Capítulo 10: Training the brats, and music time
New chapter out and there's not much else to say. Join my d1scord server to get chapters a week ahead of time. So, with that said, I hope everybody enjoys.
This is the link, just remove the space and replace the 1 with an i: d1scord /2XN2rzuFpM
/
"Where is it!" I snarled angrily, tearing through the storage room and throwing a box of clothes at the wall to get it out of my way.
Aside from a solid thumph, nothing else happened to distract me from the icy hot fury burning through me as I kept trying to find where the fuck it was.
If Itachi took it…
It was mine! Mom said she'd teach me how to use it, not him! It belonged to me more than it ever would be to him.
I'd call the bastard a son of a bitch, but it wouldn't be true.
"Fucking fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" I ended my tangent by punching a hole through the closet door and looking again, pushing aside the clothes still hanging up.
Stupid Itachi. Stupid village. Stupid world. Couldn't I ever catch a damn break from being reminded of how much of a useless relative Itachi was? He tortures me, kills our family, and now I realized he took mom's erhu without me knowing!
He stole my sanity, my family, and something so worthless, yet priceless, as my kaasan's erhu.
With his stupid face hovering in my thoughts like an indelible specter, I jerked the last bit of clothing and came across something that had me almost crying out in shock and terror.
The same crimson red eyes and face that haunted my nightmares was looking at me, before I looked closer and realized what it was.
Without saying a word or making a sound, I punched the mirror and shattered the glass, the broken image of my own face not changing how angry that final rubbing of salt in the wound made me.
Instead of continuing to trash the backroom to find my mom's musical instrument, I just left the house and ventured, deciding it'd be an excellent use of my day off to go murder a tree or rip something apart that wasn't an animal.
/
If I said that a wise man had once shared his wisdom with the world by saying, "Personal freedom can be found in the act of freeing others", I'd be a damn liar because one, I'm pretty sure I came up with that quote and I was neither a man in a technical sense or wise in the slightest; and two, because it was a steaming pile of bullshit.
The second part was illustrated no better than at this very moment as my already frayed and temperamental nature was put to the test during lunch break under the bright September sun.
"Shikamaru, if you don't actually put some effort into it, I won't bother wasting my time." I said firmly, shooting a glare at the Nara.
Said boy just sighed, slumping up against the tree as he failed to stick to it with his hand. "It's just too troublesome to deal with."
A month. An entire month had passed where I've been volunteering my time for Naruko's sake to help a few of the receptive students that had an interest in me providing a little help. Of course Naruko didn't think anything of it when asked about how she got better so quickly.
'Oh, Sasuke is helping me with taijutsu, he also invited me to his home for training.'
Whatever possessed that girl to clarify that some of our training sessions were at my house, I have no idea. That little tidbit overnight made every single girl aside from Hinata, because thank God for her being the only girl to not be interested in me, despise and envy Naruko.
As of now, I couldn't tell if my open hostility towards some of them left a clue that I wouldn't tolerate them being a nuisance to Naruko. But if it didn't, I wasn't looking forward to loudly talking out loud about how I can't stand girls who are mean to my friend.
I was also starting to think that dealing with the girls aggressively trying to get my attention when giving them taijutsu pointers was preferable to helping Shikamaru. Naruko and I had ended up flipping a coin on who got to deal with him, it was that bad.
It was ridiculous! Shikamaru wasn't interested at all, dragged his feet on doing the steps necessary, and was only good at comprehending and knowing what he needed to do; nothing else was positive.
I should've put a Genjutsu on Naruko to make her think I won the coin toss.
"Either you deal with me being as… troublesome as you say everything that isn't Choji or a cloud is, or I'll find out exactly where you live and tell your mother that you're being rude to me." I threatened, pointing directly at him to get my point across.
Shikamaru shifted his bored and annoyed expression into a scowl, the threat obviously being more than a little aggravating to him.
"Tro-"
"Troublesome, yeah I know." I interrupted, looking to my left to see Naruko on the other side of lovely and friendly section of the outdoors that was the academy obstacle course we'd at for our current lunch break, and she was visibly having a better run of things judging by the sparkle in her eyes and the wild movements she made with her hands while speaking to Choji, Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru, and the newest addition after last weak; Ino.
I honestly didn't know what to think of her. Ino was... a special case. She'd vocally argued with Sakura that she was better at taijutsu than her, right after Kiba got beaten by Naruko the third time in a row that cemented her as second only behind me. That sparked an argument on which one of the girls was next best, disregarding Hinata, and Ino had barely won. That ended up evidently making her desperate enough to go to the most tomboyish girl in all of class for help.
And the way her smile fell when I told her to ask Naruko politely for help and to not bother me was actually pretty amusing.
