As Long As My Blood Flows

Chapter 5 - A Hop, a Skip, and a Jump

I sat on the hard wood, eyes closed and breath coming in a long, natural flow. A pink kimono with a white rose petal and bright green leaf design flowed off of my body. My legs, boasting thick thighs from my recent cross-country running endurance and speed training, were crossed like a pretzel. My hands rested on my knees, palm up and open with my pointer finger touching my thumb in the same way Mother always did when she meditated.

In. Out. In. Out.

I felt the tingly, energetic rush of chakra flowing throughout my body. It flowed where it wanted, much of it starting in my brain or bones, and emanating to other areas of my body. Concentrating, I directed chakra and diverted it towards my hands. I mentally split it in half; the chakra in the left half of my body I imagined as rushing water, while the chakra in my right side I imagined as electricity coursing through wires. The chakra on my right side responded more quickly, more easily, to my manipulations. With some, but little, resistance, it slowly morphed into lightning chakra nature. I could feel it sparkle, crackle in me, like an exciteable kid begging to be let loose and play.

The chakra on my left side pushed back. It resisted more, refused to bend to my will. It was already difficult enough forming water chakra as a single chakra nature, but forming both water AND lightning chakra… I gritted my teeth, a bead of sweat rolling down my cheek. I could feel my nerves rise the more I imagined the chakra as a river.

"Failure," the whispers of the remaining members of my clan who weren't my parents rose up in the back of my mind.

My concentration weakened, and I could feel what progress I'd made in my left side break completely, while my right side's lightning chakra weakened and became a strange mixture of normal chakra and lightning chakra nature. I cursed, and set to work again. Come on. I've done this before… albeit inconsistently. I could do this again. Taking several deep breaths to calm my building nerves, then when I felt more secure, restarted the process.

Maybe it wouldn't be as bad if I wasn't sitting on the fishing docks of Lake Tomoe.

Once again, the chakra on my left side responded with few protests, allowing itself to be shaped into the lightning chakra I desired it to. My water chakra still didn't form easily, but as I kept my breathing steady, it submitted more and more. Even with just a little water chakra, it was possible to use Fluid Style, so long as you had some lightning chakra, too, but the more of each type of chakra nature you built up, the more powerful any jutsu you used could become.

My hands flew through some seals. Tiger, Tiger, Ox, Tiger, Boar. "Fluid Style: Water Smithy!" I called out, and water pulled out from my blood, from my cells, from any part of my body that had excess water, and flowed out towards my hand. It formed into a long katana. It still LOOKED like water, but also glowed with yellow light; that was the lightning chakra holding it together.

I frowned at the training dummy in front of me, which I'd brought from my family's house up here to the docks, and tensed my arm. I stood up, cracking my neck. My hand dug into the hilt of the watery sword, and I jumped backwards, flipping before twisting my body.

"Great Gully!"

A beam of blue and yellow shot from the sword, slicing through the air and connecting with the training dummy. It sliced clean through, wood cracking and snapping as the newly sliced-off top half slid off of the bottom half and bounced off the dock. With impressive momentum, it rolled away and splashed into Lake Tomoe, bobbing up to the surface a second later. I landed on both feet smoothly, using chakra to reduce any strain to my legs.

My sword was about a third as thick, now, but I smiled, pride welling within me. From how destroyed the dummy looked—and wait, even the docks behind it had been absolutely wrecked, too—that Jutsu had surpassed the C-Ranks I'd only ever managed before. It had maybe even reached B-Rank, though probably not quite. If I could achieve a change in chakra form on TOP of my change in chakra nature, I could push it even further up to a mid-A Rank, but that'd take both greater chakra control than I could ever hope to achieve at my current level, and better control over my ingrained fear of water.

Still, a proud, bubbly laugh rose up from me, and ideas raced through my mind. What could I do with an actual water gun…?

Heheheh. That'd totally catch a few ninja off-guard.

"I see your chakra technique is improving," the proud voice of my father said from behind me, and I spun around in surprise. My control instantly fell apart. The water making up my sword instantly broke apart, falling down to the docks and creating a small puddle Father smiled kindly, nodding. "Now you just need to work on getting that down consistently. You don't want to be caught in a scenario where you need a higher-level Jutsu to protect you or to attack with, and have it be too weak to save you or deal enough damage."

