"And yeah, that's pretty much what happened. Didn't expect Izumi to have it in her to just slug someone in the face. But then again, she is specializing in Taijutsu." I shrug from my spot on the floor. "Yugao then dismissed us, telling us to show up at Training Ground 12 and now I'm here."

"Damn, that's crazy." My interlocutor replies drily, not even looking up from the report he was compiling.

I look up at him, eyebrows furrowing. "Man, is this how you want to be recognized? Uchiha Inabi, Chuunin of Konohagakure, Paper Pusher Extraordinaire?"

"The Hokage's already on our asses enough, I certainly don't want to get on the Paperwork Demon's bad side." He shudders, before looking up. "I fully expected you to have been the first one to create trouble for your team. There, are you happy that I listened?"

I huff. "I'd be happy with any congratulations for finally making genin or anything like that."

The asshole had the gall to roll his eyes at me. "Congratulations on finally getting what we knew you were ready for three years ago and nee-san and your Yamanaka had to fight tooth and nail to delay."

I scoff. "Who shit in your coffee today?" He didn't reply. Even then, I couldn't really stay down. "Soooo... arrest any criminals today? Any 10 in the morning drinkers who refused to be kicked out?"

"Is this really the best use of your time, Tomo? I'm told Shisui is back from his mission."

In one swift move, I was out of the door to his house with an unrepentant "Bye Inabi." To be fair, the guy did want to be left alone, so it wasn't like I was being dismissive. Much.

Moving through the Uchiha district in the middle of the day, I was treated to the hellish heat of it being not an autumn or winter month. Somehow, Spring was actually the worst for me; while Summer went full blasting the world with cancer rays, at least it was a dry heat, whereas right now it carried all the humidity of the rain with all of summer's heat. I miss home's milder climates.

One thing that surprised me that really shouldn't was that Shisui had a house; being that I'd seen the anime and read bits and pieces of the manga, the guy just kind of seemed to exist around Itachi, so-

Wait a darn minute. [Inventory]

With a start, I quickly pull out my notebook. At half my Pure Points, the Pure World Technique: Soul Storage might have had a steep cost, but unlike the storage seals (of which I now carried a scroll, mostly for appearances) it was inaccessible by anyone not yours truly, did not require me to carry a physical token on my person, and most importantly, would stay with me if I died.

It's essentially the difference between a backpack and, I don't know, an Ender Chest? A soul bank?

Opening the notebook with a slight shudder, I began jotting down the fact that I just remembered having lived in a mild climate, before being Tomo.

I realize I'm still clinging hard to any and all pieces of my previous identity, but it's genuinely the only thing that's keeping me sane, remembering that prior to an asshole god picking me up and throwing me into this world.

Note taken, I slip the notebook back into the aether just as I approach Shisui's house, knocking. A moment later, Shisui's mom opens the door.

"Hello, Shura-san. Is Shisui home?" I ask, and receive a tired smile in return.

"Tomo-chan! Come inside. He's home, though I've been forced to place him on strict bed rest. Chakra exhaustion is no joke, though he keeps trying to get out of it to help around the house... sometimes I wish he didn't have to work so hard..." she sighs wistfully, before eyeing my forehead protector. "It was graduation day today, wasn't it?"

"Mhm. Ready to do my duty for the village, and all that jazz."

"You don't sound enthused about it." She replies carefully, making me snort.

"I am, but I've been delayed three years already. And D-ranks don't sound all that enticing." I offer.

"Oh, I don't know about that, Tomo-chan. I much prefer you children being left out of the thick of things for as long as possible; I know you're above your peers, but you're still eight." She replies, sitting down at the kitchen table as she ushered me inside.

I frown but shrug. To be completely honest, I didn't understand this world's conventions, where past 12 someone was not only old enough to fight and kill for their country, but encouraged to do so, but any younger than that, and then you're considered a child soldier. Though I was starting to grow numb to it, I was just generally opposed to underage people fighting at all.

"I'll go see Shisui," I said after a moment of awkwardness, but after standing up, remembered something. "Oh! Here. For your husband." I pulled out a bouquet for her out of my [Inventory]; the good thing about interacting with civilians was that I didn't have to care about not showing my gamer abilities.

