13 Chapter 13: Interlude

KAKASHI

I was infamous for many things. The one I was most proud of was being late, on the important and official occasions, of a couple of hours, on the others... well. Sometimes events conspired more heavily against me.

I was sitting near Guy, perfecting my ability to ignore selectively my surroundings, when I overheard Tsume pointing out how rare it was to see me on time at any event.

So I dug out the second thing I was proud to be known for and let out a perverted giggle. Oh Kimiko, you naughty girl...

Hearing the defeated sigh of Tsume and Guy's reproachful shouts I giggled some more, satisfied by my success.

I heard the extraction take place and the names being posted on the display. I rolled my eye at the inevitability of having the two Konoha nin placed on the opposite sides of the tournament. After the far too obvious pairings of the preliminaries, Iwa showed to be fair to the world.

The first on the field was Guy's strange student. If not for the actual dislike in regards to killing or his usual meek behavior I would have tagged him for a spy of some kind.

But his paper trail was clear, and there were multiple witnesses, it wasn't possible preparing a sleeping agent at two years of age. And his movements had always been accounted for.

His stealing habits hadn't been exactly never heard before the news. The pattern of his thefts however painted an intriguing picture.

The pattern had always been the same, stealing a little, and only randomly, while heavingly hitting people who were already common targets of other pickpocketers.

After his targets had called in D ranks to apprehend the thieves, Guy's student stopped pursuing them, leaving the other thief to take the blame.

That lead to think he was being trained separately, but he clearly wasn't Root, and his movements were as clear as they could possibly be.

He wasn't the first academy student to apply ninja teachings to take advantage from the civilians. And if he didn't get caught, it was a good training as any. He had never made a mistake, and never changed his method, and that rose a few eyebrows.

I remembered being surprised too while skimming his file.

Most of his written work at the academy had been mediocre at best, and while he started as one of the worst in the physical aspects, like many others from civilians families, he had been observed showing an uncommon single-minded focus in improving.

Few had such a drive, and every single one had a reason behind it.

Sakumo. I tensed when I thought of the name, the images of the last time I saw him being summoned in my head before he could redirect his thoughts. I relaxed a bit when the familiar sting if the pain came in a bit dulled.

Time heals all, doesn't it?

Then my covered eye twitched, and a spasm ran through my hand, reminding me that it was bullshit.

I went back to my reasoning, looking for the missing piece.

Sakumo had shown himself as the greatest of his generation, a man who had been on par with Hanzo himself, only to remember to Konoha that even if his clan had been one of the last to join the hidden village, it was more than able to carry its weight.

Guy had pushed himself beyond what common humans were able to accomplish for his father. To make him proud first, and to honor his memory after.

I had been much the same. I giggled pervertedly turning a page, absentmindedly tracing the parallels between myself and the man who called me his eternal rival.

Itachi had been another, a peerless talent gifted with the Sharingan, forced to grow up too fast. Heir of a founding clan, exceptional shinobi, pushing himself to gain his father's acceptance and being strong so that his newborn brother didn't need to.

Another strange thing about Guy's strange student had been his awkward friendship with the now missing-nin. They exchanged myths, that was what the boy's file had said.

Again, strange, but two lonely kids could bond on the strangest things.

What had been strange was the two keeping up their talking nights even when Itachi entered Anbu.

But if there was any secret the now missing-nin had been more than able to keep it hidden, and his reports on...

The referee called the names, and I went on, finally remembering the boy's name.

And Itachi's reports on Daiki had been professionally filed.

The spar between the two had been a strange event. I had been one of the several Anbus observing the fight, and it had been... strange.

Itachi had been clearly testing Daiki, but the why left open even more questions.

Yes, Guy's student was strange in many ways.

But he wasn't a spy, nor a traitor neither would be so stupid as to try to fish for secret techniques with the Sandaime in the same room.

There were people difficult to read, and people who were so obvious that they resulted in complex. Jiraya was one, and likely that was why the Sandaime had asked him to attend the chunin tournament.

There were many things strange about Guy's student. I had been discretely keeping an eye on him, but it looked like he had fashioned himself a sensing technique that I still had no idea how to bypass.

