Chapter 5- Advice Pays Off

(Word Count: 2,529)

One morning, I came back from my morning training to find the Hokage waiting for me! He was sitting at our kitchen table, drinking tea with my grandma.

“Sakai! You have a visitor.” Grandma said.

“Good morning, young Sakai.” Hiruzen greeted me as I came in. 

“H-Hokage! Uh, good morning!” I really wasn’t expecting him to show up in my house!

“It’s good to see you doing so well, I’ve heard that you’re training hard.” Hokage said. “Be careful not to overdo things though. Be sure to get some proper rest in.”

“Of course, Hokage.” We stand there awkwardly. I wasn’t sure what to say.

Hiruzen clears his throat. “Well, I’ve come by to say thank you. Your predictions about the Land of Sky came true. It was thanks to your warning that we were able to be prepared and repel the invasion in time. I fear that without you, they would have succeeded in bombing Konoha itself. I don’t know how many lives would have been lost without you. Thank you, Sakai.”

My heart swelled, and I couldn’t help but smile. I did good!

“So, I would like to give you a reward. What would you like?”

A personal reward from the Hokage! Though I’m not too sure on what to ask for. I’m already learning taijutsu from Sakumo, from the books from Tsunade, it’s likely that I will be trained by her in medical ninjutsu. I guess fuinjutsu? Though I was planning on becoming friends with Kushina to learn that.

Ah! The earth nature transformation. I had no clue on what to do on that front. I couldn’t find anything in the public library. I knew there was a ninja-only library that for sure had it, but I would have to wait until I graduated from the ninja academy, several years from now. I knew they didn’t teach nature transformation in the academy because that was chunin-jonin level stuff.

“Could I get some sort of manual on nature transformations, earth jutsus and the shadow clone jutsu?"

“Oh? Is that all? Hmmm…” Hiruzen examined me closely. “You seem to have enough chakra for some basic ninjutsu. But you should be careful not to overdo it, especially with shadow clone jutsu. Overusing your chakra can lead to fatal consequences.”

“Yes, I know the dangers. I’ll be sure to not push myself too far.”

“Well, if you’re sure. In addition to the manual, you can have access to the ninja library so you can learn and study as you wish. You can have access to up to D-rank ninjutsus for now. When you get into the academy, you can get complete access. You can find shadow clone jutsu then.”

“That’s perfect! Thank you.”

“Hohoho,” He laughed, stroking his beard. “No problem. Though I do have a question. The attack on Uzushiogakure, was a pretty big event in this war. I find it hard to believe that you didn’t foresee it and it so happens that they had some warning that this would happen. But if we weren’t so prepared for the Land of Sky, we wouldn’t have been able to help them at all. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Crap. I huffed, and sat down on a cushion in the living room they were in. I wondered how to best answer this. “Can I ask what happened to Uzushiogakure?”

“The village itself was destroyed, with Iwa, Kiri, and Kumogakure coming together all we could really do was secure a path of retreat for a handful of them. Barely 500 of the Uzumakis survived.”

My spirits sank. “I did warn them, through Tsunade. As for why I didn’t warn you about it,” I sighed and met his eyes. “What I saw was that Konohagakure never showed up to help them, but the reasons were never clear why. I didn’t know if you withheld aid on purpose, to secure some sort of benefit for Konoha.”

“Uzushio are our allies! Of course I would help!” Hiruzen said angrily.

“I’m glad to hear that. You’re a good Hokage, but your priorities are always Konoha first. But I see now that it was the Land of Sky’s invasion that prevented Konoha from helping. What happened to the survivors?”

“We’ve given them a compound on the outskirts of the village. Though I imagine one of them will come along to visit you. You’ve gained quite the reputation among the leaders of the village and the elders of the Uzumakis as a seer. Though you aren’t known to the general populace.” The Hokage stands up, and puts on his hat. “Please, if you know of anything coming, would you trust this old man to do the right thing? I can’t help anyone to the best of my abilities if I’m not prepared for it.”

I nod. I did feel guilty for not saying anything. It turns out that he would have helped if he knew about the attack. If I had told him, how many people would still be alive? Though It is good that there are survivors of Uzumakis, so I tried to push down the guilt I was feeling.

The Hokage left. I was left sitting there, moping. Grandma, who was silent until now, scoffs. "Why are you moping?"

I was pulled out of my thoughts. "I should have told him about the attack."