I winced, both from the critique and the thought that I'd have to be hurting people, real people, soon. Granted, I'd be hurting people who mainly wanted me dead, but still. It didn't feel right. Even criminals had rights.

Father, studying me, frowned. "Something wrong, Ren?" he asked gently, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Nervous about your big test tomorrow?"

"Not really," I sighed, giving him a weak smile. And it was true; I wasn't nervous at all. I'd done enough studying of chakra control and usage that I was pretty confident I would pass. Besides, this was my big day to prove to everyone that I was a true Konoha shinobi, even if my past self would have cringed big time at the thought of being—well, I was essentially a soldier. A child soldier at that.

Yeah, this world was more than a little fucked up.

Father held out a fist, and I bumped my own against it. "Attaboy," he said approvingly, ruffling my navy hair. "Go get 'em, tiger. Make us proud and prove our idiot relatives wrong."

Let me just say this, my parents were amazingly supportive. I mean, maybe being supportive of sending your kids out to be a child soldier wasn't exactly all that morally good by my old world's standards, but still, I loved them to death. No matter how difficult it had been training me our how many times I'd failed, and failed, kept on failing, Father and Mother had never looked at me any differently. They never raised their voices in anger or frustration. They just calmly critiqued where I'd went wrong, and helped me learn what to do better. Which was really something considering that it took me three years to build up my control over water chakra nature to the somewhat decent level it was at, and just one year to complete my lightning nature.

And that was considering that I was a water-type, not a lightning-type.

Mother kissed me on the cheek and gave me another of her now class-wide famous bento boxes. I took it gratefully, as well as the second one that she'd prepared for Naruko, and headed off for class. I ignored the looks I got from the civilians as I made my way to the Academy, despite the fact that they were particularly nasty today. I arrived in class three minutes early. There was a strange buzz in the air, and I blinked as I looked around.

"Hey, Ren," Chouji greeted as I sat down in my usual seat. I glanced back at him.

"Yo, what's up?" I asked, blinking.

He shoved a few chips in his mouth. "Do you know where Naruko and Iruka-sensei are?"

I shook my head, rubbing the back of my hair. "No idea." Wait… Today was approaching that day… And Naruko was gone…? That meant… Hm…

Seven minutes after class was supposed to start, an exasperated Iruka-sensei tugged a sheepish Naruko in through the door. The blonde struggled in some ropes, and Iruka took her to the front of the class to get a stern talking to. "Naruko, you've been doing a lot better lately with your taijutsu, but you're still the worst in the class when it comes to ninjutsu!" he chided. "You shouldn't be pranking and should instead be sitting in class, studying, so you don't fail the graduation test like you have the last one, and the one before that!"

Yeah, this all felt very familiar. I sighed wearily, hanging my head. I'd tried to get her to attend class more, and she HAD, but… that wasn't saying much when she used to skip just about every other day in order to go out pranking. I tried to teach her better chakra control, too, but she still was absolutely terrible at the Clone and Replacement Jutsus. At least she could pull off a pretty mean Transformation.

Naruko stuck her tongue out at Iruka-sensei as he told her off, and Iruka's face twitched.

"Alright, I've decided. We'll have a re-test on Transformation Jutsu! Even those who already passed will take it!"

Weary groans and complaints rose up from the class. I just shook my head in amusement, even as nerves started to rise within me. Welp. Here it is. Canon. The start of the shitstorm the next three years would come to be… unless I could successfully prevent some of the major plot points.

Sakura went first. She successfully transformed into an absolutely perfect copy of our teacher, which was to be expected, really. Of all the students, she had the highest level of chakra control, with Shikamaru coming to a close second. When Iruka gave her a proud nod and wrote down her grade—definitely a 100 percent—on the paper he had on his clipboard, she skipped happily over to Ino and wrapped her in a big hug.

"Did you see that, Ino!?" she cried out proudly. "That was my best one yet!"

