No Strings Attached, Kakuzu Insert (Naruto)

[Bossjut]

No strings attached

​

"Kakuzu" I turn my head at my name being called. My grandfather Isu was sitting in an old chair, one that looked like it would fall apart any day now if not for the black threads holding it together. I stared into his dull eyes, distant and tired.

"Tomorrow we will begin your training in earnest." He said.

I nodded at the statement. It was always a given that I would be a shinobi. The lifestyle here simply wouldn't permit someone such as I to be any different. Any who could fight must fight. Too many enemies around us to permit otherwise. Too many of us descended from the lands of mist bearing grudges, even if we were a bit nicer than those barbarians

"You are almost six years old, soon you will start taking part on the battle field. Survive and prove your worth, and you will inherit one of our most prized techniques." Along his arm black threads came poring out. Some of them reached out to me, and I took them in my hands examining them. "These threads are an ancient creation. My own father claimed they came from a time almost as ancient as the Sage. Survive the trials ahead and I will tell you more of their origins and abilities.

I nodded my head again, though inwardly I withheld a grimace. The Earth Grudge Fear technique was undoubtedly powerful, but it had some drawbacks I didn't particularly care for. Having pseudo immortality, additional chakra, and cheating at having elemental mastery was nice. Being a string man was probably not pleasant though, and having to harvest hearts for power seemed a bit too monstrous for me. I also didn't completely trust the old Naruto show I watched to properly demonstrate its full capabilities and draw backs. Really, I didn't trust the show to be more than a reference, even if I didn't butterfly away events. If I thought I could get away with it, I wouldn't even be a ninja. After waking up a year ago in this body though, it became abundantly clear that as the last male in a dying clan with a terrifying history that not being a ninja was an option.

A hand slapped my head, breaking my musings. I grimaced and released the strings. As they retracted my grandfather looked me in the eyes. "Kakuzu, your days of wasting time playing and drawing are over. You have to step up now and be a man. Our little clan in the waterfall won't be here much longer, and we have a lot riding on this, on you. You are the hope of our dying clan. Your body has been uniquely bred to be the perfect host for this technique." He held up his arm. "I can only have one arm in this state. Your father had all his limbs transformed. Your grandmother from your mother's side managed to unlock some secrets of puppetry though. She had some heritage from the land of wind, and with her knowledge she had a plan to take this technique farther than any one before. But it will require a strong body, lots of study, and supreme control of yourself and your chakra to survive the procedure. Your must dedicate every moment to improving your body and mind."

I frowned at him and nodded yet again. I wasn't looking forward to this, but there wasn't much choice. If I refused, I would be disowned. He might even just kill me outright. I had seen such results among other clans who were displeased with their children. This was a brutal world after all. I would need to become strong enough to survive, and eventually to leave or change this place. The third choice was I could burn it all down. Any place that forced its children to fight generation after generation probably deserved to be destroyed. I don't think I had it in me to be the destroyer though. For all my stoicism and practical outlooks on life, I had a bit of a soft heart. Leaving was honestly my best hope but I wasn't in the position to make any decisions for myself yet.

I looked over at the setting sun, it was almost time for bed. I knew the next few days were going to be rough, so I asked to be dismissed. He waved me off and I went to my bedding. Unfortunately, we were only one step above poverty despite our name having some renown in this village. We really only had two rooms in our house and an outhouse. I was forced to sleep in the main room, which was difficult sometimes when grandpa had some of his old war buddies over and they drank and swapped stories. I had fashioned some earplugs out of cloth and wax, but it had a tendency to clog my ears and take an annoying amount of time to clean out. I wonder if some chakra could help either block sound or clean my ears more efficiently.
I took my pillow (or what passed as a pillow) and laid down. This was going to suck.

---

"Chakra, brain, body," Isu said. "Chakra is the basis for all ninja activity. It will be your most powerful and versatile tool. Your knowledge and experience will teach you how to use it properly. Your body carries out these tasks and keeps you alive. If you are to remember anything it must be how to use those three properly."

I sat in an open field, just outside our village. It was a bit humid even for the land of waterfall but I would simply have to endure it.

"Each day I will instruct you on these three fields." Isu continued "One hour to chakra exercises, one to physical exercise, and one to learning all the ninja arts. You will be expected to keep up with your chores as well. This time will increase as you get older and gain more stamina. Any time remaining will be yours, but if you have any plans to continue working with chakra you will approach me first. It can be dangerous. I have lost more than a few comrades over the years to their own jutsu backfiring."

I nodded along as he spoke. My 'chores' as he said were actually quite comprehensive, especially as he didn't do much himself these days. I was largely in charge of cleaning the house, repairing things, tending the small garden we had, fishing, checking the traps for game, and running errands in the village as needed. Each day would be pretty full. Couldn't wait to learn something like shadow clones.

"First I will help open your chakra." Isu declared.

He placed his hand on my back and I felt a warmth pulse from his hand that slowly transformed into pain. I frowned at the sensation. It actually hurt quite a bit

"Good, you at least have some pain tolerance. Brace yourself boy, this will hurt a lot more before we are through."

He wasn't lying. The pain continued to increase quite dramatically. I gritted my teeth as he continued this process. Soon I could feel a warmth in my body start to respond. It pushed back at the hot pain from my back which slowly started to ebb. This caused my grandpa to smile. It reminded me of a shark.

"Excellent. Looks like it worked."