Her smile turned watery. "Thank you, Tomo-chan. I'll go place them later."

**[ .relationship+("Uchiha Shura");]**

?

With a respectful nod towards her, I began to move deeper inside her house towards Shisui's room, pausing to try and dismiss the blue screen.

Nothing. I could move it around in my periphery, but it didn't minimize like I could with claiming quest rewards, nor I could dismiss it. It wasn't even bold text- though I assume that the two asterisks were meant to do that.

Navigating through the options menu still worked fine, but left continuous screens behind every time that I transitioned between options, so after a moment I disabled my HUD entirely and it disappeared, together with everything else in my augmented vision.

I'll deal with it later.

Proceeding towards Shisui's room, I look around. Scrolls containing drawings and writing were hung on the walls, and the parquet was tastefully adorned with carpets. All in all, compared to the fully traditional house Hazuki had us live in, this place was considerably more modern in its tastes. Shisui's room even had a TV with a DVD player, which was kind of mind-blowing when we still fought with blades in hand. But then again, I suppose that once you start spitting fire bullets that break the sound barrier in speed, guns become a liability.

Talking of the owner of the room, he was lying pitiously in bed, groaning at my arrival. "Good evening, Tomo-chan. I don't think I'm really-" he suddenly began coughing pretty hard, taking a full half a minute to recover. "In the shape to train. Congratulations on your promotion, though."

"I see," I reply. Looking around the room, however, I saw something unusual- the food his mom had brought was barely touched, and there were no weapons nearby, the rack for the katana nearby conspicuously empty. He'd also not even attempted to crack a joke.

I'm not buying it. "Will I have to explain your disappearance to Shura-san if I jab you really hard?"

"...that obvious, huh?" Shisui huffed, all illness forgotten. "I guess I've been laying it on pretty thick- mom doesn't really pick up on the subtle shinobi cues." He gives me a side-eye. "Please do not burst me."

I snorted. "Fine. Still, chakra exhaustion isn't a joke- cutting your chakra in half and then some on top of that? I hope you've got a good explanation." He looked to the side. After a moment, I sigh. "It's about Itachi, isn't it?"

"What did you eat today for breakfast, eggs and perceptiveness?" He grumbles. "Yes. He…" He paused, for a moment, before sighing. "You can't understand. Not like we can. What it means to awaken the Sharingan… and the pain that comes with it. Itachi has just lost both of his teammates. Even if one of them survived, she wants nothing more to do with the shinobi life."

I shift uneasily upon hearing that. "If you tell me where he's been hiding himself, I could go visit. You're not his only friend, you know."

"Tomo-chan… this is different." Shisui shakes his head. "The only way Itachi feels like he can atone for his sins is if he takes this gift of ours and takes it to its maximum potential. I've been helping him train his Sharingan so that he can get the most out of it."

…

"Shisui-kun." I take a deep breath. "How, exactly, are you helping Itachi train his Sharingan?" The sound of a notification going off filled my ears for a moment, and I didn't need my fucking HUD to know that it was the Intimidation skill leveling up.

"W-well…" he stammers out. It was hilarious to see him so frightened, though it was probably because I could pop him and land him in trouble pretty easily right now. He isn't afraid of me, but of the consequences; I'll take it though.

"Shisui-kun." I repeat. "If the next words out of your mouth are not you informing me that this training consists of looking at pretty landscapes and puppies and not stressing the Sharingan of your recently traumatized friend by fighting, do not speak up at all."

The answering silence in the room is deafening.

"Fugaku approves of this, doesn't he?" A nod. "Of course the a-hole does. Where are you?"

"...I'm not telling you, Tomo. Listen, I understand that you don't approve of this, but you're not a Uchiha, you don't get it. Itachi needs this-"

"What Itachi needs is therapy and a shoulder to cry on, like the one I gave Izumi when she awakened hers. He needs to be told that what happened to him was, in fact, unfair and that he shouldn't feel the need to make up for it." I grit my teeth. "What the village needs, on the other hand, is a handy little tool. And you know what? Keeping your tools sharp and clean begins with maintaining them when they get damaged. So are you going to tell me where you two idiots are?"

