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"I am your brother."After Naruto left, Akio muttered softly to himself, then shook his head and smiled before continuing to eat his ramen.
"One day, you two will definitely recognize each other," said Teuchi, leaning on the counter and speaking gently.
"Yeah, I believe that too. The sooner the better."Akio nodded, finished off his ramen, wiped his mouth, and left some money on the counter.
"I'm heading out, Uncle."
"Alright." Teuchi nodded and put away the money from the table.
Akio headed home, planning to go to the Academy the next day, where they'd be assigning the team leaders.
"Eh, guess I'll work on some ninjutsu for now."He opened a scroll containing B-rank techniques—scrolls personally written for him by Kakashi.
"Wind Style: Pressure Harm!" Akio rapidly formed hand signs and shot out a high-pressure ball of wind from his mouth. It slammed into a large tree, blasting a huge hole straight through it, and moments later the tree collapsed.
"B-rank for a reason, huh."He chuckled, watching the tree fall.
"Now that I think about it, Wind Style counters Lightning Style... But if I end up mastering both wind and lightning jutsu, won't my own techniques just cancel each other out?" Akio frowned and thought hard. "If I can't use Lightning Style when I'm using Wind Style, how is the Yin Soro clan supposed to make the most of both elements?"
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he rested his chin in one hand. Wind Style... Lightning Style... As he thought, swirling balls of wind and lightning started forming in each hand.
Suddenly, a realization struck him. He used Chidori with his left hand, Rasengan with his right. When the two jutsu collided—bam—they canceled each other out.
"Back in the final fight between Naruto and Sasuke, they each used Rasengan and Chidori. Both were insanely powerful at that point, and when the attacks clashed, they each lost an arm."
"Logically, Wind should beat Lightning. Naruto's Rasengan should've overpowered Chidori, and he shouldn't have been hurt. But they both lost an arm."
"When ninjutsu reaches a certain level, it can completely ignore elemental matchups. If I can fully master Wind and Lightning, and even fuse them together... I could create some next-level power." Akio smiled at the thought.
"Chidori is an A-rank jutsu. An even stronger version is Raikiri—that's S-rank. Rasengan's also A-rank, and its advanced form, the Rasenshuriken, is S-rank too. I can ask Kakashi about Raikiri, but Rasenshuriken... I'll have to figure that out myself."He formed another Rasengan in his palm, and tried to inject Wind-style chakra into it.
"Ugh!"The Rasengan in his hand grew larger, and four faint wind blades started to form around it. But at the same time, a jolt of pain shot through his wrist, and he quickly dispelled the jutsu.
"Right! Damn, I almost forgot. The Rasenshuriken causes massive internal damage to the user. Tsunade even classified it as forbidden jutsu. Naruto only got the hang of it after learning Sage Mode."Akio clutched his wrist—it really hurt.
"Guess there's no rushing with S-rank techniques. Even with a body attuned to both Wind and Lightning, I can't push it like this."He let out a sigh.
What he lacked most right now was real combat experience—and he lacked it bad.Even though he knew some pretty powerful jutsu, without actual fighting experience, a real ninja could probably wipe him out in seconds.
"Man... I hope I can get some combat missions soon. Build up my battle skills, get used to killing if I have to. That way I can actually help Naruto in the future."He looked up at the sky, then went back inside and grabbed a few bottles of sake, sitting down along the porch.
"Sorry, Mom... I know you said Naruto and I couldn't drink until we turned twenty."Akio smiled, poured himself a cup, and knocked it back.
He just sat there alone as night fell.Sure, people always said Naruto had a lonely life... but Akio wasn't any better.Naruto was hated and avoided because of the Nine-Tails. Akio, on the other hand, was kept at a distance because he was the Fourth Hokage's orphaned son.Neither of them had any real friends.
Even in class, they were just... classmates to everyone else. Nobody really approached them.
"I don't want to be a ninja who scares the crap out of everyone," Akio said to the moon. "I just wanna live a simple life, protect myself, find a wife, have a kid... and spend my life happy."
Whoosh—
Four black shadows darted over his rooftop and landed on the courtyard wall in front of him. They all wore masks—and had intense killing intent radiating from them.
"Holy shit."Akio jumped, dropping his sake cup to the ground. These four... weren't they the same masked assassins who came after him all those years ago?
"Here to finish the job?"He stood up from the porch. It had been years—if they wanted to kill him, they'd have done it long ago. Why show up now?
Akio started forming hand signs in secret, ready to use the Flying Thunder God to escape. He was definitely no match for these four.
But to his shock, they suddenly vanished from the wall—and appeared right in front of him, dropping to one knee.
"Lord Akio," one of them said.
"Huh?!"Akio instinctively took a step back, totally caught off guard. What the hell? Weren't they here to kill him?
"Twelve years ago, my lord... we were put under a genjutsu," said one of the masked men. "And... we slaughtered our entire clan."
"We almost killed you too. Our crimes are unforgivable," said another.
"Wait... hold up. You guys are... from the Yin Soro clan?"Akio frowned, trying to piece it all together.
"We four are the Four Guardians of your clan," one of them said. "Our ancestors protected the Yin Soro bloodline for generations. But that night... a masked man appeared. We couldn't even fight back—he put us under a genjutsu in an instant."
"We ended up killing everyone in the clan with our own hands. We only just broke free of the illusion recently. Once we tracked down news about you, we rushed here right away. We'll accept any punishment you see fit."
They stayed kneeling, heads low, not daring to look up at him.
"How did you even know I was in Konoha?" Akio asked.
"Even under genjutsu, our memories remained. The last time we saw you, you were in Konoha. We've been searching ever since, and just confirmed it was you moments ago."
"Genjutsu..."From how they'd called themselves the "Four Guardians," Akio felt even more sure now—this Yin Soro guy must've been a transmigrator just like him.
"What kind of genjutsu was it?" he asked.
"Sharingan."
"....."