Chapter 10: Chapter 8
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***
In the large academic office, there were several Jonin sitting around a table. The principal and the teachers of the Academy. They were discussing the recent incident of a group of kids fighting.
- So a high school student, along with a group of his classmates, attacked the academy's freshmen on the back range?" asked a grey-haired man sitting at one end of the table. The headmaster of the Shinobi Academy, Nobuno Katage.
- Yes, Nobuno-san. That's the way it was," replied one of the teachers in a Jonin Vest who had stopped the children's fight.
- Has this student been seen acting like this before?
- Yes, he had attacked alone and had been reprimanded for it many times, but this was the first time he had gathered his classmates for such a thing. He'd been content with threats and petty taunts before, but this time they'd beaten up a few first year boys.
- Why did he have to beat them up, and why did he have to get so many friends to do it?
- Before that, the one time he had started threatening alone, he had been beaten up by one of the first year students.
- And who was that?
- Itachi Uchiha. The son of the head of the Uchiha clan and his successor.
- Hmm, okay. But this is a minor matter, why did you have to call a meeting for this? Did he go to the hospital?
- No, Nobuno-san. The thing is, when the Teachers came to the scene of the fight, these guys grabbed Itachi and hit him. But it turned out to be a clone, which was dispelled. The real student, was outside the academy and then came to apologise for the incident.
- Shadow cloning? At that age? Is that even possible?
- He's a genius, Nobuno-san. I think he's ready to graduate. His grades are through the roof, and he's no match for anyone in sparring except...
- Except Menma Uzumaki, I've heard of those two. The Hokage's son is no stranger to genius. At the end of the school year, he had to take the Genin exam. It was a personal request of the deceased Fourth Hokage. I think they're on the same level. Add Itachi to the list of participants to take the exam at the end of the year. It's settled. Next, we need to solve the problem of...
***
- Saki-chan, how long before you graduate from the academy?
- Um, in about two years. Why?
- No, nothing.
- What about you in five years, Dai-kun?
- No.
- How long?
- It's better if you don't know.
- Hae? Why not?
- It's a secret! Anyway, why don't you stop throwing iron when we're talking? It's hard for me to dodge.
- Yeah? But I've never been able to hit you.
- Of course, I don't want to get a hole in my body.
- Maybe you don't want to get divorced.
- You again? I told you I'm an Original.
- I just want to check it out.Saki threw shurikens and kunai at me, and I fought back and dodged as fast as I could. Yeah, after so many times when the clone was dispelled during training and she was left alone, she seemed to have had enough of that. Well, I had to develop my eyes, and I had to train the Gate, and I couldn't do that in front of her. So, yeah. Even after I got Metamorphism, I sent clones in my place to train with her. In all that time, she somehow started to realise when it was a clone and when it was an Original, but she didn't always guess. And now she was beginning to suspect me of the Cloning technique. And in general, for such a long time, she surprisingly began to communicate with me normally, and even a little actively. It seems to have been about six months since we met, give or take a few weeks. She's still confused about some of the things she does, like when I catch her after she falls out of a tree. Oh, by the way. I've started teaching her all the basic techniques like tree-walking. She's already mastered Clones, Substitution, and Henge, but walking on vertical and liquid surfaces is still difficult for her. It's winter, and therefore it snowed a long time ago. My birthday is coming up, too. I was born in spring, by the way. April 10th. So I'm about to turn six years old. And if you add my past life to that, I'm 22 years old now. Yeah, but I don't feel like an adult at all. It's amazing that with this body, even though I think like I used to, I act like a six year old. For example. I was playing with Saki. She practically spent her entire childhood in training, so she was very excited when I offered to play with her. I was thinking of childish games at the time, like hide and seek or something like that. But Saki wasn't interested in that, so she suggested we play catch-up. It seemed simple, two kids playing catch-up, but these two kids were almost at the level of junior shinobi, so the playground was not limited to a clearing. We ran through trees, and mountains, and water, well, at least I did, Saki used to sulk at me at times like this, because I was just getting away from the lake, and she still hadn't mastered the Water Walking Technique. She would sometimes try to hit me with her iron, and sometimes she would dive. But after the first time she got out of the water soaking wet, I told her not