Eternal Yujin
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TCoH—Chapter 3.14 [37]
🕑 Added 2024-08-26 05:30:12 +0000 UTC- - -
Chapter 3.14 [37]
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As the forestry blurred past, I kept alert, counting the hurtling heads of my companions around me as we left the village walls behind. The cuts along the back of my hand and some of my right forearm gave slight twinges underneath their bandages, less so with each pulse. The only reason I hadn’t gone to the hospital was because they’d already begun healing by the time I finished showering.
“Remind me, why you didn’t take the offered break?” Asuma asked, effortlessly keeping pace with us.
Behind me, the two Akimichi clan members lagged behind us a little, lugging massive scrolls slung across their shoulders. Hinata led the charge up front, her head on a swivel, with Choji alongside her for company.
I shrugged, throwing my arms out, and the crook of my elbow whacked into a thin cluster of branches, sending stinging pinpricks to my fingertips. Despite what a monumentally stupid decision it was to exaggerate my shrug while in motion, the sensation made me smile. The injuries alone proved that I was going somewhere with this—Kakashi had warned me about destabilisation.
If anything, it was my fault for growing excited at the sight of a little success and thinking myself the exception to the rule and that it didn’t implode sooner was a miracle… or a sign that I was headed in the right direction.
“I can’t let up now,” I replied, running a hand through the blonde fringe over my forehead. “Not after Tenka Village.”
Predictably, Asuma fell silent after that and I looked ahead at my two closest friends. After the Tenka Village mission, being subjected to Zabuza’s killing intent, I’d gained a taste of my future and realised that it wasn’t my jutsu or my chakra enhancement that saved me from Zabuza.
Realising all my training… that every bit of effort I’d put into honing my skills amounted to nothing in the end was a hell of a thing. Neither of my teammates had been subjected to his killing intent directly, but they felt it nonetheless. I remembered the restlessness on their faces when they turned up at my doorstep, dragging a half-asleep Asuma behind them, and demanding we go on a mission despite having returned from a re-adjusted A-rank a week prior.
No one in the world could sit still after something like that… but then I looked over at Asuma, who still looked ready to doze off, feeling the need to amend the thought.
“Another two entered my range!” Hinata’s voice rang loud and clear ahead of us. “Seventy-five metres straight ahead!”
I relayed the information to the two Akimichi doggedly pursuing us, catching the grins on their tattooed faces before I turned around. The anticipation stopped after the second encounter but was replaced with a constant giddiness, helped in no small part by the pair of round but muscled men.
“Here it comes,” Hinata warned, suddenly breaking off with Choji following her.
I landed, crouched atop a branch, noting Asuma to my left and the Akimichi to my right. Then, I saw it between the cover of another tree a little further ahead. Snout in the air, turning this way and that, in search of us, most likely, and goddamn was it huge. But it wasn’t a massive departure from the six we’d hunted in the last hour. This bear wasn’t as muscular as the first one we fought and was nowhere as aggressive as the third one.
To be fair, all the bears we’d been contracted to help hunt were far bigger and more aggressive than normal, so that wasn’t saying much.
Ryota Akimichi laid a large, weighty hand on my shoulder, a mane of spiky black hair racing down his shoulders. “Go on, Naruto, let’s see you use that jutsu—the massive one.”
“That massive one?” I mumbled, furrowing my brow in thought as his twin brother Yuudai looked on in encouragement. “You mean Great Breakthrough?”
The two men nodded.
“I’ve never seen one that strong before,” Yuudai whispered. “It shouldn’t be that strong, should it, Jonin Sarutobi?”
Asuma snorted. “Nope.”
Seeing that he wouldn’t explain further, I dodged the awkwardness by jumping right into things. The bear spotted me immediately, baring its fangs, and I watched its pupils dilate right before it launched forward, swiping a massive paw at my descending body. Finishing my hand seals just in time, I launched to safety using Great Breakthrough.
But instead of spewing out immediately, I circled the wind chakra inside my lungs, building up its momentum before launching it forward. The bear took the wave of air decently, managing to bury its claws into the air—and that worked until it lost its grip—and crashed onto its back.
Who would’ve thought that wind would benefit the most from rotational momentum?
Before I could say a word, Choji dropped from the treetops, enlarged stone fists clasped above his head. He brought his arms down on the fallen bear with a bone-crunching impact, the ground trembling beneath the force. The bear let out a pained roar, but it was clear that it was weakening.
The bear struggled to rise, its feral growls muffled by the ringing in my ears. Blood dripped from its mouth and head, and its once-fierce eyes were now glazed with pain. I knew Choji’s attack had done significant damage, but the bear wasn’t out of the fight yet.
