Oddity by KKephemeral

Chapter 6 - Sensor

Nope.

It was so confusing. I decided to open the Pandora box when it actually affects me and let the issue rest for now. I also decided that my first focus should be on getting strong. Not just strong, but S-rank strong. I remembered Kakashi being handed his butt far too many times, despite being on par with S-rank shinobis. Unless until I had the capability to challenge S-rank shinobi, I had no business in interfering with the timeline.

No matter what people thought, that would be plain stupidity.

Change just for the sake of change would ultimately result in deep shit. As of now, things were going to be fine in the end. Until I become strong enough, I shouldn't mess with it.

That decision spurred me on to increase the intensity of my morning training. I started running a whole lap around the village in the morning before my morning katas. I avoided the early hours because so many people used that hour for their training. Instead, I waited till Asuma went to the academy to start with my training.

It went without a hitch for the first few days. But, it didn't last for long. On one such lap, a creeping suspicion came upon me. The spot behind my neck started itching and it felt as if someone was following me during my morning lap. I immediately curbed my urge to turn around and look.

Instead, I increased my speed a little hoping to shake off that feeling.

But, it didn't go away.

After running for about halfway, I took a breather and stealthily tried to locate the presence. No such luck. Even though it annoyed me that someone was following me, I couldn't do anything about it. Instead, I did the only thing I could do.

I completed the remaining portion of my lap in high speed. All the way to the house, I could feel their stare on the back of my head.

That night, after dinner, I took Hiruzen alone to the garden and informed him of the presence. He looked at me skeptically before asking me to inform if I felt such feeling tomorrow. I nodded to him in acceptance. There is no use in creating a fuss if there wasn't any repeat of the incident. If there is a repeat, then I would definitely have to be worried.

Have Orochimaru started experimenting on children? Was Danzo fed up with my progress and wants to go back on his word to Hiruzen? I wouldn't put it past the man to do something like that claiming that it was for the future of the village. Still, they wouldn't be stupid enough to kidnap the only Senju alive.

I hoped.

Because that would create quite a stir in the village and draw unwanted attention. Neither of them would want that.

So, the next morning I did my training lap as usual and pretty soon the feeling of being stared at returned. This time I didn't rush or take a break. I completed my lap in a calm, collected manner. The feeling persisted until I entered the house. And then, suddenly it was gone.

I dutifully informed Hiruzen about it.

Hiruzen thought about it for a while before asking me to wait and going into his room. He returned with a small sheet of paper in his hand and asked me to inject some chakra into it. Once I injected some chakra, it glowed blue. He carefully tore it into two pieces and performed some hand seals on either of them.

Now, both papers had identical markings and he gave one to me.

"Hatorama kun, take this sheet of paper with you when you go for your morning run. If you are in any danger, tear this paper. I will both know that you are in danger and your location. I will come as fast as I can to rescue you. Do you understand?" he asked me in a soft voice.

A normal guardian would have asked me to conduct my training indoors or even appointed someone to find out who is following me. Not Hiruzen though.

Damn Shinobis!

Nevertheless, I was grateful that my privilege to run laps across the village wasn't revoked.

I nodded my understanding and pocketed the note. Hiruzen gave me a reassuring smile and ushered me into the house.

The next day, I went about my training as usual and felt someone following me all the way through my lap. It happened on the following days as well. The note from Hiruzen gave me the confidence to deal with the situation. But, nevertheless, the feeling of being stared at began to annoy me soon.

So, I added an extra bit of training to my morning run.

The task was to identify the sounds my shadow made or spot his location without stopping my lap. The first few days were futile as I tried desperately to ascertain the location of my stalker. Whoever was following me was a trained shinobi. They knew how to keep track of me without showing their presence to me even once.

The situation began to frustrate me more and more and soon I was itching to know the location of my stalker as I maintained my morning lap. I tried listening, sneakily looking behind, altering my speed in the hope of catching them off guard and whatever came to my mind. None of it bore any fruit.

The frustration began to mount and I was almost on the verge of giving it up as a lost cause just to save some mental anxiety when something happened.

One day, after a few weeks of the initial event, I felt a strange feeling as if someone was watching me from the top of the tree twenty yards behind me. It was so sudden that I stopped running altogether. The feeling didn't go away the moment I stopped running either. It only intensified.

Without giving any indication, I sprinted fast and I felt something move through the air after me, still keeping the same twenty yards distance from me. I felt elated and started to divide my concentration in both sensing the person and running my lap. By the time I finished my lap, I was certain that the person I had sensed was my stalker. Whoever he was, his location kept changing either in distance or in position in relation to me. He maintained roughly around twenty to thirty yards of distance between him and me.

Once I latched on to his presence, it became easy to identify him. And I was pretty sure it was a him and not her. Soon, it became a routine of sorts for me to sense his location while I was running my lap. It looked like I had inherited Tobirama's sensing abilities. While I didn't inform about my new ability to anyone, I diligently used my stalker as a training dummy to enhance it.

I can't say that I was as awesome as Tobirama either. My abilities only extended to twenty to thirty feet and that too only because I know I was being stalked. The other occasions I tried to use my ability to sense the presence of people in the distance invariably turned up empty.

I wasn't disheartened. It only made me dig my heels in and hone my new ability. In the series, sensors were mostly used as cannon fodder. Apart from kage level shinobis, none of the sensors had any prominent role to play. In my opinion, it was one of the most underused abilities in the series.

Seriously, a person who can sense others approaching him would be far harder to get the drop on, than a normal shinobi. Not to mention, sensing can even discern the natural affinity of someone without even exchanging ninjutsu.

Oh, the possibilities this gives me….

I was glad that this new ability of mine was right up my alley. I can't wait to hone it into a level of art.