Naruto : Domination

(10 October )

Second year of academy.

I didn't even realize it, but when I was five Konoha was at war; The Third Great Ninja War. I had to work on my awareness, having difficulties with the language was an excuse that I could use no longer. 

I was seven, and finally, I could speak and read Japanese fluently. My choice of keeping my thought in English slowed me down, but my hope of making my mind not compatible with the Yamanaka mind-reading Jutsu was a hope too bright to ignore.

On the other hand, at age six, Itachi Uchiha enrolled in the Academy, where he constantly scored the highest in each subject and quickly learned any skill taught to him. He was praised as the best of his generation. 

The academy started in September, and since the first of October, Itachi had been placed with the second years. 

I did not doubt that he would be pushed forward once more once November came forth, memory told me that his teachers unanimously wanted him to take the graduation exam early. Itachi was more than advanced enough for genin.

Another complication had been his awkward loneliness and general quiet demeanor. Fangirls existed already, but, luckily enough, were shy enough to steer clear of him. 

And, and my reputation as slug eater was the nail in the coffin. Itachi would sit close enough to me during lunch, enjoying his riceballs rice balls in solitude.

Since April, I'd been spending my afternoons on the academy's grounds, using their obstacle courses or training posts to better condition my body. This caused me to arrive at the orphanage late into the night. 

Sneaking in and out had quickly become child's play, and on the rare occasions I'd been caught, a couple of times even by the Uchiha Police Force, I insisted that I needed to train, that always led me to being left alone. Turns out curfew only existed when the war was in full swing.

That was the official reason, my real motive had been preparing for that night. The only place I was sure to have remained intact and was accessible to me was the academy. 

I remembered Naruto's birthday was on the tenth of October. And I was still trying to understand why they used a Roman calendar. This was yet another paradox of the world I had fallen into.

Itachi had taken to stay staying behind with me after the academy closed, probably pushed by a misplaced sense of pity. He thought I was lonely! Ha!

Well, I am a bit lonely. I admitted, tilting my head to look at my younger companion. He was the human version of the drawings of him I remembered from the manga. Dark eyes and hair, the most delicate features.

I looked around. The light wind had turned chilly, and the autumn was making itself known with leaves of bright yellow and blood-red twirling around, indifferent to the disaster that was about to take place.

We were sitting at a wooden table, under one of the street lamps that stood on the border of the academy' grounds.

Itachi moved the piece on the crude board that I had engraved on the table. "Checkmate," he muttered, his face blank, but I could see a spark of amusement hidden deep into his eyes.

I studied the western chessboard that I claimed was my invention, the pieces engraved crudely with kanji for samurai (pawn), genin (bishops), chunin (knights), jonin (rooks), Kage (queen), and peace (king). 

We both found it amusing that our pieces were waging war to protect their peace the fact that our pieces waged war to protect their respective peace, amusing. 

Another way Itachi showed he was far more intelligent and mature than any six-year-old child had any right to be, I'd taught him the rules two hours before our first match. This was our fourth match. Annoying genius bastard. I thought.

I carefully hid my frown behind a poker face. "It must be very boring being a genius." I sniffed.

I wasn't a great chess player, but I'd hoped to kick the ass of the secretly smug bastard.

"The worst of it is that I know that you aren't you're not feeling the tiniest bit smug about winning," I whined. 

"What's the point of a game in which the if only one can win if the other does but not enjoy it?"

"We had a bet." he reminded me. "One that you requested."

"Bothersome," I muttered.

"But since you taught me this game, perhaps it'd be better if we shared stories, instead of winning them off each other with these matches you proposed." He added.

"Mostly because I would run out of stories to tell very fast." I answered. Not bloody likely, given my love for mythology and videogames, I have enough stories to keep talking until I die of old age. I thought.

We decided that I'd be the first one to share a story. Why did I ask for a story? Because mythology is a good way through which a culture can be understood, and there weren't books anywhere about the origins of the world. 