That he managed to do so at... dunno, fifteen? Was impressive.

I observed the first match from behind the orange covered book.

He opened with a genjutsu I was unfamiliar with, but that got Tsume laughing. If it was for the technique or the humiliation of Iwa nin was impossible to tell.

Unless one knew Tsume, in that case, she was obviously laughing at the poor boy flailing on the ground.

Daiki had schooled his expression in one that screamed 'bored' and elegantly pointed out that he could already have killed his opponent.

He is actually reticent when it comes down to killing isn't he? I wondered.

"I hadn't seen a kawarimi performed without hand seals in a while!" Tsume exclaimed.

I slowly blinked. It wasn't about the kawarimi, but the way he had jumped and replaced himself. It spoke of countless hours of practice. It was hardly an interesting way to train oneself.

What does drive him? I asked myself once more.

The fireball was sloppy, but clearly he wanted it to be more a display of skill than anything else.

I remembered the show he had put up for my benefit back in Konoha, impressive, I had actually never seen anything like that before. But it had been obviously something he showed me only to distract me from the topic we had been facing.

He has much to learn... Directing a conversation subtly isn't something one learns without practice.

I grinned under my mask when he threw another kunai on the ground, this time actually drawing blood.

He was strange, but it was easy to appreciate some of his quirks.

I returned to my book, the genins would hardly be showing something I hadn't witnessed already.

I already knew he was able to use the gates, but even Guy used them only when strictly needed, and with the speed, he ran towards his teammate, it was clear he had no intention of closing it. Perhaps he forgot?

But it was unlikely, none of his strange characteristics ever pointed to absent-minded behavior.

I narrowed my eye. His breathing was far too regular for being one with the first gate open. Guy could breathe calmly with those opened, but he had a lifetime of training in it.

"Such an explosion of youth!" Guy thundered, "Don't you think so, my rival?"

I slowly trailed my eye on the taijutsu master in green spandex: "Hm? Did you say something?"

I returned my attention to his student, holding in the satisfied sigh that threatened to escape me when Guy commented on my 'hip attitude'.

But I was curious, what kind of training did he undergo? He was a strange kind.

My eyebrow climbed on my forehead when I looked at his heated exchange with his teammate. Even for me, his lips were too far to be read.

My eye widened when Jiraya of all people jumped the boy and made him disappear behind the rails of the balcony.

Guy was just as surprised, while Tsume and the drunk genin had eyes only for the Inuzuka. The four ninkens were cutely wiggling their tails in support.

Bisuke would like to play with them so much. I distractedly thought.

My eye returned to the fight, they hadn't even bothered in keeping hidden the jinchuriki from Kumo. The signs were obvious for anyone who knew where to look.

I blinked. Is this why Daiki fussed over the girl?

The following question was as obvious as it was intriguing: How did he know?

He was a strange shinobi indeed.

When the jinchuriki killed Tsume's daughter, I almost visibly flinched. How it happened fell a little too close to home. My forearm twinged.

I sighed in sympathy, distractedly looking Tsume's four-legged companion herd away the other three desperate ninkens and Guy place a strong arm around the grieving mother's shoulders.

Not a spark of emotion was on display on any of our faces, but Tsume's chakra had surged forward like a wolf stalking a prey. Her entire demeanor had changed. There was no time for grief, no privacy to grieve, no room for revenge.

I watched as Tsume's eyes locked themselves on the last Konoha genin in the competition. In that moment, she placed the revenge duty on him.

I looked for Jiraya, but he had disappeared from my senses. Sensei's sensei did it often.

I even closed my Icha Icha Paradise and slid it into my flak jacket, the only thing I could do for Tsume's pain was being watchful for future weaknesses to exploit.

Another question was: Did Sandaime-sama know about the jinchuriki when he assigned the mission?

I tossed a look at the honor balcony trying to glean some message from the way the Kage was sitting, but to no avail.

Opening with a Kage bunshin was an amateur's mistake. It was reassuring not being the only one fighting, but it was a fake shield.

When the clone grabbed the scroll and ran to one side of the arena, disguising himself among the rocks, I was intrigued much more.

