35After staying a night at the hospital you discovered why Naruto hated hospitals. Life in this world was boring enough, and there was even less to do here while bedridden.
But not long after waking up, you heard the voice of Itachi greeting you with a "Good morning."
"Morning," you replied and smiled at him.
He had with him another two sticks of dango and handed you one of them. You were glad you had one working hand so he didn't have to feed you. You could easily imagine Sasuke taking revenge on you for that one alone.
What was it about you that made Itachi want to make friends with you? It made little sense. He could be spending his valuable time with Sasuke instead of being here.
But it would be stupid and embarrassing to just ask him directly. And it would just push him away.
"How do you feel?" He asked.
"Much better. You know, be careful about giving me dango when visiting me, I might just get hurt on purpose to get more of it for free."
You could see a smile forming on Itachi's face.
"So when will they let you out?" He asked.
"In the evening, so I won't be stuck here for long. But I still have to wear a sling for some days."
"Injuries is some of the worst parts of being a ninja, you start to feel useless. We get praised for our ability as a ninja, so if you can no longer perform your duty, you stop valuing yourself," he said.
"I didn't see it like that, I'm sorry."
"There is no virtue in that way of thinking. Don't try to be the ideal ninja Sota, be you."
"I'll try."
"And I'll be here making sure both you and Sasuke succeed."
"Thanks. I just wish I could go back to learning fuuinjutsu. But it's just a waste of Genma's time to have lessons with me in this state. Can't medical jutsu help heal stuff faster?" You asked
"You would think so, but while it can help to fix your physical damages, it makes healing the chakra network slower. So if you can heal normally, you recover quicker. But sometimes you cannot afford to wait."
"Oh, makes sense," you said.
"Do you look forward to being back at the academy then?"
"No one would notice I was even gone," you said.
"You sure about it?"
-x-
Next day it was time to go back to the Academy.
"Welcome back Sota, I'm glad to see you back already, we've all been worried about you," Iruka greeted you
Though looking at the class everyone was busy with something else and not one eye on you and your broken arm.
"Thanks," you said and sat down at your desk as usual.
If it was Sasuke all the girls would have been going up to you all worried. You were glad you weren't Sasuke.
As you took to writing down answers in your workbook you noticed how horrible your handwriting was with your left hand. Its was definitely something you wanted to practise. Becoming a seal master who could only write with one hand was a stupid idea. You'd be useless if someone were to chop off your right hand. You could easily imagine being in Deidara's shoes and getting your hand teleported away, though it wasn't like you had any plans joining Akatsuki. Now that you thought about it, making seals with your feet could be a nice trick. But it would probably never be useful.
After you were done with your Maths and Japanese classes, it was time for sparring.
You watched as the others fought. They seemed to get a bit better now that you had observed a month of progress. It was Kiba against Sasuke today, Wild vs controlled. A tense battle between the two, ending up with a victorious Sasuke and a fuming Kiba.
But when Iruka called up you and Naruto at the end, it was him that objected first.
"Why do I have to fight him," Naruto complained. "He's injured, I might hurt him. So isn't it a bit unfair?"
Iruka tried to explain. "Sometimes as a ninja, you have to fight even if you have an injury. But since I don't want anyone to get hurt. Don't target his arm, okay Naruto?"
Naruto nodded and turned to you. "Sorry for kicking your ass."
His eyes were hopeful. Getting the chance to beat the top student. And it really looked like he thought he had a chance
You could taunt him with You've not beaten me yet, but what was the point? And you'd just look foolish if you actually lost.
He did the usual greeting, and you to the best of your abilities.
He then charged at you with vigour, but it didn't help much as you easily dodged him as he lacked discipline. He'd probably be more terrifying with some proper guidance, but that wouldn't happen before Jiraiya helped him out.
"Stay still so I can hit you," he yelled at you.
You ignored his taunts and just kept your focus on him. And next time he charged at you, you grabbed the back of his shirt and throw him to the ground using his own forward momentum to help you out.
It didn't talk long before he was on the ground.
It was just the result everyone expected. Not even against an injured opponent did anyone believe in the boy.
But unlike Itachi, everything would turn out right with Naruto. So still no reason to intervene.
-x-
There was no Genma today either, you started to miss the guy. Even if his questioning was annoying. People tended to dig into your life too much.
Your arm felt fine already. You just wanted to rip off the sling and start using your body again.
Though before you could go against medical advice. Itachi was there along with Sasuke.
"Hi, Sota. Mother wanted me to invite you to dinner as an apology for what happened," Itachi said.
Sasuke mumbled something to Itachi that you couldn't hear, and you couldn't hear what Itachi said either. He didn't look very happy.
"You know, you don't need to apologize," you replied back.
"It will make her happy," Itachi said.
-x-
And that's how you were now on the dinner table of the Uchiha patriarch.
Sasuke was glaring at you, Fugaku too. Mikoto was smiling as she put the food on the table. And you were sure Itachi had realized the same as you, this was a horrible idea.
"So how you did you two become friends," Mikoto asked to break the ice.
