Chapter 2: Red Striped Tiger
The next day Hikaru went with his father to the market, where they purchased a small ceramic jug of oil. Thanking his father for the gift, the boy then went his own way. Buying several coils of rope, a wooden container the size of his head, a large blanket, a vial of perfume, and a large bag to carry his newly gained items, he left the marketplace satisfied.
Since the announcement of the war's end, the Academy was closed for three days to allow families to celebrate and mourn. Putting a hiatus to public institutions such as the Ninja Academy also freed up personnel, allowing the village to deal with the immediate aftermath of the war's conclusion.
Walking the streets, he noticed officers belonging to the Uchiha Military Police shepherding merchants and peddlers to different locations, seemingly in an attempt to get ahead of the impending influx of people that were sure to be flocking to Konoha.
On his way towards the training grounds known ominously as the Forest of Death, Hikaru stopped by various random spots, collecting feces from the ground and packing it all into the wooden container he kept in his bag.
Doing so garnered him an array of different reactions, ranging from confusion to disgust; he just shrugged it all off, as these weren't people to him; they were barely background characters.
𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘐 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦... He mused with a sardonic smirk.
Finally arriving at the imposing fence blocking his entry, Hikaru took a moment to ensure he was fully prepared.
Cold steel formed a wall of spiderwebs before him, barring entry to the forbidden zone that lay behind it. Beyond the protective steel, a mighty forest stood in defiance of the sky itself, as far as the eye could see and as high as humans might hope to build. Yet, for all its grandeur, it was not awe-inspiring so much as fear-inducing; the green of the trees' leaves held deep darkness, the brown of the trees' bark oozed a sharp bloodlust, and the scent of certain doom wafted from the open air.
Without another second of hesitation, Hikaru scaled the barrier despite every one of his senses screaming at him to run away.
Hikaru was no idiot; he knew that a five-year-old of mediocre talent stood little chance in such a dangerous place; he remembered all too well the many dangerous creatures that infested the forest during Naruto's chunin exam. However, he didn't plan to venture into the training ground carelessly; he had already done some research and, after some inquiring, learned that the Red Striped Tigers only roamed a specific area, and thankfully for him, that area was on the outskirts.
𝘏𝘦'𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸. Glancing around, Hikaru was unable to sense Sakumo's presence, even while possessing naturally high senses as Uchiha tended to do. 𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘪𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭.
Sticking to the outskirts, the ambitious young Uchiha made his way to the southern side of the forest; while not lowering his guard for a single second. Unfortunately, all this caution did was make his body fight against him all the more rabidly, for he could sense the many beasts and insects that prowled the forest, every one of them able to tear him apart as effortlessly as he would swat a fly.
Every step he took caused his body to tremble in terror, made his heart beat so fast and hard that he felt like he was on the verge of having a heartache, and drenched his palms in sweat.
𝘌𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩! 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳, 𝘰𝘳 𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘐 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘙𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘛𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴...
Left with no other choice, he began to cycle a small amount of chakra all throughout his body, calming his nerves and the overwhelming sense of trepidation that weighed down upon him. He didn't want to take such an action if he could help it, as it meant he'd be even more exhausted later on.
Once or twice he could swear that he saw eyes peering out of the darkness toward him; and more than a couple of times, he could swear that he heard the scuttling of dozens of legs beyond the bushes separating him from the forest, usually proceeded by screeches of differing intensities.
After around an hour, he finally made it to the place he had been looking for. Luckily, after the first twenty minutes of walking while cycling chakra, he had gotten used to the immense pressure and could combat it with just his mental strength, allowing him to recuperate the lost chakra over time.
Surveying the area for a short while, he soon found himself satisfied with what he saw. It took him thirty minutes to prepare the field, and he admired his work upon completion. It was a good plan but not infallible. He would have felt much better if he was proficient enough in chakra control to concentrate chakra into his legs and use the technique known as Flicker Feet, so that he could escape easily if needed.
"Oh well… Nothing ventured, nothing gained," Hikaru muttered to himself as he pulled out a vial from his bag, uncorked it, and poured its purplish liquid contents on the ground.
The liquid he had just spread was one that released pheromones almost irresistible to feline creatures, attracting them towards it. Naturally, this was incredibly risky, as he couldn't know exactly how many tigers would be attracted by it, nor even if the right ones would come. However, the risk was far greater if he actually entered the forest to scout; there, he would be in unknown territory, unable to see much, and at the complete mercy of dozens of different creatures that knew the forest like he knew the back of his hand. It was likely that he would die without even knowing how or why if he ever actually stepped into that forest.
As he said before: no risk, no reward.
He had guessed that there would be solitary Red Striped Tigers prowling around and hoped that the closest ones would come first, so all he had to do was lure one out before concealing the liquid's scent with something else.
A few minutes passed before he picked up on an approaching threat, making his body tense uncontrollably. Several more minutes passed before he heard movement and saw the sinuous movement of a large cat cautiously stepping forward, apparently done analyzing him from the shadows.