Ino chuckled and squeezed her. "Yeah, you did really good," she said softly. "Good job, Sakura." I smiled at the sight; ever since Ino had calmed down from the shock my knowledge had brought her, she had decided there was no way she'd lose her best friend because of some silly thing like a feud over a guy. Part of that might have come from the fact that it was made abundantly clear to her Sasuke wasn't interested. And with how much closer their friendship had become, Sakura had naturally been drawn in enough that she stopped completely fawning over Sasuke. She still clearly crushed on Sasuke hard, but it wasn't they all-pervasive annoyance of canon Sakura.

Now I suspected the reason that she had done that so much in canon was because she had been lonely and was seeking attention, and then it just ended up becoming habit.

Sasuke came up next, performing a near-perfect Transformation, which received Iruka's approval, and he released it before quietly shuffling off to the end of the line.

"Ren, I'd like you to go next, please," Iruka told me with a gentle smile.

I nodded and stepped up, taking a deep breath. My hands formed the seals for the Transformation Jutsu—dog, boar, ram—and smoke burst out, covering me before dissipating. When it cleared, a solid likeness to Iruka stood in my place. It wasn't quite as good as Sakura's or Sasuke's, the hair color being slightly lighter than the real Iruka's, but it wasn't very noticeable and no where near bad enough that it would make me lose more than two points.

Naruko stepped up after me, smirking. I facepalmed, almost too afraid to watch.

Oh, Naruko, what are you about to do?

Naruko's hands formed the ram seal, and smoke burst out around her. When it cleared, my face went totally red. Standing there was an older-looking Naruko, naked, with far more sizable breasts, and a pair of fuzzy fox ears and a fox tail.

Poor Iruka's jaw dropped, and he nearly passed out from shock.

"Heheh!" Naruko snickered, tail flicking proudly. "How do you like my Foxy Jutsu?" she asked him, turning to wink at me.

Wait, Foxy Jutsu? Not Sexy Jutsu?

All eyes in the room, previously staring in various degrees of surprise, anger, and embarrassment, swiftly turned to me, and my jaw dropped just like our teacher's. Ino's stare was particularly deep. "H-Hey, wait, why are you winking at me like that—?" I started stammering horribly, quickly looking anywhere BUT at Naruko, and then blinked as I remembered a conversation I'd had with the girl recently during recess.

"Naruko, I know you don't like reading, but you just have to read this book!" I gushed, grinning at her and handing her a book I'd picked up from the library. "It's probably one of my favorites I've read. And it has tons of action, so you wouldn't be very bored."

Naruko frowned at it distastefully. "Ew, books." Her eyes skimmed over the cover, and she read aloud, "That Time My Jounin Sensei Died But Was Brought Back as a Fox Girl… what the heck is this? And why does that woman on the cover have fox ears and a fox tail?"

"It's about an older genin team and is set in the Third Shinobi World War," I explained, eager to divulge the plot. But not too much! People who spoil novels deserve to rot in jail, after all! "The genin team are tasked with protecting a shrine built to honor the Fox Summons, and some bandits attack. But the bandits turn out to be way tougher than the team expected, and their Jounin-sensei ends up getting killed! But the Foxes saw some serious potential in her, and decided it wouldn't do for her to die just yet, so they brought her back to life, but the only way they could do that was by combining their chakra with her soul, so she comes back as half-fox, half-human, and she's SUPER cute…"

I rambled off, and Naruko stared at me. "You like some WEIRD books."

I blushed. "What!? Oh, come on, it's not even like there's anything… well…" I blushed even deeper, and Naruko cackled, bending over and laughing hard at my expense.

…Oh.

Um.

…..Oops?

"Ren-san," Ino whispered in my ear, leaning over and giving me a beatific smile that spoke of horrors man should never see. "We don't need to have a talk about this, do we?"

"Nope! Definitely not!" Ino could be terrifying when she wanted to be.

Iruka straightened back up, coughing and reasserting himself before GLARING at Naruko. "NA. RU. KO. Don't make such perverted jutsus! It's not safe for a kunoichi!" He took a deep breath, ignoring the laughter Naruko pelted out as she dispelled the transformation and walked to the back of the line, then called out, "Hinata, you're next." No response came, and he blinked. "Hinata?"

