The whispers followed him like a plague.
"It's him. Isn't it? The little bastard who slaughtered his own parents."
"Yeah, word is the freak didn't even have enough chakra to mold a basic clone back then. How'd he do it?"
"Twelve years old and already a kinslayer. He's a fucking monster."
As the Academy students sneered and spat insults, Ken Sakumo stood amidst his graduation ceremony, the weight of the headband in his pocket feeling like lead. He felt a surge of panic—that familiar, suffocating claw in his chest at the word monster. But then, he exhaled. He calmed down. The truth was a heavy burden, but it was going to come out soon enough.
"Ken Sakumo."
The voice was gruff, familiar. Umino Iruka stood there, his face a mask of grim duty, though his eyes betrayed a swirling mess of pity and confusion. "Lord Sixth summons you. You're being brought in for your actions."
Clung!
Sakumo stood up so abruptly his chair screeched against the floor and tumbled backward. He didn't say a word as he followed Iruka toward the Hokage Office, the village of Konoha feeling more like a cage than a home.
As they neared the outskirts, Sakumo broke the silence. "Um, Iruka-sensei? Can we just… take a break? I need to go to the forest outskirts for a minute."
His expression was frantic, his eyes darting around. Iruka looked at the boy and felt a pang of exhaustion. He couldn't risk a scene. With a heavy sigh, Iruka decided it would be kinder to just knock the kid out and carry him to Kakashi.
Iruka vanished in a blur of Speed, reappearing behind Sakumo. He swung a precise, heavy blow toward the boy's neck—a sleeper strike. But Sakumo's body twitched, shifting forward by a mere inch. Iruka's hand cut through empty air.
Something snapped inside Sakumo.
Tch! Damn it, so I really can't trust anyone in this shithole except my sister, huh? He sensed it then—cold, sharp chakra signatures. ANBU were closing in. He didn't have time for a trial. He performed a rapid sequence of seals, transforming his appearance into a nondescript civilian. He needed to get to the forest. He needed to find her.
"But before that…" he muttered, turning to face Iruka, who was lunging again.
"Genjutsu: Jogan."
The word was a whisper, but the effect was like a physical hammer. Iruka—an elite Jonin with years of mental fortification—stiffened. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he hit the dirt, plunged into a deep, unnatural slumber.
Sakumo didn't look back. He sprinted for the treeline.
On a rooftop overlooking the path, two figures watched the blur of motion.
"Sakura-chan," Hinata said, her Byakugan active, veins bulging around her temples. "He has a Dojutsu. And that speed… it's elite Jonin level. Easily."
Sakura nodded, her fist clenching. "Yeah. He's dangerous. If we engage here, the collateral damage will be a nightmare. We wait until he hits the forest. Hinata, go find Sasuke. Tell him we have a live one. I'll stall the rogue until you get back."
Sakumo reached the thicket of the forest, his lungs burning. He came to a halt, a small, genuine smile breaking through his exhaustion. He undid the transformation, his real face pale and sweat-streaked.
Don't worry, Sumire, he thought, looking toward a hidden hollow. I won't let you go hungry this time. I've got you.
"Halt, Sakumo-Rogue."
The voice was like a blade of ice pressed against his spine. Sakumo froze. He knew that voice. Everyone knew that voice.
No! Not him. I can't face Uchiha Sasuke head-on without the Jogan active, and my Karma is still unstable.
He turned slowly, but the space where the voice had come from was empty. His instincts screamed. He whipped around and threw his hands up just as a fist collided with his guard.
BOOM!
The shockwave tore the grass from the dirt.
"So you blocked it," Sasuke said, his voice devoid of emotion. He followed up with a kick to the gut that sent Sakumo flying.
Thud!
Sakumo hit a tree, the wood splintering. "BLUURGGH!" He spat a thick glob of blood, his vision swimming. But a second later, he was back on his feet, his eyes burning with a piercing, murderous glare.
Sasuke paused, his brow twitching. This brat… he really is playing at an elite level. What the hell is he?
Sasuke didn't give him time to recover. He raised a single hand. "Fire Style: Grand Fire Ball Jutsu!"
A massive sphere of roaring white-hot flame erupted, incinerating the brush.
Just as I expected, Sakumo thought. He mirrored the one-handed seal. "Water Style: Aqua Blast!"
The collision of elements created a violent explosion of steam, masking the entire clearing in a thick, blinding fog. Sasuke scowled. He wanted to see what this kid was made of.
"Sharingan," he hissed.
