Chapter 32

"What?"

I blinked in confusion before turning towards Anko. My sensei stood there wide-eyed and obviously as disbelieving as I was feeling. She even turned to me a second later, as if to check with me that we really had heard what we had heard.

Zabuza let out an annoyed sigh.

"It's how the swords are passed down," He explained, sounding like it pained him to do so. "You either win it in a battle or a Swordsman gives it to you."

"And if the requirements aren't met..." I tried, trailing off with an unsure voice. 'Is this really happening?'

"Then Kiri hunts the sword down to get it back, and another Swordsman will keep it until a new wielder is found," He finished.

"We never heard of this," Anko pointed out with a frown.

"Because nobody had ever won by themselves against a Swordsman," Zabuza replied curtly. "Maito Dai was the only one to do so, and he died to the rest of the Swordsman since he fought them all. If the brat hadn't interfered with yours, you would have been able to keep Shibuki. That's actually what Kiri expected to happen with both swords when we found out about Konoha helping retrieve the swords."

"Really want to smack you right now, kiddo," My sensei grumbled.

I, for my part, was unnerved by the grin that was evident in Zabuza's face even under the bandages.

"Well, I wouldn't be too happy if I were you, brat," He said, the smirk evident in his tone too. "That only means there will be a bunch of Kiri ninja wanting to challenge you for the ownership. Just hope our side wins, at least that way they'll keep the Swordsman code and do a proper one on one fight for it."

"On second thought," Anko added, with a wry smile. "I think I'm good. Although, you should know," She continued, looking directly at the Kiri Swordsman. "You ain't getting that sword from him. If I know anything about the kid is that he'll be Swordsman level in no time at all."

"That so…?" He asked, turning to me once more. I had to do conscious effort not to shiver under those eyes. They were much more intimidating than Nuibari's wielder had been. "High praise coming from the student of the Snake of the Sannin," My sensei's eyebrow twitched at that last part, understandably.

"Anyway," She clapped, clearly done with that conversation. "So, the brat's going to be challenged for the sword sometime in the future. Is this going to cause any more problems?" She asked, her tone joking although her eyes belied the seriousness behind the conversation.

"It shouldn't, at least from our side," Zabuza shrugged. "With that said, I'll be taking this," He added, throwing the scroll with Shibuki up after taking it from my hand. "And we'll be on our way. Good luck with that sword, brat," He directed at me. "Anyone else would be cursing your name for taking one of the Seven Swords while not being from Kiri. But you took it fairly."

There was something very, very surreal about Zabuza speaking like that to me. Where was the man that was called Demon of the Mist? Maybe my memories of just how he was were wrong? It wasn't like I remembered the show anymore, and I didn't know how well I had remembered it when I wrote it down on my notes.

"Just don't be a weakling, will you?" Now that was more what I expected.

A second later, Zabuza and Haki disappeared from the place.

We, for our part, stood where we were for a minute or so. I took a look at the sword still in my hand. It was long, almost as long as I was tall. Although, being fair, it probably had something to do with me being still twelve. A third of it consisted solely of its handle and at its widest, it was barely more than two of my fingers put together. The ninja wire attached to the end of it, I shuddered at the sight, was almost invisible. Much thinner than the normal one, that was for sure.

"Guess we will have to raise your training standards, again," Anko sighed. "Just to keep you alive after Kiri's mad swordsmen come looking for that thing."

Instead of answering, I kept staring at the sword. One of the Seven Swords of the Mist. Granted, the anime and manga made it look like Samehada was the only one worth a damn, what with it being sentient and capable of eating freaking chakra of all things. And there was one other that was quite neat. But the rest were kind of meh, or so I recalled.

But this was still a legendary sword. And being in the world I was… I needed all the boosts I could get. The system was nice, and it was giving me a fair bit of help with my development. But still, in this world, if you didn't have a Chakra Beast or a Bloodline Limit, you weren't much, really. There were exceptions, obviously, such as Minato, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Hiruzen… but those were legends. Legends that had broken through their limit with time, effort and talent.

I didn't have time though. Not with the plot hovering over my head like a Sword of Damocles.

Now though.

[Nuibari Mastery – Lvl 1

Increases the skill of the user when fighting with Nuibari according to level.

