A Rose By Any Other Name (A Sasuke Uchiha Story)

Chapter 13.

For a moment, Sasuke couldn’t do anything.

Although she had been giving him little bits of advice recently, he had assumed she would be leaving him to his own devices when it came down to reaching the master. After all, she had stated that he ‘wasn’t worthy’ of being trained by him when they had first met; so why should she show him the way to the dojo? True, they weren’t as hostile to each other as they had been before, but that didn’t mean she was about to help him in every way possible and make everything easy for him. Yet here he was, standing at the beginning of the path that would lead him to Tatsujin no Kakusareta, having had her guide him to it, without any word as to what was going on from her. It wasn’t as if he had done her a favour; saved her life, or anything—then he could understand her doing this to repay him. But instead she had just approached him and told him to follow. So he couldn’t help but be a little suspicious. Taking a step forward, eyes narrowed at all that was going on, Sasuke said warily,

“That’s it? You just suddenly show me the way? There’s no…audition? No test of any kind to prove something?”

Pausing, she shrugged slightly, contemplating his words, but glancing back up at him, she replied casually,

“I guess…you could say the past few days have been your test. To…understand your character. It’s been enough, though—so I’m showing you the path. Now hand me your weapons, already.”

Of all the tests Sasuke had considered while wandering around the forest, that hadn’t exactly been one he’d thought of. He’d thought it would require him doing the journey by himself; by defeating an opponent or completing some kind of mission. He’d never imagined that it would be more about testing him as a person, rather than what he could do with his ninja abilities. It would explain why she had kept an eye on him, though—at least that way information could be gathered, and she could approach him in a way the master couldn’t; she could talk to him and elicit a response which could be analysed. But clearly whatever had been assumed about him had been enough to allow the training to continue—he’d passed the test.

His gaze flicking down to the floor for a moment, Sasuke couldn’t help but think things through. All that had happened recently was pointing to something higher—something bigger—than just access to power. That there was more to fighting and everything about being a ninja than he had considered before. Maybe by getting him to understand more about the forest, he would be able to understand more about this power. Clearly it had to be special if so many people wanted it, and therefore it could be dangerous. If he let himself see the bigger picture, then maybe he would learn so much more. He could learn about the secrets of the forest itself.

With that thought, Sasuke snapped back to the present, removing all his weapons and handing them slowly over to her. Once he was finished, feeling strangely incomplete without them there, he abruptly realised that he had given everything to her—but considering there wasn’t much he knew about her, Sasuke hadn’t a clue what she was going to do with his weapons now. How did he know he could trust her with them? But as if she was reading his thoughts, she raised an eyebrow and said mockingly,

“I’ll take care of them, don’t worry. They’ll be put in a safe place until you’re allowed to have them back. Now put this on.”

Holding out the necklace she had been carrying, Sasuke took it from her slowly, running his fingers over the gem to see it was black, but fired up with colours when the light hit it just right. Smirking at the sight, he held it for a moment longer, before slipping it gently over his neck and letting it hang over his chest. Once he did so, he glanced around and back to her, unsure what to do now, eventually questioning,

“And? What is the point of this? Is it some sort of visitor pass, so people know I’m being trained?”

Rolling her eyes at him again, she hid another sigh, shaking her head instead. Touching the gem with her finger, it glowed with those colours again, only fading when she removed her finger and explained,

“No. It’s to take you back to the beginning. When you first started training to be a ninja, you didn’t go straight into the jutsus. You began with the physical side—using kunai, shuriken, and building up taijutsu. In the same way, the cycle will repeat itself now. That gem means that you can’t use chakra while wearing it—for now, the training you go through will be with your body only. So get going—I’ve got stuff to do in the meantime, and I’ll be seeing you soon, anyway.”

Dismissing him with a wave of her hand, she then turned and began to disappear into the trees, Sasuke watching as she did so, only moving his gaze when she was gone completely. Running the gem across his fingertips again, he contemplated what she had just said, before putting his hands together in some handsigns in order to test out her theory. The moment he completed them, he felt his chakra come together inside his body, ready to be channeled through the handsigns—and he felt it leave his body. The only difference was…nothing happened. He had decided to do a simple transformation jutsu, but there had been no change. He felt as if he had just used up some chakra, but there had been no outward effects. Looking down at the gem, he blinked in surprise to find it was glowing even brighter than before. Somehow it managed to absorb the chakra—and clearly he wasn’t about to be using jutsu any time soon.

Sighing, unsure if he was okay with that or not, Sasuke brushed it off and started forward, walking across the water and into the beginning of the tunnel. The clearing disappeared behind him slowly, a slight breeze rushing past him as he fully entered and walked on, picking his way past rocks as he went. As the tunnel darkened until Sasuke could no longer see anything, he scowled and pushed onwards, wondering whether going along with her words had been a good idea. He didn’t exactly trust her—he hadn’t known her long enough for that, and they’d started off enemies! For all he knew she was just playing with him. But as much as he wanted to continue that thought, a part of him couldn’t help but understand that she wouldn’t do that. She was different, and Sasuke could tell that she wasn’t petty or spiteful, and that she was being honest when she did this.

A thought that was backed up as he abruptly saw a flicker of light, and looking round, Sasuke saw that same glimmer he had seen from the clearing. The end of the tunnel was there—he just had to keep looking for it. Picking up his pace now, he continued forward, the light getting bigger and brighter the more he walked, until as he looked round he was able to see the shapes of the rocks around him. Smirking triumphantly at that, it was only a few minutes longer before Sasuke finally reached the end of the tunnel, the floor changing from rock to earth. Shielding his eyes from the onslaught of light for the moment, he soon recovered and looked around. He was higher up, with a magnificent view over the forest, allowing Sasuke to see just how dense the forest was—and just how large. Scanning the horizon, Sasuke then turned to the path in front of him; a small, earth track that wound its way through the trees and up one of the nearby hills—where Sasuke could just about see a building in the gaps. Smirking happily, he pushed on, the dojo now in his sights.

He just hadn’t been expecting a kick to the chest a second later.