"Maa…you're late." Kakashi amusedly said, leaning against a wall near the gates of Konoha.

I blankly looked at him. Then, I huffed. "Or, you're just early. Naruto and Sakura aren't even here yet. No black cats or old ladies, hm?"

"Ahh, nothing like that." Kakashi shook his head, visible-eye upturned. "I tripped into a weird portal and wound up here."

"You even have to have excuses for being early, don't you?" I snorted, rolling my eyes at him. "And what's that scroll in your hand? I thought the whole team was supposed to go and get the mission."

"This?" Kakashi raised the mission scroll casually, lightly moving it about in the air. "As self-important as you are, Sasuke, I'm terribly sorry to tell you that Lord Third doesn't usually go out of his way to deal with brats." He lowered the scroll. "And as unusual as it is for you to be unimportant, you should get used to it."

"Okay, ouch."

Kakashi just hummed and pulled his smut out of his pocket. "Go play with dolls or something while we wait for the others to show up, Sasuke-chan."

"You get joy out of bullying me, don't you?" I rhetorically asked Kakashi. "And my threat about calling me Sasuke-chan still stands."

"Oh no, women." Kakashi flatly said, staring at his book. "I'm trembling."

"Says the twenty-three year old virgin. Either women terrify you or you have no game."

"Twenty-six." Kakashi corrected.

"That is not helping your case in the slightest. Honestly, at this point?" I shook my head, lips upturning. "I'm half-convinced you just don't want to date any women. I mean, most people are married by your age…but you? Well, I'm fairly certain you and Might Gai might be a little bit more than close friends."

Kakashi slowly lowered his book, single-eye staring at me with a distant expression. Horror was visibly present in his iris. A faint shudder went over the man's shoulders. "If you weren't my adorable student, Sasuke-chan, I'd make you beg for mercy."

"Like you do to Gai?" I snipped back.

Kakashi's book went into his pocket. "Sasuke-chan, I recall you wanting to master Sharingan genjutsu, yes?" He didn't wait for a response, slipping his headband up, revealing Obito's eye. "If you wish to talk about your homoerotic fantasies, I'll be sure to put you in a proper illusion."

With a yelp, I leaped back and averted my gaze. "I'm good! No thank you! I mean, sorry, Sensei!"

A hand ruffled my hair. "Maa, I'd never do that to you, Sasuke. Aren't I such a great teacher?"

"...yes." I glumly responded, pushing away his hand. "You're a jerk, Kakashi."

"Sorry, did you say something?" Kakashi was already back to reading his smut, happily ignoring me in favor of indulging in crappy erotica.

Shooting one last glare at my teacher, I sat down on the ground and rested my back against the wall Kakashi was leaning against. I was half-tempted to do some training, but that'd use up my energy before the mission. So, yeah, no training for me.

I currently have one clone stationed at home with a radio. It took a while, but I managed to tune the radio to work with the same frequency that my to-be-named jutsu operated on. Actually, I should make a name for it…

How about Radio-Transmission Jutsu, or just RTJ for short? It wasn't as glamorous as Lord Fourth's naming sensibilities, but it is succinct enough.

Anyways, the clone is there to receive and send information with me. I don't claim to know everything, so doing this means I can find out anything with relative ease. My clone can just read a book on some topic and then send me back solutions to problems I am having.

Will I likely need it? Probably not. It does not, however, hurt to be cautious. I also have a couple ideas related to RTJ and clones, ones that I am too stupid at the moment to do. Like, for example, I want to figure out how to send memories by RTJ. That way, I don't need to pop clones to get their memories.

Going along with that previous train of thought, I'd love to be able to share my vision with a clone. This would, ironically, be far easier to do than to send memories by RTJ. I just need to figure out how to turn the data my eyes interpret into radio waves which I can then have my brain reinterpret. Probably.

"Kakashi?" I looked up at the man. He looked down at me, lowering his book. I kept speaking. "Does the memory-transfer of the Shadow Clone Jutsu work by carrying memories imbued in the spiritual energy that returns to the user when the clone is popped?"