I looked back at him and raised an eyebrow

"Quit that you brat. Your far too young to talk with just your face. Talking won't hurt you none. Silence is good, but not talking at all will just make people think you're an uptight bitch." He nodded as if him beating me for my 'annoying voice and questions' weren't the reasons for my usual silence. That and not wanting to out myself as a fake Kazuko. He still answered the unspoken question.

"There are several ways of opening chakra paths. Most take months of meditation and practice. My way is faster, I learned it in the land of mist. Use your chakra to gently attack the body and it makes the body fight back. As long as you survive the process that is. Some have died from taking it too far."

I scowled at that and turned away. The man cared. Not for me as a person or as his grandkid, but as the last heir of the clan at least. But it seemed he always was searching for a way to cause me pain. His mood was often quite volatile, especially when drinking. If this was back in the U.S. then I would have taken great joy in seeing him behind bars for child abuse. My grumbles also seemed to cause him joy, the man was a sadist.

"I had other reasons for it too brat. The procedure to get the threads is going to hurt. A lot more then this little love tap. Your body also needed to be able to respond correctly to their invasion to keep you alive. Glad to say you passed this test."

That did not comfort me much

Training from there wasn't anything special. At least in terms of pain. I learned the droplet exercise. Basically, I kept a droplet from falling off my body or running down it. I did some basic exercises and stretching. He also showed me a kunai and how to handle it. No throwing yet. It was actually a little different then in the show. More akin to a traditional knife then the throwing knives I remembered. I chalked it up to either changes in the world or being in the past. I imagine metal for weapons was harder to come by so throwing was not encouraged as much. Wanted to keep your expensive weapons rather than discard them for an enemy or the environment to take.

He seemed satisfied with my progress, or at least not outraged by it. After we were finished he spoke on last thing to me.

"We will practice like this for the next 3 years. When you are nine you will begin to partake in missions. When you are twelve and have proven worthy, we will see about the threads. I will change the training as I see fit. Complain and you will experience pain. Cower and you will be punished. Fail? You will wish you were never born. If you are not ready by the time you are twelve you will not live to see the thirteenth. I will either make you the most powerful ninja of your generation and see the revival of my clan, or it will end with you and I. Do you understand?"

I nodded, though this further confirmed that the timeline wasn't quite right. I don't think the original Kakuzu got his abilities until after his failed assassination attempt on the First Hokage, well after he was an adult. Either something was going to happen between now and then that I couldn't predict, or something was fundamentally different in this world. Going to have to play it by ear.

---

As I prepared for bed that night, I took out my drawings. I really wasn't that good of an artist; I lacked an artist's imagination. My handwriting had always been messy too. But that was exactly the point. Seals were probably going to be my most powerful tool in the long run, especially if I stuck around for ninety years. I needed to try and fix my fundamentals now before I got too old in this new body. Not quite sure how my old memories affected my brain (or how my chakra affected my brain for that matter) but I would act as if changing my sloppiness now would be easier than later. The other reason was my memories would fade eventually. I glanced down at the faces staring back at me. If I could I would preserve the images of my old family.

My heart ached at the thought. I refused to cry lest I earn Isu's ire, but it was a near thing. I missed them. I missed them so much it hurt as if a knife was in my heart. I missed my dad's easy laugh. I missed my mom's amazing cooking and somewhat prickly attitude. I missed all my siblings despite our fights. The thought of never seeing them again burned within me. If there was an answer to ever seeing them again it would almost certainly lie in the sealing arts.

I felt a droplet hit my hand. Tears had formed unbidden despite my resistance. I turned away from my grandpa's chair and quickly rubbed my eyes. It was too dangerous here. Not allowed to cry unless he was gone. Not that that was typically a problem but any tears were too many for his standards. A land of mist shinobi through and through. It was easy to see how the village that would be founded there would be such a hell-hole. Silently I crawled to my spot in the house and laid myself down. It was not going to be an easy 3 years.

---

Authors note:

First fic, so I'm unfamiliar with writing demands. I don't believe in long author notes, I would rather any relevant information be in the fic itself, but I am going to lay out a few things I want this fic to be as well as a few things it's not. This is not primarily a romance fic. There may be romance later but it will not be the focus. I want to keep real world politics to as close to zero as possible. Obviously, I will have biases and ideas from the real world, but I find real world politics poisons the well of most storytelling. This includes LGBT stuff, anything related to trump, real world slavery (it's a rough world though so in universe example might exist, like the Hyuuga. I just want to stay away from real world parallels). I am not going to get into real world religions or economics unless relevant to the story. I may touch on these subjects but I will keep it as in world as possible. Such as when the shinobi clans are forming. (I mean the Uzumaki can summon a Shinigami apparently. Amaterasu and others for the Uchiha. Jashin might be an interesting study ). Christianity, the Jews, the Muslims will be left out because they are not relevant to the world at hand unless I want the mc to have a background there, and it would only really affect him in that situation Basically, I want to write a NARUTO story not a right- or left-wing story. Or preach on a soap box story.

What I really want to write is a story about this oc/si into a pseudo immortal who explores the Naruto world as well as bending the chakra system into a pretzel. I want to enjoy doing it. I want to sharpen my skills. I want others to enjoy and engage in the story. I will try to get each chapter above 2k words, preferably to the 5k range. We will see if I succeed.

I welcome all to read this story, and if you find it is not to your taste then that's okay. I just ask you try and be constructive with any criticism you have. I did not like it die in a fire is not particularly useful to sharpening my skills, nor will it stop me from writing.

This story was originally posted on Space Battles, and that will have the most up to date chapters. User name is the same as here (Bossjut).