The Red Flash Chapter 51 (Old Friends, New Faces) (Patreon)

Kakashi

As he stood waiting in the middle of the training yard, the clock hit 7  AM, the first to arrive was his favorite redhead who looked surprised to see him so early despite feeling his chakra from his house.

Kakashi just waved at Naruto as they stood in silence waiting for the others.  Sasuke came after 30 minutes when the Emo noticed Kakashi standing in the middle of the training yard. He murmured something under his breath.

"Kakashi-sensei has come early, this must be the end of the world"

Sasuke took a place near a tree and started doing push-ups while Naruto was busy drawing something in a scroll, probably Fuinjutsu.

After ten minutes came Sakura, even before walking close, the scent of her perfume took the whole Training yard, Kakashi just stared emotionless at  Sakura while Naruto slightly shook his head in disappointment.

"Kakashi-sensei you have come early," Sakura said not hiding her surprise. The sensei said nothing instead he closed the book he was reading, this was the cue for both Naruto and Sasuke to walk close.

"Sakura and Naruto, look  behind you." Kakashi pointed behind them and they quickly spun around but there was nothing there. However, when they turned back to their sensei, Kakashi put them in a Genjutsu with his  Sharingan and they fell asleep.

Seeing this, Sasuke instinctively unleashed his own Sharingan but the young Uchiha was confused when Kakashi simply brought his headband down and covered his  Sharingan eye.

"Now that they are out the way, you and I need to have a talk," Kakashi informed his Uchiha student.

"Couldn't you have just  swung by my house afterward instead of knocking them out with a  Genjutsu?" Sasuke cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

"No, too much trouble. I  will be having a talk with them just like we are about to." Kakashi explained, "Now that we are alone, I need to tell you... to  give up on  your revenge."

That had been the last thing Sasuke had been expecting to come out of Kakashi's mouth.

"In this line of work, I  have seen just how bad it can get for ninjas like you... In the end,  those that tasted revenge were not satisfied... it ended in tragedy.  You'll only hurt and suffer more. Even if you get your  revenge, all you  will be left with is emptiness."

"Shut up!"  Sasuke snapped at him furiously, his Sharingan blazing, "What the hell do you know?! How could you possibly understand me?!"

"Easy just try to Calm down, Sasuke," Kakashi said coldly.

"What if I were to kill the one that you love the most?! Maybe then you would understand just how I feel!"

"That would work but  unfortunately for me, no such person exists." Kakashi smiled at him,  "They have all been killed already." He stated but didn't mention that his most precious people were a snake mistress who liked blood, the redhead behind him, and a guy who didn't shut up about youth.

Sasuke's Sharingan faded away as he stared at his sensei in shock.

"I know the pain that you feel, Sasuke. I have lived through a war and I have lost everyone  important to me." Kakashi informed him sadly, and he placed a hand on the young Uchiha's shoulder, "I've tasted revenge. I killed the man that  murdered my best friend and all I felt  was emptiness and sadness."

Sasuke shrugged off his arm and he shouted, "Then what am I supposed to do, huh?! Revenge is all  I have! I  need to avenge my clan! Itachi, my older brother,  slaughtered them all in cold blood! Including our parents! All to test  his powers and you are  saying for me to let that go!"

"Of course that is not  what I am  saying, Sasuke." Kakashi told him sympathetically, "All I am trying to say is that you don't live your life for the sole purpose of revenge.  Itachi must pay for his crimes, but don't throw away yours just to kill him. I know how hard this must be for you to hear, Sasuke  because I was  similar to you when I was young."

"What do you mean?!" Sasuke demanded.

"My mother died when I  was very young, I don't even remember her anymore and my father was an excellent shinobi and I admired him more than anyone. I wanted to be  just like  him." Kakashi revealed and Sasuke couldn't help but think back to when he felt that way about Itachi. "However during the war, he chose to abandon an important mission to save his comrades.  Unfortunately, the people of the Land of Fire, the shinobi from the village, and even the comrades that he had saved all hated him for it.  He fell into disgrace  and in his shame, he killed himself."

Sasuke's eyes widened.

"I was the one that found him and so I swore that I would always follow the rules, even if it meant abandoning my comrades to complete a  mission. For a time, I  hated my father for what he did. I was so bitter.  I eventually changed thanks to my teammate, Obito Uchiha, he taught me how important it was to protect my comrades. Unfortunately, he died in the war and he gave me his  Sharingan eye to help protect me and our friends. You are the same as me, Sasuke. You cling to your hatred and need for revenge  because  it is was the only way it kept you from falling into despair."

