You were slowly getting back consciousness and you could feel your hands being tied to something.

It was pitch dark and you could smell the stale air. Wait, that was a blindfold, but it could still be dark.

You tried to wiggle yourself out of the constraints but they wouldn't budge and all you got out of it was sore skin after rubbing your wrists against the rope.

"Let me out, bastards!" You yelled out. But there was no response, the only sound you could hear was your own breath.

You had to get free while you had the chance. If only you could touch parts of the chair, perhaps you could try to make an explosive seal and break yourself free, when Danzo had taught you this, you hadn't expected it to be this useful. But whoever had captured you had thought about that as you were nowhere near touching anything.

You sighed. But not all hope was over yet, you tried channelling Matatabi but that just resulted in a flash of pain on your forehead. Yeah, the seal, you forgot about that.

So you just had to wait then, but it didn't take long before you heard the door open and the footsteps coming closer and the sound of a cane hitting the hard floor.

"Danzo! Let me go bastard!" You yelled at him.

"Taking your anger out on me won't help you Sota," Danzo said before something hard struck your head. "Don't make me lose my patience with you."

"You locked me in here!".

He smacked you again. "The Hokage's advisors ordered you captured. I'm here to help you. Right now we're what we're supposed to do with you."

"The more you're trying to help me the worse thing get," you mumbled.

Danzo didn't reply, just poked your face and pulled off the blindfold with his cane.

His face was even more unnerving than before as it was lit from the light from his lantern.

"I can't make it worse, trust me. The Hokage's advisors are losing patience with you. They want to extract the cat from you and put it into a new host, which means the end of you. You can either cooperate with me, or I can go back and support their motion and begin to look for a new host."

Saying yes to Danzo was always a stupid idea, he'd always find a way to drag you deeper even if his offer initially sounded good. But he was right, you couldn't come up with how he could make things worse if they were considering extracting Matatabi from you.

"Alright, you win. I'll do as you say."

"Why did you attack your teammate?" He asked.

"I thought he was a spy and a traitor."

"So you took the matters into your own hands in front of everyone?" He asked.

"Isn't that what you've taught me, taking out threats before they can strike."

"You must have misunderstood, and nowhere in my teaching did I suggest you'd do it in public. If you'd been smart about it, you'd done it in secret and buried the body. But next time leave it up to professionals as we want to extract more information from any spies we catch."

"I did it on impulse, I thought I was going to get away with it as it was part of the exam, and I wasn't thinking that far. I was sure Orochimaru was behind."

"You were wrong, and now I need to clean up the mess. You'll be making this up to me after the exams." He said and took his lantern and left, thus leaving you in the dark again.

Now all you could do was to wait and hope for the best and that you'd not seen the light for the last time.

-x-

You woke up by something hard-hitting your head. You opened your eyes and saw Danzo again.

You lifted your head and looked at him waiting for him to talk.

"You've been given another chance," he said.

"So does that mean I can leave now?"

"No, you'll be staying in this cell until the tournament starts and we'll reconsider your fate depending on your performance."

"But can you at least untie me?" You asked.

"After we're done talking, you're much more well behaved like that."

You didn't answer him.

"I told your story to the others, but they have some doubts about you. They think you like to kill people for fun, your laughter doesn't help either."

"That's your fault!" You yelled at him.

He smacked your head again.

"Ouch," you mumbled.

"It's doing as intended, you should want people to be scared of you. You getting in other trouble is your own fault. To my point, to ensure you don't cause any more deaths, you're not allowed your explosives or anything else that might risk killing people. The others think that you're village a bad reputation and fear for the safety of the spectators."

You paused to think for a moment, what could you do, your entire shtick was your explosives. But perhaps you could finally pick up the cursed sword again.

"Do you think you can teach me to fight with a sword properly?"

"I know that you perhaps think that getting stabbed is not a big deal, but they will not give you the chance to stab someone to death," he said.

"So what can I do then?" You asked. "I guess fire is out to then…"

"I can't help you there, if you weren't a Jinchuuriki I'd suggest you go for Genjutsu. You're on your own here."

"You said you were going to help me!" You yelled.

"And I've helped you, I've given you another chance. Use that Uzumaki brain of yours to come up with something. I'll try to get you out of here," he said.

"Thanks…" you mumbled.

"And before I forget," he said and untied you before ripping the seal off your forehead.

