The wind slammed into my ears, stuffing them shut. I could barely keep my eyes open, just enough to see the world nearby smeared into almost a blur. Buildings flashed by—tall, then low—nonstop, like my heartbeat that had shot up into triple digits, right under us and off to the sides.
"Shisui of the Body Flicker! You fucker!!! Stop!!!"
I yelled, remembering this… shinobi. But he couldn't hear me over the wind.
This guy was one of the strongest ninja in this world in terms of potential. He'd awakened special eyes—the Mangekyo Sharingan, his clan's kekkei genkai. They let him throw people into insanely powerful illusions or brainwash them. More important right now, though, was that he was also a master of the D‑rank Body Flicker, which is how he got his nickname in the first place. A high‑speed movement technique—and exactly what this bastard was using right now.
"Hm? I think I heard something?" he said once we arrived. He set my heavy, wheezing ass down on the ground and started looking around.
"You… you bitch," I managed between breaths. "Haa… What did I ever do to you…"
Bent over with my hands on my knees, I tried to catch my breath. I'd burned through all my air screaming and cursing him out while we were moving.
"Ah…" He was taken aback, but quickly asked with this kind of smile like he was talking to a kid. "Little boy, who taught you that word?"
"Little boy?..." I almost choked, then snapped upright. "I'm a grown, respectable man. You've got no right… you little runt, to call me that…"
The last bit slipped out with some doubt. Looking more closely, I noted Shisui was about one and a half times my size.
"Hmm…" He eyed me skeptically. He'd probably noticed that too, but decided not to say it out loud. "Alright, let's skip the whole 'how you were raised' thing."
My face twitched.
"Though it is kind of funny… Hey now, don't look at me like that. Anyway, we know each other's names, so we can get down to business. I'll be your instructor for the next few hours. So tell me what you know, and we'll go from there."
I kept drilling him with a stare for another couple of seconds, then just sighed. Yeah… Usually nobody talked to me like I was a kid. The hospital staff used to, but that stopped over time. And this guy… Whatever. Dumb reason to be pissed. Fact is, I'm small.
Once I'd fully calmed down, I briefly listed what I knew. Then said I could already do a few things and that my basic control was relatively decent. After that, I told him I wanted to practice as much as possible.
Shisui nodded and said I could start with whatever I wanted. If needed, he'd correct me or back me up. I wasn't sure that's how instructors were supposed to act. Just going, "Do whatever you want." Still, you don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Excellent…" I summed up our little exchange and only then looked around. Big field, maybe four soccer fields put together. Forest beyond its edge.
Slowly, exactly like in the manual, I clenched my hands into fists, then extended my index and middle fingers. No, not to form some Ultimate Technique. Instead, I slid my right hand onto my left, forming a chakra‑saving concentration seal. The world around me dimmed a bit, my focus shifting more and more to the flow of energy inside my body. Yin and Yang merged with a soundless chain‑clank, forming the amount of chakra I needed. Then it filled with the properties to change my appearance. I was using the Transformation Technique.
I opened my eyes. I hadn't even noticed I'd closed them.
My viewpoint was higher now.
I looked at Shisui, who was inspecting me.
"Well?"
"Impressive, for your first time using the technique. You got me pretty detailed…" He kept studying what was essentially his own copy—me, at the moment. The Transformation had worked. "Though the lines on the bandages are a bit off; and here and here"—Shisui poked me in the chest—"these folds in the clothes look unnatural. Also, you should've made the technique denser—the shadow's lighter than it should be. And straighten up a bit, my posture's better."
Forming that hand seal again, I drew a bit more chakra and fixed the flaws he'd pointed out.
"Yeah, that's much better!" He clapped lightly. I hadn't really paid attention before, but he's a pretty upbeat guy.
"Thanks…" I said—both for the praise and the tips. With a pop, white smoke burst out of me, dispelling the technique. I could've dropped it without the smoke, but I wanted to test that aspect of chakra too. Making smoke with this energy is really easy.
