Chapter 29

Apparently, using high level ninjutsu was highly frowned upon during Academy taijutsu spars. I had unsuccessfully tried to explain to the teacher, "We always practiced like that. I didn't use anything that would have killed Naruto. I probably couldn't kill him even if I tried." Iruka simply had no answer to that and, seeing the battered state of my body, angrily sent me to the Academy medical station where I spent the rest of the period.

A white-uniformed medical-nin checked my body for serious injuries and treated the worst bruises with the Mystical Palm Technique, laying a glowing hand over some nasty discolorations. I already started to hurt. I felt like I had lost to Naruto, however. I couldn't think of any way to beat his clones with anything less lethal than a Rasengan.

"Excuse me, if I wanted to learn medical techniques like what you are doing, where would I go to learn?" I asked the medic.

Without pausing the technique, the man said, "Impressed, eh? Well, if you want to become a medical-nin, you'd probably want to enter one of the medical programs that they offer at the hospital. Then you could see whether you're suited to medical ninjutsu. Mind you, becoming a medical-nin is hard work. But it was worth it because it let me help others like you. And I gotta say, kid, whoever you were fighting did a number on you. How did you get bruises all around your body like that? Usually I just see some banged up arms and maybe a bruised rib. From what I can tell, it seems like you were fighting a taijutsu monster."

I simply smiled placidly and let the man continue talking.

Naruto and I sat in detention on opposite sides of the classroom, separated by Iruka who glared at each of us in turn. Naruto insisted that I was the first to use ninjutsu with my body flicker technique. I contended that ordinary chakra-assisted high speed movement does not require any seals and is simply an advanced taijutsu technique. Iruka had apparently been tending to students who had fainted due to the immense killing intent and only properly paid attention when we started shooting chakra orbs at each other.

In the middle of Iruka's irate scolding, someone knocked on the classroom door and walked in. A male ninja whispered something in Iruka's ear. Our Academy teacher sighed and rubbed his forehead in his hand. "You two," he pointed at each of us, "are to stay here until I say you can leave. If you've moved an inch by the time I get back, you will be running laps for every taijutsu lesson from now until the end of the year!" With that, he followed the ninja messenger out of the classroom.

As soon as the door was closed, we listened for Iruka's footsteps to fade away. As soon as he was out of earshot, Naruto was sitting next to me. "I didn't know you could make the Rasengan into a fireball! That was amazing! How did you do that?"

I had spent the majority of the last two years working in my taijutsu and perfecting the fire nature transformation, much to Ebisu's annoyance. It had been infinitely more satisfying to cause tree leaves to spontaneously combust than to make ghastly, deformed illusionary clones. "Some people just want to see the world burn." The nice thing about the Rasengan was that it wasn't as picky as hand seals about how much chakra you put into it. The focus was simply on the shape transformation of the chakra. More chakra simply gave you a bigger Rasengan although it would become a massive chakra sink very quickly. It was fascinating how simple and flexible the technique was.

I had literally spent a portion of every day of the last two years burning leaves and trying to apply the nature transformation to the Rasengan and experimenting with the technique. I was still trying to juggle more than two Rasengans and it irked me that Naruto had beaten me to it. I did feel proud that he could do it properly without needing his clones to help him spin the chakra.

"Do you remember all things you had to do with your chakra to make the Rasengan work? First you had to spin it, and then thicken it for power, and then form it into a sphere for stability. The next step is to apply a nature transformation," I explained. The look on his face confirmed the Jiraiya hadn't taught him how to do that yet.

I continued my explanation to Naruto, "Everyone's chakra naturally has an affinity for one of the five basic elemental types. In my case, I have a fire affinity. What that means is that my chakra finds it very natural to burn things. I'm pretty sure you're a wind type, which means that your chakra will be really good at cutting things." I held up my hands and demonstrated with an illusion the effects of fire and wind chakra. Above my right hand, a leaf caught fire. Above my left hand, a leaf tore down the middle and then tore again and again into tiny bits.

When the illusion ended, I pulled out my notebook and tore out an empty page, ripping it into leaf sized portions. "Make seven clones, Naruto," I told him. The boy still looked confused but complied with my request. All the seats around me were filled with blond clones who patiently waited for instructions. I handed six of them a scrap of paper and the seventh clone I thralled with a genjutsu.

