I hadn’t expected the box to attack like that, and instead of trying again I started to prepare. I spent a month creating an array that would counteract the freezing effect, something that would warm my chakra and keep it at a stable temperature.

  Then I tried sensing again.

  As I thought, it was sword shaped and it was absolutely saturated in ice chakra.

  “How rare,” Kurama mused, also sensing the object. “Ice chakra is a rare mixture of wind and water…”

  “I know,” I said softly. Immediately all I thought of was Haku. While it was brief, he had been a friend. Someone I was going to have to try to save this time.

  Turning my attention back to the sword case, as that was definitely what it was, I began the methodical process of slowly disabling all of the sealing arrays. The only reason why I was able to do so was due to them being so old, and all of the ways to break them being well documented.

  It still took weeks.

  Before I opened the case, I reinforced the warming array, and had four clones reinforcing the array. And in fact, I was having a clone be the one to open the box while I stood outside of a fire element barrier that everything was contained in. Maybe overly cautious, but this thing nearly hurt me when I tried to look at it so I wasn’t taking chances.

  And I was extremely glad I did. The moment after I gave the signal to the clone and he opened the box, the entire room exploded in ice. The barrier contained most of it, but my feet still stuck to the ground with the thin layer of ice it had caused.

  The clone dispelled, and left a perfect silhouette of an ice sculpture from the blast.

  When nothing more happened, I increased the intensity of the fire barrier to melt the ice and waited for the steam to clear.

  Kurama laughed. “Those fools! They didn’t even bother to suppress the ice chakra, merely contain it!”

  While he laughed, I frowned. I summoned another clone and had it go inside the barrier. He looked back at me and shrugged. “Temperature is normal?”

  “Go get a better look,” I said, pointing at the ice coated box.

  He easily walked over to it, and lifted a sword from the box. It was completely white, with a tsuba in the shape of the Uzumaki swirl. It was quite long, longer than a katana though similarly shaped. The weird thing was that the handle was almost as long as the blade.

  “That is a nagamaki,” Kurama said. “Though it is rather short for a true nagamaki.”

  “It hurts to hold,” the clone said, wincing slightly. “It’s really cold.” He turned it over in his hands. “And there’s another seal here, holding the sheath closed.”

  “What kind?” I asked.

  He studied it for a moment. “Just a basic Uzumaki seal. One of the old ones, like all the others.”

  I nodded slowly. “Okay, break it.”

  With a nod in return, he quickly channeled chakra, focusing on the piece of paper. After a moment it disintegrated.

  “Now… Draw it slowly,” I instructed, increasing the strength of the barrier.

  He went to draw and then…couldn’t. He frowned, pulling, his face scrunching with effort. After a few minutes of trying he stopped, panting slightly. I even watched as he tried to channel chakra. “I can’t.”

  “It probably requires blood. Or for the user to channel ice chakra,” came Kurama’s voice.

  “So I have to do it.” With a bit of hesitation, I stepped into the barrier. The clone held the sword out to me, and the moment I grasped it I understood what he meant. It burned. I winced, but then told the clone to dispel. Channeling Kurama’s chakra to my hands helped alleviate the sensation as I examined the sword.

  It was honestly beautiful.

  The scabbard had snowflakes carved into it. On the pommel there was the symbol for Snow. “Is that your name?” I asked softly, studying the handle and the tight wrappings. “Snow?” I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but the painful cold seemed to lessen. “My name is Naruto Uzumaki,” I introduced myself, as I observed the intricate array that traveled up the handle. It was absorbing nature chakra.

  And there it was. A matrix that was activated by blood. I stopped channeling Kurama’s chakra, and realized that my hands didn’t hurt anymore.

  “Kurama? Is this thing sentient?” I asked mentally, unable to think of any other conclusion.

  “Perhaps. It would not be the first time I have heard such a thing,” he replied after a moment. “You also encountered the sword Samehade.”

  “That thing can hardly be considered a sword,” I responded incredulously. “That was a sentient durian on a stick.”

  I felt Kurama shrug.

  With a deep breath, I focused back on the sword in my hand. “It’s very pretty… why was it sealed away?” I mumbled.

  “You seem to have a knack for meddling with misunderstood things that are sealed away,” the fox huffed.

  I smiled a bit in amusement. “Okay, well, let’s see if this is what I think it is.” I cut my thumb with my canine before smearing it across the seal. The sword shuddered in my hand and the blood slowly seeped in.

  With that done, I took a deep breath, gripping the sword and then slowly drawing it. And it came free without difficulty. I nearly dropped it in surprise when I caught sight of the blade. It was like frosted glass, just translucent enough that you could see a bit inside it to a solid white core. And I watched as snowflakes formed and fell from around the exposed blade, as the water in the air crystallized.

  Drawing it fully, I marveled at it. “Absolutely beautiful…” I murmured.

  There was a sudden flaring of Kurama’s chakra and I came back to my senses, shaking my head. “Be careful,” he warned. “The blade has a powerful genjutsu permeating its core, designed to fascinate anyone who stares too hard at the blade.”

  “That’s a bit of a nasty trick,” I said, rubbing my eyes. When I glanced at the blade again, I could see the subtle pattern of the genjutsu seal running up inside it. But this time it didn’t take hold.

