Naruto (2)

I entered the Academy and was walking towards my class, Sasuke's memories informing me of the right path, when Rito started talking to me. "Can I ask you a question Lee? After arriving here I read the first volumes of Naruto to refresh my memory: after failing the graduation exam for the third time Naruto was tricked by Mizuki, one of his teachers at the Academy, into stealing a scroll from the Hokage under the pretense it was a secret test. That's how Naruto learned the Shadow Clone Technique."

'That's right.' I answered, already suspecting where Rito was going with this.

"In that case, why did you tell Naruko how to improve her Chakra control? I'm not saying it wasn't the right thing to do, but the Shadow Clone is Naruto's greatest ace in the hole. Do you plan to teach it to her later on?"

'If necessary.' I confirmed before continuing. 'But it's more complicated than that. Doing nothing would have been the best choice in the long run, true, but also a scummy one like you pointed out. Before arriving in this world I considered taking advantage of Naruto stealing the scroll to take a look at it myself: the Sharingan gives me eidetic memory, so reading it once would have sufficed. However, things changed once I saw that it's not Naruto here, but Naruko.'

To tell the truth, explaining to the blonde about the correct usage of Chakra has been a spur of the moment, but afterwards I was able to come up with a few valid reasons.

'To start with, we don't know if a week will be enough for Naruko to overcome her handicap. In the canon timeline Naruto shortened the time requirement for many techniques thanks to the Shadow Clone's ability to send back its memories to the original, but she doesn't have that advantage here. Furthermore, did you see how she interacted with Sakura and Ino? They clearly were, if not friends, at least close acquaintances. Naruto didn't have that kind of relationship with them during his academy days, so it's probably something that happened due to Naruko's changed gender. I always thought girls are more sociable than boys.'

"That, I cannot deny." Rito replied. "Though I can think of more than one exception."

Me too, but there wasn't time to comment on that too. I could already see the classroom's door. 'We can't just assume things are the same as canon despite the differences we already saw, so it would be dangerous to rely completely on foreknowledge. Not before confirming it with circumstantial evidence.'

Preparing for the worst - and also for the best, because why not? - I followed the rest of the students inside the classroom, trying to appear nonchalant and relaxed while in truth concentrating on everything that entered my field of vision.

I saw Iruka Umino on the podium, a blackboard behind him. That was good.

Moving my head to the other side of the room I saw many students already seated. I couldn't attach a name to many of them even with the help of Sasuke's memories, so those must be the average students that either failed the extra exam from their Jonin-sensei or never raised above being just another member of Konoha's army of shinobi. A bit sad in retrospect, but life was rarely fair: it was probably better for them to fade into mediocrity rather than being forced to face dangers they couldn't handle.

Those me and Sasuke knew, on the other hand, were a different story. The first ones were the future members of Team Seven, of which I belonged to: Naruko and Sakura. I left them behind, so they were not yet present in class.

Then there were Team Eight and Ten: the first was composed of Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga and Kiba Inuzuka, plus the latter's ninja dog Akamaru; while the second was composed of Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara. What happened to Team Nine, Six and all the others up to Team One? Nobody know, and I was no exception.

I left Ino behind together with Naruko and Sakura, and I could see the familiar figures of Shino, Hinata and Choji seated among the other students. But where were Shikamaru and Kiba?

After looking better I was glad to have already met Naruko, it allowed me to keep a cool mask of indifference at the realization I was apparently in the alternate universe of genderbent Naruto characters.

"I'll tell Sasuke he probably wants to keep headbutting that pillar then." Rito said between suppressed snickers. That was probably for the best: those two were not as close to him as Naruto was, but it was still a weird sight even for me.

The girl currently sleeping on her seat had the typical Nara look of shoulder-length black hair tied in a spiky ponytail, except it didn't make her head look like a pineapple. She also had a few stray bangs framing her face, and small silver stud earrings on her ears. For clothes she wore a short-sleeved grey jacket with green-edged sleeves that left her stomach bare, a green-lined mesh armor T-shirt under it and brown pants.

Meanwhile the girl playing with a very familiar white pup looked like a younger version of Hana Inuzuka, save for the hair which were messier and barely reached past her ears. The nose too was less pronounced, although I wasn't very sure about that part. She was wearing a grey, hooded fur-lined coat, dark grayish pants reaching to her calves and blue ninja sandals.