I landed on the ground, my feet digging into the earth as I steadied myself. Dust and debris clouded the air, and I coughed as I waved my hand in front of my face to clear my vision. There was no time to waste. The bear was down, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long so we had to finish this before it mustered up enough energy to get up.
Even now I could see it trying to push itself up, brown eyes burning with animalistic fury that seemed to promise that it wouldn’t stop until one of us was dead.
“Choji, don’t let up!” I yelled, my voice raspy because of the dust. “It’s still alive!”
Choji didn’t need to be told twice. He raised his massive fists again with a face filled with grim determination. Then, with all his strength, he brought them crashing down on the bear’s skull—once, twice, and then again until it slumped over, flat against the ground. Its body convulsed, limbs twitching as if to resist the inevitable, but Choji wasn’t done.
He lifted his fists again and brought them down with even more force, over and over, each blow driving the bear deeper into the ground. The bear’s roars faded into wet gurgles, but still, it tried to rise, bloodthirsty eyes settling on me with a deep, gnawing hunger.
“Just… stay… down!” Choji grunted as he delivered the final blows.
After what felt like an eternity, the bear finally stopped moving. Its body lay limp and lifeless, the once terrifying creature now nothing more than a heap of flesh and fur. Choji staggered back, panting heavily, his fists stained with blood.
I approached cautiously, my heart still racing. I didn’t take my eyes off the bear until I was sure it was truly dead. There was no sign of movement, no rise and fall of its chest. It was over.
“You did it,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
Choji nodded, wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “Yeah… but… that was… harder than it should’ve been,” he replied, still catching his breath.
I couldn’t disagree but neither could I place my finger on what exactly was wrong. Ryota and Yuudai joined us moments later, slinging the scrolls off their shoulders before their feet touched the ground. The two of us stepped back, letting the two men get to work, and joined Asuma and Hinata instead.
“Is it me,” Hinata began, inspecting the fallen bear with her Byakugan active, “or are they getting… stronger?”
“I don’t think stronger’s the right word,” I replied, frowning. “This bear wasn’t bigger than some of the ones from earlier but they’re all… strange.”
Asuma pulled the cigarette out of his mouth to reply. “The mission request did say that these bears were killing too many things, didn’t it? Are you really surprised when those bears then turn out to be strange?”
“I guess that’s true,” said Choji, nodding along. “Besides, we’re making sure they don’t suffer needlessly, right?”
I caught the look he gave me, remembering the talk we’d had lying on that hardwood floor back in Tenka Village and returned his nod.
“Look at our young master growing up on us!”
Ryota and Yuudai joined us, scrolls fastened over their backs, wearing matching grins. They were twins who strived to be the opposite in every regard. Where Ryota wore his hair in a long black mane, Yuudai’s was a short, shocking white, with a few bangs barely touching his eyebrows, and their face tattoos followed a similar colour scheme.
Yuudai slung an arm around Choji’s shoulder. “I think it’s about time he gets his bear pelt, eh, bro?”
“Hmm…” Ryota looked at me and then moved his gaze back to Choji. “He has been doing the most amount of work.”
“Hey,” came Hinata’s indignant voice. “Without me, you’d all be lost!”
Asuma cackled. “She’s got you there. Maybe she deserves a pelt instead.”
Sharing a glance, the twins flashed their black and brown pelt vests, rotating on the spot.
“What do you think, young lady?” asked Yuudai, spreading his arms wide to show her his brown pelt. “It’s quite warm and stylish, no?”
Ryota nodded along. “Unfortunately, polar bears are only native to the northern countries, and we refuse to wear the pelts of animals we haven’t killed and skinned ourselves.”
Hinata gestured to the scrolls at their backs. “...What about the last seven bears you stored?”
“We’re not wearing the pelts,” Yuuda said with a grin. “You guys are—can we interest you in a pelt vest, Naruto? Call it thanks for moving so expeditiously, yeah?”
I looked up. “Me? Uh… I’m good with Asuma’s old flak jacket.”
Ryota leaned in, inspecting what felt like every inch of the jacket. “This old thing? It looks like it’s been through a war.”
“Probably because it has,” said Asuma, finishing the last of his cigarette before crushing it underfoot. “That’s my war-issued flak jacket that he’s got on.”
“Would you be interested in a pelt vest, Jonin Sarutobi?”
I chuckled in the face of their shamelessness and then started to laugh when Asuma seriously began to consider the idea. “Hey, how about we finish this mission before you congratulate us on a job well done.”
The brothers stepped back, hands raised in surrender. Yuudai went into his pocket notebook, his expression uncharacteristically serious. “This next one’s probably the most dangerous of the bunch, and I don’t say this lightly.”
Ryota pulled his lips into a thin, hard line. “We call him Onikuma. I’d tell you more, but I don’t think anything we can say will sell it to you before you lay your eyes on the bastard.”