"Hm. I haven't thought about it before." Kakashi shrugged, looking back at his book. "But your guess seems reasonable."

"Helpful." I muttered, shaking my head. My last idea was figuring out how to copy other people's memories. If Shadow Clones can send back memories, it is clear that chakra can, somehow, carry memories.

How? Hell if I know. My best guess is what I told Kakashi seconds ago. I think it works by storing memories inside of spiritual energy. I could, however, be wrong. However, I think there is some logic in the idea that a copy of a person's memories is stored in spiritual energy. After all, Shadow Clones posses all of the memories of the original, and they are made of chakra. The jutsu is formed with only one sign, so there is no way that it is something special about the jutsu that stores memories in the clone.

It literally has to be a property of chakra itself…and, if that is true, I should be able to make a jutsu which allows me to copy the memories of others. Theoretically.

I hope I am right, though. If I am right and make a jutsu that can copy memories from chakra, well…Lord Fourth did store some chakra inside of Naruto.

"Kakashi-sensei!" I heard a squeaky voice yell—Naruto, obviously. "You're early! And so are you, bastard. Who replaced you two, huh?" The blond challenged, marching forward and glaring at me.

Rolling my eyes, I tossed a pamphlet of papers at him. It hit Naruto right in the face. "Read this as we walk to wherever our mission is. You'll like The Social Contract."

"The Social Contract?" Naruto asked, catching the bound papers. "Sounds stupid. What's it about?"

"Constructing a society compatible with the individual's inalienable right of freedom."

"Hm." Naruto opened up the first page. "Jean-Jacques Rousseau? That's a dumb name."

"Old names tend to be dumb, yes. He was an Uchiha from a couple hundred years ago." I lie, giving Naruto a bland stare. "How about you stop criticizing it and actually read it?"

With a huff and a glare, Naruto leaned against the wall and started reading. It was kind of funny—if you went a few weeks back, you'd find it incredibly difficult to get Naruto to read. Now, however? The blond actually likes reading.

Well, no, that isn't true. He likes reading things that interest him; it just so happens that Naruto likes philosophy. It was probably because he wanted to rationalize his treatment as a child, but I'm not judging. If it got him to read, it got him to read.

I'm fairly proud of him, though. He'd grown remarkably in such a short time. Who knew that positive affirmation sprinkled in with challenges could make Naruto flourish? From the brat he'd been when he graduated, he was just…more emotionally mature now. He was also flat-out stronger.

In my past life, everyone loved to claim Naruto was an amazing kinesthetic learner and was book-dumb. They'd be wrong. Naruto is just incredibly intelligent as a person when given the care and nourishment he needed. He may act like his mother, but Naruto really does have Minato's brain…sometimes.

He just needed the guidance to properly use that brain of his. With the way Naruto is progressing, I'm genuinely pretty confident he'd be able to learn the Rasengan and make the Rasenshuriken by the end of the Chunin Exams.

Standing up, I shook my head and snorted. Naruto gave me an odd glance, but I waved him off. I was half-scared Naruto would outpace me—I mean, he can use far more clones than I can and picks up on things remarkably quick. Only half-scared, though. I have the Sharingan and modern-science.

"You're all here already!" Sakura complained as she approached. "Someone should have told me you all were going to get here early…"

Kakashi got off of the wall, remaining slouched. "Maa, it's fine, Sakura. We have plenty of time to get to our objective."

"And what is our objective?" I curiously asked, also standing upright.

"Yeah!" Naruto bobbed his head, grinning. He slipped his book into his pocket. "Are we gonna save a princess? Ooh! Or are we going to overthrow a hostile regime in a country? Maybe we will be sent to—"

"Bandit elimination." Kakashi cut Naruto off, something which made the blond's face fall. "There is a camp nearly one-twenty miles from here."

Naruto sent a glare at Kakashi, crossing his arms. "I refuse to kill anyone."

"But if you don't, your teammates will or I will." Kakashi's single eye stared deeply into Naruto's. "So they will die anyway."

"That's holistic consequentialism, and we already established that Naruto is a deontologist, Kakashi." I shook my head, sighing. "And since when do shinobi deal with bandits? I thought the Daimyo's samurai handled them…?"

