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"Makeitstop! Makeitstop! Makeitstop!" Naruko almost screamed, finally managing to shatter the minor illusion I put her under by pure accident when her chakra flared enough to make my eyes squint from being unaccustomed to seeing that amount of chakra abruptly flash with my Sharingan.
I fought the urge to recoil away, bile climbing up my throat as I saw the look of near terror on her face as she fidgeted and had her arms clutched close to her.
That wasn't supposed to happen. She had requested I show her how to break out of Genjutsu, even when I advised not to. So, because I didn't say no, I ended up scaring her.
"I warned that it can feel uncomfortable at first." I said quietly, clenching my teeth when my mind started to draw parallels with Itachi for some asinine reason.
I'm not torturing her to kill me, so shut up.
The wave of queasiness at terrifying her eventually faded away, and I approached the shivering blonde delicately.
"I didn't like that." She mumbled, rubbing her arms vigorously like she was cold. Her shoulders were hunched and she still didn't look up at me. "I really didn't like that, 'tt-tebayo."
She's still shaking.
Her breaths came in short gasps and she looked like she was ready to run, none of them good signs.
"Let's not train with visual Genjutsu until you're ready." I said gently, awkwardly setting my hand on her shoulder to hopefully reassure her.
It seemed to have worked, because she stopped shaking like a leaf and let her hands fall to her side slowly.
Once I was sure that she had calmed down enough, I voiced my curiosity.
"Any idea why you reacted badly to it?" I asked, already having a few working theories.
I actually only had one real theory, and it wasn't one I was going to share with her at all because of the sensitive nature of it. Kurama didn't react well to Genjutsu, especially ones from a Sharingan. There was a very good chance the faint amount of off colour chakra I could see from her radiating an outlandish amount of chakra mixed with her own was Kurama's dripping out of the seal, so maybe the caustic reaction to my Genjutsu was from that.
Naruko shook her head. "I, well, I don't know." She looked down, her eyes staring at her feet. "I just felt really uncomfortable, like something was poking all over me like when you get a needle shot, but everywhere."
In spite of her having just come down from a freak out and her overall demeanor, I couldn't help but nearly crack a smile. The way she said it was funny; Needle shot.
"I don't think we need to try that again." I said, to which she looked up at me. "Probably need to find something else for you to occupy your mind with so you don't cause trouble."
"Yeah, you're righ-" She started to say, before pausing and realizing what I just said. "Hmph." The girl crossed her arms, giving me another adorable glare as she pouted.
I at least figured out some playful teasing was enough to draw out her more brash and confrontational aspect. It had been an observation I'd made over the last year that her stewing over something was very bad, but a visible look of irritation meant it was more surface level negativity and I could help her use it constructively.
So at least she wasn't too badly rattled by whatever atypical reaction she had to ocular Genjutsu.
"Caught that, hmmm?" I smiled, before frowning when my bangs got in the way of my eyes and I pushed my hair aside. It wasn't long enough to tie back, but it was close.
As I thought that, Naruko's expression shifted like she just remembered something.
"Wait, aren't you supposed to be doing your sword stuff before lunch?" She asked.
…
Shit.
"I… forgot." I grimaced, cursing internally. I'd been busy with Naruko, answering questions that were niche ones to her but were basic to me, and hadn't even thought of my own schedule. "I need to go then."
With that, I turned my back to her and activated my Sharingan once more, my hands raising up to form hand seals.
"Can we still have lunch at Ichiraku's?" Naruko asked quickly, making me pause.
"Uh, yeah." I said it like it was obvious. "It's normal for us."
It had become part of my dedicated schedule, and there was no reason to interrupt it.
I then completed the necessary seals for a Shunshin and shot towards my next destination, blurring across the outskirts of the village in the pattern I'd scoped out to not crash into anything.
/ (SCENE BREAK)
Arriving at the particular training grounds Yugao often had me go to, I saw a guy who looked to be around Yugao's age from a distance, wearing a flak jacket and with a sword strapped to his back while the sun shone down to bathe the grassy terrain in a bright light.
Undoubtedly Hayate.
It was a pity, from what Kakashi told me, what happened to him. Up and coming prospect through the academy, A-rank material Shinobi all around, and was almost S-rank in Kenjutsu at just 18 years old.
Then a poison attack last year scarred his lungs.