  I actually felt something…a feeling not my own. And definitely not Kurama’s. It was…a slight embarrassment? And the feeling of apology?

  “Kurama, this thing is definitely sentient. Unless it’s part of the genjutsu and I’m imagining that it actually feels sorry,” I thought almost frantically at the Kyubi.

  “Well, it should.”

  A snort escaped me, as I held up the sword. “Well, Snow… Hope you’re ready to help me save the world, because things are going to get crazy.” There was a sense of almost… approval coming from the sword.

  ~

  When I was sixteen, the graduation test finally came. And for something so important, I showed up in person. Transformed into my clone - which was always a really weird concept - I entered into the Academy. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my clone to be able to pass the tests, I didn’t trust the teachers.

  Entering the classroom, a few minutes early for once rather than at the bell or after, I walked to my desk. Arms up and hands folded behind my head as my eyes drifted over the class. Shino was the first to notice it was actually me, though all I got out of the boy was a slight quirk of his brow. I just gave him a grin and a nod. I had spent a lot of time with my friends as the actual me, sometimes out and about, but usually at my home. Ino and Hinata probably spent the most time hanging out with me, the three of us working in the front and back yard a lot. Hinata was getting a lot better about talking with me and would only stutter a bit, but if I looked into her eyes too long she’d get super red and clam up.

  Hinata noticed the small interaction, and activated her Byakugan briefly, only to nearly pass out with how red her face got when I gave her a wink. I don’t think I could ever get bored with teasing her.

  The only other person I paid attention to was Sasuke, who I nodded to. We had come to have a sort of understanding with each other. A sort of silent closeness of two people who aren’t quite friends, but more like brothers who played nice out of respect for their mother. Mikoto didn’t try to be my mother, but she had been there for me over the years in a way that I assume only a mother would be. She was always kind to me, and never shared my secrets. Secrets that I had shared with them. Sasuke and his mother were the only ones I had shown a bit of my skill to outside my friend group. It would have been harder not to, since the only subject I could really get the black haired teen going on was training.

  Before things could get too interesting in the classroom as people muttered about me being on time, Iruka and Mizuki walked in. Iruka and I had become quite close, and I had actually been tempted to reveal some things to the man. But the fact that he was still on my case for things I didn’t do, or overlooked things, I felt like I hadn’t gotten as close to him in this life.

  Mizuki was another problem. The main source of all my problems in the Academy. That man truly hated everything about me. Those fake smiles that he constantly aimed in my direction gave me the creeps. He was also one of my most aggressive saboteurs.

  The written portion of the test was easy, though I noticed immediately that my test had been tampered with. With a quick scribbling of a seal in the corner and a subtle application of chakra, I forced it to revert to what it was supposed to be. I couldn’t say that I knew everything on the test, but by the end I was fairly sure that I got most of it right. The last thing I did was erase the seal.

  Kunai and shuriken throwing were next. And again there was a subtle sabotage. Everything that I was given was blunt and hidden with a genjutsu to appear normal. That was easy to overcome with a subtle application of wind chakra. I tied for first with Sasuke, much to the shock of the other boy and annoyance of his fangirls.

  When it came to the next test, focused on genjutsu, I was more than eager to see what Mizuki had planned this time. However, unlike in my last life, Iruka was the one to give me my genjutsu test. In order to humor the man, I made it seem like a struggle before breaking free of the low level technique.

  Much to my pleasure, I was up against Mizuki for the taijutsu test. This was going to be where I showed off a bit. The goal was to last three minutes, and I knew for a fact that he wasn’t going to go easy on me like he was supposed to.

  I stepped into the circle, giving a slight bow. “Mizuki Sensei,” I greeted politely. He was clearly thrown off by my attitude. I never really had a proper style in my last life, more a brawler with a few moves than any actual techniques. But this time I decided to change that. And it was hard to break those habits, but I had managed.

  Slowly I shifted my stance. Fingers curled, hands up in front of my face, palms facing out, feet spaced out almost too wide and standing on the tips of my toes while I crouched low. It was a style taught to me by the Fox Clan. While most of them were very much against violence, there was a subsection that forgoed most of the illusionary or space bending jutsu’s and focused purely on combat.

  It was funny the first time I saw a bunch of foxes stand up on their hind legs, but the beating they gave me really took all the humor out of it. They called their taijutsu Fox Paw. Not a very original name, but as my fox Sensei Gorijo put it, “They can’t mock the name if they can’t breathe.”

  Mizuki gave me a rather scornful look. Clearly wondering what I was doing and if I was actually using some sort of style or just making things up. “Begin,” he said.

  Before I could move, he rushed me. Which was not supposed to be what he did. While I had to fight him for several minutes, he was supposed to be mostly defensive. Unfortunately for him, I was expecting it. Dropping even lower, his fist passed over my head, and I extended my leg, stepping between his before leaning in and delivering three palm strikes. One just below his solarplexes to wind him, the second to his lower left rib, getting a satisfying crack noise from the blow. Then I twisted around, delivering a third blow to his kidney and slipping around his knee strike.

  He fell to one knee and I flipped forward, landing a hard heel strike to the same kidney that I had just palmed. As part of the kick I leapt backwards away from him, landing on the other side of the fighting space in a crouch and slipping back into my base stance. With any luck, he’d be pissing blood for days from that.

