Yohei had perhaps underestimated just how impressive his feat of creating a small army of Genin had been – and also how thorough his sensei would decide to be when it came to discovering the limits of his Bloodline and how to push them further.
On that very same day, for example, Hayama had sent Ren and Souma off with a message to Nanami that Yohei would remain in the Training Grounds until the following morning, so that his physical growth under darkness could be properly measured.
What they discovered was that he became roughly 110% to 130% stronger at midnight compared to noon – something that might or might not vary depending on the phase of the moon itself – but the real prize revealed itself when he was placed under complete darkness, where his strength grew to around 300%.
It wasn't quite the same as opening the First Gate, which provided what was effectively a fivefold boost to power, but considering this increase not only presented no danger to Yohei but also actively made him tougher and more resilient, he believed it was, in fact, a superior alternative.
'If only it wasn't so situational…' he lamented, grunting faintly as his next step sent a lance of pain shooting from his feet straight up to his brain. 'While I don't need light to see, obstacles are still obstacles, so I can't just flood any place I'm fighting with black smoke and enjoy the gains, and I can't just cover myself in– Hmmm…'
He was distracted from his thoughts when a breath just a bit too deep made his bruised ribs scream, his eyes twitching sharply in response.
The previous day, he had been fortunate enough to avoid anything too physically taxing, since his sensei wanted him to rest after the tests. His training in Chakra Conditioning, therefore, had amounted to little more than experimenting with the 'absorption' aspect of his Kekkei Genkai.
How much could he drain at once? How quickly? How much could he store? For how long? Could he absorb transformed chakra, or did it need to be pure? If he could absorb transformed chakra, could it be used to perform jutsu from affinities he didn't possess? Could he absorb chakra directly from jutsu?
The first two shared the same answer – it varied based on how much the person 'resisted,' how much control they had over their chakra, and which part of his body Yohei used to drain it. Any physical contact was enough, but his hands were far more effective than most of his body, and his mouth was more effective still.
He hadn't yet found a limit to how much he could store, but it was enough that Hayama had needed to stop multiple times to knead more chakra before eventually giving up on that particular line of testing. As for how long… well, that depended on how much he could focus on containment – but even dedicating all of his attention to it, he had been unable to keep all the chakra his sensei fed him contained for longer than an hour. After that, it had started literally leaking out of his body like smoke.
It was quite pretty to look at, actually.
He could absorb chakra that had already been kneaded into an elemental nature, but it reverted back into pure chakra in the process – and part of it was lost during the conversion. Considering the elemental chart, the two elements he had the most difficulty absorbing were, ironically enough, the ones closest to his own: Earth and Fire. With those, his efficiency was ridiculously poor, hovering at around 10–20% at best.
Wind and Lightning, however, boasted a far more useful absorption rate of 60–70%.
And his attempt to absorb chakra directly from a jutsu…
Well, it was better not to think about it.
Today, though, was Taijutsu training day.
Frankly, Yohei had expected Gōdo to be annoyed by his 'unearned strength,' if anything – which made it all the more surprising when the boy had been openly joyous about it instead. When he hesitantly decided to ask, the Crimson Fist's answer had been… enlightening.
-~=~-
"Eh? What do you mean by fairness?" Gōdo asked with a confused look, one hand resting on his waist.
He blinked, then let out a sigh, running a hand through his orange hair.
"Honestly… don't fall for such an illusion, Kohai-kun. Fairness is a lie."
"Fairness is… a lie?" Yohei repeated, equally confused.
Gōdo nodded.
"There is no such thing as truly earned power. If today I'm as strong as I am, then it is because I was born in Konoha – with a healthy body and mind, with an affinity for chakra that suited my temperament, with sufficient talent to rise above the average chaff, with multiple sensei who endeavored to help me reach my full potential, and with the luck not to die on any mission up to this point, allowing me to accumulate experience without having my life cut short."
He listed each point while counting on his fingers.
"None of those things were in my control. I didn't decide where I'd be born. I didn't make my body naturally strong. I didn't pick my elemental affinity… and so on."
He shifted slightly before continuing.
"Now, put in front of me someone who wasn't born in Konoha – a ninja from one of the minor villages. They have fewer resources. The quality of their training is inferior to ours. Go ahead and make him have an elemental nature that doesn't suit him, with low affinity to boot. He'll probably lose in a fight against me, right?"
Gōdo spread his hands faintly.
"It's an unfair proposition. We don't have the same advantages or starting points. The amount of effort we'd each need to put in to reach the same level isn't equal. In this scenario, I'm the one who had an unfair advantage over someone who struggled far harder to become strong."
He pointed that out matter-of-factly before continuing.
"But forget about me. Let's take this hypothetical guy and look at what he does have. He's from a minor village, yes – but he's still from a ninja village. That's an established organization with decades of experience training ninja, with a support system behind them. Maybe his chakra and stamina are average, but he still had people like him teaching him how to use them better. His affinity for his chakra nature may be small, but he still has access to an entire library full of training material for it – as well as jutsu."
Gōdo crossed his arms, letting out a snort.
"Now let's pit him against someone else – an independent ninja who discovered his talent for chakra on his own as a child and learned to use it by himself. He was born in a civilian village to civilian parents, his chakra reserves are smaller than average, and he has no access to resources. If this guy works like the devil to grow stronger and is made to fight our ninja from the smaller village… now he's the one with the unfair advantage over the other – and his struggles suddenly don't seem so great anymore, do they?"
"We can keep going and going down this line of thinking, and this truth will remain the same: no two people are alike, so there can never be fairness between them, because their situations are never the same. Someone will always have an easier or harder time obtaining power than someone else. Does this mean that only those who are born weak are valorous? That you need to have every disadvantage in the world piled onto you in order to be worthy of the power you gain? Of course not." Gōdo said firmly.
He uncrossed his arms and walked forward until he was standing face to face with Yohei, lightly stabbing a finger against his chest.