The Yamanaka, along with Sakura, were intolerable to me. I could not stand any more than brief interactions with any of the girls that had that stupid affection and crush for the silent and 'cool' boy that ignored them. I'll let Naruko deal with them until a more complicated topic, like something related to rudimentary Ninjutsu, comes up.
"Ugh," Shikamaru groaned under his breath, "You know I didn't want help, right? Naruko just kept pestering me and I thought you'd be less troublesome, but you're worse."
I just gave Shikamaru a deadpan look, fighting the urge to roll my eyes.
"Something you should understand, Shikamaru," I said slowly, wanting it to properly sink in, "Naruko just wants what's best for you because she's happy and cheerful, and wants to make friends. I, on the other hand, just don't want you to be killed, not because I care about you as a friend, but because I don't like people dying."
Credit where it was due, because Shikamaru didn't ask for clarification like he didn't understand what I was getting at; he understood full well why I'd have an aversion to people dying.
At least people who I got along with, that is.
"This isn't fun for me either." I carried on, sighing in annoyance at feeling compelled to share with Shikamaru so he'd actually put a little effort into it. "So if I can deal with helping you out instead of doing something that might actually be productive for me, then you can suck it up too."
Shikamaru just looked at me tiredly without responding at first, not appearing to be enthused by what I said. But it wasn't like I was going to relent, because the thought of Naruko being upset by Shikamaru seemingly rejecting her help didn't sit well with me.
After a few seconds of us silently staring at one another, Shikamaru deflated and sighed audibly, looking up at the sky almost longingly where a cloud was slowly making its way across the deep blue of Ouranus' domain.
"I can't offer you anything to not sic your girlfriend on me if I say no." He muttered in resignation.
What?! My eyes widened in shock at what I just heard the boy say. Had I just misheard him?
"What did you just say?"
"You're friends with Naruko and nobody else, you help her with things, and you've had her over at your house supposedly," Shikamaru rattled off with a bored look, still having his arms folded behind his back and his head looking skyward, "And you act like my dad does with my mom when you're around he-"
I took several steps towards him and stared directly down at him, sending as hateful of a glare as I could muster without activating my dojutsu.
"Don't ever say that again, especially to anybody else." I demanded in a hushed tone. The last thing I needed was Naruko being embarrassed to be around me, or heaven forbid actually believe that was what my actual thoughts were.
And the last part of what he said before I interrupted him was downright mortifying. I could just about feel my cheeks warm from someone making a comment about that. Was that how the other students saw us?
Shikamaru just rolled his eyes, sighing in exactly the same pitch and length as every other sigh of annoyance.
"You really are easy to distract." He pointed out, his eyes flicking towards my left.
I followed his line of sight and noticed that Iruka was ushering in the students, with Naruko ignoring him and walking towards us at a quick pace.n
The smile on her face, the bright blue eyes that were fixed on me, and the overall shiny demeanor she displayed in contrast to me; Shikamaru's comment echoed in my head as I felt the urge to shrink away under her happy gaze.
He's just being a dick. Don't pay any mind to it.
"Sasuke!" She said my name happily, before turning towards Shikamaru. Instantly, her expression darkened and she sent him a frosty look. "Did you annoy him and be lazy?"
The Nara didn't respond, which was odd. He tended to smart off when he got called lazy. I turned to look at him, and I barely stifled a scowl of exasperation.
Shikamaru had evidently fallen asleep in the all of 10-15 second interlude between me talking to him and Naruko reaching us. Honestly, it was almost impressive, but not to someone like me.
Unless he was doing it to intentionally tweak me.
"Naruko," I said slowly, trailing my eyes from her over to the fast asleep Shikamaru, "Do I have permission?" The very simple question was asked in the most casual tone I could give.
Naruko looked suspicious at first, before she noticed the faint smirk on my face. Then, she grinned at what she deduced was my likely request. The nod she gave was all I needed and I looked down at Shikamaru, making a hand seal to manipulate my chakra to mimic lightning.
I then leaned down to be right in his face, a predatory grin on my face.
"WAKE UP!" I shouted directly in his face, jabbing my lightning coated fingers into his shoulder.
A scream bordering on feminine was torn from Shikamaru as he jolted upright, flailing his arms as best as he could to get away from me.
Whatever ironclad mask I wore around everybody else melted away instantly and I started laughing hysterically, barely keeping the frame of mind to activate my Sharingan to burn the image in front of me into my head.
Naruko was also laughing, almost wheezing as she almost fell forward while I stared at a wrathful looking Shikamaru, his hair standing on end and his breathing coming in rapid gasps from him being startled.