It suddenly occurred to me that I needed to find out their names before trying to start a conversation with them. That was my first new priority, the second one was to discover who else was genderbent and how that influenced past events. I sure envied those SI protagonists who knew everything that was going to happen and exactly what to say and do to twist things to their advantage. Alas, social manipulation (even for a good end) was not a skill I have mastered.

Alright, where was my usual seat... I looked where Sasuke's memories told me to, and while still free it was also surrounded on all sides by girls who were staring at me with lovestruck expressions one moment, and at each moment with irritated glares the next one. I felt a noticeable amount of disgust and fear surge from my guts at the sight, which I attributed to this body's instincts. Maybe Sasuke wasn't paranoid after all...

Suppressing my true inner feelings I kept climbing the short row of stairs, giving the impression I was headed towards my usual seat. Then, just before reaching it I suddenly took a turn to the right and sat next to Choji Akimichi, who was sitting on the right side of the genderbent Nara. Ignoring the groans of disappointments from my fangirls I looked at Choji, who has turned towards me with a slightly quizzical expression on his face while still eating from the bag of chips in his hands. I noticed said bag has both Konoha and the Akimichi's symbols on it, which made me suspect they were not the usual type I was used to eat: Choji's family was famous for using food as a source of great power, I was sure they developed a lot of special culinary recipes.

"I would like to spend my last days of school in peace." I explained, curtly and to the point.

Choji chewed what was in his mouth a few times before shrugging and going back to looking ahead. Not much of a conversationalist, but I had the impression the chubby boy was a lot more perceptive that it appears at first glance: I could definitely appreciate that.

"Already fed up with your fangirls by Monday, Uchiha?" Someone muttered loud enough for me to hear. It took me a few moments to realize the one to spoke was Nara. "It must be stressful to be so popular."

"I don't know about being popular in general, but I can confirm being popular the way I currently am is definitely stressful. Not to mention annoying." I replied while tossing a quick glance at the not-sleeping girl. "But there's no danger of you suffering the same, I guess?"

"God, I hope not." She moved her head to face my way, one eye opening to reveal a brown pupil clearly bored out of her mind. "So troublesome."

So the different gender wasn't enough to change that part of Shikamaru's personality, even if eventually he grew out of it. That reminded me, once it was time I needed to do something to prevent Asuma's death: there was no way I would let Kurenai become a widow and their daughter an orphan.

Sakura and Ino ran into the classroom, followed at a more sedated pace by Naruko who was staring intently at the leave in her hands. The two rivals for my affection groaned when they saw all seats around me were already occupied, then with a gloomy aura went to find a seat on their own. Naruko remained focused on the leaf, but lifting her head she met a frowning Iruka: with an 'Eep!' of surprise she quickly joined the other two girls in the search for a seat.

"Good morning everyone." Iruka began once everyone was seated. "I'm sure everyone already know, but six days from now we will host our Academy's Graduation Exam. By passing it you will earn the right to wear a Leaf Forehead Protector," He used a hand to slightly move his own headband up and down. "And you'll be recognized as a full-fledged Shinobi of Konoha. Of course, that is merely the first step. Sasuke-kun!" He pointed at me. "How many ninja ranks there are, and what are their names?"

"Three. Starting from the lowest they are: Genin, Chunin and Jonin." I answered in the curt manner Sasuke would have used. "There are also Tokubetsu Jonin, shinobi that excel in a single area, but the first three are the most used."

"Very good Sasuke-kun." Iruka congratulated me. Damn, it occurred to me I just looked like a know-it-all. "That's right: once you graduate you'll become Genin. You'll still be rookie ninja, but ninja nonetheless, and as such you'll be assigned duties by the village. The ranks of Genin, Chunin and Jonin first came into existence during the founding of the first Hidden Villages, when it became necessary to organize..."

====

'Sasuke. Can we get rid of Danzo?' I asked the black-haired boy once lessons ended and I was back home in the Uchiha district.

"With 'get rid of' you mean killing him, right?" He asked back with a tone that implied he was expecting that question sooner or later.

