Naruto: the simple skills

Pov: Kenzo

Every once an a while I look up to see Itachi's training and it is mighty impressive- like he is throwing ten kunai and they all hit each other and them somehow hit ten targets... wild.

I look down to the list of jobs and futures that me and Naruto can have and he somehow needs to get into the Jonin track to have the best chance of being Hokage... there is nothing stating that someone who works in the library or R&D cant be hokage, but you do need to be one of the strongest people and well known...

The best option is to have him become a genin under a jonin and gain strength and renown from there.

As for me research and development or torture and investigations seem to be my favourite ones... they fit with what I like and seem the most fitting with my skills and title.

Then again they barely fit due to there vagueness.

...

*thunk*

Itachi sinks another kunai in the tree and stops to look behind him.

"Brother? You are home early? Can you help me with my shurikenjutsu!" A small black haired boy walks out into the field and approaches my new bodyguard.

Brother? Seems that he has a younger brother around my age.

"Sasuke, I am currently busy... I told you that I can help you tonight..." Itachi says as he kneels down to his brother- Sasuke then looks over his shoulder and squints at him.

It seems that I may be stepping in something here... lets just take a step back.

"I don't really need a bodyguard you know, in fact I am still confused why I have one in the first place- except for the fact that I am like three living alone with another three year old... you guys are free to do whatever, there is literally nothing to protect me from" Itach tilts his head and thinks before smiling at his brother and handing him a shuriken.

"Yes!" The kid yells and walks over to where Itachi was.

Itachi and the kid look over to me.

"Perhaps it will be a good idea for you to move this time..." Itachi says and Sasuke rolls his eyes.

I look up towards the kid and look at him in the eyes.

"Have you a bad aim?" I ask.

"N-No" he states.

"... then everything should be good" I look back down to my document and read about the details of T&I and R&D

I can hear the shrug that Itachi does and feel the silent confusion throughout the training area.

Why am I doing this? I think I am addicted to the feeling that I have when going through my skill tests... I just feel so lost when I am going through normal life, like it isn't the same fun as it was before when I was on earth.

Facing death so many times and going through so much pain just for simple skills has broken me.

When I look at the horizon or breathe I feel like I am doing something wrong by not death staring the sun to go down or not breathing in the perfect pattern.

I twitch when my feet don't place perfectly and I hate it when I eat ramen and cannot embrace some forbidden knowledge on some random word.

...

I never knew I was so crazy on earth because there was no such thing as breathing the correct way or staring so hard that people crumble...

...

I look up in time to see a kunai falter and go off track- aimed directly at me.

I stare it down and smile.

*clink*

Another kunai flings from the side and sends it right beside me, the kunai scratches just under my eye and sticks into the tree.

Itachi tilts his head and furrows his brows while Sasuke starts looking around in a panic.

I give them a warm smile.

"I-I am so sorry... uhh" Sasuke fumbles over his words.

"I am Kenzo, just call me O- I prefer it, and you only scratched me its nothing to panic about" I say before looking down again.

"Ah, alright... O..." Sasuke looks at his brother who gives a weak smile at him before ruffling his hair.

They continue to practice.

---

Pov: Itachi

...

When the kunai was right before his face he hardened his stare and smiled...

...

I help adjust Sasuke's stance- he is very young but an Uchiha starts training as soon as they can, especially since my performance.

Being compared to me is a constant pressure for Sasuke I am sure, maybe I can get him to come here for practice considering the ease of this job.

He can also make a friend which is good.

I glance back at Kenzo and I wonder... what am I protecting him from? I was just told to monitor and make sure he is safe but even he acknowledged that he is completely safe in Konoha...

Hmm...

...

Is he suicidal? He definitely didn't care that he was about to get a kunai between the eyes...

Ah.

This may be for me more than him actually, considering that my team...

I shake my head and sigh- Sasuke takes this as me being disappointed and starts trying to aim harder...

I chuckle and help him get into stance again before smiling warmly and patting his shoulder, its good that I have this time to check on Sasuke.

---

-next day-

Pov: Kenzo

I get up in the morning and I stretch, I poke Naruto awake and help him get dressed too.

We have to go clean the wall he painted a tasteful green yesterday, I don't have to but I chose to stick with Naruto I might as well help him.

I get up and leave the house... I look around and check to see for Itachi... he said he was going to be here even if I didn't see him right?

...

Yesterday was probably for him to let me know that he was there, I should probably walk to the training ground he showed me when I have free time- got nothing better to do after all.

We reach the wall Naruto painted and there is a very stern looking shopkeeper waiting with everything we need to clean his wall.

...

