Chapter 10

(a year and three months later)

"Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah!" Ide panted as he dashed across a forest floor blanketed by shadows as the thick canopy above made it nearly impossible for any light to reach the bottom. The young ninja, dressed in a dark cloak covering most of his body helped hide his presence in the cover of darkness. He moved quickly but quietly, keeping low and using the darkness to his advantage. He moved as though he was running from something.

In the last year, ide'd experienced a growth spurt and stood about 5cm taller than he did during his battle with Itachi. His hair had grown too, to the point that it now draped down and covered most of his headband and he had to wear swept over to the left to keep the Leaf Village displayed properly. Overall, his face had matured, his features sharpening with age, his eyes one of the few parts of him that hadn't changed. His Sharingan burned brightly as his flames as Ide maneuvered the dimly lit terrain.

Ide kept his face forward as he ran but occasionally his eyes would dart around as he scanned the forest looking for something. Quickly, it became obvious what Ide'd been keeping an eye out for as He quickly slammed his feet down to immediately stop his momentum. A thin, nearly invisible flew right in front of his face. If it wasn't for his Dojutsu he would've caught the needle in his cheek.

He quickly turned his head in the direction the needle came flying from to find a white bear mask with four black eyes protruding from a bush a dozen or so meters away. Having been discovered the man with the bear mask leaped up from the bushes showing this ninja was also shrouded by a black cloak. He launched a handful of needles from his hand at Ide, each nearly impossible to see.

Ide threw up a quick hand sign and spit up a small but powerful gust of wind from his mouth that knocked the needles out of the air. With the assailant in clear view, Ide reached back for a Kunai but then his Sharingan picked up on something else but it was too late.

Another animal-masked ninja, cloaked in black, erupted from the ground behind Ide wielding a dual-bladed Kusarigama and he wrapped the weapon's chain around Ide's neck and began choking him. This ninja's mask resembled a tiger with grey markings painted onto it.

Luckily for Ide, he was already reaching backward when the second ninja attacked him. He grabbed at the ninja bag his attacker kept by his thigh and liberated a Kunai. He then proceeded to jab his weapon into his attacker's leg.

"AH!" The tiger-masked ninja roared as he immediately released his hold on Ide's neck to tend to his leg. At the same time, the man in the bear mask rushed in to attack.

Ide in one movement freed his neck from the Kusarigama and quickly wrapped the chain around the man in the bear mask's incoming punch. A quick yank of the chain and the attacker's moment was enough to make him collide with the Tiger-Masked ninja. Then with the remaining chain, Ide tied the two ninjas together and immobilized them.

After dispatching the two enemies Ide's attention returned to the darkness of the forest understanding that if those two had discovered him then he wasn't safe and he was right to have his guard up. Suddenly a pair of guardian lions erupted from behind Ide who avoided their pouncing by leaping high up into the air.

The lions were black and white and there was something unnatural about their appearance like they'd come out of an art book. The lions were relentless, their failed initial attack barely slowed them down as they quickly began running up a nearby tree in their pursuit of Ide.

Ide reached the pinnacle of his jump and turned himself over midair so he could face downward as he fell back down. He kept his eyes on the climbing lions who quickly got in position to pounce him, mid-freefall. Ide waited until both lions had pounced before exhaling another strong gust of wind that changed his direction just enough to dodge the lions and make them crash into one another.

The lions fell to the ground hard leaving them momentarily stunned as Ide landed he went into a front roll, on his way down Ide's eyes darted over to a low-hanging tree branch noticing something. As soon as his feet were under him Ide took off sprinting into the forest as the lions quickly recovered and chased after him.

The lion's four legs could move faster than Ide's two so despite his headstart he could see the beasts gaining on him. As he ran Ide snapped his fingers and like the clicking of a lighter a small blue flame appeared on top of his thumb. Ide let the small wisp of flame go and it floated delicately in place as Ide began performing hand signs as he ran before he suddenly turned around to face his pursuers.

"Wind-Release! Expansion Detonation!" He spat a small ball of condensed, fast-moving wind out of his mouth. The wind ball went flying toward the floating blue flame and the two made contact just as the lions were running past it. KABOOOM!

A massive ball of bright orange flames, like a small sun, exploded out from the blue wisp, consuming everything in its vicinity. It created a dome of hot fire the size of a large house in the middle of the forest. It burned hot but quickly leaving the surrounding trees with charred, black bark and no leaves but no lingering flames. The attack had completely vaporized the white and black lions.

Ide had stopped for a moment to admire his handy work but more so to catch his breath but this was a mistake. As soon as he stopped moving, inky black tendrils erupted from the ground and grabbed hold of his arms and legs. The tendrils twisted and slithered up Ide's limbs, transforming into snakes as they pulled him down and forced him to his knees.