  After a minute I realized that he wasn’t getting up, coughing and trying to catch his breath from that first blow. “Sensei? Are you alright?” I asked innocently, tilting my head to the side. That was something Akiba did whenever she knocked me on my ass - which was often - so I knew how infuriating it was.

  He glared back at me, that careful mask that he had slipped for just a moment before he managed to recover it. “Y-yes. Of course. I… I think we can say you…pass…” He was clearly reluctant to say that last word.

  I stood up straight with a big grin and bowed to him. “Thank you, Sensei.”

  When I turned around I realized that everyone was staring at me, most with shock, but several with odd looks. Sasuke looked like he was calculating; reevaluating me. We never sparred, despite me asking a few times. Even Iruka was staring with his mouth open slightly.

  All I could do was rub the back of my head sheepishly as I walked over to Hinata and the rest. The only one who wasn’t there was Ino, who was actually currently supposed to be facing off against Iruka Sensei, but neither of them had started.

  “Th-that was…very impressive, Naruto-kun,” Hinata mumbled.

  “Thanks, Hinata. Been working on that for a while,” I said with a big grin.

  It took a little bit for the class to get going again, but eventually things moved along to the final test. The jutsu demonstration.

  On our way back into the classroom, I had to pass by Mizuki. “Good showing out there. Good luck,” he said with that smile that never reached his eyes. He gave me a pat on the shoulder and the moment he touched me I felt the hairs on the back of my neck bristle.

  “What the hell kind of jutsu was that?” I thought at Kurama as I made my way to my seat.

  He made a sort of thoughtful humming noise. “A jujutsu. A chakra curse.”

  “Where the hell did he learn a curse jutsu?” I practically screamed in my head. If I hadn’t been so sensitive to chakra, there’s no way I would have noticed that. Had he been doing that to my clone? How do I break it?

  I stared at Mizuki as they began going through the class. I was near the end so I at least had a few minutes to figure it out. I might have been able to overload it if I released the seal syphoning my chakra, but that would immediately draw attention to me.

  After thinking about it, I started running through hand seals under my table as I mentally tried to come up with a counter, but damn it really made any sort of chakra manipulation impossible. Kurama offered several points of input, able to study the curse in a way that I was unable without supplies. I could create something to tell me the details, but there wasn’t time.

  “Hinata,” I muttered softly. She had been watching me with curiosity and concern on her face.

  She looked up front at the teachers. “Y-yes?” she replied, keeping her voice low. I actually wouldn’t have been able to hear her if I didn’t have enhanced hearing.

  “Mizuki put a curse on me,” I said slowly. She had to slap her hand over her mouth to stifle her gasp. “I can’t shape my chakra correctly. I need you to follow my hand seals and then tap my shoulder...”

  It took her a moment but eventually she nodded. I started working through them slowly. Her Byakugan was active as she followed along. I had to do far more hand signs than I would normally because I couldn’t shape my chakra in a way she could watch. Or maybe she could, with her Byakugan? It was annoying but I couldn't risk it. And was starting to get close to her turn.

  Thankfully there were two more students ahead of her when I finally finished and gave her a nod. She reached out, and touched my shoulder. There was a sharp pain, and Mizuki suddenly dropped to a knee, coughing blood. All focus was immediately on the Sensei who seemed to just randomly collapse.

  “Good job Hinata,” I said with a sigh as I leaned back. “Thank you.” I started to circulate chakra to smooth out my flow and rubbed my shoulder. If this was any other time, I would have probably enjoyed studying the jujutsu. I had so little material on those. But again I had to ask myself… “How did he know how to do that…”

  Hunata scooted back to her place, also trying to think. “Th-that is…very bad…”

  I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair, not liking how short it was in this form. “I’m going to have to tell the Hokage…”

  It took several minutes before medical-nin showed up and took Mizuki away. We continued the tests, though Iruka had to slow down as he now had to do all of them alone. When I successfully used all three he looked… proud. And later when he handed me my hitai-ate, he actually looked impressed when he called my name. “You scored fourth overall,” he said, much to the shock of the entire room.

  Just looking at it made me grin at him as I tied the hitai-ate around my head. “Told you I could do it,” I said with the biggest grin I’d worn in quite a while.

  He just ruffled my hair, and sent me back to my seat before calling the next student. At the end, he told us to meet back here in three days for team assignment.

  I left class the moment it ended, saying that I had things to do. The moment I was in a place out of sight, and confirmed it with Kurama, I flashed back home to clean up.

  Now for the annoying part.

  On my way to the Hokage Tower, I dropped the transformation, wearing a casual dark outfit with my new forehead protector. The two Anbu outside watched as I approached. “Can you ask the Hokage if he has a few minutes to talk with me?”

  If they were surprised at my change in appearance they didn’t show it. But they assessed me carefully, before the one in the bear mask nodded and moved in. The other was wearing what looked like a tiger.

  After a few minutes, the bear masked Anbu returned and nodded at me before allowing me to enter.

  “Ah, Naruto. What-” immediately the old man was on the defensive, his eyes becoming scrutinizing as he took in my altered appearance. He had just seen me three days ago, and I definitely did not look like I did now.