Increases damage done with Nuibari by 5%.

Increases accuracy when throwing Nuibari by 5%.

Increases Chakra Flow effectiveness and efficiency by 5% when used on Nuibari.

Increases Physical Stats when using Nuibari by 1%.]

Now I had something to help me be a little closer to those levels of madness. Now I had something to even the playing field a little bit. Just a bit, but it was enough for now. I welcomed every advantage I could get. I smirked to myself.

"Yeah, looks like it," I commented softly.

"Let's go, kiddo," Anko nodded before turning to the still conscious Mist ninja that she had trapped. "Now, what to do with you?" She grinned and the man paled. I looked away, both to take a minute to think and to avoid seeing something that I would be unable to unsee.

[}-o-{]

There was a lot of white around. The white clothes and sheets over me feeling like they were made of lead. The white ceiling feeling infinitely deep and at the same time oppressively close. The white door almost disappeared on the equally white wall, so close and also so far that I knew I would never walk out of it.

Eventually though, I managed to stand up on my own two feet. The way towards the only out of the room was agonizingly slow, but I made it.

Once I pushed the door open though, I fell right out of it, into an infinite fall. Although, could it be considered a fall, when there was nothing to be seen around, the white room's sight long gone somewhere in the emptiness. Even my own body was invisible, and all I could see was a strange colorless landscape as far as I could see.

Who knows how long after that, I appeared somewhere, not quite falling into place as much as I simply popped into existence there. There was little to see, even there. I seemed surrounded by people, but all of them were faceless.

Until they weren't.

One of them approached, slow steps from where they stood. As the shape grew close, I had trouble focusing on it to find any features to it. All but one detail seemed blurred making it impossible to recognize anything about the person. All but one, indeed.

An impossibly wide smile was very visible on the creature as it continued moving towards me.

I noticed that the others were walking behind it too, some distance behind.

Something else became clear after some time. Red liquid seemed to fall from the Grinning Man's neck. Afterwards, the others started bleeding too. Some lost their arms, others simply had blood start pouring out of holes on their bodies.

The Grinning Man grew closer and closer.

He was standing right in front of me.

He opened his mouth and-

My eyes snapped open and a quiet gasp filled my lungs with air as I felt my heart hammering inside my chest. A second later, my head fell back against the uncomfortable pillow that I used to sleep on while we camped, halfway towards Konoha already. I sigh escaped my lips and I clenched my eyes shut while taking deep breaths.

'My nightmares get worse and worse, huh?' I thought to myself bitterly. I couldn't remember a time where I didn't have nightmares anymore. The white room was the most vivid memory I had of my past life, the nightmare a seemingly permanent reminder. The Void was something that I would never forget. And now… the Grinning Man and his people had added their part, apparently.

Grimacing, I decided to try and sleep some more after seeing that it was still clearly the middle of the night.

[}-o-{]

Once we made it to Konoha, I found myself surprised. Why, one may ask. Well, I had expected seeing Naruto after what happened in our mission to be much more difficult. After all, his whole character was about peace and forgiveness and such. Meanwhile, there was I, coming back after massacring people in cold blood. Regardless of that, I could only feel eager to meet the blonde. I missed him, truly, and I also really wanted to talk to him about what happened.

I didn't know how he would react. Maybe he would be uncomfortable with it, at the least. Maybe he would hate me, at the worst. Still, be it one outcome or the other, or maybe something completely different, the fact was that Naruto was my brother in all but blood. And I really wanted to see him, talk to him. There was a distinct possibility of this going wrong, but not telling him would be even worse. If I couldn't trust him, then… who did I have to trust?

"I can… you know, talk about this, right?" I asked Anko nervously as we walked. I had always kept my tales of C-rank missions vague, since I didn't want to get into trouble and, really, there was much to talk about anyway. But this time…

"You can tell people about what happened in it. Just… don't describe too many details and leave… the important stuff out of it. You are smart, I think you can fill in the holes yourself," My sensei explained and I nodded slowly.

'So, don't make it easy for people to put together who did what we did,' I reasoned in my head. 'And don't talk about our involvement in the Mist Civil War… I'm also guessing I can't talk about Nuibari,' I thought to myself, the storage seal tag sitting on my trousers feeling as heavy as the sword itself despite the fact that it didn't actually weigh more than a sheet of paper.

