Chapter 13: Resurface

The working arrangements were simple, he was required to come in to work for a minimum of two days every week. Should he not fulfill that quota, he would be let go immediately.

The reason the manager didn't propose more than two days was because he assumed that Sora had a school he attended. An assumption that Sora made no effort to correct.

He had gone as far as paying him in advance, figuring that the only reason a kid as young as he was would be looking for a job would be out of desperation. Another assumption he made no move to correct.

Two weeks had passed since then and Sora had other issues that he needed to tackle. The first being his usage of hand seals.

He realized that despite having muscle memory of using hand seals, he was average at best at using them. The sequence was correct but the speed and efficiency was abysmal. He had dedicated every morning to going through seals to familiarize himself with them.

The other issue he was facing was more complicated to resolve.

'Why isn't it working?' He asked himself in frustration.

If anyone saw him, they'd be confused on what he was doing. He was currently standing in front of his bathroom mirror, with a look of intense concentration on his face.

'I know it was first debuted when he fought Haku but he unlocked it far before then, he just wasn't aware of it like I am. So why won't it work!?' He raged internally as his face twisted in frustration.

He was currently trying to activate the sharingan. Though it wasn't revealed until later on, it's actual first activation wasn't against Haku but during the Uchiha Massacre. At the moment, despite how much chakra he pushed into his eyes, they didn't change one bit.

"So why!?" He raged as he slammed his fist inot the wall beside the mirror.

Acknowledging his frustration, he composed himself. Pulling his hand back in pain, he saw a small crack formed around the point of impact.

'Was I always this strong?' He wondered as he stared at the crack in slight confusion before putting it out of his mind.

The pain in his hand was enough to snap him out of the trance.

'Well that's a bust. On to the next one…'

He turned to the side to see a tub filled to the brim with water. He hadn't stayed idle in his quest for power.

With his job, he now had an allocated time to grind his engineering skill, leaving him with more time to polish up on other stuff. He had spent the majority of his time going more deeply into the application and use of chakra.

To his disappointment, it had taken him a full day to comprehend walking on surfaces. He was comfortable enough to run up and down the walls by nighttime.

Of course all of this was done in the apartment. He had no wish to expose himself to the world. There were many magic users in the world and he hadn't had the opportunity to compare magic and chakra but he had no doubt that they were similar in at least one way.

'Although I'm not sure of the date, Kaito would soon be appearing for his so called monthly checkups." he thought before shaking the thoughts out of his head.

His current goal was to be able to stand on the water for ten straight minutes without wobbling. Taking slow and deliberate breaths, he put the first foot over the tub and onto the water surface.

Channeling a minuscule amount of chakra, he let his foot make contact with the water, only increasing it when he felt no resistance.

The template hadn't reached so far that Sasuke could walk on water so he was basically going on his own knowledge. It took him an excruciating thirty minutes to judge the proper amount to use but he finally got it.

His foot found the water to be a stable foot hold. After a few seconds, he put his second foot into the tub, now standing on both feet.

Although he succeeded in standing on the water, that wasn't the kind of success he wanted. Though he stood on it, he had to put all of his attention on his footing to avoid sinking into water.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sora walked out of the bathroom with his torso bare and his shorts wet. He wiped his wet hair with the towel in his hand.

'I'll pick this back up later.' He thought with a deadpan look. He hadn't taken more than three small steps before he fell into the water. The two hours he spent in the tub found him soaked head to toe.

He walked towards his room to put on some new clothes when his stomach rumbled. He grimaced at that.

'Another side effect of using chakra.' He thought as he finished dressing up and made his way to the kitchen.

One thing that wasn't too explained about shinobi was that the more chakra you used, the higher your metabolism.

It explained why Naruto ate so much ramen yet could still be considered healthy. Most, if not all of it was burned out during shinobi activities.

'And I forgot to buy groceries yesterday.' He frowned in thought as he opened the kitchen cabinet only to find it devoid of ingredients.

The fridge was similar, the only difference being that it had raw side ingredients but nothing completely edible. He felt his stomach growl again before he made a decision.

'I guess I'll need to go to the store.' He thought, closing the fridge and pulling on some shoes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Slurp*

He changed his mind.

Upon leaving the house, he decided to first quench the immediate hunger in his stomach before heading to the store to buy groceries.

Currently he sat at an outdoor noodle stand. He didn't have any particular food in mind so he settled for the first thing he saw.

Noodles, or as it's more commonly called, Ramen. Despite how fast he took in the food, he couldn't say it could be called his favorite food. He was simply eating it out of necessity.

"It doesn't taste the same…" He muttered under his breath. His hair shadowed his eyes as memories rushed in with full force.

He remembered his mother in her red apron cooking ramen noodles for lunch. It was her favorite thing to make so they had it a lot. With her gone, he would never taste it again.

Another thing he had noticed since her death was that the food he ate had no taste. It wasn't that the food was terrible, he just didn't taste anything from it.

'It tastes the same as the others…bland.' He thought as he wiped his mouth with the table cloth walked away from the stand.

He passed by a group of men standing around a radio that played a tune that they all nodded their heads to.

'That reminds me. I really need to get a phone soon.' He thought as the song stopped abruptly.

"We interrupt your program to bring this breaking news. The spree of kidnappings which was thought to have stopped three weeks ago has struck again."

"This time the kidnappers seem to be going after young females as three young girls have been kidnapped in the last three days. Once again we encourage you to re-" He tuned out the broadcast as he froze in his steps.

'That's not possible.' The memory of the man burning came to his mind as he tried to comprehend what he had just heard.

'It's impossible. I killed him!' He thought as his eyes went wide in disbelief as he remembered something else.

••••••••

"You underestimated me. I am far more powerful than you can imagine. Even if you kill this body, it won't be over! I'll be back!" The man said, sounding less sane as the seconds passed.

••••••••

'If he actually survived then he knows my face and my abilities. It's only a matter of time before he come after me.' He thought, coming to a terrible realization.

'If he's still alive then I have to find him and kill for good this time!'