Mistake - A Naruto Fan-Fiction 14 A Child Full Of Surprises

Karasu-nii? I don't know about him. I haven't heard about him since I woke up a few hours ago. I'm honestly scared—who wouldn't be? We got jumped by an enemy nin because I lowered our guard for a mere moment. If Karasu-nii hadn't pushed me away to take the blow I would've… If… if he hadn't burst out the wave of distress call before he pa.s.sed out…

I'm glad someone came, really.

I'm grateful to have him—I'm not even surprised to learn who's behind the crow mask; I'm just lucky I'm still alive.

Hopefully, he is too.

__________

Hopping tree to tree, I've managed to close my gap between the crow and I. I feel like that crow can go faster but is dumbing down his speed for me to catch up. That jerk. He's just leading me in circles around Training Ground #13, which is very boring, if you ask me; I want to spice things up.

Running through a few hand seals, I quickly pushed a steady amount of chakra on my feet (keeping in mind not to put too much or I'll be d.a.m.ned with a broken pair of feet) and used my shadows to form a hundred of Kage Nui threads—now much effective and I can control much more progressively than before. What I'm doing right now can be a bit mentally tiring since I'm controlling two things at once, but everything's gonna be worth it since the reward is the underneath of the crow's mask.

Mad chakra control is what's helping me, which I need to thank the Nara head and my b.a.s.t.a.r.d uncle for. At first this stuff was ought to be difficult, but because of the bada.s.s I am, I pulled through and even managed to reinforce an existing Nara shadow jutsu.

Resembling roots growing from a tree in an incredible speed, I extended my shadow threads, ready to cage up the crow inside. With my phase and force, I'm sure I can catch this raven under his mask. "Hah! Got you no—never mind." I sighed as I helplessly watched the d.a.m.ned crow disappear just when my cage made out of shadow strings was about to enclose him.

I turned to my right as my Kage Nui slowly go back to my shadow. I was greeted with Karasu's amused stare through his mask.

He had his arms crossed while leaning on the tree, watching me through his mask. "That was actually quite surprising, Orion." He mused, "I was lucky I could escape from that one. What would you like to call it? Shadow Cage or something? That would certainly be helpful to catch a target, but not enough to catch me, I'm afraid." He shook his head. His statement was kind of mocking actually; pretty rude.

I smiled, "You're being talkative, Karasu-nii. That's quite unusual." I hummed, stretching my arms up high, "But you know? I actually have a very, very great advantage here." I looked at my nails before looking at him, noticing his curious eyes.

Of course, it didn't take long to realise what my advantage was. Distraction was my core, letting his gaze follow my hand. Before he hopped away from the branch, my Kage Mane no Jutsu already reached him. "Shadow possession complete." I imitated what future s.h.i.+kkun would've said, smiling at the frozen target in front of me. It might've been clever, but I just remembered that I can extend my shadow paralysing technique using shadows—silly me. Pfft. This is a forest, darn it.

"Clever." Karasu-nii sighed, "Maybe we can talk about this? I'll take you to the candy store if you let me go?" I shook my head at that. It's rather inconvenient to hold a conversation right now—I literally only have a minute to maintain this jutsu or I'd be drained. I can't have the crow to bring me to the scarecrow, proudly saying that he had gotten away.

Without hesitating, I stood straight and hovered my hand in front of my face, which he mirrored. I motioned myself like I was about to remove my own non-existent mask, him doing the same. I know I have a faint idea of who he is, but I need to confirm it to make myself proud, to get the last laugh.

"Ori-kun, please…" The crow laughed, his hands twitching as he fought with my jutsu. It's easier to do the d.a.m.ned thing if he's not resisting. "Not gonna happen." I told him, biting my lips as I prepared to pull his mask away, "This one's my win."

Just before I do though, a random, unfamiliar tune played, making me stop and, unfortunately, letting the d.a.m.ned crow break away from my jutsu and disappear off to nowhere. I was thrown back for a moment from the backlash of my shadow binding getting broken, losing my footing on the branch I was standing on. Luckily, I managed to regain my footing once I was down on the ground, stumbling back a bit and landing on my b.u.t.t.