It took a great deal of effort, but I managed to stop laughing, but it felt like I was holding back a floodgate that had seemed to build up for months and was only released today. All the annoyance towards Shikamaru was gone, I just felt… light.
"Lesson one," I said, my lip quivering as I almost lost it again as my eyes spotted a few faint sparks of static dancing through his hair, "Don't go to sleep around me."
Shikamaru just ground his teeth, before standing up and dusting himself off.
"Troublesome, the both of you." He mumbled.
"Sasuke! Naruko! Shikamaru! Get inside now and stop playing!" Iruka shouted, gesturing for us to come on in.
Shikamaru finished giving me a resigned look, before sighing and shaking his head. "How did you even do that?" He asked, not looking at me as he started walking towards our Sensei.
"Training." I shrugged, giving Naruko a faint smile as she walked right next to me.
I could hear the frown on Shikamaru's face just from his voice, not even needing to look at him as he replied to my flat statement.
"That's Raiton Ninjutsu, how'd you learn that this early?"
Much to the vexation of Shikamaru, I elected to not answer the question because of how obvious the response would have been. Training really had paid off for me in so many ways, and party tricks to mess with a total lazyass was one of the less notable ones.
The three of us reached Iruka, who pointed towards the open door for us to go through, which we did and rejoined the rest of our class for another riveting day of indoor training.
/ (SCENE BREAK)
"You really should take care of your hair more," Ino chided her, "It might actually look good then."
Naruko felt her face flush from the spike of irritation at what Ino had just said, the lesson she was giving on maximizing the control gains made for leaf sticking blowing up spectacularly when her chakra flared with her emotions. The leaves completely disintegrated under the force of that internal energy that all Shinobi used, leaving a faint scent of ozone and an extremely annoyed blonde.
Fixing her eyes onto Ino's turquoise ones, Naruko managed to not say something snippy in front of Hinata and Kiba, who were currently the only other two listening in right now. Shino had been more reserved than even Sasuke was on his bad days and hadn't joined the little outing, and Choji was giving Shikamaru much needed company as the two most intelligent students systematically drove one another insane.
"Noted." Naruko succeeded in keeping her tone neutral, almost sounding like Sasuke did when he'd give a one word response.
Whether Ino was being mean like the other girls that were jealous of her and brought up how her hair was still short and looked bad, or was just honest about it, it didn't matter. Getting sheared like a sheep was on her list of things to never experience again, and reminders weren't needed or wanted.
But at least Inu had repeatedly whispered that he was sorry as she cried, so she knew he wasn't a jerk.
"Um, Naruko." Hinata's quiet tone was barely heard by the blonde Uzumaki, but it drew her attention back to the present. "Do you need new leaves?"
It was then that Naruko noticed that Hinata was holding out her hand with several leaves resting in her palm.
"Oh, uh, thanks." She replied awkwardly, trying to play it off by smiling and accepting the leaves. She then used her chakra to balance them on her fingers, while explaining what she was doing in the process.
Hopefully they could soon learn that wall walking technique she'd finally been able to manage with Sasuke's help.
At least the good help. She thought, shuddering at the memory of the first attempt Sasuke made at helping her with chakra exercises. He offered books. Books! Those things were cursed beyond all belief, and she couldn't understand how her friend could bear to look at them with his Dojutsu that he said burned every single little detail in his mind. Gai accidentally kicking her in the face during a spar made her head hurt less than trying to read that chicken scratch gibberish Sasuke swore would help her.
If anything, that might explain why Sasuke was such a weirdo at times. Too much devil book influence.
She might have pouted and thrown a bit of a tantrum, and maybe threatened to put an explosive tag she pinched off a genin at one point on the book, but it at least got Sasuke to actually explain it better than the demon book.
Without the blonde realizing it, a pair of familiar onyx eyes were staring at her back, the owner of said eyes disregarding his previous task to focus on the girl.
/(SCENE BREAK)
"Well, this is lunch break and I'm hungry," I said to my audience, taking a large bite into a chunk of precooked meat that tasted like spam as I was speaking to the gaggle of brats in front of me, "So I'll be eating while explaining this because you kept asking Naruko and she didn't know as much as me, evidently."
Me, Naruko, and about a half dozen other students were sequestered under the tree with a swing hanging from it while all the disinterested kids were doing whatever on the other side of the walled field that was the academy training and sparring yard.
But what I was doing at the moment was me holding up to the agreement I made with Naruko. She didn't know how to best articulate the intricacies of elemental affinities and things like that, so she was parading me in front of the others so I could be the one to explain to them in a way that wasn't overly clinical like how Iruka might explain it.
"I'll make this as quick as I can, how many of you know about elemental affinities and the details surrounding Ninjutsu?"
