Chapter 2: Her Secret Place
Samantha had kept up the farce of meek little Kazama-chan for a week now and was fucking sick of it. Samantha Selotte was not shy, weak or cowardly, She was snarky, a bit of a bitch, and had a temper. Having pushed the terrifying thoughts that she was forced into another world where children become soldiers and kill for money to the back of her head, she stands before the tree in Shitani's secret place, knuckles bloodied and exhausted.
Otomaru, Shitani's ninken could definitely feel a difference in his partner but decided to ignore it, he liked the changes. So, he decided to not tell his mother about her change after the eye incident as the family had been calling it. Shitani's left eye had changed colors after Sam's soul had transferred, a light seafoam greem
Taking a swig of water Shitani got back in the fighting stance they had been taught at the academy, It felt unnatural, effective but not like she was used to. 'No, don't think about those times, just focus on what you've been taught this life..' Shitani told herself as she began punching the tree once again worsening the wear on her knuckles.
It was noon when She decided to stop, her knuckles and shins were worn and tired. Pulling some antiseptic from her bag and poured it over her knuckles and shins before wrapping them in bandages before sliding down the tree. Tucking her knees into her chest she sighed to herself, she dont know why that robed man brought her soul here, but her old, more violent tendencies had started riling themselves back up. Oh who was she kidding, fighting was in her blood, both past and present, she may not like it but it just didn't feel right not to train.
Standing back up she picked a leaf off the ground, they hadn't learned chakra control yet in the academy but one of the few things she remembered from her forced time watching Naruto was the leaf exercise. Closing her eyes she focused on the gut, feeling the cavern and the pool within, focusing on the center of her palm she slowly guided a stream through her body pushing the leaf into her palm she let go and opened her eyes.
Only to watch the leaf fall to the ground. "GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!" she yelled puching the tree behind her in childish rage. "Why is this so hard?" she questioned. She had noticed the chakra in her system almost immediately after arriving, strangely enough she could easily move it throughout her body as it was her own arms and legs but when it came to pushing it out her body she just couldn't.
Slumping over she quickly jumped back when she heard a voice. "What are you doing?" two older boys stood nearby. The taller one held his hands up "Woah kiddo! No need to be so jumpy." She loosened up as she looked at the two boys, the older one had short black hair and was wearing a black high collared shirt and shorts with a small tanto strapped to his back. The other had a small ponytail with bangs parted down the middle.
He wore a similar outfit but his shirt was blue and had no tanto. She let out a sight before looking to the older boy "Kiddo? You're like what, 10? You're still a kid too." the boy flinched back comically. "Hey! For the fact I'm 13 years old and I'm not a kid." he clutched the Konoha headband tied to his forehead. It somehow glinted in the sunlight despite being in the shade "See this, this means I'm an adult. You're the kid here. Now what are you doing in Uchiha land kid."
The boy emphasized the word kid as he crossed his arms and leaned towards her. "Uchiha land? I thought this was Kazama Land?" The two boys looked at each other before looking back at Shitani "You're a Kazama?" the younger one questioned "I heard that the Hokage put their compound in an empty part of ours. Though, this should still be Uchiha land, right Shisui?"
Shitani froze, she recalled the name Shisui, something to do with the massacre. He was best friends with Itachi. Her eyes slid over to the other Uchiha. 'That means that he must be Itachi.' Shitani quickly looked away when Itachi noticed her staring.
"So, What's your name kid?" Shisui asked, Shitani just grit her teeth. "Kazama Shitani, and stop calling me kid!" she shouted before lunging at him. As Shisui tormented the Kazama girl, Itachi could only smirk. The two of them have felt a small chakra presence near their personal training spot for over a year now, at first they ignored it thinking it belonged to just a civilian who found a nice place to relax in the beautiful forest.
They decided to investigate today when they felt the chakra being used. That was when they found the young girl trying to stick a leaf to her palm and punch the tree. There were only three children in the Kazama clan, two of which were the clan head's half Inuzuka daughters. And judging by the sleeping puppy by the tree and the slight fangs Itachi saw when the girl got mad.
The girl may be tall but the clan head's daughters were young, 4 and 6 respectively. The academy had just started the previous week and they don't start teaching chakra control until second year.
Watching as Shisui wrestled with the girl, Itachi called out. "Kazama, where did you learn the leaf exercise?" The two of them froze as Shisui held the young girl in a headlock, quickly elbowing him in the stomach and Shisui let go retching on the grass in the background. "Oh, I saw some older students doing it during lunch and wanted to try it why?" Shitani hoped that Itachi believed her lie.
A few moments of silence passed before Itachi spoke up again. "You should be careful, chakra exhaustion can be detrimental at your age. And remember Kazama, a shinobi should never reveal their strengths." He said cryptically before vanishing in a blur. "Hey Itachi! Wait up!" Shisui got up from his groveling passing by Shitani, ruffling her silver locks. "See ya Shi-chan!" he said with a wink before Body Flickering away.
A vein on Shitani's forehead twitched. "Shi-chan?" a cold chill blew throughout the entire forest. "I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!"