The feeling in Sasuke's legs left him and fell to the ground, backside first. His head was lowered and his fists were clenched tight enough to draw blood.

"You and I have had a  rough life, but there is still some light for us," Kakashi told him and the two of them glanced over at the sleeping forms of Naruto and Sakura.  "We still don't know each  other all that well, but we have both felt  the light reach our hearts  thanks to them"

Sasuke's eyes widened and he looked up at Kakashi in shock.

"Go home, Sasuke, and think over everything that I have said carefully. We will resume training tomorrow. If you want to talk about what happened here, that's up to you. I'll listen if you want but if you don't want to  talk about  it, then I won't press you." Kakashi told him. "I'm not your father or your brother and I am not an Uchiha. The path you choose can only be decided by you and you alone. All I am trying to give you is a  path that has a future, a path where you can get justice for your family's murder and you can find happiness. Don't let Itachi rule you,  Sasuke.  He has ruined your life enough, don't you think?"

Sasuke didn't reply. The young Uchiha simply stood up and he walked away with his hands in his pockets.

Kakashi sighed, that had been a lot more difficult for him than he had thought it would be. He didn't like talking to people about his past but Sasuke needed someone that could somehow understand him. He hoped that he had done the trick.

Next, he would talk to Sakura.

He released the Genjutsu that he placed on her with a quick 'kai' and she woke up groggily.

"What happened?" Sakura  muttered and with a quick glance around her  surroundings, she noticed  somebody important to her missing, "Where is  Sasuke?"

"He has gone home," Kakashi startled her, "he and I needed to have a chat and now it is time for you and me to have one."

"Why is Naruto asleep?" Sakura question him after she stood up.

"When you and I are done, then he and I will have a talk." Kakashi informed her, "Now I need to tell you something important."

"What is it?" Sakura said impatiently. She was anxious to go look for her Sasuke.

"You need to stop pursuing Sasuke," Kakashi told her bluntly.

Sakura's eyes widened, "What?! Why?!"

"Sakura both you and  Sasuke are only 13, almost 14 years old. Sasuke isn't the  type of  person that is interested in having a girlfriend." Kakashi explained,  "Right now he is sorely focused on avenging his clan and he is so full of hatred that the concept of romantic feelings and love is unknown to him. I have taken steps that will hopefully help curb his  hatred but  there is another factor that has to be taken into account."

"What is that Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura said depressed.

"Sasuke is extremely proud of his clan and he will obey the law and principles of his clan.  Usually, the head of the clan would marry a  fellow Uchiha that could  rival him in strength but since there are no  female Uchiha's left,  Sasuke will then look to someone powerful within  the village when he is  older." Kakashi explained to her, "The Uchiha clan respect strength,  and at the level, you are at right now Sakura,  you're not even on the  radar."

Sakura flinched at his comment and she looked away hurt. The feelings of inferiority that she had long since suppressed started to build up within her again.

"Sakura,  just why did  you become a ninja?" Kakashi asked her, "You need to remember that if you continue like this, is only a matter of time before you lose in a  mission and when that happens you will either fall or a friend of yours might die saving your life," Kakashi said coldly remembering Obito  Saving his life.

"I seriously doubt  it was to win the heart of Sasuke, you would be way too young for you to  have those feelings."

Sakura didn't respond but her eyes did widen at the question.

"You seem to have lost your way, Sakura. Take the day off and think about the reasons why you wanted to become a ninja. A ninja that doesn't know  the reasons why  they are training to be a ninja are the first to  perish." Kakashi told  her, "Tell me the answer tomorrow."

Kakashi watched his young pupil walk away with her dead down, she was obviously upset, he knew that. However, he hoped that she would understand that he is only trying to make her a better ninja. To be honest, he didn't have a clue how the Uchiha clan worked when it came to marriages and the duties of the head of the clan but he knew that lie would help Sakura inspire him to be a stronger ninja. At least, he hoped that it would.

"So that's what you told them" Naruto suddenly said as he stood behind him. Kakashi didn't look shocked that Naruto apparently could withstand a Sharingan genjutsu,  knowing how many seals he had drawn in his body, he half expected everything Naruto might ever need was sealed in a pocket somewhere.

"Naruto I wanted to talk  with you, you said you wanted to rebuild Uzushiogakure, that means  leading your own people, the only thing I'm asking is, do you know the  risk and Why?" Kakashi asked carefully knowing Naruto didn't like that much to talk about it.

Naruto simply stood in his place before putting his hands behind his head.