Only Shikamaru raised his hand, but he looked bored to an immense degree.
All the others; Ino, Choji, Hinata, Kiba, and now Sakura, who was earlier giving discreet glares at Ino from across the small span of space that made up the students, were looking at Shikamaru curiously.
Wanting to know the details, I addressed the Nara specifically. "How much do you know?" I asked.
Shikamaru just shrugged. "More than them, but not as much as you."
…
You can kill him later. Not in front of the others.
"Your participation is appreciated, Shikamaru." I deadpanned, noting that Ino was giving Shikamaru a death glare.
"Basic rundown:" I took a drink of water and cleared my throat. "Our chakra is capable of behaving like the five basic elements; fire, water, earth, wind, and lightning."
"But Iruka-sensei already said this at the beginning of the year!" Kiba said loudly, while Akamaru made a light yip sound from on top of his head. "It was kind of boring."
I didn't immediately respond, but I saw the desperate pleading look from Naruko that I don't walk away from helping.
Yeah, Kiba was right. We actually learned about basic elemental release knowledge at the beginning of the year, but not actual noted displays of Ninjutsu other than what we were expected to learn in the academy.
Probably an oversight on the curriculum's part. Very few things could motivate a kid to focus their mind on something quite like blasting a wall apart with a bolt of lightning, replace the wall with a wall of earth, and then glass the entire thing with a fireball.
Or maybe they didn't want idiotic, wet behind the ears, brats blowing themselves up or burying themselves alive. Who knows.
"Boring, eh?" I asked rhetorically, before deciding to get things started a little earlier and reaching in my pocket to pull out a rudimentary storage scroll.
Fuck Mizuki seeing it or not. Orochimaru already knew I was interested in things ahead of the reach of most conventional kids, and it wasn't like a ten year old Uchiha being adept at a C-rank Katon Jutsu was that surprising.
"This is a storage scroll," I pointed at it unnecessarily, before pulsing chakra through my fingers to force the seal open and depositing a log about a foot wide and three feet tall, "And this is a log."
I then promptly picked up the log, tucked it under my arm, and went through hand seals to Shunshin a short distance. I then stood the log up and flickered back towards them.
Everybody other than Naruko looked at me like I had grown a second head.
"The Jutsu I just did is the Shunshin." I explained, already cooking up a brilliant, and not completely untrue, excuse on how I knew it that early on. "It's a somewhat controlled enhancement of your body with chakra, notably the legs, to help propel you forward at rapid speeds. Normally it's not something academy students would learn, but my cousin Shisui was good at it and gave me a few tips on it bef-" I abruptly paused, suddenly feeling cold as I thought of the last time I saw my older cousin alive.
I wish I had spent more time with him.
The awkward silence was almost deafening as I couldn't think of what else to say, but Naruko thankfully flicked her gaze towards where the log was and pulled me out of my stupor.
"But this is for you, Kiba." I managed to say, turning around and going through the needed hand seals.
Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu.
An extremely condensed ball of white-yellow fire shot from my mouth and struck the log with an audible howl and a crack like thunder from the air being flash heated from the flames.
The rush of heat expanded air blew through my tied back hair and kicked up some dirt as it washed over me and the other students, several squawks and exclamations coming from them, with one or two expletives slipping out from Kiba.
Once the wave passed by us, I smirked at my target, or what was left of it after my Jutsu.
The fireball had been condensed down to the size of a basketball with a long tail to it like a comet, and it had sheared through and incinerated the top half of the log, with the base being a scorched black ruin.
Mizuki turned out to be the one currently watching over us while Iruka was probably inside, because I turned to look when I heard a shout of surprise that came from the other side of the field to us. But that honestly didn't matter to me because it was just a reveal that I knew a D-rank and C-rank Jutsu fairly decently at 10, it wasn't like I belted out a Chidori or Raikiri.
" That," I said clearly, amusement bubbling up in the recesses of my mind as I looked at the extremely quiet Kiba, "Is what you can do if you actually pay attention to the basics. That's a C-rank Katon Jutsu that I learned when I was 8. It's actually a tradition for Uchiha to learn it."
This was probably the most vocal I'd been to a group in years now, but I didn't have that betraying feeling of caginess right now that usually made me averse to group interactions.
"Now, ready to listen after I was interrupted?"
Multiple nods from them was the reply I received.
"Everybody's chakra naturally gravitates towards one element in particular, such as mine, which is lightning." I made an example of that by sparking lightning chakra in my fingertips. "But as shown by what I just did to Mr Log behind me, you can train your chakra to act like other elements with time and effort... as well as impeccable chakra control." I added the last part in an intentionally forceful fashion to hopefully get them to realize how valuable good control was.