"You are the result of generations of struggle, pain, and hard work. Your predecessors, your elders – all the ninja who gave their lives in the line of duty – they shed blood, sweat, and tears to make sure future generations would have an easier time of things. So that you could reach further than they did. So that you could arrive at a future that, for them, may have been unreachable."
His finger pressed once more for emphasis.
"Throwing those advantages away – or resenting them – isn't just stupidity of the highest grade, it's a fucking disrespect that I won't stand for. If you want to honor them, if you want to be worthy of your power, then what you need to do is be thankful. Acknowledge the truth of your situation and use the tools that were given to you to their utmost. Don't be content with your power and languish around thinking this is all you need. Train. Suffer. Struggle."
His voice sharpened.
"Even if it's easier for you than it is for someone else, do your best. Put everything you have into it. Go further than everyone before you did – and make sure that when you die, those who come after you can surpass you, too."
-~=~-
His Senpai really was an intense guy, in all the most awesome ways.
Yohei was barely holding himself back, practically buzzing with joy at being the recipient of a Shōnen Lecture™, especially when it was one that essentially told him to go Plus Ultra.
'It's not like I'm the kind of guy who worries about fairness, to be honest,' Yohei told himself as he passed by a dango stand, his head turning to look at it longingly – but without stopping his walk back home. 'This is nepo-land, where genetics and stealing the power of others is the key to getting into the top ten strongest. I need every single advantage I can get, and if I ever fight someone and they whine that I have what might as well be multiple bloodline limits and hidden techniques, I'll ask them to cry me a river so I can use it to beat them with Water Release.'
But he did have to admit to himself, at least, that while he was unconcerned about it in general… he did sometimes have moments where he compared himself to his heroes from anime and felt he fell short, since he was being practically handed his power…
And then he remembered they were nepo-babies too.
'Luffy is the grandson and son of two of the strongest monsters in his world, and had a super speshul mythological Devil Fruit that gave him the powers of a god!' Yohei shouted in his mind, the corners of his mouth twisting upward. 'Ichigo was the eugenics project of the biggest genius in his world, with a soul that carries the properties of all the races! Gon and Killua were both born from insanely powerful people, with Nen potential that was at least one in ten million! Natsu is an artificial demon created by the most powerful mage in the setting and then raised and trained by one of the kings of dragons! Edward and Alphonse Elric are both super geniuses who were doing advanced physics and chemical calculations when most kids were still learning not to piss in their sleep!'
So, yes – Gōdo hadn't been annoyed that Yohei had suddenly gotten stronger…
He'd been overjoyed.
Yohei wasn't sure if that was better.
The boost in strength he'd gained meant that he could now properly use the Strong Fist even without activating Extreme Muscle Assault, which was exactly what he'd been made to practice today – and that meant he was being beaten around by his maniac of a senpai even harder than usual because 'he could take it now,' and without the extra padding and protection of muscles and Yang Chakra to keep him from being reduced to a pile of bruises and groans.
The approaching night was helping, boosting his natural recovery – but even with that, all he wanted was to drag his sorry ass back home, take a bath, and collapse onto his bed.
"Ooooi! Yooooohei!"
…
'Fate, thou art a cruel bitch of a mistress.'
Yohei raised his head, looking ahead.
A short distance away, he could clearly see Team 7 walking together, likely coming out of the Academy.
As they drew closer, however, a few things stood out to him.
First was the state of their clothing. All of them had outfits that were somewhat scuffled – Naruto's especially, which was riddled with holes, cuts, and frayed edges in several places – but they weren't dirty.
More than that, both Sasuke and Sakura – and to a much lesser extent Kakashi as well – had bandages covering parts of their bodies, with Sasuke in particular looking almost like a mummy from what Yohei could see beneath his clothes.
Raising an arm lazily – and wincing at the pull of pain in his shoulder as he did so – Yohei still smiled at the group.
It was good to see Naruto again, and seeing Team 7 all together like this tickled the part of him that was still a fanboy whose fantasies had been brought to life.
The smile slipped from his face when Naruto suddenly shouted in fright, pointing a finger straight at him.
"Demon! Kakashi-sensei, look! A demon took over his body!"
Yohei rolled his eyes and gave Naruto a light chop on the head.
"Calling someone a demon because they look different from you is rude, Naruto – and so is pointing at people," he said dryly, ignoring the blond glaring at him suspiciously while holding the spot Yohei had hit.
Turning to his other former classmates, Yohei greeted them casually.
"Heya, Sasuke – brooding as ever, I see. And Sakura, cute as always. Are those two giving you too much trouble?"
Sasuke simply gave him a grunt, his eyes fixed on Yohei's new features with an assessing look on his face.
Sakura, however, blushed – a faint tint of pink that looked particularly adorable framed by her hair. She didn't seem to know what to say to him, though, which was fair enough. They hadn't exactly been friends back at the Academy.
"Hello, Yohei-san, you–"
"Yohei, you bastard!" Naruto shouted, interrupting her, which made her eye twitch. "Where do you get off calling Sakura-chan cute!?"
Yohei turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
"Wanna try that again?"
"What are you–"
Whatever the blond had been about to say was cut off as a shiver ran down his spine. He turned woodenly to look at his scowling pink-haired teammate, who was cracking her knuckles as she walked menacingly his way.
"A-ah, Sakura-chan, I didn't mean…!"
Yohei smirked as he watched the scene unfold.
'Naruto really needs to learn to take his foot out of his mouth,' Yohei thought, blinking when he suddenly felt a presence behind him.
Tilting his head up, he saw a silver-haired, mask-wearing man looking down at him, a smile visible in his single exposed eye.
"So you're the famous Yohei who gave me so much extra work, huh?" Kakashi asked in a lazy drawl, voice cheerful. "Maa, that little stunt of yours really cut into my reading time, you know?"
'I'm not sorry for making you do your job, you bum. Serves you right,' Yohei thought dryly, keeping himself from looking unimpressed at the man.
Instead, he turned around, properly facing the jōnin and giving him a small bow that nonetheless showed respect.
