Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any associated characters.
Hey everyone thank you for reading.
Hisao and I take first watch. It's peaceful. The trees gently sway, leaves flutter, and the chirp of insects fills the night sky. It feels wrong that it's so peaceful when people just died and Sensei was just kidnapped.
I knew that being a Shinobi would mean killing, fighting, and potentially dying for Konoha, but I didn't understand what that meant. We should have fought today, killed today, and died today. We were in over our heads, yet we found a loophole, a half assed escape ticket. Most Genin teams wouldn't be that lucky. Most Genin teams would be dead or captured.
What's a Genin compared to a jounin or even a chunin? If I had died, I'd just be another name on the memorial stone. I would have died for Konoha, but my death would have been meaningless in the long run. It wouldn't have resulted in a monumental change or saved the village. I don't want to be just another name. It might be a bit presumptuous, but in my first life, I died as a nobody. In my second life, I want to live as a somebody. Damn it. It's my second life and I'm going to live. I'm going to train until I'm exhausted, limbs shaking, eyes dropping, and brain half melted.
In my past life, I just went through the motions. I never tried. I never pushed myself to my breaking point. I'll be damned if I let my precious people die because I was too weak. Next time I will stand my ground and protect Sensei, Hisao, and Yokuto instead of turning tail and fleeing. I care for them. My brother. My parents. Konoha. I already died once. What's dying again if it means saving them?
"Ahh Aka-Chan?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you think Sensei is alright?" Hisao questions, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"I hope so." I mutter "I sure hope so."
Reinforcements arrive the next day, and we head back to Konoha. Sensei is alright, but he'll be stuck in the hospital. He's not allowed visitors yet since he still needs to be debriefed by T&I.
It's close to midnight when I arrive home. Sliding into Kosuke-nii's bed, I curl up next to him. "Aka-chan." He mutters sleepy. "You alright?"
"I think so." I murmur. It may have been a wake up call, but it wasn't a deadly one by any means. "Good night Nii-san."
"Good night Imouto."
A week later Yokuto-Sensei is released from the hospital. "Sensei!" Saburo cheers. "They wouldn't let us into the hospital to see you! We were so worried. Are you okay?"
Sensei smiles. It's a bit shaky, genuine, but forced. "Yah, I'm okay. It's nice to see you guys too. I'm glad that you escaped, though you shouldn't do something so reckless next time. Summoning jutsu? Really Aka-chan?"
"Sensei, what are you looking at me for?" I whine.
"Are you saying it wasn't your idea?"
"Oh, It definitely was my idea." I smirk.
"That's what I thought."
"Ah. Sensei? What exactly happened?" Hisao asks.
"Sorry kids, but that is classified."
Hisao nods in understanding while Sbauro, whines. "But Sensei. What happened?"
"I really can't say. It's classified. Now come on. We have D-ranks to do."
"D-ranks?! Do we have to?"
Yokuto-Sensei chuckles "We do. I'm still on rest for a few days, and I want to hold off on any more C-ranks until we have a bit more training."
We grumble and groan, but only half heartedly. As much as D-ranks are a pain, I think we're all relieved to hold off on the C-ranks for a bit. As bad as our last mission was, it could have been drastically worse. The chunin team guarding the outpost lost their lives. Sensei got lucky with being captured and probably tortured. He doesn't say he was, but I'm pretty certain he was. His eyes are darker and he's more fidgety than normal. "Sensei." I frown "Where's Hiroto?" Normally the large, cheerful dog follows him everywhere.
Yokuto-Sensei winces. "Hiroto is still healing."
"Healing?" Saburo chirps confused. "How'd he get hurt?"
"The Iwa-nin who captured me wanted information. Jounin are fairly resiliant to torture, so they hurt Hiroto, figuring I'd give up information to protect my partner."
We pale. "Will he be okay?"
"Thankfully he will be" Yokuto Sensei sighs. He looks far older now. His eyes are tired, and his shoulders are slumped. "I'm glad you three followed Akas-chan's insane plan. If you were caught and used against me like they used Hiroto, I'm not sure I would have held out."
We embrace him in a hug, silently offering comfort. It couldn't have been easy. I don't feel bad for Yokuto-Sensei. He wouldn't want my pity. Instead, I offer him comfort and a nonjudgmental hug.
"Sensei, why don't we go get some barbecue" Hisao stammers. It's a painfully obvious attempt at cheering Yokuto-Sensei up. He absolutely adores barbeque. Either way, Sensei seems to appreciate the gesture.
"Alright. Come on you three. Barbeque then more D-ranks."
"Hey Sensei? Do you know any wind jutsus?" It's been a week. Sensei looks better. Less tired. We've visited Hiroto several times as a team. He'll have scars, but his injuries will heal up nicely.
"I know one or two. Why?"
"I have a dual affinity, fire and wind. I know several fire jutsu, but I don't know any wind ones yet."
"Hmm. Elemental ninjutsu. Good idea Aka-chan. Hisao-kun! Saburo-kun! Get over here." My two teammates quickly pause sparring and run over.
"Hai Sensei?"
