Chapter 1
Chapter 1
It was a hectic life in the past few weeks, especially for an Uchiha. It was already evident through the reactions of some clan elders that the leadership of Konoha started to mistrust the Uchiha clan. While Kaen mostly didn't care about his clan or the village higher-ups, he still watched the ongoing politics closely but secretly. He didn't want to be swept by them.
While most civilians and low-ranking shinobi assumed the Kyubi attack was a natural occurrence as it had historically attacked human settlements, drawn to large concentrations of humanity's dark nature. They didn't start blaming the Uchiha clan, primarily thanks to the Third Hokage's leadership. At least, that is what Kaen believed.
The Uchiha clan was forced to relocate to the outskirts of the village, as their whole compound was destroyed. To orphans like Kaen, it was even worse. The home they had left by their parents was now destroyed; nobody cared much for them. At best, they were given a small house. At worst, they had to share a room with others.
Maybe because of his unlucky nature or the elders didn't like him. Kaen was one of the unlucky ones and had to share his room with two older boys. It might have been avoided if he had just listened to the elders and done as they wished. He might have had a better life, but there was a reason why Kaen refused to listen to them.
Kaen had memories from his past life for four years, so the elders quickly noticed him when he started making significant progress in his training. If it were anyone else, they would be happy to have such attention. Yet Kaen wasn't just anyone else. He quickly saw what the elders wanted. They wanted to make Kaen their tool.
With the pretext of personal training, they tried to brainwash him into only serving them as it would be his best course of action. Restricting his freedom and observing him all the time was already irritating, but trying to manipulate him was the last straw for Kaen. So, he refused their training and didn't do anything they wanted.
In the end, there was nothing they could do to stop Kaen. The village had laws that even they couldn't break. Still, they didn't like that a boy didn't do as they wanted. It was apparent pretty fast how petty the elders of the Uchiha clan were. At first, they used fear tactics to force him back to do as they wished, which turned into harassment.
Not letting Kaen use the training grounds or use the clan's library were only a few things they did to harass Kaen. The excuse for doing so was that he didn't need those facilities. After all, he refused the elders to teach him, so why would he need other facilities? Many needed them more.
Kaen didn't care. Indeed, he didn't need those facilities. His body was of a child, with little chakra inside him. He needed most to expand his chakra reserves and learn to control his chakra. After that, stamina was the other most crucial thing to Kaen. He knew that he would gradually become stronger as he grew, but he needed to exercise regularly to build up his stamina from an early age.
Still, Kaen was disappointed that he couldn't use his newly acquired Sharingan, as he was never alone in doing so. After the attack, he needed to move into his new home. In his new home, two other boys were too close for him to use it secretly. If he wasn't home, he was at funerals, which were exhausting.
Fist funeral was held for the Fourth Hokage and those who died that day. But in the past two weeks, more and more bodies were dug out of the rubble, and more and more people died in hospitals. The Third Hokage made it his mission to attend everyone's funerals; if he attended, everyone had to do so too. The village was already in grievance and pain wherever you went, and funerals were double that.
It was emotionally exhausting and draining to see families bury their loved ones. Every time the Third Hokage would say a speech of assurance. It was fascinating how much empathy the Third Hokage showed in these times. Nobody would have blamed him if he had stayed in Hokage Tower, but he would come to every family and offer his sympathies to them. It wasn't something just anyone could do. Kaen didn't believe he could do something like this, too, now or ever.
…
As always, he didn't have time to test his Sharingan. After training his stamina and chakra control by climbing the tree without arms, he lay on the ground, thinking of his future. It was a bleak future if he wasn't prepared for it.
Seven years of his knowledge were left for him. In a year, Itachi will enroll in the academy, and within that year, he will graduate. After four more years, at ten, he will be a chunin. After that, it would be another two years before he would massacre the Uchiha clan.
Yet Kaen had to worry about other people too. After all, Itachi wasn't the only one he needed to worry about. And even after the massacre, he had to be worried about Danzo. There was no doubt that Danzo wouldn't try to use or dispose of Kaen.
The smell of his sweat broke Kaen's thoughts. Once he got up, he quickly left to clean himself up. He hated being dirty or smelly. To Kaen, his blood was of noble descent, so he had to look like one no matter what. Well, it was only an excuse for Kaen. In truth, he just hated not being clean.
"Training hard?" A young voice asked before Kaen could leave his training ground. "Or hardly training?"