"I saw him trying to run up a tree day after day, so since he was alone, I figured out I'd be there to congratulate him when he mastered it," Itachi explained.
It was too early to call yourself friends at the moment, but if it made his mother happy to hear you wouldn't stop Itachi describing you as friends.
"Then you had him fall from the tree, doesn't look like he handled it well," Fugaku said and looked at your sling.
"Fugaku," Mikoto scolded him.
"Father, I was in the hospital for much longer and I was older," Itachi stated.
"Can you teach me tree-walking too?" Sasuke asked Itachi before going back to glaring at you.
"You're not ready Sasuke, I'll do it when you're stronger," he replied.
"Itachi," Fugaku signalled. The message was clear, teach him.
"He is not ready yet," Itachi repeated.
"Why don't you two try tomorrow, and if Sasuke makes no progress. You can try again next year," Mikoto said trying to turn down the tension.
"Alright, I'll train you tomorrow Sasuke," Itachi said and smiled to his younger brother.
"He won't be there right?" Sasuke asked.
"You're classmates, shouldn't you try to be friends?" Mikoto asked both of you.
"He always beats my ass and thinks he's better than everyone," Sasuke argued.
"He doesn't want to be my friend, so why would I?" You answered. Why spend time on someone that didn't want you there?
"I'm sure you'll warm up to each other one day," Itachi suggested.
"Maybe," you replied.
Sasuke however. "Never".
He was a lost cause, you didn't understand how Naruto could stand his stubbornness.
-x-
Today's lesson with Genma was going great. You had your first explosive seal in your hand. It was fairly weak, as that was all you were allowed at the moment. But it was the first step into seals with combat potential.
Genma was tying the seal to a string hanging down from the ceiling and backed off a bit from it.
"You can activate it now."
You used your fingers to channel a bit of chakra into it to get it burning. And after what felt like an eternity, it exploded.
POOF!
It was like something sparked inside you too and you felt the excitement rising within you.
"Good work, just as expected as always."
Whatever you did, it was nothing more than what people expect from you. If you were Naruto and he was Iruka. He'd take you out for ramen to celebrate. But you being good at something was the same as the sky is blue. Nothing to celebrate.
"Make five more," Genma continued.
It wasn't that hard. But it took you about 10 minutes as Genma would scold you if you rushed it.
Genma took a look at your work. "It's looking good, let me hang them up for you."
One after another about 10-20 cm away from each other.
"Now I want you to activate all of them remotely, in the order that I say.
You focus on the one you want to target, form a snake seal and channel chakra through it. Keep your focus on it till it activates."
You could do this, you folded your hand into a snake and prepared for the signal.
"Four," Genma called out.
"Five"
"One"
"Three"
"Two."
One after another they went off in the order he wanted.
"Can I do this with storage seals too?" You asked.
"Not without modifying the seal I think," he answered.
"How do I do that?" You asked.
"I'm not an expert on this, sorry kid. But there is some modification I can teach you now. Normal storage seals let everyone open it, but with some changes, you can make it so only you can activate it."
"Great, let us start," you cheered on.
"Next time kid," Genma said and tousled your hair. "Fuuinjutsu isn't something you rush, and you've shown great progress today too. I'll be looking into getting a more advanced teacher for you, as you've soon exhausted everything I can teach you."
"Oh, I guess I'll become your senpai soon then," You said, unable to act like a bratty kid for a moment.
"When you've mastered a lot more sealing, I'll call you senpai, once. Deal?" He joked back with you.
-x-
There was nothing else to do today other than training. So after tree walking the choice was obvious. You just needed some water. And using the hot springs didn't tempt you at all.
Walking around the village gave you nothing.
"Hi Sota, what are you doing?" Itachi greeted you.
"Hi Itachi, I was looking for somewhere to practise water walking." You explained.
"Oh, there is a small lake inside our clan compound you can use. With your progress, you'll beat me to becoming the youngest post-war graduate. Sure you don't want to slow down a bit?" Itachi asked. He was obviously worried for you and he would know that graduating early wasn't good for a child's mind. But you were no real kid.
"I see no point in waiting, learning is fun, and I barely learn anything at the academy. You're just afraid I'll beat your record." You teased him with that last bit.
"I was wondering if you wanted a round of sparring? I have a useful exercise I'll want to show you. It will probably be useful for walking on water too." Itachi asked.
"As long as it won't end with me with a broken arm," you replied.
"Don't worry."
-x-
You were standing in their family Dojo waiting for Itachi to grab some stuff. Though he was soon back.
"A rope?" you questioned. "What's that for?"
Itachi didn't reply, just got behind you and tied your wrist together.
"Hey!" You called out, but he didn't stop. Both of you were currently too young for ropeplay, so you hope he didn't have that in mind.
"What would happen if you got attacked while your arms were injured?" He asked.
"I…"
"You'd lose," he said.
"I could just run away, why would I fight?" You asked.
"What if you were a Jounin-sensei with three Genin with you?" He asked.
