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[GUtW]—❈—42:: A Creep and A Busybody
🕑 Added 2023-08-04 10:01:31 +0000 UTCTrain. Eat. Sleep.
Train. Eat. Sleep.
Train. Eat. Sleep.
This is my life now.
The days have lost all meaning, blurred together, and time only matters now to keep track of my schedule; when to train, when to eat, when to sleep.
It is a neverending cycle; six hours of training, twenty minutes to eat or use the bathroom if I have to, and two hours of rest.
A normal person wouldn't last three days doing this before they crash hard, not with the intensity of the training Kakashi puts me through, working me so hard everytime that I'm always on the cusp of chakra exhaustion before he lets me stop.
But I am not a normal person; I'm superhuman. I can go harder, faster, and for longer than any non-ninja can, regardless of whatever chemical enhancers they may be on.
Also importantly, I have Kakashi taking measures to ensure my recovery is as smooth and rapid as he can manage. And with the jōnin's astounding breadth of skills and the depth of his knowledge in them, he can manage a lot.
I'd always been aware that medical-ninjutsu is capable of a lot more than treating wounds, but I'd never really considered how it could be used in a situation like this, not just to keep someone from crashing while under long-term stress, but to actually help them thrive.
Help me thrive.
It's in little things: like putting me into a state of deep, uninterrupted sleep so I get more and better rest overall; or in using The Chakra Transfusion Technique on me to significantly boost my chakra recovery; even in healing and massaging my muscles to eliminate fatigue and aid the growth of my physical capabilities.
For over a week now (I think) Kakashi has done nothing but dedicate himself to my personal growth as a ninja, just as I'm sure he's simultaneously doing for both my teammates.
This is the advantage of having a jōnin-sensei, and it is also why it's impractical for more than a handful of genin to have one.
Time is money, after all, and I can only imagine how much money the village has lost having to put a jōnin of Kakashi's calibre on what is essentially babysitting duty.
I stare at my sensei as we seat together on the hard ground of what I've taken to calling the training chamber, silently eating a highly nutritious and easily digestible honey-flavoured ration bar.
While, despite all the jōnin's medical assistance, I still feel and look haggard from all the hard training, Kakashi himself looks the same as ever. Like it's simply another day, and he hasn't been keeping up with me through the ridiculous regimen he set for me and doing extra work besides.
And all of this with only a third of his chakra too. Since he has to have cloned himself to be able to give both Naruto, Sakura and I the one-on-one attention we all need.
I suppose this is what it means to be an S-rank ninja; to be able to put three genin through their paces individually and to come out the other end looking unruffled.
Although, it does make me wonder.
"Is this the real you?" I ask, idly curious.
Kakashi looks at me, then smiles in a way that makes me immediately regret my question.
"Oh? Is my little Sasuke feeling insecure?" the jōnin asks.
I sigh and ignore him, much too exhausted to deal with this shit.
Kakashi chuckles. "It's the real me," he says.
I frown, a little dubious; for some reason, I'd expected him to be a clone.
"I've switched with my clones several times," Kakashi admits. "It's different, seeing things with your real eyes, makes the memories more grounded somehow, so I rotate between the three of you daily."
I see.
"How are they doing?" I ask.
"Keeping pace with your progress," Kakashi says. "Which is extra impressive in Sakura's case since she lacks the chakra to get any use out of the shadow clone jutsu. You really lit a fire in her."
"It isn't that surprising," I say. "With her chakra control learning most techniques is a simple matter of knowing how to go about it; execution will always come easy.
"It's a mirror of the sharingan in a way." In that the sharingan shows you the how of things, leaving the execution of it to you.
Idly, I wonder how amazing a ninja with both bloodlines would be; the sharingan showing them how to perform a jutsu, and the virtually preternatural control of Sakura's bloodline making performing it trivial.
With this idle thought though, comes a memory of a person that I'm unlikely to meet in my life; Sarada Uchiha, the daughter of my and Sakura's counterparts in the story.
Although, wasn't it a whole thing that Sarada was actually not Sakura's daughter, but that Karin person's instead?
I don't really know; Caleb never bothered to watch the sequel.
It does make me wonder though what an actual daughter between Sakura and I might look like.
We both have hereditary bloodline abilities, and in the vast majority of cases, bloodlines don't mix, so the children of such unions usually come out with the dominant gene.
Of course, in a few cases, the bloodlines are catastrophically incompatible, and the children wind up disfigured.
Even rarer is when the bloodlines do match, and something new and better comes out. Like the Aburame clan, which, as I understand, is from a union of two older clans that have since died out.
"What are you thinking about?" Kakashi asks.
"Bloodlines," I answer simply.
Kakashi looks at me oddly, then his eyebrow climbs. "Trying to picture what you and Sakura's babies would look like?"
I'm taken aback. How does he know that?
Kakashi shakes his head in find exasperation. "The last thing you said was how her bloodline is like a mirror of yours, then you start 'thinking about' bloodlines. Doesn't take a genius, Sasuke."
I scowl, a little upset with myself for not seeing that.
"It was just an idle thought," I say, a little defensively, even though it really was just an idle thought. One I'm unlikely to ever have had were it not for the otherworldly knowledge Caleb provides. "Besides," I continue, "it's practically impossible for our bloodlines to be compatible."
Kakashi stares at me.
"They are," he says. "92/74 Haruno/Uchiha."
I blink.
What?
92/74 Haruno/Uchiha means that, if Sakura and I have children, our bloodlines will mix, and Sakura's will come out at ninety-two percent strength with mine at seventy-four.
That's… not bad.
In fact, depending on what abilities of the sharingan are lost it could be amazing. This is… what am I thinking right now?
There's something much more important to worry about.
"You had us tested?" I ask Kakashi, a little bit of rage in my voice and likely to be a lot soon, depending on his answer.
"I didn't have you tested," Kakashi says. "Someone else did; I read the report."
I stare at Kakashi, dots connecting in my head.
I'm the last Uchiha, or at least the last one the village doesn't wish to visit with extreme violence, if I don't… continue my line, it likely ends. The sharingan ends.
"They want to turn me into a breeding bull?" I ask, a cocktail of anger, disgust, amazement, and a plethora of other emotions swirling within me.
"No," Kakashi says, "some people had… ideas; The Hokage shut them down."
"Which people?"
"The head of the R&D department mostly," Kakashi says.
My heart stills, even as a broiling pit of rage simmers in my chest.
"Danzo Shimura," I say coldly.
"You've heard of him," Kakashi says, picking up on my… feelings towards the old ninja.
Thinking fast, I blurt out the first lie I can come up with: "My father talked about him."
Kakashi nods. "Yeah, he's been a thorn in your clan's side for quite a while."
I don't know if the jōnin believes me, or if he can tell I'm lying and is simply humouring me for whatever reason, but right now, I can't really bring myself to care.
"What does Sakura have to do with this?" I ask now. "Why was our compatibility tested?"
"She likes you," Kakashi says simply. "It was noticed. It was also noticed that you never really tried to push her away."
"What? That's only because she was so persistent," I argue.
Kakashi shrugs. "Regardless, someone decided it might be worth it to see if the 'union' would be beneficial."
"Is this someone also called Danzo?" I ask.
"Something like that," Kakashi says.
The nerve of that… I take a deep breath, doing my best to settle myself.
"So, what?" I ask. "The village wants to—"
"The village doesn't want you to do anything, Sasuke," Kakashi cuts in. "Danzo is a creep and a busybody that we all keep tolerating because he is unfortunately very good at what he does.
"But that doesn't mean that he is allowed to interfere in your… affairs. The Hokage doesn't want to risk having the last Uchiha be distrustful if the village."
Well, it might be a bit late for that one.
"Now, we still have four days of training to get through and you need your rest." Kakashi rises. "Come on," he says.
Quietly, I stand and follow, my heart burning with hate at a particular man.
And, for the first time in a long while, it isn't Itachi.