He'd still be a dangerous and capable Shinobi, but any and all attempts at endurance were gone with that. I knew people in, well, I guess my old life that had lung scarring from pneumonia and it absolutely destroyed their ability to exert themselves; at least Hayate could use chakra to ease the strain.
Shaking those thoughts aside, I made my way to him at a steady pace and signaled towards him with the typical ANBU sign for greeting that Yugao taught me to use.
Hayate's eyes tracked me as I closed the distance, looking at me with an unguarded expression of curiosity.
Now that I was closer to him, I noticed the paler complexion, the almost ashen colour to the skin directly under his eyes, and more shallow breaths that could barely be noticed because of my ears picking up the slight huff of his exhale.
"Hello, Gekko-san." I said politely, bowing my head slightly as a sign of respect. Old habits instilled by my mother and father hadn't lessened in the slightest over the last… nearly two years.
It had already been that long.
Hayate chuckled and smiled, clearing his throat and covering his mouth to muffle the faint cough he let out as he did.
"Yugao told me that you're a budding Kenjutsu prospect and that she could use some help with guiding you in the right direction." He said clearly, his voice not appearing to be as affected as I had preemptively thought it would.
That's one way to put it.
"She'd be right." I replied, noticing how he was still looking at me appraisingly. "I've heard nothing but positives from her and Inu about your skill with a sword, Gekko-san."
"Call me Hayate." He requested, groaning under his breath, "I don't really care for formalities, and it makes me sound old."
My mouth twitched upwards, my eyes fixed on his as steadily as I could manage.
"Okay, Hayate. I assume you'll want to see firsthand what Yugao has mentioned about where I'm at with technique?" I folded my arms together and stood up a little straighter as I finished.
Hayate nodded. "Seeing and hearing are two distinct things; you have your bokken, right?"
I nodded affirmatively to the question.
"Storage seal." I stated casually, pulling said article of chakra conductive paper and ink that Kakashi coached me in drawing out of my pocket.
It was annoying in how everything was supposed to work with the seal, and it was downright aggravating that it took me an entire day to figure out how to make the simplest one when Kakashi was walking me through how to do it, but Naruko managed to dissect and understand how to make one by looking at it for 30 minutes.
But it didn't matter, I was able to make cheap, but usable, ones on my own.
With a quick pulsing of my chakra through my fingers, the scroll opened up and deposited the wooden training sword in my hand.
Hayate hummed and adjusted his balance, taking a couple steps back.
"Alright, show me your stance." He instructed, eyeing me intently.
I didn't reply, simply following his commands and gripping the hilt, adopting a standard defensive guard.
"Good, now shift to the hawk guard."
My wrists shifted the blade up in a high guard that Yugao showed me, my eyes boring into Hayate's.
"Acceptable. I'm going to give quick fire commands, you are to follow each one and string together each kata fluidly."
I could guess that he was going to use the ANBU terms, or whichever terms Yugao did, of the different katas I've been taught.
"Yes." I muttered, my breath steady and level as I prepared for the next string of orders.
And they came quickly. The moment I shifted into one, another demand followed. My bokken moved in a near ceaseless motion, weaving an intricate web around me that whistled faintly as it cut through the air.
"Repeat the last ten." He said abruptly, walking to my left and still paying attention to me alone.
Damnit. I thought, trying to remember how it went. The first four were the same, but as I did the fifth one, I caught a blur of movement in my peripheral that turned out to be Hayate; his sword crashed down at my shoulder, where my blade wasn't at.
I hastily twisted my body and jerked my arms, barely getting the very bottom of the bokken in position to block his blade. But that didn't stop me from staggering and almost falling from the loss of balance and impact.
"What was that?!" I demanded, backing away and glaring at him.
"You're not doing it properly." He said, sighing as he shook his head from what wasn't quite exasperation. "One, you messed up the fifth one; the proper one would have had you stopping the hit no problem. You also didn't have enough strength or balance in your movements, surprise sent your form crashing down."
A low growl of annoyance started to build up in the back of my throat, none of what he said feeling pleasant.
Yeah, I understood that what he did, attacking without warning, was a perfect way to see if I had started to develop proper reaction speed and instinctiveness. But it didn't mean that I enjoyed having a 3 ft long steel weapon come careening down towards my face.
