I remembered Itachi's last battle. It was against his own little brother, Sasuke, and I was mesmerized by it. But then, that ending, where he told something to his brother and then died was something that shook me. I remembered when Tobi told Sasuke the truth about Itachi and I began liking Itachi as a character, that guy was good and I pitied him, he was wasted as a nuke-nin, I wanted a happy life for the guy, but I knew the Uchiha were all narrow-minded, thinking only about their purpose... I haven't liked them in my past life, the only one I liked was Itachi. He was different, he was a pacifist that deserved a good life.
"Yes." I answered honestly. "But I cannot go into details." I told him as I lowered my head. "Itachi deserved better." I admitted and I looked back up. "Don't let this waver your loyalty to the Hokage. It was mostly Danzo's wish after all. That guy creeps the fuck out of me." I shivered. "Can I ask you a question?" he nodded and told me to go on. "Can I see your ANBU mask?" there, I changed the topic, no more tenseness, and S-ranked secrets.
"You've seen it before." well, that was true.
"Yeah, but I'm just curious, alright?" he chuckled and began leading me away to the little hallway, where he touched the wall, right in front of his bedroom door and it opened with a hiss, revealing a secret dresser with ANBU uniforms, a katana, some scrolls, and weapons, but there, hanging on the wall was his mask. He took it and gave it to me.
"Oh my gosh." I breathed and I traced the red painting on it. Then I turned it, examining it, I felt in cloud nine, there I was holding the real Hound mask. "How does it attach to the face?" I asked turning slightly to face him.
"They are chakra infused masks, when I got it they told me to put a little chakra in it for my first weeks until the mask's chakra pathway synchronizes with my chakra." he explained.
"But does that mean that others cannot wear it?" he shook his head.
"They can, but it wouldn't attach." I brought the mask up and placed it on my head, but I kept hold of it since it wouldn't attach. "Now that just looks weird on you." I took it off and turned to face him fully.
"Yeah, I bet." I chuckled.
"What jutsu does the Academy teach nowadays?" he asked as I gave him the mask.
"Only taijutsu." he looked at me incredulously. "I guess they want us to build stamina."
"No ninjutsu?" I shook my head. "That must be boring." I nodded.
"They'll ask for jutsu when I'll graduate. Henge no Jutsu and Bunshin no Jutsu, if I remember correctly they asked for those." I told him.
"Have you practiced them?" I shook my head.
"I don't even know how to do them. Can you teach me?" I shrugged and he smiled.
"The hand seals for the Henge no Jutsu are dog, boar, ram, in that order." I nodded. "You have to have a clear image of the person or thing you want to transform into and then put chakra in it and it's done."
"Just like that?" I asked skeptically.
"Yup." he eye-smiled. He then made the hand seals and transformed into me.
"Oh." I watched him being a perfect replica of me. "I should really let my hair down, it looks good on me." I said and he transformed back.
Fine, easy. I began going through the hand seals and put just the minimal amount of chakra in the jutsu and imagined Kakashi.
"Henge no Jutsu!" I puffed and transformed into him. "Oh my gosh." I sounded like him. "I'm finally taller!" I fist-bumped the air. "Heck, I missed being tall. Well, you're taller than I was, but it's still better than being a smurf." I told him.
"Smurf?"
"You know tiny blue things that live in the forest, have white hats." he looked confused. "Oh, whatever." I sighed. "It was a cartoon from my childhood." but then I remembered something and rushed away, heck, it was weird being tall. I went and stood in front of the secret dresser and pushed the wall, it opened and I took his mask and held it over my head. "Now, does it look weird or not?" he chuckled. "Are you laughing at me?" I told him in a cold voice. "I'm your superior, shinobi!" I growled. He rose his only visible eyebrow and gave me a challenging look, the next moment I was shoved against the wall, he was in front of me, his hand on my throat, but he wasn't squeezing. My henge puffed away. "Geez." he smirked under his mask and let me go. "How… Is it even possible to be that fast?!" but then again, wasn't he the one that made Sasuke into a human bullet? "Can you teach me?" he shook his head.
"I'm already teaching you tantojutsu and I'm giving you tips, but I'm afraid I don't have the time to teach you more than that." I nodded, of course, he didn't have the time, he was in fucking ANBU!
And that was how the day went by, apparently, my henge wasn't perfect on the first, I was shorter than him – only 3 centimeters! -, some pockets that were placed in different places, stuff like that, but rather impressing for the first try. I kept practicing on it, and then it became easier and easier until it was perfected in one single day. Get that Sasuke! Kakashi kept eyeing me, looking rather suspicious, but then he sighed and shook his head.
"Maa, real genius are we?" he ruffled my head, but his voice sounded different... Like he was worried about something... But when I asked about it, he shoved it away saying that he was only tired. "I took too many missions lately." I didn't press him on the matter.