"Can we call timeout first, Karasu-nii?" I whispered questioningly, knowing he can hear me since I can feel him nearby. Without a second later, he appeared in front of me, crouching down with his eyes wandering around cautiously. "You heard it too, right?" I asked him in a low tone, he nodded.

The sound we heard was rather… intriguing and quite unique. I do not recognise it from the modern world I had come from. Sometimes, the chosen keys blends well with each other but soon, it drops into a rather annoying sound then back again to the nice tune.

I don't know if my perfect pitch is working in this world—it's definitely not showing any signs of showing up soon, but training in the music area will definitely aid me again—because it can definitely help me identify the notes used in there. I can most definitely hear an A, two E's… another A… whew. It's rather hard to follow, but its beat is just right around 120…

Ugh. It's hard. I need to write it down somewhere. It's actually a bit convenient for it to play in a loop—I just gotta remember that it starts with A in G-scale, I think. 'Arghh… I don't know anymore…' I sighed, frustrated about the fact that I've gotten rusty in a short amount of time.

"It's quite catchy, ain't it?" The crow asked me, making me forget my thoughts temporarily. "Yup." I agreed, popping the letter 'P' of my word before diving back into my own mind once again, dwelling in deep thoughts, trying to figure out what on earth the tune is doing in the middle of a forest.

"It stopped." The crow's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I blinked.

He returned it.

Somehow, the atmosphere thickened; absolute pressure pressed onto our backs. It was harder to breathe, but Karasu-nii doesn't seem to be affected. "Ori…?" He trailed of, pausing when we both heard the bush nearby rustle.

Silence took over as we warily eyed the poor bush. We went on guard, grabbing our own chosen weapon: my kunai and his tantō. It was a tense minute, not a single muscle move until the bush shook again. The crow glanced at me, nodding with me as we both cautiously approached the rustling bush. The tune definitely came from the general direction so, we took extra guard nearing the thing.

We can't waste this opportunity if it's an enemy.

"What the—" Startled by the rabbit that came out of the mentioned bush, I walked back, sighing in relief when the once we thought an enemy turned out to be just a rabbit.

I didn't realise that lowering my guard in a split second would cause absolute disaster. Kami knows how fast things happened. I was staring at the rabbit, and the next thing I know, I was pushed out. That fateful second, everything somehow slowed down as I was realising what the h.e.l.l was happening.

Note: realising.

I saw how Karasu-nii's dark, curly hair s.h.i.+fted into a hue of dark blue as the shy rays of sun went through the thick leaves of the forest; his hair bounced accordingly to his sudden action of pus.h.i.+ng me. Slowly, his mask started crumble as a transparent ray, whatever that was, brushed through it and to his right chest.

"Y-You're…!" My eyes widened. As of now, I don't need to panic just because I've learned who he actually is (and my intuition was right—), but I'm panicking from another reason.

It went through him, creating a gaping hole through his chest. Through. His. Chest. The formal speed around me quickly went back, and we both skidded on the ground because of the force he had used to push me out of the attack's way. f.u.c.k pain. I couldn't feel anything as panic rose. His face was close to mine, right eye closed, his defined, long lashes touching his cheek, with blood dripping from his mouth. He coughed, sending blood down to me.

He was smiling, d.a.m.n it. His innocent, bare darn face gave me a rea.s.suring smile. h.e.l.l no, I ain't accepting that smile—he's not going to die because of me, but I'm paralysed by shock at the freaking moment. 'Move d.a.m.n it.' I gritted my teeth, hands shaking as I try to pose myself up.

"Shh…" He pressed his index finger on his lips, smile not faltering. "I'll take…" His jagged breath made him pause; he coughed again, "… I'll take care of this, okay? You go hide… hide somewhere…" He looked up, standing up before tumbling back a couple of steps.

"…" I was too… shocked to move nor speak. Things happening at once is definitely overwhelming—it takes a couple seconds more to process every single thing.

The one thing keeping me rational right now is the beautiful sight of Sharingan commas spinning in the wounded young man's eyes in front of me as I lay p.r.o.ne to endangerment on the ground—even I haven't thought I'd be calling the dōjutsu beautiful. I could feel dangerous yet warm gaze he's giving me through those red eyes, as if telling me to 'go and hide because I need you to'.