"Kakashi-san, it's an honor to meet the Copy Ninja. I don't doubt that it is well within your capabilities to fix the shortcomings in Naruto's education."
Kakashi let out a laugh.
"Not even an apology, hm? Ah, well, I suppose I should thank you for looking out for one of my cute little genin," he said, glancing to the side where Naruto was frantically trying to make excuses as he narrowly avoided being hit by a still-pissed Sakura. "Still, I didn't know I was famous enough among the kids to be recognized on sight…"
Yohei shrugged, unconcerned with the probing question.
"Naruto likes to… brag about his team."
Brag was certainly a word for it.
"And when I saw your name in a Bingo Book, I just connected the dots. I have to say, I was surprised to find out that the sensei of the guy who keeps shouting he'll become Hokage was the apprentice of Lord Fourth."
"WHAT!?" Naruto and Sakura shouted together, their hands – which had been locked in a struggle – going limp as they stared at Kakashi in shock. Even Sasuke looked taken aback by the revelation.
"Was that meant to be a secret?" Yohei asked with apparent confusion.
Inside, however, he was cackling like a villain.
"Oi, Sensei! Is Yohei right? Was the Fourth Hokage your teacher!?" Naruto asked in disbelief.
"Hmm…" Kakashi hummed thoughtfully before nodding slowly, making the genin's eyes widen. "See you three tomorrow," he said cheerily, rather than actually answering anything.
And then he was gone in a gust of wind and leaves.
"That bastard!" Naruto said, looking around for the silver-haired man.
"Who knew Kakashi-sensei had such an important background…" Sakura murmured, still in awe, one hand raised in front of her mouth.
"Him," Sasuke said, pointing at Yohei, who scratched the back of his head with an uncomfortable-looking smile on his face. "What's a Bingo Book?"
"You don't know?" Yohei asked, a bit surprised. He'd thought Sasuke would be more aware of things like this, considering he was from a Clan.
When he received only an annoyed grunt and a shake of the head from the raven-haired boy, he shrugged and decided to explain.
"It's basically just a compilation of bounties on notable shinobi and missing-nin, along with summaries of the information that's publicly known about them. Each village has their own, I think."
"How do I get one?" Sasuke asked, a hint of tension in his voice.
"I… don't know, actually. I know you can't buy one in a shop, and that the village is the one that gives it to you, but I don't know the requirements for that. I got mine from a bet with an older ninja," Yohei explained, already expecting the follow-up question.
He pondered for a moment before deciding there wasn't any harm in being helpful here. Besides, it was good to build some rapport with the reincarnated demigod.
So he pulled the small, beaten black book from inside his pocket and tossed it toward the Uchiha.
"Here, you can borrow it. I've already read it front to back a few times."
Sasuke looked down in surprise at the object now in his hand. His grip tightened slightly before he looked back up at Yohei, giving him a small nod that carried clear gratitude.
"Thank you. I'll give it back when I'm done."
'Huh. That was… a lot more civil than I expected of him,' Yohei thought in surprise. '…I really should stop trying to get the measure of people using my half-remembered memories of a show I watched years ago.'
"Take your time," Yohei said easily with a shrug, earning another nod.
"Alright! Duckbutt, leave that book for later! We just came back from our mission – we should commemorate! Let's go to Ichiraku's!" Naruto said, earning a glare from both teammates before Sakura started glancing toward Sasuke with hopeful consideration.
"No," Sasuke said simply, already turning around and walking away.
Yohei snorted, holding back his chuckles as Naruto shook a fist at the retreating back.
"I really hate that guy…" the blond muttered with a scowl, before turning with a bright smile toward his remaining teammate. "Well, we don't need him, right, Sakura-chan?"
The girl, who had visibly deflated after Sasuke left, gave him an awkward, apologetic smile as she also began stepping away.
"Sorry, Naruto. I also have to go home to tell my parents the mission went well. Besides, it's about time to change these bandages."
"Ah…" Naruto extended an arm toward her, only to let it – and his shoulders – fall with a groan.
Then he turned, face set with sudden determination.
"Alright, Yohei – seems like it's just you and me! Let's eat enough for those two!"
"Uhh… sorry, dude. My mom is going to kill me if I don't go back home for dinner," Yohei said with an embarrassed smile.
Naruto fell to his knees, defeated.
Yohei really wanted to laugh at the situation – and at the blond's over-the-top reactions – but he also felt bad for him.
That was probably why he decided to throw a bit of caution to the wind and crouched down in front of the dramatic boy.
"Yo," he called, getting Naruto's attention. "I can't go eat out with you… but how about you come home with me for dinner?"
Naruto looked up at him with wide, hopeful, surprised eyes – which quickly turned awkward, a half-hidden wince crossing his face as he glanced off to the side.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
Yohei could imagine why.
'Mom,' he thought, letting out a quiet sigh.
He had asked her, one day in the past – after telling her the full truth – why she seemed to hate Naruto.
She told him she didn't hate him.
But she hated what he was.
In Nanami's opinion, the creation of the jinchūriki was one of the worst ideas the shinobi world had ever conceived.
At the start, they had been viewed with respect and admiration. They were people sacrificing themselves to shoulder the burden of titanic power – living with a massive source of chakra that could threaten to kill them at the slightest lapse. Weapons to defeat their enemies. Shields to defend their people.
And then it started happening – the consequences of human arrogance.
When it came to bijū, there was no such thing as a perfect seal. Eventually, every single one of them went berserk at least once, wreaking havoc and destruction upon their own allies – cementing in the collective consciousness that they weren't dangerous only to other villages, but to their own as well.
That was the origin of the hatred toward those who bore the 'Power of Human Sacrifice.'
Konoha had been the last of the villages to suffer such an accident, since for the longest time the Nine-Tails had been under the control of Uzumaki Mito.
Until, of course, it wasn't.
And they too were subjected to their weapon turning against them.