That is a pretty good paintjob actually Naruto, I am honestly impressed... how did he get up there? Anyway we get started.

..!

I stiffen and look on the roof behind me... nothing, I could of sworn someone was staring at me.

Wait a minute, I can feel someone else staring at me?

Was that itachi?

I suppose I have become accustomed to when something stares at me... so the skills I am learning can do more than just the obvious?

I mean of course I should know what a stare looks like and how to feel of someone is staring at me-

Holy shit it feels like an itch.

Is there more to these stares than I thought? It makes sense... I didn't think I learnt a lot with the last one... fear.

What would that train my stare to be? How could it be better? I overcame my fear and stared it down... did that elevate my stares into another level? Because there is a death stare then there is the stare from the floating eye that envisions everything I hate and fear.. which I somehow learnt to reflect back at the creature and make it scared.

Or maybe I got over my fears and I just improved my threshold for emotion based staring... like my death stare is better then before.

I don't have anyone to test that on though... I mean I barely did anything to that drunk and it felt like I was just giving him a stern stare and warning.

I'm not in the business of making enemies but I may have to in order to test the limits of my abilities...

...

Sounds morbid, lets just use them when it comes down to it.

..!

That itch is back and I turn around to another building top... they are testing if what I did was a fluke or not... busted now I suppose.

------

Complete: Impress the Hokage.

Reward: D rank scroll, C rank scroll.

------

Impress the Hokage? Was he watching? How? How are they invisible?

Ninja bullshit.

Guess my Kenzo bullshit needs to level up.

...

We take three hours to wash the wall clean and Naruto thanks me for helping before saying he is going to go eat. I join him at Ichiraku and then he leaves to the playground... or so he says, I am almost certain that I will be cleaning another mess next morning.

I look around at the buildings roofs and I wonder if Itachi is there or not...

I make a throwing pose and I can feel a few awkward but curious stares at me- huh? I can feel certain stares as well... like the itch feels different.

Eventually Itachi walks up the street and nods at me.

Was he just down there? Or did he jump down and walk up to me naturally...?

We walk to the Uchiha district where he then leads us back to that small forest area that he uses as his training ground.

*thunk* *clink*

Soon the Kunai fly and even sooner the kid from yesterday is back again.

I sit up straight and try something.

I accept both scrolls.

Waving them around after they are summoned it seems both boys don't see anything... so only I can see them?

I open the D-rank and think about 'walk'

...

The deep orange room consumes the world and I hear the scratching and scrawling.

*Scratch* *Scrawl*

I look down.

'Simple. Walk. Every second taken to stop will add a hundred more steps to each of your journeys'

I blink and I am in a desert, my feet burn and the sun shines down on me... I can feel the course sand digging into the crevices of my feet.

I walk.

...

---

Pov: Itachi

He has started to meditate? I thought most children would be more like my brother...

Speaking of he is hard at work throwing his shuriken- soon he will move on to kunai stances.

My brother is definitely a little genius, just wish he wasn't compared to me so much... not every child can learn advanced sets of shurikenjutsu at four...

---

Pov: Hiruzen Sarutobi

Hmmm...

I am currently thinking on what happened earlier this day despite writing quickly on the pile of documents below me.

Kenzo... might be more talented than I gave him credit for, to be able to locate the exact location of my orbs position is amazing, is he a natural chakra sensor?

Whatever it is he noticed me watching, that is talent I have to nurture- I am glad that he was interested in his own future as I can easily give him some nudges into the places that he could grow in... though he did seem interested in the T&I department... something about staring at someone?

...!

Hold on, I click my fingers and an Anbu is before me.

"Hound, you stated that a grown woman was scared of Kenzo looking at her?"

He nods.

"And you were there when Inoichi told his daughters story, what happened to make that drunk go away?"

He speaks.

"He was apparently scared away, the details came from his daughter and she was very unsure about what he did however"

Hmmm

I wave my hand and Hound leaves once more to the outside of my office- keeping guard.

Scared away... grown woman scared of Kenzo staring at her and then Kenzo asks Itachi if there was any jobs related to staring people scared.

I believe I may have cracked this case- Kenzo sounds like he has a unique bloodline here or a variation of another.

A dojutsu? Could he be related to the Hyuga with his white eyes? No... they don't lose there own... unless his mother hid him away when the Kyuubi attacked...

Staring he asked, something about a very scary stare he can do.

...

I click my fingers again and Hound is back.

"Go find Kenzo and Itachi Uchiha, tell Itachi that he needs to somehow get a blood sample and get it to me" I order.

Hound nods and flickers away.

---

Pov: Itachi Uchiha

I just got a secret message from an Anbu member... Kenzo's blood?

