Blunt tool.

"Buku bukum! Bukukum!"

A pigeon pecks at the ground, thinking there is grain. In reality, there is none. It's just a genjutsu that I cast.

It's an areal genjutsu that I'm practising.

I was to say that pigeons are the hardest bird to put under genjutsu according to my experience.

I have 9 pigeons here. All of them are individually under the same genjutsu. Because normal AOE genjutsu don't work on them.

Even if I do this, if one of them finds out other will too. Like you shooting down one bird, and the other are spooked.

Plata,plata,plata!!!"

Some of the white pigeons fly away.

They broke it again.

Hah!!!

I'm sitting cross-legged in the backyard of my house at the Uchiha compound.

That's enough for today

I try out a tune on the guitar.

It's been a while since this died, I haven't come around these parts for the past 5 years.

After quite a few sessions with Inoichi san...I managed to acquire enough guts to come back to the compound.

Yeah... after 4 years of surveillance, Hokage decided that I didn't have any more surprises for them. Hence, the loneliness.

Okay, ....time to make breakfast.

#####

After breakfast, I took a shower, reviewed my studies, and got ready for the graduation exam.

With all my things and equipment, I set on my way to the academy.

At the gate, students have started coming in already.

Everyone is excited to be a ninja at last.

With Shinobi codes, techniques, and Academy 3 jutsu drilled into their very being, all 250 students may seem ready for active duty.

But far from it. Only 50 or so will pass.

Since the Suna delegations successfully stabilised peace, the need for apparent child soldiers was lost.

Hence, the increased difficulty in the curriculum.

The fucker Naruto applied for early graduation 2 times already.

He got through the written and somehow even the taijutsu, but got stuck on academy 3.

How did Rock Lee pass? He had to have taijutsu at least on an advanced chunin level if that was I was the only thing he had.

In that sense, naruto is a kid who can sneak around inside the village while being chased around by Anbu. How come Hokage isn't passing him just for that? Sure he would be a force to be reckoned with if he got proper training on the Uzumaki ways, I'm sure his father's 4th Hokage and his mother left some kind of school to train with.

I guess the 4th hokgae's enemies are so dangerous, that they would rather have his kid eat the good of the street than from his inheritance.

Makes me question if Minato was an honourable person.

I wonder as I write an answer to a question in the history section.

How many Iwa shinobi did The Flash of Konoha kill?

Ans: 7000.

Yeah....that man bought the premium battle pass on the 3rd Shinobi War.

He didn't fight 7k...he killed 7k.

I sigh.

It's none of my business.

But I can't help but take a peak at Naruto.

He is looking at me begging for help on the same question.

I sigh, as I send the answer in hand signs, to the boy, whose father killed 7000 soldiers in a single war.

The written portion ended. Then taijutsu.

Yeah, I smashed it.

The requirement is to knock out your opponent. So, I knocked one of the civilian boys out quick jab to to chin when took a swing at me. That was easy.

It doesn't matter what type of martial art you use, just no jutsu.

Hinata used her gentle fist, against a girl.

Oh boy...she looked aggressive She hit the other guy's tanketsu like a crack shot. The girl could've passed even if she half-assed it. I guess her dad is putting pressure on her.

Also, naruto is watching.

Then came Naruto, against a big boy. I think his name is Shinato. He is one of the merchant's sons. The guy has some power behind his punches.

Naruto took a stance. Hands up, body low.

The big guy threw a straight at him.

And he blocked, not parried it with his forearm.

The guy didn't budge and kept on punching and kicking. In the last one, he took a big swing, naruto jumped up and twirled midair, kicking the boy's hand away.

Twisting midair one more time he kicked him in the chest. As soon as he landed,

plunged his elbow to the boy's face.

Before the big guy could back away, naruto slaps both of his ears.

No, the completely disoriented guy, takes one last punch at him, only for Naruto to dodge it, grabe the guy's shoulder and put a knee to his gut.

Shintaro pushed Naruto away to somehow recover, but Naruto again jumped and put a dropkick on his solar plexus. He went down.

Yeah.....I kind of showed some guitar to Naruto and he made some kind of banged-up version of his own.

The class went silent for a bit.

I whistled and clapped. Then everyone cheered. It was quite the show.

Naruto smiled and scratched the back of his head.

Helps Shinataro back up. Forms the sign of unity and falls in. The exam continues.