"I don't hate the boy, Yohei. If anything, I pity him. But I hate what he represents. I hate the thing in his belly – even if I now understand why it is the way it is. And I hate that, at any moment, the seal placed on him could fail… and there would be nothing I could do to protect you from the consequences of it."
Yohei understood her worry – and her hatred – even if he didn't personally share it.
He also recognized that, in her place, he might very well have felt the same.
If it had been his own partner who died protecting their newborn child…
Besides, imagine you're a parent, and you're told that from now on your kid will go to school with a nuke.
And that nuke will be there, in his classroom, every day.
You're told it's 'safe' – or as safe as it can be – and that only a very specific trigger could set it off.
How would you feel?
'But Naruto isn't just a bomb waiting to explode,' Yohei thought. 'And there are some things that are worth the danger.'
"Nah," Yohei said, grabbing Naruto by the scruff of the neck and hauling him up as he started walking.
"Huh?" Naruto blinked, dazed.
"I refuse your refusal," Yohei said with a grin. "I'd have to be a really shitty friend to let you eat alone when you're supposed to be commemorating. Besides, you should diversify your diet some. I'm sure Ayame-chan and Teuchi-san will survive without seeing you tonight."
The blond stared at him for a few seconds as Yohei dragged him along, before rubbing his nose and breaking into a smile.
"Alright! But let me go – I can walk on my own!"
"Suit yourself," Yohei said with a smirk.
He let go of Naruto –
– and the boy immediately dropped to the ground with a startled squeak.
"Oi!" Naruto grumbled, scrambling back to his feet and jogging to catch up while Yohei chuckled.
He shot him a glare, but ended up snorting too before his attention drifted back to Yohei's horns and ears, curiosity lighting up his face.
"Is that a Transformation?"
Yohei grinned, shaking his head and pointing a thumb at his own chest.
"Nope – you're looking at Konoha's newest Clan Leader."
He expected surprise, maybe disbelief.
Instead, Naruto just stared blankly at him for a few seconds before answering:
"Uh… congratulations?"
'…He has no idea what that means, does he?'
Yohei let out a sigh, deflating slightly.
"I awakened my Bloodline, Naruto. It's called 'Demon of the Dark Mountain.' It makes me look like this and… well, a lot of other things."
"You too!?" Naruto said indignantly. "Oh, man! What the hell is up with everyone having one of those things? Kakashi-sensei, Duckbutt, and that ice girl…"
'So they really just came back from the Wave Mission,' Yohei thought.
He had suspected it from the way they looked, of course – but some things hadn't been adding up. He didn't remember Sakura getting injured, for example.
'But for Kakashi to have shown his Sharingan and for Sasuke to have awakened his… Also, ice girl– ' He blinked. 'Wait. Ice girl?'
He looked sideways at the still-grumbling Naruto.
'Shouldn't he know that Haku is a boy?'
Then, with dawning horror, Yohei tried to calm himself.
'That… that could just be the butterflies. Maybe Haku never revealed his gender – didn't get the chance. Or maybe… maybe this isn't quite the world I thought it was. Fuck.'
"Naruto," Yohei said suddenly, cutting off the blond mid-rant.
"Yeah?"
"You're not a girl, are you?"
…
"Are you brain damaged?" Naruto asked, his expression caught somewhere between worry and pity.
Yohei snorted, a knot of tension loosening in his chest.
"Look who's talking."
"What's that supposed to mean!?"
Yohei laughed at the indignant look on the blond's face.
He drew in a deep breath, sighing happily as the scent of flowers in the air told him they were getting close to home.
"It's just something that popped into my mind – a brain fart. I mean, you're really good at the Transformation Jutsu, and you like playing pranks. I could see you doing something like that."
Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought, a wicked smile slowly spreading across his face.
"It would be a good prank, wouldn't it? Why are you thinking about this, though?"
His eyes suddenly widened, and he shot Yohei a teasing look, one hand covering a mocking grin.
"Don't tell me you fell in love with my Sexy Jutsu."
Yohei turned an unimpressed look toward him, lips curling into a small smirk – before going full melodrama.
His brows creased. His eyes widened, glassy with false emotion. A pained expression overtook his face as he clutched at his chest.
"Yes," he hissed, lips trembling. "Since the first time I saw Naruko – "
"Naruko?" Naruto repeated with an incredulous smile.
"I couldn't help but fall in love! She's so… brilliant, dazzling, radiant! As warm and grossly incandescent as the sun!" He dropped into a bow. "Please, go out with me!"
Then he lifted his head, face suddenly serious.
"Ah – only in your woman form, though. I don't want to see your mug."
Naruto tried to hold it in – he really did – but he burst into laughter as Yohei finished the performance.
"You're so weird," he said, though it lacked any real bite.
"Look who's talking," Yohei shot back, straightening up and rolling his eyes with a smile.
They walked in silence for a while after that, Naruto still chuckling under his breath every now and then.
The path toward Yohei's home eventually took them across a small bridge spanning a narrow river that flowed into a nearby park.
Yohei glanced down at the fish swimming through the clear water, half of him quietly mesmerized by a view he still wasn't used to seeing.
'Chaotic as it is, the way Konoha blends nature with the urban is definitely one of its highest points. I hope it stays like that in the future – it would be such a pity to lose things like this.'
He frowned then.
'It doesn't stay like this,' he reminded himself. 'Pain destroys the village, and then they spend… days? Weeks? Rebuilding it. Did they make it the same as before?'
He pursed his lips.
'...did anyone even remember this park?'
He was brought out of his thoughts by something touching his arm. Turning around, he saw Naruto, his mouth stuffed with an apple as he pushed another one toward Yohei.
"Thanks." Yohei accepted it with a smile, looking down at the red fruit before tossing it lightly into the air.
'It doesn't matter,' he decided. 'Whatever Pain did, whether anyone remembered, it doesn't matter. I'm here, I know what's coming, I have the Chaos Scroll, I have my mom, and – '
He looked with a smile at the blond, who was making faces at a bluebird nestled in a nearby tree.
