Chapter 3 -> Part 3

Generally, I found mornings less than pleasant. Waking up before dawn to exchange Kushina's baby tooth for the coin Sakumo gave me quickly ruined it. I flopped back into bed afterwards. When the sun rose, nothing changed that fact. Kushina woke up and made a clumsy breakfast for herself, leaving me lying mostly-asleep on my bed.

I was used to being woken by people making breakfast, in my old apartment, the neighbor's kitchen was on the other side of a rather thin wall and they generally were up before five. My bed was right beside that wall.

This morning wasn't the slightest bit normal or pleasant.

"Nii-san, I'm going to the Academy, are you coming?" Kushina asked softly as she crouched beside my bed.

"No, just go. Don't forget the scroll."

"Are you feeling better?"

"Much better, just sore and exhausted. Now leave."

"Okay." She seemed a bit hurt by my dismissal, but left anyways.

Less than a minute later, a little girl's scream drove a knife into my head. I was out of my bed and pulling on my shirt while running to the door before the girl's lungs ran out of air. Kichiro was informing me in a frantic voice that it was Kushina's scream and urging me to help. On the steps between the second and third floors, Sakumo held Kushina by the arm. She clung to the scroll in one hand.

"Let her go!" I snarled at him. "She has nothing to do with this."

"We agreed to meet at sunrise," he stated.

"You ordered me to, I ignored you," I clarified.

"What could you possibly gain from that?" He asked, smirking. His grip loosened enough for Kushina to jerk away and run up to bury her face in my shoulder.

"Satisfaction," I hissed as him, but tensed as he took a step up.

"And that gets you what?" He took three more steps up. I twisted in Kushina's grip and used chakra to enhance my strength before picking her up, climbing onto the safety rail, and leaping across the street in one motion. I barely managed to land on my feet.

"Run," I growled at her. She didn't even hesitate before bolting towards the Academy.

The streets weren't busy, but there were enough people that someone should have noticed a shinobi stalking towards me with a knife out.

"Genjutsu," I spat out at him as he appeared in front of me. "You're a coward. You're too scared of what people would think if they saw you tormenting a kid."

Sakumo ignored me. "I see you've learned the first lesson: always land on your feet."

Shit.

"Now for lesson two: know when to defy expectations and when to fulfil them."

Shit.

Sakumo's hand closed around my wrist and the next thing I knew we were back at the training ground.

His hands flipped through hand seals and he vanished. It only took me a second to recognize it as a Genjutsu. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to dispel one.

There wasn't a lot that could scare me. I was too good at rationalizing my fear, turning it into something that didn't matter. It didn't help Sakumo any that I did have a not-so-insignificant death wish.

I liked to be contrary, just to be contrary. It didn't help me that I wasn't sure exactly how to be contrary in this instance. Before anything could happen, I closed my eyes and covered my ears so that whatever terrors appeared would have less of an effect.

Obviously, Sakumo wouldn't kill me or seriously injure me, it would completely defeat his purpose. He probably wouldn't drive me insane, which was a small comfort. I thought back to when Kushina taught me to access my chakra. It was surprisingly easy, especially when I compared the feel of my former body to Kichiro's. Someone else's chakra was enveloping mine, especially around my eyes and ears. I made a mental note to figure out exactly how big of a role chakra played in this world. My next problem was whether to break the illusion. The longer I contemplated the problem, the more irritating Sakumo's chakra became. I decided to experiment instead. That had to be decidedly not on the list of expected behaviors. I started with my ears, hoping I didn't make myself deaf in the process. Slowly, I worked visualizing the chakra fueling my hearing into my hands. To my surprise, I was somewhat successful. Sakumo's chakra fueling the auditory Genjutsu shifted onto my hands. At the same time, I lost all sense of sound. Anyone can cover their ears and block out most of the noise, but there's always vibrations that make it through, hell, the thrum of blood beneath the skin makes up most of the noise that drowns out whatever is trying to be blocked out. I slowly pulled my hands away from my ears. The loss of sound quickly equated to a loss of balance, and I tipped sideways.