Again, I was sort of going over stuff Iruka already went over earlier, but with more additions to hopefully encourage them.
"Um, Sasuke." Hinata raised her hand, looking more than a little nervous as she gazed wide-eyed at me. "A question."
I never really paid too much attention before, but Hinata's eyes really were strange to see. Simultaneously odd, yet calming to look at; almost like a shining set of pearls, come to think of it.
"Yes, Hinata?"
"How… long did it take for you to manage to perform that Jutsu?"
"A few weeks for the fireball, and several weeks for the Shunshin." I replied, almost preening at how proud I was that I managed to improve my Shunshin enough for it to be combat effective. My spars with Kakashi had gotten very fun ever since I started making targeted flickers to try and pierce his guard.
"The Shunshin took you over two months to do without tripping over your own feet while changing direction, Sasuke." Naruko cut in, shooting me a wink as Kiba and the other boys snickered.
Hinata at least looked a little less daunted at learning the techniques I did, but I could feel myself get instinctively aggravated and I frowned at being subjected to the receiving end of a joke.
"And did you bring the papers?" The blonde added, deciding to stand up and walk over to me.
"Yes, I'm not forgetful and leave things where they shouldn't be." I said absentmindedly, hearing a suppressed huff from the girl at me making that thinly veiled barb towards her. Not my fault she forgot to put my eggs back in the fridge last week after she wanted to try making eggs on her own and turned my kitchen into a mess; and I ended up drinking them raw with some milk and honey later after she put them up hours after the fact and was hugging the toilet all day because of it.
With the Uzumaki Jinchuriki put in her proper place, I fished out the rolled up collection of chakra paper in my pocket and pulled the rubber band holding them all together off.
I then handed them to all, save for one, to Naruko so she could hand them out to all of them.
"This is chakra paper." I held up my own sheet as I saw Naruko hand them out to the six. "I'd give a history of it and how it was first discovered, but lunch break isn't long enough so I'll just be quick. Long story short, it reacts to chakra. You can judge what your chakra affinity aligns with by pulsing your chakra through it like when you're doing leaf sticking exercises. Go ahead and try, you go first." I pointed at Hinata.
The girl let out a faint 'eep' noise at being put on the spot, but complied.
"Wait, Sas-" Naruko started to say, but it wasn't fast enough.
With a slight pulsing of her chakra, the Hyuga heiress looked closely at the paper, but yelped and dropped the paper as it ignited, Kiba and Choji also jerking away since they were the closest to her.
Oh, I didn't warn them. Oops.
"I forgot to mention that the paper would ignite if your affinity's fire." I said uncomfortably, feeling my face heat up in embarrassment.
I just did exactly what I had accused Naruko of doing, forgetting something so obvious that I bordered on ridiculous. At that moment, I wanted to learn Doton just so I could sink into the Earth, I was that mortified.
Naruko saved me once again as I failed to continue the chain of sentences, but that was also down to Hinata sending me an uncharacteristic glare that was more than a little off-putting.
"Quick thing; fire will ignite, water makes it wet, earth will make it crumble, lightning… crinkles? And wind cuts." The normally hyperactive Jinchuriki explained at a rather fast pace, but it got the message across.
All of them decided to just do it then and there, not going in a proper and steady order like I was wanting.
It's chaotic. I thought internally, feeling my face twitch at the unforeseen adjustment to what I had envisioned was going to happen, and it originated from a certain orange clad blonde.
Chill out, you don't even want to help, remember? Naruko and chaos work fine, so just roll with it.
The line of thinking lasted for at most a second, so I didn't miss anything when I forced my mind back to the present and I saw all the different reactions the papers made to the chakra of the half dozen ducklings I was trying to teach to fly.
Kiba had earth. Ino, water. Choji, earth. Shikamaru, fire. Sakura, earth.
"Looks like Ino is the odd one… out." Naruko purposefully delayed the last word, her already expressive blue eyes practically glittering with a faint maliciousness targeted towards the other blonde of the group.
I don't even want to know. I kept my thoughts to myself as Ino huffed under her breath angrily. Whatever catfight or whatever the hell was brewing wasn't something I wanted involved in, so I elected to move on from what my eyes were telling me.
"That complicates things a bit, but not impossible to work with." I said, drawing a hopeful look from the Yamanaka. "Everybody else seems to have earth and fire, which is very good. Shinobi with a fire affinity have no issue learning earth and vice versa. But water is a little tricky, because it's a polar opposite to fire as well as being weak to earth."
None of the latter half of my explanation helped calm down Ino in the slightest. The girl had progressively grown paler, with her eyes shining with emotion.