  I moved to the center of the room, folding my hands behind my back. “Hokage-sama.” His eye seemed to twitch at the incredibly formal way I addressed him. “I would like to report Mizuki Sensei for placing a jujutsu on me during the Genin exams today.”

  “What?” he said, suddenly much more alert.

  “I do not know the details, but it caused my chakra to become uncontrollable. Thankfully, I was able to break it with the help of Hinata Hyuga,” I explained calmly.

  He spent a moment continuing his scrutinizing before gesturing. There was suddenly an Anbu there. “Investigate Naruto-kun’s claims.”

  The Anbu gave a salute before disappearing.

  The Hokage leaned back, pinching the bridge of his nose. He spent several moments to fill, tamp, and light his pipe, using the time to collect his thoughts. It was a tactic that he used a lot, so I was used to it. “This is very concerning… Not that I would distrust you, Naruto-kun, but I must ask…”

  “About my appearance,” I said with a nod. “I have been hiding my abilities, and capabilities in order to avoid any sort of meddling from the Civilian Council. And now that I am a Shinobi, I no longer need to hide.”

  He nodded slowly, taking a drag from his pipe. “Is that all you wished to talk about?”

  “No,” I replied curtly.

  It seemed that following protocol was actually making the old man uncomfortable. “Please, speak freely.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Hokage-sama, I am invoking my right as Clan Head. Last living Uzumaki in Konoha. I demand the return of my clans artifacts and techniques.”

  He winced. “I see… So you found out.”

  I nodded.

  He let out a long sigh, leaning back in his chair. “That is not a request that I can fulfill…”

  “Then you will shortly be receiving hundreds of reports of thefts,” I said bluntly.

  “Naruto,” he snapped, sitting up. “Do not think-”

  “Hiruzen!” I shouted, using chakra to amplify my voice to literally shout down the old man. “You don’t seem to understand how lucky you are right now. Lucky that I love this village. Lucky that I have people in this village that I care deeply for.” I ignored the three Anbu that had me surrounded, a sword at my throat, and kunai pressing into my back. “Otherwise this village would not exist.”

  “You cannot threaten the Hokage,” one of the Anbu hissed.

  “Unfortunately for all of you, this is just a Shadow Clone.” All of them tensed. “You have done nothing in my life, but lie to me and not even do the bare minimum to make sure that I don’t starve like a dog in the street. You stole all of my family’s fortune - my rightful inheritance - and used it to fund the village. You give me a small pittance of money that I was somehow supposed to survive off of.”

  Again the old man sighed, waving a hand and the Anbu vanished. “Naruto… You must understand that I did it for your own safety.”

  “No. You did it for your own peace of mind,” I spat, unable to keep any sort of formality. He did ask me to speak freely after all. “I was a child. A child that you let be beaten in the street. A child that spent so many nights going hungry because the people in this village refused to sell me food. You had hundreds of things you could have done. The bare minimum you should have done is given me a Shinobi caretaker, instead of letting me fend for myself.”

  He remained silent, watching me. There was a slight sense of pain on his face.

  “Ten years ago, I was poisoned.” He tensed at my words. “It removed the immunity I had to the Kyubi’s chakra, and it was slowly killing me. Cooking me from the inside out. It took hours. And the only reason why I survived was because my mother and father were so brilliant, that they put a piece of themselves into the seal.”

  “He was always the best,” Hiruzen said with a slight smile on his face, though it looked forced. “That explains how you know…”

  “I have spent the last ten years training, and hiding. Because the people I was supposed to be able to trust just sat in their office, allowing me to starve and rot as the village attempted to murder me over and over again,” I said slowly, managing to calm down.

  “Naruto… You must understand. There are politics that I am forced to-”

  Again I interrupted him, though this time I didn’t shout. “You are the Hokage. We are Shinobi. You have let Danzo run wild in the shadows. Allowed the Civilian Council to run rampant. Several of those who have tried to kill me have been Ninjas. I have been constantly sabotaged throughout my entire academic career by teachers that you allowed, and have ignored every attempt I made to bring these issues to you. Dismissing it as the complaints of a child that doesn’t know how the world works. You have let me suffer, and let this village rot.”

  He had a serious face on, but there was clearly pain hidden in his expression. Apparently I had managed to really strike a nerve. I was honestly impressed that he had managed to keep his composure this entire time.

  So it was time to truly twist the knife. “My father was able to see my entire life up to the point he was summoned. And he wanted me to tell you that he is disappointed in you.”

  That did it. The man sitting on the other side of the table seemed to deflate, looking all the old man that he was. Several minutes passed in silence as he sat there, staring at his desk. Maybe I went too far, but there was so much hurt and anger that I had that I never had the chance to unleash on him that I couldn’t stop myself once I got going. Two childhoods worth of trauma and anger stacked on top of each other. This one had been better, but that was due to my own actions, not his.

  Eventually, it looked like he was about to say something when the door was suddenly flung open. “Hakage-sama! We- We have a problem.” The Chunin rushed past me, stacks of papers in his arm. “Over the past few minutes we’ve received dozens of reports of thefts.” He placed the papers down on the table. “Scrolls and items have gone missing from our own archives and storerooms, as well as civilians.”

  The Third Hokage’s eyes snapped to me.

  I just shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I’ve been here the whole time.”

