Learning Chakra Control and meeting a Creep
Sasuke sighed after he ate to dinner and then decided to contemplate on what he needed to do.
1. write a seal
2. figure out water walking
3. figure out how to hide ( and maybe defend himself a bit)
4. figure out how to store chakra in himself without dying...and how to use that without dying.
5. learn genjutsu to be calm
Sasuke figured that for water walking and hiding he needed to learn more about chakra control.
For chakra storing and the seal he obviously needed to work on fuinjutsu.
Luckily, one of the books had a basic how-to-seal-a-tailed-beast seal on it...maybe he could adapt that?
He thought about that all the while when he went to bed.
On the next day, Sasuke woke up, once again with his sleep interrupted with nightmares- though his nightmares were mostly memories, memories of that day) and decided to first learn a calming genjutsu.
For once it might help him sleep ( which would help him think because thinking was hard but even harder with little sleep and he always took ages to fall asleep and sometimes didn't sleep at all) and looked for a beginner's guide to genjutsu in order to try and start that part of his work at lunch.
On the way to school Sasuke bought himself a bento from a convenience store ( the academy was on the other side of the city so he encountered quite a few on his way) and hnned and nodded when the shop owner chatted with him.
Thankfully, they let him go quickly.
At school, he had to live through another wave of curiosity or hidden concern by his classmates and tried to ignore them all.
Including the Fangirls- why couldn't they give him space even after such a horrific event- and naruto- who, from the beginning of school hadn't liked him and now still didn't like him but sometimes gave him pitiful looks.
He ignored them all and read his scroll at lunch. Then, they had weapon-training and spars.
When it was his turn to throw kunai, he still hit the target but not as good as normally and when he had to spar against Kiba, it took him a bit longer than normal to defeat him.
Naruto, the loudmouth idiot made a comment that " The perfect Sasuke-teme ( or something like that Sasuke mostly turned annoying people out and Naruto was a peak annoying person) and was then bombarded by comments by some girls who liked Sasukes looks or pretended to do so for some reason.
Normally fangirls were annoying but now and then, Sasuke aknowledged, they were useful.
He ignored the scene and decided that he should train a bit more every day. Not that much, mind you, his focus and goal in life was time travel but it wouldn't do to loose his skills ( they might be good to defend themselves and the village might annoying him if his performance declined too much.
When home, Sasuke decided to try to do the genjustu he had learned at lunch and failed.
Genjutsu relied on chakra control...as did many other things essential to his plan... so Sasuke just decided to resign himself to do the Leaf exercise more.
When he was good with that he could work on others- and eventually water walking too!
So, as he read about different chakra exercises and genjutsus ( and used his sharingan if he deemed something important) he balanced two leafs on his skin.
The next day, at school hidden under his clothes, he balanced three. It actually worked until he had to spar.
His opponent, Shikamaru, gave him an odd look when a leaf fell from his shirt in the middle of the fight ( that was a nice distraction in which Sasuke defeated him though).
His teacher, Iruka-sensei praised him for " showing initiative" and also told him he shouldn't overwork himself to which Sasuke nodded.
The next day, Sasuke had four leaves on his skin for the entire day and resumed reading about genjutsu ( and copying some).
When two weeks later Sasuke could resemble a bush at home when he wanted( he tried balancing leaves everywhere, over his clothes and it mostly worked, Sasuke decided to move on to tree walking (or, in his case, wall-walking). Sasuke didn't want his watchers to see his training yet ( besides his usual kunai and shuriken throws which he now resumed every day) in case they would stop him so he covered a room in an uchiha-house that was empty before the Massacre- with futons ( to try not to hurt himself too badly if he fell) and started.
It took him a few days until he was secure with wall-waling and only then did he use it to jump from house to house and tree to tree in the uchiha compound.
His new skill also proved useful when Iruka asked him to go outside for lunch- because he could simply walk up to the roof of the academy and eat his bento and read his scroll in peace.
He ignored his classmates comments about how he did that or when he learned that in class afterwards.
In the afternoon, Sasuke tried water-walking on the Naka-river and then promptly decided to relocate to the Lake where he learned to use the Fireball. It was just super hard- as the scroll warned him- to do so otherwise and taking tiny steps towards his goal had worked so far, he was already pathetic, he knew that, so doing so was okay.
He still had a scowl on himself when his foot sank at first and he head to try quite a few times until he stood steadily on the lake. And then moving made it harder and he almost sunk into the water a couple of times.
But, a few days later, he had a small smile on his face when he just managed to lie on the lake with the help of chakra and managed to finish a whole scroll on genjutsu while doing so.
---
It was a normal day at the academy- which meant sasuke had leaves under his shirt and did his homework in class while mostly ignoring everyone and just answering if his sensei asked him a question- which should have been followed by a normal day at home- Sasuke wanted to try to attempt genjutsu again today- but as soon as he was a few meters away from the academy, an old man full of bandages with an eye covered approached him.
The man instantly gave Sasuke the creeps though he didn't knew why and he had to fight the urge to immedeatly run away ( after all, according to " A ninjas guide to survival, sometimes other ninja would instantly give chase if their target escaped and that could turn bloody, even if the intentions beforehand weren't necessarily painful. When in doubt about a situation, the book had advised, a ninja should observe first and, if threatened above his skill try to escape when the enemy was distracted.)
Maybe Sasuke was paranoid because this man wasn't his enemy officially- but the Hokage had knowingly ignored ancient rituals that had been decided as clan rights so obviously he didn't care about Sasuke or the Uchiha or their clan rights or was an utter idiot- but he felt very uncomfortable.
" Hello young Uchiha. I am Danzo, an esteemed member of the Elder council and I would like to talk to you if you have a minute as you ignored our prior invitation."
Sasuke nodded. " Uchiha Sasuke, acting Uchiha clan head. I wasn't aware that there was a joint Clan-and Elder council."
He tried to sound apologetic and as if he wasn't super afraid.
The elder inclined his head. " The invitation was for the elder council...given the situation and that you are so young we wanted to give you some advise. After all, managing and having such a large property for just one person is...unwise."
Sasuke shook his head. " Thank you, but you are mistaken. The property is for all Uchiha who lived and all who shall come...it isn't only for me and remain as it is. My clan already had to move once after the tragedy a few years ago, I do not wish to change that, that woukd disrespect my clan. Why do you not talk about such things with Senju Tsunade? As for as I know she left Konoha, is a clan as one and has much land that is unoccupied. If you ask and Konoha is in need of land, she might be persuaded to rent some of it...given her current occupations."
After that, the man quickly excused himself.
" I see. You can always talk to me if you change your mind...or need help."
Sasuke nodded, said thank you and gave a slight bow after excusing himself.
He felt slightly bad for using another person to get out of this situation...but Senju Tsunade was far from the village, an adult, a ninja legend and definetly safer from the creep than himself.
As soon as he was home he tried the genjutsu and after about three hours managed to get it to work. He felt better than he had in ages.
After that he tried another one, one designed to confuse others senses ( which would be good to hide) and managed to get that to work before he eventually used the calming genjutsu to fall asleep.
His sleep was undisputed, for once and it felt like a blessing.