The following taijutsu exchange lasted 15 seconds. 15 seconds during which the Kumo kunoichi hadn't been able to do anything.

It had been unrelenting and exceptionally violent.

My eye found out what the clone had been doing and I tilted my head questioningly. Opening a scroll and unseal whatever it held within hardly required all that time. Even if it was... water?

The boy was a suiton user, so he came prepared with his own source of water. Good on him.

I couldn't find the clone, but there still had to be the telling poof of the Kage bunshin dispelling. That meant it was still around, perhaps setting traps. The modified henge he had shown himself capable of was easily adaptable to keep one hidden from sight.

I watched as Guy's student faltered for a split second before keeping up his offensive. Is he using himself as a distraction? Bold.

But there was no denying that the genin was fast, stupidly so.

And he was keeping his head, not panicking, as he weathered the jinchuriki assault.

I blinked once more in surprise when a faint green glow enveloped the wound on his eyebrow. How did he do that?

Several of his hits had reached vital points of his opponent, and yet he didn't relent his assault.

He took notice that the previous wounds he inflicted are already healed.

I nodded thoughtfully, once more tuning out the youthful encouragements Guy was shouting.

He went in for the kill with his chakra scalpel shredding the left side of the Kumo kunoichi's face.

He paid the price with the tail hitting his guard. He didn't lose his focus, that thing must have burned like hell, but he had kept his eyes on the opponent, a green glow once more covering his wounds and leaving only unmarred skin behind.

"Genjutsu, Katon, Healing, the Gates... what have you taught him Guy?" I murmured to myself.

Sadly, my eternal rival heard me with his highly trained ears and answered something about the endless power of youth.

I picked my ear and turned in his direction suddenly as he had just found his seat. "I'm sorry, did you say something?"

By then everyone had noticed the water, and I was curious myself. He had bargained the Kage Bunshin no jutsu with the promise of a suitably flashy suiton jutsu.

His use of kawarimi was flawless, and he had managed to temporarily incapacitate his opponent. The jinchuriki's chakra was still going strong, kunai in the neck or not, so it was understandable that the referee chose to stay safely tucked behind the barrier.

When he sprouted two extra heads and I saw the telltale poof of a Kage bunshin dispelling, I knew we were about to see it.

There wasn't a build-up of chakra, no sudden flare, like almost everything the boy did, it was controlled and with as little wasted chakra as possible.

Whatever anyone else said, it was flashy.

Sure he had needed the whole battle to set it up, and had needed to immobilize his opponent for thirty seconds or more but the end effect was...

When the other two sides of him placed their hands into horse hand seals, I couldn't resist.

I used my thumb and lifted my headband enough to take a peek.

He was holding the water equivalent of the sun in his hands. It was too dense for me to make out any distinguishing feature of the chakra that made the technique.

His refusal to use hand signs forbid me from simply copying the technique, it was a pity too, it was so promising, but I didn't lower my headband, the Hokage would probably pick my brain later.

Still, I admit that I was hunched forward like the rest of the audience when he shouted the name of the technique.

"Suiton: Saku Kōzui!"

And he let go the equivalent of a small sea from his hands.

Obito's eye picked up the dust and pebbles being shot away from the boy in an ample circle, and when I saw the Kumo Jinchuriki being pushed on the floor for a split second I discretely placed my fingers in my ears.

Just in time, because the exploding mass of water had compressed the air, which ran ahead of the blooming flood with an earth-shattering 'boom'

The mass of water grew as a twirling semisphere and slammed against the walls of the arena, making the more cautious of us to stand in case the arena was suddenly destroyed.

But the water didn't finish her work against the wall, it kept raising, digging and crushing everything in between.

It all happened in less than a quarter of a second.

And my first thought, I admit it freely, was that the kid had killed himself.

Then first the Sharingan, then my normal eye, picked up a consistent twirl in the middle of the arena. I could tell that the water had lost whatever semblance of order since waves were moving in different directions, and I could feel with my feet the trembling of the ground.

Half a minute later, the twirl in the middle of the arena became a small, almost delicate whirlpool. And from the murky waters, Daiki climbed on the surface with unsteady legs. He was panting and looked like he was about to keel over.