I look around and back at the meditating boy before I stare back at Sasuke.

I guess I have a plan but Sasuke is going to have to suck at throwing his shuriken for a second.

I pick up a pebble and tie some ninja wire on it then I just ever so slightly place it behind Sasuke's foot and I prepare a kunai.

"Next throw adjust your foot back a bit Sasuke" I say.

"Yes brother!" And he does stepping on the stone.

I pull as he throws and he trips and aims near Kenzo, no where near at all but they both aren't looking.

*clink*

I throw my kunai to 'deflect' the shuriken 'away', making it scratch his cheek in the exact same spot as last time.

Perfect aim.

He does not move or budge though...

I pick up Sasuke and I approach Kenzo... taking the shuriken and wiping his blood with a cloth...

...

I poke him in the shoulder.

"Kenzo? Are you alright?"

... I discreetly throw the cloth behind the tree and to the Anbu member as Sasuke comes over to me as well...

"I am sorry Kenzo! I didn't notice that I was steeping on a rock and I tripped!" Sasuke apologises.

...

...?

Nothing at all.

I grab his shoulder and I shake it.

..!

He opens his eyes with a gasp and stares into my own- I do not know why but my fight or flight instincts flare as I push Sasuke back and my eyes start to rotate into the sharingan.

I blink and turn them off... what was that?

He gasps for air and scratches at his throat... before repeatedly slamming his foot with his fist.

I hold him down and he takes multiple breaths and calms after five minutes.

"Kenzo? Are you alright?" I ask.

"Swell, just got too into meditation and my feet went numb sorry..." he apologises and I narrow my eyes.

That was not what just happened. This must be a mission to protect him from himself.

...

I sigh as he gets up and sits back at the tree.

Me and Sasuke share a look of confusion and we walk back to our training- is he meditating again?

I turn around and he is in the same pose... why? What is he doing?

---

Pov: Kenzo

The D-rank room was me walking for days and days in the desert... because I fainted and stopped on the last stretch, and then I had to walk through a swamp that felt endless... then a mountain vein with steep steps going up and down, then through a blizzard and other biomes of every nature like a simple grassy plane to a volcanic and hot pathway and even a desert but the sand was lego and extra pointy d4...

My feet hurt so much that the ghost pain made me want to tear my feet off in reality... it seems that while I have the knowledge taker title I do not have a pain taker one...

Oh, right! I went into the next scroll immediately so I am in the deep orange room again.

I shake my head at my apparent craziness and look to the message on the floor for me.

'Mortal limit reached. Breaking Skill'

I wait...

*Scratch*

'Walk'

I blink and I am on the moon... looking up I can see the elemental nations...

I walk and my feet feel light...

*crack*

My feet break and I topple to the floor.

Ow! What the fuck!

*scratch*

'Walk'

I blink and I am standing where I was...

I walk forward... *crack* fuck!

I blink.

I walk.

I blink.

I get it.

I need to maintain my 'walk' even in low gravity... is this test going to put me in places hard to walk like the last one?

I guess walking on the moon isn't for mortals... or I guess walking perfectly on the moon isn't for mortals... it is very hard actually.

*crack*

Fuck that hurts!

I blink and continue again.

...

After what feels like a day of walking and constant feet breaking I see a portal of sorts into another place... the portal is black and is comprised of many lines and squares, on the other side is...

*step*

I step through into the next area... a path way with high walls that block me from walking around it, on the path is latterns where my feet go and in the middle of the patterns is one rusty nail.

*scratch*

'Walk'

Okay... I step on the nail and it hurts so much that I flinch.

*crack*

I feet break and I fall... onto the other nails.

I blink and I am at the start again.

On the fucking moon.

I walk.

...

...

...

Crack, snap, step.

That's my formula.

Break, ache, step.

I feel my foot rot after I get to the end of path of rusty nails and those nails are definitely more than just rusty as I look down to my veiny and sickly green foot.

I reach the next area after three days of constant walking and failure.

Through the portal is a hamster wheel... I step on and I walk, funnily enough my feet look fine and normal after I step through the portal so that's nice.

...

The hamster wheel gets faster and faster and faster, but as soon as I try to jog or run my feet break and I start tumbling on the wheel and break my head or ribs from being flung.

...

On the moon again...

I walk.

I walk.

I walk.

I walk.

I walk.

I have learnt how to perfectly walk on the moon and I know how to endure the pain of the nailed path...

That wheel constantly revs up with speed but I must somehow walk when it is going faster than any treadmill on earth.

It reaches a point where I am walking and I take a step but because the wheel is so fast my leg gets torn off.

...

Yeah.

I am going to be here for a while.

---

Thanks for reading :)