' – I have my friends. I have too many things to protect, and all the tools I need to protect them. I can't– I won't fail, no matter what.'
He took a bite of the apple.
It was sweet.
"So," he started once they were in the park proper, cut rock steps under their feet, "Why were Sasuke and Sakura all bandaged up like that? Hard mission?"
Naruto's face turned pensive, a small scowl forming.
'Oh?'
"Kind of," Naruto admitted, making Yohei lift an eyebrow in surprise. The blond sighed. "The Old Man finally gave us a real mission."
"A C-Rank, you mean."
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto waved annoyedly, "We had to take this guy, Tazuna, back to his home in the Land of Waves so he could finish a bridge."
Yohei hummed. "Your average escort mission. Kinda close to my own mission, too."
Close in terms of ninja speed of travel, at least.
"But unless Sasuke and Sakura got hurt with nails or wood splinters, that can't be all of it. So what happened?"
Naruto snorted with humor. "Do ya want a list? On the second day we were attacked by those creepy weird guys with giant clawed gloves with chains that jumped out of the water…"
"That's certainly a sentence," Yohei said with a smile. "So, enemy ninja attacked – is that where the injuries came from?"
"No way!" Naruto denied, making an X with his arms. "Those guys were total scrubs! I beat them in a flash."
Yohei let out a doubtful hum.
"What?" Naruto asked indignantly.
"Nothing, nothing," Yohei said in an appeasing tone. "I just got the slightest feeling you're not telling the whole truth."
Naruto glared at him, then blew a raspberry, deflating. "Duckbutt beat them…" he admitted. "But I could totally do it! That guy just jumped ahead, believe it!"
"I do," Yohei said with humor. "You're strong, Naruto."
The blond gave him a smile.
"Just not as strong as me," Yohei added with a smirk.
"Do you wanna go!?" Naruto asked, pulling on his collar, making Yohei start chuckling.
"Maybe later," he said. "Now, come on, continue the story. You guys were attacked by two ninja. Why? And why didn't you immediately turn back to ask for reinforcements or a change of team?"
"As if! We're ninja, we don't give up on a mission! Once you accept it, you have to finish it, no matter what!" Naruto declared.
'I wonder about that,' Yohei thought. 'Would you say the same if you were given a mission that goes against your values? If you were told to murder dozens of children in order to keep up the peace of the village, would you do it?'
By the thematic of the 'story', Naruto wouldn't be placed in such a situation in the first place. But this wasn't just a story anymore – or maybe it never had been. Improbable as it was for Naruto to be given such a mission, it was still theoretically possible.
Still, he only smiled; there was no reason to ask something like that when he knew the answer would either be a resounding no, or an 'I'd find a way!'
'Which, fair enough, the little bastard probably would.'
"Right. You still didn't answer why you were attacked," Yohei reminded him.
Naruto groaned. "I didn't want to even think about it. There was this midget bastard – why are you laughing!? Tsk. His name was… Garou, or… Gakko? Gadou? Oh, right! Gatō!"
"The shipping magnate?" Yohei asked in 'confusion'.
Naruto nodded. "I guess! Kakashi-sensei said something like that. Anyway, this rat bastard wanted to control the Land of Waves, or something like that, so he was starving people and beating them down. Tazuna wanted to make the bridge to stop that from happening, so Gatō paid people to kill him off."
"So… one of the richest men in the world – a guy with the money to contract an entire team of high-ranked ninja – decides to kill your client, and you decide to just go ahead without even asking for help?" Yohei summarized, not really needing to pretend to be incredulous. The more he thought about it, the more he could see how that could have ended up going to shit.
"Yeah, I'm awesome, right? Ow – ! What gives!?" Naruto asked, rubbing the spot where Yohei had hit his head with a hand chop.
"That's for being irresponsible," Yohei said dryly. "There's a good fucking reason why missions are divided by ranks. It's not just for your sake, but also the sake of the client. A mission like that isn't even a B-Rank, it's straight up A, because the chance of going against Jōnin is pretty much guaranteed. And you–"
Chop.
"Ow–!"
"Are–"
Chop.
"Stop–!"
"Not–"
Chop.
"Ready!"
"Yohei!" Naruto grumbled, holding his head. "Jokes on you, you jerk, we fought a Jōnin and won!"
If Naruto expected that to make Yohei admit he was wrong, he was sorely mistaken. Rather, a shiver went down his back as Yohei looked down at him, emotionless, with a raised, trembling fist.
Then he let out a sigh, giving the blond boy a light punch on the shoulder.
"Don't do that, you idiot. Putting yourself in danger to protect something precious to you is entirely different from putting yourself in unnecessary danger just to prove something or satisfy your ego. There's nothing wrong with asking for help." With pursed lips, he considered how to best put this inside the blockhead's brain.
'Everyone around here loves their tree metaphors, right?'
"A single leaf can't do anything for a tree except die. It's only when it is joined by others that they can work together to keep themselves alive and grow. This is the true strength of the Shinobi of Konoha," Yohei said in a serious tone, looking deep into Naruto's eyes.
…
'What the fuck did I even say?' he asked himself. 'Uhh… something something monkey together strong, yeah.'
He went back to paying attention to Naruto, seeing the blond look at him with a shocked, contemplative expression – a faint glow in his eyes.
'Well, I guess it worked?' he thought tentatively. 'Yay?'
"Next time, just call in for support," Yohei continued, brushing past his attempt at trying to sound wise. "I would feel like shit if you died when I could have done something to stop it. Besides, what would have happened to the people of the Waves, then? Be more considerate of your clients – you're doing the mission for their sake more than yours."
Naruto nodded slowly, a slightly chagrined expression on his face. "I will."
"Thanks," Yohei said with a smile.
Naruto looked at him weirdly. "You're thanking me… for doing something that'll help me?"
The familiar words made Yohei widen his eyes in surprise, barking out a laugh that left Naruto even more confused.