I grimaced: the idea of killing someone troubled me greatly, both on a personal level and as a human being taught about modern morals and the sanctity of life. I knew there will be times when I would have no choice but to fight with lethal intent against my opponents, because doing otherwise would put both myself and those I cared about in danger, and that there were people who deserved to die for their crimes.

It did not mean, however, that I liked the idea. On the contrary, I resolved myself to never like or grow comfortable with the thought of killing another sentient being, lest I become someone the current me would find absolutely despicable. 'Yes, I mean killing the son of a bitch. For what he did and what he will do if no one stop him. Surely you thought about it.'

"I have been doing it since I found out you can access a version of my world." Sasuke revealed. "I killed him once for what he did to my clan, I can do it again."

'Maybe without stabbing your own allies, this time?'

"...That shouldn't be necessary." He replied, clearly annoyed by my jab but unable to deny it.

Really, stabbing Karin to kill Danzo, who was taking her hostage, was a rotten thing to do. And he even tried to kill Sakura. Yes, at the time Sasuke was not in a right state of mind, but still. I was glad to be the one in control, letting Sasuke free to act without some form of restrain is just asking for a disaster to happen.

"Did I hear you two discussing an assassination?" I heard Killua's voice. He sounded mildly interested. "Out of curiosity, who and why?"

'A well-intentioned but misguided extremist.' I answered before Sasuke could, because he was biased. 'Do you want the long but complete list of all the shit he did, or will a brief recap suffice?'

"The second, I don't want to lose my appetite."

Understandable. 'Sasuke, may I...?' Receiving a grunt in response I began to recall everything I know about Danzo. 'He started a clandestine black-op group that answer only to him, every member brainwashed into absolute obedience and branded with a technique that prevent them from speaking about said group, and used it to perform missions that even other shinobi balk at, like the assassination of people that simply expressed their enmity towards his home without actually having done nothing against it. He authorized unethical experiments on people that wouldn't be missed, like orphans, and grave robbing.'

How else would he and Orochimaru have obtained Hashirama's cells?

"He conspired to have my whole clan killed simply because he mistrusted us and our abilities." Sasuke scoffed. "Then again, the only person he trusted was himself and saw every view beside his own as wrong. In hindsight, he may have become senile with age."

'Shinobi suffers from that too?' I asked in surprise.

"Chakra healing techniques cannot cure everything, especially if the brain is involved. Then again, very few shinobi had the chance to grow that old." Sasuke mused.

"Sounds like a nasty guy. Alright, you'll have my assistance if you need it." Killua told us. "I was getting a little bored with the usual stuff anyway, and I'm curious about how Nen compares to Chakra without the rules of this place healing us."

'Thank you.' Killua's help would be invaluable, him and Gon weren't considered geniuses for nothing. 'Though, I was thinking of forgoing subtlety altogether and just nuke the guy with Laharl or Issei's abilities.'

"Great idea. Especially the part where you manage to persuade the rest of the village to not bat an eye and just accept it." Sasuke's sarcasm was so thick it felt like a stone dropped on my head. "Think about it! You can do it, sure, and maybe also in a way that nobody can track back to us. But Danzo remains an important figure within Konoha, even if the Third Hokage should have executed him ages ago, so an unknown just showing up, killing him and then disappearing without being detected would send the whole village into a fit of paranoia. The Chunin Exam will be cancelled and the Intelligence Division will triple their surveillance on anyone they think could be the culprit. What are you going to do if this result in a war, come out in front of everyone and say 'Sorry, that was me'?!"

I winced at the harsh tone. Yeah, I really didn't think about the possible consequences of just nuking the bastard, or better yet how people would react to it. To start with it would be impossible to hide the whole event from the public, so word of it will eventually reach the other Hidden Villages through their spies. Everyone had someone spying on everyone else, so rather than just kill the spies it was more convenient to control what they learn and how: that was what the spy film genre taught me. 'How would you do it then?'