Thankfully, the weight shifting in my legs allowed me time to catch myself so I didn't fall like a felled tree. My hands couldn't hear anything, so I effectively neutralized that portion of the Genjutsu. I didn't dare try the same with my eyes until I knew I didn't just completely blow out my hearing. I broke, disrupted, and scrambled the threads of Sakumo's chakra around me then released control over my chakra.

To my embarrassment, the rush of chakra back into my head knocked me out.

When I finally regained consciousness, I didn't immediately pick myself up.

"That was a dangerous move, kid. Probably up there with blindfolded Bijū fighting." Sakumo told me.

I sat up and finally opened my eyes. A few feet away, Sakumo sat whittling a stick into what appeared to be a senbon. He was nearly done and the sun was at high noon. My stomach twisted painfully. He tossed me a small bento box and chopsticks.

"I'm not hungry," I responded and shoved it away. My stomach growled painfully.

"Not hungry enough to set aside your pride, anyways. If you're not going to eat it, throw it away. We're done for today. Meet me here tomorrow at sunrise."

I scowled at him, but he didn't even look back as he walked away.

When I felt like he was gone, I tucked the bento under one arm and marched away from the training field. I made it to the Academy just in time for it to end. Kushina was one of the last ones out, with Minato at her side. I waited on a very familiar swing, tapping impatiently

They split off after a quick goodbye and Kushina made a beeline for me.

"Are you okay, Nii-san?" She asked, worried.

"I'm fine. I brought you something." I handed the bento and chopsticks to her.

"Hatake-san didn't beat you up again, did he?"

"No, I'm perfectly healthy now. There's no need for you to worry."

"But I am worried! You're being weird and sad and I don't like it!"

I threw an arm around her shoulders. "You have more interesting things to think about, right, Kushina?"

"Why don't you call me 'Kushina-chan' anymore?"

"Um, I guess I just got hit in the head a little too hard."

"I don't like it when you call me just 'Kushina'."

"I'm, um, sorry." I wasn't. The girl wasn't my sister.

She's my sister, so you will call her whatever she wants you too.

Shut up.

Kushina and I started to walk back to our apartment and I ignored the raging of a seven-year-old in my head and the sounds of Kushina shoveling the bento into her mouth. When we got there, I absently made the first microwaveable dish I could lay my hands on while Kushina worked on homework.

"Sensei told Minato that you weren't going to continue in the Academy, is that true?"

"I think so," I answered mutinously.

"Do you want to be a shinobi?"

"No, but I have to."

"Why don't you want to?"

"Because I don't want to kill people."

"But shinobi only kill bad people! They're heroes, you're a hero, why don't you want to be a bigger hero?"

"Shinobi kill whomever they are paid to." I told her as I picked at my food. "And I never wanted to be a hero. Part of the job description is generally, um, martyrdom."

"What's that?"

"It means dying for what you believe in."

"Oh. Well, I'm going to be such a great kunoichi that I won't die."

"You do that. I'm sure you can, but first you have to do your homework."

"You're going to be an awesome shinobi and you're not even going to the Academy or doing homework."

"Because I'm too smart and have to be brainwashed and conditioned to kill instead," I muttered to myself.

"What was that?"

"Um, I already know mostly all of the Academy stuff you're learning."

"Prove it."

"Fine. Finish your homework and you can quiz me. In the meantime, can you unseal the beginner section of our little library for me to read?"

Kushina unsealed the very first primer labelled 'Step One of Becoming the Best Seal Master Ever' and I snorted at the brazen title before opening it.

Three hours later, Kushina finished her homework and started to ask me every single question on it.

To my surprise as much as hers, I managed to get all the answers correct, though I didn't particularly approve of the phrasing of the questions. For example, the very first one for the basic algebra section was:

It takes two kunai or three shuriken to kill a target. You have sixteen kunai and twenty-four shuriken. How many targets can you kill?

After the quiz session was over, I turned back to the sealing primer and Kushina latched on to a seal I was sure was supposed to be far beyond her comprehension.

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Check out the original author in the synopsis.

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