"Do either of you know your chakra affinity yet?" They both shake their heads no. "Okay. This is chakra paper." He passes each of my teammates a small slip of paper. "Try pushing some chakra into it." Both boys follow his instructions. Hisao's paper is quickly soaked while Saburo's paper burns. Saburo yelps in surprise, dropping the burning paper and stamping the fire out. Sensei nods thoughtfully at the results. "Water and fire affinities."
"Sensei, what about Aka-chan?" Hisao asks.
"She already knows her affinites."
"Really?"
"Yep." I grin. "Fire and wind."
"No fair! How come Aka-chan gets two?" Saburo complains. "I wish I had two. Lightning and fire would be awesome together! I'd be like zap zap zap, shooting lightning from one hand and fire from the other."
"That's just how it works Saburo-kun." Sensei replies. "It's luck combined with genetics. You can still learn other elements; it will just take more effort. In fact, most Jounin have one technique, if not more, for each element. Anway, I'll teach each of you a jutsu for your element." Sensei shows me the hand signs for a basic wind slash, Hisao the hand signs for a water bullet, and Saburo the hand signs for the great fire ball. He proceeds to demonstrate each Jutsu, and we spend the rest of the day practicing.
Somehow my teammates figure out that it's my birthday. I blame Kosuke-nii. This is just the type of stunt he'd pull. After training, both Hisao and Saburo are all smiles. "Happy birthday Aka-chan!" Saburo grins, holding out a small brown package. "I hope you like it! Hisao-senpai got you something too." He elbows the older boy who passes me a bright green package.
"Happy birthday Aka-chan" Hisao mutters, flustered.
"Thank you you guys, but you really didn't have to."
Hisao squawks incredulously. "Of course we did. You're our teammate, and a team is like family. Come on open mine first!"
I tear open the packaging, revealing a red ribbon. "It's to tie your hair back! You normally keep your hair about chin length, but it's getting a bit long. It looks super pretty long, but I know my brother's teammate always complains about how annoying long hair is. This way, if you want to keep it long you have something to tie it back with. If not, you can use the ribbon as a headband or as a bookmark."
"Thanks!" I tie my hair back with the ribbon before opening Saburo's gift. I grin, examining the scrolls. They explain various moves and katas to use with a whip. "These are perfect! Did my brother tell you I was looking to learn to use a whip?"
"Yah." Hisao smiles sheepishly. "I didn't really know what to get you so I asked."
"Well, they're both great gifts. Thank you guys." I embrace both my teammates in a hug.
As night falls, I sit on the roof of my house, blanket draped over my shoulders. It's been seven years since I was reborn in the naruto verse. I'm happy here with my older brother and my teammates. I'm happy in Konoha. I'm happy living in a fictional ninja world where death and suffering are always hiding just around the corner. It's weird.
I hope it stays like this. Simple genin missions, D-ranks, and laughter, but I know the shinobi world doesn't work that way. At some point the Third Shinobi War will start, and we will fight in it, and possibly die in it. After that comes the Kyuubi attack, the Uchiha Massacre, Pein's invasion, and the Fourth Shinobi War. I need to get stronger.
I need a plan. I've had seven years, but I haven't figured out how to stop the Uchiha massacre and the deaths of my new family. The coup, Danzo, Madara, and Obito all played a part in the massacre. They also caused most of the conflict in Naruto.
If I take Madara and Zetsu out, I can stop everything before it happens. I can save countless lives. Sure the shinobi world might not ban together against a common enemy, but if worse comes to worse, I can play the villain in order to unify the shinobi world and stop war. It would actually be kind of fun. A rather twisted definition of fun, but I've long since accepted that I'm a bit messed up.
The issue is that I can't kill Madara and Zetsu if I don't know where they are. The only information I have is that during the Kannabi bridge mission, Obito "dies" and Madra rescues him. The problem is I don't know exactly when or where that Kannabi bridge mission will occur. Rough Anime dates and locations are drastically ineffective in real life. The easiest way for me to find out would be through spying on my own village, something that would likely get me caught and interrogated.
If I can't save Obito, I have to kill him. If, however, I kill him, I'll have no clue what evil schemes Madara and Zetsu are plotting. Therefore, the best option is to use Obito as a trojan horse. I'll set a time delayed explosive tag on him, and with any luck, it will kill Obito, Zetsu, and Madara Honestly, I don't like the plan. It's pretty coldhearted; Uchiha Obito isn't evil. He's just a kid. But it's the best plan I have. Hopefully it will stop the Kyuubi attack, The Uchiha Massacre, Pein's invasion, and the fourth shinobi war.
If the Kyuubi attack doesn't occur, the mistrust and isolation of the Uchiha won't get as bad. Therefore, if the coup still ends up happening, it's probably Danzo's fault. The old geezer has it out for the Uchiha clan. In that scenario I'd assassinate him before Itachi massacred his clan. Maybe I could even take over root, and use them as my private army in order to force the Shinobi world to join hands and sing kumbaya.
God, there's so many ways this could go wrong, but as Dory always says: "Just keep swimming." No matter how many explosions and crashes you hear behind you, everything will turn out alright in the end. If it doesn't, and if you lose instead of win, then at least society will give you a trophy for trying your best.