  “You’re just a Shadow Clone,” he said, his tone oddly calm despite the situation.

  Reaching up, I sliced my thumb with my canine, and dripped blood into the open palm of my other hand. “I lied,” I said with a grin. “You seem busy now, Hokage-sama. So I will take my leave.”

  He just let out a heavy sigh and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture, and I bowed before walking out. I was annoyed that he had refused me, but honestly I expected it. That was why I had had a clone waiting outside. And when I gave the signal by shouting his name he dispelled, refreshing the memories of all the clones. Then it was just a matter of letting my cute little foxes go about and reclaim my stolen heritage.

  “We are being followed.”

  “Yeah I expected that. I did just kinda threaten the whole village.” Honestly that probably was a bit too far, but I got way too heated. I may have the mentality of an old man, but my body is that of a sixteen year old. Hormones are so annoying. “I’m going to have to fully vacate the apartment now…”

  With a sigh, I made my way towards the familiar building, leaping up onto the nearby roof and landing on the balcony.

  “Someone’s inside.”

  I froze, hand hovering at the handle to the sliding door. I wished for a moment that this door had a window, before I just sighed and opened the door. “You know it’s rude to enter someone else's home without their permission,” I called out as I stepped inside, eyes sweeping my bedroom.

  “I’d agree with that, if you actually lived here,” came a painfully familiar voice from the dining room.

  Now I was even more tense. The Hokage I could handle… but this was something very different. “Kakashi,” I said with a slight bow as I entered the room, biting my tongue in order to not add Sensei to the end. “I’d offer you tea, but I don’t keep any here.”

  The silver haired Jonin eye smiled at me slightly with what was essentially his only visible facial feature. A mask covered the bottom half of his face, and his hitai-ate blocking his left eye.

  “To what do I owe the pleasure?” I asked as I leaned against the wall across from where he was standing.

  “Well, you did just threaten the Hokage,” he said, rather matter-of-factly.

  “Technically not. I was just telling him what almost happened because of his extreme hands-off approach,” I replied with a shrug. “A child abandoned by his village-”

  “-will burn it down to feel its warmth,” Kakashi finished before sighing.

  I nodded. “Exactly. And that’s almost what happened, if not for others reaching out.” I took in a deep breath. “I will respect Hokage-sama because he is that. He is the Hokage, and I respect his position. But the man, I hold very little love for,” I explained, watching the little micro twitches of his body. The slight loosening of his shoulders was a good sign he believed I wasn’t a threat. “He has ruined all the trust that I have for him, and if he wants it back he will have to work for it.”

  “And what of his trust? You have done quite a number of things to ruin the trust between the two of you as well,” he argued, though there was no heat or annoyance to his tone, merely stating what he thought was fact.

  “My trust in him nearly got me killed thirty seven times, by the villagers and Shinobi that he still, to this day, defends in their actions. He has no right to complain that I broke his trust when it does him no harm and in fact helps the village,” I retorted, giving him a rather flat look. I could tell that he was frowning now.

  I looked at him for a moment. Kakashi was someone I greatly respected. He was the Sixth Hokage, the one before me. Someone who risked his life for me on so many occasions that I lost count, and I did the same in turn.

  “You were my fathers student.” His visible eye widened a fraction. “And I just… I wonder what would have happened if Hokage-sama actually thought about me, instead of politics. Allowing the Uchiha’s to adopt me might have snuffed out their thoughts of a coup, as a sign of trust from the Hokage. Or maybe we could have known each other. Maybe been something like brothers… But he took all that away because of something as stupid as politics.”

  Now he was smiling a bit again. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

  I nodded. “I have. And…” I paused, hesitating a moment before taking a deep breath. “I want to trust you, Kakashi. And so I am going to. Just know that my trust is fragile. Easily broken, and not easily mended.” I looked at him for a moment, gazing into that one eye for any sense of the man that “I’ll see you at team assignments.”

  Then I flashed away.

  Later I was sitting in my fathers office, a fox in my lap, as I looked over a scroll of everything that had been reclaimed in the last few hours. “It’s a lot more than I thought…” I mumbled. So much more. Almost too much. All of the Uzumaki documents, and possessions of my mother and father that were stolen and put on display. I could fill at least two warehouses with everything.

  “You are playing a dangerous game, kit,” Kurama rumbled, clearly not pleased with my actions.

  “Which part?” I asked, actually not sure what I did today that he could be talking about, or if he was referring to it all as a whole. The fox’s ear twitched and she looked up, curious at my words but realizing that I wasn’t talking to her, and laid her head back down. I started to pet her absentmindedly.

  “Showing the Flying Raijin to Kakashi was dangerous. If he tells that foolish old man, there will be severe consequences. He is not the man from your memories.”

  “It was a calculated risk. Either he says nothing, keeps it to himself, and proves that we can trust him. Or we get labeled as a flight risk,” I said with a shrug. “If we’re not already.”

  ~

  My Ninja outfit was something that I painstakingly crafted. Literally in some cases. And this was the first time I would be wearing all of it. Black boots, loose black pants for easy mobility, and an armored mesh top. I wanted to dress similar to how I did when I was Hokage, so I also wore a black sweater with orange stripes on the sleeves. It also had a large Uzumaki swirl on the back. My hair had gotten really long now, and I kept it all pushed back. I realized that if I grew it out more, and spiked it out more, it’d look like how Jiraiya styles his.