“You guys gave him a name, huh?” Asuma noted with some interest.
“You’d give him one too after what we saw,” said Yuudai. “We were refilling our canteens when we saw a bear fishing downstream. See, that’s scary enough. We didn’t become shinobi, but we know our clan’s hijutsu. We were heading off when this huge as shit bear comes crashing in, knocking down trees, and rushes at the other bear. They fight for a while, but it was clear Onikuma was just stronger.”
“Any reason why this Onikuma was so aggressive?” Hinata asked.
Ryota took over. “We’ve got no clue, but it’s been happening to more and more. The bears are getting too aggressive, even for animal standards, which is pretty bad when this training ground is meant to simulate the wild.”
“So that’s why you’re asking us to cut down their numbers,” I realised, clutching my chin. “If we get rid of the bloodthirsty ones, the prey will have a chance to beef back up for a bit.”
Asuma shrugged. “Where’s this Onikuma at, anyway?”
“Last we saw of him was about here,” said Yuudai, pointing out a red circle on a drawn-out map. “We’re guessing that he’s made his den around here, but we might be slightly off.”
“Define slightly.”
Ryota smiled. “Bears typically hunt several miles out from their dens, so slightly is a lot.”
“Luckily, you have someone who can help,” said Hinata, returning the older Akimichi’s smile.
Yuudai cheered. “If we can take out Onikuma, you’ll all get pelt vests free of charge!”
Shaking my head, we decided on a course before Hinata took point once more. We fell into a familiar silence, the Akimichi twins bringing up the rear, Choji running beside Hinata, and me and Asuma sandwiched between them, leaving the cratered, blood-spattered clearing far behind.
What the hell could make that many bears so aggressive? There wasn’t any shortage of food, and every bear we’d come across looked hale and healthy as far as that went. If anything, they were a bit too big. As Ryota said, maybe it was some freak accident. The ambient levels of chakra in the training grounds were higher than the rest of the village, after all.
However, that only made me wonder how certain animals even gained the ability to talk and wield chakra in the first place. Maybe these bears were on the path to becoming like the sage creatures or something. What if we were disturbing something we didn’t fully understand?
My thoughts swirled as we moved deeper into the forest, the trees growing denser, their shadows lengthening as the afternoon sun dipped lower. The air felt thicker here, heavy with the scent of pine and earth. There was an oppressive stillness as if the forest itself was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.
“Onikuma shouldn’t be too far now,” Hinata murmured, her Byakugan scanning the area ahead. “I’m picking up some larger chakra signatures, but they’re scattered. Could be other animals.”
“Or more bears,” I added, my voice low. The thought of facing Onikuma alongside other monstrous bears didn’t exactly thrill me, but I wasn’t about to back down.
The nagging feeling in the back of my mind wouldn’t go away. Something about this whole situation felt off like we were missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. But what?
We pressed on, the silence around us growing more pronounced with every step. Even the usual sounds of the forest—birds chirping, leaves rustling in the breeze—it was all muted as if the world was holding its breath in anticipation of what lay ahead. The ground beneath our feet was soft, and damp from recent rain, and our footsteps were barely audible thanks to Wind-Release: Frequency Disruption.
Finally, Hinata came to a halt, raising a hand to signal us to stop. She scanned the area again, her eyes narrowing as she focused on something in the distance.
“There’s a cave up ahead,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “It’s large, and there’s a strong chakra presence inside. It could be Onikuma.”
“Looks like this is it,” Asuma said, his tone businesslike.
I nodded, catching the gaze of my two teammates. “Hinata, keep an eye out for any surprises. Choji, you’re with me on the front line. And you two,” I added, looking at the Akimichi twins, “stay safe.”
The twins nodded, their usual playful demeanour replaced with a seriousness that matched the gravity of the situation. They understood, as well as the rest of us, that this wasn’t just another hunt. We approached the cave cautiously, our senses on high alert.
The entrance was wide, almost unnaturally so, with jagged rocks framing the dark mouth of the cave. The air that wafted out was cool and damp, carrying with it the unmistakable scent of wet fur and earth. It was a scent that promised danger, that a powerful creature dwelled within.
I swallowed, surprised at the lack of nervousness in my stomach—all I could feel was the constant, swirling warmth of my chakra. After the twins had hyped up Onikuma, I was under no misgiving that we were about to face something far more dangerous than any of the bears we’d encountered before.
No mere bear could match up to Zabuza’s killing intent.
I caught a flash of Hinata’s smile as we descended. Choji positioned himself at the ready, muscles tensed. I took a deep breath, feeling the familiar surge of chakra as I flexed my fingers and if Onikuma was anything like the other bears, it knew we were here. The silence was almost unbearable, broken only by the soft rustle of leaves and the distant call of a bird.
