One certain descendant of two ancient clans connected to the Sage of Six Paths will go above everything to secure his freedom. To be no longer chained by the poisonous words of a failed dream-turned-nightmare

 

Even if it meant lying to himself for more than a decade.

xXx

“ Of A Cursed World”

 

The sun shone upon Konoha brightly this morning, as if celebrating the beginning of a new season of summer. The birds flocked around spreading the wings of freedom; letting the wind carry them to new lands.

 

The sun smiled brightly upon the residents of Konoha, its rays reaching the faces of many giving a lot of people a comfortable wake up, and uncomfortable for others.

 

Forced to suffer through the latter was the owner of one building.

 

The sun viciously woke up a young boy from his sleep who revealed his exasperation by revealing an irritated face which promised to make the reason which woke him up pay violently.

 

The boy took a while to realize the cause of his sleep being disrupted and let out a long breath; slapping a palm on his face he rubbed his eyes, desperately trying to push the drowsiness away.

 

Meanwhile, the other palm sought to eliminate the source of sunlight but had no apparent success and returned in failure.

 

His eyes wandered to the clock which had loyally serving him for as long as the boy could remember and made him grumble.

 

“It’s not even six in the morning yet…”

 

Shaking off the blanket covering him he sat on his bed. The most noticeable feature he had was his short spiky crimson-hair which defied gravity in many ways with the way his hair appeared to be. To a knowledgeable shinobi that would be enough to guess from which shinobi clan he might originate from.

 

The next thing your sight would encounter would most likely be his deep amethyst eyes which intimidated many people who often claimed his eyes would draw them into a never-ending abyss.

 

Looking around his decently-large room, you’d notice two symbols which stuck out; Those of the Uzumaki and Senju. The Uzumaki and the Senju were clans who were once feared all across the Elemental Nations, the Senju for their powerful Chakra and mastery of Ninjutsu and the Uzumaki for their innate intelligence, Fuinjutsu knowledge and mastery of the sword (Kenjutsu).

 

Ren’s room did not contain a lot, there were two shelves around his medium-sized bed and a few scrolls scrambled around the floor. Just looking at them made him grimace. Overall, his room was messy.

 

‘Reminder to myself; clean the house as soon as I get enough free time - meaning today!’

 

The young kid was one of the last remnants of the two great clans left on the Elemental Nations.

 

The passing of time had taken its toll on the two clans, one being destroyed by three hidden villages and the other just deteriorating. Excluding him, the Senju only had Tsunade Senju, a renowned kunoichi, widely recognized as the strongest one and also the best medic ninja out of all of them.

 

Meanwhile the Uzumaki had Uzumaki Naruto, a boy who had not inherited any Uzumaki trait, at least none which were visible to the naked eye. At the very least he was the only record Uzumaki on Konohagakure; An Uzumaki with blond hair and blue eyes.

 

And then there was him, a half-blood; His mother being an Uzumaki while his father being a relatively unknown Senju. It had always piqued his interest to know how the hell had his average-looking father managed to strike a marriage with his mother?

 

Well that question would forever be left unanswered since they both had died when the nine Tails had ‘rudely’ popped out in middle of Konoha and unleashed its fury on it several years ago, leaving one little Uzumaki-Senju boy alone and orphaned at merely a few months of age.

 

The only thing the two parents the Gods had blessed them with was enough time to at the very least name him Ren, death had cut apart the family too soon.

 

The Uzumaki-Senju family owned a house in a relatively peaceful part of the village and as a result he did not have to use the eerie and abandoned Senju Compound which was just collecting dust at this point – even though he did occasionally visit it just for the massive collection of books, scrolls and manuals he found useful.

 

Due to his young age he was assigned a caretaker who held responsibility for his well-being for a few years, but he no longer required such attention and services since he was over ten years old and with each day passing came closer to becoming a genin.

 

Ren stood up and stretched his muscles a yawn soon following. Judging by the dark lines under his eyes, one could easily recognize the lack of sleep he had received in the last week.

 

‘I really need to take a day off Fuinjutsu practice. It was not easy to practice while she was here, but now that I’m alone I don’t have anything to stop me from doing it for hours and it’s clearly affecting my health.’

 

The house Ren would get full ownership of as soon as he became a Genin was nothing extravagant, but at the same time it was also nothing to scoff at. It was big enough for a family of five or six to live comfortably and it would still have enough room for several guests who might decide to stay for the night for whatever reason.

 

It would take your average jounin dozens of missions to even come near the price of buying such a house.

 

His father had not been one to be stingy with whatever inheritance he had received from the decaying Senju Clan.

 

“Not like I can really blame him. At the very least he used a good chunk of that money to also secure whatever was left of mother’s ancestry and his own as well.”

 

He breathed out as the thought came and left his head.

 

Ren walked out of his room and straight into the kitchen to prepare something to eat. There wasn’t really that much of a distance between the two so he did not waste time and got to work;

 

It wasn’t a really fancy kitchen in fact it was very ordinary. It was just perfect for someone like him. He opened a drawer and withdrew the required tools for what he was preparing.