  But what I was truly proud of was the cloak. It was black, had a hood that could be tucked in, and fell to just above my ankles. But it was the inside that I was proud of. Hundreds upon thousands of little orange circles, each one a seal sewn into the inner lining, no bigger than inch across. That tracking seal on my old clothes had given me the idea. This cloak took that to an extreme. And with several expansion seals in there as well, I could get even more packed in there. Everything and anything I needed, all there. And on the back, the only bit of color on the outside, was the large red Uzumaki swirl.

  The part that I think would be the biggest shock to everyone that knew the old me, would not be my longer hair, or how I dressed, but how I wore my hitai-ate. Rather than on my forehead, it hung loosely around my neck. Similar to how I know Hinata wears hers. The reason was pretty simple; I had gone over a hundred years without wearing one that it felt uncomfortable around my head.

  Snow was upset that I didn’t take her with me, and I had to explain that she would just be bored. And that I wasn’t allowed to openly carry her around. She reluctantly allowed me to seal her within my cloak, just in case. That was also something, finding out that the sword was a girl? I had no idea how that even worked, but I wasn’t going to question her after learning some of the things that she could do with all that chakra she had stored up.

  I had a kunai marker close to one end of the Academy, behind a barely used storage shed and between one of the walls. It was placed there a long time ago by my clone in preparation for this. Teleporting to it, I collected the kunai and stored it into my cloak before making my way to the building.

  It really felt weird being here, outside of my disguise. Walking in as my real self.

  When I opened the door, I tried very hard to be as nonchalant as possible, but every head in the room still turned towards me and all conversation came to a stop. I purposefully closed the door before turning and sweeping the room. My eyes fell on Hinata, and I had a big smile on my face, then I saw her hitai-ate around her neck.

  With a grin and exaggerated gesture, I pointed at her hitai-ate, and then back at my own, drawing attention to the fact we were both wearing them around our neck. Her face got so red that she nearly passed out.

  Okay, so maybe I was also wearing it like this to tease her.

  I barely made it two steps before Ino was in front of me. Her eyes glanced down at my clothes and then up at my face. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to actually having to look up at you,” she grumbled before shaking her head. “Nice clothes.”

  With a laugh at her grumbling, I responded, “Thanks. Now that I’m a ninja, gotta look the part, right?”

  She nodded. “True. But what’s with the face paint?”

  My brow furrowed a bit as my head tilted to the side. “What do you mean?”

  She scoffed and reached into her bag, pulling out a hand mirror. It caught me off guard, but I couldn’t help but smile when I saw them. The whiskers on the left side of my face had been painted over in red, exaggerating them. Around my left eye was painted a similar color, and the paint seemed to streak back into my hair. Finally, the left half of my bottom lip was painted black, with a sort of triangle that extended down to my chin.

  The more I looked, the more I was struggling to contain my excitement. “Just trying something new,” I said with a shrug. The truth was, these were markings, not paint. It was from the Fox Clan. The markings were a sign of proof that in their eyes, I was an adult. I didn’t know the significance of the ones on my whisker marks, but the one around my eye signified I was an expert in space manipulation, while the fang denoted me as a clan fighter. They must have illusioned it so that I wouldn’t notice until I had already left the house.

  Ino looked at them a moment longer before shrugging, and the two of us started making our way back towards Hinata and the other two. “Well, it looks good.”

  “Thanks.”

  As we walked I scanned the room again, and caught Sasuke’s eyes. I had told him that I would look different, and that I had been hiding. He asked why, and I told him that I would tell him when we graduated. Which was probably a conversation I was going to have to have tonight, considering his mother wanted me over for dinner to celebrate.

  I just gave him a nod as we passed.

  “Fancy cloak,” Choji said as he looked over my appearance.

  Ino sat down on the desk beside Choji. “I’m just glad you’re not orange.”

  “Oh I’m plenty orange,” I said with a grin as I opened my coat, showing off the inner lining.

  “Whoa…” Hinata mumbled, looking over the hundreds of spirals.

  “Troublesome…” Shikamaru muttered, head down on his desk, though he was looking over as well.

  “Been working on it for years,” I said as I flopped into my seat.

  “Made it?” Choji questioned, confused. “I mean, it’s fancy and all, but why go through the effort.”

  The grin never left my face as I leaned forward. “Every spiral is a seal,” I whispered to them

  “What?!” Ino shouted, causing both Hinata and Shikamaru to jump slightly. Choji started choking on a chip. The rest of the room looked over.

  I couldn’t help but laugh as I pat Choji on the back. “I don’t even want to know why you would do that,” Shikamaru grumbled, shaking his head.

  The door opening drew everyone’s attention, and Iruka walked in. “All right! Everyone, listen up.” He stood front and center of the room, his eyes scanning the room. His eyes stopped on me and he blinked several times. After a moment he seemed to recover and cleared his throat. “Okay. So, team assignments.”

  He had a clipboard that he was reading off of. I only vaguely paid attention to what he was saying, only listening for familiar names. But there was nothing until he got to the expected number.

  “Team Seven will be led by Kakashi Hatake, and will consist of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha.”

