Capítulo 22: 3rd Year
The beginning of the third year commenced for those in the Rookie 12. At this point, the civilian students around them were slowly dropping out, moving to courses not involving ninja teachings. It was harsh, but the talent and courage of those not born in Clans were bound to be lesser than theirs. After all, Clan kids grew up with the idea of being a ninja all their life and had an inherently better potential due to their bloodline. As for civilian kids, they had to rely on their characteristics to succeed, not their background, which was undoubtedly challenging.
As the class enjoyed the atmosphere of being united again, only two events quieted down the students. The first was when Sasuke Uchiha walked into the classroom. At this point, no one was friends with Sasuke anymore. He was essentially isolated from the class, except for his fangirls, screaming from the background. No one held a real relationship with him anymore, though. His reputation was unprecedented, as everyone knew the "boy who lived", the last surviving member of the Uchiha Clan.
So when he entered, everyone hushed and gazed at him. The girls admired his looks and strength, and the boys were envious of his attention or uninterested in his actions. Sasuke remained apathetic and calmly approached his seat to sit down.
After his entrance, the students quickly regained their previous excitement and recommenced their conversations. The class would soon quiet down again as another classmate entered the room, this time quieting down for a different reason.
As Aizen Sosuke entered the room, shock and disturbance all remained from the previous jovial atmosphere. Even Sasuke widened his previously closed eyes upon seeing the boy.
A tall boy with long black hair and golden brown eyes entered the class. His clothes were packed with muscles, and his figure was long and full of strength. His steps were unhurried, gaze showing calm laziness and a dangerous gleam. If his appearance only consisted of this, the class wouldn't display such an exaggerated reaction.
No, the reaction was caused by something else. Scars covered his arms and legs. There were scars of multiple shapes and sizes, but most of them looked like they came from a tooth or a slash. Some students exclaimed out of shock, and some were disturbed by the sight of the boy. The fact that he was so young, yet contained traces of maturity and cruelty, was a stark contrast.
...
(Aizen POV)
I woke up as usual. My life had fallen into a routine, consisting mostly of training and the occasional hanging out. After beginning my training in the forty-fourth training ground, I hardly had time to hang out with the group, since I had to train and then go home to recover right after. The last time I saw them was about a month ago.
It saddened me, but the rapid progress in my strength also made me reluctant to slow down my training. Before beginning this suicidal method, I could only hope to be at a special Genin level. Genin in some aspects, but not in all.
After these three months of training in the Forest of Death, I am confident that my previous self is not my opponent. The number of life-and-death situations I have had are in the tens. Tigers, bears, plants, insects, leeches, and snakes. All these animals evolved due to chakra, and they all had the strength of a Genin or more. Thankfully, their intelligence remained largely the same, and so, with some strategic traps, I got out of most situations safely.
For those few, however, that I didn't make it out safely, I could only put my skills to the test and dance on the tip of a blade. Under the constant threat of death, my skills and instincts evolved even further.
My Kenjutsu, which is the skill with a weapon, drastically improved since I got my tanto. Even though I wasn't taught, I had the greatest teacher there is, experience. The more I fought, the more I corrected my technique based on what did and didn't work. Sometimes as I slashed my sword, the results would be disappointing, to say the least. Barely penetrating the hide of an animal, or at times not even doing that. And other times, the circumstances would line up perfectly, as I would injure the animal in one strike. The more I figured out my errors, the better my skills became.
My combat ability and instincts improved just as much. Constantly being on guard, looking around to make certain I wouldn't get caught in a venomous snake's ambush or a poisonous insect's, enhanced my senses greatly.
My flow of battle was better as well. In the beginning, every move of mine needed to be thought out and executed perfectly, lest I messed up and developed an entirely new method of attack. Now, I mostly let my body do the work. Attacks would flow like water, and the thought I needed to put into my moves diminished. Of course, I still had to plan out the fight, mindlessly fighting wasn't a smart move. But I also didn't have to waste my focus on thinking either.
Integrating jutsu into my fighting style was another big change. As I danced around the blade of death, I had to make use of all that was at my disposal. Jutsus were one of them. Now, substitutions and camouflage jutsus were utilized often by me. Of course, the camouflage jutsu didn't work as well against animals, yet becoming invisible could never hurt me.
I won a lot of battles through the elements of surprise.
All of this didn't come without a price though. As I got up and looked in the mirror, a body full of scars greeted me. It was concentrated mostly on my back and front, the trunk of my body, but there were some on my arms and legs too. The scars on my legs mostly came from snakes and insects, ambushing from the ground.