Then, from deep within the cave, a low, rumbling growl reverberated through the air, The sound was primal, filled with raw, untamed power as the infamous bear emerged, all hulking muscle and sheer fury. Easily the biggest bear we’d fought all day and with the faded scales trailing its forehead, the sight was truly something incredible.
The gust of wind that erupted from my mouth was more controlled than before, focused into a concentrated blast aimed directly at Onikuma’s face using chakra-coated hands. The bear staggered, but only for a moment. His eyes narrowed in rage as he shook off the attack and lunged toward me.
Choji was there in an instant, his massive stone fists swinging down to intercept Onikuma’s charge. The bear twisted mid-air, avoiding the full brunt of the attack, but Choji’s blow still connected with its side, sending it crashing into the ground. Onikuma roared in fury, the sound reverberating through the clearing, and in a split second, he was back on his feet, barreling toward Choji with renewed aggression.
My friend braced himself, chakra flaring around him as he prepared to meet the charge head-on.
“Choji, keep him busy!” I shouted, already forming the seals for another jutsu.
Choji roared in acknowledgement, his enlarged fist slamming into Onikuma’s shoulder just as the bear lunged at him. The impact staggered the bear, but Onikuma recovered quickly, his claws flashing as he swiped at Choji’s midsection. Choji twisted to avoid the worst of the blow, but Onikuma’s claws raked across his chest, drawing blood.
I was there in an instant, slamming a kick into the bear’s exposed side, feeling the solid muscle through the sole of my foot. It crashed back, beady eyes snapping onto me, drooling. Choji seized the momentary distraction, slamming a massive stone fist into Onikuma’s face. Slipping out of the bear’s sight, I watched Choji pull back, the stone gauntlets spattered with blood.
He went for another punch, Onikuma’s maw snapping dangerously close to Choji’s face. With a flick of my wrist, I launched a kunai at the bear with a burst of chakra, hitting it right in the eye. Roaring, Onikuma reared back, its remaining eye finding me in an instant before he charged. Launching myself into the air, I blitzed through hand seals and spat out a gust wide enough to flatten the bear against the ground.
Choji was on its back in an instant, slamming blow after blow into Onikuma, and struggled to rise, but his movements were sluggish, his strength waning. Blood dripped from multiple wounds, staining the earth beneath him. As I fell, I circled my chakra to my feet, drawing my right leg up high and lining myself with the fallen bear’s head.
“Choji, clear!” I yelled.
He launched himself off the bear in an instant and before Onikuma could rise, the heel of my boot came crashing down on its skull with all the enhanced force I could muster. The impact was like a small explosion, cutting off the bear’s roars. Bone gave way under the blow and I rolled off its back to the side, kunai poised and ready to follow up on the attack.
When Onikuma didn’t move, I slowly straightened.
“I think we’ve done it,” said Choji, his haori bright red and bloody. “That bear was massive.”
I poked his chest, pulling back when he hissed. “Those aren’t deep, but we’ll swing by the hospital anyway.”
“Yep,” said Ryota, walking towards us with his brother while Hinata and Asuma walked behind them. “That’ll scar.”
Yuudai grinned. “A badass scar.”
“Just get him sealed up,” I said with a sigh, nodding at Asuma. “Are we done?”
Hinata eyed Choji with concern, pulling him aside with her medical kit in hand and the twins returned after sealing Onikuma, exhausted by the ordeal but grinning nonetheless.
Once we finished up, we moved to a clearing and got to work helping the Akimichi men with skinning and butchering the bears. After another few hours of arduous work, we sat around a campfire, eating thin cuts of roasted bear meat on skewers with the afternoon sun slowly curving towards the horizon.
“Amazing work, Team 10,” said Yuudait raising a bottle of alcohol to us. “It was a real joy seeing you guys in action.”
Hinata smiled with a respectful bow of her head. “It was our pleasure.”
I caught her gaze halfway through lifting a bottle to my mouth, freezing at the disapproval in her eyes. “What? It’s not illegal. And don’t tell me it’s improper after you,” I said, pointing at her and then Choji, “smoked a cigarette after Tenka Village.”
“But that was in Tenka Village,” she shot back, turning her heated gaze onto Asuma. “For the record, I still hate them.”
Our sensei nodded with obvious amusement. “You made that clear.”
I took a sip of the alcohol, tilting my head in acknowledgement. “...It’s not bad.”
Choji peered at me with mild curiosity, but it was Ryota who caught him staring, a devious smile spreading across his face. “Yuudai, our young master wants to try some alcohol!”
“W-What? “I-I didn’t say that!” Choji sat up, wide-eyed. They shoved a bottle into his hands and he eyed it cautiously, looking at me and Hinata for help.
“Don’t let them tease you into it,” I said, snorting. “If you want to drink, then drink.”