"I would have to fight them with my legs only?" You suggested.
"Exactly, and it will help you with balance. Let's start," Itachi signalled.
Your move-set was shallow. Duck, kick, wait and move around.
Right away Itachi's charged at you ready to strike. Your instinct told you to duck and that did avoid the hit. But Itachi followed up with grappling your body and throw you into the ground back first.
He was not joking around.
You rolled around so you could get on your knees and get up, but as you did it, Itachi kicked you down again.
"Your enemy won't be nice to you and let you get up. If they want you alive, they'd tie the rest of you up leaving you with no chance of escaping," Itachi explained.
"How often does that happen?"
"Depends really, many missing-nin would be trying to get some money out of you by trading you back with the village. And in case of war, take you as a prisoner to trade when the war is over or try to extract information out of you.."
"Doesn't sound that reassuring," you replied. Extract information was a nice euphemism
So you needed to attack and get up in one move…
Wait, you forgot two things, two forgotten moves.
You rolled away from Itachi towards the wall and then running up. He didn't approach you, just let you jump down and land on your feet again.
"Smart thinking," he replied.
"Did your sensei do the same towards you?" You asked.
"Kind of, instead of tying my hands, he blindfolded me. Your hands will probably be your strongest weapon, but as an Uchiha, denying me of the sight would cause me the most problems.
"Did you win?" You asked.
"No, and he kept me going till I couldn't stand. So we're going to do the same," he said and charged at you again.
You tried dodging him but he quickly turned around and hit you with a well-placed kick.
This just kept on going for hours. You wanted to try Itachi-walking, but he moved too fast for you. Another idea was trying to grab his hand while he was blocking your kick, but he just used chakra to push you away.
Until you couldn't manage it anymore and just lay there on the ground till Itachi spoke up.
"Tired?"
"No, I feel I can go on all day." It was true, but, "it's just that whatever I do, nothing works."
"Sasuke feels the same fighting you," Itachi said. Not sure what he wanted you to do with that information.
"I started training before you were born, it would be strange if I couldn't counter everything you could come up within a few hours."
"You're right. Why are you training me and not Sasuke?" You asked. From what you remember it seemed like Sasuke and Itachi didn't spend as much time as Sasuke would have wanted.
"I'm training him right now, he's mostly sparring against you in the academy, so if you're stronger he'll get tougher opposition," Itachi explained.
Did make some sense, but not much. Wouldn't it be better to just train Sasuke directly?
"I see myself in you. Though unlike me, there is no clan pressuring you. So why do this, are you ready for what will happen after graduation? Life will change a lot."
"All I do is training, and by time, I'll just drift further and further away from my classmates. So why stay in the academy?"
"You don't need to train all the time, you're still a kid, no one will call you out for taking life slower," Itachi said.
You were not really a kid and you didn't want to stay in a class with young children you could never connect to.
"I'm sure, the earlier the better," you said.
"Then I'll help you," Itachi said.
"Why?" You asked.
"I shouldn't say this. But I don't really want you in Sasuke's class. Father is expecting him to be the top student, and he'll never feel good about himself till then. But that won't happen till you graduate," he said.
"Then let's go for it," you said.
"Hi Itachi its soon dinner," Mikoto said from the door before noticing you on the floor. "Oh hi Sota, you want to eat with us today?"
"I don't think Sasuke will like it," you replied.
"Don't worry about Sasuke, he'll just have to accept that Itachi has guests over."
"Then I accept your offer. It's nice of you," you replied.
"Now untie him Itachi, and take a shower boys. You smell," Mikoto said and left you.
"Are you sore?" Itachi asked as he untied your wrists.
"A bit, but it's okay," you said.
Itachi took a closer look at your wrist. "I shouldn't have kept you like this for this long. Now let's go and get clean."
-x-
The feeling of warm water flowing down your body was always nice after a long exercise session.
As you dried yourself dry with a quite large bath towel. You just realized something.
"I've nothing clean to change into here," you told Itachi.
"That's fine, we've something you can borrow. As long as you don't mind the Uchiha emblem on your clothes."
"That's fine," you replied.
Someone from another clan might have declined and gone home for a change of clothes, but clan politics didn't bother you. The Uzumaki was practically gone. And the clothes were much softer and nicer than your own. Too bad you couldn't run away with them, as it would be quite obvious that you'd stolen them.
The smell of Mikoto's cooking was wonderful. Maybe you should marry Itachi just for the family dinners. Just wait some years and he'd be old enough for you, and you old enough for him.
But they'd be dead in two years if you couldn't think of something to do. Smarter than people than you had tried but failed. And uncareful meddling could put the village in the middle of a civil war.
And today as the other time. Sasuke was glaring at you with the dinner table. Fugaku was being friendlier today, as much as a man with a constant frown could.
Itachi began telling the rest about your training and Sasuke just glared harder at you.
"Why are you training him and not me?" Sasuke called out.
"Sasuke…" Itachi said.
"Do better in the academy and he'll teach you," Fugaku interrupted.
