Tetsu
This week has been one of the best ever,. First, I finally graduated from the ninja academy, and I did it on my first try, second I found out that next week we're going on another retreat, I have so much fun on those things, I can' wait. I had been worried that I wouldn't be able to get out of the academy so passing was a complete relief. My substitution jutsu fails almost all of the time, and up until last week I'd never been able to produce a bunshin that didn't look like it was going to collapse into a puddle on the floor. I really needed help but I didn't want to ask my dad.
I know my dad would have helped me but I didn't want to let him know I needed it. He's always been so perfect at everything. I didn't want to tell him that his only son couldn't even do a simple substitution jutsu. Instead, I decided to ask my mom. I told her I was having a lot of trouble with my bunshins, and that I thought I was going to fail the exam. She just smiled at me and shook her head. "Tetsu, you're not going to fail. There has never been a single Uchiha who didn't graduate the academy on their first attempt. You won't be any different."
Was she freaking crazy? I stared in disbelief. I didn't even know what to say, so I just walked away. I know that she only meant to cheer me up and that her comments were supposed to make me feel better, but they had had the complete opposite effect. I realize that I should be honored to have been born into the prestigious Uchiha clan, but sometimes it seems that it's more trouble than its worth. Especially at times like this. Talk about pressure, would I be the first Uchiha in hundreds of years to fail the exam? Not only would my parents be disappointed but the whole village would know and they would all talk. I could hear it now, "look there goes that useless Uchiha," you know he's the first Uchiha ever to fail the graduation exam," "what a loser, his father must be so disappointed." I had felt completely ill. My mother had completely blown off my request for help just because I'm an Uchiha, like I should just go up to Iruka Sensei and say, "Let's just forget about this test Sensei. I am after all an Uchiha, and that means I'm going to pass anyway. So lets just skip the pleasantries and you just tell everyone I pass."
I had no idea what to do. With my unwillingness to ask my father for help, and my mother's delusional view of the world I seemed to have run out of options. I went down to the family pier to sit down and think. My legs are still short so my feet dangled just above the water while I stared out over the small lake. This was where my father had taught me the Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu, the only jutsu I was actually able to do. My dad says it's a really difficult jutsu to master, but I picked it up really quickly. Maybe it's because my dad is such a good teacher, I really wish I wasn't afraid of letting him down. If I wasn't I'm sure he could teach me what I needed to learn. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So I sat on the pier worrying about what I was going to do. I peered down through the glass like surface of the water and noticed the giant koi swimming to the surface with their mouths gaping and I wished I'd remembered to bring some fish food down with me. The koi are always hungry. I'm sure if they didn't live underwater I'd be able to hear their stomachs growling. Maybe even as loud as Uncle Naruto's. Uncle Naruto! That was it, I could ask my uncle to help me. He would be happy to do it. He was always on me to come spend time with him and Sasuke, and this would be right up his alley, he loves showing off his jutus.
I ran back to the house, where my mother was busy buffing the scratches out of her glasses. My mom is a complete klutz. Sometimes I find it hard to believe she's even a ninja at all, let alone one that was good enough for the great Uchiha Sasuke to search out for team Hebi.
"Mom, I'm going to Uncle Naruto's," I said. "I'll be back before nine. Love you."
"Wait just a minute, young man," my mother said as she started walking toward the kitchen. "Give this to your uncle. There's enough in there for the three of you. I swear on the will of fire, he and Sasuke haven't eaten anything but ramen since Yugito left last week."
"Mom, this weighs a ton." I whined as she handed me a giant pot. "How much food are you giving us? There are only three of us."
"Quit whining and bring it to your uncle's. I'll see you later." She leaned over and kissed my forehead.
On my way to my uncle's house I started hating my mother. My mom is one of the best shinobi in the world when it comes to teleportation jutsus. She's so good that shinobi from across the five nations come to Konoha hoping that she will teach them what she knows. Unfortunately for them my mother is a deep believer in hard work. She spent years upon years working hard to perfect her jutsus, even training with the evil snake sennin Orochimaru to learn everything she could, and there is absolutely no way that she is going to just give away her techniques to people who haven't earned it. My mom thinks hard work is the best teacher, which is probably why I was lugging a twenty five pound pot halfway across town when she could have easily teleported me and the stew right into my uncle's kitchen.
When I complained to my mom she always says she's just making me stronger and one day I'll thank her for it. I don't know if she's right about that or not, but I certainly won't be thanking her anytime soon. Especially since the small handles on the pot forced me to carry it with just my fingertips, and they were cramped so badly I could have sworn they were about to fall off. When at long last I saw the hideous bright orange siding of my uncle's house (when he became Hokage he wasn't allowed to wear his old uniform and he'd insisted his house be painted in tribute to it) I let out a whoop of joy and sprinted the rest of the way there,
"Konichiwa, Tetsu!" Bright blue cat shaped eyes stared at me in elation from behind a platinum blonde mop of hair. I was barely able to set down the pot before my cousin Sasuke had me in a giant bear hug, explaining how happy he was to see me.
"It's been so long since you came to visit. I've missed you so much. I'm really excited to show you my new jutsu. Its sooo amazing, Believe it!"