00
Yamanaka Kazuo and class 1 stood outside, a few circles drawn with chalk were on the ground "Ok class, we've been together for 3 months now learning the basics of taijutsu, I thought it was time for us to have our first taijutsu tourney." Kazuo-Sensei pulled out a clipboard and patted it with the back of his hand. "Here I have the brackets marked out, i've called out some of my friends to help proctor the matches as we'll be doing 4 at a time." Three other shinobi appeared and stood outside the chalk circles.
Shitani couldn't help feeling a little excited, she hadn't fought in a tournament since, since, back then. The first group went by fine, it was mainly just kids flailing around at each other, but soon Kazuo called the next group. "Ok Group 2 come forth when I call your names. Lee Rock and Hidaka Takeda. Nara Chikako and Hashiguchi Kei. Utaemon Soma and Yasutora Goro. and lastly Hyuga Neji and Kazama Shitani."
A feral grin came over the 6 year old's face before she quickly went back to her blank expression, she still hasn't shown her true self at the Academy or at home, the only people who really have seen her true self are Itachi and Shisui. Shaking her head she hands Otomaru to some girl standing next to her and steps into the ring. The lilac eyes of Neji bored into her as he sneered at the sight of her.. "Ok perform the Seal of Confrontation." The two performed the seal as the proctor shouted "Ready… Go!" Shitani got into the basic academy stance, as Neji took a basic Gentle fist stance.
"Kazama, give up, you won't win." the two of us stepped forward. "W-Why would I do that? T-This is a contest to see what w-w-we've learned." Shitani stuttered out, keeping in character. Neji could only scowl. "You remind me of my cousin Hinata. Stuttering like a fool!" Neji lunged forward with two fingers extended, bringing up her arms Shitani prepared to block as she felt the two fingers make contact. As Neji pumped chakra into the strike Shitani could feel the burning of the gentle fist style and Neji kept striking her arms.
As Neji stopped his assault he could only smirk, staring at the tiny bug bite like marks covering Kazama's arms he spoke up once again. "The gentle fist is the strongest, It's your destiny to lose to me." He had complete confidence in the Hyuga's famed taijutsu style, he may not be able to hold his Byakugan for long but the Gentle fist will still hurt like hell.
Neji was about to lunge again as Shitani lowered her defense when he froze in place. Shitani had a massive grin plastered on her face. "Whoo that burns, feels like dozens of bee stings." She said, shaking her arms around like she was drying them off. 'W-What, How can she move her arms after that!' Neji thought to himself.
While he was caught up in his shock Shitani took the time to strike, rushing forward she unleashed a simple combo of punches and kicks, Neji was only able to deflect a few in his state and soon was hit in the face by a hard slug that sent him flying out of the ring. "Winner Kazama Shitani." the proctor shouted. "Perform the seal of Reconciliation" As the girl two heads taller than him stepped up and held out her fingers, Neji reluctantly performed the seal before storming off.
Seeing Neji storm off in a rage filled Shitani with glee. He was a total ass to everyone in class and she always felt like knocking him down a peg or two but didn't want to break her facade. Walking back to the crowd she grabbed Otomaru and placed him back on her head. The small pup yawned before getting back to his usual sleep on her dome. For the rest of class Shitani tried her best not to punch the people crowding her saying how strong she was.
00
Two years later
Shitani was resting at her not so secret secret place, and one day Mimi had decided to follow her into the woods. The six year old was in her second year at the academy and wanted to see what her big sister was doing.
All Mimi found was Shitani drawing, she had dozens of ink pots of different colors all around her. Shitani had felt her younger sister coming but didn't do anything seeing as she was only "drawing" but she had to be careful seeing as Mimi now knew of this place.
Back in her life as Samantha, Shitani had always loved drawing and painting, when they first spoke of the 4 ninja techniques in the academy Shitani was almost immediately drawn into fuinjutsu and wanted to learn it. She decided instead of boring words and squiggly lines, her fuinjutsu style would be more nice looking. she had been learning the slight ins and outs of basic fuinjutsu for the past year in these secluded woods after 'Borrowing' a scroll from her clan's library.
but now it was time to see if she can create a seal with just art. Her current work was a modification on a storage seal, if she got her calculations right it would be smokeless. When finished the seal would be placed on her left arm, and as she continued the piece she nervously chuckled hoping that it wouldn't explode.
The seal itself wasnt dangerous per-se, but creating a new style of fuin-formula always comes with its downsides, especially when you're an 8-year old with less than a years worth of practice. but she diddnt care, she'd do anything to stay out of her house for longer than needed.
Feeling her younger sister leave the area the 8 year old put the finishing touches on her seal. "Aaaand perfect!" holding up the parchment she marveled at her work, now she hoped she doesnt kill herself putting it on her skin.
It took 2 hours, lots of Chakra and quite a bit of pain before Shitani got it down, the seal rested nicely on the inside of her forearm. It wasnt much, just a small wolf's head in the same color scheme as her sleepy Ninken, it was about the size of a few coins so it could be easily hidden by her bandages. While she was admiring her hard work, she Didn't notice Shisui landing behind her.
