Hello everyone who read this.
Whether you, Kiyoshi, or you, Haruko read this first. Perhaps someone also reads these lines, which I do not know, respectively knew. I write this down here to arrange my thoughts, my memories. In order not to lose my memories partly again. My life had innumerable small and great ups and downs. It is really strange how exactly I remember some things. In many places I will probably still have to get help, from the most diverse people. I will probably have to ask for an audience with the Hokage … Well. I begin with the mission that first changed me.
Before this mission I was almost an average genin of the Uchiha and by far not the only one of my kind. I was even with one of my closest friends in the Uchiha clan in a team:
Kishio Uchiha. We had known each other since birth. He was a very good Katon user with a pretty good repertoire of Jutsu and was excellent for his age with Shuriken and Kunai, which was the throwing.
The third in our team was Akemi Nara. As her name had already said, she belonged to the Nara clan and also mastered the shadow techniques of her clan quite well. She was distinguished by her Doton skills, even if she could not use them too well. But it was more useful than you think first to lift your opponent unexpectedly or to take the view with the earth.
Our team also had a sensei. Meiyo, he was EX-ANBU, which was probably the reason that he had only betrayed us his first name. But the fact that he had been in an ANBU unit testified of his talent. As far as I know, he dominated the Katon and the Raiton at the time, using the Raiton through years of training. He was amazingly talkative for an ANBU, I always thought the ANBU would be quiet. That was exactly the reason for his departure, I had not yet known at that time.
But now to me. My most important peculiarity was my element affinity. In contrast to the other Uchiha I had no Katon affinity, but one to Suiton. Why this is the case, I do not know exactly today. Perhaps my mother had inherited the genes for it, perhaps it was pure coincidence. Should be in the best families. Due to an acute lack of teaching in the water area, my repertoire of Suiton Jutsu was not too big. I mastered the Suiton: Suiken, where I spilled water from my mouth, which turned into a sharp blade, the Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu and a small version of the Suiton: Suijinheki.
Well, enough presented, let’s start with the story.
“We have to go to a feudal lord in the south-west of the fire and pick up a scroll there, which we will surely bring back and our mission is done,” said Meiyo-sensei as our team gathered at Training Rank 4. So another transport mission. I could not resist a sigh. This was now the fourth long-term mission of this kind in succession.
“Can not we make another mission, maybe one where we have to be lifeguards, or something?” Kishio interjected. Akemi giggled. He had also said the same in the last three missions.
“Kishio, you know, someone has to do it, and the more efficiently we perform such missions, the faster we get more challenging missions with a big dose of action,” said Meiyo-sensei Kishio. Again exactly the same as the other times.
“If you can finally memorize your dialogue, we can come to more important things. When will we go, Meiyo-sensei?”
Meiyo-sensei laughed softly at Akemi’s words and scratched the back of his head. “I’m a bit late today, a quarter of an hour must be enough.”
“Just a quarter of a minute?” Akemi cried out, raging. We did not even have time to react, she was already gone.
Meiyo-sensei sighed and lowered his hand again. “It was just a joke …” A few seconds later, we broke three laughs.
“Sensei, I love them,” I said, panting. “You really are a genius Sensei, and who can judge this better than we do?”
“Thank you, Crux, but you’re also a really good bunch of little Genin.”
“We’re not small,” Kishio said. “Akemi and I are 14 and Crux will be 15 in a few weeks!”
“Then just a bunch of big Genin, but come in half an hour to the gate, then we go, and make sure you have enough chakra, I’ll teach you some important things that every chunin has to master . ”
“Does that mean we can join the test after this mission?”
“You can say that, it’s kind of an unofficial limit to become Chunin, I’ll tell you more during the mission, and now you’re going to get ready!”
Meiyo-sensei left us no time to answer and disappeared in a smoke cloud.
“I want this trick with the smoke cloud too … Hey, Crux, do you think that could be the limit?”, Asked Kishio as we made our way to the Uchiha quarter.
“I have no idea Kishio … Could be, but to be honest, I do not know if I want to be Chunin, then I have to lead teams and things, and I do not really dare.”
“So I think it’s totally cool, more important assignments, more responsibility … Then I have more the feeling of really changing something, that’s my goal, not dying on the first assignment, or something like that that my life was not for nothing, that I did something. ”
I frowned briefly, kicking Kishio through the entrance to the Uchiha quarter. “Since then, you think so, I do not know about you, I personally do not care much about it, but I also think that we as individual humans can not change much anyway “As long as I protect all that I want to protect, that’s enough for me. I do not need Chunin for it.” Kishio and I stopped outside my house.
