Two days later
Akashi was standing in front of the small water expense of his home
His hands were locked into hand seals
Chakra was gathered at the soles of his feet.
Over the last two days, he had used his Sharingan to measure exactly of much chakra he needed to walk on water.
Using his Sharingan, he had already succeeded.
He had walked on trees, and on water too.
Now, he was remembering the feeling - that feeling he had when the adhesive property of chakra helped him walk on trees, that intangible feeling that allowed him to walk on water.
After a minute of focus
His eyes snapped open
Whoosh
In a fluid move, he jumped forward
Tap
Without a trouble, he landed on the water; his feet didn't sink.
A smile appeared on his face
"Whohoo, well done, young master."
On the shore, a red-haired woman, one of his attendants, shouted in encouragement
His smile widened, and he slowly walked forward on the water.
His movements were not flawless; in fact, he was a little clumsy.
He sometimes made a few mistakes, and his feet sank a little from time to time, but he always managed to fix the problem.
When he activated the Sharingan, his moves were calm and steady.
Having the ability to see how your chakra reacts to the water made things a lot easier; this is why this time he was not using it, but was going by the feeling in his guts.
'Indeed, I am a genius,' Akashi thought, walking on the water
He knew how difficult it really was to walk on water.
Water walking meant that you had the control of a chunin; when he was looking at things through a scream he thought that water walking was an ability that every genin could do.
In reality, most genin will never have the ability or the dexterity to do that.
But of course he wasn't comparing himself to mere genin; he was comparing himself to geniuses of Konoha, like Kushina, who was living at the Senju compound, Nawaki, Orochimaru, Tsunade and Minato.
Being a young master of the Uchiha clan had some advantages; he could get information on the speed of their training or how long it took them to do this or that exercise.
Even for the most gifted, it took months or weeks before they could walk on trees or water
"It took me a week max."
'Of course the sharingan helped, but the sharingan is part of me so, yeah, I am a genius,'
With that, he started jogging.
His steps were unsteady; he wobbled a lot but always managed not to sink completely
The water never reached his knees. He continued jogging for a long time, about an hour. Akashi was full on running on the water.
Even ordinary ninja would have fallen dead of exhaustion a long time ago.
The amount of chakra necessary to run on water for an hour was not something that any ordinary ninja could manage.
But the physiology of Akashi, a perfect mix of Uchiha and Uzumaki, allowed him to do what most could never dream of.
Under the shade of a great tree, Mikado and Tetsuma, his grandparents, were relaxing on their respective reclining chairs while drinking alcohol.
"This child is really talented!" Mikado said, looking at Akashi running on the water, "and he has a lot of unconventional ideas."
"Indeed, to use the Sharingan as an instrument of measurement to adjust the output of his chakra. Genius!" Tetsuma said. As a Uchiha, he knew of the ability of the Sharingan
"I don't think that anyone ever thought of using it like that," he said, looking at his grandson with pride
"And why is that?"
"Huh?"
"Why is it that no one ever thought of using the Sharingan like that? With the ability to see chakra, it should be one of the first things that you use it for," Mikado asked
Now that she looked at what Akashi was doing, it seemed strange that it wasn't used like that
"Well." Mikado scratched his head for a few seconds,
"I guess, maybe tradition. You see, we Uchiha revere the Sharingan; it is a symbol of power, so! It might be a reason. Plus the Sharingan is not so easy to use; the eyes themselves use a lot of chakra, so using it to train your chakra control is not something that a kid can do, and a jonin should be able to, but by that time they reach that level they don't need it."
"Or maybe they died on the battlefield," Mikado said. She had seen it hundreds of times, smart kids, ninjas with inventive minds, but not enough talent or luck to survive on the battlefield long enough for their ideas to be implemented.
"Or they had been eliminated by the narrow minded peoples of the clans who have a strange mindset about the Sharingan."
Tetsuma's understanding of the Sharingan and the Uchiha was vast; he was an elder of the clan after all, so he could give a pretty good analysis of his clan and its strange quirks.
