The person who knocked Hinata over without glancing at her was someone that brought a lot of annoyance for Inugami. Letting his eyes roam over the room, he had a sneer plastered over his stupid face. Locking on their location, his mocking smile became, if that was possible, even more pronounced. He immediately strutted over to them, and Inugami let out a groan. The person who was currently trying to imitate a peacock with brilliant success was Taiko Uchiha.

When Inugami first met Taiko, his first thought was — who? —. Then, after a while, he actually recognized him! And only because he played a role in that horrid Infinite Tsukuyomi dream of Tsunade. Seriously, those episodes were ass. Despite Taiko being an irrelevant side-character from a filler episode, Inugami remembered him, because the arrogant fool thought it was a good idea to invade the Fourth Hokage’s home and arrest his wife Kushina.

After recollecting those events in his head and realizing that he isn’t acting much differently here — despite being nothing special—, Inugami dismissed his existence. That, coupled with Inugami, always outperforming him and the newest genius of the Uchiha Clan, deeply wounded Taiko’s paper-thin ego. Since then, he never let a chance go to show his jealousy and hostility towards Inugami.

“I see, sitting here with your lapdog like always, as expected of you Sasuke.”

“Congratulation, with every day you become even more insufferable. I truly pity your mother. You must have been her greatest regret.” Inugami answered him in a calm tone, looking at him as if he was examining a particularly big and ugly bug. “ — Actually — what was your name again?”

His pale cheeks already flushed, Taiko gritted his teeth. “Seriously, what kind of toddler-type insult is this? You clearly know my name, mutt!”

“No, I’m serious.” Inugami shook his head, looking absolutely sincere. “It’s just that, you know, the human brain is not good at retaining irrelevant information.”

At this point, Taiko was glaring so hard that Inugami was surprised that his eyes didn’t turn red and start to bleed.

Taiko whipped his head furiously towards Sasuke and said. “Sasuke, how long will you keep company with this vulgar mongrel, especially as the son of the patriarch?”

“Shut up Taiko! A loser like you has no right to tell me anything, and even less insult Inugami when you know he outshines you in everything positive. It’s quite pathetic, honestly.” Sasuke’s tone was icy. He would let nobody insult his friend, even if it was a fellow clansman.

With hatred in his eyes, Taiko sniffed. “No wonder your father prefers Itachi over you, you are a disgrace to the Uchiha! Anyway, you won’t be talking so big after I become the first Uchiha Hokage.”

With that, he whirled around dramatically and made his way to the front row. Inugami had to hold Sasuke back.

Ignoring Sasuke’s glare, Inugami whispered to him. “Patience Sasuke, we are on the cusp of becoming shinobi. It wouldn’t look good to hospitalize a ‘comrade’, would it? We simply have to wait for a moment in the future without witnesses.”

Hearing that Sasuke calmed down, though his dark eyes gained a glimmer of malice. “I call dibs on him, though.” Inugami conceded with a nod, knowing that Taiko hit a sore spot with that comment about his father.

Secretly, Taiko’s behavior gave Inugami some comfort. He still acted like most Uchiha in the past. In this time-line, the whole Uchiha affair went down the same way. The Uchiha, arrogant as they were, often abused their position as the Konoha Police, to lord over the villagers. Police brutality was not rare. This earned the ire of many, and it got worse after the Kyuubi incident. Noting the absence of the Uchiha during the catastrophe, the villager were asking about their whereabouts and soon even theorized that they were the reason for the tragedy. The Uchiha, obviously feeling wronged, increased their hostility even further, thinking it was justified. Then, over the years, the tension between both parties increased further and further, until things were ready to erupt. Inugami fully expected the clan’s demise around the time the massacre happened in the canon.

But it never came.

One day, the angry Uchiha suddenly turned peaceful and treated the villagers with civility. Slowly, the tension between them and the village subsided, though many still held their grudges against them. Inugami assumed that the plan that involved Shisui’s eyes succeeded, though he was highly suspicious of the situation.

Even if they managed to mind-control Fugaku, it doesn’t explain the change of heart of all the other Uchiha member. Call him paranoid, but Inugami finds the whole situation fishy. It also doesn’t help that the Uchiha’s are unstable people that can decide to destroy the world after one traumatic event and a bit of manipulation, and their eyes are more than happy to help them. The more edgy the Uchiha gets, the more their eyes become powerful. If Inugami had his way, he would let the massacre happen. It would have removed a lot of risk-factors.

“I’m first!”

“I’m first!”

Barging in completely breathless, and bringing Inugami out of his musing, were two girls, blond and pink.