"I'm thanking you for lessening my worries," he corrected. "Now tell me about this Jōnin you guys defeated."
"Right!" Naruto agreed with a nod. "He was this freaky-eyed dude with a huuuuge-ass sword with a strange name."
"Zabuza Momochi," Yohei said.
"Yeah! Wait, how do you know?"
"Bingo Book."
"… Huh. Cool. Can I borrow it?"
"Sure," Yohei agreed easily. "Just tell Sasuke that I told him to give it to you when he's done. Don't get distracted, though. You fought Zabuza. Or, I guess, your sensei did. Strong as you are, I doubt you guys could have done anything against the Demon of the Mist."
Naruto smirked, and Yohei looked at him in surprise.
"No way," Yohei said, then laughed when Naruto only scratched under his nose with a grin. "How?"
In lieu of an answer, Naruto brought his hands together in a string of hand seals.
Dog → Horse → Bird.
The blond sucked in air, and Yohei watched with wide eyes and a growing smile as his chest practically inflated, before –
WUUUUUUUUUSH.
A blast of air expelled from his mouth, aimed at the sky. Even so, it had enough power to make all the trees around them sway wildly, their leaves flying in a mad, spiraling dance.
"Wind Release: Breakthrough!" Naruto said with a grin, looking at Yohei once he finished the jutsu.
"Hahahahahaha!" Yohei laughed merrily as he caught Naruto in a headlock. "Look at that! You did it! Seems like me and Sasuke aren't the only ones with a 'cool jutsu', huh? I guess those lessons with your sensei really worked."
"You bet! I'm a thousand times stronger than the last time we fought, believe it!" Naruto said proudly.
"I bet! So, did you hit Zabuza with that?"
Naruto nodded eagerly, then hesitantly, then gave a wincing smile. "Kinda? He used a weird technique to cover the place with mist, so I made some clones and cleared it away with Breakthrough. He was going to use some kind of Water Clone to try to fool Kakashi-sensei, but without the mist he couldn't! So I totally saved the day!"
'Look at the butterflies flying,' Yohei thought, not really sure if he loved or hated the prospect.
"What happened then?"
"Kakashi was kicking his butt! He was using the red eye thingy to mess with his mind, copying his movements and saying stuff like – " Naruto closed one of his eyes, covering the lower half of his face with his shirt and trying to do an intense stare that didn't really fit his wide eyes. Then he deepened his voice, saying, "'I can see your future, and you don't live to see tomorrow.'"
'Damned aura farmer,' Yohei cursed in his head. 'I'm definitely stealing that.'
Yohei chuckled along with Naruto at the imitation, but then the blond scowled, annoyed.
"But then, when Kakashi-sensei was just about to defeat him, Ice Girl appeared."
"Right, the other Bloodline user you talked about. I suppose that would be Ice Release, right? It makes sense for her to be with Zabuza, since I've only heard of it in Kirigakure and in the Land of Snow."
"Yeah, yeah, she had that. But we didn't know at the time. She was pretending to be an uh – a hunter-nin, yeah. She threw a lot of senbon into his body, and it looked like she had killed him, so Kakashi let her carry him away – but she didn't, actually, because apparently there are ways to make a body look like it's dead if you hit it right? Did you know that was a thing?"
"I'm studying iryoninjutsu, so yes. Don't ask me to do it, though – I'd probably do it wrong," Yohei said, before snorting. "This mission of yours only seems to be getting more and more complicated."
"You have no idea."
Naruto then continued explaining how this world's version of the 'Waves Arc' had gone.
Because Kakashi hadn't gotten caught in the Water Prison, his chakra and body hadn't been strained to the point they had in 'canon', only needing some rest rather than being left bedridden and walking with crutches.
They went to Tazuna's home and met Tsunami and Inari, which wasn't all that different.
What was different was that, since Naruto – and by consequence the rest of Team 7 – had already completed the Tree-Walking training, Kakashi decided to get the three of them started on Water Walking, which was considerably harder, while he worked as a bodyguard for Tazuna as he built the bridge.
Ironically, it was faster for them to learn that than Tree Walking, but considering they had been practicing the latter for weeks now, it was understandable. In only two days they succeeded – with the exception of Sakura, who once more managed it on the first try.
After that, they joined Kakashi in escorting Tazuna around the city and protecting the bridge.
This… had certain consequences.
Naruto was much more exposed to the state of living conditions in Wave this time around, and it clearly affected him. He talked about seeing people begging for work or food, and how some didn't even beg anymore, just lying in the streets like they had given up on living.
Yohei guessed it was even more shocking because Naruto hadn't really been exposed to something quite like that before.
Of course, not everyone was rich in Konoha, and of course there were different classes of wealth – not to mention the subtle nobility system that were the Clans.
But the village itself was a wealthy place.
Not only because of resources – since the land was fruitful, their produce was popular, and ninja themselves brought in a lot of money – but also because the administration of the village itself wanted to see it thrive.
There was corruption, of course, but the political leaders were, one and all, child soldiers who had been raised since infancy on the creed of the Will of Fire – of giving yourself to the wellness of the village. They all wanted to see it succeed and prosper, even if their opinions on how that should be achieved differed.
All that was to say, Konoha generally took care of its citizens, and poverty or homelessness wasn't really much of a problem.
Naruto had ended up penniless about two days after he started his patrols, using all his money to buy food for kids. After that, he went on something of a spree with his clones, gathering food from the river, sea, and forests – something Kakashi decided to incentivize, making Sasuke and Sakura help along.
That, at least, put a smile on Yohei's face.
He had been as eager as he had been worried to see the results of his actions, but seeing things turn for the better rather than chaotically rolling downhill into anarchy and suffering was a relief.
The 'climax' of the mission came at the end of the week, after Zabuza seemed to have had enough time to recover from his fight.
Rather than the ambush at the bridge, however, in this timeline the man seemed to have decided to enact it directly at Tazuna's home in the middle of the night. Naruto only woke up after it had already started, but the house was covered in dense mist, and there were sounds of fighting both outside and inside.