The others mostly came from battle, a slash to the chest or a bite of the arm. I wasn't regretful of my decision to train the Forest of Death though. I took pride in my scars. It was proof of my hard work.
My rate of healing, though, kept climbing. At first, my greater healing rate was barely noticeable. It was better than average, but not too monstrous. Now, my injuries would heal faster and faster. A small scar that would have taken me 3 days to heal, now only takes me a couple of hours.
The more chakra I got, the faster my healing rate got. I noticed this attribution after finally becoming a sensory-type ninja. I knew this was mostly normal, the more chakra you had the greater your body's capabilities were. But my healing in particular was growing too fast.
Speaking of chakra, after months of training my body and mind, my chakra levels grew once again. If before, I was a high Genin in chakra levels, then now I can be considered a low Chunin. My mind grew sturdier under the test of death, and my body grew stronger with training under constant stress. All this served to increase my chakra reserves.
Another attribute of mine that increased with my chakra, was my sensory technique. Sensing would occur by turning your chakra into sensory chakra, which a person sends out as a type of sonar. Whatever my chakra hit, would reflect and create an image in my mind.
That means the more chakra I had to send out, the better my sensory ability was. Of course, my training still had an impact. It would allow me to create a clearer image, control where I sent my chakra, and made better use of the chakra I had. It was a sort of control, while chakra would, once again, determine the maximum output.
I could now sense more than one hundred meters. It was much better than my initial expectations, which would only have me in the hundred meters after the academy ended. It was because my chakra grew, as well as both my yin and yang energies. My yin grew because I was constantly training my mind, and my yang because I kept up with training.
I was way ahead of my peers in the class, which speaking of, I would see today. I knew my appearance would cause a ruckus, considering that I had so many new scars. Most would wonder what I was doing to gain them.
At this point, I wasn't naive enough to believe I wasn't being monitored. A kid, friends with multiple Clan heirs, as well as the village's Jinchuriki, not to mention being of orphan status... I was practically begging Danzo to kidnap me. At the very least, I knew that I had made it onto his watch list. The fact that I trained in the Forest of Death was probably exposed as well, along with my strength. I wasn't too worried, though. I could place my hope in the Third Hokage, thinking he would refuse to hand me over to Danzo. But I also had more measures in place, which was the number of important people around me.
Though I couldn't say I had a strong relationship with the Clan heads, I at least had an association with them by being the Clan heirs' friend. If Danzo wanted to take me and force me into the Root program, he would have to do so under the watchful eye of all the Clans. I wasn't a no-name anymore, I had connections and prominence in the village, or at least it's future.
If I were to disappear suddenly, someone would notice. And that someone would be a person of great stature in the village, potentially even a Clan head. I wasn't worthy enough to Danzo that he would risk exposing his entire Root operation. At least, not yet. My potential was limited since I wasn't someone from a bloodline.
At least, that's what everyone thought. I had doubts about that matter, however. High chakra level, a strong body, and an incredible healing rate, I was starting to suspect this body's origins. There aren't many Clans that had these, and I could only think of two. The Uzumaki Clan, and the Senju Clan. Both of which were effectively wiped out.
I couldn't imagine how I could be a part of those Clans, since not only can the survivors of both Clans be counted on one hand, but my parents were only Genin. If either of them were part of those Clans... why were they so weak?
Of course, not every clan member had to be strong. Even among the Uchiha, there weren't many out of everyone who could unlock the Sharingan. The Sharingan was a symbol of status, after all, and it only made it that if it was rare and exclusive. So even if my parents weren't strong, it didn't mean they didn't have a bloodline.
But for it to actively appear, the bloodline passed had to be pure and powerful. Something my parents didn't seem to exhibit.
Something didn't add up. I had to wait until I was stronger. Only then could I research my body more.
I couldn't get too hung up on all these matters though. I had school to attend right now.
After doing a light workout and stretching, I ate breakfast and got ready for school. I went to knock on Naruto's door, but after a while, it was apparent that he wasn't home. I wasn't sure, but he was probably out pranking some people. Even though I tried veering him toward having more self-confidence and not needing to prank people all the time, old habits die hard.
I left for school, taking the more scenic route with the trees. They were beautiful. With the gleam of the rising sun in between them, and the morning cries of the animals and insects, the entire atmosphere was primal and tranquil. Seeing all this, made me feel as if the stress I had been accumulating all washed away at once. Of course, this didn't happen, but a relaxing stroll did help me relieve some of my stress.