"Try again, but I'm going to be randomly trying to attack." He said, lowering his sword to point out to his side as he held it in one hand. "I need to make sure it wasn't just an off moment."
Gripping the hilt until my knuckles almost creaked, I started back up again and maintained my focus on going through the katas, having strength in my movements, and I also activated my Sharingan to prepare for the inevitable surprise attack.
The katas were gone through with the same skill as I usually maintained, the movements as precise as I can manage with my Sharingan active.
"Repeat!" Hayate commanded, my arms swiftly guiding my blade into the first kata of the pattern once more.
I hit the third when I saw a faint doubled over image of Hayate, almost like a mirage, take a step towards me.
The warning from my Sharingan reading his movement was enough for me to prepare for the lightning fast lunge, which I sidestepped and knocked aside, drawing my blade back up to protect my chest.
Hayate grinned widely, stepping back and taking a deep breath before exhaling loudly.
"Good." He said, his eyes zeroing in on mine and squinting for a moment. "Make sure not to be over reliant on your dojutsu. Being able to read your enemy's movements is good, but you need to make sure you're fast enough for your body to react to what you're seeing."
"That's why I train with Maito Gai." I replied simply, still maintaining the guard position in case of a surprise attack.
Hayate just laughed, letting his sword rest at his side lazily.
"That's funny." He kept on snickering, "Did Yugao tell you to say that?"
I didn't laugh, I just remained silent and stared up at him.
His amusement quickly evaporated under my silent look.
"Oh," He said, deflating some and looking a bit awkward, "I didn't realize he was taking students as young as you."
"He's not technically," I said, putting my off hand on the center of my bokken to distribute the weight to both my arms, "He helps on some of his off days and gives me some pointers on endurance training safe for me to do."
He might have been a training junkie, but Gai was no idiot. He probably knew as much about fitness and safely honing your body into a work of art as Kakashi knew about Ninjutsu.
"Ah, that makes more sense." Hayate said, still looking a bit awkward as he shifted his body weight to his right leg. "He didn't really seem the type to take an apprentice instead of a genin team."
That did not give me reassurance. Gai was… okay to be around, but the thought of him as a Jonin sensei for me was frightening to say the least.
"But that will make things easier for training if you have better than normal physical conditioning." He pointed out, looking rather positive as he said that.
"That doesn't instill excitement for training." I said flatly, giving him a deadpan look.
The Tokubetsu-jonin just laughed at the look I gave him.
"Trust me, you'll enjoy every benefit it reaps."
Wanting to still keep to the illusion that I wasn't actually borderline desperate to be as dangerous as possible to ward off getting killed by the different threats on the horizon that extended all the way up to possibly being my sort of grandmother, I just shrugged my shoulders.
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"I guess you're right." I said tiredly, putting on a bit of a show like I didn't want to argue. "Ready to get started again?"
Hayate smiled.
"Sure."
/
"Pleeeease." Naruko begged, the hyperactive blonde shaking my arm with enough force to almost knock me from my seat. "I promised to help them and I can't remember how you explained it to me."
I gripped the side of my desk tightly, my teeth grinding together as the blonde that I needed to remember was openly sought out by me, not the other way around, was now driving me insane with her request for me to fix what she started.
She wanted me, Uchiha Sasuke, to take time out of my day to help a few curious students about a chakra control technique trick to make leaf sticking easier.
The fact that I was sounding that pretentious in my head at this point didn't improve my mood any bit either.
"Why do you do this to me?" I mumbled under my breath to no one in particular, taking a few deep breaths to keep calm.
I didn't want to help a bunch of brats figure out how to do the most basic of stuff. If I wanted to experience having a child be wholly reliant upon me for education, I'd wait a few years and knock a woman up to have a kid, then I'd experience the wonder of wiping an infant's ass until I taught them how to successfully not shit themselves.
"You remember what I said about how you can help them, but I won't?" I asked, looking at her with a flat expression.
The tone I used obviously made her uncomfortable, because she looked away. But almost immediately, it shifted to annoyance and she gave me a slight glare.
"I forgot how to explain it, okay? I just want to help them because they asked, and it's not like it'll be harder than talking to me." She huffed as she finished, still fixing me with that trademark glare.
I scowled at her attitude, not liking it at all. But honestly, wasn't this what I wanted, her not being completely obedient and emotionally reliant upon me?