In the end, he decided to stay in to protect the bridge builder and his family, rushing off to find Sasuke locked in battle with the 'Ice Girl', who had been tasked with killing Tazuna or taking hostages while Zabuza fought Kakashi.
Haku had attempted to fill the house with her ice mirrors, but the limitations of space and surfaces made it harder for him to use the same trick as on the bridge, and his mobility became considerably more limited.
"So she could travel through mirrors and was fast enough that you couldn't even really see her… how the hell did you deal with that?" Yohei asked.
"Me and Sakura-chan protected everyone with a lot of clones, while the bastard got those red eye thingies of his and managed to kind of keep up with her… did you even know he could do that?" Naruto asked, a bit annoyed.
Yohei shrugged. "The Copy Wheel Eyes of the Uchiha is one of the most famous Bloodlines in the world. Not everyone in his Clan managed to awaken it, but it wasn't uncommon."
Naruto tsked. "Yeah, well, after he got those things it was like he became an entirely different person. He got a lot faster, and could actually see Ice Girl, even if he was still getting his butt kicked."
"So you did something," Yohei guessed with a smile, only to be once more surprised when Naruto shook his head.
"Sakura-chan did!" he said cheerfully. "Ice Girl kept popping my clones, so Sakura-chan told me to make a lot and use the smoke as a – heh – a smokescreen so we could hide Tazuna and the others, while I got some clones to transform into them."
Yohei whistled. "Good going, Sakura."
"Right!?" Naruto said excitedly. "Once we got them away, I didn't need to worry about collateral damage, so I went all out and made enough clones to flood the house!"
At Yohei's unimpressed stare, he scratched his cheek.
"Eheh, the walls got a bit… damaged, but we fixed it later!"
'So they actually managed to catch Haku… the choice of environment and the element of surprise really does make all the difference in a fight.'
He was dragged out of his musings when he saw the face Naruto was making – something between somber and furious.
"What happened?" Yohei asked, worried.
Naruto took in a deep breath and let it out in a rough huff.
"Once we caught her, Ice Girl started saying a lot of shit."
'Oh, right.'
That was something Yohei had mostly forgotten, to be entirely honest – but after being defeated by a Naruto using the Kyūbi's chakra – something that didn't happen here – she had asked him to…
"Naruto?"
"She said… something about mercy and kindness… I didn't really get it, but I understood that she was saying that because she lost, because she was weak, she was useless to that browless freak, and she told me to kill her," Naruto said with a heavy frown. "She talked about the war in the Hidden Mist, against… against people like you, I suppose, who have Bloodlines. She said her father killed her mother, and that she killed him to protect herself, and was then… abandoned. Alone in the world, unwanted. She said Zabuza adopted her, made her feel wanted, gave her a reason to live. To be his weapon, his tool." Naruto almost spat the words.
"…What happened?"
Naruto snorted, angry. "Nothing," he said, making Yohei blink in confusion. The blonde turned and gave him a bitter smile. "She hadn't even stopped talking when the mist started to disappear and Kakashi-sensei came in with Zabuza. Apparently, Gatō tried to do a surprise attack to kill everyone, which meant he broke the contract or whatever… all I know is that Zabuza killed him, and he and Sensei dealt with the mercenaries. When he came in he told Ice Girl that a tool doesn't get to decide when it is or isn't useful to its master and… that was that."
With a bothered growl, he stopped walking, scratching at his hair before turning to look at Yohei.
"She smiled, Yohei, like he had just said a love confession or something. That's… that's so fucked up. Is that what ninja are supposed to be? Tools? People who would even fight for a bastard like Gatō, make so many people suffer and go hungry just because they were paid?"
Is it?
'Honestly, Naruto, I also don't know what it means to be a ninja,' Yohei thought with pursed lips. 'On Terra, a ninja is more of a cultural phenomenon and archetype than anything else – though in the past they were a mix between spycraft and assassination troops – but that's not nearly everything a ninja is here.'
What would others say it meant to be a ninja?
'Hayama-sensei would probably say that being a ninja means being whatever he needs to be at the time, be it a farmer, a builder, or a destroyer. Souma would say that being a ninja is the same as being a warrior who is constantly improving and testing himself in a multitude of ways. To Ren, being a ninja isn't any different than being alive – he was a ninja his whole life, and so anything he does is what a ninja is. Mom… for her, being a ninja is both a journey, a duty, and a job. And to Haku, being a ninja means giving yourself away – body, mind, and soul – to something or someone else that gives your life worth.'
Who was right? Who was wrong? Were they all right? None of them? Did Yohei even have a right to an opinion on the matter, when he declared to himself that his objective was to destroy the ninja system?
He wasn't sure he understood what that meant back then. Had anything changed at all, or did he only have even more questions than when he started?
And, if he didn't have a right to say what it meant to be a ninja, who did?
'Who?' he asked himself, and was unsurprised to find a face immediately coming to mind.
He huffed, looking back, over the treelines, and…
There he was.
Watching over Konoha. Watching him. The man who redefined what it meant to be a ninja.
Yohei smiled and put his hand on the satchel at his hip, pulling a kunai from it.
Naruto watched intensely as he walked off the road, approaching a tree, and followed in his steps.
"The word 'shinobi' is formed with two kanji," Yohei said, the blade in his hand carving a symbol on the bark with a few quick movements.
刃
"Yaiba, which means blade."
心
"And Kokoro, which means heart."
忍
"This isn't an accident, and it isn't meaningless either. It is meant to represent the fundamental aspect of what it means to be a shinobi – someone who lives with a blade over their heart. It means that, to be a ninja, you must always be ready to cut your heart out and abandon it in order to do your duty, and to accomplish your mission," Yohei said solemnly, watching as Naruto's face scrunched tighter and tighter with each word, his fists clenching until they turned white.
"However!" Yohei shouted as he slammed the blade over the Yaiba kanji, startling Naruto out of his funk.