With a fixed smile, Ino Yamanaka narrowed her light blue eyes at her former friend Sakura Haruno.

“What are you saying?” With an equally fake smile, Sakura answered her “love rival.” “The tip of my foot got in one centimeter faster.”

“You must be blind.” And with that, the two bickered until Sakura noticed the youth next to Inugami. She promptly skipped to them. From the corner of his eye, Inugami could see Sasuke clenching his jaw.

“M-Morning Sasuke…” With her hands clasped, and a healthy blush on her face, she greeted the Uchiha in a shy voice. “And good morning to you Inugami.” Sakura also greeted Inugami politely, but soon focused her eyes on Sasuke again.

Sasuke simply stared at her blankly and said nothing.

“Mind if I sit next to you?” She alluded to the empty seat next to him.

Though Ino also made it here and got a hold on Sakura’s arm. “Hey! I’m going to sit next to Sasuke.”

Sakura shot her an irritated look. “First come, first served!”

“I got in the classroom sooner!”

Though soon the civilian-born girls joined the fray.

“Hmph, by that logic, I get the seat. I was here before you two!”

“And I was before you here!”

“So unfair, there is no seat free besides Inugami…”

“I want to sit on Inugami’s lap!”

Through all this, and while also receiving glares from countless boys, Inugami and Sasuke were sitting there stoically, waiting for their teacher Iruka to arrive. Though Inugami noted, Ino ignored the squabble to glare at him. Being used to this behavior from her, he simply flipped her off.

- - -

“Now Inugami, only the clone jutsu is left.” In another classroom. Inugami stood in front of both Iruka and Mizuki. Both sat at a table with a bunch of forehead protectors on it, they waiting expectantly for him to show the last jutsu of the exam.

Inugami, finally able to show the result of his hard work, formed one Hand Sign. “Shadow Clone Jutsu!”

*Poof*

Under the wide eyes of the two teachers, two perfect and physical copies of Inugami emerged from the smoke. Inugami vowed to himself to use this technique one day, ever since he found it in Tsume’s private jutsu collection. The Inuzuka rarely possess a large amount of chakra and thus have to make use of Soldier Pills. Most of his clan-members cannot use the Shadow Clone Jutsu, and opt for the less chakra demanding alternative, the Beast Human Clone. But Inugami did not accept that, and underwent physical training, meditation, and education to painstakingly raise his chakra to this level. And now he could use a Jutsu that would kill any of his classmates, besides Naruto and maybe Sasuke, if they were to try using it.

“Marvelous! You truly are a genius, Inugami.” Mizuki clapped his hands and smiled like the sleazy sycophant he was. Inugami was curious if he was still a spy for Orochimaru in this time-line, and how he will deal with the whole scroll business with Naruto being as gullible anymore if he was.

Anyway, it was not Inugami’s job to deal with potential village spies. So he shifted his attention to Iruka, who also wore a smile, but a different one compared to Mizuki. It was a smile of pride.

Iruka was one of the few people who knew just how hard Inugami worked to use something like the Shadow Clone Jutsu. A Jutsu that he himself could not use. And Inugami was not born with more chakra reserve than Iruka. He raised it with hard work only. This dedication and willpower in someone so young was the reason that Inugami, even though he would never admit out loud, was his favorite pupil.

“Wonderful Inugami!” Iruka picked up one headband, stood up, and made his way to Inugami. “You have come a long way since you appeared in my classroom for the first, and I can safely that I’m proud to be your comrade from now on. And so will be your mother and Lord Hokage. Though Lord Third will give you his opinion on his own soon, I’m sure.” Inugami nodded, unsurprised at his words, and took his headband from Iruka. He saw Mizuki frowning suspiciously at their exchange of words, but he kept his mouth shut.

“Thank you Mr. Iruka, I’ve enjoyed learning under you as well, and I hope you will still offer me advice in the future if I need it.” Inugami doubted he will ever need it, but there was no reason to be impolite. After all, Iruka was a nice guy, and he helped him with chakra control exercises like the wall- and water-walking technique, even though he didn’t need to. Inugami was grateful.

“Right…” Iruka’s smile got wider. “Now, I won’t hold you off any longer. Knowing you, I’m sure you will straight go to the training grounds. So good luck and Godspeed Inugami! Be careful out there.”

“Goodbye Mr. Iruka.” Ignoring Mizuki, Inugami turned on his heel and made his way out to the training grounds.

- - -

Ino Yamanaka was bored. Currently, she was overlooking the gaggle of students and parents in front of the academy. Children were proudly showing their headbands off; or they were being consoled by their parents, while looking devastated.