"To start with, the cornerstone of all ninja missions: information." Sasuke assumed a teacher-like tone. "The first time I took advantage of Danzo attending the Five Kage Summit, but barring extreme circumstances he normally never leaves the village. So for now we need to learn about Root's current circumstances: who is part of it, their general abilities, the positions of their facilities and so on. Danzo's paranoia and the lack of initiative Root training encourages mean he needs to take care of most issues himself. While that makes separating Danzo from his underlings almost impossible, all possible battlefields are locations specifically built to be hard to discover and to keep what happens within them concealed."

"I see, you intend to turn his home advantage against himself." Killua pointed out.

"Exactly. I would like nothing more than to destroy everything the bastard holds dear in front of his eyes before erasing him from existence, but the faster he dies the better. It will be enough if his death results in the Hokage's forces discovering about Root, thus forcing the old man to dismantle it once and for all." Sasuke made a poignant pause. "I can still remember his last words: 'I am the only one who can change this world', 'I am the roots that grow in the dark'. Ridiculous: the truth is that Danzo Shimura has never been more than a rotting vine choking the life out of Konoha. I didn't make the sacrifice of the Uchiha Clan meaningless, because it had no meaning in the first place. So this time I'll return the favor and make Danzo's existence truly and utterly meaningless."

...I wasn't sure what to feel following Sasuke's speech: I also hated Danzo, yes, but not to the extent Sasuke did. After all, unlike the boy nothing that Danzo did touched me personally: I could empathize with him, yes, but that was the extent of it.

And yet, it was precisely because of my ability to empathize that I could feel bad for Danzo while still hating him. For I knew that his desire to protect Konoha, despite being horribly twisted, was genuine.

A tragedy I could do nothing to prevent, because it already happened. All I could do was putting an end to it before it could leave even more misery in its wake.

====

I eventually learned, through the ancient technique known as 'listening to the teacher checking attendance', that the female Shikamaru was called Shika and the female Kiba... was also called Kiba. Easy names to remember for sure, but I was tempted to blame their parents for the lack of creativity.

Anyway. Despite being the last days of the school year I had enough time to get a general idea of important people's personalities and compare them to my knowledge of Naruto.

Naruko was still looked down by a majority of the adults who knew about her 'passenger', and for being an orphan I guess, but the same wasn't true about their children. I assumed it was because of her being a girl and her 'assets', the latter of which I couldn't fault the boys for noticing. Even if I was relatively sure some of them were still in the 'girls have cooties' phase, but what did I knew about chakra-enhanced human biology? Very little for now, I'll fix that at the first occasion. Regarding the girl herself, I came to the conclusion I had to thank Ino: I suspected she helped Naruko just like she did with Sakura, and since Naruko didn't seem interested in me (a pity, but nothing was set in stone at the moment) they remained friends.

Shika and Choji were still friends, and at first glance I detected no differences in their relationship compared to canon. I could be wrong of course, but that was the limit of what I could ascertain for now.

Kiba also looked identical to her canon self, though I noticed she frequently groomed Akamaru and made sure to clean both him and herself after they got dirty playing or fighting.

Hinata wasn't, much to my inner relief, the incredibly stealthy stalker that fanon likes to portray her as. All I saw was a shy girl with confidence issues, and yes she often glanced at Naruko with a smile, but to me it looked less like a crush and more like admiration, or maybe respect. I guess Hinata still looked up to Naruko because in many ways she was everything the Hyuga heiress wanted to be.

Sakura and Ino... were still Sakura and Ino. I decided to let them deal with their own issues, they didn't need my help for that.

Shino Aburame was also the same as canon. Quiet, but perceptive and able to always ask the most important questions. He was a reliable ally, though the idea of bugs living within the human body freaked me a little bit.

Finally, the two teachers following our class: Iruka and Mizuki. I took care to discreetly kept an eye on the latter, aware that he would eventually trick Naruko into stealing the Forbidden Scroll. Of course things would be different if the blonde girl manage to pass the exam, even if by a hair's breadth, but I wouldn't put it past Mizuki to try anyway with a different lie. I didn't know if the events of the anime applied and he wanted the scroll to give it to Orochimaru as a offering, but I planned to find out anyway.

====

Eventually the day of the graduation exam came. Both the written and practical tests were easy to ace, after all I had a veteran shinobi in my head giving me tips, but shinobi were expected to cheat anyway.