Intellectually reliant? Undoubtedly. She wasn't stupid, but damn was there much to be desired. But it wasn't that bad, I just didn't want it to become a habit where she turned to me for help for everything.
It could be beneficial to appear somewhat concerned for them, come to think of it.
I didn't not care about the other kids in my year, I just couldn't be bothered to feel compelled to help them because of some odd sense of responsibility from them being 'Canon' characters or any such nonsense. I wasn't compelled to overthrow my old life's government for drone striking civilians overseas, and I wasn't compelled to divert my time and focus to helping a bunch of difficult to be around kids…
Unless I hard focused on one.
Odds are, Naruko and I will be on the same team. Presumably, we're getting another teammate in our year like usual. So, the question was which one would Sarutobi assign. I'd prefer Shikamaru; lazy, and annoyingly so, but he was also the closest in being self-reliant mentally compared to all the others in our year.
It's not to help them, it's so the third teammate won't be useless.
I was just being honest with my motives as my mind raced through different options, all the while Naruko waited for my response.
I was selfish, yes, but I wasn't a savage that would eat a baby on live television or something grotesque like that to better myself. I was just apathetic to being a saint.
Letting out a slightly embellished groan, I answered Naruko. "Fine, I'll help some."
"Yes." Naruko grinned, elated at what she probably thought was her convincing me to be selfless.
"But if I'm helping, you're going to assist me with demonstrations." I said clearly, eying her closely. "It means if I need to show chakra sticking or certain grapples and other things, you're going to be my little pet to experiment on." I added the last part with a touch of affection to be funny and I laughed slightly.
Naruko recoiled away from me, scowling uncomfortably.
"Don't say it like that." She continued to scowl. "You look creepy when you do that."
"Do what?" I frowned, furrowing my brow.
"Smile with your teeth." She clarified, looking closer at my face with an unsettled expression still as her eyes traced along my eyes and features. "It doesn't look right, your eyes don't smile."
Okay… that's fucking rude. If I hadn't been aware of how Naruko could accidentally sound rude, I probably would have said something just as insulting as she accidentally sounded. As it was, it just made me more sad than anything else.
And there was no way in hell I was going to practice smiling in front of a mirror.
"Noted," I eventually settled on saying, looking towards the other academy students that were currently watching me and Naruko, "So, ready to show everybody else some training tips?"
Naruko smiled and nodded.
"Yep!"
I stood up from my seat and Naruko and I both walked over there, the four that Naruko had talked with; Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and Hinata looking at me curiously.
Returning the look, I asked a simple question.
"So you're wanting some help with training?"
/ (SCENE BREAK)
"Let him in." Hiruzen said clearly, signaling for his ANBU to let in the teacher that had requested an audience with him.
The ANBU nodded and walked out of the room, heading to the waiting area guests and those with sizable contracts that warranted a personal audience with the Hokage would usually be told to wait in…
Or Shinobi under his command seeking to speak with him.
After just a brief delay, the ANBU escorted Umino Iruka into the room. The comparatively young teacher looked a little nervous, judging by him adjusting his flak jacket once more when it already looked well maintained and clean.
"Sandaime-sama." Iruka bowed his head respectfully. "Thank you for affording me some of your time."
"When one who is in charge of the rearing of the next generation of Konoha Shinobi requests a meeting, I make an effort to give some of my time to them." Hiruzen stated, offering a polite smile to the man.
The much younger of the two looked much more relaxed as that was said, a faint smile appearing on his face.
Hiruzen then turned to face the ANBU next to Iruka. "You may return to your initial post."
The ANBU nodded and made a hand seal, shimmering almost out of view with the camouflage Jutsu common amongst the group and assumed his position.
Now that the ANBU was absent, or at least in an illusory sense to make most of the conversations appear less awkward from eavesdroppers, the old veteran of multiple wars looked at the man who could almost be his grandson.
"You wished to speak of Uchiha Sasuke?" Hiruzen asked, steepling his fingers and leaning forward.
"Yes sir, I do." Iruka stated, cutting to the chase. "I believe it would be in Sasuke's best interest to be pushed ahead a year."
Hiruzen hid his frown, taking a slow breath and mulling through an initial thought.
No. He is not ready. Naruko is good for him, and being moved ahead will destroy any sense of stability he has regained.
Sasuke was undoubtedly capable of excelling in the year above. Quite frankly, the boy could potentially sit his graduation exam now without too much difficulty.