"Wait, shouldn't you keep it on, so I don't release Matatabi to escape?" You asked.

"You might be stupid, but not that stupid. If you behave despite having the chance to release her, you might gain some goodwill and make it easier for me to convince the others to let you out early. But don't abuse my trust, as you'll get no other chances after that," he said and left.

-x-

You were trying to come up with something, but it was hopeless and just sitting in a dark room did nothing to help your creativity. Why had you let your clone rope you into this? Not only had you killed someone who was most likely innocent, but you were also now at risk of the village getting rid of you and your way out was a Catch-22 situation.

As there were little you could do than just lay down in your bed and sleep, if you could call it that, as it was nothing more than a few layers of blankets separating you from the hard floor. Perhaps you could dream of some good ideas.

x

You were back in the arena again, but instead of looking at Kabuto, you were looking at yourself. In a blur, you were gone and then your eyes got blinded before it felt like your body was torn apart.

x

You jumped up in your bed and gasped for air. Your body wouldn't let you sleep that easy and you had no idea how long you had slept or if it been minutes or hours. It felt so real. Had Danzo messed with your mind again or was your guilt playing tricks on you?

But it didn't take long before you were bored again and you had nothing in your cell to entertain yourself with. Or if there was, you couldn't see it.

Hours went on and you switched between sitting against the wall, rolling around on the thin blanket and having short bouts of sleep. The latest being interrupted with a bang on the door followed by some food being shoved through a hatch in the bottom of the door followed by a welcome sight of light.

You picked up the tray of food and began to poke around in it to identify it. If your senses were right, it was some cold rice along with some bread alongside a cup of water you almost knocked on the side.

You took a few bites before deciding you weren't very hungry.

And the next days weren't much better, and you felt weaker for every day that went and the bowls of good pilled up as you had lost all appetite despite your stomach getting more and more empty.

-x-

When you woke up this time, you were no longer in your cell but rather back with Matatabi who was currently lying outstretched on her back pawing the bars in front of her.

She had definitely warmed up to you compared to when you first met her. But if you told her she was cute, she'd probably just get mad at you and stop.

"That took you long," she greeted you.

"I'm sorry, do you feel lonely?"

"Of course not, I'm bored. With the trouble you've gotten yourself all I see is darkness. So please do something about it."

"Not much I can do now. I'll have to wait for them to let me out. And then I need to impress in the finals, even if it's hopeless."

"I can help you," she said.

"I don't think bringing you out is a good idea."

"I don't mean that, I can teach you how to win, but you need to promise me something first," she said.

Perhaps her help could be useful, you'd at least hear her out.

"Alright, I'll listen."

"Promise me that if you fail, you'll escape Konoha, I'll even lend you my power."

"Why?" You asked.

She rolled on her side and paused for a moment. "I don't want a new host, I've gotten used to you. Maybe my next will be a dog person, or worse, an Uchiha."

"Alright, I'll run away if things won't work. I guess there is still a chance to defect to Kumo. So, what do I do? Remember what Danzo said."

She got up on her feet. "It's easy."

"First you pounce on the opponent," she said while jumping at the bars. "And then sit on them until they surrender."

You buried your head in your head. That was her genius idea,

"You don't know before you try you ungrateful brat," she roared at you.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm quite small."

"Hmm… true, that was silly of me. But I've more ideas. Just come up to the bars and stand still for a moment, it won't hurt much."

"Huh?"

"Just do it!" She said.

"Alright," you sighed. It was possible a terrible idea, but without any help, you were screwed anyway.

She put her paw on the other side of the bars and starting channelling chakra into you.

Your right eye started to hurt, was going on here? But you stood still, it had to have some sort of purpose.

Then it stopped.

"Done," she said.

"What did you do?" You asked.

"You can now see in the dark on your right eye, the yellow one I gave you, so now you've one more benefit during the fight."

"We're fighting in the daytime," you said.

"Unappreciative kid, just stall the fight till nighttime and then strike!"

"I'll try," you replied, in hopes, she would be a bit happier with you.

"Now leave, I've things to do," she said.

-x-

Back into your cell, you could quickly see the effects of the gift she gave you. It was still dark, but you could make out a lot more of what was around you.

But there was still not much to see, apart from the rotting food that had accumulated. So it did nothing good as at least before you could ignore it with one of your senses. But on the good side, she had not improved your sense of smell.