After that I created an illusionary clone, also on the first try and at a decent level. For a moment I felt some kind of link between us. And sure enough, the clone seemed almost sentient and moved on its own. But through that link, it felt like it could read my intent and follow commands. In general, you can control chakra from a distance, as I'd read. Chakra maintains a connection with its creator until it burns itself out. Creating an illusionary clone, I felt that much more clearly. Though you can cut the link, by the way.
Then I brought up the topic of boosting my body. That one really interested me. Getting superhuman physical strength—now that sounded promising. So, under the Uchiha's supervision, I started practicing flooding my body with large amounts of chakra. But I quickly lost concentration when I noticed the Sharingan in his eyes.
A glowing red iris with three tomoe.
"Hm?" He clearly didn't get why blue chakra suddenly surged out of me in all directions with a faint hum. Up to then I'd been more or less controlling it fine.
"Uh, sorry, spaced out," I said, and went back to pumping chakra into my body. This time without a seal. Harder, but doable.
Sharingan, yeah. The thought that this guy had a brainwashing Mangekyo had already crossed my mind. Only now that I'd calmed down enough was it really starting to bother me. That whole run‑flight here had been a little too memorable.
More and more chakra gathered in my body. Before, hidden in its two components, only now did it become something bigger, and, it seemed to me vaguely, closer to reality. Or… no, it was like by creating chakra in the body I was just… pulling energy into reality? The scrolls described it, but feeling it yourself is way better, deeper. Weird, hard‑to‑describe images.
Power filled my body, sending phantom goosebumps racing across my skin. I wanted to move.
"Catch me if anything?" I asked Shisui, figuring my reaction speed might not boost as much as the rest of my body. It should've gone up too, of course. But that doesn't mean I couldn't still accidentally crash into a tree.
"Go on, I'm ready." He showed me an upraised finger and an encouraging smile. For a moment, I thought there was something weird in that second gesture, but decided to ignore it.
I turned, leaned forward. Then, with that tense, humming feeling of chakra, I pushed off with all my strength, forward and up.
Instantly the wind stuffed my ears again, the ground dropped far away under my feet, and the clearing below quickly gave way to trees.
"Fuck me!" I started flailing my limbs, but you can't change your trajectory midair. Meanwhile, the treetops, probably sharp, were getting closer and closer!
My brain, working flat‑out, ordered my chakra to reinforce my body. Then I slammed stomach‑first into some thick branch—a loud crack—and kept flying; I spun, another crack, this time under my back; another second of flight, and I smashed sideways into the thick trunk of yet another tree, finally dropping to the ground with a dull thud.
I just lay there for about five seconds, staring at the grass next to my face. Then, after blinking a few times, I jerked upright. Nothing hurt… Holy shit, I'm intact!
I started looking myself over. Well, almost. My little black jumpsuit was clearly going in the trash. Now it was just a rag, torn in several places and with an unplanned dirt camouflage.
The chakra I was supposed to be holding so I could keep using it for a long time slipped out of my control when I got distracted standing up and just scattered into the world.
Then my spherical vision caught a mug that hadn't been there before, and I whipped around toward it.
"You were supposed to catch me!"
"There was no point." Leaning against a nearby tree, Shisui shrugged. "You used a lot of chakra for your reinforcement. It's amazing you managed to release that much, let alone hold it. But my Sharingan could clearly see it was enough to protect you from the landing."
"So that means… you could also see how far I'd fly? Given how hard I kicked off?"
"Yeah." He nodded kindly.
…What a troll. So high‑level he might not even realize what class he belongs to.
"Alright. Since we're in a forest, I'd like to try walking on trees. You mind?"
He flicked his hand at me again, another clear "do whatever you want." So I went and did whatever I wanted.
I walked up to a tree, formed that same efficient concentration seal, pushed a bit less chakra into my body for reinforcement this time, and focused part of it in my soles.
