Nindō 0004: Mutation

Naruto’s shadow clone stood up from his seat with a light smile while looking at Sarada who was fully attentive to his every movement.

“W-what did you want to talk to me about, Seventh-sama?” Sarada stuttered out awkwardly.

“Do you mind showing me your Sharingan, Sarada?” Naruto asked while approaching Sarada from around his desk.

“Of–of course not, Seventh-sama,” Sarada said before closing her eyes. With a breath, when her eyelids opened, her pupils were crimson instead of the previous black. A faint ring within each pupil held a single tomoe that radiated an ethereal aura.

With her eyes opening, she realized that Naruto was right in front of her, looking down at her as she barely reached up to his chest. Feeling self-conscious, she looked down, not meeting his eyes.

“I wanted to examine your Sharingan, Sarada. You need to look at me to let me do that,” Naruto’s chuckle only made Sarada feel more self-conscious. She slowly turned her head up with an awkward blush on her cheeks and met Naruto’s eyes.

“W-why did you want to examine my eyes, Hokage-sama?” She stuttered out as Naruto looked into her eyes intensely, sending her thoughts in another direction.

‘His eyes seem bluer than what I saw in the morning. I can feel a depth to them that I can’t quite put my finger on …’

“Indeed, your eyes are very much like your father’s,” Naruto said with a light chuckle, “Tell me, Sarada. How would you like to become my disciple?” His question was posed as he continued looking deeply into Sarada’s eyes, making her instinctively look away. Before a word could escape her mouth, “Look at me, Sarada. I said that I wanted to examine your eyes, didn’t I?”

The girl didn’t have any other option than to cave into Naruto’s words, feeling an undeniable compulsion from his voice. She wanted to ask why he was acting differently from usual, but she couldn’t muster up the courage to ask. She looked back into his eyes hesitantly with a blank head as all her thoughts disappeared.

“Tell me. What is your answer?” Naruto said, pulling the girl out of her reverie.

“Huh?” She blinked, her chakra flaring a little as her dōjutsu destabilized, “I’m sorry, Hokage-sama. Can you say that again?” She resisted the urge to look away from his deep blue eyes that made her heart beat erratically.

Naruto chuckled, “I asked if you wanted to be my disciple, Sarada. You want to be the next Hokage, right? I will personally train and groom you for the position.”

Sarada’s eyes quivered and widened, “Really!” She exclaimed, almost squealing. Quickly, she realized the person standing in front of her and coughed before pulling herself together “I-I agree, Hokage-sama. I could never refuse such an amazing opportunity.”

Naruto could see her visibly trembling, barely holding back her excitement as she suppressed it to a wide smile on her face. He chuckled and put his bandaged hand on her head, “I’m glad you agreed.” Lightly ruffling her hair, he continued, “Don’t try to resist, okay? I’m going to send my chakra into your body to examine something.”

Sarada’s excitement had overpowered her reason and she nodded happily, “As you wish, Hokage-sama, I-I mean sensei …” She said hesitantly.

Naruto smiled and sent some of his chakra through his hand that was resting on her head. As his chakra entered Sarada’s body, he said, “Not yet, child. You can call me sensei once you reach the third round of the chunin exams, okay? You don’t need to win, but if your result is good enough, I might give you a reward.”

“There’s a reward?” She asked, her crimson eyes literally shining as she felt a foreign warmth passing all over her body. Unlike the uncomfortableness that she expected, Naruto’s chakra felt even better than the healing chakra that she recalled her mother sending through her body. The Hokage’s chakra traveling through her body made her feel as if she was experiencing the warmest and most comfortable hug of her life.

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“That will depend on your performance in the third round. For this, you will need to pass the first two rounds,” Naruto said while continuing to look into her eyes.

Sarada nodded, not as self-conscious as before, but still feeling shy as she maintained eye contact with the Hokage as his chakra continued to travel through her body and made her feel warm all over, “I promise that I will win the first place, Hokage-sama,” She said with conviction, not willing to back down.

“That’s the spirit,” Naruto smiled, “Now this will feel a little weird, but bear with me, okay?” He asked her, “And keep looking at me, don’t take your eyes away from me.”