  The sound that Sakura made could only be described as the squeal of a dying animal as she celebrated. The entire class seemed to be in a complete mess and it took Iruka several minutes to get everything back under control. Especially when Sakura turned and started taunting Ino, who returned every barb. They probably would have started fighting if Iruka hadn’t shouted at them to sit down.

  Ino slumped into her chair, looking crushed. “How could this get any worse?” she grumbled.

  Iruka Sensei continued, “Team Eight will be led by Kurenai Yuhi, and consist of Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuga, and Kiba Inuzuka. Team nine is currently still active.”

  I saw the moment that Ino realized that she was only one of three people not assigned. “Oh no…”

  “Team Ten,” Iruka continued, “Will be led by Asuma Sarutobi, and consist of Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka.”

  Ino’s head hit the table and she let out a low groan. “You mean I’m stuck with these two lazy bastards?”

  I laughed and pat her on the back. “Sorry, Ino.”

  Hinata and Shino mirrored my sympathy, patting her back. Choji just shrugged and continued eating chips. And I swear for a moment I saw a smile pull at the corner of Shikamaru’s mouth.

  It wasn’t long before all the Jonin instructors came in and collected their students. All of them except myself, Sasuke, and Sakura.

  “Typical Kakashi,” I said with a sigh.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Sasuke asked, actually causing me to jump slightly as he was standing right next to me.

  I had no idea how he snuck up on me. I cleared my throat, getting comfortable in my seat. “Kakashi Hitake is known for being late. Anywhere between two to three hours for anything that isn’t a mission higher than C Rank, or specifically ordered by the Hokage.” As I spoke, I retrieved a scroll from my cloak, hiding the smoke inside the fabric. “So, better get comfortable,” I added as I laid the scroll down on my desk and continued from where I left off.

  “Are you going to tell me about…” He looked me over for a moment. “All of this?”

  “At dinner, yes. I also want to tell Mikoto-san, and don’t want to explain it twice if that’s alright?” I asked, glancing up at him.

  He studied me for a moment before making a soft “Hn” noise, neither affirmative or dismissive, and then sat down at the desk next to me. I glanced at him again before looking back at the scroll. After a moment of thinking, I reached into my cloak, unsealing another scroll. Without a word, I placed it down in front of him.

  His brow furrowed, but he didn’t say anything as he started to examine it. It wasn’t the first time that I had given him a scroll as a gift. We had actually exchanged birthday gifts, which honestly felt weird at first. This particular scroll was on kenjutsu; specifically on swords. I knew that a chokuto was his preferred weapon in the future.

  As he was looking it over, I reached out and pointed out a specific section, about how one could channel lightning into swords and it had a few listed techniques. We had found out that he had an affinity for lightning, with fire and earth as secondaries. Just as I had wind as a primary, and water and earth as secondaries. Both of these matched what I knew from my previous life.

  He let out another soft grunt noise, now knowing why I was giving him this scroll. I had come to the realization that if I didn’t point out specifically what would be the most helpful to him in the scroll, he would just learn the whole damn thing. Which I mean… Good on him, but not the reason I gave it to him. He’d still probably read it all, hoping to glean even just a little bit more knowledge.

  Sakura had followed him, and clearly wanted to talk to him. I hesitated for a moment as I looked at her, before pulling out another scroll. “Do you want something to read, too? We’re going to be here for a while.”

  She frowned at me, but glanced at Sasuke. Clearly she had watched me give that one to him, and was probably curious. “Okay…” she said as she slowly reached out, taking the scroll. Her brow furrowed. “What is this?”

  “An introduction to medical ninjutsu,” I explained as I turned my attention back to my own scroll. “With your near perfect chakra control, you’d be really good at it. You can keep that scroll, it’s a copy.”

  However, apparently my explanation wasn’t good enough. “Why do you just… have a scroll about medical ninjutsu in your pocket?”

  I snorted. “I have scrolls for everyone that I was likely to be paired with. But, since I was technically last in class, the logical decision was to pair me with the two best in class.” I pointed at Sasuke. “Sasuke is the rookie of the year. And you have matched him in every academic category.”

  She just stared at me for several minutes. “That… Actually makes sense. I had no idea you were…smart.”

  “Almost the entire staff in the Academy has been sabotaging me since I started,” I said with a shrug. “I think I would be between… fifth and eighth if I was graded properly.”

  Apparently she was out of words now as she just stared for several minutes, looked at the scroll, then at Sasuke - who hadn’t said a word - before sitting down next to him and beginning to go through the scroll.

  Though it was clear she was far more interested in looking at Sasuke than actually reading.

  As expected, it was almost a full three hours before the door slid open. All three of us looked up, and I smirked a bit as I saw that calculating look in Kakashi’s visible eye before he seemed to smile. “Well now, aren’t you all a bunch of book worms. I’m Kakashi, you’re Jonin Sensei.”

  “You’re late!” Sakura shouted.

  Sasuke just frowned at him as he started to roll the scroll up.

  “Meet me up on the roof in ten minutes,” was his response before he disappeared in a flurry of leaves.

  I rolled my eyes, though in a fond way as I put away my scroll. As my teammates made their way towards the door, I moved to the window and slid it open.

  “What are you doing?” Sakura asked, frowning.

