The Uchiha Were Still the Uchiha

The classroom was several times noisier than the hallway.

Sasuke had barely sat down when two figures squeezed in beside him with a thump.

"Big Forehead! Move! It's my turn to sit next to Sasuke today!" Ino tossed her long blonde hair and planted her hands on her hips.

"Why should I? I got here first! Quit getting in the way, Ino Pig!" Sakura refused to back down, shoving Ino's shoulders with both hands.

The two girls jostled each other beside Sasuke's desk, making it rock back and forth.

"Sasuke-kun, have you eaten breakfast? I brought a special sandwich."

Sakura turned toward him, raising her voice into a coy squeak as she held out a pink lunchbox with both hands.

"Sasuke-kun, don't listen to her. What's so good about dry bread? I've got some freshly baked—"

"Hey, hey! Sakura!" Naruto squeezed in from the back row, scooped up the Black Dog hiding under the desk, and brought it over to her.

"Look, look! This Ninja Dog slept in my room last night! So cool, right?" Naruto proudly lifted the Black Dog.

The Black Dog yawned and turned away.

Sakura leaned back in distaste. "Naruto? Who wants to see your dumb dog? Don't let him dirty Sasuke-kun's desk."

"This isn't my dog!" Naruto pushed the Black Dog half an inch closer to Sakura's face. "It's Sasuke's Ninja Dog! It just slept in my room last night!"

The disgust vanished from Sakura's face.

"Oh, it's Sasuke-kun's Ninja Dog!" Sakura raised her voice into a squeak again, clasped her hands to her chest, and gazed at the Black Dog with sparkling eyes.

"Now that I look closely, its fur really is glossy black, and its eyes are so deep. It's just as cool as Sasuke-kun!"

She reached out her right hand to pet the Black Dog's head. "Come here, let big sis hold you..."

The Black Dog turned away, dodging Sakura's hand.

Sakura's hand froze in midair.

Ino covered her mouth and giggled. "Big Forehead, even the dog hates you."

Sakura's face instantly flushed red, and the veins in her forehead throbbed twice.

"What are you laughing at, Ino Pig?" Sakura whipped around and glared at Ino.

"You two are too noisy." The White Dog raised its right forepaw and pointed toward Sakura. "Big Forehead."

Then it swept its paw sideways toward Ino. "Hair like a lioness."

The two girls fell silent, staring straight at the White Dog.

"Wipe desks? Make rice balls?" The White Dog licked its paw. "What Sasuke needs now is someone who can help him grow stronger, not two useless people."

Sakura's entire face turned red, from the base of her neck to her forehead.

"You dog! Who are you calling Big Forehead?" Sakura clenched her fist, her knuckles cracking.

Ino slapped both hands on the desk and leaned over it. "What did you just call me?"

"Are you hard of hearing?" The White Dog tilted its head. "Lioness. Big Forehead. Two people who don't care how Sasuke feels. Do I need to say it a third time?"

Sasuke pressed down on the White Dog's head, pushing it down onto the desktop and making it sit.

"Don't be so harsh to your classmates. They're still children."

Though he'd meant to defend them, Sakura and Ino weren't happy.

Was she just a child to Sasuke?

With nowhere to vent their frustration, they could only glare furiously at each other before returning to their seats, fuming as they waited for class to start.

A row of targets had been set up. Several students stood in front of them, while Iruka stood to the side with a clipboard in hand.

"Naruto Uzumaki! Missed! Missed again! And again!" Iruka's voice came from the first row of targets.

Naruto clenched the Kunai in his hand, sweat running down his face from his forehead.

He lowered his head, frowning at the Shuriken sticking crookedly in the sand by his feet.

"Next, Sasuke Uchiha." Iruka called his name.

Sasuke walked to the throwing line and pulled three Shuriken from his ninja pouch.

The White Dog stood to his left, while the Black Dog came over from beside Naruto's feet and stood behind him on the right.

Far away, a silver-haired figure lounged against the trunk of a tree.

Kakashi Hatake held open a copy of Make-Out Paradise, his gaze fixed on the pages, his right eye half-lidded and his left eye hidden beneath his Forehead Protector.

That morning, the Third Hokage had assigned him to discreetly observe Sasuke Uchiha's recovery at school.

Since the massacre, the boy had spent some time in the hospital, but otherwise showed almost no emotion on the surface.

He was far too calm.

Kakashi turned a page, then glanced up at the training ground.

Sasuke was already standing at the throwing line.

"Let's go, Black, White."

He swung his right arm forward, throwing two Shuriken. At the same time, he stomped his left heel against the ground, and the shadow beneath his feet shot forward, rushing over the sand toward the targets like a living thing.

Chakra mixed with Cursed Energy flowed into the long, narrow shadow. It rippled across the ground, taking on an unnaturally dark texture.

As the shadow stretched forward, the White Dog charged and leaped directly onto it.