Now illuminated by the sun's light, the tiger's fur sparkled as rays of sunlight reflected off of the shining red stripes that flowed throughout.
The moment he saw the tiger's appearance, he grinned. Immediately pulling open the container of feces he had collected earlier, he thoroughly covered the liquid contents with the feces, completely suppressing its attractive scent. As soon as Hikaru did that, he rushed forward and threw three kunai at once at the beast, letting out whatever killing intent he could muster as he did so, all in an effort to provoke the tiger.
Naturally, all three kunai flew off target, not even requiring the beast to dodge, as it stared back at the young human with a contemptuous glint in its beady eyes and grinned, baring its fangs.
The boy froze on the spot, seemingly in shock that his attack had failed, as he fumbled for shuriken in his pouch, wildly throwing them towards the tiger as he backed away fearfully. The shuriken that did manage to hit the tiger merely bounced off its majestic fur; as if they were little more than leaves in the wind.
Enjoying the delicious scent of fear emanating from its foolish prey, almost as much as it enjoyed the liquid's scent, the tiger stalked forward slowly, moving in pace with the retreating boy.
Eventually, the boy slammed into a fence, shuddering in panic as his movements halted entirely.
Seconds passed by as the world stood still; no movement came from either prey or predator. The tiger stared at its cowering victim as he hastily turned his head to the left and right, looking in vain for an escape.
Then, as if the previous still had all been an illusion, the tiger lunged forward towards the child, claws ready to tear him apart and jaw open wide, ready to maul his broken body. The beast could already taste the soft flesh between its teeth, the spray of warm blood on his fur, and the thrill of feasting upon chakra, yet to his bewilderment, all he ended up tasting was the cold, hard steel wires that made up the fence.
The second the tiger lunged toward him, Hikaru stomped his right foot down slightly further to his right, and in that instant, he was yanked into the sky by a rope that left him hanging upside down from a tree branch stretched overhead. At the same time, a jug smashed down onto his previous position, dousing the would-be predator in oil, burning its eyes, and ruining its formerly majestic fur.
Yet, before the beast could even react to the rapidly changing events, yet another change occurred. As the supposed prey sucked in air, making his body appear slightly inflated, and then let loose pathetically small tendrils of fire from his mouth before the flames were quickly replaced with smoke, and he began coughing wildly.
However, no matter how pitiful this attempt at a jutsu was, the tiger had no time to spare mocking the boy, as all of a sudden, its entire body was set alight and began to cook him alive. That very fur that it was so proud of was now killing it.
Roaring in anguish, the beast attempted to look for a water source, but as soon as it opened its eyes, they were consumed by fire as well, melting in an instant, creating a viscous sludge that streamed out of its sockets as it slumped to the ground and breathed its last, agonizing breath.
Watching this scene from above, Hikaru's eyes gleamed coldly, his mouth forming a grin, yet a second later, the smell of the beast's body being roasted and the image of its eyes leaking out of its socket as it heaved a final breath all hit him. The mouth that had just let out flames now vomited out puke.
Dangling upside down by one leg and blasting out puke from his mouth, he made for a laughable sight to anyone that might have seen him.
"Ugh… Not… Urgh," spraying out more food from his stomach, Hikaru inwardly hit himself for being so weak, reacting in such a manner to such a tame scene.
It was just a monster, and yet he was already reacting so poorly to the sight of its death? It was shameful. He would see many more deaths and much more brutal ones at that before he achieved his goal.
𝘖𝘩 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵. 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘵.
Wiping his filth-covered mouth with one hand, he then pulled a kunai out of his pouch and tried cutting the rope attached to his leg. It was harder to do than he thought it would be, so it took him several attempts to stretch his upper torso against gravity and towards his legs in order to cut the rope.
Falling limply to the ground, he lay there for a moment before hastily getting up, pulling a blanket out of his bag, and then covering the beast's corpse with it to put the fire out.
After all, he couldn't prove his kill if the fur was entirely scorched black or completely gone. As soon as the fire died down, Hikaru pulled the blanket off so that he could see if there was any fur he could take.
𝘐𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵. 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘳! 𝘐𝘧 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬.
Sighing at the completely ruined fur, he did his best to flip the corpse over, hoping that at least some fur underneath could be salvaged. Thankfully, his luck wasn't too poor, as the coat below was generally unmolested by the flames.
Using a kunai, Hikaru cut a portion of skin off the body, big enough to display a red stripe among the natural yellow fur. Packing the skin into his now empty bag, the boy then made a hasty retreat back to where he came.
He had long sensed more predators converging on his location, lured by the death roar and the smell of cooked meat, yet too wary of making a move straight away on the strange human cub who had so brutally killed a Red Striped Tiger.
For half an hour, he retreated along the fence with his back toward it, facing the forest with the tiger's corpse in sight; he was not willing to attempt to scale the fence, thus showing his back and inviting others to pounce on him as soon as he did so.