  “Going to the roof,” I said as I swung out the window, using chakra to adhere to the wall before walking up. The hardest part of doing something like this was actually the transition up over the edge. Something about needing to completely swing the body ninety degrees upwards was oddly hard.

  When I swung myself over, Kakashi was there, and immediately looked at me, his eyebrow raised and that orange book in his hand.

  All I did was nod at him before dropping off the guard rail and walking the central area, sitting down in front of Kakashi. He didn’t look up from his book, but I could feel him studying me. That man was always so good at looking disinterested, a skill I never managed.

  So rather than be subtle about it, I simply watched him, studying him. I forgot how young he was at this time. If I remembered correctly he was somewhere around thirty. Though considering the slight time shift, probably early thirties.

  “Have you found what you’re looking for yet?” he suddenly asked.

  I paused for a moment. “You didn’t tell the Hokage.” I had used the Flying Raijin Technique in front of him, and he didn’t report me.

  “What makes you say that?” His eye finally left his book and was now on me.

  “Because no matter how much I try, I cannot see Hokage-sama leaving me alone if he knew,” I replied easily.

  There was a moment of silence between the two of us, before his attention turned back to his book. “True,” he said simply.

  We fell silent for a few minutes until the door opened, and Sasuke walked out, followed by Sakura. Sakura actually looked a bit winded, and I frowned slightly. She really was so out of shape. Did she even pass her taijutsu test?

  “Good. You’re all here,” Kakashi said as his visible eye swept over us. Sasuke sat down on my left, and Sakura sat down on the other side of him. “Let’s start with introductions. Name. Likes. Dislikes. A bit about you. Dreams for the future. All that stuff.”

  There was a moment of silence. “Uhm, Sensei? Can you go first? As an example?” Sakura asked.

  His eye fell onto her for a moment. “Sure. My name is Kakashi Katake. Likes and dislikes… Well… I don’t really feel like telling you. Dreams for the future? Never really thought about it.” Which is entirely what I expected. Giving us absolutely nothing except what we already knew. “Now you’re turn, pinky.”

  “Uhm. I’m Sakura Haruno. And I like…” Her eyes darted to Sasuke. “And I dislike Ino-pig and most of her friends,” she said as she glared at me. “As for uhm… dreams for the future?” she again looked at Sasuke, and giggled. Unfortunately, this was also what I expected of her.

  Kakashi already looked completely done with her. “Okay, your turn, broody.”

  “Sasuke Uchiha. I don’t like most things, and have very few things that I like. My dream… No, my goal is to kill a certain someone.” That had been something I wondered about myself. I never could figure out if he still wanted to kill Itachi, but that still seemed to be the case.

  “Okay… You're up, face paint,” he said looking over at me.

  I snorted. “Naruto Uzumaki. I like training, plants, pranks, and ramen. I dislike people who judge at a glance, and can’t discern a kunai from the scroll it’s contained in. I’m a fuinjutsu expert, and I think I’m close to master but I’ve never had any proper tests. As for a dream…” I paused for a moment to think. It used to be becoming Hokage, but I did that for so long that it felt like an almost hollow goal. “I want to protect those precious to me.”

  Kakashi stared at me, the look in his eye calculating. “Fuinjutsu expert? Yeah right,” Sakura scoffed, folding her arms.

  All I did was glance at her before turning my attention back to Kakashi. I still don’t know how I ever thought that I was into her.

  “Okay. Well then, now that that’s out of the way, I get to crush all your hopes.” He eye smiled at us. “Tomorrow we will be having your final test before you truly become Genin.”

  “What?” Sakura shouted, shooting up to her feet. “But we just did that!”

  “That was just to prove that you could be Genin. Only three teams will actually be graduating. The rest will be returning to the Academy,” he said smoothly. “Meet at training ground three at seven AM. Oh, and I suggest you don’t eat breakfast, or you’ll throw up.” And then he disappeared into a swirl of leaves.

  I sighed as I stood up, smoothing out my cloak. “I’ll see you later, Sasuke. And see you tomorrow, Sakura.”

  Sasuke just grunted a bit as he stood up, Sakura immediately getting up as well. “Uhm… Sasuke, do you maybe want to get lunch? We could discuss uhm… tactics.”

  He didn’t even glance at her before he started making his way to the stairs. She just stood there, a dejected look on her face. “Sakura,” I said, deciding to maybe help things along.

  She turned to me, glaring. “What do you want, Naruto?”

  “Sasuke only likes strong women,” I said bluntly. “He doesn’t care about looks. Hell he barely cares about personality.” After all, in the future he did settle for Sakura and have children with her. I never did figure out how that happened. “But you are weak.”

  Her hand balled into a fist, and before she even registered what she was doing, she threw a punch. Which I easily caught. She stared at her hand, completely shocked that I had stopped her punch. I held her fist, even as she tried to pull it out of my hand. “Let go,” she growled.

  “He wants someone who can stand beside him.” I shoved her hand away and she stumbled back. “He wants someone who he doesn’t have to be afraid of losing.”

  She didn’t respond, just silently glared at me.

  With a shake of my head I leapt back, landing on the railing. “Just think about that, and stop being a pathetic fangirl,” I said before dropping backwards off the roof and flashing away before hitting the ground.

  I really didn’t know what to expect from dinner at the Uchiha compound.