"For someone who has seen the future, you’re incredibly naive, Sakai. The Hokage already knew that the attack was going to happen. It is impossible for even a single village to move that many troops undetected, never mind three villages coordinating together. You were smart to send word more covertly. The Hokage would have done nothing. If I had to give a reason, I would say the daimyos wanted Uzushio gone."

But… if everyone knew the attack was coming, then how did my warning save 500? What changed? Was it the warning about the land of Sky that allowed Konoha to send troops to pick up the escaped survivors? What was it then, just a looting mission? I sighed. I hated politics. 

A few days later, in the evening, we got some different visitors. Tsunade and an old man with red hair in a yukata. “Lady Tsunade!”

She smiled down at me. “Look at you, Little Sakai. You’re getting taller.”

“It's been a while, after all. Who’s this?” I ask, looking at the older man.

“This is Lord Uzumaki Ozaki. One of the surviving elders of the Uzumaki clan. We’ve come to say thank you for the forewarning.”

“Please, come in.” We all enter and sit down at the kitchen table. “Thank you for the textbooks. I’ve been studying them a lot.”

“Good, if you want to become a medical ninja, then those books hold the basic knowledge you’ll need.” 

‘Basic?’ I thought wryly. It took me almost the entire year to go through only a couple of chapters of both books because it required me to research into many other books in the library.

“Mr. Norihide." Ozaki said. Apparently he had enough of the pleasantries. He pulled out a small scroll. "On behalf of the Uzumaki, I wanted to thank you. Here." He handed over the scroll. "This scroll contains the basics of our fuinjutsu. And should you wish, you are welcome anytime at our new compound to receive guidance and training from our sealing masters."

This was perfect! These sealing masters would probably be more knowledgeable on fuinjutsu than Kushina. Though I would still want to befriend her. "Wow, thank you! This is perfect. It would be an honor to receive your clan's tutelage." I bowed my head towards him in thanks.

"And on behalf of the Senjus, I wanted to thank you as well." Tsunade said. "After your warning a year and a half ago, we've looked into what you said. We don't have any proof against Danzo but we did manage to confirm your words. He really is targeting us. We've also confirmed that the Elders Mitokade Homura and Utatane Koharu are supporting him. So we've withdrawn all the civilian clan members back to Konoha, and as many of our shinobi as we can justify from the war. Though there's only a handful of us left as it is. Though I’m still participating as a Sannin. The only reason I'm still fighting is because we couldn't find any proof that my teacher knew about this…. Though it is likely."

"I'm sorry." She must have been really disillusioned. Her village that her grandfather created betrayed her like this?

"It's not your fault, kid. In fact if you hadn't warned us, it would have been as you said, all of us would have fallen. So we wanted to thank you by declaring you an affiliate of the clan and giving you complete access to our Senju clan's library. We have stuff from all the different lands, so you should find something interesting. And of course as soon as you're done with those textbooks, I'll be teaching you personally."

I bow my head. "Thank you, Lady Tsunade. It's an honor."

After that day, my schedule got a lot fuller. In the mornings, I trained Taijutsu and bukijutsu, in the afternoons I studied my textbooks at the library. In the evenings before dinner I studied Fuinjutsu which at this point was essentially calligraphy practice and theory. Sometimes when I didn't understand something I went over to the new Uzumaki compound for advice. The Uzumaki compound turned out to be the Uchiha compound we see in the anime, the one they were moved to after the kyuubi attack.

I was directed to Ozaki’s son, Oshiro. He, like most Uzumaki, tended to be laid back and chill. Though his wife, Ayaka, was a lot stricter. They were very kind people. Their daughter, Ayame, was the same age as me and would sometimes join in on my fuinjutsu lessons, though as a tutor, not a student. She was much farther ahead of me in fuinjutsu.

One thing that I learned, and was very disappointed by, was that fuinjutsu was not some magic script that you can do anything with. It was sealing techniques. It sealed something, and released something. Granted, there was still incredible potential there, as long as you were creative in what you sealed and how you released it.

And lastly, before I went to bed I would practice my chakra control. Instead of just moving my chakra around, I was trying out the nature transformation from the manual I received from the Hokage. I haven't been to the ninja library yet for ninjutsu, because I felt like I already had enough to study for now.

When Kakashi turned 2, he started training with me and Sakumo. He joined me in my morning runs and when Sakumo was here, he would drill Kakashi in taijutsu. When Kakashi learned at least the basics we began sparring against each other. Apparently, Kakashi learned just how great his dad is, because he was very serious about getting stronger. His goal is to surpass his dad. He's become a bit of a tsundere recently, even started wearing his iconic mask.

