Swirling Chaos Ch. 12 (Naruto) (Patreon)

A/N: Satsuki Uchiha is... an experience.

-x-X-x-

In the end, Naruto decides to try and act like he would normally around her. Leaning more heavily on this dimension’s version of himself than he had previously, he finds himself letting out a sheepish laugh and running a hand through the back of his head.

“Ah! Satsuki… funny story about that… I just got done graduating from the Academy! That’s why I’m not there!”

The older girl stops in her tracks at that, her eyes narrowing as she pauses for a moment. Then, a scowl mars her beautiful features as she plants both hands on her hips.

“I’ve told you before to call me Nee-chan, Naruto.”

For half a second, Naruto freezes, wondering if he’s already fucked up. But then his memories of this world assert themselves and he finds himself shaking his head.

“I’m not a little kid anymore, Satsuki. Even more so now that I’ve graduated from the Academy. It wouldn’t be appropriate!”

In actuality, Naruto had never called Satsuki ‘Nee-chan’, thank the Sage. Not even in this timeline. Certainly not in the other. Fuck, could you imagine? But of course, this Satsuki had still pushed for it as much as possible all the same. She’d been trying to get him to call her Nee-chan for years now… ever since the time of the Uchiha Massacre of this dimension in fact.

Which was more than a little odd, but supposedly Satsuki’s trauma here in this timeline, while still likely very real, wasn’t nearly as bad as it was in the other timeline. After all, her mother was still alive. More importantly than that, her older sister Itsuki Uchiha hadn’t killed Mikoto right in front of her, and then tortured her with a little time loop of the events using her Mangekyou Sharingan. Small mercies, that.

In the end, this resulted in a very different Satsuki Uchiha, didn’t it? So different in fact that she strikes before Naruto, with all of his extra knowledge and skill from the other timeline, can even react.

“And that’s the other thing, brat!”

Quick as a snake, Satsuki suddenly has him in a headlock, rubbing her knuckles into the top of his head as she scowls furiously.

“What have I told you about lying, huh? If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable! I know for a fact that Academy Graduation isn’t for another couple of months!”

“H-Hey! Satsuki! Stop it!”

Naruto squirms… but when the older girl picks up speed rather than letting go, his instincts finally kick in. He tries to hold them back; he tries to suppress them… but he hates being held against his will like this. In an instant, he’s buried an elbow at lightning speed in Satsuki’s gut, causing the breath in her lungs to explode outwards. At the same time, his other hand snakes up into her suddenly loose armbar, allowing him to slip out from her grasp entirely and dart away from her.

She recovers almost instantly of course, she’s a fully trained Chunin after all and in this timeline, thanks to Kushina’s reforms, Chunin are basically all already at the level of Special Jonin from the other timeline. But she doesn’t follow up, instead peering at Naruto suspiciously, definitely surprised by his speed and technique.

“… That was almost impressive, brat. Where’d you learn to move like that, huh?”

Flushing, more because of how quickly he failed to maintain his plan of acting like his ‘normal self’ for Satsuki, Naruto calms his rapidly beating heart and lets out an explosive breath. Rather than answer her probing question, he changes the subject back to what they were originally talking about.

“… I really did graduate from the Academy this morning, Satsuki. I took the test early so I could apprentice under my mother.”

Satsuki freezes in place, her eyes widening as she stares at him in disbelief for a moment. He’s surprised by the vulnerability that suddenly flashes across her face as she demands an explanation.

“… But I thought you’d rejected yours and my mother’s offers of apprenticeship! I thought you were intent on going through the system on your own merits. No special treatment!”

By that last sentence, Satsuki is positively barking the words out at him, clearly agitated. Naruto… honestly doesn’t quite understand why. Even his enhanced perceptiveness and the fact that he’s all around more worldly than he was before the merging of his two selves… wasn’t helping him out here. Why was Satsuki upset, exactly?

More importantly how should he answer her? In the end, Naruto decides to stick to the lie he’d already established with his mother. Satsuki was right about that much at least. Make your lies believable. And also make them coherent and sound if you have to tell them to multiple people. Of course, unlike Kushina, Satsuki doesn’t need to know ALL of the details.

“… I was working on something behind the scenes. Something I wanted to accomplish on my own without my mom’s help. And you know how she is… if she’d caught wind of it, I wouldn’t have been able to keep her from ‘helping’. But… I completed it. So there was no reason to not take her up on her offer anymore.”