"Did you get a Tattoo?" Shitani quickly pulled a kunai out of the thigh pouch Itachi had gifted her for her 7th birthday and pointed the end at Shisui. "Geez stop being so paranoid, Shi-chan." Shisui said. Shitani just put her kunai away before plopping back down against her favorite tree. "It's a new seal I came up with, it's a modified storage seal. Here." Shitani bent over and picked up one of the scattered ink bottles. Pulsing a small amount of Chakra into it, the ink bottles seemingly melted into her arm.
Shisui watched in interest as the ink bottle and her arm phased into the seal on her arm. "Wow, A silent seal, that's almost perfect for stealth missions." Shisui said with interest leaning in close. "Woa woa woa, back off Uchiha, too close." she said as she pushed the teen away. Looking around she noticed it was just the two of them. "Hey, where's 'tachi?" Shisui looked uncomfortable.
He let out a sigh "You know how tensions have been rising in the clan." Shitani just nodded, knowing where this was going. Itachi was busy dealing with the clan being on his back so he was laying low. Shitani let out a sigh. "Shisui, you're almost 16 and Itachi is 11 for god's sake! You guys shouldnt be trying to stop a coup all by yourselves." She held up a hand as Shisui was about to interrupt. "I know you have the Kotoamata-whatever but you guys should at least get some help, people you can really trust."
Shisui just looked down at his young friend and wiggled his eyebrows. "Are you insinuating that you want to help?" Shitani punched his shoulder. "I may not look it but I'm 8, not even double digits yet. I can barely stand against you two going easy, I don't even have my Salha for god's sake, my 6 year old sister has two of them, two! What can I do against an entire clan?"
Shisui had a somber look on his face. "Look I know you have a lot of chakra and your control isn't that go-" Shitani cut him off. "You know what, no. My chakra control is damn near perfect, you know what, watch." Shisui just raised his hands and took a step back. He watched as her right hand began to glow blueish silver with chakra. "Not that impressive." he quipped.
Shitani ignored him and continued, he watched as the chakra came off in ribbons surrounding her like a spiderweb before reforming infront of her as a sphere. she moved her hands and twitched her fingers, changing the sphere to a cube, then to a pyramid and a multitude of other shapes.
Shisui was starstruck, one of his best friends was doing all this insane shape transformation with no hand signs, just arm motions and subtle movements of her fingers, it was like the chakra bent to her will. He watched in awe as the chakra cluster grew in size, the slight pressure coming off the pure chakra whipping her shoulder length hair around.
The chakra began coiling around Shitani's body like a serpent before the end opened up and formed a dragon's head. She made the dragon roar before the chakra dissipated and Shisui just stared at his friend in awe. "Oh my kami you were right." was all he could say.
The two stood in silence before a light bulb appeared over Shisui's head. "Oh I get it now. You're just absolute trash at nature transformation." he said with a smile. Shitani just smiled back and a spectral greatsword appeared in her hand, she rested the blade on her shoulder. "Im going to fucking kill you." she said with a smile.
That evening it was told that screams of a wailing banshee could be heard from the forest.
00
Shitani was sitting in class fiddling with a miazma of chakra under her desk. 'C'mon, fire fire fire fire fire.' The cloud flickered, expelling a few sparks before it went back to its regular state. The cloud dissipated as Shitani's head dropped and slammed on her desk. 'Goddammit'
"Kazama-san, is there something wrong with my lesson?" Kazuo said throwing some chalk at Shitani. "N-No Kazuo sensei, I-I just didn't get a lot of sleep last n-night." she said quickly sitting up after a stick of chalk hit her.
The class quietly laughed at her. "Well make sure it doesn't happen again, Kazama-san." The Yamanaka turned back to the chalkboard. "Now where were we, ah yes. Infiltration is an important part in a shinobi's career, be it intelligence gathering, assasanation or just simply hiding. One technique us shinobi use is the art of disguise."
Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a small round container. "You may have noticed this container sitting on your desks." and he was right on each desk there were three of the containers. Shitani had grabbed one and opened the lid, it just looked like clear hair gel. Closing the lid she slid the small container into her seal.
"All you need to do in knead this into your hair and pulse some chakra while thinking of a color." The blond mad had removed his headband and placed it on his desk, after gliding the clear gel through his hair he made a half ram seal, his pale blond hair bled into a bright red. "This hair gel, combined with makeup and posture changes can make you seem like a completely different person.
Performing the seal again his hair changed back and he re-tied his headband. "The next technique for disguise is the henge. This will be the first Jutsu you will learn as students." He performed three hand signs Dog, boar and ram before a plume of smoke surrounded him. As the smoke faded Yamanaka Kazuo was gone and in his place was a very plain looking civillian. Changing back into himself, he gave a sinister smile that sent shiver's down the class's spines. "As you know the end of the school year is coming up." he said menacingly before clapping his hands together he gave the most artificial happy tone. "Your final exam will be on the henge, good luck~"