As your stomach was hurting and you were not tired enough, you were unable to distract yourself with another nap. You could do nothing but watch the door, just in the hope something would happen.

-x-

After what's felt like an eternity the door opened again and you had to cover your eyes as the was light flooding into your room.

"How can you treat him like this, he's just a child!" You heard Genma yell at someone outside the door before he stepped inside.

"Come with me so we can get out of here, you've already spent way too much time here," he said.

You nodded and tried to get up but your body wouldn't cooperate.

"Let me help you," he said and picked you up.

It was nice to have some human contact again.

"You feel a bit too light, have you eaten the last week?" He asked and looked around him and saw the untouched bowls of food. "I guess not. I'll fix you up with something good when we're home."

You carefully nodded not having the energy to notice if he could see it or not.

After a short trip through familiar parts of the village, you arrived at his house.

"We'll need to get you a bath first, you kind of stink," he said with a laugh and carried you to his bathroom and began to fill the water.

"I can manage this myself," you said.

"Sota, I don't think that's a good idea, I'm afraid you'll drown."

"What kind of ninja drowns in a bathtub?" You asked.

"One who hasn't eaten or slept properly for a week," he said and summoned two shadow clones.

"One of you fix us some dinner and the other get some clothes for Sota," he ordered them and they went their way.

Of everything that had tried to kill you, you sure weren't going to die to a bathtub.

But after a bit of help from Genma, you got into the bathtub. You hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time.

"Sota, stay awake," he said.

You opened your eyes again and blinked a few times. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," he said.

Fifteen minutes later the Genma clone was back with some clothes and dispelled itself.

It was nice to finally get clean again, but now the smell from Genma's kitchen started to tempt you.

You got dressed and you had gained enough strength to walk downstairs yourself and sat down at the table while the clone did the work.

"Feeling better now?" Genma asked.

You nodded despite still feeling crap.

"There are things we need to talk about, but first you need to eat. How is the dinner going," he turned around and asked his clone.

"Set the table and it should be ready," the clone said.

"Oh yes, I forgot", Genma laugh and got up from his chair and soon some kind of mystery meat with rice, salad and some kind of strange sauce was put on the table.

You hoped it was good, and that it wasn't just a result of his dubious cooking skills.

"Hey, give it a try before you judge," he said with a laugh.

"I'm sorry," you replied.

"Don't worry, let's greet the food so you can finally eat."

You nodded and soon after you didn't really care how his food tasted, at this point you just wanted to eat as you finally had gotten back your will to eat.

"I'm happy you like it, but take it slow will you, I don't want you to get sick."

You stopped putting more food in your mouth and looked up at him. You could barely fit the food you had in your mouth already so you should probably listen to him.

So you started to slowly chew everything.

"It has been decided that you shouldn't live alone anymore, so I'll be your older brother for the foreseeable future. I hope that's okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'll try to not disappoint you."

"Being my little brother is not a test, you don't need to worry about not being good enough," he said and smiled at you.

It wasn't exactly what you meant but you could go with that.

"You're not allergic to cats, right?" He asked.

You shook your head.

"I'm going to adopt some, I'm going to get them tomorrow, you don't mind right?" He asked.

"Cats are cute, but it's not something you should do on impulse, it is a big responsibility."

"Hey, don't think I'm that irresponsible. I've been thinking about adopting some for some time now, but I've put it off as I don't want them to be alone for too long, but with two here that will be less of a problem. I think they'd be good for you."

"I look forward to it," you smiled at him. "I just hope Matatabi doesn't think I'm going to replace her," you laugh.

"Did you talk to her during your stay in the cell?"

"Yes, she tried to give me some advice for the exam, she got a bit annoyed that I didn't take her seriously, but you kind of need to be a big cat to get it to work. She also gave me a gift to help me, I can now see in the dark on my yellow eye. But unless I can somehow make day into night, it's not going to help me."

"At least she had the heart are the right place. You're not letting her trick you into releasing her right?"

"No, I don't think she wants to get free. She realized that she cannot laze around all day if she loses me and she kind of feel sorry for me. So all my bad luck has gotten me somewhere."

"I do still think you should watch out, I will at least."

"Please apologize to her, I don't want her to get cranky."

"Umm…" Genma paused for a moment. "I'm sorry Matatabi, I just want what's best for Sota, I didn't mean to be suspicious about you."

"Thanks," you mumbled back and yawned. "I think I'm getting tired."