But hell, surviving your own technique was half of the job.

ONOKI

I was intrigued. The child was the same one that was reported sparing his niece twice. And also trying to cheerfully teach her something during the preliminaries.

Oh, there was no doubt he did so to fish for information, but nevertheless he had been somewhat kind in doing so.

I tuned out with practiced ease the endless ramblings of the Raikage's representative. I don't have the patience to deal with children.

And looking at the pained twitch of Hiruzen eyebrows, I knew that I wasn't the only one.

I wondered if poking fun at the extermination of the Uchiha clan, but then I left that train of thought. Hiruzen would have pointed out how not one of the Iwa genins had made it to the finals, no doubt.

And from the satisfying puff of his pipe, I knew that he knew it too.

Thinking about it, I didn't have the patience to deal with 'not Iwa people' in general.

At least the pillows on my seat kept my aching back quiet. I let my eyes take notice of the various Daimyō' delegations sitting in strategic positions among the crowd.

The final began, and I kept my eyes on the youngster from Konoha. I was naturally suspicious of any blond coming from that cursed place.

Kake bunshin? That is Tobirama's technique.

I watched with a raised eyebrow the utter incompetence of the Kumo jinchuriki.

But the boy was not a genin, that was for sure. I tsked, not that I didn't the same, but Iwa's ringer didn't manage to pass the second stage.

I once again bit down a sarcastic comment towards Hiruzen. It would have started a discussion in which the Raikage aggravating representative would have rapped his way into. I didn't have the patience to deal with it.

Healing himself without the use of his hands?

I spied a look at Hiruzen's face. He hid it well, but I knew him too well to not notice his surprise.

So he too doesn't know what he's capable of. Is he that Jiraya's apprentice? Is that why he suddenly went into the genins' balcony?

His kawarimis only exacerbated the memory of that... monster who the yondaime Hokage had been.

I gritted my teeth, Hiruzen knew it as well.

Then he called the suiton technique. I blinked.

"I noticed he doesn't have a surname." I pointed out when I saw the semisphere of water exploding outwards in a twisting motion, it looked almost like a cursed Rasengan.

Hiruzen's eyes met mine, barely containing a gleam of triumph.

05 June - 8 years AK

We went away from Iwa as quietly as the Hokage had appeared. We crossed the stone doors and started running, the Hokage and the Anbu group setting the pace.

From the direction we took, I believed we would be crossing Taki's borders before reaching Hi no Kuni.

I let the steady run led me into a lull, I had to take a soldier pill, but it was a comfortable pace.

I let my mind fade back to recent events.

Once I felt that the currents outside my safety whirpool were no longer lethal I let my Ashura form vanish and, riding the current and manipulating it so that it would bring me upwards, I had reached the surface.

When I climbed to the surface of the water, I stood on unsteady legs. That jutsu was bulshittingly chakra intensive, wonderful chakra control or not.

I amusedly took notice of the fact that the water stood at level with the second rows of spectators. The drains placed underground were likely working far beyond their capacity.

The crowd stood silent until the referee jumped into the arena, looking through the murky waters to be sure that the disappearance of her chakra matched the death of the kunoichi.

When he declared me the victor, the crowd roared its approval, my disgust climbing higher and higher with each second.

The following hours had been a flurry of events I really didn't keep track of, I only distinctly remembered stealing Shin's jug and tossing down a few gulps of sake. But only after some noble from the capital of Hi no Kuni offered me a place among the twelve fire guardians coming December, since Sarutobi Asuma was returning to Konoha.

I had been bewildered, but the man had explained that I would be trained by the others and that it was an open offer, I didn't have to answer immediately.

I didn't have the time to be surprised, since I had to deal with the congratulations of people I actively disliked, and I had to force myself to not assault Tsume, who had thanked me for having avenged her daughter.

Like the dead cared about what happened to their murderers.

I had closed myself off, being respectful towards the Hokage and my 'sensei'. Thankfully, Jiraya had already left. I wasn't sure I could hold myself back against him. We picked up the Haimaru brothers from a training ground, where they had been howling their grief to the sunny afternoon.