"You said you were going to train me today but we barely did anything," Sasuke said.
"You don't have enough chakra yet Sasuke, there was nothing I could do to help you with the exercise," Itachi explained.
Itachi was right, you should hurry up and graduate. You should let Sasuke go back to being the boy he was in canon. Top of his class that everyone admired, without you there to feed his inferiority complex along with his father reinforcing it.
"I can train with you later if you help me with the dishes Sasuke," Mikoto offered.
"But I want to train with nii-san, but that bastard is stealing him from me," Sasuke complained and pointed at you.
"Sasuke, be nice," Mikoto told him.
"It's not fair," he complained again.
"So you don't want to train with me?" Mikoto asked.
"Help me beat that asshole mom," Sasuke said.
"Language Sasuke," she replied.
-x-
You and Itachi were back outside a bit away from his home. Better get some distance from small angry Sasuke.
And you were currently overseeing the lake Itachi was talking about.
"I'm going on a mission tomorrow, so I'm going to be gone for a bit. So what do you want to do, water-walking or starting on the jutsu you need for graduation."
"I can learn water-walking later, I'll start with the jutsu."
"You know what they are?"
"Replacement, henge and clone," you said.
"Good, we'll start with the henge, it's the easiest."
After a few hours of practice. You realized that easiest didn't mean easy. It was still hard. But you had some time practising in the week Itachi was gone and hopefully, you could show him some progress when he was back.
It was time to go come. And by 'go home' you meant to run as your short legs made walking take forever.
It was a miracle that you didn't run into someone on the way home. But you did it. You grabbed a piece of bread and laid down on your bed taking eating bits of it and it didn't take long before you drifted to sleep.
-x-
You missed Itachi already, it had only been a few days and you wanted some company back. And Genma was done with his final lesson. This wasn't a new problem for you, in your old life you struggled hard with friends too. And then your classmates had been around your age mentally too. Sasuke was probably just saying what the rest of the class was thinking.
You wished you could just lie down on your desk forever. Things would probably get better once you'd become genin. But what if they didn't?
You just tuned out everything around and didn't hear someone talk to you.
"I'm sorry I'm late, I had to help an old woman with her cat."
You didn't notice anything before you felt two fingers on your neck. You turned around to see a quite recognizable cyclops. One that was a lot friendlier than Danzo.
"I just needed to check if you were dead," Kakashi said. "Follow me outside."
You got up, at least learning stuff could get your minds on other stuff.
"So what do you want to learn?" Kakashi asked.
You didn't exactly know.
"Do you have any ideas?" You asked him.
"Think about it," Kakashi replied and started reading his book.
Great, still a shitty teacher who didn't really want to teach.
You lied down on the ground and closed your eyes.
How were you supposed to know? You had the advantage of knowing things you shouldn't know. But the kid whos the body you occupied would be a lot more clueless.
What was the most terrifying attack?
There was quite a few, but if you were to develop a defence against it, it would be something that could hit you and not kill you for a while, while still giving you no real option to stop it. And there was one Jjsu that fit that description perfectly.
Amaterasu
"I want to be able to seal away nearby fires," you said. As you were pretty sure you could remember something like that from canon.
"Alright, I know that one. It is quite useful for extinguishing house fires. And automatic versions have stopped many Kage from setting fire to their paperwork."
Kakashi preceded as Genma often did and drew it out while you were watching. Though unlike Genma, he gave you no other advice, just asked you to replicate it while he went back to his book.
But you didn't bother arguing with him, as it didn't seem he wanted to be here.
As you copied parts for parts. Your head just nudged you in different directions, where to apply chakra, what to focus on etc.
"Done," you called out as you were done.
He looked at it for a second before talking. "Alright, let us test it. Stand over there," he pointed.
Kakashi stepped to a point perhaps ten meters away.
"To activate it, channel chakra through it as the fire is getting close," he explained.
"What fire?" You asked.
Before you could get an answer, he had sent a fireball heading straight at you.
You took a heavy breath and held it. Praying that it would work. When it was perhaps two meters away you could feel the heat getting uncomfortable and decided it was close enough and channelled chakra through the seal.
It got smaller like being sucked up by a black hole, you could breathe out again. And in the seal, you could see a red spot inside the previously blank circle.
"You knuckleheaded idiot!" Kakashi yelled at you.
"What?" you exclaimed.
"You didn't test it, I barely gave you any instructions on how to make it. What made you think it was safe to use?" Kakashi asked with a stern voice.
"You told me to do it," you said trying to defend yourself. "What did you expect would happen?"
"That you would get hit, then I'd patch you up and hand you over to the hospital. And then I would tell the Hokage you were not ready yet and make you someone else's problem," Kakashi said.
You didn't know how to react.
"Why do you hate me?" you said.
Before falling onto your knees and started to sob. You didn't want to, you wanted to be strong. You weren't a crying weak child, so why? This along with not seeing Itachi for a few days just made everything spill over for you.
As your body started to feel weird you rolled over to the side to lie down.