He had such understandable warm eyes, yet even those pair of eyes tells me he's in pain right now. I don't want to leave him here, running away just to save my sorry a.r.s.e.

Breathing shakily, I stood up, him following me with his reddened gaze. "Sorry, niisan, but… I'm staying." He remained silent, trailing my eyes over to where the transparent ray that hurt him came from; from the branches high and above us. "I have a… feeling that… the surprising gift wasn't meant for you." I narrowed my eyes as I found the attacker, wearing a familiar white mask.

"Orion." Niisan's voice was rather stern, as if ordering me to not defy what he had told me.

"I'm staying." I voiced out, "It's my fault you're injured right now. It's quite troublesome to leave you knowing that… you're at disadvantage." I'm lying, and he knows that. He knows that even I only have a slight chance of escaping, having a depleted chakra and all from the task to get his mask off before this storm of disaster.

He remained silent, nodding once in defeat, clicking his tongue. "If you die before me, I'm going to kill you again." He humoured as he disappeared from where he was, appearing above the perpetrator, aiming to knock him in one go to finish everything quickly, but that'd be a great victory if he actually made it.

The attacker dodged with ease, disappearing without a trace.

Niisan took his place on the branch, scouting around while also running through some seals that I couldn't read—it was too fast—creating tangible after-images of himself that scattered around, with three enclosing me in a triangular defence formation. "Niisan!" I retaliated. He definitely does not want me to fight, resorting me to be enclosed by his… clones—after-images?—and not get a chance to get out but feel like a bird caged away from freedom. One of his clones looked back down at me, smiling apologetically.

"Stay put for now, okay?" His lips curled into another caring smile. "Niisan's gonna take care of this." He looked away, embracing his role as the person whom I've been calling older brother from the very first time we met. He's rather calm and collected in this situation, given by the fact that he had gone through things even before I was born.

A squelch made me snap my head to where the white-masked man and niisan are fighting. Just then, a clone disappeared. It didn't poof or anything, it just dissolved into nothing, which leads me to believe that I was right about them being after-images from great speed, usually those who mastered the Body Flicker jutsu and the like.

d.a.m.n. This niisan lives up to his name.

His opponent, a man behind a white mask wearing pure white clothes—white suit, pants, shoes, tie, you name it—looks like he hasn't even batted a single sweat over this. Honestly, the only thing missing now is the white hair; his brown, blackish hair ruined his white attire. If anything, I could guess his name would definitely be s.h.i.+ro. If not, he lost the chance to call himself that.

The man in white laughed in a mocking tone, placing his hand on his mark, the part that's supposed to be his mouth. "I expected more from an Uchiha." He mused, grabbing an after-image's s.h.i.+rt's collar before wrapping his free hand onto his neck, "I overestimated you." A loud, sickening crunch reverberated in the forest as he crushed the after-image's neck. It dissipated not even a second later.

This made me ball my already shaking fists, a bad feeling was.h.i.+ng over me. Even though it's just an after-image, the man in white showed no mercy. If it was the real one… I don't even know what to think.

What if we don't survive? Are we… am I gonna die again? Am I going to die in vain, just being a boulder to slow the one person who could've saved himself if he didn't pushed me away? Am I going to go through the cycle of death once again?

Just then, a thought occurred to me. I'm not going to see my sibling ever get born if I'm gone. It's painful enough to leave behind my beloved when 'that' sudden incident befell on my life. I don't want to leave. I've made this once escape from reality to my reality.

Right, I haven't done anything significant yet.

No one's gonna miss me here.

A laugh escaped through my shaking lips, the after-image surrounding me looking back at me with utter concern. "Oi, Orion." He called through his jagged breathing; a smile curved over to my lips.

Not a second later, the after-images that enclosed and protected me disappeared in an instant, not even leaving a single trace but a soft breeze. I swiftly looked to wherever niisan was, and was baffled by the sight of him; the man in white had his hand over to niisan's head, gripping so tightly that his curly hair had stood up clear, reflecting the blurred lights coming from above before bas.h.i.+ng the anbu's face onto a tree.

