บท 9: Chapter 24
Iruka was a fine teacher. The only problem was that between Ebisu and my own memories, his class was excruciatingly boring. The only time I had to pay attention was when he said something about the village, the history of the world, or specific ninja procedure. Otherwise, I would spend the entire morning period planning and thinking.
If I was correct, there was a year until the Uchihas would be wiped out. Six and a half years until Orochimaru. Nine years until Akatsuki started collecting biiju. To be honest, I had no idea whether I should do anything about the Uchiha problem. If I left things alone, Sasuke would be more predictable, the Sharingan would become a rarity, and Itachi would start spying on Akatsuki.
For as much as I hated the Sharingan and the thought of Danzo having ten of them, it didn't sit right with me at all to let Sasuke suffer. I didn't know if it was guilt that I knew what was going to happen or anger at my own helplessness. There was nothing I could possibly say or do to make anyone believe me. After all, I had no explanations or proof. If I ever said anything, it would just raise endless questions that I would never be able to answer. The only thing I could do was to smile and pretend that I knew nothing.
Even if I decided to do something, I had no idea how to stop the Uchiha massacre from happening. I had a prodigious amount of knowledge on the world of Naruto that I rehearsed endlessly into my memory when I was a baby. But knowing that Madara Uchiha's favorite food is inarizushi didn't mean I knew how to beat him. Likewise, as much as the thought of someone losing everything they ever loved bothered me on a profound and personal level, I just didn't know what to do.
I spent the class drawing transmutation circles in my notebook, etching lines and words into paper with a fingertip of chakra. The one I was currently etching into paper was a double walled circle circumscribing a pentagram. Between the two circumferences of the circle, I had written in English, "Cast in the name of God, Ye not guilty."
The five points of the pentagram, along with the two circles for yin and yang, represented the seven main nature transformations of chakra. I figured that the pentagram would act as a container for my chakra, a power source for my 'seal.' The words would represent my will, the intention necessary to direct the effect. I had just chosen the words on a whim this time, however.
Iruka was still talking about the basics of chakra theory. If something went wrong, I figured he could step in to fix the mess and I could just pass it off as the 'foolish experiments of a precocious child.' Ebisu had tried to teach me the basics of fuinjutsu but I still believed in my own theory, that all you really needed to affect reality was a sufficient will and strength of spirit. That made far more sense to me than the cryptic explanations of the books I had read in the Konoha library long ago because it was the one thing that tied all the various theories and concepts together.
I assumed that when I sunk chakra into the pentagram, it would simply circulate within the lines without causing an effect. Just in case I was unknowingly inventing a new form of explosive tag, I used a chakra thread to conduct a trickle of chakra into the center of my design.
I was not prepared for the blinding light that streamed from my notebook. It made no sound. As I shielded my eyes, the only sounds were Iruka's surprised stuttering and chairs scraping against the floor. It was only a couple seconds before the light suddenly ceased, like a light switch had been flipped off. But it was more than enough to get the attention of the entire classroom.
"Haru! Detention!" Iruka yelled in a deafening voice, his head seemingly exaggerated to a monstrous size.
I looked down at my notebook. It was undamaged except for the single page that was missing, as if it had been torn out. I spent the rest of the period unsuccessfully trying to find where the seal had gone.
Naruto was gleefully devouring hotdog octopuses as he asked me, "So what did you do in class earlier?"
I reached for a hotdog octopus with my chopsticks. I figured I was entitled to my own food. "I told you to bring your own lunch, Naruto."
"But you're so good at cooking, Haru!" Naruto said with his mouth full. He clicked his chopsticks together and smiled at me. "Now spill. What were you doing in class? Some new technique? You can tell me, Haru."
I swallowed some rice. "There are some things that should never be trifled with. All dreams must end eventually."
"Huh?" Naruto looked utterly confused, as if I had just tried to explain a new technique to him.
"I'm trying to develop a counter to a certain technique," I offered with a shrug, wolfing down more of my own lunch. Not that I was worried about competing with Naruto. I had prepared a double bento for a reason.
"What technique?" Naruto asked innocently.
"Impure World Reincarnation." I obviously couldn't say that aloud. Instead, I told Naruto, "It's a really evil one. And completely unfair. If I ever figure out the counter, I'll tell you what it is so you can fight it, okay?"
"Thanks, Haru! There was something else I wanted to ask you too. I was traveling with the old man for a while, you know, and he told me..."
Before Naruto could get any further, Kiba ran up to us. "Hey, you two. There's gotta be a gazillion girls looking for Naruto down there. And not fair! You started eating before I got here!"