"…" Shisui just stares at me, eyes trying to peer through me as though I'd suddenly grown a second head.

"I am going to start shouting from the rooftops that the Uchiha Clan is planning to revo-." Was all I could get out before Shisui is suddenly standing over me, pinning me against the wall with a hand on my mouth.

"Where did you hear that?" he hisses in my ear. I gave him a flat stare, and he removed his hand.

"I live in this compound just as any of you do, dumbass. Did any of you think that you were slick with all the secret meetings and tiptoeing around the topic of how you collectively feel about the disrespect this village puts the clan through?"

"Unbelievable…" he grimaces, finally letting go of me. I quietly release a breath I didn't know I was holding. "You're eight, Tomo."

"And Itachi is nine, and you are twelve, and we're all probably going to make Jonin before we hit puberty."

"I didn't want him to have to deal with these things either." he groans, shaking his head and falling onto his bed. "He's the son of the clan head, however. Fugaku-sama already puts so much pressure on him, that I can at least help him, deal with these kinds of things, since I know that he's going to be dealing with them anyway, with or without me."

"Shisui." I sigh, leaning against the wall with my arms crossed. "I understand that you want to protect us. But not a single one of us is a child anymore- haven't been for a long time now. Let me help."

"...fine." he sighs. "We're at Training Ground 3."

"Alright. I'll go get Izumi, and see you- well, your main body- there."

"Woah woah woah woah-" he springs from the bed, and I slap away the hand he put on my shoulder to stop me. "Izumi-chan is-"

"Already on a 3-Tomoe Sharingan and has had it at a younger age than either of you two doofuses. And given that I can't trust you to know of a healthy way to cope with it, and apparently you don't trust me as I'm not an Uchiha, I'm grabbing someone that's better than either of us in the matter."

He grumbles something out in what I think was annoyance, but right now I couldn't care less about it. Sighing, I peel myself from the wall and launch myself out from his window, deftly pulling myself up on a nearby roof.

For some reason, I can't quite help finding myself disappointed. These people, whom I had put up on a pedestal by virtue of them outclassing me in such a profound manner, that I knew for a fact to be real prodigies whereas I was merely operating under an easier premise, are acting like dramatic idiots.

...but perhaps I'm being too harsh on them. They are nine and twelve, I've just said so a moment ago, they just… don't feel like their age. I've had the displeasure up until this point of interacting with a class of children Shisui's age, and if I never have to do so again it'll be too soon. They are entitled to make mistakes.

Massaging my aching eyelids to banish the headache I was beginning to feel, I start running home. I can feel the buzzing of my chakra in my limbs as I use it to empower myself, the drain on my reserves almost unnoticeable- especially without the HUD telling me exactly how much I was losing.

After a moment, I nearly fall off a roof as a familiar but long-missed noise dings in my ears. But as I pick up the pace once again, I can feel myself being just the slightest bit faster.

I don't think I've ever felt happier than I am right now in a long time.

Because even though I can't see the HUD because the stupid system broke, I know what just happened.

"Running Lv.34, baby!" I holler from the rooftop, uncaring of the people below me who see me as I run chakra through my legs and do a front flip forward and off of the rooftop, laughing.

And then my joy is cut short when I'm caught midair by a pair of hands that makes me spin in a relatively slow circle to kill off my momentum before putting me down.

"You're in a good mood today. Are you that excited about your new sensei, Tomo-chan?" Hazuki asks, pale orange sundress on full display. I didn't understand her fashion statements, sometimes. "I'd ask Izumi, but she didn't wish to talk about how things went with the team."

I blink, before tentatively leaning in for a hug. "Ah… it's not that, obaa-san, but the team is pretty much everything I could ask for, I suppose. I mean, my teammates are the two people who I can interact with on decent terms, my sensei is a swordsmistress, who I've been wishing to get ahold of for a while…" I close my eyes. "But these are all things you know anyway. The only thing I could ask for more is genjutsu guidance. And for Hana and Izumi to get along better, but there's time for that."

