Right now, Yukio's hair was tied back into a short ponytail, strands falling down just in front of his ears so as to not get in the way of him eating his food.
He was about five feet tall, his pink eyes still remained with the same white pupils, only that his white eyelashes had only gotten thicker and longer thanks to Shuen's feathery texture.
His skin was still very pale, but it looked a lot more healthy now that his cheeks were slightly rosy.
Yukio's eyebrows stayed the same, though they appeared a darker shade of gray as opposed to the rest of his hair either being as white as snow or bright pink.
Asuma Sarutobi nodded in thought, taking note of Yukio's very unique appearance as the kid devoured almost half of their rations.
"Do you know why you look different? Do your parents share your appearance?" He asked, not sure if he was overstepping.
Yukio looked up from his food, some rice sticking to his upper lip as he looked to be in thought.
"Nope. Neither of my parents resemble me. Though, I share a hair and eye colour with my great ancestor. I do just think we had the same condition though, I recall someone calling it albinism? I'm not too sure of the specifics." Yukio replied, rubbing the back of his head.
Asuma nodded in thought once again, but before he could reply his attention shifted from Yukio to one of his students.
Yukio too, looked over towards the young girl who was slowly stirring awake.
With a yawn, the girl stretched her arms and sat upright, blinking slowly as if she had just had the best sleep of her life.
"Good morning, Ino." Asuma chuckled, looking at the girl whose hair was a mess.
Ino looked at him with groggy eyes before her attention shifted to the new arrival.
Her eyes shot open wide and she rushed to fix her hair and quickly changed her entire demeanor.
Coughing awkwardly, she looked at Yukio with a smile. "Hi there, my name is Ino Yamanaka, who… are you? And what happened to that creepy girl…" she said the last part quietly to herself, looking around before she looked closely at Yukio.
Her eyes widened further as she looked at his hair, realising it was the same colour as the person who had attacked them.
"You!" She yelled, making Yukio flinch.
The boy's eyes shook for a moment and he lowered his head. "I am sorry." He muttered.
Ino did not have this apology and immediately stood up, pointing at Yukio. "You attacked us, completely unprovoked!" She yelled before her attention shifted. "Huh? Sensei?"
She finally noticed Asuma sitting across from Yukio, her eyebrow raising in confusion.
"Calm down, Ino. It was a misunderstanding, he may have attacked us but he made up for it by healing you." Asuma said, shaking his hand as a signal for her to sit down.
She looked even more confused but sat down, still glaring at Yukio.
Yukio sighed and explained. "My name is Yukio Sunohara, I am eleven years old and from a village in the distance that was destroyed. I now wander around in search for a path to follow, or maybe to get stronger and stronger so that I can avenge my village. I have these wings, using the feathers I can heal people of almost any injury at the cost of a sizable amount of chakra." He said.
"Eleven?! Don't lie, there's no way someone younger than me could possibly manage to use an attack that powerful! And that still doesn't explain why you attacked us!" Ino suddenly spat.
Yukio nodded. "I… am definitely eleven. And yes, the reason I attacked was because I didn't know that I could even do that. Honestly, I didn't mean to injure any of you." He said.
Ino scowled and responded in outrage. "That's such a lie! Sensei, you can't believe this?! Surely!" She growled.
Asuma massaged his temples. "Why would he willingly spend so much chakra healing all of us if he actually meant to attack? If he wanted us dead he could've done it when we were all on the floor." He asked, making Ino realise she wasn't thinking right.
"Ah… right." She said, shifting uncomfortably as she reevaluated her opinion on Yukio, looking him up and down once more.
Yukio looked back at her, following her eyes as she scanned him. When she looked back up, they locked eyes and Yukio squinted, his white pupils locking with her black pupils.
She then looked away, blushing slightly out of embarrassment from being caught in the act.
Yukio did not care, instead he continued eating his food while the other two teenagers slowly woke up.
Instead of Yukio wasting his time explaining himself for the third time, Asuma explained it to him.
That's when Yukio finished his food and patted his stomach. "Thank you, now. When do you plan on leaving?" He asked.
Asuma sighed. "Kid, I can't just leave you here by yourself. It'll be bad on my conscience, how about you come back with us to the leaf? I'm certain you'd make a great ninja." He suggested.
But Yukio firmly denied it. "I'm sorry, I have no interest in becoming a ninja nor do I want to leave this area yet. I have unfinished business to take care of." He shook his head and replied.
Asuma sighed and took a drag of his cigarette.
Choji, the fat boy suddenly chimed in. "Why not? Being a ninja is pretty cool. Not to mention we have tons of really yummy food back in the village." He said, drooling slightly at the thought of food.