I eventually made it to school, apparently missing the Hokage's speech this year. That was alright with me, listening to that speech every year was not something I would want to go through.
"Mommy, why does he look like that?"
"He looks scary"
"What happened to him?"
"I wonder if he gets abused?"
Walking through the crowd, I could hear all sorts of remarks about my appearance. I didn't think having scars was unique in the Shinobi world, but apparently, it was. I haven't seen many with visible scars, and the ones I remember from the show are Ibuki, the Chunin proctor, and Kakashi.
I wonder why it was so.
I eventually made my way to my class, and I could hear the bustling noise from the outside. Here we go! Another year of mostly boring lectures with the occasional ninja courses in between. Though, Iruka-sensei has mentioned that this year the ninja courses will take over the civilian courses. I couldn't say I wasn't excited about that.
The moment I opened the door and stepped in, that previously vibrant atmosphere died down. I saw all my classmates staring at me, even Shikamaru and them. I haven't seen them in a while, and as I usually dressed in covering clothes, they never examined my scars. I decided there wasn't much merit in hiding my scars anymore though since someone would likely spot them throughout the school year.
I walked to my seat, which was still next to Sasuke's. Speaking of whom was staring right at me. He still had that intense vibe, but it didn't affect me much. I have been in much more frightening situations than this.
"Good morning, Sasuke. It is nice to see you again."
"Nn. (morning)"
Oh? The trademarked Uchiha grunt, eh? I couldn't believe I'd get to hear it. I smiled at him and sat down. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Choji all came down from their seats and questioned me.
"Aizen! What happened to you?"
"Yeah! Why do you have so many scars?"
Shikamaru didn't say anything, but he fished for an answer the same.
I smiled at them, and after drawing it out for a while, I replied with
"Training"
Naruto comically fell out of his seat, while Shikamaru and Choji just had disbelieving expressions.
"Training! Don't lie to us, you turd! Believe it! I'll get the answer out of you!"
"This is troublesome, but you do have to give us a better explanation than that."
Right after that, the door opened again as Iruka-sensei entered the room. Naruto and Choji quickly hustled to their seats while Shikamaru gave me one last look and lazily went back to his spot.
"Good morning, class!"
"Good morning, sensei!!"
The entire class echoed back. Now that I see him again, Iruka-sensei had a scar too. Right across his face too. I couldn't believe I didn't think about him after a year of seeing him.
"I would like to introduce someone who will be helping us in the class, Mizuki-sensei!"
Entering is a man with bluish-white hair and green eyes. He had a Chunin flak on and a smile on his face. Knowing his true colors, however, that smile seemed much more fake to me.
"Hello, everyone! My name is Mizuki-sensei. I'll help you guys from now on with Iruka-sensei. Please ask me for help whenever!"
He looked at Naruto for a second and quickly reverted his gaze to the class.
After making his introductions, Iruka-sensei suddenly clapped his hands and said,
"All right, before we begin class, I have something to give out."
As he said that, he started walking around with a piece of paper and a pencil.
"This year, everyone can choose an extra class to attend along with their regular classes. This class won't replace any of your classes, but you will have to stay after school to attend the class. I am now passing out a paper with all the available classes. You may choose one this year and two next year. However, all the girls are required to complete a kunoichi class. You can take that this year or the next year. All right, I'll give you all a couple of minutes to fill out the class you want, and after that, I'll collect it."
He handed out a paper with a list of options on it. Kenjutsu, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, tracking, scavenging, cooking, etc... There were a lot of options to choose from, but I knew what I would take the moment Iruka-sensei mentioned this. I circled the Genjutsu option and put my pencil down.
Everything else, I could learn on my own. But I had no idea where to start on Genjutsu. How would one make illusions and such? If I were to figure this out on my own, I would need countless trials and errors, but who would I even test? I needed an instructor who would teach me the complicated subject of Genjutsu.
After a few more minutes, Iruka-sensei and Mizuki started collecting the papers. Looking at Sasuke's paper, it seemed like he chose Genjutsu too. It seems like we would be classmates there as well.
After he finished collecting, Iruka-sensei announced to the class
"All right, you can all start attending your classes tomorrow after we add them to your schedules. If you have any concerns, you can ask the teacher for your respective class, or you can ask me. Now, let's begin with class."
