot better than I was at the time. I'm basically in the middle of what is expected of a genin in terms of chakra control.

So I figured I'd finally make use of the hundreds of jutsu scrolls left in the Uchiha clan library, and especially go looking for a specific jutsu.

The shadow clone jutsu.

I can't learn it yet, I'll need a fully mature Sharingan to even read the scroll, and I doubt I have enough chakra for enough clones to do anything too useful with, but I'm working towards it.

Even if I can only make one clone, I could just send them to the academy for me and suddenly a lot of my day is free. I'm already leagues above everyone else in class sans Natsumi anyway, so I don't have to worry about my clone dispelling during taijutsu practice.

Alas, until I can learn it, I'll just have to make do with what I have.

The academy three were easy, they were both simple in concept and in execution so it only took me the better part of an afternoon to be able to reliably use all 3 and the rest of the week to remove the need for hand seals.

There is still room to grow, but it has more to do with improving my chakra control to reduce the wasted chakra and mask the flare of usage that any sensor can pick up than getting more skilled with them.

They are jutsu designed to be so simple that they are taught in the last few months of the academy yet everyone masters them by graduation. And not only is my chakra control better than theirs by a lot, but I'm also a lot more talented and focused.

So yeah, they were pretty easy to get down.

I considered teaching them to Natsumi, or at least giving them a translated copy of the scrolls to work on in her own time, but she already has her own stuff to work on so I figured it could happen another time.

Plus I really don't want to risk us graduating early and throwing my foreknowledge out the window, so I probably shouldn't do anything to convince the teachers to push for that.

I mean, we are receiving training from Gai so realistically it won't be long before we can beat genin and I doubt they'd keep us in the academy on account of the transformation jutsu, but I'm not giving them any ideas, or at least not until I can convince Natsumi that graduating as late as possible only gives us extra training time without having to worry about missions.

After that, I went through the D-rank section of the library and picked up a few jutsu to work on.

Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique.

A genjutsu that shows the target their greatest fear, it is D-rank so it isn't that useful in an actual battle but it is good for me to start getting to work on genjutsu. Plus, I have some ideas for what I can use to modify and strengthen this jutsu once I master it.

Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique.

I wasn't going to get started on elemental affinity this early, especially not with the element that is the opposite of my main affinity, lightning, and has no interaction with my secondary affinity, fire.

But, it is a D-rank jutsu so it is fairly easy to learn even without training in earth release, and it has far too much utility to pass up.

Haze Clone Technique.

Basically just a variation on the basic academy clone, with the added benefit of the clones not immediately dispelling when they are hit. They aren't physical but they let the attacker just pass through them.

I'm more interested in this technique as a way to understand the principles behind it and how they can be applied to other techniques, but some extra utility to my basic clones pretty much for free is always nice.

Hiding in Mist Technique.

Just like the earth release jutsu, it is a lot of utility for a technique this easy to learn to pass up, so even if the water release throws me off it is worth it. Except even more so for two reasons:

One, as my skill with Ninshu increases I will be able to see my targets in the mist, which will make it all the more dangerous.

Two, if I can add some lightning release to it I can create electric mist that shocks whoever is inside, and a massive cheap area denial jutsu like that would be far too good to pass up if I can create it.

But out of all of them, the one that drew my attention the most and the one I'll likely need years to fully master yet will still be the first I'll work on, has to be this one.

Body Flicker Technique.

I remember Shisui, I once saw what he could do, and for someone who focuses on speed like me, this will likely become as important to my skillset as tree walking or enhancing my strength with chakra.

There are a lot of flashy techniques in the shinobi world, and the reason high-level fights tend to end up as clashes between those is that powerful shinobi won't fall for the usual tricks, but one thing universally agreed upon is that speed is king.

If you can't keep up with your opponent they can kill you easily and you can't hit them, it is part of the reason why so much of ninja combat is focused on dodging instead of blocking.

And this technique is my first step towards that, towards becoming a speed demon able to keep up with the likes of the Yellow Flash and Unruly A, and eventually towards becoming the fastest and most deadly shinobi the elemental nations has ever seen.

Holding the scroll in my hands, I grin.

I can't wait.

-[TGaE]-

I hope you guys enjoy the extra-large chapter, because my fingers sure didn't.

That aside, I don't know what to say about it. It started pretty okay, then I didn't like it, then I did.

Eh, it is what it is. Mostly I focused on character development and setting things up, by the time the plot kicks off I probably won't get to write a lot of fluff so I'm doing it while I can.

I will keep this short because I still need to edit it.

Anyway, reviews are appreciated, and see you next time.