Satsuki continues staring at him for a long moment at that, seemingly processing his words. Then, she whips around, leaving Naruto to blink owlishly as she mutters under her breath. Without skipping a beat, he uses a little bit of Nature Chakra to enhance his hearing, much too curious NOT to eavesdrop on what the older girl is saying.

“-amnit all! I was supposed to have a shot… I’m for sure going to pass the Jonin Exam next month. And then, once I was Jonin I would have been perfectly positioned to become Naruto’s Jonin Sensei! Tch… damn brat doesn’t even know he ruined my plans…”

Wait, seriously? Naruto almost opens his mouth to ask her if she’s for real right then and there, but thankfully he manages to click his teeth shut before the words can escape. Satsuki wanted… she wanted to be his Jonin Sensei? His memories of this timeline tell him that she was probably just looking for a chance to torment him more, but his additional perspective told him that probably wasn’t entirely the case.

Still, just how many kunoichi had been fighting over who got to train him? Naruto still didn’t know if Mikoto’s offer of apprenticeship was serious or not, but even still… what was next? He was going to find out that this timeline’s version of Tsunade Senju had wanted a piece of him as well or something?!

Before he can think on it much more, Satsuki suddenly whips around. Naruto rears back at the look in her eyes… as well as the fact that her Sharingan are activated and spinning as she stomps up to him.

“That pitiful early graduation test they do at the Academy isn’t worth shit. Who’s to say you’re really ready to be a Genin, huh?”

Naruto stiffens and then narrows his own eyes, glaring a little. Part of him knows that Satsuki is just lashing out, but part of him is also offended… and not just for himself either.

“The Fifth Hokage is the one who redid the entire Academy experience, Satsuki. Including the early graduation test. Are you saying her work is subpar?”

Satsuki at least has the grace to pause for a moment at that, blinking as she considers whether she really wants to go there or not. Finally though, she smirks slightly and shrugs her shoulders.

“So what if I am, Na-ru-to?”

Gritting his teeth, Naruto growls.

“Then as her apprentice… I challenge you to a duel of honor.”

He knows it’s what Satsuki wants, to be fair. That she’s goading him into it. But then, that’s half the reason he’s doing this in the first place. Because if he doesn’t, she’ll find ways to make his life a living hell. Everything he knows about both versions of Satsuki Uchiha from both timelines tells him as much. She’s not going to let this go. Not unless he finds a way to make her let it go.

Her smirk graduates into a toothy smile and Satsuki chuckles throatily.

“Accepted.”

-x-X-x-

They move to a private Uchiha Clan training ground in just a few moments, though Naruto finds himself processing and categorizing everything that just happened in those few moments, using the scant time to the best of his ability to just… wrap his head around all of this. He was still feeling some pretty rough vertigo, though it wasn’t quite as intense as before.

Even still… this Satsuki was very different from the other Satsuki. Dramatically so. Their relationship dynamic was a big part of it, but it was more than that. This Satsuki Uchiha reminded Naruto more of Anko Mitarashi than anything else. Especially in the way she’d somehow found a way to sashay her hips while leading Naruto to the training ground at breakneck speeds.

It was obvious she wasn’t actually trying to flirt with him… merely throw him off his game. And if he’d been just his old self, it would have even worked. But he wasn’t the Naruto she knew. And maybe trying to pretend he was… was a lost cause. As things stood, he couldn’t truly hide the changes, not from a Uchiha anyways.

As they both come to a stop in the middle of the training yard, Satsuki turns to face him once more, her eyes still blazing with active Sharingan.

“I’ll be nice, Naruto. I’ll let you start us off. Show me what you think makes you worthy of apprenticeship under the Fifth Hokage.”

That would have made him blow up at her before the merge. But now Naruto ignores the obvious provocation. Especially since he knows the true reason behind Satsuki’s hurtful words. She wants him for herself for some weird reason. She wants to be his teacher. He does feel a little bad about that. If not for his other self’s arrival in this timeline, if not for his two halves merging together and becoming one person, the original Naruto would likely have stuck to his path of graduating from the Academy on his own merits… and in doing so, delivered himself right into Satsuki’s hands.

