"I already told you, I thought it was some kind of test, and since I never met the guy again, I had assumed I failed." I answered.
"And how did you manage to enter a pub?" He asked, still suspicious.
I grinned. Time to sell my bullshit.
...
I brought my right hand forward and performed a half ram seal, I carefully molded my chakra into the necessary way to create a bunshin and stored it away in a tenketsu along my spine, before dedicating myself to the henge.
When it was ready, I folded it into a tenketsu in the lower half of my back. Finally, I shaped my chakra into a rough camouflage technique. When I was ready I wrapped myself in the third technique, and I unleashed the first technique merging it with the second.
Only I didn't want a bunshin, so I simply overlapped the new, henged bunshin to my body, carefully making sure that my expression would be matched by the face that stood twenty centimeters above me, and that I kept my actual arms folded so that my hands stood in the same position of the imaginary ones. And I snapped my fingers.
Kakashi's lone eye widened. Why?
Because a standard bunshin does cast a shadow, but its movements are limited to be the exact copy of the original one. (Which is why it's easy to distinguish one from the original. The eyes of the original are the only ones actually in line with the target.) And the bushin' steps do not make a sound when they hit the ground.
A henge on the other way overlaps a different image on your own body, and if the user was skillful enough, it could even be used to change his voice.
However, the sound originated from the real body, the one hidden underneath the henge, so it was easy enough to spot a henge if one was observant enough. And shinobi, the ones that liked to stay alive, tended to be of the observant kind.
"I am a subterfuge specialist. Infiltration is a good skill to have." The words left my mouth, that moved in perfect synch with the henge, but from an external point of view, or hearing as it is the case, the point of origin of the sound should have been lower.
I walked a slow circle around Kakashi. The adult I was impersonating was the one who rented me my room the day before, so it was fresh in my memory.
I let the older shinobi observe my work for a while longer, making sure that the light flapping of my actual clothes left my not-real ones from the opportune places, and careful in placing my feet down heel first, since their point was a tiny bit longer than my actual ones.
"And you have been able to do this since your first day as a genin?" The scarecrow ninja asked me. I could tell that he was suitably impressed.
"Oh, no, at the time I still needed hand seals." I cheekily answered.
"Do you have any other secrets?" He asked tilting his head.
I dispelled my technique "Loads." And before he could kill me, I hastily added: "But none that harms Konoha. I just prefer my skills to be shown on a need to know basis."
His presence then pressed on me, his posture hadn't changed, his eye was half-lidded, and there wasn't killing intent in the air, If not for my eyes seeing him, I would have thought to be alone, only underwater.
I stilled the flow of my chakra, before letting it explode out of my tenketsus in an attempt to destroy the genjutsu. I succeded.
The air turned back to normal, and Kakashi's eye smiled at me. Uh, maybe I'll not be killed after all.
"I believe you." He told me. "When you say that you do not wish harm to Konoha."
Shit.
"We only need to check with the Yamanaka for the rest of your story." He added.
"No." I refuse. No. "I won't allow anyone to make a mess in my head."
Kakashi blinked, visibly surprised by my strong reaction.
"I dislike killing. But I do it for the village. I dislike having to fight. But I do it for the village. I like being alive. But I put it at risk for the village. My life belongs to the Hokage, I accept it. I'll follow his orders, but my thoughts are mine."
I hissed the last part. "I love Guy sensei and my teammates, I would never harm Konoha."
"You are a strange kid." He sighed. "It would only be to..."
"If I feel someone in my head I'll kill myself." I cut him. Cutting off an official your superior was stupid under every single aspect, but I needed to stress it.
"I am my mind, if someone but me is in it I'd rather die. How would I know after that if my thoughts are still mine? If I am still me?" And I am sincerely scared about it. I know it's possible since Shishui has the Kotoamatsukami... I wonder if Danzō has one of his eyes or not...
Kakashi looked at me strangely. Then shrugged, as to say that he heard worst fears, and dug out his trademark orange covered book.