I took a deep breath, and let my tender seven years old voice take a somber timbre, setting the appropriate mood for that of a story shared around a fire. Even if there wasn't fire to be seen.

"Before this world came into existence, there was in its place, a confusing mass of shapeless elements called Chaos. 

These elements becoming at length consolidated and resolved themselves into two widely different substances, the lighter portion of which, soaring on high, formed the firmament and constituted itself into a vast, overarching vault, which protected the firm and solid mass beneath. 

Thus came into being the two first great primeval deities, Uranus and Gaia. Uranus, the more refined deity, represented the light and air of heaven, possessing the distinguishing qualities of light, heat, purity, and omnipresence, whilst Gaia, the firm, flat, life-sustaining earth, was the great all-nourishing mother. 

There were no shrines or temples made for her, instead, Gaia was held in such veneration that her name was always invoked whenever the gods took a solemn oath, made an emphatic declaration, or implored assistance."

I stopped briefly to take note of the six-year old kid in front of me. He looked interested, he was on the edge his seat, thirsty for more.

"Uranus, the heaven, united himself in marriage with Gaia, the earth, and they remain married. 

In fact, the smiles of heaven produce the flowers of earth, whereas his long-continued frowns exercise so depressing an influence upon his loving partner, that she no longer decks herself in bright and festive robes, but responds with ready sympathy to his melancholy melancholic mood. 

Such is the power of the sky's mood, that we call it summer or winter. 

The first-born child of Uranus and Gaia was Oceanus, the ocean stream, that vast expanse of ever-flowing water that encircled the earth. And you'll see that Ocean is still the son of his parents. 

After all, the ocean is formed from the rains which descend from heaven and the streams which flow from the earth. Uranus, the heaven, the embodiment of light, heat, and the breath of life, produced offspring who were of a much less material nature than his son Oceanus. 

These other children of his were supposed to occupy the intermediate space which divided him from Gaia. Nearest to Uranus, and just beneath him, came Aether, a bright creation representing that highly rarified rarefied atmosphere which immortals alone could breathe. 

Then followed Aer, which was near Gaia, which is the atmosphere we mortals can freely breathe, and without which we would perish. Aether and Aer were separated from each other by divinities called Nephelae. 

These were their restless and wandering sisters, who existed in the form of clouds, ever floating between Aether and Aer. 

Gaia also produced the mountains, and the Sea, who chose Pontus as his name. She united herself with the latter, and their offspring were the sea deities Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia."

The child in front of me seemed enthralled by the strange-sounding names, and to treat him, I picked up a paper from my bag and scribbled them on it with a pencil.

The child in front of me seemed enthralled by the strange-sounding names, and to treat him, I picked up a paper from my bag and scribbled them on it with a pencil.

"Along with Uranus and Gaia there were two mighty powers who were also the offspring of Chaos. These were Erebus, who is the Darkness, and Nyx, the Night, who formed a striking contrast to the cheerful light of heaven and the bright smiles of earth. 

Erebus reigned in that mysterious world below where no ray of sunshine, no gleam of daylight, nor vestige of health-giving terrestrial life ever appeared. Nyx, the sister of Erebus, represented Night, and she was the greatest of all since only Uranus could rival her. 

Uranus united himself with Nyx, but only in his capacity as god of light, and their children were Eos, the Dawn, and Hemera, the Daylight. 

But still, the world was empty to the eyes of the gods, and so, Uranus and Gaia produced two distinctly different races of beings called Giants and Titans. 

The Giants were unrelenting strength alone, but the Titans united to their great physical power a keen intellect that shaped their names. There were three Giants, Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges, who each possessed a hundred hands and fifty heads, and were known collectively by the name of Hecatoncheires, which signified hundred-handed. 

These mighty Giants could shake the universe and produce earthquakes by simply stomping their feet. But they each had fifty heads, and as such could not be reasoned with, since each of the heads tried to rule over the impossible strength and many limbs. 

The Titans were twelve in number; their names were: Oceanus, Ceos, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Cronus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys."

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