Eventually, my sensei and I took our separate paths. She kept going, straight to the Hokage tower to report our mission details. I would normally go with her, but she had told me that I could skip that part this time. I hadn't protested much against that, I'll admit.

I was very grateful that we arrived pretty late to the village. That would make it so that it would be strange for someone else to be at home, unless Naruto had suddenly decided to host a sleepover. There was also the fact that not many in our group would be in for such a thing. Chouji might, he was nice like that, but everyone else would probably decline or have other things to do.

"I'm home," I called out, lower than I usually would as the nerves started hitting me.

"Eiji!" Naruto called excitedly from the second floor and a smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. "You came really quick! You have to tell me how it went-" The blond stopped dead on his tracks as he took in the sight of me. I wondered what went through his head as he saw the patch on my cheek and my white bandages on my right arm. "What happened?" He asked shakily and I gave him a weak smile.

[}-o-{]

Naruto PoV

It was a long night, that one. For me and for Eiji, and I didn't think he was worried about the right things, if I was completely honest. He told me all of it, even things that he thought he shouldn't, he said so himself and I believed him. And for that trust, I wouldn't breath a word of it to anyone. Not even our own group if Eiji didn't want me to. He still kept some things from me, but I could care less about those.

I knew what I needed to know.

Eiji had gotten hurt.

Hurt enough that he would forever carry the scars of the event on his arm. He hadn't shown me, but he had, after some insistent prodding, described the wound in detail for me.

Hurt enough that he had just… passed out, on the ground and bleeding. I could picture it, his body just… lying there. And if not for his sensei he might never have… came back to me, to us. I would have nightmares about that image, I knew that much.

Eiji, my brother. The boy that had always been this unreachable goal to me and to the rest of the group. The boy that could wipe the floor with half the group in a battle.

He had almost died.

The worst part of it was that I had not been anywhere near the whole thing. And even if I had been, I wouldn't have been able to help. That helplessness ate at my mind the more I thought about it.

Maybe it made me a horrible person, that I didn't care that he killed the guy with the cool sword. Maybe it made me a horrible person, that I didn't care about any of the others either. But after putting myself in Eiji's place, thinking about this madman threatening the people I cared about like that, I couldn't bring myself to care the smallest bit. A part of me did feel guilty and shameful about not caring, but that was about it.

But… I didn't want to lose Eiji. And I didn't want to lose anyone in our group. And I could understand, especially right then and there with my brother's wounds evident to the eye, the fear of losing those close to one. I certainly didn't know how I would have reacted to something like that. And knowing Eiji like I did, I knew that losing people important to him was one of his greatest fears.

I understood that much.

"I don't care, Eiji," I said, my face resolute as I faced my brother. He stared back at me with wide eyes and I continued on. I needed to talk, or Eiji would worry too much and think stupid things. "You are alive, and you did what you did because you care about your sensei, about us. You… could have gone about it differently," I admitted, because lying would only make things worse. But I kept talking quickly before he could speak or his brain got ahead of itself. "But I still don't care. You came back… alive," I choked out the last word as my eyes prickled with unshed tears. "And that's all I care about... that's all I need to know."

"Naruto, I..." He started, but I didn't let him speak.

"That's all I need to know because I already know that you are a good person," I said, because there was no other way to look at it. "No matter what… you are a good person, Eiji. I know that, the group knows that. And I'll say it as many times as you need to hear it. Because I know that when you get your ideas in mind it's difficult to change your opinion. But I won't let my brother think he is a monster."

Silence followed my words as red stared into blue.

"Naruto," His voice reached me soft and vulnerable in a way that I had never heard from him except when he was having nightmares. "I don't know if I ever told you… but you are going to make a great Hokage," He said, a watery smile forming on his face as he straightened on his seat. "I know it. And I'll make sure of it."

"And you'll make a great Shinobi no Kami, Eiji."

[}-o-{]

Eiji PoV

"I see," Hana said slowly after I gave her an abridged version of my mission, very similar to the one I had given to the group.

