“You are late!” The first thing the group heard, when they entered the hospital. Ryoshi was prepared however and answered first, before Kakashi had a chance to. In his best Kakashi impression he said.

“We got lost on the path of life.” His image certainly helped, given the silver hair and the ninja headband worn the same way. Just on the opposing sides. Tsunade looked at Kakashi, then to Ryoshi, then back to Kakashi. Meanwhile Kakashi was looking shocked too. He recovered quickly though.

“Yeah, what he said.” He confirmed. Tsunade just rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. You are dismissed. You kids are coming with me.” Tsunade said in a no nonsense attitude. They walked through the hospital, down some stairs into an underground location. They reached a sealed room with a single patient inside, tied to some medical equipment he was just lying there. Steady rhythmic breathing and machine beeping was all the noise around. There were no personnel or other patients in a long hallway of similar rooms. There was a looking glass into the room, where Tsunade stood with the other two shorter figures.

“This is Fuu Yamanaka.” She said gesturing towards the sedated patient. “You are both probably familiar with him in some way.” She continued talking.

“Fuu Yamanaka…” mumbled Ino thinking. “I heard about an uncle Fuu that was no longer with the clan for unknown reasons. Is this him?” Ino asked with wide eyes as she remembered what her father had told her about this person. “But wait, how would Ryoshi-san know him?” She looked at Ryoshi, narrowing her eyes.

“He was the next person after you to try and interrogate Ryoshi here.” Tsunade answered. Ino just nodded in response and asked another question.

“So what happened to him?”

“Physically he is mostly fine, just a few broken bones. Mentally, we don’t know. All we can tell is that he has gone mad and is unresponsive to any treatment we have tried. Multiple Genjutsu experts have tried to calm him down and communicate with him, but the most we got out of him was a few words about not wanting to see. As he attempted to claw his eyes out. Hence the broken bones and bandages around his eyes. He got free of his restraints once by breaking his hands and tried to pluck his own eyes, but we managed to sedate him before any extensive damage was done.” Tsunade explained.

“That’s why Ryoshi san is called here. To see if it would have the same effect on him as he does on me.” Ino thought out loud. “Makes sense.”

“Yes. Let’s go in. He should wake up in a few minutes.” Tsunade said as she walked in.

Ino looked a bit worried, Ryoshi just shrugged and also walked in.

Fuu’s breathing rhythm changed as he started waking, simultaneously the beeping of the machine got faster as well. He started shifting in his rest, snapping the restraints taught. With each passing moment and coming to his senses, he pulled harder and harder on the straps tying him down to the bed. Evidently the boy’s proximity did nothing to calm the violently thrashing redhead. Yet Tsunade looked on expectantly still waiting. Ryoshi felt awkward, not sure what he should do. It wasn’t his doing and not something he had any control over. The machine beeping got faster as the man woke fully. Ryoshi called out to the man but there was no response. He was just thrashing around trying to get free and probably reach his own eyes. He moaned and groaned, perhaps trying to say something, perhaps it was just guttural screaming but no sound he made was coherent as even his mouth was bound. Ryoshi, not knowing what to do, stepped closer to touch the man in a comforting gesture. For a brief moment the man froze. His eyes landed on the boy touching him, taking in his surroundings and he immediately started thrashing again. Quickly he fell unconscious again as Tsunade had injected a sedative into the systems feeding into him.

“That was much more of a response, than anything else. Clearly he isn’t fixed though. Hmm.” She contemplated as Ino and Ryoshi waited.

“Well, I think it’s best you go now. Probably will need to visit him again, several times. To see if it was a one time reaction, or he might get better with continuous exposure or worse.

“That’s… annoying. I have to train, I got a team.” Ryoshi complained.

“Shut it! You are lucky I don’t lock you in there with him, brat. You will be back here tomorrow, after your training. Now shoo, get out of here.” Tsunade ordered with a finality.

It had been a long day, and tired minds didn’t make good decisions. As soon as Ryoshi reached his home, he slumped over a futon to sleep. He woke up, to two bodies pressed on him from each side.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Ah shit. How are the annoying, cuddly children in my house growing in number? Ah, well at least they are cute when asleep.”

With nothing else to do, it was a good idea to make a plan to power, at least think about what to focus on and what he needed to do.

“First thing I guess, would be to awaken the Sharingan, if I really have it. The faster I get it, the more practice I can put in to learn to use it. Let’s see… I have a Byakugan and potentially a Sharingan. I guess I can see extremely well, what do I do with that? Let’s think, what did they do with those gifts? Byakugan has a whole fighting style based around what it can see, but I can’t just walk into the Hyuga compound and ask for training. Perhaps I can convince Hinata to teach me what she knows? No, no that wouldn’t work. Too dangerous if I am seen using the Gentle Fist, there will be questions and knowing what little I do know about the Hyuga, they will come for me for sure. I can be comfortable knowing that the Byakugan can see through Genjutsu, so I should be fine against most users of such techniques, probably. The academy curriculum I had to study didn’t have much on Genjutsu, though I need to learn more about that. Especially if I get a Sharingan, it’s main prowess is said to be Genjutsu, it would be a waste to not pursue that avenue of power. Also shielding me from Genjutsu even further with the Genjutsu reversal techniques and such. If I learn to read all the minute muscle movements with my sight, I should be above most on my level on Taijutsu as well. That is another avenue I need to pursue. If I indeed awakened a Sharingan. But how does one do that? Let’s see I remember Mangekyo was killing someone important to you? Or seeing someone important to you die.”

