"UWAHH! AKKIII!!" a shrill scream woke me from a restless sleep.

'Ugh.'

I got up from the bed and tended to Numa, replacing the nappy and tucking him back into bed, the boy had been growing more restless as the days passed.

The twins' parents were still nowhere to be seen, it's been 3 almost weeks since they were supposed to come back, and there was still no sign of either parent. I didn't know how many more empty promises I had in me before I couldn't face the kids properly.

I shook my head of unneeded thoughts, it was still night, I should go back to sleep.

I lay back on my bed and covered myself with the blanket, silencing my mind to try and get some more sleep.

'It's too hot.'

I threw the blanket off and turned to sleep on my side.

'Too cold.'

I half covered myself with the blanket to strike a balance.

I twisted and turned my body to finally reach a comfortable position, only for it to become uncomfortable the next minute.

'Bed, do you wanna fight?' I thought in a sleepy haze.

I can't sleep.

This has been a recurring issue as of late, I work hard in the morning and train as much as I can yet sleep still eludes me. No matter how hard I worked, I wasn't able to tire myself out enough to sleep quickly.

'That whole conversation with Hiruzen definitely didn't help' I thought. What made it worse was that tomorrow I was supposedly meeting my "teacher", I had no clue who it was or what his purpose would be but I was excited beyond belief.

Why?

After what seemed like aeons of pushing myself to the limit, trying to sense Chakra and failing, doing my best to get stronger but only seeing minuscule growth, I would finally start training properly! Brawling with Sasuke had gotten boring, I was able to beat him 5 times out of 10 now and I knew the number would just get higher. Sasuke wasn't too happy about it, but it served to make him work harder which was always good.

Sadly, all of these thoughts culminated in me not being able to sleep.

Groaning in annoyance I got out of my bed and walked out of my room, tip-toeing so that no one heard me.

I reached the living room and sat in a meditative position on my favourite couch, Tomo had about 5 but there was only one that lacked what I thought to be coffee stains. Dear god, I hoped they were just coffee stains.

I refocused on the matter at hand with more seriousness, now was not the time to be making jokes. I couldn't sleep but I didn't want to waste my time so I decided to make use of my energy and do something with it.

'Think Aoki. Think.'

'Work out your problems, plan for the future and put those plans into action.' I willed myself to be serious.

'I have Hashirama cells within me, one of the most OP plot devices used in the later episodes to justify ridiculous abilities' I thought to myself, remembering all the shit that the First Hokage's cells were capable of.

An image of Madara Uchiha with Hashirama's face on his chest surfaced in my mind.

'So glad that shithead Orochimaru didn't go that far.' I thought. I continued my new habit of cursing out that snake freak anytime he crossed my mind, it didn't feel like revenge, but it made me feel better.

Maybe my dislike of him seemed exaggerated to some but… there was something about imagining the weirdo toying with me in that green tank that would always ruin my mood for the rest of the day, it felt like little snakes were slithering under my skin.

I closed my eyes and remembered what I had read in the Log a couple of days ago.

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'Implanted ---- huh?'

I know that Gramps wouldn't realise this about me, but I needed no more information to understand what it was that the Log eluded to, it was something I had already hoped would be the case.

'These eyes are definitely not the ones that I was born with' I thought, lifting a hand to touch my cheek, it was a strange feeling to have a body part that originally didn't belong to you attached to yourself.

'The body itself wasn't originally mine, an eye is nothing when compared to that' I reasoned with myself. I no longer thought about it that much, the body felt more like home than my previous one ever did.

'But I do wonder… which eye was it?' I asked myself.

'Orochimaru had an unhealthy obsession with the Uchiha, could it be a Sharingan?' I thought, trying to remember the plot of the anime.

I wrestled with this thought for a while but I concluded that it was unlikely.

Sharingans are very rare, although I'm sure that he has a stash of them at the ready, would he use his treasures on me? I thought back to one of my earliest memories, one where an elderly scientist "recommended disposal" of me. From that I can assume that he didn't have high hopes for me back then… if my eyes were given at a point in time where they didn't have faith in my growth, would they invest a Sharingan in me?

'Unlikely' I realised.

'Byakugan?' I thought, thinking of the other possibility.

