Chapter 2 – Toss a brick to get a jade gem

A teenage girl with waist-length green hair wearing a Victoria era dress was walking up stone stairs that seemed to float in the air. Her skin was as smooth as jade and ageless without blemish. A bulky man with a strange metallic orange device covering his left eye followed behind silently, lugging a pure black rectangular box the size of a person behind him.

At the top of the stairs was a flat platform with a raised panel. Exotic symbols covered the surface of the panel which was made of an unknown substance, too technologically advanced to be discerned. Soft lights flickered on the panel with no apparent circuitry or electronic components. Such was the nature of the things within the Thought Elevator, strange and surreal. According to the Geass Cult, they were vestiges of an ancient civilization, built to project the power of human thought into the world, and were tools necessary to build the Sword of Akasha.

The leading girl gently placed her right palm on the panel and closed her golden eyes. A dazzling multicolored light enveloped the two and nothing could be seen. When the light dispersed, what appeared before their eyes was a completely new place, where the glorious face of the Gods shone brightly above.

"My Empress, someone's here!" The voice of Jeremiah Gottwald, the Orange Knight, whispered from behind the mysterious empress that Britannian public never knew.

O O O

The Hokage was looking over the latest batch of genin placements and speculating on the results. He had designed these with certain expectations in mind, but couldn't help but wonder – knowing Kakashi's stubborn ways, would he actually fail this team as well?

But the question he was most interested in was: how would Naruto fare?

Before the Forbidden Scroll incident, he had prepared backup methods to get Naruto to pass with this batch of clan heirs and future powers in Konoha, as he was well aware of Naruto's horrendous grades and difficulty with the regular clone technique from his excessive chakra reserves. After all it would be ridiculous if the village's sole jinchuuriki, and son of some very important people couldn't even become ninja. Not to mention it was illogical to expect him to be able to do the clone technique anyway.

Then Mizuki neatly solved that for him.

However, he had seen everything through his crystal ball that, and was deeply intrigued by Naruto's accomplishments the entire night, from the infiltration of his house to swipe the scroll, to learning the shadow clone, and finally the method of defeating Mizuki.

From his sudden attitude shift and dramatic manner, it was almost like…everything was just a big performance to him.

If Hiruzen hadn't known that there were no such thing as multi-tailed fox summons, even he might've been tricked into thinking for a moment that the fox had taken over!

In the end, it seemed like Naruto was much smarter than he used to act, but was hiding a truly staggering amount of pain. Fortunately Hiruzen was closely monitoring him and stopped the boy from doing anything regretful.

Now there was an interesting new question. Before, if Hiruzen had to step in and use a special method to help him pass, Naruto would have been allotted to the traditional best male, best female, worst student team combination.

But now it was obvious that Naruto was not at all the traditional thick-headed worst student that would become great through extreme hard work.

Was it really fine to stick with the tried and true combination even if it didn't quite match the circumstances?

Then the door to his office opened and he was broken out of his meandering thoughts.

"…Naruto-kun? And Sasuke-kun, Sakura-chan, what are you doing here? Don't tell me Kakashi still hasn't shown up?" The Hokage asked with a surprised look. He looked at the time – half past noon. Late by more than six hours? His face darkened. There were limits to how lenient he could be and maintain discipline in his troops.

"That's not it, Hokage-jiji! We just finished his test and came to report," Naruto said with a light laugh. "He was really late though."

Hiruzen's face twitched. 'So…not late but already pawning off responsibilities to his team. Great.'

"And where is Kakashi? It should be his responsibility to report to me. I'll have to have a talk with him about how to be a proper sensei…" The Hokage asked with a frown.

"Oh it's not his fault, jiji. Except for being late, he had some good lessons for us. But the test was to take these bells from him and he told us to come with intent to kill so we went all out and now he's in the hospital." Naruto explained as he took out the two bells swiped from Kakashi.

The Hokage blinked. Then he rubbed his eyes and squinted.

"What." The Hokage asked dumbly. "You…took the bells from him? And he's in the hospital?"

"That's right! He's unconscious now and never told us what to do afterwards to finish team registration, so we came here by ourselves," Naruto continued.

The Hokage looked at Sasuke and Sakura. The two appeared extremely nervous and their sweat was visibly dripping from their faces. Neither of them were willing to meet his eyes.

"Well then. I suppose it would be alright for me to take your report. Tell me everything. Slowly."

O O O

"So…let me see if I got everything down right. First, you tailed the other genin teams with your shadow clones while Kakashi hadn't arrived, and you observed their tests in preparation for your own." The Hokage asked while looking at his notes.

"Correct," Lelouch said.