Then comes Sakura against another girl.

This one looks like one of those gipsy people with hair accessories who sent one of their kids to train as a ninja as a sign of non-aggression. This should be interesting.

Ohh. ohh...look she has a weird stance, like she is setting herself very low on the ground.

Whatever she planning it's going to come from low.

What will Sakura do?

Before the match began she looked at me and smiled. It's as if she knew exactly where I was in the crowd.

I too waved at her. She sure does notice me anywhere.

Something bugged me. I turned on my Sharingan.

The gipsy shot herself at Sakura real fast with a slow hand and it's as if..... it went through Sakura. Anyone would think it connected, but she seemed to have dodged upward it so narrowly that It gave a vague illusion.

The Sakura came down with a just as fast axe kick.

And it was over.

It happened in just a second. Maybe 3 seconds?

Without my sharinagan, I doubt I would be able to see it.

Yeah....Sakura is the genius of our class, not me.

Who could've thought? It was inevitable actually. She had chakra control up to the 85th percentile at age 7. Now....I don't even wanna know!

She can infuse her chakra into any part of her body unconsciously....like breathing.

I'm not close to her. Not in the sense that we don't talk. we do talk and interact a lot, but I don't know anything about her or even try.

And I Didn't have many spars with her in the academy.

In those, she did show the same form of precision.

Even then, she is physically not that strong and seemed to be.....maybe above average physically.

Like canon, she has an impressive memory.

But something seemed off about her.

A bit...mature? I don't know man.

She hopped away from the field and came to me.

I smile at her.

"As usual lady of the rookie 9. You are beautiful as always even when you fight.", I say with a grin.

She extends her hand. I control myself not to flinch away. She traces her finger on the scar on my cheek and below my eye.

"Anything for Sasuke kun." What she says. And she.....disappears. She just got back to the crowd and her smell, chakra, everything just vanished.

Whew... I'm getting a lot of Catwoman vibes from her.

She does that whenever she is done touching me or teasing me. Which .... doesn't happen often nowadays

I know she is bad news.

Just disappears into thin air. I can find her again if I concentrate hard enough. But something tells me that would be a breach.

Then came the Academy 3 jutsu.

Naruto failed.

#####

As planned, Naruto failed the exam.

I could've just helped him make the henge.

But....that ain't gonna be cool now, would it?

I simply lightly patted him on the shoulder.

He doesn't respond and walks towards his favourite swing.

I make myself scarce.

As I move through the hallway, I see Mizuki approaching the class.

Well... it's happening. This is where it all starts.

Let's see how Naruto does.

If it wasn't reality.....I would say there would drums in the background music.

....

The village suddenly felt rattled.

The Hokage was found unconscious on the floor bleeding profusely from his nose.

The bastard god of shinobi.

Hell.

I get ready with the seals and jump through the training grounds woods, near the village border.

In the forest ...I perch on a branch.

With a deep breath, I focus.

The wind howls, and tree leaves sway. The forest seems calm .....as if waiting for something to happen.

"Staack"!

Someone is skipping through the branches.

I focus my sense of smell in the detection.

The smell of ramen broth.

Yeah...naruto that is.

I hope away.

######

Mizuki just met up with Naruto and he immediately started his act.

Iruka sensei comes in with the rescue.

Naruto learns the kagebunshin and Mizuki gets to beat the shit outta him.

Naruto passed and became a genin.

The teacher and student hug. What a happy scene.

", What a shame", I cast a genjutsu on them.

Both of them fall asleep for a minute.

I land beside them and take the scroll.

And promptly unveil the whole thing.

I produced a scroll from my pocket and unsealed a similarly large scroll.

Scroll within scroll, guess nobody did that?

Yeah....you can put empty storage scrolls inside another storage scroll.

But that's not the point now.

I lay the whole thing on the original.

With a single-hand sign, I activate the seals in the white scroll.

With my Sharingan on.

It's a Uchiha secret seal technique that uses sharing power to memorise anything in sight in a more controlled manner.

The empty scrolls fill up with letters.

I put away the duplicate, and roll back the original.

I put the school back on Irukas back.

Set them up to the position they were in by using chakra strings like puppets and hop away at a safe distance.

Break the jutsu. The duo went on to their lives like nothing happened.

With this, we have a large scroll filled with forbidden jutsu and seals in my possession for future endeavours.

Boy was that a good harvest.