The excitement of getting a Genjutsu class faded from my eyes and what replaced it was a dull, dead look. Sigh, here we go again.
"Aizen!"
I awoke from my stupor and looked at Iruka-sensei in confusion.
"Who was the first Hokage?"
"The first Hokage was Hashirama Senju, who founded the village system and united the two major Clans, the Senju and Uchiha, along with Madara Uchiha. He served as Hokage for five years before perishing, in which case his brother, Tobirama Senju, became the second Hokage."
Iruka-sensei himself was dazed for a second, before awakening and saying
"Yes. Good job Aizen, but I still need you to pay attention in class."
I nodded at him and we continued with our lessons. After hours of torture, Iruka-sensei concluded the lecture and stated
"All right, now it's time for shuriken training!"
We scurried like rats to the training grounds, and Iruka-sensei and Mizuki handed out some shuriken for us to use. Per usual, Sasuke scored a perfect score, and I was a close second. This time, however, Sasuke used an even more difficult technique. Instead of three shurikens, he had four shurikens laid out in his hands rather than three. As for me, even if I scored a perfect score as well, Sasuke was still ahead of me in terms of shuriken throwing technique.
My other classmates had improvements as well, most of them improving a few shurikens more than their previous times. The only one that failed to get even one, however, was Naruto. This honestly didn't make sense. Last year, not only was he not the worst, but he was even improving at a rapid pace. And now, all of a sudden, he has dropped to not even making a single one? Something was fishy. I'd have to investigate this more throughout the school year.
"Dattebayo! I want to do this again! Something's wrong, there has to be! I want to try again!"
"NARUTO! You only get one chance at the beginning! You can practice more later!"
Naruto grumbled off to the side, whispering about how unfair it was. Assessments ended and practice started. Naruto was still doing terribly, the most he scored was a three out of ten. I approached Naruto, and, just as I was about to ask him to let me look at his shuriken, was reprimanded by Mizuki for stepping out of my position and going to a classmate. He sent me back to my place and said he'd see what was wrong with Naruto.
Suspicious. On the first day that Mizuki is here, Naruto suddenly becomes worse at shuriken throwing. When I attempted to check the shuriken, Mizuki swiftly stopped me, saying I shouldn't move out of my position. Looking around, however, others were doing so as they pleased. I knew from the anime that Mizuki wasn't a good person, being a lackey of Orochimaru's, but I wasn't aware he messed with Naruto in the academy.
I had wanted to get a shuriken to use as evidence, but when lessons ended, Mizuki quickly approached Naruto to collect all his shuriken. I'm sure Iruka-sensei had suspicions of his own, but I didn't know if he'd act on them either.
Sparring came after that, and the first to be called happened to be Sasuke and me.
We made our way to the white circle and gave the Seal of Confrontation. When Iruka-sensei started the battle, neither of us moved.
I stared at Sasuke, who was doing the same. I didn't want to rush into this, since I didn't know what he was capable of. I knew I was stronger than him, but I also knew that my Ninjutsu was weaker than his.
After a period of stillness, I started the move. Dashing towards him, I jumped and kicked his head. Before hitting him, he ducked and caught my leg. Throwing me to the side, I re-oriented myself mid-air and looked back to see him dashing towards me. I threw some shuriken in his direction while stopping to deflect it with his kunai.
As soon as I landed, I focused my chakra on my leg and dashed forward. It wasn't the Body Flicker Technique, since that was Ninjutsu, but it worked in the same principle. By utilizing the chakra, I could go beyond my regular speed and reach the limits my body could go.
The Body Flicker Technique was more refined and utilized chakra more effectively, while mine could only be said to be a chakra control technique that focused my chakra on part of my body, like Tsunade's technique. Of course, I was nowhere near that level. The moment I used this, however, I instantly reached Sasuke and punched him. Knocking him out of the circle, I effectively won the battle. He landed on his feet with his forearms across his face.
I was surprised, to say the least. Before I hit, Sasuke was able to put up a defense, which was very impressive. I was already going super fast, about the limit the untrained eye can see, but he saw and responded fast enough to put his hands up. I guess even though he doesn't know how to use the Sharingan right now, the fact that it awakened must have enhanced his sight.
Iruka-sensei announced my victory, and I heard Naruto cheering as soon as he did.
"YEAHHH! Good job Aizen! You rock! Ha, see that Sasuke is not that amazing! He's worse than Aizen!"