I had turned 4 now. Later this year, in August, I would be starting the ninja academy! I got another embroidered haori from my grandma, this time a pastel red color with autumn leaves along the hems. I decided to make this my permanent style. If Naruto’s style was orange jackets, then mine would be pastel colored haoris. I liked the pastels, because it reminded me of my mom's pastel green hair. I felt a little bit closer to her. Thinking that, I fiddled around with my bracelets.

So, I got several different haori jackets, reds, greens, blues, yellows, purples, I even got a pink one, and I looked good. Grandma began embroidering them in her free time, with leaves, flowers, deer and other animals, along the hems and back. Of course, I had some plain black ones for more serious occasions.

Through this time, I've made significant practice in my chakra control. I now had no problems with moving my chakra to any point in my body, and my chakra-ryu taijutsu was now reliable though still expensive. My nature transformation was a lot slower, for the base elements, I had earth nature down already. That came the easiest to me. I've managed to start getting water nature chakra but it still needs a lot of work. Fire, Wind, and Lighting were impossible so far. They’ll have to be put aside for now. Ninjutsu couldn’t be my priority after all.

Surprisingly, the manual also included instructions for yin and yang nature's as well. Both came relatively easy to me, yin was even easier than earth was. But it was yang nature that I focused on the most out of everything. Afterall, I needed it the most for my iryojutsu. Also, I found that cycling yang nature chakra throughout my body was much more effective at replenishing my fatigue then normal chakra. It even helped strengthen me. If I used yang chakra for my chakra-Ryu taijutsu it was twice as powerful than normal. Though it did make it more complicated and harder to time due to the added step of changing the chakra nature.

Later in the year, I was on my way to the library with my books, when I saw Jiraiya with Minato and 3 young kids. It was Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko. ‘So he did find them, that’s good.’ I thought. Minato was around 12-13 years old, and the 3 kids were about 9-10. It seemed like Jiraiya and Minato were giving the three kids a tour of the village. I approached. I couldn’t let this chance to introduce myself go.

“Hello, Lord Jiraiya! It’s nice to meet you again.” I called out.

Jiraiya looked over, “Oh! Well if it isn’t Sakai. It’s been a while, kid. How’ve you been?”

“I’m doing good. I was on my way to the library to study some medical textbooks Lady Tsunade gave me, when I noticed you and your company.” I glance at the kids. “Who are these kids?”

“Oi!” Yahiko growled out angrily. “Who’re you calling kids? We’re older than you!”

“Ah.”

“What do you mean, ah?” He sputtered.

“I forget sometimes. Listen, don’t worry about it.” I turned back to Jiraiya. Not bothering to hide my smirk. “You giving them a tour?”

“Why you!” Yahiko growled.

Jiraiya laughed. “Sakai, this is my first student, Minato. These brats are Yahiko, Konan, and Uzumaki Nagato. I’m showing them around the town. Why don’t you join us?”

In the background, Konan and Nagato were calming down Yahiko. Minato was watching, amused.

I thought about it. Throughout this year, I've gotten a handle on chakra control, begun studying medicine, bukijutsu, fuinjutsu, and nature transformations. I've maintained my morning runs and kept up my training in the Strong Fist Style. All of this basically took up my entire day and my only downtime I spent helping Grandma and playing with Kakashi. All of this meant that I had absolutely no social life outside the Hatakes. Tsunade doesn't count because I've only seen her twice. I was in desperate need of friends. And Minato was here, I always wanted to be friends with him and Kushina. “Sure, I can come along. Though if we can stop by my house to drop off my textbooks, that’ll be great.”

After dropping off my textbooks, and telling grandma that I would be out late with Lord Jiraiya, it was getting late after all so we may be eating out with Jiraiya, I joined them. They had already been to the academy and the hokage’s building, so we went to show them the training grounds surrounding the village, the main street shops, and lastly the Yakiniku Q restaurant, famous for its BBQ grill. This was my first time, in both lives, coming to a self-grill bbq place, so I was filling up on quality meat. It was Jiraiya’s treat after all. Yahiko challenged me through glares to an eat-off. I obviously couldn’t let him win, so I kept eating. This lasted until the both of us were sick, and eventually we called it a day and I waddled home.

This was probably the most fun I’ve had these past two years. Honestly, it was nice to smile again. Hopefully, I could keep meeting them, though this made me wonder, where were Might Dai and Guy? I was training pretty early in the mornings around the village. Surely we would have crossed paths by now?