Unfortunately for Ino, her parents couldn’t make it here today. Her mother was down with the flu, and her father was busy with urgent work. It sucked for her, but his work — as the head of the Analysis Team from the Konoha Intelligence Division — was more important than celebrating her graduating as the highest scoring female in her class. Even her older brother was currently on a mission. It seemed like today would be a truly boring day.

Sighing, she swept her gaze again over the people and zeroed in on Naruto. He was currently defiantly puffing his chest out towards a bunch of glaring housewives — that didn’t look pleased at all with him graduating — a smug grin on his face. Honestly, Ino always wondered why most of the people shunned Naruto. Growing up in the Yamanaka Clan, she could tell that their dislike was not just simple annoyance over his trouble making nature, but genuine hatred and, even more prominent, a great deal of fear.

Ino frowned. Naruto was annoying, but otherwise he was completely harmless. He did nothing to warrant this treatment. When Ino asked her father about the reason for it, he was tight-lipped. He said that she should keep her nose out of this matter and simply treat Naruto like the rest of her classmates.

Such an answer obviously fanned the flame of her curiosity, but seeing her father’s serious face, she followed his advice. She might not be friends with Naruto, but she always treated him normally. She even stepped in many times when other students were bullying him. Because of her occasional temper and popularity, she made them back off most of the time. Naruto was grateful, though he always told her he was used to this, and he doesn’t need help. Ino grew mad at that and simply kept doing it.

Next she was looking at the Uchiha that was excitedly talking to his gorgeous mother — Ino was not jealous at all —. Luckily Sasuke inherited that beauty, and after looking at his face, Ino could understand why Sakura was so obsessed with him. In fact, normally she would try to bag such a fine specimen herself, but she simply could not. Every time she saw Sasuke’s face, another black-haired and dark-eyed visage replaces it, one that looked even more hands—.

‘Stop!’ Ino shook her head. She could already feel the familiar sensation of anger boil in her gut. Forcing herself to stop thinking about the matter, she focused on a rather peculiar sight.

Standing away further from the people, by the tree with the swing, were Hinata and Mizuki. Being good at lipreading, Ino caught the end of their conversation from Mizuki’s face.

“ — meet me there tonight, be prepared.” And with that, Mizuki walked back to the Academy.

“Oh, my…” Ino whispered. Her face looked positively intrigued. Honestly, Ino never knew what to think about Hinata. It was baffling to see a Hyuuga act like her, and her abysmal grades and skills were not helping. Ino suspected she has deep issues at home, because of constant depressed aura, but since interfering with the Hyuuga Clan was never a good idea, Ino and all the other people left her alone.

But she couldn’t ignore this situation.

‘Hmm, did Hinata fail, but Mizuki let her pass? And now he asked her to pay with her body tonight?’ Thanks to her bored and hormone filled mind, Ino already painted a situation between her timid classmate and their shifty teacher.

“Hehehehe, this looks like straight out of a novel!”

Ino, seeing Hinata making her way out inconspicuously, followed her with a giggle.

It seems like she found something interesting to ease her boredom. And if she could make Mizuki get into trouble to help Hinata, it would be all the better…

- - -

In a training ground on the outskirts of Konoha, Inugami was leaning on a wooden post, sleeping. Because of the location of the place, it was usually deserted (this was the reason it was Inugami’s favorite training spot), making Inugami the sole occupant.

“Dammit, did I really fell asleep? Guess I went a too far with the training today.” Suddenly Inugami opened his eyes blearily and let out a groan. Looking at the dark sky above, he clicked his tongue. “It’s already that late? Man, Mom will be pissed…”

*Rustle*

After some bushes moved in the vicinity, Inugami became wide awake shot to his feet. Assuming a stance, his hand went to slowly grab an average-sized scroll from his ninja-pouch. “Who is there? Show yourself!”

Even though Inugami was still in Konoha, he was still cautious. Call him paranoid, but he won’t let his guard down, even here.

“I-I’m sorry Inugami. It’s just me, Hinata.” Coming out of the bushes with a rustle was a familiar figure. The moon was reflecting her nervous pale eyes as she was looking at him cautiously, while twiddling with her fingers.

Inugami looked bewildered for a second, taken aback to see her here, but quickly a frown appeared on his face. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m here to take the make-up test. Did Mr. Mizuki ask you to help him?”

Inugami’s heart sank when he heard Mizuki’s name. “A test you say?” He asked her while approaching her.