I lowered my chopsticks. "There is still plenty of time left for lunch, Inuzuka-san." It had taken me a couple tries that morning to get it through Kiba's brain that I was a guy, but he had mostly accepted it.
"I still don't see why we gotta eat so far away from the academy," Naruto complained.
"Trust me. It's better this way." The view from the top of Hokage Monument was really nice. "By the way, Naruto, where are you staying? I'll find you after school if I have time."
"Your 'special lessons?'" Naruto asked.
"No. I got detention earlier, remember?"
"Haha, too bad," Naruto exclaimed sympathetically.
Kiba took that moment to ask, "Haru, what was that light during class?"
"Secret ninja techniques," I stated plainly, not wanting to go into it again. "By the way, Kiba, where is the Inuzuka compound? Naruto, give me your address. That way I can at least look for you guys when I get out of detention. Here's where I live..."
After kunoichi lessons, I stayed behind in the classroom to wait for Iruka. Ino had also been curious what I had been doing during class earlier that day. "Sloppy fuinjutsu," was my answer. Kurenai had seemed amused when I admitted I was staying behind for detention. It hadn't surprised her at all.
After about ten minutes of waiting alone, Iruka walked into the nearly empty classroom. He walked into the student rows and sat in the chair next to mine. I knew in the back of my mind that I was not going to enjoy the following conversation. The situation felt far too familiar, inducing an unsettling déjà vu in addition to the generalized dread of having 'a talk' with your teacher.
"I'll have you know that I don't actually like assigning detention. Do you know why you're here?" he asked in a stern, fatherly voice.
"Because I was disrupting class?" I offered, unsure of what he wanted to hear.
"That's part of it, Haru-kun. How about you tell me what you were doing?"
I exhaled, considering my answer. "I was experimenting with fuinjutsu."
Iruka Umino raised an eyebrow. "I think you should show me."
I pulled my notebook out of my coat. With my finger, I traced a circle on the paper with chakra. Around that circle, I etched another slightly larger circle. On the inside, I placed my fingers around the edge of the circle to estimate where the corners of the pentagram would be, and then connected those points with a scorching pinprick of chakra. And then carefully, I wrote again the words in English, rotating the notebook as I wrote.
And then I slid it over to Iruka, explaining what the lines meant. "The pentagram represents the five nature transformations of chakra. The two circles are yin and yang chakra. The design between the two circles is essentially meaningless. I didn't think it would do anything except store a tiny bit of my chakra, like an unused battery. When I applied some of my chakra, it emitted light, as you saw earlier, and just disappeared." I shrugged. I specifically did not mention that I had been trying to create a customized, flexible basis for an entire new school of fuinjutsu that I only guessed was possible because it was just vague enough to work.
"Did Ebisu teach you how to do this?" Iruka asked. I wasn't aware he knew I had trained with Ebisu-sensei until now.
"He taught me some of the basics of fuinjutsu. But this was just me messing around."
"Ebisu taught you how to write seals with your chakra?"
"Oh, that, no. He didn't. I..." I paused. Where had I learned how to do that? I mean, I knew Jiraiya and Orochimaru had done something like that with the Five Elements Seal. Until Iruka mentioned it, I had never thought about why I never bothered with ink. It was just natural to write with my fingertips. "That part is just habit."
Iruka scratched his head and sighed. He leaned forward and looked me close in the eyes. "Fuinjutsu is extremely dangerous." He whacked me painfully on the skull with his palm. "People who blindly experiment with dangerous techniques always end up hurt, Haru. Even though no one was hurt today, can you imagine what would happen if your 'seal' had exploded? People could have died. You could have died. Haru, I want you to promise me that you will not touch fuinjutsu without a proper sealing master to supervise you."
I quickly stipulated, "Only if you find me a fuinjutsu teacher!"
Iruka laughed dryly. "I might know someone. But you have to promise me first."
"Alright, I promise, Umino-sensei," I said, lifting my hand as if taking an oath.
"Good. Now get out of here," Iruka said. "Oh, and I'll need this." He tore out the page of my notebook with my seal on it. I had an ominous feeling about what he might do with the slip of paper he neatly folded and pocketed into his vest.
When I finally arrived home, there was a kunai embedded in my door, pinning a note with my name at eye level. "I guess Naruto or Kiba must have been here." I plucked the kunai and pocketed it. Once I was inside my door, I read the note.
"A duel? Why would someone challenge me to a duel? Who is this courageous, shining knight whose honor I have besmirched? What?"
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