"You have informed me before of Sasuke's boredom in class concerning the general education given not related to Shinobi affairs," Hiruzen said, his expression a dull and expressionless sheet of neutrality, "As well as nearly all of the basic Shinobi ones too. But are you not concerned about upending the fraction of the normality he still maintains?"
Iruka paled slightly at the pointed question, before he closed his eyes for a moment and seemed to center himself.
"No, I don't think it will be an issue. Delaying his progression will probably only do harm in the long run. He is polite, astute, and motivated to be excellent; and Naruko and a few students are also doing better because of his influen-"
"Ah, yes." Hiruzen interrupted, ignoring the frown that appeared on Iruka's face. "You informed me of that change two weeks ago. Do you not think that it would be preferable for Sasuke to stay in his own year of students if he has begun to open up?"
Hiruzen had been extremely relieved when instead of jealousy which could so easily sprout from a student suddenly jumping ahead in ability, the clan children had been mostly unaffected by Naruko's progress. The one major change was that the girl had convinced Sasuke, who Iruka noted as looking to be under duress the first time, to offer insights that were slightly ahead of the curve on techniques, endurance training safe for children their age, and a few assorted things that were beneficial to them.
Iruka paused, not responding to the accurate statement by his superior.
"I… don't know." He eventually admitted, his eyes looking down.
Hiruzen knew Iruka meant well, but the better choice was to not offer Sasuke that opportunity. To choose between speed of progress or interaction with what may just become friends; it was not something a young Shinobi in training should think of after experiencing a traumatizing event.
"There is nothing to be ashamed of, Iruka." Hiruzen said gently, but not relenting in his decision. "You wish for the best for Sasuke. But right now, I feel as if he should be kept where he is now. If events change in the future, I may reconsider."
Iruka nodded his understanding, but he still looked put out by the rejection.
"I understand, sir."
"You may go." Hiruzen dismissed him, knowing that Iruka would come to understand that he was right. Sasuke needed time to still adjust emotionally, at least as best as he could.
At the dismissal, Iruka turned and left the room without saying another word, disappearing around the corner.
Hiruzen reached for his pipe and reignited it with a twitch of his fingers, sparking some fire chakra at the end of the digits.
Taking a long drag from it and eying the drawer that had a few promotion approvals needing signed, Hiruzen thought of the monotonous work ahead of him and scowled.
Whether it would end early tonight or not, he didn't really care. Tomorrow would be a relaxing day where he could take Naruko to Ichiraku's and bask in the boundless energy and enthusiasm she had for life.
Hopefully she was having a better evening than he was.
/(SCENE BREAK)
My fingers dragged across the slab of meat, the entire section I touched sagging as the internal connective tissue split apart from the chakra scalpel I just used.
I sighed happily and repeated the technique until I finished what I wanted to, glad that the months of training helped me to lower the number of seals to two without compromising the cutting effectiveness of the technique.
And of course, Naruko had to ruin my moment of pride in my accomplishment.
"Please stop playing with the meat and show me what to do." She requested impatiently, tapping her fingers against my kitchen counter at a rapid pace.
She was currently wearing, much to my disconcertation after I had already told her to, my mother's preferred apron over her orange t-shirt.
Whatever, just ignore it and don't break your promise, Sasuke. I scowled under my breath as I thought that, keeping my mouth shut and groaning at the interruption because I did offer to help her with something she wasn't the absolute best at.
Cooking.
"I wasn't playing, I was training." I replied, catching the eye roll from the blonde like it were a beacon going off in front of me as she didn't bother concealing her total lack of belief.
"You were smiling, so it's playing." She intentionally heightened the pitch of her voice like she was talking to a child, or at least one younger than we both were. "Now help me like you promised."
Ever since I had started helping her talk with the other students, she had stopped being in a state of polar mindsets, those two being either extreme shyness bordering on timid, or standoffish and borderline abrasiveness; which was good, admittedly. When she was uncomfortable in the social interactions I'd witnessed her being a part of just a few short months ago, she had been quiet and shy, with plenty of fidgeting from struggling to remain still. It was quite strange actually, to see some of that lack of social anchorage from a third person perspective.