Hinata’s cheeks reddened, and she looked at the ground. “Y-Yes, Mr. Mizuki said I could earn extra points with it, so I won’t be the dead last anymore.” She said in a tone filled with shame.

Realizing what this was about, Inugami quickly fed his nose chakra. He quickly whipped his head towards the bushes next to them and scowled in annoyance. “I know you are there. Come out already!”

“So sniffed me out, huh?” Coming out of the bushes was one of the two blond annoyances in his life.

“I-Ino?” Hinata squeaked out, surprised. “Were you following me?”

Inugami shook his head at her. Did the naïve idiot just walk through the forest at night, without activating the Byakugan at least once? Seriously, why is she trying to become a ninja, anyway? She is obviously not suited for it.

“Uh-huh.” Ino nodded in confirmation, but was soon glaring at him. “Damn you Inugami, at least you should thank me for sniffing me. I must smell heavenly after all!”

Rolling his eyes, Inugami was about to retort, but he suddenly stiffened. There was another scent. A scent he never smelled. A scent that lacked the unique quality of Konoha denizens.

“Finally figured it out, boy?” A rough and mocking voice echoed through the air, which was followed by a tall and burly man landing in the middle of the training ground, making Ino shut up and Hinata tremble. The moon gave light to a rough face and foreboding eyes; his headband glinting in the light, depicting a stone motif that was slashed through.

“Why are you here, Iwa-nin?” His arms tingling, Inugami asked the man about his intention, trying to buy time while he was desperately was trying to come up with a plan. Most missing-nins are bad news, and this guy didn’t look like an amateur.

The man smirked and looked intently at Hinata, making the poor girl almost faint. “I’m getting my ticket back to home. The missing-nin lifestyle got old really fast. Though I wasn’t told that there would be a bunch of extra brats waiting for me.” With that, he produced a big kunai blade, and he stared at Inugami menacingly.

Inugami’s thoughts were racing incredibly fast. He couldn’t simply abandon Hinata and Ino and make a run for it. The missing-nin was most likely a Jonin, and he would easily capture him, since Hinata and Ino cannot hold him off. He also can’t hope to beat him in a 1v1, and he can’t depend on Ino and Hinata to help him. They were frozen in fear. Inugami saw only one way to gain a sliver of a chance to survive this night.

“You two! Flee and get help, I’ll hold him off!” With that, Inugami darted from his position with great speed toward his opponent, while simultaneously unfurling his scroll and releasing a Ninjatō. He rained countless slashes on to the burly man, slicing the air every second, but his enemy calmly deflected every strike, and eventually sidestepped one of his attacks, going for the counter and causing Inugami to stumble. The man took advantage of the opening and went for the kill with a wide sweep, though Inugami swiftly ducked under the attack, not losing his head. He could feel the gust of wind, generated by the attack, above him.

Though suddenly his attention was disturbed by screams. His eyes darted to the cause of the noise, but that was a mistake. Suddenly the missing-nin was in front of him, the kunai blade raised high above his head, and with a grunt, he bore the blade down on him. Cursing under his breath, Inugami put the flat-side of his sword on his left palm and blocked the attack. The attack hit Inugami with the force of a raging bull and made his arms ache. His blade cracked, but he could hold a stalemate. This gave him the chance to glance at his classmates.

Their ankles were encased by bindings that were made from dirt. They were shooting him desperate glances, while trying to, unsuccessfully, escape their confinement, Hinata gentle-fist strikes, not doing anything. ‘Earth Snake Jutsu!’ Inugami recognized the technique. It gave you the ability to create earth snakes that could move on their own underground and bind the target. Though the technique was super slow and because of that really unpopular, which made Inugami believe his opponent was someone not talented in range attacks. But if it was slow, how did they get —.

Inugami's eyes flew wide open with rage, and he felt the same inexplicable feeling from the morning. He looked at Hinata and realized that her Byakugan was still not activated. That stupid and weak fool! If she had activated her ability like any normal person, she would have been easily able to evade the attack and successfully flee. But she didn’t! Out of fear and incompetence, she forgot to use it, opting to mindlessly run like some stupid damsel in distress. They were going to die because of her!

Realizing that, his ears pounded, and an incredible amount of adrenaline rushed through him. Snarling, he pushed his opponent back with newfound energy, earning a surprised look.

The missing-nin let out a whistle. “Color me impressed boy, you strength is top-notch. If I were some shitty chunin, I would be dead a long time ago. Seriously, what does Konoha feed their kids?”

Inugami didn’t answer him and released his scroll. In his hand was a smoke bomb.