"Alright, I'll show you your room."

-x-

The next morning you woke up feeling much more well-rested than you had in a long time. Judging from the view outside, you had slept for quite a while.

As you entered the living room, two small cats, white and black, ran towards you and began to sniff you.

"Good morning, say hello to Kaiyou and Momochi," Genma greeted you.

"Good morning, and hello you two," you said to the two kittens.

"I guess you're hungry, do you want me to make you some egg?" He asked.

"That would be nice, thanks."

As you sat down at the table the white one jumped in your lap.

"That's Kaiyou, she got her name because she loves water, so be careful so she doesn't play with your glass," Genma explained.

"A bit unusual for a cat, but not that strange I guess," you said and began to pet her.

"I'm glad you two get along. Here is your food," he said and handed you your plate.

"Thanks, and Momochi, does he have any strange quirks?"

Genma started to chuckle. "He quite like knives, but don't worry, he doesn't hurt anyone with them, but please be a bit careful."

"Don't tell me that he's named after Zabuza."

"Actually, but it's not I that named them. The previous owner had a run with him in the past and got inspired."

You heard someone knocking on the door.

"I'll go and get it," he said.

Moments later. Naruto ran in and sat down opposite you. "Hi, Sota. I hear you got to the finals of the Chuunin exam," he grinned.

"Hi, yeah," you replied. It wasn't a subject you wanted to discuss with Naruto.

Momochi jumped up on the table holding a butter knife in his mouth and walked up to Naruto.

"He's cute, is he going to be a ninja cat? Maybe you can use him in the finals, just like Kiba uses Akumaru," he asked.

"He's no ninja cat, and bringing him into a fight can be quite dangerous without a lot of training," Genma said.

"Iruka promised us a few weeks ago that we'll get to see you in the finals if you got that far, but then a few days ago he changed his mind and won't tell us why. I tried asking Shisui and Itachi, but they wouldn't tell me anything either. What's going on?" He asked.

You didn't want to talk about it, how could you distract him?

Luckily Genma stepped in. "Nothing really. Your teacher must just have realized that the exam can be a bit violent and that you're a bit too young for it."

"But I'm older than him. I know something is going on, I'm not stupid. Itachi told me that I shouldn't be alone with Sota, something must have happened. Why does everyone try to hide stuff from me? I was really going to come here with Itachi, but he said no and that I shouldn't either. I thought you two were friends."

You too thought you were friends.

"He's afraid that me and Sasuke will get hurt. But you wouldn't do that right, you're my friend?"

You put your head onto the table. You really had fucked up more than you thought. You had seen Itachi leave the stands after your fight, but not that he had turned on you like his.

"Naruto, I think you should go back home now."

"But… I'm his friend. He's sad and needs some cheering up," he said.

"Maybe another day Naruto," Genma said.

"Aww... " Naruto groaned. "See you later then Sota."

Genma showed Naruto outside and when he came back he started patting your head.

"I'm sorry about Itachi, I'm sure he'll change around eventually. You might not think about him that way, but he's still a kid and do a lot of stupid things," he said.

"Maybe."

You felt a paw hitting your head and as you turned your head towards it, you saw Momochi dropping his knife in front of you and when you didn't react, he pushed it closer to you.

"Thanks," you mumbled.

He then began to rub his head against yours.

You smiled at him, you could get through this, you still had Shisui, Naruto, Genma and these lovely cats.

"I've some work to do, so I'll have to leave you three alone for a bit. I've filled their food bowls, so don't give them more. But make sure they've enough water and that Kaiyou doesn't spill it all out. And play with them will you? It will do you all good," he said. "And if you get more hungry, feel free to make yourself something light, but I'll bring home something good when I'm done so don't eat too much. I don't know how long I'll be gone, but I'll try to come home early."

"You don't need to worry, I can't have more bad luck now," you replied.

"Don't jinx it, but if everything is fine, bye then," he said and left.

You wondered what Kaiyou was up to, and as you looked around you finally found her sitting in her water bowl looking quite pleased with herself.

So you went to get another bowl so she had something to drink, and as you placed it next to her, she jumped out of her current bowl and into the new one splashing the water everywhere.

But she looked too happy to be mad at her, even as she got back into her original bowl probably wanting to do it again.

But then she started yawning at you before jumping out and rubbing herself against your feet making your pants all wet.