Anyways, the other day I was packing into my backpack when he came in and gave me his sensei's notebook. I thanked him once again and I put it next to my other notebooks, he gave back those with my life story as well. After we ate for breakfast and had a little spar at a training ground, we went to the Nara clan compound. There Kakashi said that he must talk privately to my father, which was weird, but I nodded and went to my room, to unpack everything.
"How was your weekend?" Shikamaru was laying on his bed.
"Tiring, yours?" he shrugged.
"The usual, Choji and I walked around, watched some clouds." I nodded. "Before I came back, we saw Naruto. The kid got in trouble." I looked up from my stuff. "There was a shopkeeper that sold masks, he threw one to Naruto and told him to go away." seriously? What was in that man's mind?!
"Did you help him?" I asked, but he looked away. I sighed. "Shikamaru, aren't you two friends?"
"I guess we are… Troublesome as he is." he sounded doubtful and I looked away angrily. People still hated Naruto, of course, they did, he was no hero. He was only a reminder of a painful past but having my own brother doubt the boy felt really bad...
That day father took us out into the forest to watch the deer. He didn't tell me what Kakashi and he talked about, but he told us that Kakashi would be visiting sometime in the future. Well, that was new. He made us practice the Kage Mane no Jutsu and was pleasantly surprised that mine was holding better and better every single time I practiced it, Shikamaru on the other hand, he was really lazy and didn't want to practice. We ended up walking and he began telling us legends about the forest. Legends about our ancestors and their connection to the forest.
It was nice.
The following day we had school, but Naruto was nowhere to be seen. We were all sitting, waiting for class to start, but my mind was going nuts. Where the fuck was Naruto? The door opened and Iruka walked in, just like he did every morning when we had school.
"Good morning, everyone!" he greeted and the class chorused a 'good morning sensei' in return. "Alright, first let me take attendance." he said smiling and looking around. "Hm? Naruto's not here?" EXACTLY! Everybody began looking around, seriously, was I the only one paying attention to that boy?!
"He's such a loser." I heard a boy say in a hushed tone, I turned to the kid and he looked at me, I directed my most intense and cold stare at the child, he gave me a wide-eyed terrified look and quickly turned away, serves him right.
"Sakura!" Iruka called. "You know where he is?" seriously Iruka? Sakura wasn't even talking to Naruto!
"No. I didn't notice he was gone." I facepalmed myself. Seriously?! And she was going to be a ninja?!
"Yeah, I don't think I even saw him this morning." Ino chirped in.
"Kiba!" Iruka called. "Did you see him?" Kiba was slightly dozed off, but he straightened.
"Huh? No, I didn't see him." he said in a sleepy tone. Cute. "And I have no interest in seeing him, right Akamaru?" the puppy barked. Cute, but rude.
"Alright then." Iruka looked tense. "Let's just start class." and that was how a very long day started.
After we arrived home and we ate, Shikamaru asked me if I wanted to go out and play with the other children, but I shook my head. I told him I wanted to read a little, he nodded and went off, so I headed to my room when father stopped me.
"Kakashi told me he gave you the Yondaime's notebook." I nodded. "You're like him, aren't you?" I froze and looked up at him, then I turned to my mother.
"You know?" I whispered and they both nodded.
"The Yondaime told me about himself, after all, we worked together. Kakashi told me he gave you the notebook. The notebook even I could not decipher." he looked at me with crossed arms.
"I'm sorry." I lowered my head.
"You don't have to be. It wasn't your choice, it's troublesome, but it wasn't your choice, or was it?" I shook my head. I felt my heart constrict and I knew I had to ask the inevitable.
"Can I be still your daughter?" I asked softly.
"If you think we will disinherit you, then you are severely mistaken, young lady." mother told me in a stern voice and I turned to look at her, not believing my ears. "We raise you after all." she smiled and I smiled back.
"We don't care that this is your second life, you are our daughter, just trust us." father told me and I nodded, still smiling.
"I will, I promise." I beamed.
Henge no Jutsu = transformation technique
Bunshin no Jutsu = clone technique
Kage Mane no Jutsu = shadow imitation technique
And we have more Kakashi and Shikanai moments, plus Shikanai finally tells her new parents the truth. The Hiraishin is completely in her hands now and we're moving on. Now, I know that the henge is actually an illusion and yet I wrote that Kakashi had pinned her, whelp, he could still pin her, after all, he's a jounin he knows where the illusion ends and where the actual person is. Yup, she's pretty talented, she manages to learn the jutsu in one day, but this one will be explained later on.
I still don't own Naruto.
I had a little bit of free time and made a Kakashi tribute video, here's the link if you want to check it out *realises can't link it, here's the title then XD* ( /nWyMrb7ToXQ). Other than that, after I post the next chapter I'll make a note, stating which chapter is part of what arc and then we'll get on with the anime's storyline.
Have a nice read!
Oddity Empress: Don't worry, Shino will appear, there's actually one last chapter from this arc and then the anime's plot begins. So, Shino will appear, as well as the other characters, but they'll appear only in the order the anime showed them - so, no Gai until the exams start.