"My father sealed Kyuubi inside me because he believed that the people of this village were different, that they would see me as a hero, as a hero who's keeping  Kyuubi inside. We both know how that went, but tell me Kakashi, I know why they avoided me, if I would have been in their place, perhaps I  would be wary, but they stepped on me, starved me, beat me, sold me overpriced everything, called me a demon, called my mother a whore for giving birth to me. They told me my parents abandoned me. Every single one that beat me or tried to partly did it because of their hatred, but mostly they did it because they could, because of a sick desire to feel themselves powerful. Now why would I want to raise my children amongst these people, my father was the Hokage and my mother was an Uzumaki  Princess and a hero of Konoha that is still mentioned and they hated me all the Same. Me a KID"

Kakashi stood silent at his words, remembering it very well, he saw Naruto's eyes had turned red as he was talking.

Kakashi couldn't help but spit on the people that did this to Naruto, even if Naruto was raised from the very beginning by a loving family, people would glare and call him names whenever he left the house, their hatred blinded them to the fact that Naruto was only a kid who needed love.

"Very well, tomorrow Same time here" Kakashi replied and left the training yard.

Kakashi appeared in front of the memorial stone, he couldn't help but think of Minato-sensei and Kushina-san. Kneeling in front of the stone, he put his hand on the grass.

"Minato-sensei what should I do?"

Naruto

He along with Sasuke and  Sakura were making their way towards the Academy. Yesterday Kakashi told them about the Chunin Exams and that he had registered them, Naruto didn't care much but this could be a good opportunity to challenge himself.

Since yesterday both  Sasuke and Sakura have been extra quiet, usually, Sakura couldn't keep her mouth shut but right now she was as silent as a grave, and Naruto was really welcoming this change, while Sasuke was always quiet, this was too quiet even for him.

The young Uzumaki of course knew the reason and hoped that they would listen, Sakura was a  failure so far in every sense of the word, while Sasuke, Naruto hoped he would give up in his quest to kill Itachi Uchiha.

They walked down a  hallway, and came to a line of students, standing outside of room 301,  which was strange, because Naruto could have sworn,  they only walked up a single flight of stairs.

In front of the door stood two Chunin, and they seemed to be barring the way, keeping the other Genin from entering the room. Naruto looked closely at the sign then, the Chunin and just smirked, clever, a genjutsu over the sign to discourage the truly gullible, and the bullies are also a nice touch,  most people would be fooled by their transformation, but what is he doing here, out of the throng of students,  three stood out to Naruto the most, they stood out because, he and  Sasuke knew one of them, and Sakura knew two of them.

He was Hyuga Neji,  Hinata's cousin and a member of the Hyuga Branch Family. Naruto knew him because Hinata had mentioned him a few times during the academy. Neji had fair skin and long, black hair, tied back in a loose ponytail, tied a  few inches above the end. He wore a black forehead protector, a   beige-colored shirt, a dull blue shirt, and mesh armor beneath that,   dark brown shorts, blue shinobi sandals, and wrapped bandages around his right arm, chest, and right leg.

Considered a  prodigy,  he was his class's Rookie of the Year, he was a hard-bound traditionalist, and openly scorns Hinata for branching out and modifying the Hyuga taijutsu style. In his mind the Hyuga are Elite, and only   Elite ninja can defeat them, and believes his eyes, will allow him to defeat any opponent. Anyone else is Fated to lose against them, no matter how hard they worked.

What were they playing at, Naruto wondered, with Neji, they should have seen right through the illusion?

The other two Genin,  standing with him, a Shinobi with shiny black hair in a  bowl-cut style,  round eyes with prominent lower eyelashes, and very thick eyebrows,  wearing a green jumpsuit, bandages around his forearms up to his fingers, orange leg-warmers, and a red forehead protector,  worn as a  belt. A Kunoichi, with black hair and grey eyes, her hair in two  Chinese-style buns on her head with short fringe-bangs framing her face,  she wears a blue-sleeveless qipao-style blouse, with red sleeve trimmings and yellow fastening buttons and dark green pants, under the isha-nin medical apron which made her a medic, her forehead protector and sandals are both blue. A pouch on her thigh, with two green and black bands, are sewn on in decoration, seemed to be housing a set of scrolls. They must be his teammates, "who are they," Naruto wondered?

The shinobi was attempting to gain entry but was unceremoniously knocked back on his butt, two bruises decorated his face. Tenten knelt to help him up and looked sternly at the two Chunin shinobi. One of them scoffed, "you're  taking  the Chunin exams, but you can't even get past us?"

"Why don't you just give up now," the other one asked condescendingly, "before you get hurt?"

"Please,  let us through, we're supposed to go in there," Tenten pleaded, before attempting to walk past them as well, only to be met with the same fate as her teammate! A punch to the face.