 

He still had around two hours before he would normally head to school so he was not in a rush.

Over 10 years of being an orphan and a few months with no adult supervision had taught him the need of learning how to do chores and cook perfectly.

 

While his appearance showed the reality of how young he was, his maturity and intelligence which had faded on the children his age was rarely noticed by others. Not that he particularly cared, a shinobi was one who knew that it was best not to reveal his trump cards early on.

 

“Since I woke up this early, I might as well indulge myself into some high-quality food.” Ren licked his lips and opened his fridge to retrieve the ingredients he required for what he had in mind.

 

Inside thirty minutes he cooked and made what he considered the perfect breakfast for himself: Bacon, scrambled eggs, some cheese and vegetables; let’s not forget the yogurt as a drink – honestly speaking that was his favorite part out of all.

 

Sitting on a chair and putting his variety of food down on a table made for a family of six, he immediately got to devouring it all. By the end, his stomach was slightly larger than before. He exhaled and patted his stomach and got up and went to take a shower.

 

After around fifteen minutes of a wonderful experience he started clothing himself with clothes not meant for coziness. Ren didn’t really put too much emphasis on how he appeared to others, but even he had some sort of standard.

 

His clothes were a perfect split between blue and red with a mix of black in them. Since he couldn’t wear a head protector yet, he replaced it with a black bandana in the meanwhile. Due to the season being summer, he wore a blue shirt with short sleeves and red pants. He took some bandages out from a box and carefully put them around an arm at a time. They were specially designed to protect people from wounds and absorb pressure.

 

Behind his blue shirt was the famous Uzumaki symbol, a red and black whirlpool. Although Ren was both a Senju and an Uzumaki, he associated himself more with the later.

 

Not because of his appearance or something of that nature, but due to the fact that he was closer to his Uzumaki relative and ancestry rather than his Senju side. His last relative from his father’s side wanted nothing to do with him and had never even seen him before.

 

Comparing her to Naruto was akin to comparing jewelry to the rocks you found on the ground. He enjoyed the blond’s attention and valued his friendship with him far more than any family connection he had with Tsunade.

 

But that was not unchangeable. As a kid he had been extremely angry with how she used to ignore or outright act as if he didn’t exist, but as he had grown up and researched her a little, he had realized just how much she had suffered.

 

Did it make what she had done any better?

 

Probably not, but she had suffered far more than him and he could not understand her feelings.

 

Putting a piece of bacon inside his mouth he rolled his eyes, overthinking had never been Ren’s strongest attribute anyway, there was no use thinking too deeply about it right now.

 

On the other hand, Naruto was an outcast. Ren often saw villagers murmuring between each other about how his situation was well-deserved and ramblings which should not be directed at a kid like him.

 

For him, after putting the puzzle together one-by-one, it wasn’t even that hard to realize why he was ignored and shunned so much. Naruto had sun-kissed blond hair accompanied by a pair of very blue eyes. He was basically a perfect combination of his parents, taking his facial features from his mother and his other features from his father. Ignoring the obvious traits only made him think that the issue was much deeper than just ignoring an orphan; A truly disgusting and nauseating matter.

 

While Ren had indeed guessed that Naruto was the Fourth’s son, his personality was anything but a mirror of his father’s. Naruto was not pranking nearly as much as before – which could be attributed to Ren’s interference – he was not even close to the Fourth’s intelligence.

 

xXx

 

The Academy located in Konoha was easily one of the largest buildings in it. Over the many years it had served as a beacon of knowledge and had a history of creating many prodigies, and during the same time-period much of it had changed.

 

The difference in age was difficult to hide, but it held an aura which was unique to it. Just staring at the massive kanji for Fire in front of the building never failed to make Ren pursue a small smile.

 

‘This is the legacy the Second Hokage left behind, a place where one can learn to kill and lie, to spy and steal…’

 

A chuckle escaped his mouth.

 

Konoha’s population which was in the tens of thousands allowed batches of new genin to graduate every year; strengthening the village even more.

 

This had always piqued his interest. He never understood why Konoha was referred to as a ‘village’. While it might not be the biggest in the Land of Fire, it boasted a decently large amount of people.

 

His homeroom teacher, Iruka Umino would pause at the question – apparently not even he knew the answer to that.

 

To Ren, classes were extremely boring but he still made some effort so that he was not seen as a lazy person, if his parents were still alive and saw him acting like a completely lazy person, he would never see the light of the sun again.

 

Which was why Ren – who was lazy to a degree – made sure to keep his grades above average!

 

What?

 

He might not personally give a fuck about his reputation, but he carried the name of two prestigious clans on his back and as much as he’d like to act like a lazy dumbass, he had dreams and expectations to achieve.

 

Staring at the entrance of the academy for a moment, Ren made his way inside of it.

 

‘The beginning of yet another day of nothing but boredom and maybe Naruto to spice it a bit…’