The final boy, Shikamaru, sighed. "This is such a drag. Sensei, we should just leave this kid. He clearly doesn't want to come or else he would've jumped at the opportunity." He mentioned.
Asuma nodded with a sigh. "I suppose you are right. If something happens to the kid, it'll be on me for the rest of my life, though." He said, glancing at Yukio.
Yukio chuckled. "Don't worry, I don't think I'll be dying any time soon." He said, patting his sword twice gently.
Ino glanced over once more, still a little sour at being attacked.
"Would you be able to point me in the direction of a village or town nearby? I need to gather some information before I make any moves." Yukio suddenly asked, realising this was a great opportunity to leave this cave.
Asuma hummed in thought, then clapped his hands together and pointed at Yukio with a smile. "Sure, we can even drop you off nice and safe before we continue." He said.
At that moment, something crossed Yukio's mind. "Oh yeah, what are you guys even doing over here?" He finally asked.
Asuma waved his hand. "It's nothing important, we were just sent here by Lord Hokage on a mission to search for someone, odds are we won't. The commissioner isn't even expecting us to find him, he's quite the mystery." He said, not expecting Yukio to continue on the topic.
But to his surprise, Yukio tilted his head. "Who are you looking for? I might know them."
"Hikaru Ōtsutsuki."
At that moment, Yukio flinched.
"Ōtsutsuki?!"
Shuen, who had been quiet up until now, suddenly said in outrage. This made Yukio's eyebrows furrow in confusion.
Shuen noticed this and explained himself.
"The Ōtsutsuki are a race of aliens that came down to this planet thousands of years ago and are the sole reason for chakra existing. My greatest enemy and the reason for the village's destruction belongs to this race, his name… Oroshiki Ōtsutsuki."
Yukio's eyes widened at the discovery, he now had an idea as to who his enemy was.
"But I had killed him that night. I am under the impression he had orchestrated the entire attack, but aside from him… there shouldn't be any Ōtsutsuki's anywhere near here. Not to mention this Hikaru is not a full blooded Ōtsutsuki or else his name would end in 'Shiki'."
Yukio slowly nodded subconsciously, making sure to remember all of this very important information about the secrets of the world.
Ino's eyebrow raised suddenly at Yukio's silence. "Do you know him?" She asked.
Yukio snapped back to reality, realising he was lost in conversation with Shuen. "Right, not exactly. But… I am familiar with that family name, I have heard it before." He said.
"Oh? Can you tell me where from?" Asuma asked, his expression suddenly hardening.
Yukio rubbed the back of his head. "I can't seem to remember." He awkwardly chuckled as Asuma's gaze sharpened slightly.
…
…
"So… all you can do is that?" Sora asked with an unimpressed expression on his face.
In front of him, there was a middle aged bald man with a sword performing his swordsmanship style.
The man's face turned sour and he raised an eyebrow at Sora. "All I can do is that? That's better swordsmanship than you will see in your entire life." He said with a proud grin.
Sora sighed and clicked his tongue. "Maybe that old man was the best I'd ever get. Not a single self proclaimed swordsman I've come across can compare to a fraction of his skill." He muttered just loud enough for the man to hear.
He scoffed. "And who exactly is this old man you speak of? Some legendary swordsman?" He asked with a sarcastic chuckle.
Sora glanced his way, pained to admit. "Actually, yeah. My tea—no, the man who tried to train me. It didn't work out, I'm starting to see I was too prideful and let my emotions overwhelm me." He groaned. "He was the greatest swordsman I have ever seen, probably one of the greatest people too. I hope he's doing alright, the old man's probably complaining to Yukio and making him start over!" He chuckled to himself, reminiscing.
The bald man rolled his eyes. "Whatever that means… Come on kid, is that all you wanted? To watch my technique and then complain? I've got fish to fry, do you mind?" He asked, shaking his hand.
"Sure, goodbye then." Sora said, walking away before glancing back and seeing the man walk away too.
He froze and his eyes narrowed. "He's not going to attack me? What a chill guy… normally they insist I show them my technique and then attack me." He said before nodding in approval.
Sora sighed once more as he left yet another village, it had been a few days and he still hadn't found a suitable teacher.
"Should I just… return? I'm sure that Fuko would be able to teach me or maybe the old man has a few new tricks for me." Sora muttered, staring off into the distance. He was starting to miss home, maybe he had gotten attached after all.
He thought of Fuko, he even thought of the old man. But the one he thought most about…
"Tch." Sora clicked his tongue. "Stupid Yukio. You better have gotten super strong in this time… or else our rematch will be over way faster than the first time!"