“I do not want Akemi and I just because of you!” I began to laugh and tapped my friend on the head.
“Okay, if we fail, it’s up to you.” Even Akemi sees that I’m stronger than you. “Better improve your Katon techniques, otherwise you’ll soon have no chance against my Suiton attacks.” Kishio also laughed and showed me the bird. Then he turned and ran a few more houses to his home. I briefly looked at him and then entered my house.
“Father, mother?” I received no answer. Sighing, I looked into the kitchen and saw the expected note. My parents were visiting friends and would probably come back in the evening. I quickly grabbed a pencil and wrote that I had to go back to a mission. It would not take too long, however, in a few days I would be back. Then I looked at the clock. 20 minutes left me until Meiyo-sensei was waiting for us at the gate. Unfortunately, he was always over-punctual and excited about every second we came too late. Quickly I grabbed the most necessary for a few days traveling in a backpack. Weapons, food, a card, a book that I used to practice my Suiton techniques. Must be enough. I decided to look briefly at a few friends to use the time to the mission meaningfully.
As soon as I was on the road, I was already jumped from behind and got a wooden kaiai from above on the head.
“Caught,” Sasuke shouted, then let go of me. “Honestly, Crux, it can not be that I can hit you, you have to work on your reflexes!”
“Itachi can also tell you a whole lot of stuff about the Genin …” I turned to the bigger brother behind Sasuke. “He’ll have time for you, but he does, of course.”
“I could actually take a few minutes to do it, I’ll take care of you, Crux.
“See you soon!” Sasuke shouted at me and went home with Itachi. I could not help but smile. Sasuke was a few years younger than I, and in less than a year he would complete the academy. I was standing between the age between Sasuke and his brother. But I also admired Itachi. Not least because he had awakened his Sharingan so early and mastered it perfectly. Neither Kishio nor I had aroused our Sharingan. I had asked my parents once, they had meant that it was quite normal when Genin did not have a Sharingan and that it would come early enough.
I went to the west gate of Konoha, not to be too late, and I was already painting the reactions of Akemi. When I arrived, I was not disappointed. Akemi stood alone and was angry at everything and everyone, the gate guards being the only close people to get their full rage.
“Ah, Akemi, you’re early today!” I shouted to my companion and could not resist a grin.
“CRUX, YOU HAVE BEEN PLANTED, OR I HAVE OUTED THE HALF OF MY STEPS TO COME ON TIME, AND THEN I AM ALONE, WHERE HELL DOES THE WHOLE TIME?”
I shrank a little and gave myself convulsively ignorant. “What have you got? We’ve been four minutes to half an hour past Meiyo-sensei has given us.”
“Half an hour?” Akemi asked irritably, but still a little quieter. “He clearly said we had a quarter of an hour, because he was too late.”
“No, he had promised himself, right, you were already gone when he said it … Well, you can not do anything, Oh, he also said we’ll learn a technique on the mission , through which we can participate in the Chunin examinations. ”
“The chunin exams, you mean, we’re taking part?” Akemi asked in surprise.
“That’s the plan,” Kishio replied, just now. “Not for long, then we are Chunin. This mission will be the last preparation!”
“What are you waiting for?” Asked Meiyo-sensei, who had emerged from nowhere. “Come on, the journey will take almost a day, and when we get back, you have to perfect the technique, in this short time we will not be able to do it Time. ”
“All right, Sensei, let’s go!” Kishio replied, marching ahead. We others followed.
“Well,” Meiyo-sensei began after a few minutes of silence. “The new technique you will learn is really important for a chunin and actually every other ninja: it is the technique of standing on vertical surfaces.”
Most of the day, Meiyo-sensei told us theoretical things about how to use the chakra, what you had to look out for, and some other details that I do without. In our first break after a few hours we were allowed to test it: We 3 were looking for trees that we wanted to climb without hands. I knew what there were for the mistakes and what they had to do about it, but only theoretically.
“I’m in front of you anyway,” Kishio said confidently, pulling a Kunai with which he wanted to score his result in the tree.
“Do not you think so yourself?” Akemi mocked and started immediately. I held out for the time being, watching Akemi’s experiment. She led Chakra into her soles and actually took a few steps up the tree, but then left a tiny crater in the tree and pushed away unintentionally. She landed in Meiyo-sensei’s arms, but immediately fled. So she used too much chakra.