With a resolute expression, she was about to answer, but the only sound that escaped her lips was a heated moan as she felt her legs buckling. The warm chakra that had been running through her body comfortably had instantly turned violent and unbearable as it started burning her from the inside out. She shook in her place and was about to look away, but Naruto grabbed her arm with his other hand, holding her up.

“It’s just going to take a minute, okay Sarada? Just bear with me and keep your eyes open, it’s crucial,” Naruto’s warm tone mixed with the words gave Sarada the strength to persevere through the unfamiliar heat that was burning her from the inside.

As for Naruto’s clone that was responsible for Sarada’s current state, his focus was centered on the girl’s Sharingan, specifically, her crimson pupils. As his chakra continued acting on the girl’s body, the ring within her pupil that held the single tomoe was being modified. It started forming into a swirling pattern that made it seem like a faint whirlpool was being created within her pupils.

By the time the whirlpool was completely formed, her eyes had been strained enough that tears of blood were dripping from them, but Naruto didn’t stop making his chakra run through her body. The next step was for that single tomoe to start following the lines of that whirlpool as it continued moving toward the center of her pupil, barely stopping before the point where it would meet the secondary black pupil in the center.

The difficult expression on Sarada’s face alongside her moans had become significantly prominent, forcing Naruto to activate the sound isolation seal of the Hokage’s office to make sure that someone outside wouldn’t get the wrong idea.

Finally, just as her tomoe fixed itself in place, Naruto pulled back his chakra that had been wreaking havoc through Sarada’s body.

Just as he raised his bandaged hand up from the girl’s head, she gasped for air as if she had been deprived of it for the past fifteen minutes and her legs lost all energy, unable to support her anymore. Naruto held on to her arms and allowed her to fall toward him. She grasped onto his white Hokage cloak tightly so as to not fall as he held on to her, supporting her.

“We’re done, Sarada,” Naruto said. “You can rest now.” He was still holding her by one hand as he wiped the tears of blood that marred her face — having been released during the process of his modification.

A few seconds after his words, Naruto felt Sarada wiggling as she tried to get away, “Hokage-sama, I …” She said with a choke as if barely holding back the tears that arose from embarrassment.

“Shh …” Naruto patted her back to calm her down, “Just rest, Sarada. Don’t worry about anything else.” As Naruto felt the girl continue to wiggle and try to weakly get away, he smiled with a shake of his head and patted her head, sending a subtle trace of his chakra into her mind to forcefully calm her and make her fall asleep.

It worked wonders, making the girl completely limp in his arms, instantly having put her to sleep. Naruto sighed, “All right,” He groaned while picking up the girl and resting her on the couch. Placing a pillow under her head so that she would be comfortable, he cast a hand sign for a jutsu that would quickly dry her wet clothes and legs before covering her up in a blanket.

‘Who would’ve thought that the crest of the Uzumaki would hold the power to interfere with the natural progression of a kekkei genkai? And a dōjutsu type at that.’

Naruto had many thoughts as he dried himself off and sat back in his seat, swiveling it around, he overlooked the beautiful view of Konoha from his huge window.

Naturally casting a hand sign, another shadow clone appeared beside Naruto’s seated form. As the second clone opened its eyes and reviewed the memories of the first clone, it frowned, “Since when has the original started keeping secrets from us?”

“Since now apparently. Somehow, he can separate out large chunks of his memories at will from us,” The first clone said before turning to look at the second, “All he told me was to follow a process. I don’t even know what the Uzumaki symbol entails in this day and age where the clan is all but extinct.”

“I know,” The second clone was reviewing the memories of the first, “Whatever he went through helped him fix the single biggest problem with Shadow Clones. If someone finds a way to extract information without damaging us, they still wouldn’t know anything.”

“All right, whatever. I’m going to relay my information to the original,” The first clone said, “You can take over in my place.”

“Got it,” The second clone said as the first disappeared with a poof. It glanced at Sarada’s peacefully sleeping form before sitting down and turning around to face the door, “I need some help with these documents.”