Book 2: Chapter 6: The Kind of Ninja I Want to Be Part IV

Book 2: Land of Sand

Chapter 6: The Kind of Ninja I Want to Be Part IV

It would be some time before Tayuya would make it to us, time we didn’t have, as Kimimaro appeared above us with his left arm coated in bones in the shape of a lance. Thankfully that bone lance seemed to slow him down as I could finally see him with my Sharingan, which meant I could fight.

“Wind Style: Whirlwind Sprint Jutsu!” Feeling the wind blow around me, I picked up Sui, who was still exhausted from earlier. There she yelped from me carrying her like the bride she is. I wished I had made a comment about that, but I didn’t have the time to as I jumped back, narrowly avoiding becoming a shish kebab. Though the same couldn’t be said about the mud wall, as the ground cracked from the single blow Kimimaro gave it.

“And that is why I do not like this form.” Kimimaro shook his head as he pulled his arm out of the ground. “Slow enough for you to dodge. However, the strength it carries is incomparable.”

“Doesn’t look too strong from where I’m standing—” I lifted my foot as I noticed the crack had spread to me. In fact, the entire mud wall cracked from Kimimaro’s blow to the point the ground started to shake. Oh shit.

“You have got to stop picking up bad habits from Tayuya,” Sui said as she, unlike me, could see through the ground and saw that the entire mud wall was collapsing. Though I didn’t need the Byakugan to tell what was happening as the edges of the wall began to break off.

“So I have to fight him, protect you, all while trying not to fall?”

“Just until Tayuya gets here,” Sui said like that was the easiest thing for me to do in my life,

“That sounds impossible….” I said, shifting slightly from the weight on my back and in my arms. “Did I tell you that I just got out of a fight with Kidōmaru?”

“Is that why your chakra network is all over the place!”

“Yeah…”

“In that case, you’re going to have to put me down—”

I tightened my hold on her. “Like hell I will. Did you forget the kind of ninja I want to be?”

“Yuki… You’re already at your limit. Any more, and you’ll lose yourself.”

“I guess I do have to remind you,” I said as the world slowed down even more. As I delved deeper into the sea of red, holding on to the memory of our dreams.

2

It was a quiet night, one with a full moon that shined so bright it captured the beauty that hid within Sui’s eyes even as we ran. Hopping through the forest while keeping track of the rustling leaves that followed us, Sui and I were runaways for that silent night.

I was only nine years old at the time, but back then, honestly even now, I wanted to do everything to protect those that were close to me. I was so afraid of losing them that I panicked when Sui told me we couldn’t be friends anymore. Did I do something wrong? Was it my fault? Was it something I said? Could I fix it? Yet it was nothing simple like that. Instead, it was a terrifying test she had learned about. Her final test to become a fully-fledged Root Ninja.

“Yuki… I have to kill the person closest to me…. Because a tool has no use for attachments.”

Hearing that blew my mind as a kid, hell it still baffled me. Why would anyone force another ninja to do something like that? At the academy, we were taught to protect our comrades as ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village. Then again, I knew there were some who didn’t care too much about that—

“And I don’t know what I’d do if I were to get an order like that.” Sui continued. “So, this is goodbye, Yuki Uchiha. Before I hurt you.”

It was there a stupid idea popped into my mind as I grabbed her hand with red eyes. “Let’s run away together. Before that ever happens.”

“Together?”

“Together.”

And so we ran as fast as we could. We didn’t think about where we were going or what we should bring. Hell, we didn’t even think about the people we were leaving behind. It was the pure desperation of children born into the Ninja World that drove us forward without thinking. It was impossible to think we’d get far. I mean one of the last Uchiha and an Hyūga-Uchiha hybrid. Both valuable assets to the Hidden Leaf. Danzō would never have let us leave. So of course, we didn’t even make it to sunrise before we were discovered, chased down, and cornered.

I still remember the pain of watching Sui take down three ANBU and still face more all while I cowered behind her. Not because I was scared of getting hurt but rather, I was afraid of getting in the way. Simply from the way they moved faster than my eyes could keep up with. It made me feel so useless, just like when my sister protected me. Even after years of training and practice, it was all worthless. They were leagues above me. A gap that always felt impossible to close. Especially for an Uchiha deemed as a joke.

Yet within that weakness and sorrow, I heard my sister ask: “Did you forget the kind of ninja you wanted to be?”

3

“I want to be a ninja that does the impossible! From birth to bloodline. Even being alive to this day as one of the last Uchiha. It has all been impossible. Yet here I am!” I said with eyes of three spiraling scythes. I no longer felt the heat from the sun or even the strain I put my body through. All I felt was the warmth that came from my arms as I smiled at Sui. Then I turned to Kimimaro, who had been patiently waiting. “Sorry to keep you standing there. My girlfriend is a bit of a worrier.”

“A ninja that does the impossible… What a childish claim.” Kimimaro charged me with his lance of bone. I glanced back only to see there was no stepping back, so instead, I charged forward.

“Yuki!” I heard Sui scream, yet she didn’t have to worry because I saw it all. Kimimaro’s quick leap into a downward strike that I simply sidestepped as he was much too slow.

“How?” They both said.

“Oh, come on. I know you’re both thinking it. Just say it, Im—” I jumped over Kimimaro’s tail sweep. “Pos—”

Kimimaro struck with his lance arm, only for me to kick off it, launching myself to the edge of the mud wall.

“Si—”

Kimimaro threw his lance as if it was a javelin, forcing me to drop off the edge and land on one of the falling rocks, where the lance flew high above me. There from the corner of my eye, he appeared from, below? Bursting through the rock with a new bone lance only to see I was already on another falling rock.

“Impossible.” Me and Kimimaro said together as he pierced through the mud wall, yet in a matter of seconds, he came from a different angle, trying the same stunt as I jumped to another falling rock.

It was there I realized he could move through his forest of bones almost instantaneously and why he wanted us off the mud wall. Though none of it mattered because I saw through it all. No matter the angle. No matter the speed. He moved slow enough for me to see him coming, find a way to evade him, then land on another platform. If I told you it didn’t feel amazing to dance around Kimimaro with Sui in my arms, I’d be lying though it always came with a price.

“Yuki!”

I finally heard Sui cry out my name as I landed on solid ground in the middle of the bone forest. I wasn’t sure how long she was calling me, but I figured out why when I looked at her. There were drops of blood on her cheeks. But I had kept her safe, so where did it—

I fell to one knee, gritting my teeth as I could barely keep my eyes open from the pain.

“Yuki! Shut off your Sharingan now!”

What is she saying without them, I can’t see— I stared ahead at Kimimaro, who charged me once more, and though he still moved slowly, it was…. Blurry? Things were never blurry when I had my Sharingan on. In fact, things became more clear, if anything. So why—

Pain erupted from both sides of my head, and soon enough, feeling returned to my body as I noticed Sui’s Byakugan paired with her scowl. I didn’t know who would kill me first, Sui or Kimimaro, who still hadn’t stopped his charge! We’re so boned!

“Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu!”

A blast of wind knocked Kimimaro away from me and Sui, ripping through the bones and sand in the process. It was by far the strongest version of the technique I had seen, as it blew away everything that got in its way. And appearing in front of us was none other than the red-haired demon we called sister.