"I'll get you a towel," you said and starting rummage around in Genma's drawers till you found one and sat down on the floor signalling her to come which she obliged.

You picked her up in your lap and carefully started drying her, and as you were done, she gave you another yawn before laying down.

"Hey, you cannot fall asleep here," you told her.

But either she didn't understand you, or she didn't care. And given that she was a cat, both were as likely.

You heard something dropping on the floor and as you turned your attention to the sound, you saw Momochi giving you a big yawn before running towards you.

"You're going to take a nap too?"

He just ignored you and jump onto your lap and laid beside Kaiyou. And they were right, a bit of a nap wasn't too bad of an idea, so you leaned against the wall joined them.

-x-

You woke up as Genma came home. "I'm home Sota," he greeted you from the door.

Both Momochi and Kaiyou jumped off your lap and ran towards Genma to circle his legs.

"Hello to you two too as well," he told them and put the food he had bought on the table "I hope you're hungry Sota?"

"Yeah," you replied and sat down at the table. More food now couldn't hurt anyway given the minimal food the last week.

"I bought us some pumpkin soup, if you don't like it I'll go get you something else, but you should give it a try, it is delicious. And for dessert, I've some dango for you."

"I'll give it a try," you said and took the box he gave you along with a spoon.

"So what do you think?" He asked.

You took a sip. "It's good, it's no dango, but I wouldn't mind having it occasionally."

"I'm glad to hear that," Genma said. "After we've eaten, would you like a bit of a spar? I've just a mini-dojo so it isn't too much space to move as you might be used to, but if you're unsure how to deal with the exam with the restrictions put onto you, going over the basics won't hurt, especially since you've not been very active lately."

"Sure," you replied and took the last sip of your soup. "Could I get some dango now?"

"Here," he said and handed you another box.

-x-

After dinner you joined him in his dojo, you were currently chasing him down, but he easily dodged you every time, but that was to be expected.

"You're doing well, I had feared you were in a worse shape," Genma said.

"And yet I've not been closed to hitting you, not even once."

"Sota, don't forget that I'm a special jounin, you're not supposed to hit me. But don't let that discourage you."

"I know," you sighed. "Start to attack me, so I can practice dodging, I'll probably need that during the exam."

"Alright, you won't be able to dodge everything, just focus on recover quickly afterwards."

"Got it," and as you said that, Genma was already striking at you with a kick that you barely managed to dodge below which was quickly followed up with another kick that shoot you back into the wall.

"Don't stop moving!" He yelled at you before sending another kick your way. You rolled out of the way before running up the walls.

"Now you got it, don't let yourself become rusty," he called out.

This was more like you. And as he attacked again you jumped over him ready to counter-attack, only to get kicked away into the other wall.

"I'm sorry, but you're too slow," he said. "And I've much better reach than you."

And before he could even attack, you rolled away from where you were sitting and got into the ceiling.

As you tried to hit his head, he grabbed your wrist and flung you off the ceiling and into the ground.

"Tell me if you want to stop, the floor shouldn't be too hard, but it can still hurt."

"I'm fine, I'm not giving up," you said while rolling away once more. "I can keep this up for hours."

And you were right, after what felt like an eternity, you finally got in a hit and then another one.

"We're done Sota, please stop," Genma said and gasped for his breath as he sat down.

"Huh, I thought you were a special jounin," you teased him.

"Don't be too full of yourself Sota, I wasn't going full out on you, but I don't have unlimited energy unlike you. Are you really not tired at all?"

"Uhh, not really. Perhaps a bit hungry and thirsty, but that's it. Maybe this is how I can win my fights, just outlast my opponent."

"I'm sorry Sota, but there is a time limit on the fight, while we don't announce it as we don't want people to abuse it, we do stop fights where one person is stalling too much or the fight seems to be a stalemate. We have got a lot of fights to get done that day and they need to be completed in a reasonable time. So don't expect more than an hour before we call it off.

"So who wins if the fight gets stopped?" You asked.

"It doesn't happen often, but the general rule is that both lose and we'll find a way to adjust the other fights to fill in for the missing winner."

"That sounds like a stupid rule, stalling is a genuine tactic, it lets win time till reinforcements come."

"Or it lets your opponent win time till their reinforcements come. While what you're saying has some merit, the exams are also a show and the village likes more flashy fights that gain clients, not someone who just runs out the clock," he said.

"I see."

"I think I hear the cats asking for food, let's go and check on them," he said.