"By the way, during that jump you unconsciously used the Shunshin. Though at a pretty meh level."
The Uchiha noted that, but I waved him off. He was distracting me…
Still, I couldn't focus right away. Thoughts about Shisui's Mangekyo crawled back in. I started wondering if that brainwashing worked on the entire mind. In my case, would that include the soul too? The more I thought about it, the more uneasy—no, creepy—it felt. Because if yes, then this guy could actually kill me as a person. End, basically, my life for real.
I put my foot on the vertical surface of the tree. Then focused on the desire to stick… and my leg immediately flew off it with a crack. Too much chakra.
The next try went better. Focusing the right intent with a more reasonable amount of chakra, I could feel the energy, under my will, seep a little into the wood and then literally pull my leg toward it.
Carefully, I lifted my other foot off the ground and, with slight effort, ended up standing horizontally. Put my second foot down. Then added a bit more chakra into my body. Standing got easier. I lifted my first foot, the chakra still obeying my will. Put it higher. Repeated with the second. Another step. Another, another…
Soon, hanging upside down from a thick branch, I turned toward Shisui.
"Yeah…" He scratched the back of his head again. "I used to suppress thoughts of pride. I knew I was really talented. But now I'm not so sure about my own qualities, ha‑ha."
I cut off the "stick to surfaces" property of my chakra and tried to drop onto my feet… but only managed to flip in the air and smack my ass on the ground.
"Ow…" I rubbed the sore spot. Should've reinforced my body a bit more.
"But I successfully resisted that dark feeling," he went on, making his face more serious. As serious as a nine‑year‑old kid could manage. "Don't you get arrogant either, Naruto. That probably won't lead to anything good."
"Yeah, yeah, I know," I waved him off again. "Besides, how are you supposed to get full of yourself when you're getting your ass kicked this much? Even if it's by nature and not people."
"Hm, fair point. And also," he looked me in the eye with those red peepers of his, and I glanced away, "why are you afraid of me?"
Huh? He noticed? I guess my skill at hiding emotions with facial expressions isn't exactly top tier. So it's not surprising… Fine. As the scrolls—and my own memory—said: it's pointless to lie to shinobi, especially the experienced ones. They'll spot it easily. So you have to tell the truth—just the kind that leaves no room for follow‑up questions.
"Because you're an Uchiha. The power your eyes have over me is scary. It makes me feel helpless."
"…So blunt." After my little speech, he even straightened up a bit. Looks like I really hit him. More than I meant to.
"Yep. Happy with the answer?" I added, not quite as confident.
"Yes… or rather, no. Sorry, I didn't think about that." His eyes dimmed, turning black again. "If you're okay… shall we continue?"
"I'm fine."
I answered and turned away. Hm. Emotions hit me harder than I thought—that's why I snapped… After all those same‑old‑same‑old days, I'd gotten out of practice with some of them. But time to focus. I at least need to test every technique I've learned. Then drill them more.
But first—body reinforcement.
I pumped more chakra inside. So much it was hard to hold. At the same time, that inner rush came back.
I walked up to a thick tree, about a meter and a half across. Punched—and with a loud crack, my fist went in up to the wrist.
I formed the concentration seal. The feeling of power grew.
Bracing my foot into the ground, I spun and kicked. Bark flew apart in splinters. The wood crumpled like paper, letting my leg sink in about twenty centimeters. Power wrapped around me. It was intoxicating. The tree creaked dangerously, but held.
I drew my leg back. Focused more chakra into it. More. And more. As much as I could. A full minute of just concentrating. Then a wind‑up, and exactly at the moment of impact I blasted the energy out like an explosion. A flash of tension shot through my limb, followed immediately by a deafening boom. Half the trunk blew apart into chunks under the moving chakra. Then, with a loud crack, the tree leaned over and crashed down under its own weight.
The power spread through my veins like warm magma. It gave me confidence. The feeling that there was nothing that wouldn't break in front of me. For the next ten seconds I just watched the results of my handiwork. The tree was done for. The leaves and branches of neighboring trees were shredded by flying splinters. My body was completely intact. Only my leg ached a little. Satisfaction.