He set the bottle at his feet. “M-Maybe later.”
Hinata snatched it up immediately, passing it to Asuma who knocked it back without hesitation.
Swallowing, I clicked my tongue. “Ryota, Yuudai, do me a solid and take a walk for a little bit. I need to talk to my team about shinobi stuff.”
The brothers blinked in surprise but rose without a word, walking off into the forest. I stared at Hinata and she nodded, deactivating her Byakugan once they were out of range.
“What do you have to say that required sending off those two?” asked Asuma, pulling out a smoke.
“I found out who my parents were last weekend.”
Choji and Hinata gasped, Asuma stopped lighting his cigarette, and I felt a deep hollowness in my chest for some reason.
“...And?” asked Choji.
“Let me start by saying no one can know—no one. It’s on the level of my furry little problem,” I said, making sure to hold eye contact with my two friends. “Just one more secret you guys have to keep, alright? It felt wrong not to share it with you three, at the very least. I’d tell Ayame and Teuchi too but…”
“They’re civilians,” said Hinata with a complicated look.
Choji nodded. “We get it.”
I sat there in silence for a little while.
“The anticipation is killing me, kid,” said Asuma, exhaling thick smoke.
I managed a smile. “Well, here it goes: Lord Third told me that my father was the Fourth Hokage and my mother was Mito Uzumaki’s adopted daughter.”
Seeing Choji and Hinata’s reactions hit me harder than I expected.
Their shock was palpable—Hinata's, usually so composed, just gaped at me like I’d grown a second head and Choji’s eyes were wide with disbelief. I couldn’t tell if the quickened thudding in my chest was excitement, dread, or something in between, but it was hard to keep my voice steady.
This was one less secret hidden from people I valued and boy was it a weight off my shoulders.
Asuma took a long drag on his cigarette, exhaling slowly as he processed the news. He didn’t say anything for a moment, just stared at the campfire, the flickering flames reflecting in his eyes. “I knew your mother was an Uzumaki woman, but Lady Kushina?” he said, exhaling. “I’ve got to commend my old man. That was the misdirection of the century, especially since so few of them made it to the Leaf after the Hidden Whirlpool was razed to the ground.”
Choji was the first to break the silence. “The Fourth Hokage? Your father?” His voice was hushed, almost reverent, but there was a tremor there too. I could see the gears turning in his head behind those eyes, trying to reconcile the legendary figure with the regular guy sitting across from him.
“Yeah,” I confirmed, trying to sound casual, but my voice wavered. “The Fourth and Lady Kushina Uzumaki from the textbooks. It was all kept secret because of…you know.”
Hinata’s hand reached for her mouth, her eyes shimmering with a mix of emotions. “That means…you’ve been alone all this time, not knowing?”
I nodded, the weight of that lie pressing down on me again, and the hollowness in my chest expanding. “...Not knowing anything.”
Asuma’s voice was unusually soft when he spoke again. “I can see why they kept it hidden, but…” He trailed off, then sighed, crushing his cigarette into the dirt. “You’re carrying a heavy burden, kid. It’s no wonder you’ve had a rough time.”
“I guess,” I mumbled, looking away. I clenched my fists, the remnants of chakra still thrumming under my skin. “The thing that killed them… was sealed into me. Apparently by my father. I guess they were sort of strapped for options or something…”
The three of them sort of just sat there, slow horror dawning on their faces and I looked away. The fire crackled, and for a moment, I felt an overwhelming urge to just toss everything into those flames and watch it burn away. But I couldn’t. Not with them looking at me like that.
And so the awkward silence reigned.
Hinata nodded, her gaze firming up as she hugged me. “We’ll be here for you. Whatever happens.”
Choji joined in, patting my back in silent support, which was when Asuma stood up, laying his hand on my head.
“Listen, I’m going to go talk to those two knuckleheads and make sure they don’t get suspicious. But, kid…” He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “Don’t let this eat you up. Use it. Your parents…they were strong, but they also had people who believed in them that they leaned on like my old man. Let us be that for you, alright?”
I nodded, not trusting myself to say anything.
With that, he walked off into the trees, leaving the three of us by the fire. Choji stared into the flames, Hinata beside him, and I felt something then. We didn’t need to say it out loud, but I could feel it, and so could they.
The silence after that was more comfortable than ever, even if the Akimichi twins disturbed it less than a minute in. We departed at the western entrance with the promise that the brothers would deliver each of us our own bear pelt vest in a few weeks and the four of us returned to the missions office to report our success.
Well, we were until I realised we were close to the sectioned-off Uchiha Compound. They let me go easily enough and I wondered if our conversation earlier had to do anything with it before shaking my head. I couldn’t expect them not to treat me differently so soon after a massive reveal like that.