Because he wasn't using Reinforcement, and because he underestimated the toughness of the wood, his grip slipped and his fingers slid off the blade, making a somewhat shallow cut that sent blood running down over the bark. He did his best not to let his grimace show, grinning toothily instead, fangs in full sight.
"I reject that notion! It is inevitable that at some point we'll see ourselves faced with situations where we'll wish to kill our heart – to be emotionless and without will, so that we can't suffer the pain of the consequences of ours or others' actions – but that sounds miserable, and I refuse to kill myself like that! I refuse to become just another heartless monster! Naruto!"
The blonde boy was practically on the edge of his toes as Yohei used his own secret technique on him – the Talk-no-Jutsu.
He snuffed the rising cringe from doing a shōnen speech with practiced ease.
"Listen well – there is another meaning to shinobi: someone who endures. A person who lives with a blade pointed at their chest and refuses to allow it to cut! Someone who doesn't give up in the face of adversity, in order to achieve their dreams! No matter what happens, no matter what challenges you face, don't ever let yourself lose heart! This is my nindō!"
Naruto gulped, a wide smile breaking across his face as he walked closer, his finger tracing the bloody carving.
"Yohei!"
"Yes!"
"What is your dream!?"
What is your dream, Yohei?
"I want– no, I will become the strongest!" he shouted, not knowing where the words were coming from – from which part of him they were rising. "I will become powerful enough to change this world, so that I can make it a place where I can live happily and without worries with those who are precious to me!"
Naruto nodded firmly – and Yohei really should have expected it, but for some reason didn't – getting shocked as the blonde closed his own hand over the embedded kunai, opening his skin and making his own blood flow.
"I will become the Hokage! To be recognized by everyone in the village, to prove that they are wrong, and to change what it means to be a ninja! Until I realize that dream, I will not give up, no matter what! I won't lose my heart! This is a promise, believe it!"
Yohei laughed loudly, for once not even noticing the new weight settling itself in his heart.
"That's what I'm talking about!" he said, throwing an arm over Naruto's neck. "Hey, when you're Hokage, make sure to give me the easiest jobs, alright!?"
"No way!" Naruto shouted, grinning. "The Hokage needs to protect the village, right? You'll be the strongest, so I'll send you out to deal with the most dangerous things!"
Yohei let out a loud groan. "Alright! That's fine! I'll just deal with it in a second and come back for a nap!"
"No way, no one's that fast!"
"Watch me!"
-~=~-
The rest of the trek toward Yohei's house was much more lighthearted than their earlier talk had been, but for both of them there was also a new weight on their shoulders that, ironically enough, made them feel lighter.
Though, for Yohei, that might also be because he was taking every chance he got to flip off any villager who shot Naruto a side-eye or glare. It felt incredibly cathartic – almost like he was satisfying the urges born from a lifetime of watching someone you admired get treated like crap by a bunch of assholes.
'Heh. Imagine that.'
After around a dozen minutes, they finally arrived at their destination.
Yohei glanced sideways and saw that, despite the earlier bluster, Naruto couldn't help but grow a bit uncomfortable. He was masking it well, but a few nervous ticks gave him away.
Yohei chuckled. "Oh, come on, are you losing heart already? Man up! Or, well, woman up. I'm still not sure if you're really–"
"I'm a man, dammit!" Naruto shouted.
Yohei grinned, satisfied to see some of the tension leave his shoulders.
"Fantastic. I don't want to imagine how my mom would react to me bringing a girl home. Come on."
He opened the door and stepped inside, slipping off his sandals at the entrance.
The house was filled with the smell of caramelized onions, honey, spices, cooked vegetables, and beef stock; Yohei could hear his mom humming deeper in, from the kitchen.
"I'm home~!" he called. "And I brought a friend!"
"Welcome home!" his mom replied cheerily. "Is it Ren-kun or Souma-kun? Ah, if it's Souma-kun, I'm afraid he'll have to deal with a bit of spice tonight!"
Yohei walked into view, a wide, disarming smile on his face, his eyes doing their best to convey that everything was fine as he half-dragged a suddenly nervous-again Naruto inside.
"Nope! This is–"
"Nice to meet you! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the number one maverick of Konoha and future Hokage, believe it!" the blonde shouted, pointing a finger upward, trying to keep a confident look on his face.
Yohei chuckled, jerking a thumb toward him. "What he said."
Nanami had a bland look on her face, her eyes flitting between the two of them as she took in their disheveled appearances – the dirt on their clothes, the faint smudges on their skin, and the dried blood on their hands. She let the silence stretch just long enough for discomfort to start settling in, long enough that even Yohei could feel a bead of sweat forming at his temple.
And then she let out a soft sigh, her shoulders relaxing as a gentle – if slightly exasperated – smile formed on her face.
She bowed politely.
"Nice to meet you, Naruto-kun. Please take care of my son. He's very impulsive and a bit of an idiot at times–"
"Hey! That's… fair."
"–But he always means well," she finished warmly.
Naruto looked at her with visible surprise, clearly not expecting that response, but in the end he let out an embarrassed laugh, scratching the back of his head.
"Ah, well, that's a given. He's my friend, ya know?"
Nanami chuckled softly at that. "That's good to hear. Say, Naruto-kun, do you like curry?"
A loud growl from his stomach answered for him.
Yohei and Nanami both burst into laughter as Naruto's face turned redder by the second.
Well – Yohei laughed, at least, until his own stomach decided to be just as dramatic.
Then Naruto was the one laughing at him.
"Betrayal," Yohei murmured accusingly at his belly.
Nanami shook her head, still smiling.
"Alright, you two – go take a bath. Dinner should be ready by the time you're finished. Yohei's clothes should fit you, Naruto-kun."
'He's starting to look overwhelmed, time for an intervention.'
Yohei slung an arm around the blonde's neck.
"Come on, I think my clothes from when I was nine should be a good fit," he said, already dragging him toward the stairs.
"Ah – yes… HEY!"
"Hahahahahahaha!"