Hazuki sighs wearily. "...I suppose I've made you wait long enough for it, haven't I?"

I open my eyes again, looking up at her as I step back. "Wait, for real?"

"Am I in the habit of lying, Tomo-chan?" The woman replies coolly, conjuring a fan to wave herself with from… somewhere. And this is coming from the person who sunk 15 points into a skill that does exactly that.

Still, I blink incredulously. "Weren't you the one that said that I should hold off on Genjutsu until my brain was fully developed?"

Her lips press thin against one another into a frown. "While that would be ideal… I cannot in good conscience rob you of a potential tool that may save your life or that of your companions out there in the field." With that, her eyes turn red as she glares at me. "With that being said, I hope you do understand when I say that you won't even do the hand signs without supervision, let alone perform the actual genjutsu, unless you're under scrupulous supervision from a Uchiha that isn't one of your friends. Lengthy exposure to genjutsu isn't a joke."

"...yes, ma'am." I gulp, but my eyebrows furrow after a moment. Even though I don't remember why, I've had Genjutsu Resistance up to level 33 for a while now. With that, the Sharingan fades from her eyes, and her expression settles back into a smile. "Good. I shall arrange for your lessons then, Tomo-chan. I suggest you rest up, given that you shall be having your first dose of action with your sensei tomorrow."

"Feh, I wish, but I gotta go grab Izumi and deal with the fact that our clan head is being an idiot."

"Those are some harsh things to say about our clan head, Tomo-chan." she reprimands. But considering that years ago she would've probably smacked me for saying that, I felt this as a victory.

"Well, idiot one and idiot two- that's Shisui and Itachi- decided that in the time of his highest vulnerability, he'd hole up by himself, not speak to anyone, and train his eyes off until his Sharingan matures." I paused, before pinching the bridge of my nose. "Now, considering that I've had to grow up alongside Izumi ever since she got it and watched her learn to cope with it, I think we can agree on the fact that it is not a healthy way."

"I... will not say either way, but I did leave the clan for a large portion of my life. That doesn't happen without reason." Hazuki sighs. "Well, I suppose I best not keep you here, then. I believe it might be best for me to have tea over with Shura-san sometime, to discuss some things," she replies, smiling beatifically.

I slip into the house with a shudder. Poor Shisui.

I find Izumi outside on the internal porch, practicing taijutsu kata with her eyes closed. She was going pretty slow at it, slower than I knew she could go if she wanted- but that's most likely because her hands are on fire. Somehow, that small yet important fact failed to do anything more to her than produce sweat lining her brow.

I frown, looking at her. Of course, I was proud of her, and though I can't recall having siblings, she'd grown on me into a true sister. I didn't have, however, a frame of reference for how she was actually supposed to turn out, given that the anime never really went over her skillset, only that she was an Itachi fangirl.

Here, she was still a bit of a fangirl… but I'd also mostly nipped that in the bud by forcing the two of them to actually interact early on. Not as much as I hoped, but enough for them to know one another in a way that wasn't just being schoolmates. Which they really weren't, actually, barely for a year or so.

Of course, "not that much of a fangirl" only meant that her crush was even more based on who Itachi truly was, rather than what he represented.

Ugh.

Still… she was shaping up adequately. But that only meant that she got promoted early- that much I remembered, that she was a freshly minted genin by the time Itachi made ANBU. Here, Itachi hasn't even had his Chunin exams yet, having been a genin for the past… today would mark 3 years.

I've got time still before he buries a knife in my sister's back. Time to get him to reconsider things, or prepare myself for having to fight him.

...hopefully the former. And that begins with making sure he stops with this tool mentality.

"Tomo-chan?" Izumi asks, snapping me out of my thoughts. She was breathing hard, hands plunged into a bucket at her feet, and sweat pouring down her face. "How- huff, how long have you been there?"

"Minute or so." I shrug. "Didn't want to startle you considering you looked pretty busy setting yourself on fire."

