Sakumo?!

2 years later

Ryu and Anko's relationship got a bit better during this time, making Ryu ecstatic!

He continued to train hard with Guy everyday, even sparring with Kakashi whenever the duo found him.

Eventually, they dragged him to train with them.

He was completely unwilling, but what could he do? They would gang up on him!

And so the duo turned into a trio!

However!

After these 2 years, the Third World Ninja War started!

Around a year later, Sakumo killed himself.

Ryu was dumbfounded by this, he tried his hardest to prevent it and as a result it still happened!

It should be noted that Ryu had been to Kakashi's house more than just a few times. Ryu and Guy went to drag Kakashi to train with them everyday, so they would see Sakumo a lot.

Ryu chatted happily with Sakumo quite frequently and liked him quite a bit. Mainly because Sakumo found his devil grin funny and would chuckle when Ryu got nervous.

For Ryu, who had no parents at all, Sakumo's hair ruffling was quite warm.

Unfortunately, no matter how much he tried to stop the tragedy, it still happened!

This time, Ryu was blown away and understood what the 'Darkness of Konoha' was truly like.

Even Sakumo's partners who were saved by him came to berate him everyday in front of his house. Everyone on the street was talking about how Sakumo failed as a ninja for giving up the mission to save his friends.

Ryu was dumbfounded at their expressions!

The main point was most of the village was talking about it on the street! Not only that but even civilian non-ninjas were speaking with disgust!

How did this make any sense! These idiots don't even have Chakra!

Ryu questioned a person once, shouting at them, "Don't you know that you're only safe because Ninja protect the village?! Who are you to talk bad about Sakumo-sensei!?" the person replied with disdain, "Sakumo? That waste of a ninja? It'd be better if he died! Other ninja can protect us just fine!"

Ryu lost it and his grin surfaced as he beat that person to the ground, bloodying his face with hard punches!

The surrounding civilians shouted in horror and scrambled, shouting "Uchiha's gone crazy again! Save us! Help!"

The person's blood splashed on Ryu's face, making his devil's smile look more evil until finally Sakumo himself stopped Ryu, holding him back and apologizing.

What really shocked Ryu was that the person who was just brutally beaten spat out blood and sneered "Shut up, disgrace! You're the shame of Konoha!" Ryu's eyes turned red and he flailed in Sakumo's arms, roaring "I'LL KILL YOU!"

Sakumo simply smiled and brought Ryu away, not saying anything else.

Back at Sakumo's house, he admonished Ryu severely, "Ryu, you can't be like this." Ryu complained angrily, "How can they say that about you!? I don't understand, are they all idiots?! If there weren't any ninja left they would be fish on a chopping block! These trash only know how to complain!"

Sakumo sighed and patted Ryu's head, smiling "I appreciate you standing up for me, Ryu. But this isn't the way you treat villagers." Ryu quieted down, but his grin was still there. Sakumo ruffled his hair and laughed "It doesn't matter what people say about me, you know? I know what's right and wrong in my heart. Their words don't affect me at all."

Ryu said "But yo-" Sakumo cut him off, adding "Don't attack villagers anymore, okay? It's not what a ninja should do. We exist to protect the village, you know? That's our main priority. All these people, no matter what they say, are comrades and kinsmen. Do you understand?"

Ryu looked up at him with his mouth open slightly, Sakumo smirked at him and patted his chest, "We protect the weak because we have the power to! This is our duty! This is our justice!"

Ryu was dazed and nodded dumbly, Sakumo smiled gently and patted his head, saying "Alright, get out of here." Ryu looked at Sakumo and opened his mouth before closing and saying softly "Bye, Sakumo-sensei." as he walked away, absorbed in his thoughts.

Sakumo smiled happily and let out a breath watching Ryu leave.

Ryu walked home alone that night. He thought about what Sakumo said about justice.

He wondered to himself, 'What's MY justice?'

This question was too deep for him to wrap his head around at the moment. He didn't even know what to think, only drawing a blank when he thought of it.

The next day rumors about him exploded, some people called him a devil, demon, evil spirit, etc, but Ryu didn't care.

The Uchiha came to see him and after finding out what happened, berated him harshly before leaving.

They weren't too worried, anyway Uchiha was never popular in the first place.

The time flashed in a blink to when Sakumo died.

Ryu was standing at an unmarked grave at the edge of Konoha.

He was stunned and staring at the stone in a daze, suddenly endless resentment burst from him and his eyes turned blood red, a little Tomoe circulating.

This was how he awakened Sharingan!

Ryu went out to war without anyone knowing he awakened Sharingan.

Are you kidding?

Tell someone and become a target for the higher ups in Konoha? No thanks…

At any rate, Ryu performed well in the war, his flames were 500 degrees and his taijutsu skills were pretty good.

He wasn't as absurd as Minato or Kakashi, but he was pretty strong.

He could fight Jonin and escape with his life, but Chunin and Genin were directly slaughtered in his hands.

Sarutobi Hiruzen promoted him from Genin to Chunin and then to Special Jonin after getting the reports of Ryu's exploits.

Speaking of promotions, Anko performed very well during the war as well.

Their entire class graduated early because of the war and joined the battlefield.

Ryu didn't know that he was in a special Naruto world because Anko was supposed to be younger than Kakashi by 3 years or so, but where he was she was the same age as Ryu, who was only 1 year younger than Guy and Kakashi.

After all, how are you supposed to remember everything from Naruto?

Memorize the wiki?

Yeah right!

Ryu didn't even know when Anko met Orochimaru or when she got a curse mark or anything.

After all, she wasn't particularly famous in his previous life.

She was there but compared to Tsunade and Terumi Mei and the rest of the ninja 12 in Naruto, she was a minor character.

However, Ryu didn't care about this at all and went to find her whenever he had free time, inviting her to join him to train or eat candy or do anything really.

Despite declining every single time, her tone got warmer and warmer from the shouts to normal speaking to a soft voice to hesitating, to postponing!

This was clearly a good sign!

Sure enough, you can't take girls seriously.

If they reject you it only means try harder!

If you ask them out 1 million times, they must be curious about the situation if they say yes, right?

Maybe the 1,000,001th time you ask, they'll say yes!

Anyway, this pace continued with fighting and killing on the battlefield between Konoha and the Rock Village!

Ryu trained everyday he wasn't fighting, even during fights he would train hard against opponents and his skills surged during life and death battles.

He was 7 when the war started and he was 13 when it ended!

Ryu was sitting on a bench, eating a mochi ball.

He was wearing a loose oversized white t-shirt with the Uchiha logo on the chest, along with custom dark blue pants. Ryu cut the bottoms a few inches above his ankles because he didn't like how long they usually were.

There was a ninja bag on his thigh and his forehead protector hung from his neck.

His long jet black spiky hair fell from his head to halfway down his back and it was extremely bushy.

It didn't look like Madara, more like Kenpachi Zaraki after the Arrancar saga.

In short, Ryu started to look more handsome than cute, surprisingly all Uchiha clansmen were quite attractive.

Good genes probably.

Notably, Ryu didn't wear any ninja sandals or shoes at all for that matter.

He was barefoot most of the time.

To him, it didn't really matter because his body was getting stronger and stronger, whether he wore sandals or not didn't affect him. Also, Ryu hated the sandals, they were downright ugly!

He was so handsome, how could he wear such ugly things?