Kakashi's large hand fell on top of my head. "You'd be right…if this were sixty years ago. Bandits are not common in the Land of Fire anymore, Sasuke-chan." I grumbled at that. "Whenever bandits spring up within our borders, the ANBU are sent to eradicate them."

"Then why are we going after them, Sensei?" Sakura asked the older shinobi. "I mean, if the ANBU usually hunt them…"

Kakashi's eye turned upwards. "I pulled some strings for you three, my adorable little students. Aren't I such a good teacher?"

I thought over what he said. Kakashi put in a request for us to have this mission. It was purposeful of him. "You want to bloody our hands." I realized, my voice accusatory. "It was our ideological discussions that made you do it. You don't want to let us be moral."

"You—" Naruto cut himself off, glaring at Kakashi. "Sasuke's lying! You wouldn't do that…right?"

"Hmm…I don't know." Kakashi hummed and tilted his head. "Would I do such a thing?"

"Yes. Yes, you would. But it really is odd timing that the day after we have a discussion on morality, a bandit camp shows up…you just wanted us to bloody our hands regardless and put the request in weeks ago, yes?" I kept talking, not waiting for Kakashi to agree. "And some ANBU buddy of yours told you about the mission yesterday and you only decided we should go on it after the morality talk."

"Clever, Sasuke-chan. You discovered my terrible scheme." Kakashi dryly said. He started walking. "Well, let us go kill some bandits! Come now, zygotes."

"I refuse to move!" Naruto shouted, planting himself in the ground. "I will not be part of this!"

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but you do not have a choice." Kakashi cheerfully said. And, like that, I found my gut churning as we appeared miles out from the village. Kakashi has carried us all faster than we could think.

We had no choice but to walk.

Naruto had refused to look at Kakashi as we walked. The boy stood in the back, far away from Kakashi. All of us were behind Kakashi, really. Not like the jonin cared, his head was too stuck in his smut to pay attention to us.

"Naruto." I addressed my teammate.

He gave me an unhappy look, arms crossed. "...what?"

"If you were hokage, what would you do as hokage?" I questioned him, tilting my head. "Because you must have some kind of plan?"

"Um…" Naruto paused and then let out an awkward chuckle. "Of course I have a plan! I just…um…er…"

"Maybe you should get back to reading that book I gave you? It is, after all, about governance." I suggest lightly. I'm fully confident I can eventually convince Naruto to not want to be hokage. Once he is fully dissuaded against military dictators, he will either decide to become hokage to form a democracy, refuse to be hokage, or attempt to overthrow the regime.

Knowing Naruto, he'd only want to do option one or two. I only need to make option one seem unfeasible or like a waste of energy. Easy peasy.

"Fine." Naruto mumbled, taking out The Social Contract to read. "And I do too have a plan!"

"Never said you didn't." I deflect, looking towards Sakura. "Sakura, how've you been progressing with your medical ninjutsu?"

She blinked, looking surprised that I was talking to her. "Good, I guess? I finished learning the Mystical Palm Jutsu! The book you gave me helped me form some ideas, but I didn't understand most of it."

Ah yes, the book containing all of my biology knowledge. "I didn't expect you to understand all of it, honestly. That will come with time and experience." And a level of chemical understanding that I was not going to be providing her. How was she supposed to understand how proteins bind to each other without understanding intermolecular bonding? Well, she'll figure it out eventually.

"Thanks, Sasuke." She smiled at me and then started muttering to herself, likely thinking over different things.

Sakura had also improved massively. She currently is the weakest on the team, but that isn't fair to her. Her growth was always going to be a long term thing. I plan on grooming her to be like a mix of Orochimaru and Tsunade, but that has to be long term. Manipulating the body is incredibly complex and it takes a decent chunk of time to get that kind of mastery.

Even if it will take her much longer than Naruto or myself to become an S-ranked ninja, she will be all the better for it. In canon, she became as strong as Tsunade by sixteen, if not stronger! Sakura has no genetic advantages, no special eyes, and no insane chakra pools to gain strength…she is just very talented. I plan to nourish that talent to its max.