So all my very cool and reasonable lies were just... useless? How the fuck do shinobi lie to each other? My heartbeat was steady... my voice didn't falter...
"So I am not going to be arrested? Just because you say that I am not a threat?" I asked after a while. I was expecting... more intimidation.
"There has never been a single account of you going against orders, or do anything to damage Konoha. Your sensei words hold weight. As he is an extraordinary judge of character." He answered without raising his gaze from his book.
Taking it as the suggestion it was, I promised myself that I would find my sensei to take him.
...
That evening, while the sun was setting, I spotted my sensei on the top of the Shodai's stone head. Since it was unusual for him, I already knew that he was waiting for me.
I landed near him. "Sensei," I spoke quietly.
"Daiki-kun." He quietly greeted me, and that, more than anything made clear that he was mad. No youthfulness in the air tonight. I bowed at the waist and said.
"I'm sorry sensei."
It was the truth. Team 10 was the only people I cared about in that world, even if I would always remember Chihiro's lessons and Itachi's stories with fondness.
I hadn't thought about what to say to him, more busy trying to learn the Kage Bunshin under the teachings of Kakashi. Which had been: don't keep a clone for more than thirty minutes, or three clones for more than ten minutes.
It turns out that the brain isn't equipped to deal with more information than the ones he naturally receives. So overdoing it would turn my brain into mush. Not that I was able to summon more than two clones at the same time, their chakra cost was prohibitive.
The good part was that once a clone dispelled, along with its memories came back all the chakra that it-he had still left, so I had been able to try the technique several times. The bad part was that the Copy ninja was a lousy teacher. His first demonstration of the jutsu had also been the last. No explanation whatsoever. Son of a bitch.
After a couple of minutes of random thoughts on my part, that I spent bowed, Guy sighed.
"Clouds come from time to time,
and bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the moon."
I kept bowing, and since my face was hidden, I didn't bother to hide my surprised expression. That was some kind of haiku wasn't it. After a couple of minutes, he uncharacteristically sighed another time.
"As shinobi, we often deal with secrets, Daiki-kun. Secrets we steal, ones we craft to trick the enemy, secrets we build to protect ourselves, others that we cling to. Like my love for poetry, for example."
I saw his feet turn in my direction. "Some secrets do not exist for the benefit of anyone but our sanity, and often have no logical reason to be secrets at all. When the risk to be exposed, it's not uncommon to react... stupidly."
I flinched. Not because I hated being called stupid, but because it was Guy sensei who was... scolding/berating me. I wasn't used to it.
"Stupidity however, is something only experience can help with." He went on. "Trying to manipulate your own Kage, for no other reason than feeling proud of your skill to do so is utter foolishness." His deep voice almost growled the last word.
"If you weren't my student, you would have made yourself a dangerous enemy where you could have found an ally. Only because you are proud of your secrets. Shinobis know the value of secrets.
Sandaime-sama knows more about being a shinobi than anyone else alive and instead of asking for guidance, you try to lead him by the nose? How dare you."
He grabbed my shoulder and righted me. He looked me in the eyes for what I could tell was a long time. His hand wasn't exactly giving me an option either.
For the third time that evening, he sighed. "In many ways, you are a wonderful student. Do you remember what you told us when Shin joked about your feeling unwell after every encounter during which you have taken a life?"
I shook my head. Whatever I said to him after a situation during which I had killed was foggy at best.
"You told him that you preferred to feel sick every time you kill than forget what is exactly that you are taking away from the world."
He grabbed my other shoulder and shook me lightly, forcing me to look in his dark eyes. "That is a student that I am proud to call mine. Whoever was the one in the Hokage's office... I'd wish I had nothing to do with him.
You have this ambivalence in you, that is, quite frankly, worrying."
He left my shoulders and turned back, looking over the village.
"I warned you once to not lie to your teammates, do you remember? On your very first day. This is the second warning. There won't be a third."
Once he said that he jumped off the stone head and vanished from my senses.
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