We all glanced to where Hinata had been standing, and saw that she'd passed out with a massive blush. Some blood trickled out of her nose.

"…I suppose we'll do her last, then."

The rest of the day passed without much incident, though as the class ended, Iruka dragged Naruko back to the Hokage Mountain, where apparently she'd graffitied the faces just like in canon. Feeling more confident in my ability to pass the test since my grade had been returned to me and I'd gotten a 98, I slept well that night after a good round of more chakra control exercising.

I dreamt of petting cute fox girls. Many of them were blonde. Somehow I couldn't really look at Naruko the next morning in class without feeling supremely uncomfortable.

Her hair looks really scritchable.

Shut up, brain! Scritchable isn't even a word!

Most of the day went by pretty well, until we reached the last class period. That was when Iruka smiled at us. "Alright, class, today's the big day," he said softly. "Today, we'll be taking graduation exams. Many of you will become genin. When your name is called, proceed to the next classroom. The test will be over the Clone Jutsu." Beside me, poor Naruko stiffened and paled. For whatever reason, Clone Jutsu had always been her absolute worst. It was kinda strange thinking about that, since she excelled so much at the Shadow Clone. I wondered what exactly was different between the two that caused her to be able to use one and not the other? "Your goal will be to make three stable, accurate clones. If you make all three, you are guaranteed a passing grade."

The energy in the room was palpable. At long last, our big day was finally here. The biggest day of our lives—at least, as far as eleven or twelve year old kids who had no idea what the future held in store were concerned.

We went by alphabetical order of our first names. It would've been by our family names, but since we had at least one or two orphans in our class, that wouldn't have worked out very well. Orphans didn't have family names, because they didn't have family.

Naruko never came back from her test. When Iruka, who was one of the test proctors alongside Mizuki-sensei, returned with the previous student and smiled at me, I got up and hurried over to him, eager to get this done.

"You've been doing a fantastic job in class these last few years, Ren," Iruka, who had gotten close enough with us over time that he had started calling us by our first names, told me as we walked down the hall to the testing room. "Know that even if you don't pass today, I'll be very proud of your efforts."

I couldn't help the warm smile that spread up my face. Iruka was amazing. Truly too nice for this world.

"Thanks," I said softly, confidence rising. "But I don't intend to fail. I'm definitely going to pass this test."

"I'm proud to say that I'm very confident you will," he agreed, opening the door for me and ushering me in. My kimono brushed against my feet as I entered, making my way to the front of the class and standing in front of the desk. Mizuki-sensei sat on the right side of the desk, with Iruka-sensei sitting on the left side of the desk. My smile dimmed into a frown as I glanced at Mizuki, knowing his plans of betrayal.

But… If I didn't let it all happen…

I sucked in a breath, calming the sudden bundle of nerves that arose within me.

"Alright, whenever you're ready," Mizuki-sensei said softly. I could sense his dislike from here. He'd never been a terribly huge fan of me. Today, I'd prove him wrong. I'd prove everyone wrong. I wasn't a failure, or a traitor. I was the man who'd ensure that all of my friends would be safe, and that Naruko would fulfill her destiny and become Hokage.

Ram. Snake. Tiger.

"Clone Jutsu!"

I grinned widely as my chakra shifted, leaving my body, and formed into five different identical, intangible clones. Iruka's eyes widened in delight, while Mizuki's expression looked oddly neutral. I hadn't made just three, the standard, I'd made five. I held them for half a minute, then let out a breath of air, relaxing and dispelling them. Iruka glanced at Mizuki, who, resigned, nodded in tune with Iruka himself. Then my teacher grinned widely and grabbed a shinobi headband off of the desk, handing it to me. The flexible metal gleamed with reflected light, the leaf symbol etched finely into the center. I took it with almost trepidation, biting my lip happily as I pondered where to put it.

Then, almost like a collar, I tied it around my neck.