This was it. If his next attack won’t work, he would die and Hinata would become some breeding stock for Iwa.

“What do you think you can do with a smoke bomb, boy? Don’t entertain the delusion of escaping me!”

With a look of determination, Inugami let the bomb detonate, obscuring himself. Soon after, his Ninjatō soared out of the smoke, approaching the missing-nin with great speed.

Snorting mockingly, the man dodged it almost lazily. “Abandoning your blade? You have lost, Boy. Goodbye!” With that he took off with great speed and the smoke, dispersing it, and revealing Inugami cut in half.

“Inugami!”

“Inugami!” Both girls were horrified, tears gathered in their eyes as they witnessed their classmate getting brutally murdered.

“Phew, I’m lucky to have met you today, boy. I shudder to think what you could have become in the future.” A self-satisfied smile formed on his face, but it was quickly wiped away when the ‘corpse’ of Inugami puffed into smoke. “What!” There was another poof behind him and he tried, wide-eyed, to turn around. ‘The sword!’

But it was already too late.

Tiger → Snake → Tiger → Bird → Tiger → Ram

Never having formed hand seals this fast, he thrusted both of his palms, that produced a copious amount of purple lightning, forward and released it toward his enemy, with a yell. “Thunderbolt Jutsu!”

Not being able to react in time, the technique struck into him with a mighty bang. Everyone watching was momentarily blinded by the huge purple light. The smell of was ozone was in the air. ‘Even a Jonin cannot shrug off a technique like that if it hits him head on.’ Inugami thought he was blinking to regain his vision. When he could see again, he was quickly filled with elation. The charred and smoking body of his opponent was laying there, face first, unmoving.

“Hah, Hah…” Inugami was panting, his chakra output finally taking a toll on him. “I did it… ha ha. I did it!” He experienced the first battle against a jonin, before even leaving the village. Yet, he won.

The girls, seeing this, were elated.

“Sniff, I’m glad that you are alive, idiot.” There was none of Ino’s usual hostility towards him. She was smiling in relief. Hinata stayed silent, unable to say anything, but nodded her head in agreement.

“Of course I am. Someone had to pick up the slack up after all.” Inugami was now grinning smugly.

“Oh, are you sure about that, boy?” The sudden familiar voice next to him sent a shiver down his spine. The smell of burned stone was assaulting his nose, as the body laying on the ground broke into pieces. ‘A rock clone!’ “Now, I must truly commend you! To be pushed that far by a genin. Too bad for you though, that I’m cautious against anyone, even genins. I always send a clone first.”

Inugami could only steal a quick glance at him, before he was struck by an enormous fist in his face, — hard —. Inugami’s body flew away, impacted the ground, and bounced multiple times across the ground until his back hit one of the wood posts.

“Gah!” Inugami spat out blood, his breath stolen away from him. The entire world was shaking, as he was helplessly staring at the approaching man with his kunai blade in his hand. He could barely perceive the voices of the man and the girls, as he was snorting out a huge amount of blood from his crushed nose, the chilly feeling of his imminent doom gripping his heart.

Am I really going to die here?

Did all the training amount to nothing?

Was this truly the fate of the ordinary people in this world?

Being nothing more than cannon fodder?

Will I get reincarnated again?

Countless questions were going through his head, as the same inexplicable feeling was pulsing through him, stronger than ever before.

I don’t want to die.

“At the end you still went down after one after hit… I guess you are still a kid, huh?”

I don’t want to die.

“But don’t be sad. At least you will have one hell of a story to tell in the afterlife.”

I don’t want to die!

The man stood now in front of his prone body, his sword raised above his head.

“I bid you farewell, boy. You have earned my respe—“

Suddenly, it became deathly quiet. The incredulous eyes of the missing-nin went down to look at his chest. There, protruding, though his heart, was the tip of a black blade. “W-Wait, how?” Weakly moaning his last question, the man never got an answer. His body lost its strength and fell down face first, dead.

Inugami weakly pushed himself to his knees and laid his confused eyes on the sight before him. On the corpse of the former enemy was a puppy. A weird puppy, with a black body and gleaming red eyes. And it had a sword sticking out of its forehead, with the missing-nin’s blood still dripping from it.

Inugami barely registered Hinata and Ino rushing to him, and simply observed the puppy blankly. The puppy stared back at him, equally blank.

Inugami just shook his head and wiped the blood from his face, but then he realized that there was a weird mark on his hand. A mark that was definitely not there before the fight. The puppy was growling at it. Inugami couldn’t take it anymore.

“What the fuck?!”