But after I had helped her break the proverbial ice with a few of the students, in particular Shikamaru, Choji, Hinata, and Kiba, she had started to open up and practically shined when explaining what I coached her to say. She'd even begun talking with and interacting with them on her own, not even including me…
Which was exactly what I had wanted, wasn't it? I didn't want her to be beholden to me alone, yet I wanted her to be tied to me so I could have a close ally in the future and nullify the threat she could pose.
So why was I upset that she didn't talk with me for an entire day because she was busy?
And now her more outspoken streak had her responding back at me. I really didn't like being put on the back foot by her like this, she was basically making fun of m-
…
I stopped that line of thought. I was being a socially awkward introvert and completely blind to the atmosphere so I could sate my curiosity on my skill level in Iryo-ninjutsu… on a piece of raw meat that was going to be dinner. Of course she was amused by it.
Yeah, I think Itachi rattled more screws loose than anybody had ever thought. Or maybe I was uniquely insane when exposed to the Tsukuyomi.
"Sasuke. Hand. Off. Meat. Teach. Me." Naruko forcibly pulled me away from my musings over my presumed insanity by poking my shoulder roughly, making me flinch away.
"Ow." I jerked away, rubbing my shoulder with my free hand. "I don't think you understand how strong you are now."
Naruko didn't respond, but the azure glint in her eyes didn't exactly leave me enthused.
I've created a monster.
"Let's just get on with this." I eventually settled on, almost ready to toss the properly tenderized and sliced meat into the pan that was currently on the stove. "And for the record, I was tenderizing the meat and slicing it using chakra instead of that." I pointed at the meat tenderizer to the left of Naruko's hand, and the cutting knife was still left in the wooden sheath or whatever it was called.
Naruko just huffed, tugging at her hair that was now grown out from being less than the length mine was when this whole mess started, to roughly just past her neck over the last year.
She had finally opened up enough where I found out what happened. Evidently, someone had poured glue on top of her head a week before Itachi did what he did. It had stuck and clumped her hair so much that Inu had been forced to cut a sizable portion of her hair away as she had been bawling hysterically.
All I needed was a name or face, then I'd probably emulate the red Indian ancestors of the past life's bloodline. But that could wait until after I teach Naruko how to cook a dish she'd never made.
"If it tastes weird," Naruko's voice broke through the brief, but bloody, thoughts going through my head. "I'm blaming you."
I just rolled my eyes, having been able to curb my more sinister thoughts while grabbing the properly sliced meat with my bare hands and setting the pieces into the pan with a light sizzling noise from the pan being hot.
"The cookbook is alright," I gestured with my head towards the book propped open at the very back of the counter on a stand, making sure Naruko still understood, "But hands-on observation and directions are the best to teach. So, since you can't tear the inside structure of the meat apart like I did, just repeatedly hit it with the tenderizer."
At the use of the word for said object, Naruko flicked her gaze over to the metal device, a grin appearing on her face that seemed to make her eyes shine.
"It looks like a hammer." She pointed out unnecessarily.
"Yes, but it's a meat tenderizer." I said, calmly addressing what she said.
"A meat hammer." She snickered, intentionally trying to poke at me. "It's a hammer, but for meat."
I really need to not make her think laughing at my expense is a fun pastime. So, I just didn't reply to the intentional attempt at riling me up.
"Either way, you put the temperature at this degree." I pointed directly at the temperature gauge, but I didn't twist the handle to turn up the heat. "You turn it, because I have blood on my hands."
"Okay." Naruko bobbed her head excitedly, leaning forward and doing as instructed, and turning the heat up to the necessary level.
The sizzling of the meat grew a little louder and I told Naruko to watch it while I washed my hands in the sink. I used my forearm to turn it on, then I rinsed as best as I could before grabbing the bar of soap and cleaning my hands the rest of the way.
I then finished and went back to the stove, grabbing the wooden spatula my mother preferred to use and made eye contact with Naruko.
"You'll want to mix the meat around so all of it gets cooked." I explained, giving an example as I began stirring it around and mashing it some, before repeating the process. "You try." I handed her the spatula, taking a step back to let her stand on the stool I had been on so I could actually see what I was doing.
"What about the other food?" She asked uncertainly, pointing at the boiled rice on the back grill of the stove and the four still to be cracked eggs that I set aside.
"I already boiled the rice, so it's fine. The eggs are when I show you how to poach them, which will be after we cook the meat." I explained, stepping back a bit to give her more room while I eyed the stove intently.