"I'm a sorry kid, I don't hate you. I just don't want to do this. I don't like children and I'm not suited for teaching. Go home and get some rest, we'll continue tomorrow," he said and walked away.
You didn't want to move. And there was no one to go home to. So you could just as well stay on the ground. You didn't even belong in this world. And you were still too stupid for the reality of this world to dawn on you. Why wouldn't you just go home?
Keeping the negativity at bay at this point was impossible. And your head started to hurt and your body was aching.
You didn't know how long you'd lied down on the ground when you heard a faint voice speaking to you.
"Is everything okay?" An unknown voice asked you. You turned around to try to locate them. But everything was a dark blur, you couldn't make out anything around you and you weren't even sure where you were at the moment.
"Who are you?" you mumbled and clutched your own head. Your own voice made everything hurt more.
"Shisui, I'm a friend of Itachi, he's mentioned you."
You clutched your eyes in pain.
"How are you feeling?" he asked you.
"My head hurt when you're talking," you replied with a weak voice.
"Can I carry you home to me so I can give you something to drink and eat?" He whispered.
You nodded before he picked you up in your arms.
-x-
Shisui set you down on a soft mat next to his table. Before getting a glass of water for you you.
You were not strong enough to sit up, but he was nice enough to set the glass on the floor and guided a straw into your mouth so you could drink.
You didn't manage to drink much. Water wasn't very good when you were nauseated like this and your head was hammering.
The sound of boiling water just hurt you even more.
It just kept on as a hurtful white noise as you twist and trashes around on your mat while grasping to your head.
The boiling water eventually slowed down to a halt and made you feel much calmer.
You could see him put something on the table through your blurry eyes.
"What's wrong, kid?" he said as he sat down beside you and stroke your hair.
"I'm lonely," you said with slurred words.
"Just wait a bit for the tea to cool down and try drinking some more water."
You tried taking some more sips but it was just awful.
It was hard to keep track of time, but soon the tea was cold enough for you to drink.
Shisui helped you sit up by supporting your back with his hand and put the cup up to your mouth. You were kind of shivering at this point.
"Try small sips, its good for you," he said.
It felt quite nice in your mouth, and as you swallowed more and more things started to feel better. It was perhaps half empty when you feel strong enough to hold the cup with your own fingers.
"Thanks," you mumbled back.
"I'm not good enough at medical jutsu, so I've to do other ways," he said.
As you empty the cup, you were much better. But still didn't feel completely okay. And before you could put it on the table, Shusui grabbed it from your hand and went to refill it.
"So what are you doing for fun?" Shisui asked as he handed you your cup.
"I hang out with Itachi," you replied before grabbing the cup and started sipping.
"And what you do together?" He asked.
"We tend to spar and he's helping me prepare for graduation."
"Apart from that, to relax or just have fun?" He asked.
"All I do is to tend the academy, fuuinjutsu lessons, training, eating and sleeping."
"You should take it slower. You're even worse than Itachi was at this age. You're not supposed to burn out before you even graduate" Shisui said.
"I've nothing else do to. So training is a nice way to pass time."
"Play with friends, get a hobby. Normal things kids your age do?"
"Itachi isn't playing around all day. And sealing is a nice hobby."
"Something that isn't ninja related perhaps? You don't know what Itachi is doing when he's alone. And Sasuke still plays with his plush dinosaur," Shisui said.
"I'm not Itachi or Sasuke," you replied.
"So why are you acting like…" Shisui stopped himself. "I'm just trying to stop you from doing something stupid."
"Itachi believes in me," you argued.
"Itachi is a stupid kid too," he said while moving towards his fridge.
"Aren't you two friends?" You asked.
"That's why I'm calling him stupid, I know him," Shisui said and brought out two sticks of dango and handed you one of them. "He also told me you loved these."
Naruto had his ramen, and you'd got officially addicted to these balls of goodliness.
Shisui was another tragic case, and you started to feel bad for him. Picturing the smiling man beside you getting his eyes ripped out made you shudder.
You couldn't save everyone, but you could try doing something here too. Saving his entire clan seemed impossible. But adding an extra surviving Uchiha should be feasible.
"So what happened earlier today?"
"Kakashi," you replied in between your bites from the dango. "He's helping me get better at seals. But he's not a very good teacher."
Shisui raised a questioning eyebrow, prompting you to tell the whole story.
After you were done, Shisui was left to ponder about it for a moment.
"He's what happens when you push a kid like you through war too early. Do you plan on trying to find someone else instead?" He finally asked.
You shook your head. "He's the only thing I've got at the moment. I'm just lucky they have bothered with finding anyone to teach me as I'm no one special."
"You're an Uzumaki, that makes you special. An Uzumaki who's proficient enough at sealing could make Madara piss his pants."
"Naruto is an Uzumaki too, and no one bothers to teach him anything. And he's actually special," you said.
Shisui looked at you a bit confused.
"I know about his furry little problem," you explained.
"I hope you know that you're not supposed to tell anyone right, not even Naruto himself?" He asked you.
