A strange new life

I was seven. Third year of Academy, when things changed.

The first months of semester went about the same. The Academy curriculum changed again. Less playing, more focused training. We sparred every day. Throwing classes. Hand-seal classes. Spycraft, infiltration, survival. Shinobi rules. At a very high level, one would still take it like a game. Naruto always did. Others wised up. The gaggle of Emosuke fan-girls grew by the month.

Learning hand-seals was fun. I could lose hours repeating the movements if I wasn’t careful. Even more when we started moving chakra in certain patterns together with the hand seal. It was a simple exercise. Perform the hand-seal, move the chakra. Perform another hand-seal, move the chakra again. It wasn’t any particular jutsu. Just getting the kids used doing the thing. My fan-girl side buzzed with joy. I mean, fuinjutsu was cool and op, but it wasn’t flashy. I wanted some fireballs. Thank you very much.

It was another normal night in the last weeks of the first semester when I woke up to distant explosions. The floor shook, like a distant earthquake. I ran outside, climbed the building, reached the roof. Light-shows, fire, lightning. It was chaos. It was far away. I looked at the Hokage tower, compared the explosions location. I had the inkling the battle, far as it was, waged on the Uchiha compound.

The village was on uproar the next day. Rumors ran rampant. Gossip. The Uchiha clan had been attacked by two people. The clan leader, Uchiha Fugaku had died. A dozen others had died.

It wasn’t the clan extermination. It changed! In the story, they only discovered silent compound filled with dead bodies, later in the day. From what I heard, stuff already happened. Itachi at thirteen became Uchiha clan head. They were being relocated from their isolated compound to their original homes. Trippy.

I was… Happy? Yeah. Happy.

Some people died. But I changed something there. Itachi hadn’t killed his whole family. Emosuke wouldn’t have any need to become even more emo on the path of revenge. The Uchiha clan was still alive, still allied with Konoha, which would help in the upcoming war.

Emosuke skipped the rest of the semester, much to the gaggle of fan-girls consternation. I enjoyed the break. No more emo trying to beat me at everything.

In the second semester of the academy, we started to learn the first of the three academy ninjutsu. Henge no Jutsu. We started with hand seals. Dog - Boar - Ram. Again and again, the sensei’s demonstrated how we need to circulate the chakra for this technique.

Sasuke had returned with the new semester. He had changed. Still arrogant, still a jerk, but now a sullen, depressed jerk. Really? What’s up with the brat? I know his father died, but it could have been worse. Why was he assuming the same sullen persona from the story? Was it really fate? I knew he was the reincarnation of Indra, and the Curse of Hatred, but really?

Depressed Sasuke became even more of a pain to deal with. He was obsessed with being the first, the best. Sparring with him was almost torture. He went for weak spots. Hit where it would hurt. Didn’t stop until I couldn’t get up anymore. The fucker. The only other he treated like that was loudmouth Naruto, who declared himself Sasuke’s rival.

For a time, I considered cheating. Use chakra and teach the brat a lesson. But resisted. That was good training. I was pretty sure I would always fight an uphill battle against the monsters of this world: Orochimaru, Tobi, a whole bunch of S-rank missing-nin. It hurt my pride to admit, but getting my ass handed out by Emosuke just proved how much I still had to train. What business did I had with the gods of shinobi of this world when I couldn’t deal with a depressed kid?

I didn’t hold back in the things I was good at. Intelligence work, deciphering things, coded messages. Strategy. I wasn’t top of the class, but I did very well on those. My music practice continued apace. I managed to beg an instrument from the Academy to practice at home. I took to playing in the evenings relax.

By the end of the third year, the shape of the class took form. Sasuke was the overall first place. Naruto was the overall last place. I was middle of class. I was good at some things, passable at others. By then, I knew how to create simple fuinjutsu and how to modify existing ones. I went with the classics: ankle and arm weight bracelets. Adding weights made me even worse at the physical aspects of my training. I didn’t mind. No one expect anything from me in that area anyway.

Emosuke started to have a negative effect even in the ball of sunshine that was Naruto. I was getting worried.

I was eight. Fourth year of the academy rolled in. To my surprise, Daikoku-sensei wasn’t teaching anymore. We had two new teachers. Iruka-sensei and another fucker that deserved to die: Mizuki.

Ever since I awakened my chakra, I could sense it around me. It wasn’t anything advanced like the byakugan that could see people chakra pathway, or even see chakra through walls. No, it was just a, I couldn’t explain, I just knew where the chakra was. Mostly, my perception was limited. People with a lot of chakra felt like a blaze. Most adults felt like a bonfire. Kids, most of the times a little fire. It was rare the occasion I could add other attributes to the fire. Like that ninja who tried to kidnap me. His bonfire was cold, indifferent.

Mizuki’s bonfire was acrid, like vinegar. Bitter and uncomfortable.

Fourth year we learned another of the three jutsu: Kawarimi no Jutsu. It used two more hand seals than Henge. Tiger - Boar - Ox - Dog - Snake. The hard part of this jutsu was finding something of comparable mass to swap places with. We also started with the leaf sticking exercise.

There were no games in Academy anymore, just ruthless, unending, focused training. More focus on strategy, leadership, logistics. Advanced maths and physics.

I got to confirm some things. About a dozen of Uchiha had died in the attack, but most of the clan was still alive. Itachi was the new clan head. Shisui was still alive. One of the attackers had been freaking Danzo. The other I guessed was Obito playing his part as Tobi, pretending to be Madara. What a mess. Sasuke was still depressed, and it didn’t seem it was going to change anytime soon. From the few outbursts during class, the kid was obsessed with being stronger than his brother.

Had Sasuke always been the obsessive type, but hidden by the Uchiha massacre?

I kept my distance. Worked on improving myself. Worked on creating new seals. Kept the ever more complex chakra exercises.