The usual chatter of the village felt distant, muffled. I could still feel the weight of our earlier conversation, the shock and curiosity in Choji and Hinata’s eyes lingering like an afterimage. They’d be talking about it, for sure, but I couldn’t dwell on that now.
The road ahead was quieter as I approached the Uchiha Compound. The once-bustling district now stood like a forgotten relic, taped and posted with signs warning trespassers. Its grand gates were closed to the public and the air was thick with a stillness that only deepened as I passed a barrier meant to keep others out.
Eerie silence pressed in on me from all sides. The buildings, once home to one of the Leaf’s most powerful clans, were in various states of decay. Some stood tall, defiant against time, but they all looked abandoned. The emptiness in a place as big as this was oppressive and I could see the old Military Police base and its Uchiha sigil despite the Military Police transferring out of the compound years ago.
I made my way down the main street, my footsteps echoing off the stone path beneath me. The Uchiha crest, faded but still visible on the walls and gates, seemed to watch me as I passed. It was strange, being here alone, surrounded by the remnants of a clan that had once been so prominent in the village. Even stranger was the fact that I was here to see the last living member of that clan, someone I had called a friend, though we hadn’t spoken much since… well, since everything.
I stopped in front of a large, imposing house near the compound’s centre. It looked no different from the others, but I knew this was where Sasuke would be. The place had a certain aura, a feeling that I couldn’t quite place, but it made my skin prickle. I took a deep breath, steeling myself before stepping forward.
The door creaked as I pushed it open, the sound loud in the quiet, and I slipped inside. The air was cooler in here, the dim light filtering through dusty windows, casting long shadows across the floor. I could feel the weight of the past here, too—an almost tangible presence that seemed to wrap around me as I walked further into the house.
“Sasuke?” I called out, my voice low but clear, cutting through the silence. There was no immediate answer, but I knew he was there.
He had to be.
I continued forward, my senses on high alert Finally, I reached a large room at the back of the house. The sliding door was slightly ajar, and I could see the faint outline of someone sitting in the centre of the room, back straight, posture rigid. Even from here, I could feel the intensity of his presence.
I pushed the door open a little more and stepped inside. “Sasuke… it’s me.”
He didn’t move, didn’t even acknowledge me at first. It was like he was carved from stone, so still and silent. I waited, letting the quiet stretch out between us, knowing better than to push him too quickly.
Finally, he spoke, his voice low and cold, cutting through the gloom like a blade. “What do you want?”
My eyes adjusted to the darkness and I saw his fingers, blistered and raw, peeking between bandages and Sasuke himself looked like he’d seen better days. His pale skin was sallow and deep bags circled his eyes.
“I heard you were back,” I began, tucking my hands into the pockets of my flak jacket, “so… I thought I’d pay you a visit.”
“What do you want?” he repeated with those blank eyes of his boring into me.
I didn’t know what he saw on that mission, but Sasuke looked like a dead man walking. And yet, deep down, I knew the only way to get him to open was to fight him. Even in the dark, he looked so tightly wound that it made me tense.
His voice was sharp, and I stopped for a moment, knowing I was probably the last person he wanted to see but I wasn’t about to back down.
“I wanted to see how you’re doing,” I said, taking a few steps closer. “You’ve been cooped up here since you got back. People are starting to talk, you know.”
“Let them talk,” he replied, his tone dismissive but still sharp. “It’s none of their business and it’s none of yours.”
“Maybe,” I conceded, shrugging. “But you can’t keep shutting everyone out forever.”
He finally looked at me then, his eyes narrowing. “Why do you care?”
I hesitated, feeling the weight of that question. Why did I care? Because he was a tentative rival? Because he was someone whose help I could use? Because I felt bad for him? No, personal feelings wouldn’t work here.
Not when he was like this.
“Because you’re not the only one who’s gone through stuff,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “I know what it feels like to not be enough… but you don’t have to face things alone.”
His eyes flashed—was it anger? It was hard to tell, but I could see the way his body tensed, hands balled into tight fists.
“I don’t need your pity,” he said, voice low, and I could hear danger there.
“This isn’t pity,” I shot back evenly. “It’s a reality check. You’re not a child anymore—you’re a shinobi—and you’re not invincible… so stop acting like you are. Keep pushing yourself like this and there’ll be more than blisters and ripped skin to deal with.”
He stood up so suddenly that I stepped back, and then he was in my face, eyes alight with a burning fury. “Is that a challenge?”
I stepped back, meeting his gaze. “And if it is?”
Without another word, he swung at me, and I barely had time to react, ducking under his fist. I could feel the wind of his punch just grazing the top of my head, and I countered with a quick jab to his side. He dodged, of course, his reflexes as sharp as ever, but I could tell he wasn’t holding back.