"I know."
"Then you know that his furry little problem isn't helping him any. People don't want to help him as they see him as the fox," he explained.
"It just doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't you ensure your only Jinchuuriki would get all the help they needed?" You asked.
"You'll quickly learn that the world doesn't make much sense."
Why couldn't the world make sense? You sighed in frustration.
"Do you want to stay over for the night?" He asked you.
You shook your head. "I need to get some more training today."
"It's night outside, you should not be out training. You don't need to stay here, but you should be resting some more" he said.
"And if I don't?" You questioned.
"Then I'll show you how I got my reputation within genjutsu," Shisui threatened you with a smirk.
"I'll just stay here then, nothing to do at home."
"If I can borrow your keys, I can go back and get the stuff you need."
"I don't want to be an even bigger bother," you said.
"I'm the fastest Uchiha, you won't even notice I'm gone," he said.
You threw him the keys and he caught them with a smile. There was no point protesting with him. Why was everyone so nice with you, what did they really want?
While you were waiting for him to come back you noticed another furry fellow. An adorable black and white cat jumped onto your lap, wanting to get petted.
There was no way you could say no to them, so you started to stroke them and let them play with your hand.
"I see you've meet Sasuke," Shisui said as he appeared in front of you with some of your stuff under his arm.
"You named him Sasuke?" You questioned with a raised brow.
"Itachi liked him a lot as a kitten, so I decided to name him of another thing Itachi loved," he explained.
"He's much cuter than the original, Sasuke just glares at me whenever he sees me."
"Itachi's brother is a bit like a cat sometimes. Are you tired? "
"No, I've been out for most of the day, so I'm not able to sleep now."
"Then I'll stay up with you. How about we play some cards, do you know how to play Shogun?" He asked.
"Could you teach me?" You asked.
It was a mix of Bluff and some deck-building game. The card was quite interesting. The leaf on one side wasn't so spectacular, but the picture card was more unconventional. Hiruzen as the Ace, with the Sannin as the King, Queen and Jack. It would have to be a few years old for Orochimaru to be present after everything he did. Better handle them with care.
After a few hours, you began to get really tired.
A big Nyaaawn came from your mouth against your will and you quickly covered your mouth to avoid any other accidents.
"Don't be ashamed of that, you're allowed to be cute," he said.
"I'm going to brush my teeth and go to bed. I'm not a cat," you replied.
It was nice to relax a bit. But you were also falling behind on training. So no breaks tomorrow. You just had to carry through.
As you were brushing your teeth, the flowing water reminded you of something. Waterwalking. It was something you'd put on the delay with Itachi.
"Shisui, do you think you can help me with something tomorrow?" You asked.
"I don't have any missions tomorrow, so I might be able to spare some time, what is it?"
"I want to practice water walking. I was planning to do to it with Itachi, but things happened. And I can't be using the lake here in the compound if I'm by myself."
"You can swim, right?"
"I think so…" you said "... I don't really know, but how hard can it be?"
"I think I should be able to help. I'll tell the guards to let you in tomorrow after you've had your lesson with Kakashi."
"Thanks," you said.
-x-'
Next morning, you felt stronger than ever. You regretfully had to say that Shisui was right about making you rest, he had even let you sleep through the school day.
Kakashi seemed a bit surprised by how much life was in you today compared to yesterday. But he didn't say anything, hence the seemed.
"I hope you've learnt from yesterday, just because everything went well, didn't mean you weren't an idiot," he told you.
"I've learnt. I'm not going to depend on any of my seals untested again," you replied.
"Good, remember that. There might be times where you don't have the choice to test it. But that's not an excuse to neglect it when you can."
"I get it," you replied.
"Now that's out of the way. What do you want to do today?"
"I want to learn how to modify seals to change their behaviour and better learn how they really work," you said.
"I can help you there, so what were you thinking off?" He asked.
"Explosive seals, making them bigger and stronger," you replied.
"I think it's best if I just explain every part of the seal first and then we can move onto changes. Sounds good?"
You nodded.
After a lengthy explanation of every aspect of the seal, supplemented by your brain making mental corrections whenever something in his explanation felt off. You feelt a lot smarter.
The way to modify seals could simply be boiled down to either adjusting the size of the entire seal, individual parts or exchanging parts with similar parts from other seals you know, but that did a different job.
So that would mean that replacing parts of fire absorption with other seals, you could absorb other things.
You looked up at his mask and gave it a big evil grin.
"What are you looking at?"
"Just your face, I like it," you said.
He just looked weirdly at you. Did he get that you were up to no good?
"Would it be okay if I practised on my own?" You asked. "Genma wouldn't allow me."
Kakashi thought about it for what felt like an eternity. And you looked at him with a tense expression.
"You'll never learn without practising. But remember what I said earlier. Don't depend on untested seals. Don't do anything indoors or near other people. And when dealing with anything dangerous. Try figuring out what you think is a safe distance and double it," he said. "Got it?"
"Yes," you said and smiled at him. "Thank you Kakashi-sensei."
