33 Three years later

It had been three long years. Konoha had maintained what seemed like peace, but the drums of war were ready to be played at any time.

As time passed, the Uchiha clan got stronger. The jutsu that the now disappeared Jin had left them had become the staple of their clan, as adults and young members learned it after activating their eyes. They had risen to an even higher position when it came to power.

This did not sit well with the other clans, and rumors had started to spread about the Uchiha planning to become the leaders of the village. The rest of the village, instead of seeing it as an asset, saw their strength as a danger.

The second Hokage had established the notion that the clan was one of hatred and betrayal, a cursed clan that only brought disaster along with it. Danzo and his organization had done a very good job planting seeds of discord throughout the past three years.

The relationship between the clan and the village wasn't very stable, and through the prompting of Danzo, Hiruzen made the decision to give the Uchiha land further away from where most of the people were.

Through the loss of most communication and position amongst their peers, the members of the clan had started to harbor seeds of hatred for the village in their hearts. Nurturing it every day as the clan got more and more despised by the others.

Some ninja from certain clans even refused to go on missions with Uchiha, and some of the kids in the academy, including Mikoto, got ganged up on and bullied for being Uchiha. This only further fanned the flames that lit up the hearts of the clan. Their hearts were already like an oil lamp, ready to burn at any given stimulus.

Things were especially tense with the Hyuuga and Senju clans, they already had long-dating rivalries between them, and the whole situation only further bolstered them to take action. People from these three clans could be seen fighting over the smallest things all over Konoha. Be it in missions, or on the street.

With their recent rise in strength, the Uchiha managed to maintain their position as one of the strongest clans if not the strongest in the village. That was the only thing that kept them going, the pride for their strength and the hope that it would one day speak for itself and retrieve their honor.

All of the members of the clan knew that this was all caused by envy, and the fact that the third Hokage hadn't really done anything at the respect only further aggravated them.

"Sigh... If this continues... I do not know what will happen."

Goro lied on his chair, as he went over some paperwork in his office. He hadn't seen his son in three years, and the clan was getting out of control. As the leader, he had to leave everything personal aside and think for the clan itself. To say that it was a hard job would be an understatement.

Lately, he had been worried about the clan's future. Without Jin, they would have to rely on Fugaku and Hideki to pave the way, but he did not know how much they had progressed over the past years. They were still nine-year-old genin after all.

This worry that he had was further increased by the fact that the Senju had just given rise to a generational genius. He was the hidden son of the first Hokage, only the higher-ups such as the clan heads in the village knew this. His name was none other than Akurama Uzumaki. He used his mother's last name to not further jeopardize his safety.

What Goro was scared about, was that this ten-year-old kid was born with a Kekkei-Genkai. And it had to be wood release, the feared secret nature of the first Hokage.

Not many knew this, and Goro had found out through luck. The third Hokage did not know about him possessing this information. If it was leaked, certain people would definitely target the kid's genes and cells.

Up until now, Mito Uzumaki had kept her son a secret. She decided that he was able to defend himself and had him enroll at the academy at the age of nine. He graduated in a couple of months, beating records and had accomplished many missions as a genin in the past year. He would most probably participate in the Chuunin exams this month if everything went well.

"Grrrr..." Goro was mad because he knew that if Jin was here, he would be the number one Konoha rookie. Not this Senju brat.

Another rising star was a certain Minato Namikaze. He had been in the academy for three years now and appeared to be a genius with intelligence never quite seen before. He was on the road to reach the skies when it came to strength.

The Uchiha had continued with their search of Jin for the past three years, but nothing came out of it. They were this close to giving up.

Hanami had been fine. She received yearly messages from her son telling her to keep quiet about his situation, and that he was fine. Whenever she received the first message she bawled out for a whole night in relief. The pressure of having to lose your husband and your son was too much, as she nearly took her own life to reunite with them one time.

Mikoto had also received letters from Fugaku. It seemed that these two had something going on behind the scenes...

The Sannin had already become Chunnin two years ago. Jiraiya had left after having been summoned by the toads to have a prophecy told to him. It was something along the lines of:

'You will have to support a certain character to achieve true peace. To complete this task, you have to travel and learn about the world, in order to become a great aid in the chosen one's path.'

Jiraiya had felt the pressure, but he took it like a champ and decided to mature as he left on a tour around the world. It had been two years since he hadn't come back.

Tsunade had taken on the path of being a medical ninja, after finding out about her talent in chakra control, she decided to develop her strength in this area. Jin had also sent her a couple of letters. He knew that a certain Dan would appear sooner or later, and Tsunade was the first girl he ever felt something like this with.

Orochimaru had disappeared, his whereabouts only known to Jiraiya and Tsunade. he had set out on a mission similar to Jiraiya's, but his was to learn all he could in terms of ninjutsu and master everything he could find.

One other thing to take note of was that Duy had come back and had become the first ninja ever to graduate without the use of ninjutsu or genjutsu. Danzo was against this, but after some prompting from Chen, they had to compromise.

Duy had been great as a genin and had outclassed many of his generation who had become chuunin already in strength. If any of them had a fight with him, they would all lose.

-------------------------------------------

Back in Yatagarasu Canyon.

A young man with long, black hair that reached his lower back was sitting on a stone plank, balanced on a huge, sharp spike.

It was none other than Jin. His Chakra had awakened two weeks ago, and he had developed a habit to meditate like this when he felt anxious. It helped him remain calm and controlled.

These three years had been incredibly productive. Although he had no access to his chakra, he learned all about the Uzumaki clan's sealing methods, including the most powerful ones, such as the reaper death seal from the anime.

Of course, using them was different from learning the theory behind them.

Ever since he had awakened his chakra two weeks ago, he had managed to perform seals up to the B-rank level. And was easily capable of sealing items or people into things.

"Sealing will come in handy one day." Jin opened his eyes and though out loud. Without losing his balance, he got up and disappeared in a flash, reappearing one-hundred meters away as a loud clap of thunder was heard through the area. This was a new technique that he had developed in the past few weeks, his very own Jutsu, the Thunder-Step. Small, black bolts of electricity flickered around him.

By applying a lightning-natured chakra dose to the cells inside his body, he managed to accelerate them to momentarily achieve around one and a half times the speed of sound. It was just as fast as Hideki's wind coat before they separated.

To perform this technique you needed a good understanding of the flicker and how the cells worked in the body. His understanding of both had reached a very high level, especially the cells part because of his previous world.

"Hehehe, with this, let's see who stops me." Jin was proud of his achievement. Creating a Jutsu was hard, and he estimated that this one was close to an S-Rank movement technique.

One other prerequisite for this technique to work was that the body needed to not only have a high lightning attribute affinity, but it also needed to have a crazy physique. These past three years of working on his body with that huge crow had indeed paid off. He could now lift the rock that Karasu had lifted, although he needed to work seriously to do so. The nature energy had also tempered him further.

"Jin, follow my chakra as I guide you to your mental space..." An ethereal voice sounded in his ears as he looked around in fright.

"Who?!"

"It's me... Tsukuyomi Mikoto. Just call me Mikoto-chan."

"Tsu- Tsukuyomi?!?!"