"I'm sorry that some of us bother training with taijutsu instead of just getting 'good enough'." Izumi scoffs, before sighing. "Sorry. I'm just angry, you don't deserve it."

"I probably do." I shrug. I'd kept most of my ability a secret to Izumi, and this part I'd just kept a secret from everybody because it was simply easier; how could I explain that a system was arbitrarily limiting my growth, but it's okay because now it just stopped? It's easier to pretend I was just lazy up to this point. It's not that far off from the truth, I could've gone for just a bit more skill levels and tried to look just a bit harder for quests. Not intentionally disable my ability to get invaded by other gamers as soon as I learned how to.

The fact that they nearly killed Izumi terrifies me.

Oh well. "How are you dealing with the whole…" I trailed off, but she grimaced in understanding.

"Ugh, don't remind me. Couldn't you have picked anyone else as a friend? Someone less… vile?"

"Pretty sure you and her are the only people who don't call me a drone, a pervert, or a monster in our class, so I wasn't exactly swamped for companionship." Her frown deepens at that. "Hey, don't give me that look. I told you to not let me not being accepted by others get you out of making friends." I said, leaning backward with a sigh. "You're not at fault. They'll grow up, eventually."

"I'm starting to feel like I shouldn't have listened to you."

Awww. That is so sweet. And a little dumb. "Anyways… Hana is, well, Hana. She's honest both with me and herself about what she wants. And I think she cares in some way, given that she's been looking out for me ever since."

"More like she's been looking out for herself and that just happened to include you," Izumi grumbles, coming to sit next to me as we interlocked hands.

I hear a ding from the system as her eyes briefly begin spinning in a red pinwheel before turning back to normal. "...huh. It really is you."

"What do you mean?" I asked, glancing at her.

"You rarely spare me actual time. Often, you're either out training in the forest or sleeping, while the clones live your life." She breathes, before smiling. It wasn't a nice smile, it was a very sad one.

Shit… I've been doing that, haven't I? Even if clones feel to me like they're me in everything but hit points and the fact that they can't gain EXP, so I use them for the "safe" tasks, to her, it must feel like I am...

"You're merciless today, huh? Stabbing your poor imouto with reminder after reminder of what a terrible person she is." I groaned dramatically, flopping down. She huffs, poking me in the ribs hard. "And now, the literal stab. Alas, I am dead."

"Tomo…" Izumi groans, and I chuff in amusement, turning back to her.

"You're right. We should be spending more actual time together. And I should probably get back to training my taijutsu with you. But right now, I need your help with something."

She blinks. "Oh, sure. What's up?"

"Well, in short, Itachi is acting like an idiot- hey, hey hey hey." I clutch the hand I had interlocked with hers and block the other that was going to enact monstrous violence on poor little me. "Hear me out first." Slowly, she lowered back her hand. "So, as I said, Itachi is acting like an idiot and both Shisui and his father are enabling him."

"Tomo… why do you always think that others are idiots without even knowing the full story?"

"Even if I tell you that Itachi, right after having gotten the Sharingan because his teammate died, is now training himself super hard in its use rather than seeing anyone over the trauma that he no doubt suffered because that's what awakens the freaking Sharingan?"

Izumi's expression freezes on her face, clearly struggling between defending her crush and admitting his stupidity. Eventually, she speaks, slowly. "Well… if Fugaku-sama approves of it, and both Itachi-kun and Shisui-kun are going for it, maybe it's fine?"

I level her with a flat stare. "You're talking about 'Savior Complex' Itachi Uchiha and 'My Children Are Weapons' Fugaku Uchiha, yes? Those same people?" Izumi cringes at the monikers. "Whatever. I came to pick you up so we could go yell at them together, but if you're not coming, I guess I'll do this myself."

With that, I let go of her hand and began circulating chakra to my legs in order to take off into a sprint, but a moment after, Izumi stands up. "Wait! I'm coming too. He's probably doing fine, but… it doesn't hurt to share some pointers, as his senpai... in this particular thing."

I roll my eyes. Sure, that's what you're coming with me for. "Sure. Let's go, then."

Timeskip time, finally from Tomo's perspective! Not much more to say about this.

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