She can rank a happy third in the strongest ninja in history list—of course, I plan to rank first in that list.

"Shoo!" Naruto shouted, throwing a rock into the trees. I heard a small caw noise, a black bird flying off into the distance.

"What'd you do that for?" I curiously asked him. "I don't think the bird was trying to pick a fight with you."

Naruto harrumphed. "You haven't seen all of the black birds? They've been creepy! Just…staring."

Narrowing my eyes, I looked up into the forest around us and tried to spot any birds as we walked. I couldn't see anything in the dense foliage besides leaves—actually, no. I did see something. Naruto had been right, there were birds. A lot of them.

"That is weird." I mutter, meeting one of the bird's eyes. It didn't blink, eyes intent on staring at me. "What kind of black birds frequent the Land of Fire's forests, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi glanced back and hummed. "Crows and ravens, typically." Then, he went back to reading his smut.

"I guess the birds aren't used to seeing people?" I offered an answer to Naruto, shrugging. "It is a bit creepy, though. You really shouldn't throw rocks at them, though, because crows and ravens are known to hold grudges."

"Fine." Naruto muttered, shaking his head. He went back to reading his book.

I kept walking in silence, but now I couldn't help but notice the birds. They seemed to be in every tree, resting on every branch. There must have been dozens, if not hundreds of them. It was…creepy. Just really creepy.

My eyes were kept to the trees as we walked. While there were many black birds in the trees, they weren't the only creatures I saw. There were also red sparrows and brown squirrels. Bugs were snatched out of the air by soaring raptors, plucked right into the beaks of the predators.

The Land of Fire had incredibly dense forests. The urban sprawl of modern America could not compete with the rampant foliage here, the vivid, verdant greenery ever present. The trees here struck high into the sky, almost as if the leafy branches wished to grab onto the sun itself. If it weren't for the path, I doubt we would be able to see any sunlight.

It was almost comparable to a redwood forest, but only almost. The trunks here were just as massive as a redwood's, but it is the leaves and branches that make the difference. Redwood forests tend to have branches and leaves that are fairly packed to the main body, allowing for the sky above to easily breach through the forest roof. Here, however? The trees were much more like oak trees, branches spreading far and wide in a blanket.

If I recall properly, they are called Hashirama Trees, named after, well, Hashirama. Apparently, larger portions of the Land of Fire were suffering from deforestation due to excessive shipbuilding centuries ago. Not all of the Land of Fire, of course, but still a sizable part of it. In return for all of the land Konoha is on, Lord First reforested the Land of Fire.

Hashirama Trees grow incredibly fast and easily outcompete their contemporaries, something which resulted in all of the Land of Fire being covered in them. That's a good thing because they have incredible benefits for the soil they are grown on.

Hashirama really was unfairly gifted, wasn't he? Mokuton is such an overpowered bloodline limit, it really was unfair. Then again, I have the Sharingan, so…yeah, I can't complain. Oh! Speaking of Hashirama, I really need to get a blood transfusion and a small skin graft from Naruto. The sooner I can get Indra and Ashura to mix, the better.

Getting the Rinnegan is a late-game goal, though. For now, I need to focus on getting the Mangekyou in a relatively humane way…I have no clue how to do that, however. I know that activating it requires intense guilt over a loved one dying. I have no intention of having a loved one dying. So, yeah, this'll be tough.

Maybe if I just implant Itachi's eyes into my skull, I'll just skip to the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan? Eh, an idea for later.

"We're here." Kakashi said, stopping and slipping his erotica into his pocket.

Sakura raised her hand and spoke up. "But…I don't see anything, Sensei?"

"Of course you don't!" Kakashi cheerfully said, beginning to walk up a tree. "They are still a mile out…" Kakashi pointed in a direction. "That way! So, come along my adorable pupils. Let's go rid the world of some miscreants."

"I refuse!" Naruto staunchly said, crossing his arms as he looked away. "This is immoral and I will take no part in it, bastard-sensei!"

