Crossroads (A Naruto Fanfiction)

One Step Back

Itachi sat on the porch and watched us as Father instructed me. "We'll start off small. Every day for these three months, you will run for thirty minutes every morning before and after breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Itachi will show you the warm-ups needed to be done before and after your run." I glanced at Itachi and caught his gaze. He nodded reassuringly. "This is to increase your stamina systematically. For physical strength, you will wear weights from morning till lunch. Once you get used to the weight, you'll begin to wear the weights from morning till night - for a week at most - before moving onto heavier weights. Your mother will monitor you. Itachi," Father calls, "Teach him the warm-ups before the first run."

"Yes, father." As the always obedient son, Itachi took his time to teach me the warmups. Once I got a handle on the general forms, Itachi helped me put on the 10 kg weights on both my wrists and ankles. I didn't think 10 kg would be that heavy for me, but I sometimes forget that I have a toddler's body. I did my run before I completely lost my breath after ten minutes. It wasn't even a full-on run but a jog that even I used to keep up in my past life.

"Satsuki, are you alright?" Itachi asked me as he crouched beside my panting form. I nodded as an answer. "Don't worry about this, you've just begun to train so this is expected." He said as he wiped the sweat off my forehead.

It hurt completing the thirty-minute run, or jog if I were to be specific. My chest and lungs burned and my heart beat a thousand miles a second. My body trembled even after the warm-ups, and this didn't change even after a week. One thing that my parents and Itachi knew was that- this was not normal.

.

.

.

The Uchiha clan's personal medic came into the checkup room as she flipped through the papers on her clipboard. My parents waited patiently as she looked over the data for the third time. Her expression seemed a little confused before she said, "Uchiha Satsuki... If I were to say, he has an imbalanced amount of yin and yang energy."

"What does that mean exactly?" Mother asked.

"Specifically, he has about fifteen percent more spiritual energy than physical energy. However, what's most odd about this is the fact that those who've had even just two percent more spiritual energy than physical are chakra sensitive."

"Ah..." Mother gripped me in her lap a bit tighter. "He's always been a sort of... abnormal case."

"Yes, I can tell." The medic-nin said. "Having so much spiritual energy in itself is a strange case. The most imbalanced chakra recorded before this was a seven percent difference. Extreme chakra sensitivity is the only harmful part of all of this." She took a moment to assess me. The stare of hers made me cringe into myself a bit more. "Satsuki-Kun, have you ever felt strange before as if you could feel a person without touching them?"

I shook my head to answer no.

"I see," The medic checks something off on her clipboard. "Then have you noticed any lack of strength before?"

I paused before I could shake my head again as something popped into my mind. Right, I did notice something weird before. The times I would go outside to take a walk with Mother to pick up Itachi, even before when I used to come over to the clinic for my daily nutritional shots, when father took me to the training grounds, I would lose my breath just from walking.

I nodded my head.

My mother took a deep breath and rested her cheek atop my head as she whispered softly, "Why didn't you tell me Satsuki?" I wanted to tell her that I didn't know it mattered, but as always, my voice remained silent.

"You can continue to train your son, but it will take much longer than normal for him to reach the standard strength of a child his age. If you notice any signs of chakra sensitivity, please report it into his medical files Fugaku-sama." She handed him a paper. "Also, having so much spiritual energy, if he doesn't have the physical strength to become a field shinobi, becoming a medic is still an option. Actually, I greatly recommend it if there's no risk of chakra sensitivity."

I turn to Father and found that his eyes were closed as he stood beside us. For some reason I felt regret for disappointing him like this. Most of all, I hated myself for being such a burden, for having so many problems. For losing that one step forward in protecting Itachi. I wanted to bash my head against a wall and scream at the heavens for giving me a second chance I didn't know I'd be able to fulfill, handicapping me along the way.

If it were Athen... If Athen were to be in my place, he'd have already been able to achieve so much more, instead of wallowing away for more than a year. He may have avoided being kidnapped. He may have been able to make Itachi happier than me.

Yet, here I was.

The moment we entered our home, Father went straight to his study. I felt my nerves spike at his actions but mother's comforting helped me some. She laid out a small meal for me to eat. "I'm always here, Satsuki. I'll always be by your side." She said and my heart warmed.

I know. Itachi, Mother, even Father. I know they're there for me.

When will I be able to be there for them?