"When the test started, you were suspicious about the test rules and questioned Kakashi about it, thereby figuring out that you were supposed to treat it as a real mission."

Lelouch nodded.

"Then when you fought him briefly and realized he could not be defeated through combat. You retreated and pretended to be less stealthy than you really were so he would think he had kept track of your movements."

"I don't know if that actually worked or if he simply never bothered to keep track of us aside from the time Sakura was unconscious," Lelouch added thoughtfully

"Sakura and Sasuke engaged him separately, while you acted out a battle against an imposter Kakashi and even injured yourself to make it more realistic. When Sakura and Sasuke were both defeated, you came on to the scene and created a fake hostage situation. You used the fake enemy ninja to pressure Kakashi into keeping his attention on protecting the three of you, while you looked for an opening to deliver a critical blow." At this the Hokage paused a bit as he seemed to be thinking about something.

"Why did you create a hostage situation? Why not simply have enemy ninja attack? You were already close to him because of your injuries," Hirzen asked piercingly.

Lelouch responded easily. "Three reasons. First, my clones are too weak to make a direct assault credible. The hostage situation would distract him from observing my injuries closely but without immediately giving the whole act away.

"Second, I wanted him to be mentally bogged down by creating a complicated situation, leaving less mental power to consider anything beyond it. Human perception of time also becomes slower when our brains record more details in the memory, so it would reduce his suspicion when the early alarm went off."

"Third, I needed a way to bring the whole team together in one spot but slightly separated. This created multiple separated targets for the enemy ninja, which means he would be pressured to use shadow clones or other advanced jutsu even if my clones' attacks were unimpressive individually. And because all of us were in the same area, combined with how I deliberately let him track me before, this would give Kakashi-sensei the false perception that we were all accounted for. Thus, if he had any secret shadow clones keeping tabs on the alarm bell and lunch boxes, he would be comfortable removing them to conserve chakra. I knew that he could use shadow clones because he used one to take down Sakura while chasing Sasuke and my own clones were also keeping tabs on them."

Sasuke and Sakura stared at Naruto as if he was some sort of alien. Just when they thought he was ten moves ahead…it turned out he was a hundred moves ahead!

Even the Hokage nearly gawked. He had been expecting the first reason, but he had thought there were better ways to do it, without taking a teammate hostage and attacking another one. But then he heard the second and third reasons. 'Is this even in the realm of strategy and tactics anymore? The way Kakashi was completely predicted, it's like he was just another piece on the board to be manipulated rather than an actual opponent.'

"And so…when Kakashi was distracted by all this, you switched the alarm bell and poisoned the lunch boxes. Then Kakashi was tricked into revealing the answer to the test because he thought time was up. Finally, he also ate the poisoned lunch and was defeated."

"Yes."

The old man couldn't help but carefully reassess his view of Naruto. There were those called geniuses like Kakashi, and then there was…this.

"I suppose you also had a plan for if he saw through your poison, then?" Hiruzen had a hungry look to him, as if he was eager to hear what other exciting schemes Naruto had cooked up.

Lelouch smirked. This old man clearly understood his greatness. "Of course. But I'm a real ninja now! I can't just reveal all my tricks the way I used to with my pranks, right?"

Hiruzen laughed heartily. At those words he thought back to the time Naruto had forewarned that he'd be painting the Hokage monuments to prove that he was going to surpass all the previous Hokages. Then he did it and nobody caught him even though the entire village should have been able to see it.

Lelouch couldn't help but chuckle along with Hiruzen's merriment.

Sasuke and Sakura glanced between themselves and back to the two laughing people in the room, unsure of what exactly was so funny. They were still concerned about lying during the report to the Hokage that they'd known the gist of Naruto's plan beforehand and were willingly acting along the whole time. They didn't want to lie…but Kakashi had told them to "quit being ninja" based on their actual performance.

"Yes…you're a real ninja now. Congratulations, Team 7. You pass." The Hokage said definitively once he finished laughing. Then he gave Sasuke and Sakura a knowing look. "You showed excellent teamwork in this…report. I'll inform Kakashi when he wakes up." He could easily see what happened here, but the fact that they were willing to lie together was also a form of teamwork, so he let it pass.

After Team 7 was dismissed, and the Hokage was alone again, he took off his hat and put it on the desk. Looking at the hat, he thought to himself, 'It's almost…too good to be true.'

O O O

The new jounin instructors were lined up in front of the Hokage, who was seated behind a desk, and the Jounin Commander, Shikaku Nara who stood beside the Hokage. They were all gathered in the Jounin headquarters. Iruka was also at the meeting sitting to the side as this batch of graduates was taught by him.

"Team 1, fail."

…

"Team 6, fail."