I froze as the man pulled back the crow's head that was once dug deep into the trunk of the tree.

I may sound crazy but, another laugh escaped from my lips.

The man stepped back and threw the unrecognisable crow onto the ground, bathing in his own blood, before looking back at me, eyes glinting with glee. "Yare, yare…" He mused, placing his gloved hands on his waist, "has your insanity already fallen over," he paused, taking a couple steps forward, "O-ri-on."

"Right now I…" I said under my breath, taking a step back, balling my fists harder.

"Hm…?" His amused tone can't be brushed off.

"Right now…" I laughed, placing my shaking hands on my thigh; he raised his brow at my words, "my sanity can really be questioned…"

The man stopped on his tracks, tilting his head to the side. "Huh?"

'Some people might remember me…' I heaved a sigh, my smile getting wider, 'But people will surely mourn over niisan if...'

"What the—"

In an instant, using tangible shadows beneath my feet as my stepping stones from instinct, getting some inspiration from niisan's after-images speed and efficiency (from not disappearing by pouring constant flow of chakra in them), I appeared behind the crazy man (like I can't call myself crazy) with incredible speed, pointing the kunai in my hand on his neck.

"It seems like," I whispered in his ears, breathing jaggedly as I push my kunai a bit deeper and causing him to bleed, "my sanity did fall over."

"Woah, woah…!" The man in mask raised his hands in a surrendering manner, "I didn't expect for you to have that great of a speed. 'He' only told me about your abnormally high learning capacity, but he didn't tell a word of your speed, geez." He shrugged, eyes s.h.i.+ning through his mask. "But you're still a child, after all."

He disappeared from my grasp, making me fall over the ground before reappearing a few feet in front of me. I recovered quickly and stood on my feet. Although shaking a bit from my chakra depletion and state of shock, I forced myself to look up to see where he is.

He stood tall and proud, not even a hint of hesitation could be seen on him. I didn't notice this before, but it seems like he had attain some injuries from his fight with the crow, staining his once white tattered attire with his own crimson blood.

I might've missed his and niisan's fight because I was clouded with thoughts of dying once again. Well, at least my mind is cleared up for now… I can somewhat focus even just for a bit. Maybe use this focus to stall time until someone notices the dissipating chakra coming from this way.

Then again, this is a training ground—no one will pay attention to the disappearing chakra and would just conclude that people who were using this area had overworked themselves, that or until one of our chakra completely vanish, someone then will come to investigate what had happened.

"Tired already?" The man in front asked, combing his fingers through his dark hair, "Sorry but… no one will help. People these days are becoming quite ignorant after all."

His tone tells me he's very confident with whatever plans he has in tow. "You've been… watching, aren't you?" I threw in the question, playing with the kunai in my left hand. He narrowed his eyes.

"Oh~ho-ho…" He chuckled, "I didn't actually think you'd notice…" He smiled, crouching down before he began playing with the random patch of gra.s.s he had touched. "You've seen through from the beginning." He paused, eyes sharpening as his gaze befell on mine.

I stiffened. It wasn't a question, which means he also knew.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Why does he sound like… almost like… "You felt my presence earlier yet you wasted the chance."

…

He sound like he's disappointed and… almost sad?

Why?

"You. Had. A. Chance." He stopped at his every word as he stood up from his place, "Yet you wasted it."

My rather young body couldn't comprehend what on earth happened next. I could explain it as… "painfully beautiful"—why? A soothing melody played and danced in my ears, sending me in a calm state. It was not long until I've realised that something was definitely going on.

I was snapped back into reality just in time to see the man, whom I've already decided to mentally call s.h.i.+ro (though I actually regret that a bit because I had a dog named s.h.i.+ro in my past life—and I love that pup) at this rightful moment, cast his last seal in a graceful way before a familiar transparent ray came out from his hands that I had once seen pierce through the crow.

I have no time to admire the darn sound wave manipulated to be a killer-weapon for now.

I need to f.u.c.king dodge that or I'm gonna be a goner for real.

Blasting a bit of my remaining chakra to my left foot, I launched sideward to my right, the ray of sound wave nicking my left arm. I tumbled and skidded onto the ground as I held my painful injury burning in my arm, refraining from shouting and gritting my teeth instead. Now, I look rather miserable; if I use any more chakra, I'd die out of draining my own life force rather than dying in s.h.i.+ro's hands.