"Then how am I supposed to do anything?!" She exclaimed, looking almost ready to cry.
"I managed to help Naruko," I said quickly, acting hastily to not have an uncomfortable situation happen in front of other kids, "And our affinities are opposite; wind and lightning. So I can probably think of something." The sudden jerking of her head to look back up at the accidental promise to help her made me cringe internally…
I'm a dumbass.
I also neglected to point out that I just gave Naruko notes on Futon and gave her tips on Katon exercises personally, but Ino didn't need to know that.
Still feeling the urge to recoil away, I moved on like nothing had happened.
"Fire is the most common affinity in Hi no Kuni, so fire will be the easiest to get in-depth information on honing. But the most important thing to do is chakra control."
I then went on a lengthy explanation that chakra control was vital for young Shinobi, no matter how boring it was. Control meant bolstering your muscles and physical stamina with greater ease, it meant stitching wounds together, it meant illusions could settle upon a target's mind with a featherlight touch, and it meant that even the lower tiered bracket when it came to reserve size could contend with, if not match, the elites.
My brother, vicious and stupid bastard that he was, exemplified that like no other. Had I not been antsy about ever bringing him up, even to Naruko I had to force myself to, I would have used him as an example of what a comparatively 'weak' heavy hitter could accomplish.
"So, yeah, that's about it. Those annoying and boring leaf sticking exercises will eventually work up to walking on vertical surfaces." I took a few steps to my left and walked up the tree, then up the branch until I was hanging by my feet and looking at them all upside down. "And the third tier that graduated genin training under a Jonin sensei do is water walking."
I didn't elaborate that I'd been able to do it for a year without issue.
"Most of those scary, legendary S-ranks that Konoha has produced required good chakra control, and they used the same training techniques the academy teaches us now. Iruka-sensei may sound dull at times, but the Sandaime, chosen student of Senju Hashirama, selected him as our teacher and approved of the curriculum for a reason."
I may hate the old man myself personally, but I didn't have any qualms about using his good name for my own gain in backing up what I was trying to get across to the kids that were currently hanging on to every word I was saying.
"Jiraiya-sama has naturally immense reserves, Orochimaru is a genius, but Tsunade-sama used her chakra control to become the greatest medic of her generation and be capable of breaking down buildings with a single punch. All of that comes from her chakra control, so doing the boring stuff prepares you for the cool stuff later."
That was… about it. There wasn't anything else to say, Naruko could explain anything else.
"I need to eat now." I used that excuse so I could stop being looked at, the attention now suddenly being strainful on my personal comfort.
I basically zoned everything out when they all started talking amongst themselves, with Naruko now being the center of questioning about advice.
The rest of that day passed as usual. I did more Kenjutsu training with Yugao after I left the academy, and I kept at it on breaking objects with my fingers enhanced by the chakra strengthening technique… That, and I took the blonde hellion to Ichiraku's to massacre the ramen.
/(SCENE BREAK)
"I said I want to access the papers in storage." I said clearly, fighting the urge to start swearing at the bitch currently assisting me.
I was at the Shinobi village equivalent to a bank and I was trying to open up one of the half dozen vaults that Sarutobi had rented with my permission to store all the belongings that were now mine, and this stupid assistant manager wasn't letting me go in because of 'procedure' or whatever line of bullshit she was trying to feed me.
Ten minutes of arguing, and nothing was changing.
"I'm sorry, Uchiha-san, but it would be against policy for me too-"
"Do I look like I care about your damned policy?!" I demanded, not caring that I was causing a scene as a few genin and chunin who were depositing or picking up money stared at us. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke, and I want to open up a scroll with papers and journals, specifically a Bingo book."
"I got one." A fresh faced chunin just a couple yards away offered, reaching into his pocket.
Not. Helpful.
"I need an older one, specifically at least ten years old or more." I said flatly, not looking away from the woman old enough to be my mother. I would have been polite to the chunin who offered, but my blood was running hot right now and I was focusing on not trying to punch a hole through the marble counter and make my way to the back of the building to get my stuff on my own.
"Oh, okay." The chunin said quietly, going back to whatever he had been doing before.
The teller was unamused by my icy glare, and she spoke again.
"I will repeat myself, Uchiha-san, you can't just request a same-day withdrawal from storage. Resealing large quantities of objects takes time."
My teeth were clenched so tightly I could almost feel my jaw pop. I didn't care that it would inconvenience them, I'd be willing to throw the hellacious amount of money I have at it to make it worth their time.
"I will literally request a D-rank mission for multiple genin teams to clean up the remaining stuff in whatever seal is popped open so your staff won't have to. I need a bingo book today."