"Don't make me regret it," he said.
"So can we go through the storing seal and fire absorption seal too?" You asked.
"Sure, the sooner I'll get rid of you."
"Love you too sensei," you said to him with a big smile.
"Don't make this weird or I'm leaving you."
"Sorry, just continue with the lesson."
You should really take notes, but from your experience with Genma, this kind of stuff just stuck to your brain like a parasite.
As he finished his explanation you just wanted to go home. And enact your master plan and channel your inner Uzumaki.
"Thanks for today," you said and ran off.
-x-
On the way home, you had bought with you some paper, ink, needle, thread and a small roll of cloth. The later was kind of a waste, but they weren't willing to sell you just the piece you needed.
Your sewing wasn't perfect, but it didn't have to be. You just needed it for testing.
You just had to look up the necessary kanji in your dictionary. If you were right, replacing the fire or whatever with what you wanted to absorb would do the trick. Kakashi won't know what hits him.
You were shaking of excitement as you were drawing it out to the point where you needed to keep your hand steady.
There were some other things you had do to make the seal work. It wasn't just to replace the word and be done with it. But you heard faint whispers in your head telling you how to fix it. Simply adding a few more words and connections.
You ignored Kakashi's advice about trying it outside, it wouldn't harm anyone.
And as you activated it, you knew you had done it. Your first original seal.
-x-
You wanted to skip today's academy lessons, but sadly Kakashi wouldn't come sooner that way. So Iruka's lesson was the only option. You weren't going to skip class for no good reason.
"What's up with you today Sota, you look like Naruto when he's going to prank someone," he said.
"Wah?" You exclaimed.
"You're smiling, that's not you. But it suits you. You should smile more, it will help you make friends," he said.
You smiled with Itachi, didn't you? And with Shisui the other day? Hope so, or you're the worlds worst six-year-old.
So if you smiled people though you were up to no good. And if you didn't smile people though you were unfriendly.
There was no winning here. Sure you were actually up to no good today. But that wasn't the point.
-x-
"I don't like the look for your face," was the first thing Kakashi said when he saw you later that day. "Smiling doesn't suit you."
It was clear why Team 7 hated that man at first. But he softened up to them by time, but that was six years in the future. This Kakashi was too deep into ANBU and was clearly not interested in doing this with you.
So to make him happy, you stopped looking like you were happy to be there.
"So any wishes for today?" He asked you.
"I wanted to show you something I practised yesterday. I've tested it,"
"What does it do?" He asked you.
"It's a surprise," you answered.
"Ninja hate surprises. But go on."
You picked your prepared scroll out of your backpack and ensured to stay close enough to Kakashi for it to take effect.
He took a peek at it while you activated it. And before you had any chance to react, you were on the ground face down with Kakashi holding you down.
"Don't do that again!" He called out and held you there for a moment.
It took a few seconds before his grip loosened. And when you got up, his mask was back on as he picked up your scroll.
Before you could get another word in, he grabbed you by the wrist.
You weren't sure where he was taking you. And if you didn't know better, you'd guess he was a crazy psychopath taking you away to execute you. Everything about his body language told you he was furious. With his speed, it was hard to follow suit and in parts of the way he just dragged you forward.
As you reached the end goal, the Hokage Tower he slowed down. Probably not to be seen dragging an Academy student as he'd just done. But that didn't mean he lost the grip on you.
It wasn't until you entered the Hokage's office that he let you go.
"Kakashi, what are you doing?!" The Hokage yelled at him.
"This kid is nothing but a troublemaker," he said and glared down at you, making you feel uneasy.
"What did Sota here do?" The Hokage questioned.
"He took my mask," Kakashi said, one word at the time.
"Tell me Sota, how does he look under the mask," Hiruzen looked at you.
"I didn't see anything, as soon as I activated the seal he pushed me to the ground and dragged me here."
"That's a creative use of fuuinjutsu, that reminds me of something … could do. Turns that you didn't betray my trust in investments in you," Hiruzen said.
"He betrayed my trust. No one fucks with my mask," Kakashi grunted.
"It's just a mask Kakashi," The Hokage scolded. "He has shown skill and creativity with what you've taught him and you answer with anger and aggression. What kind of teacher are you?"
"I'm no teacher and I hate his hair," he said.
Things really started to unravel for you. You reminded him of Kushina and he hated it. He didn't wish to see a ghost. And it wasn't so much about the mask as some redhead pranking him as Kushina did. You almost felt bad for him. Almost, it still didn't excuse his actions.
"I want you to declare his seal a kinjutsu. It's not just about my own mask, but as it can be easily used to demask ANBU agents, it is a security threat that has no other practical applications than becoming a problem for our ninja," Kakashi argued.
"Let me look at that seal," The Hokage said and Kakashi handed your work to him.
The old Kage took a close look at it.
"Hmm. this isn't a trivial modification, most people would just replace the central symbol and then fail. So how did you fix it, I doubt Kakashi over here was any help?"
Were you going to tell him the truth? Looking at the old man he gave you the icky feeling that he could see straight through you.