"What a nice feeling. Before, I couldn't really believe so many shinobi could do this," I said.
"Actually, almost nobody can do it like that," came a voice behind me, and I turned. "Or rather, plenty of people can, but only with ninjutsu. This kind of body reinforcement either takes crazy fine control—which is rare—or a ton of chakra, which is also rare. My control is really good, but I still can't do that."
"Uh, really?"
"No, I mean, I could," Shisui fumbled with his hands awkwardly. "But I'd need a lot of time to polish that move. It's not efficient. I specialize in other stuff."
"Right… Shunshin. You gonna teach me?"
"Let's leave that for another time. You need to polish your basics."
He was right. I was almost sure I'd burned an order of magnitude, if not two, more chakra on that self‑buff than I needed. Probably closer to two, judging by what Sakura showed in the anime. And her reserve was supposed to be small.
I'd used about three percent of my chakra, and the payoff was pretty meh. But whatever, I'll make up for it! It just means I've got room to grow!
We left it at that. After that, using body reinforcement and the chakra blasts from that cool move, I chopped off a log about my own height. Then, after about thirty seconds of practice sticking things to my hands, I started hauling the tree to the clearing like an ant. The weight of the load, way more than my own, didn't bother me much. I had a big chakra reserve, so I was going all‑out.
Once I'd dragged it over, I formed a sequence of hand seals and, again on the first try, performed the Substitution Technique. Weird feeling: one moment I'm standing in one place, blink, and I'm in another. The transition is almost unnoticeable, but at the same time there's this phantom sensation, like for a split second I turned into an ultra‑tiny point and then expanded back. I repeated the technique. Same phantom feeling. Hopefully I'll get used to it.
After that, like I'd planned, I worked on every technique I knew. Except, of course, for the Thousand Years of Death. Shisui refused to be the test subject. Then the sneaky bastard suggested I test the technique on myself. To be "ready," you know. I refused that too. Better to let life stay a bit more unpredictable. Like, for example, the nice surprise of nothing extra suddenly ending up in my ass.
I picked up the basic level of E‑rank techniques almost right away. Either I got lucky with affinity, or the control I'd already drilled on threads and other stuff paid off. Probably more the second, though the first clearly played a part too. After that, progress slowed. But that's fine. I've got time.
That day, after working on ninjutsu a bit, I decided to focus on training body reinforcement, sticking to surfaces, and movement coordination. So for the first hour I tried jumping through the trees with Shisui. After about an hour and a half I'd more or less gotten the hang of it.
So three hours later, when I'd really gotten good at it, we headed back to the residence using the upper routes.
Once we showed up at the Hokage's, I bragged about my achievements. Then I got told I was doing well and to come by at noon tomorrow and for the entire next week. From now on I'd have ninjutsu practice with different jounin at that time. After that they said ANBU would bring me more reading later, and asked me to go and not get in the way. The Hokage had work to do.
Turned out to be a good day.
Although toward the end it started to look suspicious. I mean, my "genius" status is supposed to be classified. Yet here they are scheduling my training with a bunch of people… And we went back into the village by a very "noticeable" route. I'll have to ask about that.
As for Shisui. In spite of my prejudice, he came across as a decent and maybe even reliable guy. And I remembered something about his grandpa—or maybe his dad—Kagami. I'd read about him in a scroll once, and I think he showed up in the anime too. Anyway, that Kagami and his descendant Shisui were apparently really loyal to Konoha. Plus, would Hiruzen have sent him with me if he didn't trust him? Probably not… Unless Shisui has brainwashed everyone here… including me… But no, that sounds like bullshit. Mangekyo has to have limits. And the Uchiha himself, well, again, seemed like a good guy. Also, I hope we meet again soon so I can shake that promise out of him to teach me that cool technique. The one called Shunshin.
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