"Then you should have said something in advance." She replied simply, before gesturing for me to leave. "Now if you don't mind, other customers are waiting."
The hatred I felt in that moment was indescribable. I could feel my chakra reacting to my fury at denial, and it was like molten lead simmering through my tenketsu.
How dare she not let me have access to my stuff!
So caught up in how pissed I was, I slipped into English as I leaned and got on my toes to more easily look up at her through the chakra conductive enhanced glass.
"Bitch."
Without saying another word, I stormed out of the building. My hand shoved forward as I reached the door and I pushed the door wide to get the hell out of there. I then instantly made a beeline to an alleyway 40 or 50 yards ahead and to my left, my Sharingan active as I tried to scan for anybody following me.
It didn't look like anybody was following me. There was nobody but civilians randomly walking about, so I kept going.
The back alleyway I reached turned out to be where a restaurant threw out its garbage, judging by the large dumpster by the back door that led out of the building. Other than the moss growing on the old and weathered brick on the buildings, there wasn't anything in particular that stood out.
I glared at pretty much everything in sight, my breath unsteady as I tried to calm down from how angry I was. Too many people were in the streets by my own standards, because they were preparing for the ten year anniversary of the Kyuubi attack.
After I got to my temporary destination and was satisfied enough that nobody could see, I turned to the dumpster that was in front of me and I slammed my hand into it, clenching my fingers down as hard as I could. The sheet steel groaned and bent under my hand's impact, but nothing more.
The nerves from the tips of my fingers and all the way up into my neck tingled and burned from the sharpened influx of chakra fueling the supernatural strength of my bones and tissue, and my own caustic anger at that fucking bank!
As I prepared to drive my fist through it, my Sharingan taking in every little imperfection and detail of the oversized pile of shit metal bucket, an errant but unwavering thought flashed through my mind.
I still need a damned picture.
The task I had set for myself still wasn't complete, not even remotely. Beating a dumpster like it stole my last 20 wouldn't change that, so I was basically acting like nothing more than a chimp beating against the glass at a zoo.
Slowly coming back into my own thoughts, I pried my fingers off of the dumpster, wincing at the sound of each and every joint in my fingers popping.
Time was of the essence. I could sate my anger on something or someone else later, but now required a more important mission.
I took off running to my house, rapidly trying to come up with a new plan.
/(SCENE BREAK)
I stood rooted to one particular spot in my hallway, not making any sound as I was lost in my thoughts on what to do while I looked straight at the dreaded door that led directly to my parents room.
Most of today was a complete bust. I ended up raging at my inability to find a picture and had ended up burning off my mercurial temper by going to the edge of the woods and proceeded to beat a tree to death for three hours until it had been reduced to pulp; the only reason my hands weren't in the same state was that I could insulate my joints and fingers better than I could actually harden my strikes, so all I had was superficial cuts on my hands that I promptly healed after murdering the poor, innocent tree.
The fact that my emotions were burning this hot made no sense to me, and it actually frightened me a bit as to the source of it. Not even Itachi caused me to violently lash out at something to tear apart.
It was Naruko's tenth birthday tomorrow, and I was unable to get her what I knew she would desperately want. A picture of her father was out of the question, but Uzumaki Kushina was definitely an easy one to get…
Or at least I thought it would be.
Fuck the bank teller. I wasn't going to admit to being wrong over something I was perfectly well within my right to claim aggrieved status over. I offered to do the sifting myself, and I was basically told to scram.
Bitch.
The anger at least felt better than dread, so I kept thinking of the bitch's face as I summoned up the emotional fortitude to push the door open and walk in, confident that I'd manage just fine.
Literally the first thing that hit my senses was the faint scent of my mom's perfume that had me reeling mentally like I took a hammer blow to the head.
'Tachi, why!'
"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…" I practically chanted to myself on repeat as I tried to fight off the encroaching memories of that night, the wet, metallic scrape of steel against bone and the death rattle of the last exhale; sounds burned into my head by the Tsukuyomi.
Fighting the urge to vomit up my supper of spiced meat and vegetables, I rushed towards the closet, feeling a pair of crimson eyes on me that were fixed within a pale and merciless face throughout the entire ordeal. I tore through the items on the floor, tossing aside old baby clothes of mine and broken toys kept for nostalgia, until I mercifully got the box I was looking for.
Godhelpmegodhelpmegodhelpme. I could feel his gaze boring a hole into my head as I shut my eyes and took off running out of the room with the box of pictures in tow.
