Chapter 3: The Summoning
Sigmund faintly remembered the events that had taken place during his trip to the Kumogakure ER. He remembered the final moments before his own teammate shot that deadly arrow, mistaking him for their arch enemy, Kotatsu. It happened so fast that the arrow shot right through his torso, creating a clean whole from the arrow and the energy. Both his female companions did their very best to keep him alive. Nanami used what little medical ninjutsu she knew to stop any more severe bleeding, or at least slow it down before they got him to the infirmary, whereas Nori tried to keep him conscious.
Uchiha Sakura had been called to the scene and she rushed from Konoha, which took hours due to the long gap from both villages. She worked her magic was able to repair his wounds; any broken bones or shattered bones were repaired on their own.
During the first night of recovery, Nori and Sigmund shared a brief moment, however it was more Nori confessing her feelings with Sigmund remaining silent. Nanami had entered the room and that's what woke him up. She had announced her departure from their group, explaining she wasn't abandoning them, but seeking out opportunities to further her skills. Because of the mishap with Kotatsu earlier, the scare for losing her teammates scared her enough that she wanted to take on an apprenticeship from the one and only Uchiha Sakura. Sigmund found the situation selfish at first, but eventually encouraged his friend to pursue their dreams. Luckily for him, Nanami would still be in Konoha, but wouldn't have much time to spare with him or practice. The squad became two until Nori...
Nori announced her own departure days later. Word made it around that Rock Lee has appeared in Kumogakure, which Nori took that opportunity to gain her own apprenticeship from him to better herself as a person, as a ninja, and a masterful taijutsu user. She felt guilty for leaving behind Sigmund, but if she wanted to protect him in the future, she needed this opportunity to evolve. She took off to Konoha the next day. Sigmund was left to recover by himself. The long month of recovery left him bitter, resentful towards his former squad, and wanted nothing more than revenge.
He struggled with wanting to stay in bed, as was instructed by Sakura herself to fully recover, so many of the staff had to either attempt to strap him down or most of the time, sedate him. After a long month, he was finally released from the infirmary, filling out the discharge papers and traveled back with him family to Konoha.
After the week trip, Sigmund couldn't stand waiting around and not getting any stronger. He sought out the most valued person he knew: Uchiha Sasuke. Not only was Sasuke was his idol, inspiration, and determination to be who he wanted to be, learning from him would be beneficial. It took two whole months to track down Sasuke in the Land of Vegetables. Because Sigmund went along the two months just to track him down, Sasuke rightfully refused Sigmund's requested apprenticeship for the fact that it took longer than he would've thought.
Not giving up, Sigmund pushed, using his charismatic nature to persuade Sasuke, which he successfully managed. Sasuke only had one condition: he had to demonstrate that he could curve his shurikens before starting any real jutsu training. It took only an hour for Sigmund to go through the various shuriken trials before Sasuke approved and they began their 9 month journey.
Sasuke and Sigmund traveled from various lands, from harsh weather storms of the Land of Frost to the terrible sandstorms from the Land of the Wind. It was explained to Sigmund that the weather had a lot of effect on a ninja's ability to survive and it helped prepare him for the unexpected in unknown territory confrontations. Every day was a new place to see and camp out, rarely ever stopping within villages to avoid detection. Being high profile targets, Sasuke did not want to risk being spotted and getting word around to their new enemies.
Every evening, Sigmund was taught chakra control. Sigmund had incredible chakra control as it was, however he did lack how to know when to use the most and the least when needed. A lot of Sigmund's problems were executing his strong attacks in the beginning, which exhausted his body faster as oppose to warming his body up with small attacks and building it up to his strongest ones. His chakra control involved his kekkei genkai bone dances, learning to go from one to another back and forth, multiple times until he felt chakra points wanting to explode inside.
Not wanting to give up, Sigmund pushed his limits to the point where his body was starting to cut off chakra points. Sasuke however did not stop Sigmund's pride; he allowed him to do as he pleased. Over time, his chakra control gradually got better, which then lead to new ninjutsu learning and even more progressed bone dances.
Sigmund learned to master his B-Rank rank dance: Dance of the Larch, which consumed mass amounts of chakra, but lately with the all the chakra endurance, he is able to withstand the hardships of this dance and able to wield it as long as he desires. While being masterful of his own kekkei, he began a new dance, using most of the bones from within, however never mastered that technique.
Throughout the journey, Sasuke and Sigmund grew closer, their quiet and serious nature was able to bring them together, exchanging war stories. Sasuke gave him the advice Sigmund always needed to hear: "Friends are more important than he believed." It was a lesson that Sigmund still needed to believe in, especially since his team abandoned him. He had received several letters from Nori from Konoha, but he never returned them. He didn't want to be distracted by the presence of a love sick teenager as he tried to better himself, however within her letter he learned she had been training fairly well and she was excited to show him, however excitement on his end was zero to none.
After the year's time, he had definitely aged, his hair had grown a tad longer, almost like Sasuke himself. His eyes remained the deep, ocean blue color as before, however dark underlines appeared and outlines his eyes, the Kaguya clan traits finally taking place. He did appear to have the more pale skin of his late father now, growing a tad taller and his jawline more rugged. His muscle mass seemed to have grown as well, a clear indication that he also trained his body too with ruthless physical training to upkeep his taijutsu use.
Ditching the black leather jacket he once bared, he now wears a black skin tight tank top, which his usual pants and ninja shoes. He finally has returned to Konoha and can be seen in a tree near the academy, minding his own business and keeping away from everyone around him for the time being.