After my talk with Naruto, it had been much easier to speak about it with our friends. And I had been incredibly relieved that they had reacted similarly to my blonde brother. Sakura had surprised me, although in hindsight I shouldn't have been, being the one that took it the worst. Fortunately, she didn't start yelling or anything of the sort, but it was clear as day that she disagreed strongly with how I had handled the situation.

Hinata and Chouji I had expected to have similar thoughts too, but I was still surprised since they didn't take it as badly as I expected them to. In the Akimichi's words, lots of bad things can happen in a mission, especially at higher levels. We could only learn from them and expect better of ourselves in the future. He obviously sounded like he was quoting someone, his parents were my bet, but that didn't make it any less reassuring.

It also served to remind me, once more, that this world was very different than the one I had grown up in. It seemed, too, that I was still coming to terms with that even after the years I had spent in that world. Hopefully, I would accept this fact soon, or my life would be very complicated, I could tell.

Everyone also seemed more interested in the news that I was now the wielder of a legendary sword, go figure. I had, however, only told my group of friends and I had also made sure that they knew to keep the news to themselves. That's what Anko and I had agreed was the course of action to take. And considering that she hadn't said anything after reporting to the higher ups, I guessed the order stood.

"I'm sorry that happened to you, Eiji," The Inuzuka sitting next to me said softly, her hand petting the head of Hai, that sat on her left. Meanwhile, mine did the same with Lu that had taken the place on my right. "I've never gone on dangerous missions myself," Hana explained with a sad, somewhat bitter smile. "But I've seen my mother come back from some that went wrong for one reason or another. I know she's done things that neither she nor I are proud of. But it doesn't change the fact that I love her and that I'm grateful that she gets to come back."

"What I'm trying to say is..." She continued quickly. "That the people who know you will also know what kind of person you are, despite what you might do. You just have to make sure the darkness of the world doesn't get to you, change you to fit it."

"Thanks," I said as a smile formed on my face. It wasn't big, but I meant it. "I thought for a second that you were going to say you love me," My grin widened as I saw her sputter with a red face and the dogs around us giving their version of a laugh.

All was still good.

[}-o-{]

"I've got news for you, kiddo," Anko said with a smirk as we met up in a training ground. She gave a wry grin as I groaned out loud. "These aren't bad news, at least," I gave a tired sigh at that and nodded.

"Right, hit me with it already."

"First of all, there's a good chance that the Chuunin Exams will be delayed, which gives us more time to get you to a level that will thoroughly embarrass the other villages," She explained with a grin. "The why, I can't tell you. And you can't tell anyone I told you this either, but blah blah blah, you know the drill."

I nodded at that. 'Sure, let's change canon some more, why don't we?' I thought to myself. 'I'm not sure there even is a point to my foreknowledge anymore. Most events aren't going to happen how they would have now, or will be very different… at least I know the general idea, I guess.'

"Second of all," She put up two fingers. "Is that I know what you've been studying on the side," She blinked as I nodded. It seemed that she expected me to get nervous or something. But honestly, I already knew she knew about Danzo. It wasn't much of a stretch to assume she knew about everything else. "Fucking brat, you could at least act a little."

She clicked her tongue in annoyance when I gave her my worst impression of an utterly shocked face.

"Anyway," She rolled her eyes at me. "if you have a project you've been working on or want to start one. I'll be here to supervise any experiments you want to try. Just, please be sure they are somewhat safe beforehand. I don't want to see you blow yourself up."

"Not gonna have them checked?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Jutsu Creation isn't something that anyone can do," She explained. "That's why few people have personally made jutsu of their own. Some people compare the talent to bloodline limits, you either can make Jutsus that actually work or you can't. There's some people that can take a look at it and know if it'll blow you up or not, but that's about it."

That made some sense, I guessed. It gave somewhat of a reason for why there were so few people with original jutsu around.

"So, you'll try and make one of your own. A low-ranked one," She demanded more than suggested. "and we'll see where that goes, ok?"

"Sure," I nodded. Although internally I was grinning. I was sure that I would get a skill for this. And once I did, it would be much easier from there. But she didn't need to know that.

"Third of all," Her grin turned into something that sent shivers down my spine. "We talked about upping your training, remember? I hope you are prepared. Once your arm is back in top condition, your ass is mine, kiddo."