"It suits you very well, Ren," Iruka said softly, wrapping me up in a hug. "You'll grow into a wonderful shinobi. I can already sense it in you. I know you have the Will of Fire. Every day, I say you happily working with your fellow classmates, treating all of them as equals, as friends. You were the first in the class to truly accept Naruko. You have no idea how proud I am to have been your teacher, and how happy I am that you came out of your shell. That you have helped so many others break out of theirs."

Emotion squeezed in my heart as I suddenly realized that from here on out, it would be only on rare occasion that I would ever see Iruka again. He was no longer my teacher, because I was a genin.

I was a genin.

I was a shinobi.

I wrapped Iruka in a hug, too, squeezing him softly. "I'll miss having you as my teacher, Iruka-sensei," I murmured. "You were the absolute best."

"And I'll miss having you as my student." He patted my shoulder, releasing the hug. "But I'll be eager to see you move on to great heights."

When I returned to the classroom, Ino smiled and smirked. "I knew you had it in you somewhere," she teased, tapping my 'collar' headband. "Bit of an odd place to put it."

My hand rose up and swatted hers away. "Aw, shut up, it looks cool and you know it." I grinned, chuckling, and she chuckled too. As terrified of her as she could make me, she was definitely a fantastic friend. And she'd even gotten me this kimono as a birthday present last year, which had made me super grateful.

I had to hand it to her; she knew fashion.

When the last student had taken the test and passed, class ended, and we all chatted amongst ourselves happily as we left… to see our parents waiting for us at the entrance to the Academy. Mother and Father smiled happily and Father leaped forwards, pulling me into a hug. "Don't think I don't see that leaf headband, Ren!" Father laughed, nearly squeezing the life out of me. "You passed! I knew you could do it!"

"It really wasn't that difficult," I said sheepishly, warmth and happiness bubbling inside of me.

Mother's smile wasn't as wide as Father's, but it was serene and lovely. "You'll love the salad I'll have waiting for you at home," she promised, kissing me on the cheek. I turned to grin back at her, only for my eyes to look past her… and see a lone Naruko, dejectedly sitting on the wooden swing that had been tied to a tree's branch, with no headband in place.

My good mood plummeted instantly and I pulled away from Mother and Father to go over towards my friend.

"Hey, Naruko," I said gently, approaching her. I could see my parents' curious gazes.

"Hey," she said. She looked lifeless, eyes dead. She sounded as bad as she looked.

Poor girl. She was the only one of us who hadn't passed. I opened my mouth, frowned, closed it, then said quietly—"I'm sorry."

Naruko flinched and didn't say anything back.

Grass rustled behind me, and I blinked, looking over my shoulder. Mizuki was walking up to us, a serene smile on his face. "Ah, Ren, may I speak to Naruko alone, please?" he said innocently. If I hadn't known any better, I probably would've been fooled. As it was, I narrowed my eyes, even as life returned to Naruko's eyes and she looked up to him with bafflement and… hope.

"I'm sure you could say anything it is you need to say with me here, right?" I said, equally as innocent. His façade dropped JUST a moment, annoyance crossing his features, but he wiped it away as quickly as it had appeared.

"Hm…" He studied me for a moment, then seemed to consider something. "Well, I suppose it would be good for you to hear this as well, actually. But I'd like it to be away from any other prying eyes, if possible?"

Wait, what? That threw me off-guard completely. I narrowed my eyes. What was he planning?

"Uh… okay."

"Wonderful. Follow me, then, please, both of you." His gaze landed on Naruko, and he smiled a pretend-gentle smile. "It's about your grade, dear."

"My… grade?" Obviously happy, she nodded eagerly and grinned as he leaped away, heading off into the city. Naruko and I glanced at each other, then chased off. I could hear my parents' shouts of confusion in the distance, but I ignored them. He led us deep into the town, hopping from rooftop to rooftop. At last, he stopped, and sat on the edge of one of them. We did the same, sitting beside him and panting.

"You know. Naruko," he said softly. "Iruka isn't trying to be hard on you."

"Then why is it only him who gives me a hard time!?" Naruko whined, pouting in disbelief. I frowned deeply.

"He wants you to become strong from the bottom of his heart," Mizuki replied. He glanced at me. "He's always wanted both of you to do that. He doesn't have parents. He lost many people in his family."