Kakashi wasn't there to report for Team 7, but everybody knew he was going to be late as usual and report last.

"Team 8, pass," said Kurenai Yuhi, a slender woman with red eyes and untamed black hair wearing a red mesh armor with only the right sleeve visible and a white patterned overdress.

Team 9 was still active together from a previous batch so that was also skipped.

"Team 10, pass," Asuma reported with his hands in his pockets.

The Hokage nodded. "The results are as expected."

"Man, when is Kakashi going to get here? Didn't we give him a wrong early time so he'd show up late on time?" asked Genma Shiranui, special jounin whose specialization was in elite bodyguarding.

"Ah yes, Kakashi," The Hokage started with a serious expression. "There is no need to wait for him."

The gathered jounin looked confused. Was the Hokage fed up with Kakashi's lateness?

Then their village leader smirked gleefully. "As a result of his intense testing methods, Kakashi is now recuperating in the hospital."

"Uh? Seriously? I'd say he deserves it for failing 7 teams, but…really? Did his libido burst in the middle of reading Come Come Paradise?" Genma joked.

"That joke doesn't even make sense, Genma," said Gekko Hayate, another special jounin, whose specialization was in kenjutsu and stealth. The two of them both wore bandana style headbands and the traditional jounin vest.

"No…I'm afraid he had no time to be reading during this test," The Hokage said, keeping up the suspense.

The jounin started murmuring among themselves. By now they could guess at what the Hokage was hinting at, but it was too outrageous!

"The Uchiha's good, but he's not that good, right?" An unidentifiable voice whispered.

"Maybe the Uzumaki brat learned something crazy from the Forbidden Scroll?" Another unidentifiable voice whispered.

"For the first time in Konoha history, the bell test was challenged and overcome by claiming the bells by force. Kakashi was completed defeated by Team 7 and the bells taken from his unconscious body," The Hokage declared solemnly.

The room went silent. Iruka's mouth fell open but couldn't say anything.

The Hokage took in the silence with content. "It seems that Konoha's resident prankster has graduated into a deadly tactician. With the cooperation of his new teammates Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto devised a plan to defeat Kakashi using common ninja techniques. Except for the shadow clone Naruto learned a few days ago, only C-rank and lower jutsu were involved."

It was not typical at these meetings to report the process of how each team passed or failed. But in this case Hiruzen made an exception and deliberately emphasized Naruto's role. It was not only because he wanted to plant an early seed for a possible succession candidate, he also had some other reasons to draw attention to Naruto specifically. For one, some jounin no doubt noticed Naruto spying on their tests, but what their reaction would be was still an open question.

"Shit. Isn't Kakashi supposed to be the strongest jounin in Konoha below the Sannin?" Asuma muttered out loud. The Sannin was really just Jiraiya now, but it was also politically incorrect to imply that Tsunade Senju was no longer in Konoha, so he used the title out of habit. He didn't notice his cigar falling out of his mouth. Then he immediately thought of his own test and team. 'Two of the students with the worst grades turn out to be true geniuses…I better do that IQ test for Shikamaru soon.'

"Somebody needs to tell Guy! This is…it's…so youthful!" Genma parodied.

"Im-impossible…that dumb delinquent is actually a super genius?" asked Ebisu as he pushed up his sunglasses. This was another special jounin, specializing in elite training, and also the personal tutor for the Hokage's grandson. He wore the standard Konoha blue shirt without the flak jacket, along with the bandanna style headband like the other two special jounin. Underlying his tone was a hint of wariness. Although most elite jounin were rational did not despise the container of the Nine-Tails, there were many that had grievances with the boy's atrocious behavior in the past.

Iruka, who had unconsciously stood up in shock earlier, sat back down in a daze.

O O O

After he woke up in the late afternoon, Kakashi's fellow jounin flocked to him in the hospital to get the juicy details. Unfortunately, all he had to say was, "Hm…as ninjas, we need to look underneath the underneath." Then he went back to reading.

Guy also made a visit and yelled, "KAKASHI! My eternal rival! I hear you have taken on MOST YOUTHFUL students!"

Kakashi put down the book he was reading and focused on Guy. "Hey, Guy…our last score was 49-49, right?"

"Yes, my rival?"

"Let's have a spar when I get out."

Guy thrust a fist up in the air. "YOSH! Your fires of youth are stoking hot today!"

O O O

—Two days later

Late afternoon, Team 7 stood at the training grounds after a day's worth of D-rank missions.

Kakashi looked over the three new genin. There was a tense silence which had been the norm since he first met this team in the Academy classroom. But this silence was clearly different from before the bell test.