After it had played out, the affected clone poofed away and the original Naruto let out a long "Oh!" of comprehension. Genjutsu could be really useful sometimes. He summarized the lesson of my illusionary vision, "So if there are six clones, I can learn how to do it six times faster! That's so smart."

"Yeah. You can use it for learning just about anything. Just remember; be careful not to wear yourself out," I said blankly. "What you want to do is use your chakra to cut through the paper. As you steadily build up your chakra, you want to sharpen it. Imagine that you're splitting your chakra and grinding it against itself and honing it into the sharpest edge you can make." I rubbed the sides of my hands against each other to demonstrate the idea. "The sharper you can make your chakra, the stronger your attack will be, like the difference between a sharp kunai and a dull one. Once you can cut through an entire leaf, then you can try to make a Rasengan out of that chakra."

The clones all stared at the paper in their hands. The original Naruto showed them how to bring their hands together and they started trying to figure out the technique. Then the real Naruto turned to me. "Haru, I want to thank you for teaching me. It almost feels like, old times, yeah? But I've been wanting to ask you...where did you learn all this?"

I looked into Naruto's serious blue eyes and for a second, I considered telling him the truth. But suddenly the door opened. Naruto's clones puffed out of existence and he was back in his seat across the room. We expected Iruka but instead, Sasuke walked into the classroom.

The black haired boy walked up to the middle of the blackboard where Iruka or Mizuki would normally stand. He pointed at me and spoke, "Is it true? You taught Naruto that technique? Teach it to me."

I knew that Sasuke was living in the shadow of his older brother but that was still pretty rude. "What do I get out of it?" I asked from my seat among the empty rows. Naruto was showing an uncharacteristic amount of patience for what I expected from him.

"I'm sure my parents would hire you as a tutor if I explained the situation to them," Sasuke offered confidently.

"I don't think you understand the situation at all, Sasuke." Ordinarily, I would use a more formal 'Uchiha-san' but this kid was pissing me off. I stood up and slowly walked down the rows of seats. My body was still sore from my fight with Naruto and heavy training weights didn't make me go any faster. I sat on the desk surface for the first row and said, "I'm not interested in your money, Sasuke. However, you do have something that I might be interested in."

The boy raised his eyebrow. "And that is?"

"If you bring me the Sharingan, I'll tell you everything I know," I offered, knowing it was an absurd price. But then again, what I had to offer was similarly absurd. "It doesn't have to be yours. I wouldn't mind your brother's. Or his friend's, Shisui's."

Sasuke's face scrunched into a disgusted look, as if I had just offered him candy if only he'd get into my white van.

"How much did you hear of the conversation between me and Naruto, Sasuke?" I asked coldly.

"Enough," was his reply. Sasuke continued to stare at me intently.

"Then let me ask you something. If you had to choose between the lives of your parents or the life of your brother, which would you choose?" I asked with complete seriousness.

Sasuke became wide-eyed. "What...what kind of question is that? What are you saying? I won't let you hurt them!" he shouted, taking a combat stance.

"Just answer the question," I said without moving.

"I...I...I don't know. How can you ask something like that?" The boy's confidence seemed to dissolve into nothing when he considered the two options. Confusion returned to his face.

"How can you come to me with so little resolve and demand someone else's techniques?" I slammed my fist into the table. "You will never surpass your brother at this rate. Go away and leave me alone. Feel free to come back when you find a reason why I should tell you anything." I no longer wanted to talk to the naive little shit. I wasn't going to teach anything to someone who just wanted his parents to like him more. And as he was, there was no way he could do anything about the future.

Sasuke growled and clenched his fists menacingly, but he left without a word. I went back to my seat as Iruka had left me.

"Hey, Naruto?"

Naruto seemed to come out of shock, "Haru?"

"Do you trust me?"

He paused for a while. I simply waited. Eventually, quietly, he answered, "Yes."

"I really don't know what I'm doing," I admitted. "I don't know what I should do. All I know is that I have to do something. I can't just let things go. I don't know why I know your father's technique. I just thought you deserved to know it too. One day, when I figure it out, I'll tell you everything. Until then, all I can ask is that you believe in me."

The classroom was silent for a long time as we waited for Iruka to return.