What I truly looked forward to with anticipation was Naruko's test. Never once in the past days I have seen her without the leaf I gave her, which she kept either on her forehead as she practiced or within her pockets during other activities. I was happy that she took her promise seriously, but I wondered how much a single week of training could help Naruko control her immense chakra reserves.

When it was her turn to perform the Clone Technique Naruko walked into the room where the teachers were waiting stiff as a wooden board, cold sweat spilling down her face even as she kept a perfect poker face.

With a seal-less Transformation I covered my eyes with an illusion of their normal state, then I activated the Sharingan: it was no Byakugan, but just seeing the color of chakra was sufficient for my goals.

Using my dojutsu I watched the bonfire that was Naruko's chakra (and boys, all that power contained into such a tiny frame was one hell of a sight) slowly and methodically knead a small part of itself through the use of hand seals. She wasn't rushing it, good, but that really was too much chakra.

Once the technique was complete a lot of excess chakra was released as heatless smoke, which looked like colored mist through the Sharingan, and two illusionary constructs appeared to both sides of Naruko.

"Well, that's surprising: she managed to make two clones." Sasuke commented. "But there's too much chakra inside, I doubt she can make the clones move even a finger without them popping like soap bubbles. It's probably taking all of her concentration just to keep them stable."

A bit disappointing, but Naruko's jubilant cry of joy that followed soon afterward told me that it was enough to pass.

Now, it was time to see how things were going to develop.

====

I didn't have the chance to immediately follow Mizuki or Naruko after the last student took the graduation exam and everyone left to return home, but I knew were the Hokage lived so I decided to keep watch over the place. Sasuke's help was invaluable for it, for he knew all sort of tricks to pass unnoticed even by experienced shinobi.

That was how I witnessed Naruko sneaking inside the Hokage's residence while Mizuki observed the whole event while hiding outside. That moron, she passed the test so why was still pulling this stupid stunt?

Oh well, time to find out. Making sure to keep my skills down to the level of a recently graduated, if talented Genin I sneaked behind Mizuki and allowed my foot to make a slight sound.

Credit where it's due, Mizuki reacted instantly by taking out a kunai and turning around at the same time, every part of his body ready to fight.

Too bad for him, he lost the instant our eyes met.

====

"What are you doing?"

Naruko let out a cute yelp, tumbling forward and smacking face-first into the open scroll's page, then on the ground below. Moaning in pain she scrambled to her feet and turned around to face me before gasping. "Sasuke?! What are you doing here?"

"I was taking a stroll when I saw you leaving the Hokage's residence." I looked at the scroll. "And unless I'm mistaken, which I'm not, there's a warning on that scroll saying only the Hokage can open and use it. So I put two and two together."

"Eeeh?! What does math have to do with this?" She asked with a fake confused tone, but turned sheepish when I stared back completely unamused. "Please don't tell anyone!" She clapped her hands together and bowed. "I just need to learn a single technique from this scroll and, instead of last place, I'll get a perfect score!"

I felt a migraine coming, and not just because I already knew about that from reading Mizuki's memories before making him waste time with a genjutsu, but also because Naruko actually believed said absurd lie. "And who told you this?"

"It was Mizuki-sensei. He said this is a secret test."

I hoped experience will fix this naivety of hers, but I wasn't willing to bet much on it. "Fine, I'll keep quiet about your attempt to gain extra credits." I let her sigh in relief before continuing. "But in exchange I want to read the scroll too."

"Uh? Sure, but why?" She scratched her head in confusion. "Didn't you already get a perfect score?"

"You see, I actually recognized this scroll from some stories I heard in the past." I replied with what was 'technically' the truth. I picked up the scroll, silently marveling at its weight, and showed it to Naruko. "It was written by the First Hokage, who recorded within it many secret and powerful techniques. Since then all successive Hokage added something to this scroll, making its content incredibly valuable."

"You mean-!" She gasped and pointed a finger at the scroll, eyes glittering. "If I learn all the techniques it contains I'll become Hokage?!"

"Nope. It doesn't work that way." Aaand, she immediately looked like a kicked puppy. That wasn't fair at all. Sighing I sat down and spread open the scroll before me. "Let's just read it, I assume you don't have all day?"