By dumb luck, I didn't trip and fall with my eyes shut and I escaped into the hallway. My momentum caused me to ram my shoulder into the wall, but I didn't care as I focused on remaining standing as my legs were shaking horribly. My hand lashed out at the door and I managed to slam it shut, my eyes barely opened to see the handle. Once the door clicked shut, I came to a decision within a second or two and let my shaking legs give out. And I unceremoniously dropped to the floor, trying to calm my breathing.
"Son. Of. A. Bitch." Each word was enunciated by an inhale and exhale of breath, but I was still trembling from head to toe. A repeat of the phrase slowly pulled me out of the near death spiral, and I was able to stand on my own after a few minutes.
It would have been better if I had done it earlier and grabbed the box before I absolutely needed it. This was a complete and total nightmare, and the worst part hadn't even been gone through yet.
I was never going to do this again. I'll do this for Naruko because she deserved part of her past returned to her, even if it was a remnant of it. But never for anybody else, she was special and unique compared to this cursed hellscape of a world.
Even if I was pretty sure the scent of perfume had to have been when she knocked something over when she stayed over two nights ago, and that's what caused my bad reaction.
Taking a deep breath, I stooped down and picked up the box of photos before I made my way to the kitchen table.
Pulling the lid off, I took a shuddering breath and steeled myself for what would undoubtedly have me crying like I hadn't in a long time.
/(SCENE BREAK)
"Sasuke," Naruko pulled her friend by the hand forcefully, almost dragging him along towards the shop she was wanting to go to for her birthday, "Come on, hurry up!"
Sasuke pulled back on his arm, a faint pop coming from his wrist. Naruko instantly let go and it almost caused the quiet Uchiha to fall backwards, but he caught himself before he fell.
Naruko cringed at the scowl that appeared on his face, the colour contrast between his eyes, hair, and the paleness of his face being made all the more unsettling by the flash of blazing anger that smoldered under the surface.
Or maybe it was a trick of her vision, because Sasuke groaned in a way that meant he was only mildly inconvenienced or annoyed.
That was one of three distinct grunts or groans she could translate in place of an exclamation or shout. One for an affirmative or acknowledgement, another for faint amusement, and the one for annoyance.
"When are you going to remember what I said about how much stronger you are because your chakra is strengthening your body?" He asked rhetorically, hissing as he rotated his wrist clockwise and wiggled his fingers.
"Um, oops?" Naruko blushed, unable to provide an explanation. It wasn't like she meant to. It was still weird to her that her chakra and her fitness had made her very strong compared to Sasuke, and the adjustment to that wasn't going well.
What if she accidentally broke something, or some one?!
"Whatever, where are we going?" He waved off any lingering annoyance and looked at her expectantly after asking the question.
Naruko came out of her stupor at her friend casually dismissing what she had been worrying about, much to her relief.
"Um, music shop!" She managed to exclaim, rubbing the back of her neck with one hand while she held Sasuke's with her other, more gently this time.
She noticed a tick mark appear at Sasuke's temple, a smile threatening to break across her face at successfully messing with him by calling it a 'music shop' instead of its actual name. The store sold music instruments and was owned by an older guy, but not quite as old as Jiji, named Nakamura.
And she wanted an instrument to play after she heard Gai talk about a few when she was recovering from a gloriously exhausting run across the village. They sounded fun.
At least that was what she'd tell Sasuke. She'd heard Gai mention, almost absentmindedly, that music had helped him through loss, and it had given her an idea on to help her best friend with some of those times where they'd be walking to Ichiraku's and he'd freeze while looking at siblings hugging or laughing about something, or parents with their kids.
Sasuke was completely silent as she led him through the streets of Konoha and she ignored the looks she was receiving, some confused at the sight of her grinning happily with Uchiha Sasuke in tow.
They reached the store in record time and Sasuke was finally set free of her grip, a look of suspicion on his face as he looked at the entrance to the building and the slightly out of shape the sign was in from weathering.
"Has this fallen on tough times?" He mused aloud, his gaze still sweeping across the front of the establishment.
"Nooo." Naruko rolled her eyes, "You just don't like their style, 'ttebayo."
She'd asked that almost exact same question to the owner. Thinking about it, she probably sounded rude and that was why he got annoyed with her, not because of whatever reason the villagers hated her.
Sasuke looked skeptical, but he just shrugged his shoulders instead of saying anything contrary.
"Then let's go in, I guess."
Yes! She thought triumphantly, walking as quickly as she could without looking impatient and got to the door, pushing it open with the unmistakable chiming of a bell as she did.
/(END CHAPTER)
Some more fluffy goodness as Sasuke, whether intentionally or not, is trying to make this the most memorable birthday Naruko has ever had. Time will tell if he succeeds in this accidental endeavor or not.
So I hope you all enjoy. Peace!
Raging.
Estado de energía semanal
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