We circled each other, the room feeling smaller with every step we took. He came at me again, this time faster, more precise. I blocked his strike with my forearm, the force of it reverberating through my bones. I retaliated with a quick series of blows, my fists moving faster than usual thanks to the brief burst of chakra out of my feet.
He noticed. His eyes flicked to my hands, then back to my face, and I saw the briefest flicker of surprise before he masked it. I wasn’t going to give him time to analyse it and pressed the attack, forcing him to move, to react. I was faster now, stronger, and I could tell it was throwing him off.
Sasuke’s lips twisted into a snarl as he stepped up his speed, but I kept up and exceeded his, my enhanced strength making every strike count. He dodged, deflected, and countered with precision, but I could see him faltering, just a little.
I wasn’t fighting to win and neither was he. His frustrations bled into all his strikes, slowing him down, but it only served to feed that fire even more.
Maybe if I overwhelmed him to the point that he gave in, he’d be ready to talk. And so I kicked things up a notch further. For every punch that he threw, I returned with three more. I split his guard open with swift uppercuts and smothered his half-formed swings with limb traps that I used to hit him even more.
Then, his eyes changed, the black of his pupils bleeding into the crimson of the Sharingan. Two tomoe swirled in each eye, locking onto me with a deadly focus. I stopped my next punch just inches from his face, his left hand half-raised to catch the blow. Sasuke’s chest was heaving, his eyes still locked on mine, and for a moment, neither of us moved.
The tension in the room was thick, the air uncomfortably heavy.
I sat down opposite him and caught my breath. “...The Sharingan, huh?”
He touched his face, dojutsu still active, almost in disbelief.
“When did you awaken it?”
“...On our mission to the Land of Waves,” he said, the red of his eyes slowly fading to dull black. Sasuke swallowed, staring at his feet. “You know about him…. Itachi Uchiha.”
I grimaced. “He killed your clan and left you as the sole survivor, right?”
He shook his head. “He was there, in the Land of Waves, to kill the person we were meant to guard.”
“...Just him?” I asked, chilling unease slithering down my spine.
“No,” he replied, equally as grim. “He’s allied himself with some kind of terrorist organisation called the Akatsuki. There was another missing ninja with him. Kisame Hoshigaki, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.”
“What happened?” I asked. “It was you, Sakura, Shino, and Kakashi-sensei against two exceptionally powerful shinobi, right?”
A dark look flashed across his face and I wondered if I’d overstepped. “Kakashi fought Kisame Hoshigaki. My brothe—Itachi Uchiha put the rest of us under genjutsu. He knocked Shino and Sakura out and then made it look like he’d snapped their necks.”
I pursed my lips. “...That explains the Sharingan.”
“When I awakened it, I finally thought that I’d be able to put up a fight against him but…” Sasuke trailed off, fists clenched tight once again. “Nothing changed. He was still so much stronger than me.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” I warned, already seeing his hackles rise, “but how did you guys survive?”
I almost regretted asking the question.
Sasuke exhaled loudly, not responding for a long moment. “Honestly? It was Kakashi. I was fighting Itachi Uchiha with everything I had, but then he stopped fighting me to stare off into the distance. I slugged him as hard as I could and he got up and left.”
“Left where?”
“I followed after him and that’s when I saw Kakashi on the ground and Kisame Hoshigaki staring at the bottom half of his own arm,” Sasuke replied with his voice returning to the bland, emotionless tone it held before. “Itachi Uchiha ordered a retreat. For a moment, I thought they were going to kill us. Do you know what he said?”
“What?” I replied.
He gritted his teeth. “That I still wasn’t worth killing. After that, he knocked me out and when I came to, Shino and Sakura were setting up a campsite and making sure Kakashi didn’t die—we had to feed him a soldier pill just so he didn’t keel over.”
I blinked. “...That certainly answers my question.”
Sasuke looked at me and I could see him close up in real-time. “You got what you came for. Now, get out.”
“...Are you really going to leave things like this?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
Any answer I gave would set him off, the question was what would set him off the least? Right now, Sasuke wanted revenge, plain and simple, so what if I offered to help?
Surely that’d work, right?
I stood up with a lazy shrug. “I won’t give you the usual speech about how revenge is all-consuming because I believe there’s nothing wrong with desiring vengeance for the things we’ve lost.”
“What would you know about loss?” Sasuke scoffed.
“Careful there,” I replied, glaring. “I told you earlier, you’re not the only person in the world who’s suffered. Whichever madman let the Nine-Tails loose killed my parents and, one day, I’ll kill him too. See this?” I pulled out the photo of Sasuke’s mother and mine along with the note. “This is one picture of hundreds from my mother’s photobook.”
His mouth fell open and I saw a deep longing in his eyes that felt like looking into a mirror. For a moment, I was assailed by unimaginable self-loathing towards myself, but in the end, this was for his benefit as well. He read over the note countless times and then moved his gaze onto the picture of his mother.