Ryoshi at this moment looked at his sides, the girls sleeping in his arms. It had been difficult for him to understand why he was so attached to this Shinry girl, even when he had known her for a few hours when he first woke up in this body. Perhaps the big brother bond was etched deep into the body, or it just transcended the death of said brother. Nonetheless he cared for the girl with the lopsided ponytail. Meanwhile towards Ino he felt protective, especially because he also felt guilty about what happened to her. The girl would dive deeper and deeper into madness until she became like Fuu, the longer they stayed apart. A darker more logical side of him whispered that if she died, he wouldn’t have such a burden anymore and he would be free, but he knew even if he didn’t kill her himself and somehow made a decision to leave her to die, he would regret that and he wasn’t willing to live another life with regrets. The usually bossy girl hadn’t displayed any of those characteristics towards him. He gently squeezed the girls tighter in his arms. For better or for worse, they were precious people to protect now. After the brief look he continued his thoughts.

“There was eternal Mangekyo after that, which was done by taking a family member’s Mangekyo? Or something close to that, but what about awakening the first Sharingan? Something about emotions again. Yes! I need to feel extreme emotion, which prompted my brain to send signals to my eyes? Or something like that I can’t remember, but the important part was to awaken a Sharingan one needed to feel extreme emotion. Not something I can do on my own. I know Oro can help with that but would he? Anko sensei also might be an option… “

At that moment he heard the echoing deep rumbling voice of the demon within whisper to him.

“Come in here, kid. I can help with that.” Said Shukaku. Now that was an avenue he had forgotten or hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So he looked deep within himself trying to appear in his mindscape. After a brief concentration it wasn’t difficult. He found himself face to face with the gigantic sand tanuki, the one tailed beast.

“You will need to step closer.” He slowly rumbled out. In the space island there was no visible barrier holding the one tailed beast back. But he was sealed nonetheless. As the boy stepped closer, a seal tag shimmered into existence, floating mid air without hanging on anything.

“A little bit more.” Shukaku, invited. The boy knew what the demon was trying to do, or at least could guess. It might try to take him over or pretend to do so to elicit strong emotion. He somehow doubted ‘it who devours joy’ would let his mind be taken over by the demon. He couldn’t be certain of course, it was a risk he willingly took, if he knew he was safe there wouldn’t be a way to elicit the emotions necessary to activate the Sharingan. So he took the final step past the floating seal tag. Immediately sand rushed from Shukaku towards Ryoshi like a tsunami. He attempted to step back on pure reflex, but he could not. Already sand enveloped him, dragging him deeper past the safety of the seal. The sand was tight around his limbs, almost crushing. It surrounded him and piled on top of him more and more. Each passing moment Ryoshi could see the seal get farther and farther away from him, even as he strained all his muscles and extended his hand trying desperately to reach it. It was no use however. Sand slowly filled his vision burying him alive and all he could hear was the mad cackling of the demon.

“Too easy.” The demon said slowly, as his voice faded away, but not before he heard something else the demon mumbled.

“The little ones will make a nice snack for my advent onto the ninja world once again.”

That was when his black eye turned red with a single tomoe, but it was still useless. Even though he could see better it was still all just sand.

Abruptly he was spat back out past the seal. He hit the floor and coughed out sand that had gotten in his mouth as he tried to breathe. Still on his hands and knees he tried to speak.

“Impr…essive.” A bit more wheezing was needed before he could form full sentences.

“Thanks… Shukaku. It… worked.” Ryoshi expressed, still coughing up sand.

“I see that, you weirdo. Apparently we got gods to fight, sounds like a lot of bloodshed I will enjoy.” Said the demon.

“Gods,that was horrifying.” Said Ryoshi standing up.

“Can you also, teach me sand manipulation?” Asked Ryoshi, perhaps pushing his luck with the demon.

“Aren’t you being too greedy, kid? Asked Shukaku, narrowing his eyes at the greedy little shitling in front of him. When a mischievous grin formed on his animalistic face filed with demonic teeth.

“Perhaps. But I need everything I can get.” Ryoshi continued.

“Sure kiddo, just a simple promise of bloodshed is all I need.” Shukaku said, smiling darkly.

“That seems unavoidable in this cruel world anyway, so sure. I promise.”

“Great. You already can, dumbass. You just never tried.” The demon started laughing at the shocked expression of the boy. Of course he could.

“The girls are waking up, you kind of squeezed too hard, kid. Protect them well.” Was the last thing Ryoshi heard before he found himself back in reality.