"Whispers in my head," you said with a low voice. As you didn't want to announce to the entire tower that you may be crazy.
"Do these whispers say anything else do you?" He asked you.
"Just helping me with sealing, nothing else," you answered.
"Have they appeared in front of you in any form?" He asked.
"No. Why would they?" You asked.
"No reason at all. I may finally have found about your secret," he said.
"My secret?" You stuttered. Did he figure out that you were not really Sota, but just someone yeeted into this world by unexpected means?
"The secret behind the Uzumaki. Voices in your heads, everything makes sense now."
"Shouldn't Naruto experience something similar then?" You asked.
"He's too much of a troublemaker to learn this kind of stuff at the moment. Though time will tell, he might not have this ability due to his yellow hair or he might even be better than you."
So now the Hokage was implying that Naruto might not be a real Uzumaki. People were hypocrites.
"Kakashi, you're continuing this. You can't get out of something you don't like by being a pain in the ass. But I'll grant your request, I'll forbid anyone to make any more copies of this seal, or else you'd probably find a way to make life difficult for me. Think of it as a reward you don't deserve."
He then turned to you again.
"You can go now Sota. You're not in any trouble, just don't make any more forbidden seals will you?"
-x-
"You're early," Shisui greeted you as approached his place.
"Kakashi got mad at me for stealing his mask, so he ended the lesson before we started and dragged me to the Hokage."
"So…" he said.
"I couldn't see anything, the bastard was too quick for me."
"You need to tell me how you did it, I'll pay you back in dango."
"The Hokage forbid me from doing it again under Kakashi's insistence. Should we start?"
"Stop being so impatient kid. You've your whole life in front of you and you're an Uzumaki so you'll probably live till you're 200 years old."
"I'm sorry," you replied. "I just feel I need to be strong to defend myself."
Danzo, Orochimaru, Pain. And any other threat that might come your way.
As Shisui started walking to the lake, he had another lesson for you. "You're still a six-year-old boy. No one expects you to defend the village. The village will protect you until you get strong enough to protect the new generation."
"Why can't people have some trust in me?" You looked up at him.
"Is anything bothering you?" He asked you.
"No," you said. Your body language, however, betrayed you.
"If you change your mind, you can always come to me and talk if you don't want to talk to Itachi about it."
"I will," you replied.
As you were about to step onto the lake, Shisui called out to you.
"Are you sure you want to make your clothes wet?"
He was right, you stripped down to your underwear and stepped back in.
As you put one foot on the surface and pushed chakra through it, it was like stepping on one of those floating devices used to help people learning to swim.
Safe to say, you didn't trust putting more weight on the foot.
So the way to go was to push more chakra into your foot. But that just threw you forward into the water making you wet.
At least the water wasn't so bad. You wondered if the Uchiha used their fire jutsu to warm up the lake to a comfortable temperature or if it was just the weather the last weeks.
Tries after tries, minutes become hours and you made no progress. And you paid no attention to what Shisui was doing on the side.
"Time to call it for the day," he called out to you.
As you stepped out of the water still dripping wet. He was ready with a body towel to dry you off.
"Good work today Sota," he smiled at you and handed you a stick of dango he had kept who knows where.
"I could still go on for longer," you said.
"Maybe, but you're with me today. And I'm not letting you train all day and neglect eating."
You could try to master the pout. But dinner didn't seem too bad really.
-x-
Two days later.
Today would be a boring day, Kakashi had also decided to take a break today. Not that you missed too much. You couldn't call him spending ten minutes yesterday telling you to store and mark your seals properly and then walk away for a lesson.
He did what he needed to do to say he had taught you something. Messing with that man was a huge mistake, as he was much more helpful in the first two days.
As you were exiting the school you felt a hand ruffle your head. You looked up at the offender.
"Itachi," you smiled at him.
"Are you ready for more training?" He asked you.
"Yes, but shouldn't you spend time with Sasuke now that you're back."
"Unlike you, Sasuke isn't hopeless in making friends. He has classmates that seem to like him. He just needs a push."
"I made friends with Shisui," you argued.
"I asked him to watch over you. But he seems to like you kid. He told me what happened with Kakashi, I'm impressed. So have you got any more practising the Henge Jutsu?"
"Yeah. I still feel crap at it."
"Can you show me? Copy into me."
You prepared the hand signs and a mental image of Itachi.
"You're getting better, you just need more practice, but you can do that on your own. I think we should move onto the Replacement Jutsu."
-x-
After a day of jutsu practise, attempts at water-walking, sparring and another tense dinner with the Uchiha. You could say you were a bit tired.
So it wasn't strange that you had a hard time focusing on where you were going. You only had yourself to blame when you bumped into someone and fell down on your butt.
"I'm sorry, I was careless I've been training all day," you said and rubbed your head before you looked up to see who you had offended.
Your eyes widened.
Cane, black robe covering their body. Bandaged head with shaggy black hair sticking up from the top.
Only one man fit that description.
"Danzo"