Sasuke glared at him while walking back to the circle to do the Seal of Reconciliation. Shifting his eyes to me, I saw them containing conflicting emotions. Anger, mostly, with a hint of jealousy. Anger towards himself for being weak, jealousy towards me for being stronger than him. After completing the Seal, we both returned to our respective positions. While he was walking normally, I had a slight limp in my right leg.
Even though I only used the technique once, the fact was I was going beyong my body's physical limit, and such an act carried side effects with it. The limp would be gone in an hour or two though, since my healing was more powerful than others. When I got back to my place, Naruto came over and started hyping me up.
The next spar was between Naruto and Kiba, where Kiba was quick to demolish him.
The spars continued, and it was all very predictable. People in Rookie 12 would win against anyone else, and if they fought each other the results largely stayed the same.
We were dismissed after the spars ended, and I joined Lee, Shikamaru, Choji, and Naruto. After discussing, we decided to head towards Ichiraku's to celebrate the beginning of the third year of our academy.
"What has happened to you, Aizen?"
"Yeah! You're just filled with scars!"
"Omnomnom, yeah Aizen, we're worried about you."
Hearing that, I let a small smile and said
"I'm ok guys. Like I said before, these are just training injuries. My training might be... extreme, but it's effective isn't it."
They fell silent at that remark, but Shikamaru spoke up and said
"Is it worth it? Why are you training so hard when nothing is going on?"
To that statement, I fell silent and started thinking about exactly why I was training so hard. At the beginning of my arrival here, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to be a ninja. Now, I was risking my life just training. What had changed in that time that made me like this?
The journey to Ichiraku's was silent, but our arrival there made the atmosphere lively again.
"Ahhh, I'm so hungry. Give me an extra large miso pork ramen with extra pork Mr. Teuchi!"
"Coming right up, Naruto!"
"Give me the same, please!"
"Same here!"
"One here as well, Mr. Teuchi!"
"All right, five extra-large miso pork ramen with extra pork coming right up!"
After a short period, he came back with five bowls of ramen and we quickly started devouring it. The taste was just as heavenly, in fact, it only seemed to become better. After finishing, about half an hour later since Naruto kept ordering more, we bade farewell to each other and headed home. Shikamaru was, once again, late to his yearly family gathering, and I had no doubt his mother would give him an earful.
That even brought a smile to my face, confusing Naruto who was walking next to me.
"What are you smiling about?"
"Heh, I'm just thinking about how Shikamaru is going to get an earful from his mom."
Naruto visibly deflated at that, and after some hesitation, he posed a question for me.
"How do you feel about... about being an orphan, Aizen?"
I glanced at him but only saw him looking at the clouds above. I didn't know how to respond. I had parents in my past life, and I remember their love well. Though it has been years, I still have fond memories of them. I had moved on rather quickly when I arrived here, simply because they had both died in that world. I was all alone in my past life, and I was all alone in this life as well.
That's why it didn't bother me that I was in an orphan's body.
Naruto, on the other hand, was all he had ever known. Being alone, being hated.
"I don't think about it anymore, Naruto. Since I can't change it, what's the use of thinking about it all the time? I'd rather spend that time making myself better, and making my parents, whoever they may be, proud"
Naruto had tears in his eyes, but he kept staring forward at the sky. At that moment, the setting sun shed light on us once more, before fading beyond the horizon.
After I arrived home, I thought about that conversation for a while. I didn't know how much impact I'd have on Naruto's life, but I could at least see he was opening himself up to me. Whether I'd change the future for the better or worse, I'd have to see for myself. The only thing that mattered, though, was increasing my strength. Then, even if the future was dimmer, I could make up for it.
After eating, I completed my sensory training and meditations. Looking at the moon glowing, I fell asleep unaware of the conflicting thoughts of those around me...
...
In the Nara household,
Shikamaru was lying on his bed. Tonight was special, though. Usually, he would sleep right away, blissful that he can finally sleep without a care. But now, he was thinking about something.
'He trains so hard, but for what? It's explainable if Aizen's goal was to become strong. But why didn't he say that? He paused, and he started thinking about it. There's something deeper to him... Sigh, why do I care? This is too troublesome. I'm going to bed."
....
'Train hard to make my parents proud... I never thought of it like that..."
...
'Why is that bastard stronger than me!? Am I not training enough?? Is my hatred not STRONG enough!??'
...
The night was filled with thoughts revolving around a single person. That person, Aizen, was currently sleeping and dreaming about beating Madara in a fight.
......................
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