The memories of being around my father's height threw me off somewhat when I realized I was too short to see the stovetop and needed a stool, but it wasn't an issue right now and I took in the smell and sound of the supper I was helping Naruko make for us.
Naruko did as I had shown just a moment ago and flipped the slices, albeit less fluidly as she was doing this for the very first time.
"Am I doing it right?" She asked quietly, her face not visible to me, but she sounded unsure and somewhat apprehensive.
"You're doing perfect." I told the blonde softly, smiling as I did so to make myself feel better as I grabbed the older stool my mom had stood me up on when she did exactly what I was doing with Naruko; teaching a kid to cook.
Setting up the stool, I stood right behind Naruko and looked down past her shoulder, watching her do something that I had done under the guidance of my mom.
'Hold it like this, Sasuke. You don't want to hurt your wrist when doing it. There we go, just like that. I'm so proud of you.'
Rather than make me feel almost nauseous from remembering such a potent and deeply intrinsic memory I had of just my mother and me, not Itachi, my father, or anybody else, I felt a surprising relief as I watched Naruko succeed at something with my help.
Suddenly struck by an idea, I blinked my eyes and activated my Sharingan to memorize every detail of this moment. Everything, from the individual specks of vapor coming up from the sizzling helping of beef, down to the faint glint of light that shimmered off of Naruko's hair, I saw everything with an unmatched clarity, and I didn't realize until I had already done it that I had leaned into Naruko and wrapped my arms around hers, subtlety guiding her movements.
She had stilled for a moment, taking a sharp intake of air, before she relaxed and we were standing silently next to each other.
Something I noticed was that she used a strawberry scented soap for her hair that I could smell from just being a few inches away from her head.
"Grab two pinches of salt and pepper each." I whispered into her ear, which she did and dropped them into the pan. "Now stir it in and add the cayenne pepper when I tell you."
My clan generally preferred spicy food, and this recipe was no different. But the amount of spices I was having her use wasn't even half what I normally used when I fixed this, because it'd probably have her frantically chugging milk to not puke from how hot it'd be.
"Now flip them." I instructed, the unknowing Jinchuriki flipping the slices of meat to continue cooking them.
"Good." I complimented her, feeling totally at ease for the first time in awhile. "I'll make a chef out of you."
Naruko giggled at my proclamation, looking up at me and smiling brightly.
"I have a good sensei." Her smile was like a megawatt light directly in my face, and her eyes sparkled happily.
There was nothing I could think of right now at all for the future. Whenever I made a decision, I always had an eye on the future for the benefits and risks involved; it was a science.
But not now.
The only thing I could think of right now was how at peace I was, with a happy and bright girl joyfully taking to my cooking lesson better than even I did when my mom showed me.
The rest of the evening went by with the same blissful atmosphere, nothing that existed in this world being able to pull me from it.
/ (SCENE BREAK)
Kakashi watched through the window of Sasuke's home from a sizable distance away, listening in with the assistance of a handy Raiton technique that could read the sound vibrations off of glass that came from a person's voice.
It'd been trained well enough that he could understand what each flicker of the light meant when his Sharingan was open, making it child's play to understand what the last loyal Uchiha and his Sensei's daughter were talking about.
And judging by the subdued, but visibly present, smile on the boy's face throughout the 'training session', it had been good for him.
To think it was the hyperactive blonde that finally got the kid to relax. He thought amusedly. The irony of a girl that was the complete polar opposite of Sasuke in almost every meaningful way on personality wasn't lost on him. Frankly, this was probably good for both of them emotionally, not just Sasuke.
The bead of light rippled in the pattern of a laugh, matching up with Naruko tilting her head and body back into the chair with her mouth open and her eyes closed.
She looked like her mother so much that it was painful for him. The hair and eyes may have been every bit of her father's, but that smile and face was her mother through and through.
You would be so happy that she and Mikoto's boy are getting along. Kakashi blinked rapidly, a soft smile making its way onto his face. He wasn't particularly close to Uchiha Mikoto, but she had visited Kushina every week and he'd seen firsthand how close the two were.
And now their children were friends.
Kakashi continued to do his duty and monitor them, an ever present and unseen specter hovering over the two orphans and innocent children undeserving of the experiences they had weathered at such a young age.
/ (END CHAPTER)