This one was probably even rarer than the Sharngan considering the lengths that the Hyuga went to in order to preserve the eye, I don't remember Orochimaru ever implanting a Byakugan or even having one in his possession, so that too is unlikely.

'I know there are others but… I can't remember them....' I thought, frustrated at my lack of knowledge.

From the top of my mind, I can think of two more (not including the Sharingan evolutions), there's the Byakugan copy that a purple-haired kid had in the show, I don't remember his name however… Ranunu? Rami? Ramari? He was a side character that was quickly forgotten but his Dojutsu was cool, I personally found it to be even better than the Byakugan, namely because it didn't have those creepy veins that bulged out.

There was also the Jogan that Boruto got, I never watched the show but I was aware of it… not sure what it does though…

'I should've rewatched Naruto before I decided to just die' I sighed at that thought, it was unfortunate, I only knew what I knew, nothing more, nothing less.

Madara Uchiha was able to awaken the Rinnegan when he combined Hashirama cells with himself, would that also be possible for me if I had the Sharingan?

Probably not. The Rinnegan as I remember is the Sage of Six Paths' personal Dojutsu, the reason Madara got it was due to Hashirama's cells, he had both Ashura and Indra chakras within him, elevating his Chakra to a similar status as the Sage's.

'I probably won't have a similar situation happen even if I do have the sharingan…' I thought sadly. Having the Rinnegan would instantly put me at the top of this world, I guess things wouldn't be that easy.

My eyes were a point of hope for me, I knew that Dojutsu would oftentimes make or break ninjas, and I wanted all the help I could possibly get.

'Theorising is good to know how to act when certain situations happen but with what I know now, there's not much more to think about, the best thing I can do for myself is to keep training and hopefully things turn out okay in the end…'

Not a very powerful statement by any means but one I could stand by. I abandoned theorising about the eyes and approached something I was much more excited about… Wood Style!

'The strongest elemental Kekkei Genkai in the entire show by far. It was the main reason that Hashirama was able to contain and subdue all the tailed beasts even as a normal human… he really was a beast.' I thought, remembering the episodes from the fourth Great Ninja War where he erected entire forests with the wave of a hand.

'And I too might have it…'

I'm not gonna lie, when I read the Log from Gramps that confirmed my suspicions about my physique, I was thrilled beyond belief. I dreamed of erecting forests and constructing gigantic statues of Buddha, raining down a hailstorm of wooden fists on my enemies.

But I realised that I was getting ahead of myself.

Yamato, the only other person I know who managed to get Wood Release from Orochimaru, never amounted to anything more than a Jounin-level ninja, an impressive feat, but not one that meant all that much in a world as ruthless as this.

I sincerely hoped that my wood release would be superior to Yamato's, but as of now, I couldn't even bank on having it in the first place, what if I have a downgraded version of Yamato's wood style, or worse, not have it at all?

'Even if Yamato has better Wood Release than me, even if I don't have it at all… I'll work hard as hell to make up the difference and surpass him… if I want to thrive in this world I need strength beyond what he has shown.' I realised.

'Whether I have Wood Release or not, whether I have a Dojutsu or not, it won't matter. I know that at the very least I have a strong body and good chakra levels due to the Logs. I'll squeeze as much potential I can out of them.' I declared in my mind. You may call it arrogance, but this is the mindset I need.

It was scary to live in a world like this when you're essentially powerless, but I consoled myself with the fact that I only got better every day. I started to plan out the future and even began thinking about harnessing Nature Energy but I smiled and shook my head.

'I'm getting ahead of myself. Don't be dumb Aoki, be realistic and grow strong, that's all we gotta do for now.'

Too much of anything is a bad thing, even planning.

"But wood release would be really fucking cool…" I silently whispered with a barely constrained smile. Being a Naruto fanboy it was hard to restrain myself from overthinking and dreaming of possessing that kind of power, keeping a levelhead was half the journey for me.

'Whatever happens happens, hopefully tomorrow I get more answers' I thought.

I had half mind to try and sleep on the couch but I knew that Numa would probably cry again at night, so I trudged back to my room and laid on my bed, hoping to be taken into a sweet sleep. Tomorrow, my journey as a ninja begins.