I had less than six months to decide about the offer from the Daiymo's court. But the more I thought about it the more I liked it. The only thing I felt looking at Shin was grief, it was like looking at an incomplete puzzle. The missing piece was obvious.

And the further I stood from Guy, the better.

12 September- 8 AK

I signed in my report on the successful D-rank I had just performed and pocketed the slip of paper with my authorized payment on it.

I left the tower with a skip in my step, it was half-past nine, and I had the rest of my day free.

I hopped to the bank, where I made a withdrawal and roamed for a while in the market district.

It was a good day. The air, while crossed by the occasional breeze, was still warm, and the sky had finally cleared up after the raining week we had just had.

I entered the shops of a couple of artisans, taking my orders away with me, and flickered over to the Uchiha's compound.

I went to my yurt on the Uchiha' grounds and dropped most of my stuff, before heading outside and walking over to the vegetable garden I had set up in June.

I paid rent to Sasuke in the form of tomatoes. That kid would kill for a tomato.

I had been unwelcome for the first weeks since my return, but the things obviously started to change when I dropped a tip here and there when I saw Sasuke training.

In July I had even accepted to spar with him, correcting his form. Not that there was much to correct, but hazing was awesome. There was simply something thrilling in making him feel stupid for throwing a kunai with his whole arm instead than with a twitch of the wrist.

My routine quickly became: D-rank in the morning, then free time until Sasuke returned to train.

Well, free time meant that I did my own training, I performed the less intensive ones directly on the dead clan grounds, but I booked a different training ground each week to experiment.

I had left alone my ninjutsu, I knew that after my display in Iwa I was more than likely kept under surveillance, and the less I used the Saku Kōzui, the better.

So I went back to refining my chakra control and kept up working with the gates.

That generally meant that I was always aching in a way or another.

The good news was that my chakra capacity was growing much faster than its natural maturation would have made me believe.

I had already accepted the offer of the Twelve Guardians. For several reasons.

First and foremost, I disliked being kept under constant watch. I had no proof it was happening, but I strongly suspected it.

Two, Might Guy had stopped actually teaching a couple of years before, and working side to side with the other eleven Jonins meant that I would be able to pick up things in one way or another.

Three, with the death of Hana, I had chosen to turn the world into a civilized place, and in the capital I would undoubtedly have more freedom of movement to do what I deemed necessary.

Four, I kept feeling Hana's absence, Shin had started running messages across the border and the Haimaru brothers were back on the Inuzuka compound, working with Tsume in the Tracking squads. And I knew, I knew it wasn't Guy's fault, but I blamed him nonetheless.

I unsealed the windows I had purchased and got to work.

If there is one thing ninjas can always be very good at, is working quickly.

In three hours, I had set up a greenhouse around the vegetable garden. It was 12meters on the long side and 10 on the short one. It had cost me around half of my savings, but my evil plan to transform Sasuke into a sane human needed it.

I went back to the yurt, smirking at the memory of Sasuke's indignant splutter when he noticed the thing I had built.

Well, I couldn't live in a tent for six months, could I?

Another big chunk of my money went into food supplies. But not common ones.

Three weeks before, a caravan had made its way into Konoha, carrying olive oil from the southern regions of Kiri, and more importantly wheat flour.

I had questioned the merchant but he had refused to tell me where he had purchased it. Bastard.

Still, I purchased fifty kilos of wheat flour and sealed it away. These people had no idea of the good foods one could produce with it. If I were free to do so, I would have followed the caravan once it left the village.

I had no idea wheat existed in that world.

I more or less lawfully had managed to get my hands on some brewer's yeast.

At least these people had cows.

I had purchased two young calves and butchered them earlier in the week.

I then sliced into small pieces the dried and cleaned stomachs of the young calves, before putting it into salt water together with some wine, to lower the PH of the solution. After several days, I had filtered the resulting solution. Finally, I had used the crude rennet that remained in the filtered solution to coagulate milk, at least I didn't have to milk a cow, I had been able to simply purchase it. About 1g of this solution coagulated up to 3 liters of milk. I had created cheese.