I chuckled to myself, he may have been named after my father, but Uzumaki Sasuke was almost a clone of my uncle Naruto. To be fair though, Sasuke isn't actually related to us. My uncle, Uzumaki Naruto, the sixth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf village, isn't my father's brother by birth, though my dad says that doesn't matter because Naruto is his brother in all the ways that count. According to my mom and dad Naruto saved my dad from the darkness and is the reason I was even born.
Way before I was born my father left Konoha to live and train with the missing Nin, Orochimaru, the legendary evil snake sennin, so he could become powerful enough to kill his brother by birth, Uchiha Itachi, who had slaughtered our whole clan. My father had vowed to one day have his vengeance and destroy Itachi. When he left Konoha my uncle Naruto and their friends Shikamaru, Kiba, Neji, Chouji, and Lee tried to stop him and bring him home. All of them almost died and my dad almost killed my Uncle Naruto, and on top of that, they failed. My father had refused to come back. Eventually my father killed Orochimaru and set off to find and kill his brother. That was when my dad met my mom. He went looking for her and two others to create team Hebi. Originally my father couldn't stand my mother, he said she was obnoxious and annoying, and she kept trying to seduce him every time they were alone. Anyway, team Hebi sought out Itachi and by default, his group the Akatsuki. My dad chased Itachi to the back of the mansion they had found Akatsuki hiding in, while the rest of Hebi stayed to occupy and distract the other members of Akatsuki.
My dad said he and Itachi fought for what seemed like hours. Both of them were so evenly matched that neither could emerge victorious. Finally, Itachi used a forbidden jutsu that paralyzed my father's legs and he collapsed on the floor. Then, in what would prove to be a fatal mistake Itachi started telling my father how weak he was, and how he'd always known his little brother would never amount to anything and would never be able to defeat him, and that if their clan could see them now they would be so disappointed in him for not even being able to avenge them. Unbeknownst to both my dad and Itachi, my uncle Naruto, Aunt Sakura, and Uncle Kakashi had also hunted down Akatsuki in search of Itachi. Because even after my father betrayed them and even tried to kill them Uzumaki Naruto and Haruna Sakura loved my father like a brother and could never give up on him.
While Sakura and Kakashi joined my mother and the rest of team Hebi to keep Akatsuki at bay, my uncle Naruto continued searching the house for my father. In the original attack to gain entrance to the compound he had been badly injured so when he found my father he too was unable to use any of his most powerful attacks. When he entered the room the room that held the two brothers he found Itachi had his back to him. Naruto hid behind a pile of rubble, a result of the recent battle, and made use of the hand sign language he and my dad had made up when they were younger to communicate with one another during Kakashi sensei's long lectures.
"Use the Katon Ryuuga No Jutsu," Naruto signed.
My father shook his head in refusal, "He's too strong for that."
"Do it, just trust me," Naruto signed back.
This time my dad listened, "Katon Ryuuka no Jutsu!"
Immediately my uncle followed with the wind blade, "Kaze no Yaiba!"
With that my father's fire dragon tripled in size practically filling the room. The giant fire lizard snaked out a flaming tongue that wrapped around Itachi's ankle, picking him up it flipped him in the air and dropping him into its flaming gaping maw. When the jutsu ended and the flames subsided all that was left was Itachi's charred remains. My dad looked up at Naruto and asked, "What the hell did you do?"
Naruto had smiled at him. "What I was always meant to. Supported you. Naturally you have an affinity to fire and I have an affinity to wind. In the chakra circle wind feeds the fire, and that's what I did. I used my wind jutsu to feed your fire jutsu and make it strong enough to defeat him. I always knew we were supposed to do this together Sasuke, I just couldn't get you to believe me. Now it's over though. Now you can come home."
But my dad didn't go home then either. He said that everyone in the village thought he was a traitor and that he would never be accepted. My aunt and uncle were heart broken when they returned home to the village without my dad. A few years later my dad was traveling, and he noticed Konoha was nearby, he knew he was no longer in the bingo book and decided to stop by and visit his old teammates. That's when he found out Naruto was married, it was also the first time my dad met Sasuke.
Meeting Sasuke changed my father's world. Naruto knew everything about my father, every bad thing he had done, every person he had hurt, and every heart he had broken. If Naruto could know all this and still love him enough to name his first child after him, then maybe other people could love him too. Seeing baby Sasuke gave my dad hope. For the first time since the Uchiha massacre my dad had thoughts that the future held promise, and for the first time in what felt like forever he wanted to be part of it.
From that day on my dad lived in Konoha and had a family again. His old team, Cell 7, was reunited and from that moment he called Naruto, Kakashi, and Sakura his brothers and sister. Naruto had married Yugito, the vessel of the two tailed cat demon, Sakura, Genma, the proctor from their first Chunin exam, and Kakashi married Anko, the scary snake jounin that had been Orochimaru's student, and my dad started to feel a little lonely. He decided he wanted to find that kind of love too. After a series of failed dates it turned out that the only woman he could stand to be around was my obnoxious and annoying (his words, not mine) mother. He traveled to sound country, asking everyone he passed if they knew anything about Karin until he found her. My mother of course was still in love with him and the two of them returned to Konoha and married that fall. Two years later I was born. My father named me Tetsu, meaning peace, because he'd finally found it.