I tried it next with Kishio. I tried to distribute my chakra exactly evenly and ran up the tree. I felt something was wrong, but I could not help it bouncing off the tree. I almost made it as far as Akemi, but I did not get a score in the tree before I fell. Also I was intercepted by Meiyo-sensei, where I looked to Kishio’s result.
And Kishio was upstairs. He stood on one of the tallest branches of the tree and waved a laugh.
“I told you!”
“Do not you serious, do not you?” Akemi shouted at him.
“Nope!” He laughed back. “That was my first attempt, but I’m not a monster, I tell you why I did it right.”
“And?” I asked.
“I have … Simply talent!” I had no idea if he saw it as a joke or something, but no one laughed.
“It’s normal for some to make it directly.” Meiyo-sensei Akemi and me calmed down. “It’s just a matter of how much you use your chakra instinctively, the real technique behind it is not too difficult, and you’ve both used it well, the rest is just a matter of practice, you have to do it so often, until you do not have to think about it again and hang on to the tree for minutes. “Hopp, everyone else two tries, then we go on!”
The next experiments were only slightly better than the first. I managed to keep the amount of chakra at the appropriate level, but as soon as I was distracted, I used too much and kicked the tree.
In the evening of this day we arrived at a hotel where Sensei led us to the nearby forest and watched us briefly during the training.
“So, you three, I go back to the hotel and ask for a meeting with the feudal lord tomorrow morning.
“But, of course, Sensei, as long as they’re gone, I’ll take the role of the teacher, you can be sure when they come back, I’ll have thrown this two nonsense into control of their chakras!” Kishio cried arrogantly.
“Akemi, please do not let Kishio do anything.”
“You can count on me, Sensei.” Meiyo-sensei nodded and puffed away in a smoke cloud.
“Why does not Sensei have confidence in me, he always asks Akemi to pay attention, Crux, do not you have any idea?”
“No, absolutely not, Kishio, but if I had to guess, I’d say you’re too proud of that,” I replied, running back up the tree again.
“What is that to mean now?”
“Be quiet, just keep going, Kishio.” The one who was mentioned only grumbled and ran up the tree completely, at which I had only dropped seconds before. But I had really come this time, even though I had been thinking about Kishio’s question. I was not far from the target. I tried again, but this time I concentrated fully on the chakra concentration in my soles. And before I noticed it, Kishio grabbed me by the arm and pulled me beside him on the thick branch.
“You see, not so hard, do you?” I just smiled and looked at Akemi as she always failed shortly before the end.
“Really a brilliant view up here,” I said.
“Indeed.”
“Oh, I just remember, I wanted to ask Meiyo-sensei something else,” I told Kishio, running the tree down again.
“What is so urgent?”
“I want to ask him if these giant leaps of Jonin are based on this technique here, only deliberately too strong.”
“And if?” Akemi asked, suddenly standing up.
“Then we have a technique that we definitely master before Kishio!” I laughed and made my way to the hotel, which was a minute or two walk away. Akemi and Kishio stayed at the forest to continue practicing.
___________________
When I arrived at the hotel, I thought I heard several people running, but the noise disappeared immediately. In the night I would not have recognized anyone anyway. I thought nothing of it and entered the hotel. Our double room was on the second floor. Somehow it was unusually quiet, also at the entrance was no staff of the hotel confessed. I was getting more and more uncomfortable as I entered the second floor and saw that our door was open wide. And still I had not heard anyone talking or running.
“Sensei?” I asked nervously in the silence. No Answer. Feeling a bit afraid of what was waiting for me, I peered around the corner into our room and immediately shouted back.
I looked directly into the lifeless eyes of a disguised man leaning against the threshold of the door. His black clothes were mostly blood-soaked. He was dead. I swallowed briefly, trying to ignore the dead man. It was more important to find Sensei. Slowly I went past the corpse and pushed me to the door. With a frantic pulse, I looked around the room where there was no piece of furniture where I had last seen it. This was clearly fought. And Sensei had not answered me … So slowly I got panic. I did not even come to think about what had happened here and why, I was just afraid of Meiyo-sensei.