Naruko hesitated, and I glanced at our sensei. The actual traitor. "Is there a point to why you're saying this?" I asked him.

"There is," he agreed gently. "Naruko, do you want to graduate? And do you want to help her graduate, Ren?"

"OF COURSE!" Naruko burst out, lip quivering. "I wanted to so badly…"

Shackles raised, I bit my lip. Shit. Now I'd just seem like a bad friend if I refused. But if I agreed, and we got caught… Then I'd look like the traitor everyone made me out to be. Shit. That was his game, wasn't it? Hatred, pure and deep, flowed in my veins.

Dammit.

"Yeah, I do," I told him quietly.

Smirking, he shook his head. "Well, looks like I have no choice…" He gave Naruko a sidelong glance. "I'm gonna let you in on a big secret."

~o~

Ino paced the floor of her bedroom, chewing her lip nervously. Tonight was the big night. She could still remember it all clearly. How could she not have? It had been such a jarring, impossible experience. And she'd even requested Ren let her see it all again multiple times just to make sure she got everything down right after she'd calmed. Tonight was the night that strange, animated story about her and her classmates' future began.

If everything happened like it did normally, then it was complete and utter proof… complete proof that Ren's memories were… Well, at least accurate on the important details.

She continued pacing about, taking a nervous swig of water from a cup on her desk. She couldn't help the worry eating at her. Please be safe, Naruko. Iruka-sensei.

Suddenly, a high-pitched wail split the air. Ino's eyes widened. That siren… It was the alert for a security threat so bad all jounin were required to be present! No way… So then, then… All of it was actually true!? She felt a little sick to her stomach. She had to sit on her bed, biting her lip and tapping her finger against the edge.

After an hour, she saw heard the door open downstairs and rushed out of her room, glancing up at her relieved father.

"What happened?" she demanded, her mother equally worried.

"Nothing bad," he said softly, wrapping them in a hug. "Or at least, it didn't turn out bad. Your teacher, Mizuki, had reported that your friends, Naruko and Ren, had stolen the Scroll of Sealing."

"Ren too!?" she burst out, the unexpectedness of that information throwing her completely off her rocker.

"I…" Shame rose up on his face. "I couldn't help but assume the worst. I thought that Ren and Naruko had betrayed the village. But apparently, Iruka found them first, and then got attacked by Mizuki… who, as it turns out, had been the one behind it all. He'd told them if they successfully took the scroll, Naruko could pass the graduation test. They'd trusted him, but all along, he'd been planning on killing them and stealing the scroll for himself, then putting the blame on Ren. But Iruka, Naruko, and Ren managed to defeat him. They're alright, though Iruka suffered a couple severe injuries and is being ordered to rest."

Both Ino and her mother let out a breath of relief.

"Oh, thank the gods," her mother breathed. "It would've been horrible if that poor girl had actually used Naruko to…"

Inoichi gave his wife a look, and she jolted a bit, before smiling sheepishly. Previously, Ino wouldn't have noticed or understood; but now, with a frown, she suddenly realized that her Mother was talking about Naruko's status as a Jinchuuriki.

"Well, it would have been horrible if she had actually turned out to be the traitor everyone seems to assume she is."

"Mom," Ino said slowly, "Ren is a boy."

For once, Yamanaka Suzuki looked utterly flabbergasted. "…She… Ah, he is? …I had no idea," she admitted. "I had just assumed…"

"Most people assume that unless they're our classmates, his relatives, or have access to his files," Ino giggled, patting her on the arm sympathetically. "I thought the same thing on our first day of school." Her mom knew what Ren had looked like because they'd met on Ren's previous birthday, having taken Ino to the Kawase's lakefront home last year on his birthday so that she could give him that gorgeous kimono.

All that said, she finally allowed herself to relax a little. Everything had turned out well, just like it had in the story. Even if somehow REN had been a part of it, too. Silently, she wondered if Ren had learned any jutsus from the Scroll of Sealing. If he had, it might be a huge boon to their efforts in changing the future.

She supposed she'd just have to ask him tomorrow.

And so, with a much lighter heart than she'd had when the siren had went off, she returned to bed.