In a tree branch high above Ide sat another masked ninja wrapped in a black cloak, sitting peacefully as he scribbled on a long paper scroll. This ninja's mask didn't resemble any identifiable animal but the markings along its face resembled tree branches or antlers with three prongs curling slightly inwards along each cheek.

With Ide sufficiently immobilized, the doodling ninja put his scroll away and leaped down from his perch. Silently he looked Ide over and noticed something off about him, from under his cloak he pulled out a half-broken sword. The masked ninja jabbed his blade into Ide's stomach but as soon as the metal punctured his skin, Ide's visage disappeared leaving a stone statue in his shape behind. Suddenly the masked ninja found a sword at his throat and behind him stood the real Ide. Having been thoroughly bested, the masked ninja put both his hands up in surrender.

(Later)

Standing in front of a large chainlink fence that surrounded the dark forest was Danzo, waiting in silence. Out from under the canopy, the sun was shining brightly, a beautiful day in fact, with a cool pleasant breeze blowing through the Land of Fire that day.

Soon Ide emerged from the shadows of the forest dragging the three masked ninjas behind him, all three of them with their arms bound by chain. "388 seconds!" Danzo called out from behind the fence, his expression looking very unhappy. "That's 24 seconds slower than last week 38 seconds longer than I instructed!"

Ide didn't say a word, he simply looked back in disdain at his "mentor". He yanked hard on his captive's chain throwing them to their knees before Donzo before jumping over the massive fence with ease.

Suddenly another masked ninja appeared behind Danzo in a puff of smoke. "The Jinchuriki has returned." They whispered into Danzo's ear before disappearing into another smoke cloud.

The old man furrowed his brow for a moment as Ide discarded his black robes, underneath he wore a dark grey jumpsuit with no armor or padding. Slowly Danzo limped over to the young Uchiha and met his eyes. "It appears that our time training together has ended. Tomorrow you'll return to your duties as a ninja."

"Bout time." Ide spat back but the disrespectful words were simply brushed off by Danzo.

The old man put his cane down and placed his hand on Ide's shoulder like a father would their son. "You've grown strong Ide. I hope I can trust that in the future you'll apply your talents to helping me keep our village safe."

Ide could see right through these words, he quickly removed himself from Danzo's grip. "I've told you before I'm not a part of your Root, my power is my own." Ide said as he turned away from the old man. "Don't worry. I'll keep up my end of our deal. I will destroy Itachi"

Danzo furrowed his brow in frustration as Ide marched away.

(Later)

Ide ran home to his apartment and tore off the drab grey clothes he'd been forced to wear by Danzo. He balled up the fabric and threw it at the wall seeing as a moment of his time training. The last fifteen months had been like hell to him, late nights, early mornings, little food, no breaks. These conditions being designed intentionally, meant to drive him to the psychological edge and demanding perfection from him in his training exorcise would help sharpen him mentally.

Training with Maede wasn't like this, he knew how to make it enjoyable. He'd encourage competition and could often make games out of even the most tedious training but in his time training with Danzo Ide realized the flaws in Maede's approach.

Danzo's training could draw power out of Ide like he'd never seen before. Danzo would motivate Ide by feeding his hate, comparing him to Itachi and he understood Ide's Sharingan better than anyone he'd ever met. Maede had only ever taught Ide how to defeat his enemies but Danzo showed him how to destroy them and during the midst of his training, in some of his darker times Ide would curse his cousin. He believed that Maede had purposely sheltered Ide because of how easily Danzo was able to take his skills to another level.

Ide looked himself over in the bathroom mirror for the first time in a while he took a good look at himself. He recognized just how much he'd grown as a young man and as a shinobi but he also looked tired, the kind of tired he didn't know that you could fix by sleeping. Ide quickly shook off some of the doubts that were flooding his mind. His training with Danzo had come to an end, he didn't have to live in that hateful space anymore, right?

The first step to getting Danzo's hooks out of his head was to start dressing for himself again. He quickly threw open his closet door and began putting an outfit together in his head. Before grabbing a handleful of items and getting dressed.

He wore a solid black jacket that he only zipped up three-quarters of the way, leaving it open enough to show the white T-shirt he had on underneath. His pants were dark grey with the black and white band that held onto his ninja tool case wrapped around his right thigh. Unlike most leaf ninjas Ide opted not to wear gloves, finding he gripped both his sword and Kunai better with bare skin, said sword and the sheathe that held it had grown with Ide as he now kept a proper length katana sheathed across his back

The last detail of his outfit, but the most important one to Ide was the red and white fan that symbolized his clan that he wore of his heart on the left side of his jacket. Typically it was customary for the Uchiha, especially those who would serve as shinobi, to wear their clan's symbol on their back as a sign that they had the strength of the clan behind them anywhere they went. For Ide, though that was no longer true, there was no more clan behind him. In his eyes, the only place the clan still existed was in his heart.