“Sensei?” I whispered, but still did not get an answer. I entered the smaller adjoining room that was intended for Akemi and found a second corpse, the first quite similar. The outer wall was splintered and a large hole gaped in it. Large enough to go through. The hole in the wall of the house pointed toward the street, I could not have noticed it sooner. I stood at the edge and got the worst of my life at the time. Down, a few yards off the road, Meiyo-sensei lay on the ruins of the ruined wall. Horrified, I tried to go down the wall with my new technique, but I used too much chakra and slammed so close to Meiyo-sensei.
Immediately I felt after his pulse, but did not find him. I did not want to know what was obvious and I continued to search for the pulse. I did not notice how the tears rolled down my cheeks and on Meiyo-senseis still warm body. Somehow I pulled my hand back and realized that he was really dead. He had taken two men, very sure of Ninja. This reminded me of the sound of the running men I had heard in front of the hotel. The two were not alone.
In the evening of this day we arrived at a hotel where Sensei led us to the nearby forest and watched us briefly during the training.
“So, you three, I go back to the hotel and ask for a meeting with the feudal lord tomorrow morning.
“But, of course, Sensei, as long as they’re gone, I’ll take the role of the teacher, you can be sure when they come back, I’ll have thrown this two nonsense into control of their chakras!” Kishio cried arrogantly.
“Akemi, please do not let Kishio do anything.”
“You can count on me, Sensei.” Meiyo-sensei nodded and puffed away in a smoke cloud.
“Why does not Sensei have confidence in me, he always asks Akemi to pay attention, Crux, do not you have any idea?”
“No, absolutely not, Kishio, but if I had to guess, I’d say you’re too proud of that,” I replied, running back up the tree again.
“What is that to mean now?”
“Be quiet, just keep going, Kishio.” The one who was mentioned only grumbled and ran up the tree completely, at which I had only dropped seconds before. But I had really come this time, even though I had been thinking about Kishio’s question. I was not far from the target. I tried again, but this time I concentrated fully on the chakra concentration in my soles. And before I noticed it, Kishio grabbed me by the arm and pulled me beside him on the thick branch.
“You see, not so hard, do you?” I just smiled and looked at Akemi as she always failed shortly before the end.
“Really a brilliant view up here,” I said.
“Indeed.”
“Oh, I just remember, I wanted to ask Meiyo-sensei something else,” I told Kishio, running the tree down again.
“What is so urgent?”
“I want to ask him if these giant leaps of Jonin are based on this technique here, only deliberately too strong.”
“And if?” Akemi asked, suddenly standing up.
“Then we have a technique that we definitely master before Kishio!” I laughed and made my way to the hotel, which was a minute or two walk away. Akemi and Kishio stayed at the forest to continue practicing.
___________________
When I arrived at the hotel, I thought I heard several people running, but the noise disappeared immediately. In the night I would not have recognized anyone anyway. I thought nothing of it and entered the hotel. Our double room was on the second floor. Somehow it was unusually quiet, also at the entrance was no staff of the hotel confessed. I was getting more and more uncomfortable as I entered the second floor and saw that our door was open wide. And still I had not heard anyone talking or running.
“Sensei?” I asked nervously in the silence. No Answer. Feeling a bit afraid of what was waiting for me, I peered around the corner into our room and immediately shouted back.
I looked directly into the lifeless eyes of a disguised man leaning against the threshold of the door. His black clothes were mostly blood-soaked. He was dead. I swallowed briefly, trying to ignore the dead man. It was more important to find Sensei. Slowly I went past the corpse and pushed me to the door. With a frantic pulse, I looked around the room where there was no piece of furniture where I had last seen it. This was clearly fought. And Sensei had not answered me … So slowly I got panic. I did not even come to think about what had happened here and why, I was just afraid of Meiyo-sensei.
“Sensei?” I whispered, but still did not get an answer. I entered the smaller adjoining room that was intended for Akemi and found a second corpse, the first quite similar. The outer wall was splintered and a large hole gaped in it. Large enough to go through. The hole in the wall of the house pointed toward the street, I could not have noticed it sooner. I stood at the edge and got the worst of my life at the time. Down, a few yards off the road, Meiyo-sensei lay on the ruins of the ruined wall. Horrified, I tried to go down the wall with my new technique, but I used too much chakra and slammed so close to Meiyo-sensei.
Immediately I felt after his pulse, but did not find him. I did not want to know what was obvious and I continued to search for the pulse. I did not notice how the tears rolled down my cheeks and on Meiyo-senseis still warm body. Somehow I pulled my hand back and realized that he was really dead. He had taken two men, very sure of Ninja. This reminded me of the sound of the running men I had heard in front of the hotel. The two were not alone.