"A tough one, eh?" He smiled, taking something from his pockets. Of course, despite having injuries, I went on immediate guard, learning my lesson to never let it drop even by chance. I still kept my guard up as he took out white gloves, wearing them as carefully as he can. "'He' did say you're quite resilient for your age. Now that I think about it, I think you're pretty similar to him..."

His loud mumble caught my attention. I narrowed my eyes.

"A body of a child yet a mind of an adult…" he pointed out. I didn't react and raised my kunai in my right hand. "Of course no one would suspect that… you were born—no." He paused, looking at me with an excited stare through his white mask. What he said next really caught me off guard.

"You were reborn as a Nara, after all."

I froze, mind ready to shut down any given moment. 'Wha— Who— Just who is the guy behind this curious b.a.s.t.a.r.d?'

"Ah, I wonder what it's like to know what had happened in the past of your world… and to know what will happen in the future of this world…" He smiled. "Well, as crazy as I might sound," he started waving his hands, as if telling a tale to a kid, "I might actually believe him that… both of you came from another world." He snickered, shaking his head.

"Never mind—'he's' rather insane. Who would believe 'him', right?" He gave his stinging gaze at me, which I'm sure is paired with a sick smile behind his mask, "You're just a genius from the Nara's, right?"

"Right?" He repeated.

I replied with a nod, still frozen in spot.

"Hah! Got that right, at least." s.h.i.+ro laughed, clapping his hands. "Wait until I tell Gee-sama that! Pfft—huh? Come on. We're only starting. Don't drop down now."

This small body couldn't do any more after all. I've exceeded this body's limit and it's giving up on me now. Black dots are appearing in the corner of my eyes… which is definitely not a good sign. I started swaying left and right, soon falling forwards, using my right side for support to not face plant completely on the ground.

To think that someone… knows that… I've been reborn. I do not know who s.h.i.+ro's master is, but he sure does know a lot, which is very problematic.

I didn't even realise that s.h.i.+ro's in front of me now. Everything became blurry. It's kind of nostalgic though; I became too used to seeing clearly without the use of gla.s.ses that I've forgotten how it's like to have blurry eyes.

Ah, shame. I think I forgot to give s.h.i.+kkun that book he wanted... Did I water the plants? Kasan's gonna be sad if the roses in her room wither…

s.h.i.+ro approached closer, placing his foot onto my back, forcing me down on the ground.

I suddenly saw kasan's smile…

… tou-san's bicker with s.h.i.+kaku-sama…

… s.h.i.+kkun's annoyed face…

I wonder what my sibling's gender is all of a sudden…

An imouto would definitely be nice…

s.h.i.+ro crouched down and lifted me up by grabbing my hair before using his other to hold me by my neck.

I'm pathetic, aren't I? Dying at such young age… even bringing someone rather important down with me. Honestly, I want to live, I really do.

I trailed my eyes over to the splattered blood not far from me, seeing the bloodied face of the crow that had vowed to be by my side in order to protect me. He gave me a mixture of apologetic and rea.s.suring smile, like he's saying that "I'm sorry for making you go through this, you'll be all fine soon so just hang in there."

He smiled again, firing off a loop of distress signal, wasting his already depleted chakra.

Niisan's smiling as he flared off his chakra away.

s.h.i.+sui was smiling, embracing the touch of death brus.h.i.+ng on him.

Shuns.h.i.+n no s.h.i.+sui.

Body Flicker s.h.i.+sui.

The Teleporter.

Whatever you call him.

He's f.u.c.king smiling.

Fear, anger, pity, helplessness… Is this how Cherry felt when I left her with a smile? A G.o.d darn smile?

If it weren't for me, he could've used the max of his ability to take down s.h.i.+ro yet… he chose my safety over his.

How selfless.

A~h… I can't think straight now… Is this how one's life flash before his eyes?

I sighed. I'm just angry right now.

I gave my glare to the person holding me by my neck as an extremely cold feeling touched my left eye, blurring my right eye's vision. I gripped tighter on his hand, but s.h.i.+ro seemed to have been frozen in place. Sadly, I can't see a thing clearly at the moment.