I had few kilograms of fresh cheese resting in my yurt, while I had sealed away all that risked going spoilt. Storage scrolls were just awesome that way. For the things you stuffed into them, time stopped moving.

It worked only with stuff that didn't have chakra. Yeast and organic matter of every kind likely contained senchakra, but for some reason it didn't interfere with the fuinjutsu. I really hoped that one of the guardians could show me the ropes in the capital.

And for those smart enough, yes, I was going to introduce pizza into a world of heathens.

I felt like I had downloaded the smurfs' village app and was building my way up from the ground.

The mind-blowing paradoxes of the narutoverse never ceased to surprise, they had milk, but not cheese, seriously what the fuck?

They knew enough to build X-ray machines, but nobody ever played with nuclear energy?

They had warships, but not even one little plane?

Well, necessity was always the great inspiration, with chakra and its applications around I was bound to cross a few inconsistencies.

The cheese had been spread by the roman empire mostly because it could last long before going spoilt, but in a world where storage scrolls allowed to freeze food in time...

It even explained how we managed to eat fresh salt water fish every day.

The worldwide economy was still a mystery waiting to be unraveled.

Their world had clearly crossed a form of the industrial revolution, there were TVs, and if I remembered correctly even video meetings and movies.

Yet, from what I understood, each village had its own private network.

When I finished patting myself on the shoder and finished munching over how strange the world was, I went back into my yurt and unsealed the second custom made the order I made.

It was a stringless guitar (I didn't want the carpenter to be able to reproduce it whenever he wanted after all).

From my pocket, I extracted two music wires made of iron and two composed of steel.

The blacksmith had been skeptical when I had made my specifications, but he was specialized in ninja wire, and I had paid handsomely, so he respected my request.

The pain had been to strike a balance between increasing the tension of the wires (which required wire of greater tensile strength or a larger diameter) and achieving a good tone quality (which required a small string diameter). We worked together on it for the better part of a month, but we realized it.

I tied the strings in their rightful place and tried a couple of tabs.

The sound was smoother than I remembered.

Say what you want about the uncultured barbarians of the elemental nations, but the carpenter of the fire nations are worth their salt.

The elemental nations made use of flutes drums and shamisens, but they would be in for a revolution on every single front.

I sad thing I had realized far too late was that with his enhanced reflexes, a ninja had a very easy time learning how to play the guitar.

Or at least, I had taken only a couple of hours to familiarize myself with the guitar and in less than a day I was able to perform the songs I had learned in my first life without too many issues.

Sometimes I went too fast, but correcting myself took little effort since I had control and awareness over my own body that simply would be impossible without chakra.

28 November- 8years AK

I perched myself on a tree in the Uchiha's compound, my ear easily picking up the source of the music. I watched into the window, finding him easily.

He had been smart, leaving a piece of cloth between the strings and the gut of the guitar, so that he had effectively lowered the volume.

But he was holding one of the only two guitars in the world, so it was difficult to miss.

Tricking Sasule into picking up playing the guitar had required a week of exasperation.

In the end, I promised him to spar once every week, if he started playing the guitar.

I had shown him the ropes, and for his young body, the extreme speed and truly superhuman reflexes ninjas were equipped with were still a work in progress, so whatever he had learned he had earned through hard work.

It made him some good. Being a prodigy only at learning how to kill people would mess up the brain of anyone. It was good that he had a part of his life that wasn't dedicated to death.

Sure, he started playing only because he would earn himself a spar against me if he displayed sufficient improvement, but I took what I could.

The kid needed a shrink, not to be forced to work through his feelings with music.

Still I was almost pissing myself with laughter when I recognized 'Nothing else matters' by the Metallica.

He still had an easier time than any civilian kid, harsh training since one could walk would do that to anyone.

I kept myself hidden, and after a while the song was lost into a movement that Sasuke was creating on a whim.

I spotted a tear trailing down his cheek, and relief hit me like an avalanche. My absurd half-assed plan worked!

He wasn't repressing! Yahoo! I left as quietly as I came, going back into my yurt, in a couple of days I would be leaving for the capital.