The red glow pierced the mist. Sasuke unsheathed the Kusanagi, the blade singing as it left the scabbard. He covered the distance in a heartbeat. The speed was monstrous—far beyond anything Sakumo could track with normal eyes. Sakumo saw the silver flash and prepared for the end, but his sister's face flashed in his mind.
I can't die yet.
"Substitution Jutsu!"
Poof!
Sasuke's blade cleaved through a log, but the sheer force of the swing didn't stop there. A shockwave of pure kinetic energy erupted from the sword, slicing a clean, diagonal path through the base of a nearby mountain. The earth groaned as tons of rock slid apart.
"Hn. This is meaningless," Sasuke said, his voice echoing through the fog. He stepped forward, his Eternal Mangekyo spinning in his right eye, the purple ripple of the Rinnegan glowing in his left. "Just give up, Sakumo. You're outclassed."
Sakumo looked at the God of Shinobi standing before him. Fear tried to take him, but he pushed it down. Shinobi are just tools for the battlefield. If that's the case, I'll be the sharpest goddamn tool there is.
"I will not let her be a shinobi," Sakumo spat, his voice dropping an octave, vibrating with a dark, ancient power. "And for that, I'll kill you if I have to. Jogan! Karma, come forth and assist me in taking down this pitiful soul!"
The transformation was horrific. His eye shifted into a haunting, milky-blue hue, while the sclera turned pitch black. On his skin, a black diamond pattern spread, glowing with an eerie light similar to the Karma or the Byakugo seal.
"Hn. Fire Style: Inferno Dragon Flame!" Sasuke countered, launching an S-rank torrent of black and orange flames shaped like a screaming dragon. He wasn't holding back anymore; the aura coming off the boy was suffocating.
But the fire never reached Sakumo.
As the dragon lunged, Sakumo held out his hand. The flames swirled into a vortex, shrinking smaller and smaller until they were sucked entirely into the mark on his palm.
Sasuke's eyes widened. He absorbed it?
"My turn," Sakumo growled. He thrust his hand forward, unleashing the exact same Inferno Dragon, but the flames were twice as large and burned with a violet intensity.
Sasuke swapped places with a distant stone to avoid the blast, but he was already moving. He threw two shurikens in mid-air. They collided, changing trajectory to curve around Sakumo's line of sight. Sakumo stood his ground, prepared to absorb them.
But before the metal could touch him, Sasuke used Amenotejikara.
In a flash of light, the shuriken was gone, replaced by Sasuke himself, his hand crackling with lightning. "Chidori!"
Sakumo didn't flinch. He caught Sasuke's wrist. The lightning didn't shock him—it drained away, flowing into the Karma mark. Sasuke's suspicion was confirmed: the boy could absorb and redirect ninjutsu at will.
Sasuke pushed off, intending to reset, but Sakumo wasn't done. Using the absorbed chakra, Sakumo unleashed a barrage of five different elemental jutsu simultaneously—gouts of fire, shards of ice, blades of wind, mud slides, and lightning bolts—all weaving together in a chaotic storm.
Sasuke swapped with another object, appearing high above. He brought the Kusanagi down in a vertical overhead strike meant to split the boy in two. Sakumo summoned a blade of his own from a storage seal and parried.
Clang!
The vibration numbed Sakumo's arms, and he vanished in a flicker of speed. To any other ninja, he would have been invisible, but Sasuke's Sharingan tracked the blur as Sakumo circled him, attacking from a dozen angles at once.
Sasuke predicted the final strike coming from his blind spot. He pivoted, thrusting his sword forward with lethal inertia, aiming to run the boy through.
But the blade met no resistance.
Instead, Sasuke felt a cold, sharp agony in his own chest. He looked down. Sakumo had bypassed his guard entirely.
I see, Sasuke thought, his breath hitching. Space-time ninjutsu. Like Obito's Kamui or my own… he phased the strike directly into my heart at the moment of impact.
Blood bloomed across Sasuke's cloak. He immediately began pumping Yin-Yang chakra into the wound, using Mystical Palm technique internally to keep his heart beating.
Sakumo stood back, his face devoid of emotion, looking down at the Uchiha legend like a bored deity. "Listen. You aren't dead yet. Leave me alone, Uchiha… or you will be."
"Ho… Sasuke," a new, smooth voice echoed from the shadows of the trees. "To think a brat actually drew blood from you. This kid really isn't ordinary, is he?"
A/N
Hello everyone welcome to my fanfic. How was it!? For my first fanfic here why Boruto? Well I love what I love. Plus this is the only fanfic.... which I will not write... Yes I am writing some others too including one solo leveling. Okay 10 Power stones and I am uploading solo leveling fanfic too... Peace....