Thirty minutes later, he finally stopped sensing other creatures staring at him, but he still did not feel safe enough to turn around. There were many predators in the forest, and someone of Hikaru's current level could detect only the weakest. So he continued shuffling back towards the place he entered, the Forest of Death, as fast as he could. It wasn't an easy walk; his body burned with every step he took, perhaps giving him a taste of what the tiger felt in its final moments.
Hikaru's pain had nothing to do with karma, though. The truth was that he had overcharged his chakra to release those tendrils of flames successfully. He did not have an incredibly high chakra reserve as Sasuke did, who was able to successfully perform a Great Fireball jutsu at six years of age, so even producing the tendrils of flame he did was difficult enough. Alas, now his body was punishing him for filling it with more chakra than it could handle before expelling it all at once.
If he hadn't overcharged his chakra, then even if he had succeeded in producing flames, he would have been too exhausted to even move, making him easy pickings for any predator that stumbled across his hanging body.
Forcing his body forward, the Uchiha managed to make it back to his entry point, which had the greatest distance between the fence and the forest. As soon as he was safe behind the barrier dividing the forest and Konoha, he collapsed to the ground.
It truly was an exhausting affair. Hikaru was constantly on edge when: walking to and from the hunting spot; setting a trap reliant so heavily on luck; then facing down a dangerous predator that could tear him apart as easily as swatting a fly; and, of course, performing a C-rank jutsu as a five-year-old.
All in all, it was not something even most genin could easily do. However, no matter how on edge Hikaru was for the entire duration of his journey and fight, he had the comfort of knowing that Sakumo was undoubtedly watching over him. No matter how low the White Fang had fallen, he was still ultimately a good person and wouldn't simply send a child to his death without a care in the world.
Following some much-needed recuperation time, Hikaru stood up and admired the blazing sun above, illuminating and spreading warmth to everything beneath its gaze.
For the first time in both of his lives, he actually felt alive. His heart beat a sweet melody, filling his ears with the sound of rushing blood. His mind raced as it recalled the scene of his imminent death, and his body shook as it experienced the euphoria and surge of emotions accompanying his success.
The sight of the burning sun above and the feeling of its warmth on his skin combined with his internal euphoria, and he almost forgot how to breathe as a tear ran down his face.
𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭... 𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦? 𝘞𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨?
Hikaru smiled just like a Cheshire cat at this newfound sensation, this revelation. If he had to liken it to anything, it was most like a person finding God or a truth of the universe. He vowed to spend his life seeking this thrill, to not waste his second chance at feeling truly alive.
Reveling in this feeling for as long as possible, he felt a noticeable emptiness inside of him as soon as it ebbed away and faded into memory and a need, a hunger to fill that empty space once again.
Shaking off these feelings and vows, he re-centered himself back on the moment, to the situation at hand and the next steps he had to take. He knew that the process was the most crucial part; the journey is the key to a good ending; the means determine ends, so he wouldn't allow himself to get lost in such a feeling, not when he had so much work that needed to be done.
𝘒𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘪 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦… 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺.
Trudging back to the village proper, Hikaru found himself once again in front of the Hatake house. Crossing the boundary much more easily than he did the first time, he was just about to knock when the door slid open, revealing the figure of Konoha's White Fang standing before him.
"So, you killed a Red Striped Tiger and are about to give me its pelt as proof."
Showing no surprise that the jonin already knew he had succeeded, Hikaru simply opened his bag and showed Sakumo the fur, "Yes, sir, just as you said I had to if I wanted to be trained."
"Honestly, I was expecting you to try, get scared and give up, or at least get seriously hurt and fail," he said as he took the fur from the boy's hand and inspected it.
Although Hikaru couldn't sense Sakumo's presence, the man had indeed been watching as he had guessed. Sakumo was first impressed by the preparations the young boy had made and the substituting of his weakness with clever traps in order to subdue a stronger opponent; then, he was impressed by the boy's courage to undertake such a risk despite the heavy element of luck involved and his performance in the face of such clear danger.
With such qualities, he was sure to be a sturdy branch of Konoha's great tree in the future and an excellent rival to challenge Kakashi and push him to be better. All he lacked now was the strength to do so.
While Sakumo couldn't make the boy more powerful, he could impart on him a good foundation and give him the skills with which to attain greater strength than he would otherwise.
Therefore, despite Sakumo's current state, he had enough reasons that meant something; he had enough drive to teach the boy some things.
"But… a deal's a deal. Whenever you have the time, come and see me. I'm… always free these days." The man said with an overwhelming amount of emptiness in his heart, so much so that it leaked through into his voice.
"Thank you, sir!" Hikaru bowed his head, smiling ever so slightly as he did so.
With that, there was nothing else to discuss, and neither of them wanted to spend time frivolously chatting. Hikaru promptly left, crossing the boundary again, and on his way home. He needed some good food and a nap.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone