A/N: All characters and places belong to Kishimoto…. except the ones that don't.
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Chapter 6- Departure
(2 years 5 months later, Arashi's Age-6 years 8 months …. )
-Arashi-
I opened my eyes and woke up, turned off the alarm, got up from the bed and shuffled to the kitchen while stretching my limbs. Picking up a water bottle from the refrigerator, I moved to the balcony. I drank the water as I watched the rising sun.
Only 29 years left…..
It's been almost two and a half years since the huge fuck-up I made when I decided to assimilate Chakra Sensing. Not only was my whole body paralysed during the process but I had to endure being awake the whole 20 hours and had to feel the pain of being jabbed by needles all over my body, continuously, for 20 hours straight. Do you know what it is like to be conscious but not be able to use any of your senses?!
No sight.
No hearing.
No smell.
No taste.
No touch.
Or any of the 20 other senses.
Only pain.
I couldn't describe it even if I wanted to. But it was the most helpless I have ever felt.
Fuck.
It almost made me give up on using my ability.
Almost.
But my thirst for power won in the end and I crushed that thought.
And I had to deal with the Akane after that. She was worried sick. For some reason, she blamed herself. It's not like she was the one who knocked me out. She had calmed down after I told her when I woke up from sleep, I went right back to bed because I was tired. She gave the look that she didn't believe me at all but thankfully didn't further press the matter, but for the next month, I had to sleep in her room so she could 'look after', her words not mine.
Another thing that happened was that my previous actions came to bite me in the ass. Turns out after that day with my 'check-up' with Minato, the surveillance on me increased. Not surprising since I showed abnormal behaviour compared to my usual self. I shouldn't have done that.
Adding to that, it was Minato who came to monthly ninja visitation after that incident in the orphanage, always. I was also forced by Akane to spend time with him for gods knows what reason. Why did he even want to spend time with me? Was he feeling guilty right now? Was this some miss guided effort to build a cordial relation with him after our first meeting so that the village's Jinchuriki can be closer to the Hokage.
…..Now that I think about it, it probably was.
Not that it matters. Our talks usually involved how my days went, how his days went, my problems, his problems, my future plans, his future plans, talks about his family & friends and talks about… well, not my family & friends since I don't have any.
This dude must not be right in the head if he thinks talking about friends and family with a loner orphan is a good idea. But I didn't say anything. I mean, I get free info, why do anything to stop that?
I viewed our get-togethers something like 'civilised meetings' between enemies. That actually made it more tolerable. I even got benefits out of it. He gave me tips for my training and some basic Academy material for early use. Those helped a lot, I mean a lot. He even helped me train a little on our meeting and sometimes we even had spars. Well, more like one-sided beatdown than a spar. Dude didn't even know he was training the one one who one day would probably destroy his life.
Those thoughts always brought me in a good mood and made me giddy inside.
Is that how planning revenge felt like.
So, I could say I enjoyed our time together.
Aside from him, I sometimes got my training and tips from the ANBU guards that were on duty, but only when I asked them directly. I don't know why they did it but they did. Well….. Not every guard had helped me. It was usually Cat and Dog. I know the Dog was Kakashi but I had no idea who Cat was. I thought the Cat was Yūgao Uzuki, but this cat was clearly male. Either she had not joined ANBU rank yet or she doesn't have Cat Mask yet. Guess not all things from fanfiction are right. Or is it the AU bullshit.
Never mind. Moving on, now you might be wondering how I was able to find the hidden ANBU who were watching me.
You might have guessed it but I will tell you anyway. Chakra Sensing, that's how. And as for why I asked them. Well…. I was pretty irritated one day, I think it was about 2 months after my first official meeting with Minato. He had brought me some kunai for practice throwing. I had not been able to land a single shot on my self made a target. Frustrated about this and the fact that I had checked earlier that I was being watched threw me over the edge. I practically went below the tree where the guard was hiding and demanded that either he could help me or leave me the fuck alone as I was not a big fan of people watching me fail. By the time my rant had ended the guard had come to the ground and taught me the correct posture and throwing technique.
By the end of the day, I was at least able to hit the target if not the bulls-eye.
I had tried to do this from then on. Most of the time they just ignore me and go to a different tree to hide but sometimes they helped. Kakashi and Cat helped the most when it was their shift to watch me. Others also did but it was mostly Kakashi and Cat. I didn't complain either as I was getting free training and it wasn't their job to teach me. They were the one doing me a favour.
And pestering them might have made them irritated and that would have lead them to not give me any tips or training at all. Not that I could keep pestering them even if I wanted. There was a slight problem with my Chakra Sensing that kept me from using it in front of other people, but we can talk about that later.
Now, where were we?... Right, Minato! He also told me a bit of personal history about himself, nothing I already didn't know, like his first meeting with Kushina and his Genin team and other things like that but there was ONE thing that left me jaw-dropped.
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(Flashback….)
"Did I tell you that I was also an orphan?"
"Nope, and why would you when everyone already knows that." I said in a sarcastic tone. I mean seriously, this guy is the poster boy for what the future for orphan ninjas is. Every orphan knows that the Fourth Hokage was an orphan.
He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Ah… Well, I suppose that is true."
Then he raised his finger and poked me in the nose. It always irritated me when he did that. Well, he did get my attention back through it.
"But what others don't know is that I also know the identity of my parents."
Now at that, I was intrigued. It was never really mentioned in the show or manga who exactly were Minato's parents.
"Who were they?" I asked in an excited tone. No matter how hard I tried to suppress it, I simply could not.
He never looked at me but I heard his voice clearly.
"….. Iwa Ninjas"
(Flashback Ends….)
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Yeah….. I didn't see that coming. He never elaborated on that afterwards and I never pestered about it. I don't know if he was telling the truth or not but I got the feeling that he told me this to build trust between us. So, I guess he really did tell me the truth. I don't know if he told others about it but I had a feeling only a select few know about this.
Not that it changed anything. I was still his enemy he didn't know about and he was still a guy too blinded by guilt to see through anything else. But he did get a few respect points from me but nothing else.
Other than that I think all suspicions have been lifted from him that I'm being controlled by Nine-Tails or any other forces like that, which might have been raised due to my mental maturity.
I was also able to make out things that are different from canon in the AU through my talks with him.
It seems that 'Hyūga Kidnapping' incident never happened, the treaty between Konoha and Kumō was successful, thereafter Konoha has maintained a pretty good relation with Kumō. At least that is what Minato has told me. Guess they were afraid of the Yellow Flash to do anything like the kidnapping of a major clan heiress.
And Sasuke has a twin sister, Satsuki. It turns out that Uzumaki twins are pretty good friends with the Uchiha twins. Not surprising since Kushina was good friends with Mikoto Uchiha (Mother of Sasuke and Itachi in canon for those who don't know). Even Itachi sometimes comes to the Namikaze-Uzumaki residence.
I guess that means the relations between the Uchiha Clan and the village aren't so bad here if they are willing to send the clan head's children to Hokage's home. Hell, that could probably mean that there would be no Uchiha Massacre, i.e if Madara doesn't eliminate the clan some other way.
Tsunade is in the village and is apparently the Chief Medical Officer with the job of training the next generation of medic-nin. She is also the Head of Hospital. Meaning she is in charge of both medical and civilian affairs.
And the most important tit-bit is that she and Shizune are also pretty close with Namikaze-Uzumaki household.
By the close, I mean Tsunade is the Godmother of Uzumaki twins.
I couldn't help but feel a little jealous of the twins. I know I shouldn't since I got a second chance in life but it would have been way easy if I had a family.
They don't have a God coming after them. And not any God, but Gods that could make Kaguya their bitch. The same Kaguya that I am currently dreaming of, not of defeating her but just touching so that I could get her power.
Fuck, here comes the depressing thoughts again.
Deep Breathes. Deep Breathes.
*Inhale*
*Exhale*
*Inhale*
*Exhale*
Calm down. Less Brooding. More Monologuing.
Okay, where was I?... Right, Tsunade is in the village and is the Godmother of the Uzumaki twins.
Good for her.
I wasn't able to get any other useful info out from him but I think this was all I could get without getting him suspicions.
What were the changes from Canon and other information that I was able to gather during the past 2 years?
My physical conditioning of the body has also been good. I am about 4 feet. There is little baby fat on my face. My body is also pretty fit. No, I don't have a six-pack or anything but it is pretty fit for a 7-year-old.
The leaf-sticking chakra control exercise was successful. I could now stick as many leaves as I wanted to on my skin for as much time as I wanted.
I also completed my tree-walking exercise. How, you ask? Well…. Since the guards were watching me train outside but didn't do much surveillance when I was inside (Chakra Sensing for the win!) I did it by walking on the walls of the room.
But wait, because that's not all. Since I remembered that supplying more than necessary chakra to feet than it needed to stick to the surface causes the surface to explode, this would likely have been the case because I have very large chakra reserves. So at first, I tried to stick to the ground. I called the exercise ground-sticking exercise..… Yeah, I know it's not very creative but what did you expect? I don't have a creative naming sense. The first attempt at this caused the ground to propel me 3 feet off the ground and gave me a sprained ankle but through practice, I was able to master this exercise too.
This made it a lot easier to stick to the walls of the room even though I didn't have the leg strength to walk on the vertical surface but through practising the tree-walking, more specifically wall-walking exercise was also mastered. I could now be on a vertical surface and even on the ceiling as long as I wanted. I just now needed to make it so that I could do it sub-consciously but that would only come with experience. So, I left that to the future me.
Water-Walking exercise was done in the tub that was in the bathroom. I mastered that exercise for still-water. There wasn't a river near-by that I could practice on for running water so I also left that for the future.
After that, I moved on to nature transformation. I didn't actually know my affinity so I just picked up Lightning. This was still work in progress. And let me tell you that it is really hard. I really hope that I can learn the cheat that is the shadow clone, soon. This would all be so easy then.
I didn't try the shape-manipulation cause I neither had the resources to try to learn the freaking Rasengan nor the knowledge of any other shape-manipulation exercise.
And if someone finds out that I knew how to learn Rasengan, getting stronger would become least of my worries when I could be transferred to T&I Department to get my mind ripped open.
Yeah, I would like to avoid that for now.
Aside from that, I had started to train to flow my Chakra through a metal ruler I have. I wanted to be able to that since I remembered Asuma and Sasuke were able to do that with their weapons to increase its cutting power. I wasn't a fan of being near a person who wanted to kill me so learning to use a sword was the best idea to keep the distance since this world doesn't have guns, projectiles like shuriken and kunai can only get you so far and I can't always rely on Ninjutsu. I will need to learn Kenjutsu in the future for that and the Chakra flowing can help me improve the blade's cutting power.
And let me tell you the chakra which I tried to drift through the metal scale wasn't of any nature. It was pure chakra. When I tried to force it through the metal scale, the scale gained a light blue wisp coating. I am not an expert yet so that was reasonable progress for me for now. This skill still needed to be trained further. I don't know if it will be the same when I have transformed the nature of chakra but I can only hope.
As for my physical training, it was going better than Chakra Training Exercise.
At first, I was primarily focused on increasing my endurance, speed and flexibility. I didn't train for strength cause a child's body can't handle the strain the strength training would have inflicted and that would have been not good for the body.
That isn't to say I didn't gain any strength but that was proportional to what my child body should have. Please note that the child is a Jinchuriki so said strength isn't comparable to a normal kid.
I was much stronger than a normal kid.
As for what exercise I did, it was mainly endurance, speed and flexibility exercise that I remembered from the previous life. I think that it was going well enough.
Later when I told Minato about the training that I was doing during our monthly talks, he brought me books and scroll for basic taijutsu stance or kata, different training methods, practice tools for shirukenjutsu (the art of projectile weapons). That helped a lot.
Since then I have only improved. Kakashi told me my taijutsu is decent and coming from him that might as well have been the biggest compliment he has given to any kid.
My shirukenjutsu is also going along well. I can't do those bad-ass techniques that Itachi did in anime yet. But I could throw a bull-eye easily enough. I am still working on high skill techniques in this department and moving targets.
There was no actual method of how to use kunai as a combat knife in the scrolls given to me. There were things about using them as projectiles but not as knives. I think they don't teach that in the academy and it comes with experience. I don't know it for sure but it is a guess. If they do teach it then I don't have the scrolls for it now.
I didn't know about the academic syllabus for the Academy yet so there is no progress there.
I think with all this I should be able to at least match clan-kids. In canon, the kids weren't able to do 1% of things that I can do now but this was AU so who knows what will happen? The universe already has it out for me. I didn't want to be underprepared. Being over-prepared is fine. After all, when it is your life in the line, there is no such thing as overkill.
I need to be Rookie of the Year to get the best instructor. I don't know how they decide it. Is it the score of just the final year or the whole 5 years that we are in the Academy. It is best to be prepared.
Now there is the matter of my special ability. I found out that Yes! It is possible to love and hate the same thing simultaneously, i.e, I both love and hate Biological Imitation, simultaneously.
Do you remember the problem I mentioned earlier about Chakra Sensing? Well, the problem isn't with Chakra Sensing but the effect that it has on me.
Whenever I use Chakra Sensing skill, my hair turns snow white. The sclera (white part) of eyes turns pitch black, the iris (black part) turns blood red, with some blood-red veins also visible as they pulse with some light. I honestly look something like some ghoul cosplayer from Tokyo Ghoul but, you know, with both eyes transformed. And yes, I checked it in front of a mirror after reading the warning.
Why is the Universe making me look so edgy?
I mean, I get it. I want revenge from people who are on higher authority than me and will have a pretty shitty life cause I am a Jinchuriki but I don't want to be some Edgy Shit Lord.
I hate that kind of characters. It's not like I am a hate incarnate or anything. I am still enjoying my life. Yeah, I was very angry during the first couple of days but that has passed.
I will still get revenge and I still hate those bastards but it's not like the sole reason for living is revenge.
My main goal is FREEDOM. Revenge is secondary. If someone offers me freedom for revenge I will take freedom instantly. I want my free life, goddammit!
I feel like I'm in a bad fanfiction... maybe I am. Thoughts for later.
Appearance aside, it also hinders my combat ability. Because of my aesthetic change, I can't use my Chakra Sensing in open space in fear of someone seeing it. That would most likely be the case with any other Bloodlines I get in the future. It's not much of a problem now cause I don't use my abilities much it will be in the future. I need to either hide it or find some other solution to it. The solutions will either be Genjutsu or Henge. If that doesn't work then I have to find some other method to hide the changes. Like dying hair and putting on glasses or something. But that can be taken care of in future.
Attempts to contact the Nine-Tails were unsuccessful. I don't know how long until the meeting with him happens but I hope it's soon.
On the bright side, I think changes to my body have been happening because of Nine-Tails.
First are my Chakra reserves. It is increasing at an exponential rate since the first meeting with Minato. I think he did something to seal that day. I am pretty sure he did.
Because of this, I had to keep up with my chakra control exercise. During a month of not doing the exercises when I thought I had mastered had backfired. That was how I was able to deduce that my Chakra reserves were increasing at a much faster rate than it should.
Second is that my healing rate has increased by a lot. My broken wrists from training and torn muscles healed just after a single night rest. That is how I am to keep up with training Kakashi and Minato supplied me with scrolls and books.
The third is that the time that my body needs to sleep has been strictly reduced to 4 hours.
Seriously, I can't sleep for more than 3 hours even if I wanted to. That is one of the main reasons I was able to train at least 18 hours a day. How else do you think I was able to improve this much in such a short time? I am not a genius. I repeat, I am not a genius.
Other than this, I haven't noticed any other changes.
Still, I need to keep improving at this rate or I can kiss my freedom goodbye.
I walked back to the kitchen to refill the bottle. On my way back I glanced at the picture kept at the centre table. It was the picture me and Akane had taken a few days before I shifted to the room in the dormitory provided by the village for orphaned children who are joining the academy. It's basically a dormitory building but with bigger rooms. The building staff do all the chores like providing meals, laundry and other stuff. What I didn't get was why is there a portion for the kitchen in the rooms if we are getting meals from the cafeteria? I don't get their logic. I know the kitchen space is quite small but still.
Whatever.
The photo has me sitting on Akane's lap, grinning while she still has her stoic face but you can see a hint of a warm smile on it. It was taken the day I left the orphanage, that day was quite emotional, even for my 31 years (mentally) old self.
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(Flashback….)
I am standing in the Akane-san's office in the orphanage, it is evening as the sun is setting, painting the sky in an orangish hue that I can see through the window. Akane is leaning on the desk facing me after the photo was taken of us together, she insisted that it needs to be taken.
The moment is a bit awkward. My stuff -which wasn't that much- was already transferred to the room in the dorm room earlier today.
We both only have goodbye left to say. I don't know about her but I don't know how to do it. She has been the only constant in my life since I was reincarnated in this world. She was the only one that genuinely cares for me despite my 'special' status. Hell, had she not been in my life, I definitely would have turned into the angsty-edgy-emo antagonist in the LNs that I had read.
I didn't have an older sister-figure in my previous life. Now that I think about, it was probably the reason that I turned into the assohole that I am today.
She is the closest person that I could call an older sister in both of life. And I don't know what to say now. What can I say?
We stayed silent as the atmosphere got more awkward. Finally, I decided to end it.
I bowed deeply in front of her.
"Thank you for everything Akane-san, for everything that you have done for me. I know I have been a pain in the ass for you but you still tolerated me. You still treated me as you treated others when nobody else did. Hell, you were the only person who genuinely enjoyed my company without wanting something in return. Being there for me when you didn't need to. I know that this isn't much but I just wanted to say that everything that you have done for me, I will never be able to repay and I am forever in your debt. I know I have been a burde-"
As I was balling my feelings out, I felt an impact on my cheek. There might have been sound but I was too stunned to pay attention. When I got myself together and lifted my head up, I was again rendered speechless. Why, you ask? Cause I witnessed a sight I haven't seen before.
Akane, the Matron, one of the most badass women I knew, counting from both my lives, was crying. Her face strained with fresh tears that were coming from her eyes.
I was so stunned by seeing her face that I completely missed that one ANBU guard that had come inside the room, likely to stop Akane from slapping the hell out of me but was stopped by Kakashi.
"Don't! Don't you dare finish that sentence! I have heard enough of your shit. Debt! Burden! Repayment! Who do you think I am brat? In fact, who do you think you are, spouting that non-sense?
What do you think I am running here? Does this place look like a bank to you? Do you believe the things I did for you were for some sort of payment? I thought we were family. Or was I the only one that thought that. And why do you sound like this will be our last meeting? Huh! Answer me dammit!"
I stood there, still. Nothing coming out of my mouth to respond to her. I had never seen her cry since I had known her. Now, she is here crying because of me. I stared at the ground. I knew the answer to her question. During the past two and a half years, I have seen almost the whole village. I had seen the way they treated me. There wasn't any physical abuse but there was ostracization.
It didn't affect me that much but I had come to accept the people in the shop didn't outright abuse me cause it was against the law. They did it because it was their duty not to abuse me. They didn't have to do anything besides that. Ostracization was fine.
Unconsciously, I had designated Akane as those people. There was respect and familial affection between us but it was the same designation. I thought she did it because it was her job. I said those things because I thought I would not be allowed to come back here as she was done with me. She held no responsibility for me.
Clearly, I was wrong.
I just stared at the ground.
"I thought I wouldn't be allowed to be back."
"Huh?! Why would you think that? You think you can get rid of me that easily. Now listen here you, cheeky shit. You will come here every Sunday to spend time with me. And if you aren't here my 8 'o'clock then you kiss you ninja career goodbye cause I will break your legs and make you work in this orphanage for the future."
I couldn't hold it anymore. Tears flowed from my eyes. For the first time since I came into this world. I cried. I cried hard. Years of pent-up frustration from having to plan every step to living in fear every day, from having nightmares to sleepless nights and everything in between, released.
I finally had someone I could at least trust to have my back. Someone that I could come back to.
I jumped and wrapped her into a hug.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Than-"
"Ahhhh, you are going to the Academy to become a ninja. Ninjas don't cry." She said as she held me to give me a hug.
I nodded reluctantly but didn't immediately stop crying. We stayed that way for a while.
I thought something for a while and decided to say the words I wasn't able to say to my mother before she passed away.
"I love you, Akane-san."
Her body tensed when I said that relaxed a moment later and held me even stronger.
"I love you too, brat."
We stayed that way for a while and finally separated moments later.
I looked at her face. It was stained with dried tears but had a warm smile. The same smile she had in the picture taken this morning.
She then looked out the window.
"It's getting dark. You should go now. Do you want me to come with you or can you go alone?"
"I can go alone." I replied.
She stared at me for a moment. She leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead. She then got up and ruffled my hair. This was the most affectionate gesture I have ever seen her give, to anyone.
"Sure you can…..But still…." She then looked towards her right.
Kakashi and ANBU with the Snake mask were there. I didn't even notice them because of the whole commotion.
"Kakashi, escort him to the dorm-room, will you?" Kakashi nodded and motioned me to come.
I stared at him and then turned to Akane. I gave her one last hug.
"See you on Sunday." I said.
"Take Care. And don't get into unnecessary trouble." She replied back.
I then walked back to my room with Kakashi who was still in ANBU uniform and ANBU with Snake mask with purple hair tied in a ponytail like a pineapple. I had a feeling I knew who she was but I can't seem to remember.
(Flashback Ends)
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I stared at the photo recalling what happened the previous week.
That day was emotionally exhausting.
I moved to change and get ready for training. I needed to finish it early from today onwards. After all, today was my first day at the Academy.
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TO BE CONTINUED…