“...Thank you,” he murmured, “for bringing me this.”
I smiled. “Our mothers were friends. I’ve got a few more photographs of your mother. There’s even a couple of your father that someone managed to sneak in there. I’ve got suspicions that it was one of them.”
“Really?” Sasuke whispered.
“I’ll get them copied and send them over soon,” I said and placed a hand on his shoulder. “All I have of my mother and my father are pictures. Pictures and diary entries of all the things they never got to do. Of the parents they never got to be. So, if what I feel isn’t loss, then what is it, Sasuke? You tell me.”
“What’s your point?” Sasuke asked, his voice lower—and unless I was hearing things, gentler. “Stop beating around the bush.”
I took a deep breath to steady myself. “...Maybe having someone to help you out with your revenge would be neat.”
“Help?” He was in my face now… and boy was he angry. “Who says I need your help, huh? It’s none of your damn business, Naruto!”
I stepped back, raising my hands at the impressive frown on his face. “Alright, I hear you. My point is that you can get further with four hands than you can with two. So, here’s my offer: until we get revenge, we can be training partners.”
He was guarded, but curious. “...Go on.”
“We’ve got our own teams, so I doubt we’ll have much time, but I think that’s good. It means we can develop away from each other and find each others’ weaknesses whenever we do spar.” I put my hands back in my pockets. Sasuke was growing more relaxed with each word. “Besides, with teachers as work-averse as ours, we might learn more from each other than them.”
“In that case, I don’t mind sparring every once in a while.” Sasuke snorted. “Until our revenge comes to pass, we’ll be training partners.”
He said it like it was a promise, the seriousness in his eyes so intense that it circled back to being comical, but I returned his nod.
“Talking about teachers, go check in on Kakashi-sensei, will you? My team visited him the other day and he’s been complaining about a certain ungrateful student. Shino and Sakura are pretty worried about you too.”
Sasuke blinked, actually looking away at that.
I slowly walked away. After a conversation like that, he probably needed some time alone to parse it all—I know I would.
But then a thought occurred to me.
“Would you like the photos laminated?” I asked.
He flinched, both at how loud my voice was, but he also seemed to forget that I was there at all. “W-What?”
“The photographs,” I repeated, quieter this time. “Do you want them laminated or not? I recommend you get them laminated. Stops them from yellowing and stuff.”
“...That’d be nice,” he replied, walking me out of the building.
He started to bow when we made it outside but I stopped him, sticking out my hand instead.
“If we’re going to be training partners, we’ll shake hands instead,” I said, clasping his hand in mind and pumping it once.
He looked confused but didn’t press me on it, so I turned to walk away. In the end, a handshake was a relatively small thing and meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but it made the exchange feel less one-sided and me a little better about myself.
As I approached the gates, I found myself thinking about the future—about the possibilities that lay ahead for all of us. The road was still long, and the obstacles would be plenty, but I wasn’t alone. And neither was Sasuke, whether he realised it or not.
The sky above was streaked with orange and pink, the sun dipping low on the horizon, casting a warm glow over the village. I glanced back one last time at the Uchiha Compound, from the outside, now. The shadows cast by the gates grew longer in the fading sunlight, but they didn’t seem as dark as before.
With a small, almost imperceptible smile tugging at the corners of my lips, I turned away and walked toward the village, feeling lighter with every step. The past would always be there, but the future was ours to shape. And for the first time in a long while, that thought didn’t feel so daunting.
It felt… strangely hopeful.
- - -
Comments
Eternal Yujin
Thanks for the Patreon sub, man. I'm glad you enjoyed the story enough to do it. I'm guessing you finally understand the angle of my frustrations regarding Spacebattles. 90% of the stuff people are losing their minds over has already been done on my end. And yes, Fuu will participate in the Leaf Village Chunin Exams since she's from an allied village. As far as I'm concerned, it's a missed opportunity since she's from the Hidden Waterfall and is similar in age to the Sand Siblings and Haku, both being around 15 years old. As for Team 8, they've got the ample opportunity for growth, especially with what's coming.
Xardas2995
Just caught up with the patreon chapters. All really nice and boy were they surprising with Zabuza not being in Wave. I kinda feel like so much happend in the last nine chapters compared to where we were at before. Naruto learned about his parents, is given access to his parents house. Maybe even more on techniques than just what Kakashi gave him. But I would enjoy it if Naruto would read Icha Icha. Team 8 not going on any missions makes sense. I just feel sorry for Kiba. Your description of the combat is also really well done. I cannot help but look forward to the next chapter.
Dopplerdee
...huh, it makes sense that rotational force and building up speed would help most Wind Jutsu. Probs water and some earth too.