"Hm…well, I'm afraid my parents were happily married until they died, Naruto." Kakashi walked back down, visible eye curving upwards. "But I'm sure you'll figure out a more creative insult eventually. Well, I suppose I'll just carry you until you can manage that."

"No no no no." Naruto waved his hand frantically about. He glared at Kakashi. "You don't need to do that…And fine! I'll follow you…but don't expect me to kill anyone!"

"Sure you won't, Naruto." Kakashi placatingly said, patting the boy on the head. We all started walking up the tree, eventually making our way onto a thick branch far up in the sky.

"This is evil…" Naruto grumbled, obediently following Kakashi. "You won't really kill anyone, right Sasuke? Sakura?"

"Well…" Sakura quietly said, looking into the distance. "If—if they attack me first, I guess I will?"

"But they could just be scared! I've been scared a whole lot in my life, but that doesn't mean I should've been killed for it!" The blond passionately said, giving Sakura a look of…disappointment? Huh. "And you, Sasuke? You won't kill anyone! You won't…Killing is bad! You said it yourself. Should everyone who does a bad thing be killed, huh?! That's not fair!"

"Quiet, Naruto." Kakashi bonked Naruto on the head, earning another grumble from the blond.

Naruto continued to give me an intense stare, waiting for an answer. And…the issue is, I don't really know. Naruto isn't wrong, killing is wrong. I guess, however, there is a difference between what is moral and what must be done.

If I can't even kill some bandits, how can I possibly manage to kill Itachi one day? Or Nagato or Obito? Yes, the three named people are likely far worse than these bandits, but still…I just don't know.

I sighed, exhaling deeply out of my mouth. "Probably, Naruto. Good can be brought from evil, but it doesn't make the evil any less evil. But…sometimes good can only be accomplished from evil."

Naruto blinked and then looked at me in abject shock. "But—but how is killing bandits going to bring about good, huh?! How is capturing them going to bring about less good than killing them! It isn't!"

"Do you think I want to kill them, Naruto?" I harshly say, glaring at him. "No, I most certainly do not want to kill them. But what option do we have? Do we let Kakashi deal with them alone? Guess what, we will have a black mark on our record for disobeying our superior when we go back to the village! No matter what, the bandits will die. Do I want that? No. But I need to be a shinobi to bring about as much good as I can in this world, and I need to choose what battles I want to fight."

"And this isn't a battle you want to fight? You don't want to be a good person? Then why do anything at all, Sasuke! For your greed? This is greedy! You're being no better than Itach—!"

I flinched, my eyes growing harsh. It took all my effort to stop my Sharingan from appearing. "Naruto, for your own good, please shut up. I am nothing like Itachi. And if you ever mention him again, I will hurt you. How would you like it if I made fun of you dead parents?" Naruto took a step back, also flinching. "So fuck off. Actually fuck off."

My hands tightened, folding into balls. I am nothing like Itachi. That monster made me watch Mother and Father die five hundred thousand times. I am nothing like him. I will never be like him.

I will never, ever be Itachi.

"Settle down, you two." Kakashi said. "No fighting on a mission. And no bringing up no-no topics. Good? Alright! You three are such great students! Now, down below is where the camp should be."

"...should be?" Sakura confusedly asked. "What do you mean should be?"

"Why don't you three see for yourself?" Kakashi asked, not giving us any time to respond. Suddenly, I found myself falling from the branch. Kakashi had pushed us off.

What an ass.

Molding chakra, I flowed the energy through my body and allowed it to absorb the energy as I crashed into the ground. Chakra is useful for things like surviving massive falls.

Brushing myself off, I pushed myself off of the ground and saw a camp…or the remains of one. It was ruined, a recent thing. The buildings were burned, black marks marring the coarse wood that made them up.

It was completely lifeless, not a single soul there. But there was a smell, a thick one. It was rotten and stung at my nose, making my stomach churn. The scent of rotten fruit coalesced in a gruesome mix with rotting flesh and copper, searing my nostrils. I almost wanted to bend over and hurl.

There was no one here. No one besides bodies. Lots and lots of disfigured, maimed, and mutilated bodies. The entire camp was dead.