"Right!" With renewed energy she sat next to me and began to read the scroll, only to grimace. "The first technique is... Shadow Clone Technique? What the hell? Why does it start with the one type of technique I'm bad at?"

"This is not normal Clone Technique. Look, it was signed by the Second Hokage himself." And not only he had a very good calligraphy, its instructions were written so well I was betting even a complete idiot would be able to understand them. I made a show of reading the full description before stroking my chin. "Incredible. Unlike the basic Clone Technique, Shadow Clones are physically real, possessing the same clothing, damage, and transformations as the user at the time of their creation. It can even copy basic tools like kunai and shurikens. And because they are visually identical and possess the same chakra as the user, Shadow Clones are indistinguishable from their original."

"Really? Shadow Clones are much better than just normal Clones!" Naruko went back to looking very interested. "Why didn't they teach this technique at the Academy then?"

"Because the user's chakra is divided evenly between themselves and their clones." I explained. "Creating one clone will give it half the user's chakra, creating two clones will give each a third of the user's chakra, and so on. You can deplete your reserves very quickly if you're not careful, and being left without chakra means death."

I let Naruko gulp in fright, happy to have made that point clear, before continuing. "That said, it's a very useful technique for people who have a lot of chakra like you, Naruko, and since it splits the chakra evenly by itself this technique requires very little control. Ooh, here it also says that Shadow Clones usually disperse once they are struck hard enough, but once dispersed the clone's experiences and remaining chakra are transferred back to the user. That makes this technique incredibly valuable for intelligence gathering. Man, to come up with something like this the Second Hokage must have been a true genius."

I said the last part just in case the Third Hokage was already watching us, hoping that praising his mentor would make him more lenient towards me.

"Alright, I've decided: I'll learn the Shadow Clone Technique!" Naruko looked incredibly determined. "Then I'll show it to Iruka-sensei and move to the top of the class!"

"You do it." I replied while opening the scroll even more. "I want to read more."

While Naruko was focused on the first part of the scroll I once again covered my eyes with an illusion and activated the Sharingan in order to perfectly commit the scroll's contents to memory.

"Let's see what they keep inside this old thing..." Sasuke muttered as I went through the scroll at a sedate pace to give the illusion I was paying only superficial attention to the contents. "The Eight Trigrams Sealing Style? And it's not the only Uzumaki fuinjutsu, there's also the Dead Demon Consuming Seal and a lot of other Uzumaki techniques I never heard about. I guess they were added by the Fourth Hokage."

'Did you think he also wrote down his Flying Thunder God Technique?' I looked through all the techniques with Minato Namikaze's signature, but found nothing mentioning it. Either the Fourth Hokage took the secret to the grave or he store it inside some secret archive. However, I found something else. 'Uzumaki Clan's Adamantine Sealing Chains?'

"Uhm, Karin told me about it if I remember right. It's a technique that was used by the Uzumaki Clan's main branch, it creates special chakra chains capable of binding and sealing even a Tailed Beast."

Wait a moment. Those must be the golden chains that Kushina used in the anime. They were able to retrain even Kurama, I was definitely going to teach the technique to Naruko later on.

"As you wi-hold on, are those instructions for Senjutsu Chakra? Memorize them immediately!"

So even an old Sasuke was a fan of cool techniques.

====

I left Naruko's hiding place after memorizing the entire scroll, saying that I preferred to practice at home rather than in the middle of the woods. I was not sure Naruko really heard me, she was focusing very hard on the instructions for the Shadow Clone Technique, but she nodded so I took that as a yes.

The following events were not something I had the right to meddle with, but nonetheless I stood near the woods long enough to see Iruka entering them, followed some time later by Mizuki: beside the first genjutsu I added a second, more subtle one to impair his skills so I was not worried about Naruko and Iruka taking serious damage.

Now sure that the canon events were going to play without unwanted alterations I returned home, where I reviewed once again the techniques I memorized from the scroll before going to sleep. Tomorrow morning I will be required to prepare the necessary documents for my entry into the Ninja Registration book.

And the day after that, Iruka will announce the teams' composition. My ability said it's a pivotal event in the world's history, even more than the Graduation Exam, which begged the question:

Would the teams be the same as canon, or will I end together with completely different people?

I couldn't wait to see how things would turn out.