"In the end, you're all hot-headed idiots!" Mikado scoffed. "And people say the Uzumaki are stupid"
After a few seconds, a laugh echoed in the compound
Tetsuma's laugh was genuine, and it lasted nearly a minute
He thought of all the Uchiha he had known in his life, and he couldn't help it
"Yeah, I guess, we are indeed quite stupid, yes."
It was his honest opinion now of his clansmen, but it wasn't just his clansmen,
"It just occurred to me that most ninjas are genuinely quite simple-minded."
"Indeed," Mikado replied softly. "If we Uzumaki were smarter, we wouldn't have bet on Konoha only."
She said her honest thought
The two elder seated under the shade of the tree sipped their drink while looking at their shared grandson running in the water with a quiet smile.
An understanding passed between them.
"Our old ideas should not limit the future of that child," Tetsuma said
"No, it shouldn't," Mikado agreed
....
Hours later
The sun had set, and Akashi's training was over
Akashi, Mikado, and Tetsuma were sitting together in the dining room, a spread of different kinds of meals in front of them.
While Tetsuma was finishing his second serving, the two Uzumaki had already eaten about five plates.
"I'm full," Akashi said, putting down his sixth plate,
"Are you sure? You spent a lot of energy today," his grandmother asked
"Certain, I can't eat like you."
"It will come," she said, turning her attention back to her food
"I am always fascinated by how much you Uzumaki can eat," Tetsuma said, looking at his measly two plates of food
Ninjas consume much more than ordinary civilians, but the Uzumaki are another matter altogether.
"Well, what can I say, this is innate," Akashi said with a smile, getting up.
"Wait, Akashi, I have things to discuss with you," Mikado said
"Alright."
As he sat back down, his grandmother's speed of eating increased at an extraordinary speed,
After images appeared in front of Akashi, and in an instant all the food disappeared from her stomach.
'What incredible speed, grandma really is the best,' he thought, clapping his hands in admiration
"Alright, let's be serious," she said seriously, putting her final bowl down
The table was quickly clear and a seal isolated the room
From his sleeve Mikado took out an exquisite scroll and gave it to Akashi.
"What is it?" Akashi asked
"This is the seal making you the head of the Uzumaki clan," Mikado said
Akashi's eyes widened at that sentence; it was like an explosion went of in his mind.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Akashi asked; the confusion in his mind was reflected in his gaze
"I thought..."
"You thought the Uzumaki clan had been exterminated!" Mikado finished
After he had given her the information of the attack on Uzushiogakure until now, his grandmother hadn't said one word about it since. Even after the news of the destruction of Uzushiogakure arrived, she hadn't told him anything
He thought that he had given the information too late for anything to be changed, so to avoid making her sad, he hadn't said a word about it
"You aren't wrong. Uzushiogakure was destroyed, and the majority of the clan was destroyed, but a few members of our branch managed to survive thanks to your warning."
"The others, well..."
She didn't finish, but Akashi was smart enough to understand
"The day you told me your... vision, I sent a message using one of my summoning birds, but it was shot down before it even left my field of perception. It confirmed that Konoha was our enemy. Luckily, I am a Uzumaki; summons is one of our specialties, and of course summoning a message is a thing easy for me to use."
"You summon one creature here and undo the summoning, and it sends the message for you."
"I - I see, so others survive, huh? How many are they, where are they right now?" Akashi asked, a glint appearing in his eyes
"Not many, about a hundred and less than fifty ninjas; they are hidden in one of our strongholds in the ninja world, hidden from everything and everyone. You know of the war raging outside, right?" she asked, and Akashi nodded
"They can't afford to be noticed by anyone, or they will swarm from all sides, and they can't come to Konoha either, so you won't be seeing them anytime soon."
"They need to regain power; the fact that everyone believes them dead is the only real advantage that we have," Akashi nodded; he knew all that. A hundred people was nothing against a village, even a minor one, their status as a dead clan was now their best shield
"But they know that they owe you their lives. And they will follow your command when you are ready," Mikado said
"Thank you, Grandma," Akashi said, looking at the scroll in his hands with reverence
'So I am a clan head now, huh? I have so many Ideas for the Uzumaki,' he thought
"So," a smile appeared on his grandmother's face as she looked at him cradling the scroll in his hand
"What direction do you have for your Uzumaki. Clan head Akashi!"