"Oh, that's harsh," said a voice nobody knew!

"Did you say 'harsh,'"  one of them said, "don't kid yourself, we're being nice by comparison?  The exams are gonna make this, look like a picnic,"  he informed them!

"Some of you won't survive the exams," the other one told them, "other's will be wrecked for life, or go crazy. It's  always life and death for Chunin."

"You think being Chunin is a  joke," the first one asked? "We're qualified to lead missions, the lives of your squad members are in your hands, so you better be able to take the heat! Delicate little girls don't belong here," he finished.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, when he saw the way he talked to Ashara and Fuu, he saw the third teammate immediately standing up.

"You should watch your tongue, I don't like people who talk like that to my teammates," the genin said.

"I agree" Naruto suddenly said as he stood in front of them with a smirk, this gained the attention of everyone since almost no one had seen him move, except a  few.

He's Fast, Neji and the third teammate of Fuu's team thought.

"You must be the Senju,  Naruto Uzumaki-Senju," One of them said causing Naruto to gain even more attention. This made Neji narrow his eyes, even more, the boy with green clothes to look at him interested while Tenten looked at him in  Awe.

Naruto said nothing but just glanced at Asha and Fuu who smiled at him.

"Just drop the Genjutsu,  this is just the second floor," Sasuke said from behind him. Naruto understood the true meaning of the genjutsu.

"Oh, so you figured it out," one of them said before he rushed towards Sasuke, only for both of them to be blocked by the weird-looking boy with the green jumpsuit.

He used his legs to block me! Sasuke thought surprised and feeling the strength behind his feet.

"I thought we weren't supposed to gain attention Lee," Tenten said walking over to them, followed by Neji.

"I'm sorry," Lee said moving his feet away before turning to Naruto.

"I want to Fight You"

Ghost

He could hear multiple heartbeats from where he stood, almost all of them were the same,  without emotions, but he could hear the heartbeat of a few of them that still held emotions inside them.

The man didn't know why that was, perhaps Danzo could never truly disappear someone's emotions,  is it hard but everyone has their breaking point, even the ones without emotions.

His feet stood against the ceiling, his head moved towards the sound of the door opening, he recognized Danzo's heartbeat immediately, but he felt something different, his heartbeat was faster than usual, his breath was quickened and his moving pace was faster, the air around his muscles was harsher.

The air around everyone reacts to someone's moving, even a small moving such as the muscles of a  finger moving changed the air around, he could detect these changes and from the heartbeat, he could tell Danzo was angry.

He heard him sit in his usual chair and his neck moved towards the multiple heartbeats that had kneeled in front of him.

"Report Weapon 9" The voice echoed throughout the place.

"Danzo-sama the team has failed to capture the Uzumaki Girl" the emotionless voice of the man in front of Danzo was heard.

His muscles around his cane tightened causing a sound of cracking to reach his ears.

His teeth were hitting each other, and the muscles around his forehead and eyes moved.

"For now do nothing, the exam will start soon. I want all three Uzumaki and my new weapon captured. Failing is not possible" Danzo spoke with a dangerous tone as his heartbeat increased to 140 per minute.

Unknown to Danzo, few of his emotionless weapons were feeling... fear. But Ghost could tell from their heartbeat, someone might try to hide their feelings behind a mask but they could never stop their heartbeat from telling him the truth.

"Leave" Danzo spoke with a firm tone commanding them.

As he walked away, Ghost could feel the air moving strangely around his right arm. He wondered what that was but decided to deal with what he came here for.

An ANBU ROOT reached his room ready to change his clothes for the Chunin Exams, as he started preparing his bag, his hands moved to the secret pocket in his bag,  pulling out a little book, he still didn't know why he still kept this book, in front of the cover it was his drawn, his hand stretched out for someone to grab it but that part was empty. No one was Drawn.

Unknown to him, a man stood hanging in the ceiling. He did a hand sign, a purple seal on his palm stretched and covered his whole hand in purple, at the tip of his fingertips.

He did a hand sign.  "Locked In" he whispered and jumped from the ceiling behind the ROOT  ANBU who had his head downwards. Without wasting another moment, he raised his right hand and his fingertips started shining.

With a single move, he stood in front of the ROOT and put two of his fingertips at his forehead.

"Seal" caused the heartbeat of the ROOT to slow down immediately, slower and slower, his body fell to the floor but the man stopped his body before hitting the floor. His heartbeat had disappeared and the new seal on his forehead started doing his job.

"Five Down, Four to Go"

Fun Question: How come Kurama didn't try to manipulate Naruto during the first 12 years of his life, he could have easily done that since Naruto had no one?