She would have gotten everything she wanted if he hadn’t suddenly changed his mind. So he understood why she was pissed, because from her point of view, he’d flip-flopped on her and ruined everything without even realizing it.

At the same time though… he’s not going to let her toy with him. And he knows full well that when a Uchiha of Satsuki’s skill level ‘magnanimously’ decides to be ‘nice’ and give you the ‘first move’… they’re lying.

And so, even as Naruto begins to move forward, he’s circulating his chakra through his body and diverting his gaze to Satsuki’s feet instead of her eyes. Though, that second bit only helps against dojutsu-based genjutsu. It does nothing for genjutsu that don’t require eye contact. Which is where the first bit comes in.

He can feel a powerful genjutsu trying to cling and claw at his senses, trying to suppress reality and subvert what he sees, hears, smells, and tastes. It’s an all-encompassing genjutsu, the sort of thing that this Satsuki Uchiha is actually pretty good at. Naruto knows this, because she’s used such things on him before, to great effect.

There was even one time where she trapped him so thoroughly she was able to make him walk around the village with a big dopy grin on his face telling everyone that ‘Satsuki Uchiha is my favorite person in the whole wide world!’.

… Yeah, closest thing he had to a big sister… warts and all.

But he’s not the same person he was two days ago. He’s not the same Naruto anymore. With his chakra circulating through every part of his system, the genjutsu that Satsuki is trying to use on him never quite takes root. He darts in at relatively reasonable speeds, not wanting to overdue it, and actually manages to catch her off guard.

Though, only barely. His fist strikes out, but Satsuki, Sharingan Eyes widening in disbelief, is able to pull herself back so its only a glancing blow on the chin, rather than the haymaker he was trying for. Even with that much, Naruto could have ended the fight right then and there. That small moment of contact could have been turned into a finishing move if he’d infused the blow with Nature Chakra. But he very deliberately doesn’t do that, holding back his full strength as Satsuki immediately darts backwards, getting out of his range.

Her eyes narrow as Naruto watches her warily. Just because her genjutsu didn’t take, just because he got a glancing blow on her… doesn’t mean the spar is over. In fact, one thing remains true across Naruto’s recollections of both versions of Satsuki Uchiha. She HATED to lose. She hated even the perception of losing.

He tenses up, readying himself for her counter-offensive, but before she can move, there’s a sudden swirl of leaves and a commanding voice echoes through the training field.

“Enough.”

Mikoto Uchiha, the Matriarch of the Uchiha Clan, narrows her eyes as she looks between him and her youngest daughter. Beside her stands Hanabi Hyuga, the Hyuga Heiress peering at them both questioning as well. Naruto can sort of imagine what’s going through Hanabi’s head. ‘I leave you alone for five minutes…’

But to be fair, as much as Hanabi and Satsuki were both parts of his life, they were actually parts of different parts of his life. He saw Hanabi every day at the Academy, while Satsuki was someone he ran into a lot because their mothers were close friends. The two kunoichi had never had much reason for their paths to cross before now, so Hanabi wouldn’t know what sort of relationship Naruto had with Satsuki. Mikoto on the other hand…

“What is the meaning of this?”

Smirking, Satsuki just shrugs.

“Friendly spar, mother. What else?”

Mikoto’s eyes narrow even further and she frowns at the both of them.

“Don’t pull that with me, Satsuki. I know you all too well. Naruto?”

At being directly addressed, Naruto presses his lips tightly together for a moment. He’s half-tempted to lie to save Satsuki some face… but has Hanabi sealed the deal on her apprenticeship yet? Or has this interrupted ongoing negotiations? If he lied now and Mikoto knew it… then he might damage Hanabi’s chances.

“She questioned my mother’s initiatives involving the Academy.”

Satsuki’s smirk drops into a scowl as her mother looks over at her.

“Only as it pertains to Naruto, mother! I’m just not sure he’s ready to be graduating from the Academy so early… or worthy of apprenticing under the Hokage in the first place!”

Mikoto looks between them once more before scoffing.

“So then… not a friendly spar. But rather… a duel.”

Satsuki colors at that, but before she can say anything, the Uchiha Matriarch gestures sharply.

“Continue then.”

Surprise flickers through the both of them, but as they turn back to face one another, Naruto knows Satsuki isn’t about to let this opportunity pass her by. And now he has a decision to make. To stop holding back… or keep things reasonable and avoid being trounced entirely.