After he'd finished dressing himself Ide went to the door. He'd need to report to the Hokage to resume his duties as a ninja and he was excited to meet his new teammate but when he opened the door there was an unexpected figure standing behind it.

A man with spikey grey hair and a black face mask that hid his mouth and nose. The man was dressed in the standard issue green vest of Hidden Leaf Jonin that he wore over a grey jumpsuit. He wore his hidden leaf headband slanted in a way that covered his left eye. "Good afternoon Ide, looks like you're done with your training early today."

"Ah, good afternoon Kakashi," Ide answered with a bit of surprise in his voice, not expecting to find him at his door. Kakashi had returned from his training about a month ago and at the time he and Ide were introduced to one another but Ide didn't need to learn the man's name as his exploits during the war were legendary despite his young age. Kakashi of the Sharingan was a prodigy the likes of Itachi aspired towards. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I'm just here to talk." The silver-haired Jonin replied calmly as Ide let him into the apartment and got him some tea. "Thank you." Kakashi graciously received the steaming cup but didn't take a sip because of his mask. "The reason I came by was to talk about Naruto." His expression turned serious as he and Ide took a seat at Ide's kitchen table.

"I imagine that Danzo was among the first to know of Naruto's return." Kakashi continued, his tone soured when he brought up Danzo. "I can only imagine what he's said to you about Naruto but you have to understand Jinchuriki are often unfairly painted in a negative light."

"Don't worry," Ide reassured. "I tend not to put too much stock in Danzo's opinion of people."

"I hope you're right about that." Kakashi said offhandedly before getting back on topic. "Anyway, before you meet Naruto there are a few things I should warn you about." He said nervously as sweat began to form on his face. "You know how I said Naruto was a good person before? Well, you may not see that on your first impression."

"What do you mean?" Ide asked between sips of tea.

"Well…. While I hope his time with Jiraya away from the village has given Naruto a chance to mature. Naruto will always be a very… passionate person." Kakashi picked his words carefully. "Naruto has a great deal of love for his friends and he was particularly close with Sasuke Uchiha."

Ide rolled his eyes at the mention of the name. In the time since his return from petrification, Ide had grown sick of the name Sasuke Uchiha as it seemed he couldn't go anywhere or talk to anyone without the name coming up.

Kakashi saw this reaction and looked back at Ide sympathetically, knowing that Sasuke was likely to continue to cause the young man problems. "Sasuke abandoning the village hurt him and he'd probably respond poorly to anyone filling in for him but you being from the same clan as Sasuke isn't going to help things. I'm not sure what his reaction will be but try not to take it personally."

Ide knew that it hurt to lose a friend so he couldn't help but feel sympathetic. "Don't worry. I don't get offended that easily."

"Good." Kakashi said as he stood up to leave. "Well, let's get going. We have to get to the Hokage's office in time for our dramatic entrance."

(Later)

Ide stood on the overhanging roof, his back to a wall next to a window to the Hokage's office. Ide stood with a confused look on his face as Kakashi sat next to him reading a book. "Why aren't we going inside?" Ide whispered as Kakashi had instructed him to remain silent so as not to spoil the surprise for the people inside the Hokage's office.

"I told you." Kakashi whispered back. "We need to make a dramatic entrance. Where is the drama in walking through the door? Now get into your hiding spot." Ide rolled his eyes as he leaped up to the top of the Hokage's office.

"You won't find your opponent in here." Ide could hear the Hokage say. There was a vent on the roof that let sound travel easily from inside the office. "He's out there!"

Ide sat and listened as the office window opened and a voice he didn't recognize called out with excitement. "Kakashi Sensei!"

"Naruto, you've grown." Ide continued his eavesdropping on the reunion of teacher and student. He was annoyed he couldn't see what was going on. He paced back and forth across the roof as the two exchanged kind words.

"So are you going to be my opponent?" Naruto eventually asked and hearing this Ide's ears perked up, knowing his queue was coming up.

"Hmmmm? Well, you're almost right." Kakashi said playfully. "Would you look at that, Sakura you're here too."

"Hi, sensei! It's been a while!" Ide could hear Sakura answer as he squatted on the edge of the roof, getting ready to make his grand entrance.

"Well, that settles it." Kakashi continued. "My opponents will be Naruto, Sakura, and filling in for Sasuke…." On queue, Ide dropped down from his perch as he landed he finally laid eyes on the Ninetails jinchuriki. A boy maybe a year or so younger than him with short spikey blonde hair dressed in a zipped-up orange jacket and matching pants with whisker-like markings across his cheeks. The two boys made eye contact for the first time naruto's eyes went wide for a moment as he immediately got a familiar feeling looking at him. "Naruto, Ide like to introduce you to Ide Uchiha."

(End)