to get wet like that again, or I'd feel like a Lolicon man...ahem..... Anyway, she was much more active than when we first met. We played like that on random days when she wanted to have fun. My techniques were getting better too. But I was practising at a relaxed pace. Still, I felt like there was no rush. The only skills I was actively training were stealth and YAKI with clones. They and my usual techniques trained and pumped control, to bring it back to its former level, and maybe even increase it, because after the acquisition of Fox, I had it dropped by a hundred and fifty units! I managed to pump stealth almost to the maximum, after all, most of the clones I sent to train it. But YakI was slow to get stronger. And it wasn't very strong. It was with Kurama, he was at the level of Tails, or rather Jinchuriki, but I myself, alone, even Saki could not scare, only small animals or insects. But now he's at a level where I can scare as much as a BELKA!!!! Or a child. The elemental techniques also got stronger, and I didn't even notice when I had time to do that. Fire techniques got bigger and hotter. Wind Blades got faster and sharper. Chidori became more resilient, but he didn't lose any strength, I'd say he even gained some, especially after the eye upgrade. But Nagashi's Chidori is still hard for me to do, and uses a lot more chakra. Everything else is slowly progressing as well. The Sharingan techniques are a lot harder to pump than I thought. They work well, but they don't improve. Except that they spend less chakra each level and are easier to use, but they haven't gotten stronger yet. I think Genjutsu will evolve into Tsukuyomi when it reaches max Level. No other changes have been seen. I also wanted to try out Kurama's chakra, but Fox told me not to. He said that even though I'm a Genius, my body is still a child's body, and with each use I won't become more resistant to his chakra, but rather more vulnerable. But he added that his chakra was already affecting my body and that as I got older it would become easier for me to use it. I agreed and didn't use his chakra. I'm trying to open the gate, but Gai said that I need to train my body and then I'll be able to do it. I didn't argue and just practised all the time I had. Naruto was still being watched by clones. The villagers had already found out about him too. I still don't know who's spreading all these rumours. But now we're known as the two Fox Demons. They say that when we release Kyuubi, there will be two of them. Even though the villagers are afraid of us, they haven't stopped pissing us off. Sometimes I run into drunks who think I'm to blame for all their troubles and all their sins. I just knock them out, and it's easy, because they're so drunk that they openly attack Fox! That means they're wasted! Even Shinobi in this condition, unless they're Tokubetsu or Jonin level, I can take them down. But the regular citizens are brave enough to shit on me. I can't just walk through a crowd, one of them will kick me or slap me, some of them even succeed, but not all of them, the ones I can dodge break the bones in their arms or legs. The ANBU, by the way, who's following me, seems to have given up on the matter altogether. Well, I don't shine in front of him, so for him I do the simplest things, like academy, cooking, backyard training and sleeping, nothing else. He even went to the academy once by mistake to pick up what was obviously a clone, because I created it right outside, and then ran back to the house at full speed. He followed me from about fifty metres away, and Kurama said he hated me. Kurama said that every other person hates me, but the rest of them don't care.... By the way, I've added another function to my Status window. Reputation. I have a reputation of minus 5,000 with half the village! And with the other, minus a thousand. Some of them have a plus reputation, like the Uchiha. With Saki, by the way, I have a plus of six thousand and slowly drip one, and sometimes a hundred is added. The threshold seems to be ten thousand reputation units. After that, it doesn't go down. Although if you are a MEGA MUDAKER, then yes, it will go down. But you have to know how to do it!
- Okay, Dai-kun, I believe you, now let me go." said Saki, hanging from a tree, tied up in a rope.
- Okay." And he cut the rope and took her in his arms. She blushed again at this action and rested her head on my chest.
- Dai-kun, you're not going to lie to me, are you?" she murmured.
- Of course not, I told you, I'm real.
- That's not the point, it's just...
- How about we play a game? You want to play catch-up again?
- Then let's play for a wish, shall we?
- A wish? What wish?
- I'll tell you later.
- Okay, who's driving?
- You'll catch up with me quickly, so I'm driving.
- How long do we play till then?
- Until I give up! Oh, those eyes, she's more serious than usual. Is this wish really important to her?
- All right, start in ten seconds. I set her down and rushed towards the nearest trees. Climbing up them, I started jumping faster.