The only thing I know is that I'm desperate to live to save s.h.i.+sui-nii… and all I can do now is to hope that I someone, somewhere, picked up his signal.

f.u.c.k… I'm gradually losing my consciousness…

'Not now…'

"Get the f.u.c.k away from Orion."

Well, that's a pleasant tone to hear…

"You're… late…"

Then everything went pitch black.

__________

Kakas.h.i.+ stared at the masked man in front of him with great fury as he slammed him into trees and finally, onto a hard boulder. "Don't you dare hold my nephew with your bloodied hands." He couldn't think straight for a moment, but he soon regained his stand back, tightly gripping onto the man's neck.

Then he paused. 'Why didn't he react?' Kakas.h.i.+ thought, waiting for the dust and particles to clear out for him to identify the reason. To be honest, he really wanted to kill the guy in one quick swing, but he thought otherwise: resorting to a more… painfully long death for him to give the man.

The dust cleared, and Kakas.h.i.+ found the reason why his enemy-turned-victim had not reacted from his attack. Through the masked man's eyes, he saw that fear and terror enveloped the eyes of his nephew and subordinate's attacker.

Just what on earth did the man saw to be this frozen in fear? What the h.e.l.l is the reason for him to—

"You're…" Kakas.h.i.+ swung his head to hear his nephew's words, "… late…"

Oh.

OH.

He froze as soon as he met Orion's fainting gaze. 'Dōjutsu?' He thought, completely enthralled by the golden glow his nephew's left eye gave before he closed his eyes and lost his consciousness. 'I've never seen such thing—'

"M-Monster…" He quickly looked back to the masked man who spoke chilling words, "Gee-sama was right… humanity will end…" Kakas.h.i.+ pushed the man harder onto the hard surface of the boulder, but to his dismay, the man only chuckled, soon turning to laughter, "I will kill him… don't worry, child. Just you wait…"

The masked man's voice echoed as he vanished, giving Kakas.h.i.+ no chance to even beat the daylight out of him.

"Double f.u.c.k. Make that triple." Kakas.h.i.+ cussed, punching the boulder with all his might, 'He got away.'

Holding the self-inflicted wound on his fist, he turned back, quickly making his way to Orion and Karasu, or, well, s.h.i.+sui. He stared down at his nephew as alerted s.h.i.+n.o.bi's and anbu's made their way to them, already a.s.sisting the fallen anbu lying down on the ground, making him steal a gaze on the bleeding crow.

"You did your part, s.h.i.+sui… I'm sorry…" Kakas.h.i.+ closed his eyes before looking back at his nephew, crouching down and inspecting the injury the young child had to endure. "I'm sorry that I'm late… a rather boring meeting held uncle up…" He whispered at the unconscious child.

He could tell that the two fought hard to stall time and to survive, especially s.h.i.+sui. Kakas.h.i.+ understands why the young Uchiha had taken a liking on his nephew. Orion's full of surprises after all. Heck, even in battle, the child doesn't cease to amaze them.

Dōjutsu? Really? He doesn't recall anything like the one in Orion's eye being told or had been recorded in any book—for now, anyways.

He sighed, picking up the young child and carrying him in his arms. Kaiya's gonna kill her for sure when she hears of this. s.h.i.+kakuro too.

Oh, dear.

Oh-f.u.c.king-dear.

He can practically hear the woman scolding him and practically feel the s.a.d.i.s.tic man's torture. Well, being s.a.d.i.s.tic to fend off of another secretly horrible b.a.s.t.a.r.d is actually understandable. You could say Kakas.h.i.+ picked up his s.a.d.i.s.tic demeanor from him.

'Well, that's two things to worry about…'

Never judge a book by its cover—he learned that too from his brother-in-law. The man might look like he's the nicest and "bestest" person ever to be born, but don't ever get to his bad side. One can never know how on earth he or she died.

Kakas.h.i.+ most definitely know the reason why s.h.i.+kakuro was dubbed as "that" name in the battlefields.

He sighed, rus.h.i.+ng to the medics that have arrived at the scene.

's.h.i.+t.'