"You already back from the patrol?" Kaen asked in return, dismissing the terrible joke.
"Wow, how cold. Aren't you happy to see me?"
"I was happier when you didn't annoy me," Kaen replied. "Now that you are here care for a light spar."
"If you ask nicely."
"I would rather die," Kaen responded.
"Common, it isn't every day the great Shisui can teach you."
"I don't want to force the great Shisui to do anything if he doesn't want to."
"You no fun. At least you could be more polite."
"Then teach me how to be more polite," Kaen stood in a taijutsu stance. "Of course, if you can."
Shisui laughed but then jumped down and, without warning, kicked Kaen into the face. Kaen blocked the attack but was blinded and didn't see a second kick to his stomach. Not able to do anything but block the other upcoming hits, he succumbed to Shisui's better skills in the end.
"If your opponent is stronger, you should run or hit first. Never be on the receiving end of such an opponent."
Shisui spent ten minutes lecturing Kaen, who listened intensively to him. It was pretty useless even if Kaen had a past lifetime of experience. In his past life, he barely got into fights; if he did, it would always end in a couple of punches. He wasn't conceited enough not to listen to someone with years of experience in real battles and war.
…
After the unexpected lesson from Shisui, Kaen went back home. On the way, he thought about the future. He realized he lacked talent or an enormous amount of chakra. What he had was a mature mindset and Sharingan. He thought of what kind of weapon could be best for him.
He wasn't well suited for taijutsu, at least for now, as his body was still frail. Kenjutsu was an option, but he knew no one could teach him how to use the sword; learning it alone would just be wasting time. He needed something simple but effective. A weapon that would be suited for him, only one thing came to his mind, a bow.
Kaen was hesitant about this option. He didn't know anyone in this world who used a bow. Learning how to use it wouldn't be difficult, but he didn't know how effective it would be against other shinobi. Yet, it was the only weapon he could think was best for him.
"Meow," As Kaen walked thinking, he heard a cat.
Looking at where the sound came from, he found a couple of cats hanging around in the alleyway. Some came to rub themselves on Kaen's leg. As much as Kaen wanted to go home, he couldn't resist petting the cats.
It was a sad reality. Not only humans lost their homes in the Kyuubi attack, but most pets were abandoned too. Not many people thought of taking care of all the pets left behind. At least dogs were taken in by the Inuzuka clan, but cats were left alone.
Kaen felt pity for these house cats who turned into strays. They were unwanted now, and he wondered if they could survive alone. Not knowing what came upon him, Kaen went to a shop, bought sausages, and fed the cats. He would like to take a few with him, but he didn't have a place in the already cramped room he lived.
The least he could do was feed them from time to time. He was Uchiha, and even if he wasn't rich, he could afford to spend money on this. Just as he was prepared to leave, he found a girl looking at him. She had some cat food in her hands. The girl had purple hair and was no older than ten years old.
She was probably a genin as she wore a shinobi headband but didn't look old enough to be in a higher position. Kaen felt embarrassed as the girl came near, and he quickly left. He was an Uchiha. How could he be caught playing with cats? He had to maintain a certain image of a noble clan. At least he hoped the girl didn't know him.
…
"Where have you been?" Kaen's roommate asked when he returned home.
"Exercising," Kaen replied.
"For the whole day?"
Kaen didn't respond to him anymore. It was enough for him to know what Kaen did. Kaen was confident that the elders set him to monitor him. The other roommate wasn't as apparent as this one, but Kaen could feel him looking at him occasionally.
Kaen disliked them and their questions towards him but couldn't blame them, as they were probably brainwashed into believing Kaen was some arrogant asshole who refused to listen to others. That was all I was to them, Kaen thought. After all, they wouldn't look at him in any other way.
Kaen hoped that the academy would reopen faster. As much as he didn't like the boring lessons, at least the environment was tailored for students to focus more. He couldn't focus much at home as his roommates were spying on him. He didn't know how much he should show them and how much he should hide.
He only showed that he could practice chakra control by sticking leaves to his body. It was a fairly advanced technique for his age but nothing too unordinary. Walking on trees wasn't something he should know how to do it. So, he kept it secret.
Kaen could only hope that his roommates would graduate from the academy in a year and he would be left alone. Especially now that he had decided what kind of weapon he would use, he didn't want anyone else knowing it, so he once again would have to train in secret.