Sasuke hooked the last Shuriken with his left thumb, turned his wrist inward, and aimed at the end of the shadow.

The first two Shuriken had already reached the targets. Even if they hit the edges, they couldn't possibly strike the bull's-eyes.

But they were now within the shadow's range.

The instant the White Dog landed, it stamped a forepaw down hard on the shadow. The Cursed Energy coursing through it altered its shape.

Ripples spread across the shadow, moving in the same direction as the two Shuriken.

When the Shuriken struck the ripples, their trajectories suddenly veered.

One went left, the other right.

The left one struck the support of a fixed target, bounced about three finger-widths into the air, and flew toward a blind spot directly above the bull's-eye.

The right one was deflected toward the base of the neighboring target, skimming diagonally past the edge of its bull's-eye through the blind spot.

The Black Dog was already standing directly above the bull's-eye.

At the instant the ripples in the shadow took effect, it had landed right at the end of the shadow stretching across the ground.

At last, Sasuke released the final Shuriken.

The shadow beneath the Black Dog suddenly bulged upward, launching the last Shuriken straight at the center of the bull's-eye.

"Smack!"

The three Shuriken struck the targets almost simultaneously.

All three had hit the blind spots.

Iruka stared at the targets, his voice wavering. "All three hit the blind spots?"

Naruto stood with his mouth agape, still holding a handful of Shuriken he hadn't thrown.

He looked at Sasuke's targets, then lowered his eyes to the Shuriken sticking crookedly in the sand beside his shoes.

Shikamaru stood in the waiting area with both hands in his pockets. His drooping eyelids were now wide open.

Sasuke lowered his hand, glanced at the Shuriken in the targets, and turned around.

Shikamaru was already watching him.

"You..." Shikamaru scratched the back of his head, wearing an expression like he'd eaten something unpleasant but had no choice but to swallow it.

"I only told you two things, didn't I? Shadows are both solid and a passageway. That's it."

Shikamaru pulled his right hand from his pocket and rubbed his temple hard. "Everything else was just something I made up to fob you off..."

"That was an awfully useful thing to make up." Sasuke walked over to him, brushing the sand off his pant leg. "You were the one who said they could exert physical force."

Shikamaru pointed toward the targets. "That's why I said your technique is even scarier than my clan's shadow jutsu."

"You told me about the ordinary Shadow Possession Jutsu, but you never said shadows couldn't synchronize with other techniques to do something like this." Sasuke glanced at him.

"The normal Shadow Possession Jutsu extends to restrain an opponent. But what if you turned the shadow into a medium that could alter the flow of chakra?"

Shikamaru's finger froze in midair.

He stared at Sasuke for about three seconds, then lowered his hand and put it back in his pocket.

"Sasuke, you're a little too smart."

"You're not bad yourself, Nara."

Naruto lowered his head and looked at the Black Dog.

He still held a Shuriken in his fingers, his knuckles white from gripping it so hard.

"Black." Naruto's voice was much quieter than usual as he forced out the words. "Tell me, am I really that weak?"

Sakura stood at the edge of the training ground, her arms crossed over her chest as she watched Sasuke's back.

Her nails dug into her palms, and her lips pressed into a thin line.

Ino stood beside her, her shoulders just as tense.

The White Dog's words from the classroom still stung, and now they'd witnessed Sasuke standing in the middle of the training ground, as if he belonged to a different world.

Sakura unclenched her hand, leaving nail marks in her palm.

On the tree branch, Kakashi put his book away in his ninja pouch and stood up.

"Looks like things are more complicated than I expected."

He formed a one-handed Body Flicker Technique seal and vanished from the branch.

The Hokage's office.

The tobacco crackled softly as it was lit. Hiruzen Sarutobi leaned back in his chair, pipe in his mouth, and looked at Kakashi standing before his desk.

"You saw Sasuke at school this morning, didn't you? How was he?"

"Everything seemed normal. Calm, rational, and nothing like someone whose entire clan was just wiped out." Kakashi let his hands hang loosely at his sides.

"But during the Shuriken test, he used a Ninja Dog I'd never seen before."

"He used his shadow as a medium and worked with his Ninja Dogs to throw Shuriken into the blind spots. I can only say he really is a member of the Uchiha Clan."

Hiruzen Sarutobi took a puff, then set his pipe on the ashtray.

"That's good, but I still wish kids could act a little more like kids."

"Sorry for the trouble, Kakashi. Keep an eye on him for a while longer."

"Understood." Kakashi nodded, then vanished from the office.

The hallway outside the Hokage's office.

Danzo stood where the shadow met the wall.

Bandages covered half his face, leaving only one eye visible.

That eye was fixed on the Hokage's closed wooden door, half-lidded.

Sasuke Uchiha. Shadow Tactics. Ninja Dogs.

Danzo's mouth twitched slightly beneath the bandages.

Was the last surviving Uchiha finally beginning to show abilities beyond expectations?

"The Uchiha were still the Uchiha."