- 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10! - and rushed in my direction, and very quickly! I was very surprised. In a few seconds, she was on my tail without losing distance. I sped up, but she kept up. Next, she launched a few Kunai at me, which I fought off quickly, but it made her get closer. Then I created a clone, and it was supposed to launch me forward, but suddenly a Large Fireball formed behind us. At that moment, I switched with the clone and we jumped away from the ball in opposite directions. As I expected, Saki ran after the clone and quite quickly caught up to him and dispelled him. I was already further away and was able to break away, but a shuriken flew at me again, and from the side. I fought it off, but then I was met with a bunch of others flying in my direction. Without thinking for long, I formed the seals and blew out a Fireball. And after the Technique, I lingered on the tree and felt Saki behind me. I jumped up, caught on the tree and saw Saki flying underneath me with her hand in front of her. I smiled and pushed myself off the tree and jumped onto another tree and ran on. After the forest I saw a large cliff and ran towards it. Saki kept at a distance of thirty metres and looked at me. I jumped off the cliff and flew down. Turning around in mid-air, I saw Saki also jumped, only she stayed closer to the cliff wall. Afterwards, I grabbed the fishing line I had attached to the tree on the edge of the cliff, pulled it and flew back to the top. Saki realised this and created a clone and threw herself upwards. Getting there early, I jumped onto the tree and ran. Saki flew up and ran after me. After that, we just jumped around the trees for a while, throwing iron at each other. At one point, she threw some Kunai in my direction, but it hit the branch I was standing on.
- Katz! - the explosive tags on them exploded and I flew down at a great speed. She started to approach, and I landed and ran out into the clearing. When I was there, I saw Saki jump out of the trees and...- Fire Element: Phoenix Flowers! - she blew flames in front of her and launched her shurikens at him, and the flaming shurikens spun and intensified the fire and flew at me.
- Fire Element: Song of the Fire Dragons! - I blew out several small fireballs that resembled the shape of dragons' heads. They reached most of the shurikens and opened their jaws to devour them. The rest I simply dodged. Saki, on the other hand, rushed towards me with her Kunai after landing. I grabbed the Kunai as well, and a melee began, in which she tried to touch me in any way possible. From the onslaught of her attacks, I was slowly backing away and at one point when I jumped away from her....
- Fire Element: Firestorm! - Jets of Fire started coming at me from all directions and I just had to jump up. When I did, all the jets clustered in the centre and collided, raising a column of flame that reached me.
- Aaaaay!!! Damn! It burns!!!
- I win. - I felt Saki's arms around my waist and when she collided with me, we both flew towards the Stone. And with great speed we crashed into...The Pillow! It was a good thing I had brought it to make it softer to sit on this rock. Already lying down, I looked up at the sky, it was evening, how long had we been playing? Raising her head from my chest and covering the moon with it, Saki said with a smile.-I won, now I have one wish. -Rising up, I sat in the lotus position, cross-legged, and Saki, as usual, lay on my lap.
- Okay, make your wish. You worked so hard to win, I'm already wondering what you wanted so much.
- Dai-kun, who are you?" she asked without turning her head to me.
- What do you mean, who am I? I'm me, who else.
- You don't live in our neighbourhood. I looked for you, but nobody knew who you were. I thought you were just my imagination and I got really scared. Please tell me you're not?" she said sadly.
- I'm sorry, Saki. I didn't tell you that before.
- Tell me what?
- You promise to keep it a secret? If anyone finds out, I could be in big trouble.
- I promise I won't tell anyone!" replied Saki with a hurried shake of her head.
- Saki-chan, I'm not an Uchiha.
- W-what? But you have a Sharingan, right?
- Yes, but I'm an Uzumaki. I was able to awaken my eyes under different circumstances, which I'll tell you about someday, but not now. For now, just know that I'm not Daiki Uchiha.
- Then who are you?
- Have you heard what the villagers are saying about the Nine-tailed Fox Demon?
- Yes, I heard that the Fourth Hokage sealed it into his son and another child named Naruto Uzumaki. The Fourth lost his second son in that battle and sacrificed himself and his wife to seal Kyuubi into those two.
- That's right, I am the second Jinchuriki Kyuubi. My name is Menma Uzumaki. I am the son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki.
- You're the son of the Hokage?!
- Yes.
- Good! - and she threw herself at me, hugging me and throwing me down.
- Hey, aren't you scared of the Nine-Tails sealed inside me?
- No! I don't care! The important thing is that you're not my imagination and you're not from another village! I'm so glad! - and she cried again, burying her face in my chest.
- I put my hand on the top of her head and started stroking her. And she fell asleep, again. Heh-heh, okay. Let's see the alert.