I can't wait to try all this so-called forbidden jutsu.

What secrets does it hold? What lies are we fed?

Why did Orochimaru risk someone inside Konoha to get a single scroll,? even though he knew Edo Tens, even improved it...he wanted this scroll. What's in it that he needed?

Why is that? I wonder. I wonder why.

Oh man, so many things to know. So much discovery. Ahh... the smell of Night Queen. It's a pleasant smell.

"What's that Sasuke kun?"

I sniped and fell head first in from a branch going straight for the ground. If I don't move my neck is gonna break.

Before that happened, someone caught me and landed swiftly on the ground.

I look at the person princess carrying me.

Sakura smiles at me.

"Oh hello. Didn't mean to startle you, Sasuke Kun. You looked so immersed in thought while jumping through trees with that big thing, I couldn't help but fear you would slip. ", she mused.

"Oh my .....thank you that's very considerate of you.", I say with a blush.

.....!!!!????.... wait.

She realises too and puts me on the ground.

"So....ehm...!", I clear my throat.

She is also looking the other way.

"I felt some strong shinobi running around the village. So I got curious," Said Sakura.

"Wow...thats dangerous. It's anbu business you know?", I try to respond.

"Hmm.... you no better....I saw what you did. You copied it", she snapped at me.

I'm pretty sure Sakura could give me a lot of trouble if we fought. She is not like the canon and will put up a fight. More so I can't kill her. She will inform the authorities once she recovers. And J has no intentions of defecting.

Let's just give up and hope that Hokage doesn't kill me. Or Danzo.

I put my hands up.

"Okay Sakura-chan you caught me.", I said.

"Eh?"

"Yeah....I copied a forbidden jutsu scroll for my personal need. "

"No Sasuke kun...., I think you got it wrong", Sakura looked bewildered.

"Yeah yeah...I know. I won't resist, there should still be some anbu roaming around, if you don't get involved yourself then just tie me up and they will find me. You can report me if I escape.....", I sit on the ground.

"Sasuke Kun," She closed the distance between us and grabbed my shoulder.

Hmm...she is fast.

"I will never snitch on you. Never.", she says firmly.

Okay....that sounded ...like...I don't know.

"So....you're not gonna hand me over?"

She shakes her head.

" you promise?"

"I promise."

"No matter what?"

"No matter what."

"Promise 3 times"

"Promise, promise, promise", she says firmly.

Hmm.....I guess I can trust her.

With a smile, I get up.

"What if use it for something bad?", I ask.

"I guess I'm an accomplice. ", she says.

Emmmm.....

"I think we should get out of here....you know in case they are still around ", she says while spinning her finger around her bang.

Shit, I've stared at her.

"Yeah....oh Haruno Chan..."

"Sakura ....if you don't mind,"

"Yeah..sakura chan. Then....see ya.", I wave my hand.

She nods and turns around to hop away.

Heck...she is gonna disappear again.

"Sakura chan? ", I call.....what am I doing?"

"Hmm?", she turns.

Wow....that "Hmm" sounded cute.

"Wanna....catch a ramen sometimes?", I ask with an awkward smile.

"Hmm...why not? Celebrate, since he passed and all.," She says with a smile.

"No...I mean....yeah...we can do that.....but you know....."

"Hmm?", she asks me with her eyes.

God...I can't breathe. This happens all the time whenever I'm with girls.

She saved my ass. Sakura seemed so mature all the time that I thought she only teased me whenever she wanted to go on dates.

But now .....today....she .....is doing more than anyone has done for me ....since....since the day. I could've been a spy or I might motive to defect. But she trusted me. If all those her attempts have been Ernest.... then I am an asshole.

A genuine affection that I failed to realise. I'm a blunt man. But now I know....even if she doesn't like me that way.....I have a place there in her mind....somewhere.

I feel several chakra sigs running our way. They are strong. Probably anbu.

Sakura perks up as well.

There is no time. I have to tell her.

I have to...I have to.....I can't lose this chance....if don't say it now....it won't feel the same.

My throat has dried up. My whole being screaming to run away. If I run now I will be a coward.

Suddenly sakura is in front of me. Again, she is crazy fast.

She kissed on my forehead. And traced her hand through my scar.

"Some other time, sweetheart.", and she disappears.

That's Shunshin without smoke.

I got dumped.

With a sigh and a heavy heart, I leave the scene.