"Good idea."

-x-

"Sota, do you want to join me at the Chuunin exam festival tonight? You've not been outside for a couple of weeks now," Genma asked you.

"I need to prepare for tomorrow," you sighed. "And I still haven't come up with anything, this is hopeless."

"There is one thing you can do, I'm not a big fan of it and it will lower your evaluation at the end. But if you don't win anything, it will be even worse."

"Wait, why didn't you say anything before now?" You asked him.

"I had hoped you'd come up with something better, but the solution is simple, bluff. You can still use your water seals, so pretend it's something else. Just make sure you don't get caught in a lie. There are rules against pretending something is less dangerous than it really is, but there are no rules against trying to trick the opponent into believing your stuff is more dangerous than it is."

"I see."

"But I still think you should join me tonight at the festival. You're better off improvising whatever trick you're playing on your opponent," he said.

"If you say so. Hmm… sure, it cannot be that bad," you had no idea what kind of festival it was, but it would be nice to get outside a bit."

"It will be fun, we'll just have to feed Kaiyou and Momochi first."

-x-

Outside the village was lit with colourful lights coming from paper lamps, red, green and brown, marked, Fire, Wind and Earth, symbolizing the three main villages competing in the tournament.

The air was filled with the smell of food and around you with children both younger and older than you running around with different masks.

"Do you want a mask too?" Genma asked you and pointed to one of the mask vendors.

"I feel I'm a bit too old for that," you said.

Genma looked down at you. "It's okay Sota, you don't have to prove anything. You were thrown into being a ninja way too soon. So if you want to just run around and forget that you're a ninja for a few hours, that's fine."

"I appreciate your concern, and thanks for wanting to get me a mask. But I'm not like most other children."

"Sorry Sota, I overstepped a bit there. How about getting you some dango?"

"Now you know me," you said and smiled at him.

As you got to the dango stand, the man behind the counter scowled at you.

Genma just ignored him. "Two sticks of dango please," he said and held out the appropriate amount of money.

"Take your money and leave," the vendor sneered. "I don't want that monster here."

"Please," he begged.

The man raised his voice and slapped the money out of Genma's hand. "Get that murderous little monster away from me!"

You looked away and wasn't sure what to do, you didn't want to be there anymore.

"Is there a problem here?" You looked up and saw an Uchiha police officer.

"Yes, these two won't leave," the dango seller said.

"I just want to buy some dango, Sota has had a difficult time lately," Genma explained.

The officer turned to the guy. "I'll warn you, as part of your license as a vendor here you're not allowed to turn away customers without a good reason," he explained.

"No reason you say? He'll blow us all up! Isn't that a good enough reason for you?" the man yelled. "Just look like what he did to his teammate, and you're letting him compete tomorrow. He'll create a blood bath."

"I'm not a monster!" You yelled out, and as you turned around you saw everyone staring at you.

You felt Matatabi's chakra leaking through your system, you had to get away before you'd give in to her power.

"Sota! Please wait," you head Genma call behind you.

No, you just had to get away. You slid under a wagon and quickly ran into a back alley before sitting down by the wall.

First Itachi, now the dango salesman, you'd never had the chance to learn his name, but you had been a good customer. All because of one mistake.

You could feel that Matatabi was trying to break free, but you had no energy to do anything but to bury your head in your knees.

"Sota," you could hear Genma whispering.

You looked up and saw him slowly approach you. It wasn't exactly a good hiding spot you had found yourself.

"It is okay Sota. You're not a monster. Everyone makes mistakes in life, just please calm down and take control before she breaks loose.

"What's the point," you mumbled and noticed that the sight of Genma starting to get blurred by a blue fog.

"I won't tell anyone about his, you won't get in trouble, I promise. And tomorrow you can prove to everyone who you really are."

He got a point, but… "It's hopeless. I've no chance proving anything. And you remember what Danzo said, I need to do well or else the other elders will decide that I'm no longer worth it. I should just run away, can you help me?"

"Sota, we'll get through this, I'm sure you'll surprise everyone tomorrow, even yourself."

"Maybe…" you mumbled.

"Please try to control her, I won't put the seal on you unless I have to. So please give it your best," he said and smiled at you.

You could do it! You could take control.

Slowly your vision got clearer till the blue fog completely disappeared.

"Come let's go home," he said and picked you up and you ended up falling asleep in his arms.