Reputation with Sarikawa Uchiha +1000
- P-pffffffffffff!!!-looking at the alert with dazed eyes, I made that sound. Then I turned my gaze to the peacefully sleeping Saki. "Fine, let it be what it will be. I won't become a Lolicon Man if I like one single girl. Even if she's only nine years old. Well, in this world, most girls are beautiful. And children form much faster. In my old world, kids couldn't be attractive at all, but in this one...FUCK IT!!!! I'M ONLY SIX YEARS OLD!!!! AND JUST BECAUSE I LIKE A GIRL THREE YEARS OLDER THAN ME, NO ONE CAN CALL ME A LOLICON. AND IN GENERAL, LOLIES ARE BEAUTIFUL TOO, DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE ELSE THINKS!!!! 2D LOLI IS SACRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Mhm...hmm? Dai-kun, why are you shouting?
- Э? Ah, n-don't mind me...Heh-heh-heh...You can go back to sleep. Or shall we go home?
- No, let's sleep some more..." and she got comfortable and fell asleep again.
- Ugh, okay. Let's stay in, no one's waiting for us at home anyway...
***
In the Hokage's office, an old man was sitting in a chair behind his desk, smoking a pipe and looking out the window at the village at night. Then he sensed someone behind him and put his pipe aside. Behind him was a young ANBU. Kneeling on one knee and head down, he waited for his leader's instructions.
- Report.- said the old man in a gruff voice and inhaled again through his pipe of tobacco.
- Aye. There was no change in Jinchuriki's behaviour. Waking up in the morning, he got up and went to the bathroom. After eating breakfast he created Shadow Clones that started training and sent one of them to the Academy. He then sat in a meditative pose and didn't move until noon. Then he started physical training, and so on until lunch. After lunch, he took up training again and continued to train in techniques until evening. After cooking and dinner, he went to bed. Report finished.
- Okay, keep following him. Dismissed.
- Got it-and the ANBU disappeared.
- Ugh~ "After his parents died, Menma's withdrawn a lot. All he does is train and doesn't pay attention to anything else. After hearing the news of his brother's death, he got really angry, but the day after he released the Fox chakra, he was already grief-stricken. The only thing that distracted him was training. I guess he decided that he has to become strong so that his family won't die. But until then, he doesn't want to talk to anyone. There was no way to hide the fact that he was the Fourth's son. Everyone already knew it. After the villagers found out he was Jinchuriki, they painted their own picture of what happened that day and now they hate the boy. It's a good opportunity to tie him down and make him think he has to earn people's trust. The villagers would have found out he was a demon and hated him anyway, and this way, at least they could use it. It took a lot of sweat to spread the information around the village, but it was worth it. It's not the best time to start binding him, but we'll do it later. In the meantime, we need to think about what to do with his little brother. It would have been nice if they had been bound with the loyalty and obedience to the village, but Inoichi said it was impossible because of the Fox in his subconscious, and he couldn't get into Menma's head at all. I assumed it was because the Yin component of the Nine-Tails was sealed in him, but he said that was the case before the Kyuubi Sealing. We'll have to make do with less. At least it was good to be able to separate the brothers. Too bad we couldn't get through the barrier to Minato's house. He'd put up a strong barrier that's still in place today. He was bound in Menma, and if we could get him to give up the house, breaking the barrier with his chakra and blood wouldn't be a problem. Since the barrier was so strong, the house probably held all of his family's scrolls and cash. It would be a big plus for the village to have all this Fuinjutsu knowledge. I think Minato would understand. Oh, and his money after the destruction of Konoha would come in handy in a big way. They weren't found at the place where it was supposed to be, which means it's definitely in the house. But the boy seemed to care about the house and wouldn't give it up. If we'd forced him, I don't think he'd have trusted us again. We didn't want to spoil our relationship with him, so we decided to leave it alone for now. We don't have a suitable vessel in the form of Uzumaki who inherited the genes of the main branch of the clan, so resealing isn't possible yet. But we got a truly inconvenient Jinchuriki. But after all the loneliness of being rejected by the village, I think he'll do his best to be recognised and treated better. Then he'll be able to take action. In the meantime, we'll have to wait for the right time. He's got an exam coming up. We'll have to hand him the tread in person. But who should I put him on the team with? I think he'll do better with peers. Itachi Uchiha is also taking the exam with him. He'd be the best choice. But who else? Besides them, there's no other geniuses their age. Hmm, there was another Uchiha who could surpass Genin's level by now. Three geniuses on the same team? She's not much older than those two, so she'd be perfect. Moving her up a grade will be easy. That's settled. I guess it's getting late, best to call it a day and head to the block..."
***
Before I knew it, I was asleep too. In my dream, I saw something strange. I don't remember where the dream started, but I remember some parts of it. I remember a crowd around me. A crowd of people. Some looked like anime characters, and some I'd never seen before. But, then they all started fighting. We were completely surrounded by some sort of dome, and behind it was a view of beautiful scenery, similar to the drawings of space I had seen in my world. I remember myself starting to fight and.... killing. I was killing the people closest to me and I was doing it on sheer force. Then the dream was cut short.
- Or...ginal...rigin...original? Hey Original, wake up! Ow!!! Good morning!!!- I opened my eyes, and a bright flash of light made me close them back up. After a few more attempts, I finally managed to open them. In front of my face, my clone was waving his hand in the air. You slept well, didn't you? What happened last night? Why didn't you come home?
- Oh, it's a long story. You better get out of here quick.
- Okay. - He folded his seal and I got his memory. It seems he just came to see what was wrong when I didn't even turn up till the morning. The clones didn't seem to have done anything. It was the same at home. The clone had gone to the academy and the rest of us were training. Morning! Wake up! She's not getting up? Hmm, I guess her parents were worried about her since she didn't come home last night. She still has to go to the academy. Saki! Started shaking her shoulder.
- Mm-hm... Eh? D-dai-kun, what are you doing in my room...Eh?! Where are we? Are we in a clearing? Wait! What time is it?! I have to go to the academy!
- Good morning to you too, Saki-chan. I think the academy has already started. It's about ten o'clock.
- What?! I-I-I... I-I guess I overslept?!
- That's right!
- But... W-What do I do?! I've never--
- You've never been absent from class?
- Never.
- Then congratulations on your first experience!
- It's not funny! I mean, I mean, I mean, my parents! They're... aah!!!
- Calm down, calm down. You'll just skip one day and that's it. Nothing will happen. You can tell your parents you overtrained and fell asleep. I don't think they'll be surprised.
- All right.- But this is the first time you and I are gonna spend the morning together. What do you want to do?
- I'm gonna send Shadow Clone home.
- Oh, that's not what I meant.
- I want to go out with Dai-kun! - and the bright smile of an angel. This technique could be compared to Boots' eyes!
- Okay. But shall we eat first?
- Why?
- Hmm, I think we can make a bite.
- No!
- Ha-ha, I'm kidding. And I got the food out of my inventory. The clone brought it.
***
After breakfast, we went for a walk in the woods. We walked for a long time and talked. Saki sent the clone home as she wanted. After a few hours of walking, we met...a bear. A huge bear.
A mutant bear from the Forest of Death, Unit 20.
That's how my assessment reacted to him. Hmm, it seems to have escaped from the Forest of Death. There are no such beasts in the forests and ranges closest to Konoha. A rabbit would be the best a rabbit could do. I didn't risk going too far. That's why I couldn't collect the Soul Crystals. They didn't give them for rabbits. Probably because they're below even level one. But I haven't seen any of those around here. You can get a level 20 Soul Crystal for it. If I think about it, I don't have to wait for the missions to kill bandits or until I get into the labyrinth. I can collect Soul Crystals in the Forest of Death and finally buy everything I've been planning for a long time. But maybe the Forest is guarded...or from the Forest? Anyway, it doesn't matter, the important thing is that it's going to be hard to get through. But I can get a lot of things there. I switched on the Sharingan and gave Bear a Genjutsu. He just blacked out. Then I killed it with my Kunai and got experience points and a Level 20 Soul Crystal. Hmm, it looks the same as the others. Then it's settled! I'm going into the forest to hunt for the Crystals! I think I'll stay there for about a week first. During that time, I can save up enough Crystals to buy information I'm interested in. And the next time, after I've mastered the Sharingan, I'll buy the genes I need and perform the Eye Fusion Ritual! I think it's a rare thing to do, or they'll get suspicious. As for the fact that I won't be home for a week, again, I wasn't worried. The clones are used to pretending that the Original is among them, and the ANBU who's looking after me doesn't seem to realise anything. Now I need to stock up on everything I need...though I think I have everything in my inventory anyway. Then we can leave right away. I'll have to walk Saki home first and tell her I'll be gone for about a week, or she might think something. I should put the bear's carcass in my inventory, too, because it might come in handy...