Sasuke looked like he was about to burst into rage at any moment. His fists were continuously clenching when he thought nobody was looking, or maybe it was just an unconscious reaction. He had been like this throughout the few D-rank missions they'd gone on so far, but he had never openly voiced any complaints.

Sakura was also uncharacteristically quiet compared to her Academy profile. When she looked at Naruto or Kakashi there were sometimes traces of fear. Clearly the bell test's numerous traumas were taking a toll on her.

Lelouch had switched the orange jumpsuit for a green ninja vest and black ninja pants in the standard Konoha style. He simply had a bored look on him.

With a lazy eye, Kakashi drawled, "Seems like you three are taking to ninja life pretty well…most teams start complaining on the first mission."

Sasuke's face darkened. If he didn't know how strong the man was he would've slugged this sorry excuse for a teacher.

"We did a lot of good work so far. Cleaning up garbage, pulling weeds, fixing a house, clearing a rat infestation…When I was a genin I don't think my team ever managed to do so much in one day. Quite impressive." The jounin continued seemingly without noticing Sasuke's mood.

Sakura's brows twitched. It was obvious by now that their teacher was deliberately provoking them. However, she knew what the purpose of the D-rank missions was and simply counted her blessings that Kakashi didn't seem to strongly protest to the village their reported version of the bell test proceedings.

"Well…alright. I know what you are all thinking inside. But I am genuinely impressed. You have done well to cooperate and do the missions without complaint. Unfortunately, we will need to continue doing these for some time, until we reach the quota required for all genin," Kakashi finally informed them after getting no reaction from his provocations.

Then he made a shooing gesture. "That's it for today then. Dismissed." And promptly disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Sasuke immediately walked off on his own as fast as he could without looking unnatural.

Sakura gave him a glance before shifting to look at Naruto. Yesterday everybody had gone off on their own but today Naruto just stood there, still facing where Kakashi had been standing.

"Sasuke." Lelouch called out without turning.

Sasuke's steps simply continued as if he didn't hear anything.

"You're bored of this so-called teamwork training too, aren't you?" Lelouch asked.

Sasuke's footsteps came to a stop.

"It might help us get used to working together, but it doesn't help us get any stronger," said Lelouch.

Sasuke stood still without moving.

"Let's have a spar." Lelouch turned around with a smirk to face the other boy.

The black-haired genin also turned to face his teammate. His eyes seemed to show a kind of deep hunger as he stared at the other genin.

"Taijutsu only," Lelouch said.

Sasuke furrowed his brows. "Why?"

"We're not good enough yet to hold back with more dangerous techniques. It's fine against a veteran like Kakashi-sensei, but I'm sure you don't want to explain why we're too injured to complete missions tomorrow."

"Fine." Without further ado, Sasuke adopted the seal of confrontation, which was mirrored by Lelouch.

"Then I'll…referee?" Sakura said hesitantly as she glanced between the two.

O O O

Lelouch was soundly defeated. Sasuke's level of taijutsu skill was far beyond Lelouch's, to the point where Lelouch estimated that Sasuke could defeat any number of clones sent to gang up on him, at least until Sasuke was exhausted.

There was a large gap between them in strength, physique, and most importantly, skill. Although Lelouch's current body had a lot of endurance and stamina, Sasuke was faster and had more lean muscle.

The two of them formed the seal of reconciliation.

"Still weak as ever, dead-last," Sasuke scoffed. He barely broke a sweat against Naruto's abominable brawling technique.

"What, unsatisfied? You want a bigger challenge?" Lelouch asked.

"Ten of you wouldn't be a challenge to me," Sasuke replied haughtily.

"You're right. I need a good opponent to train taijutsu though." Lelouch admitted unabashedly.

"Then next time…come at me with everything. The way you fought Kakashi. I need that kind of opponent…If you do that, I'll consider training with you in taijutsu," Sasuke said with piercing eyes.

That was what Lelouch was waiting for. But he paused as if considering the proposal. "So be it. We'll go out all one day and alternate with taijutsu the next day. But we need to prepare blunted weapons and non-lethal explosive tags, until we get much stronger or learn medical jutsu."

Sasuke grunted his assent.

What about you Sakura?" Lelouch turned to the last member of their team.

"Huh? Me?" Sakura asked in return. "But I'm not much of an opponent, you two can defeat me easily…." She squirmed under Naruto's gaze. After seeing Naruto "kill" Kakashi-sensei, and having a blade to her throat held by one of Naruto's transformed clones, she held no more delusions about her position in the team. There was also the mysterious way Naruto became genin and could simply barge into the Hokage's office at any time like it was perfectly natural. She simply couldn't see him in the same light anymore.

"All the more reason for you to train with us. If you don't get stronger the gap will grow and you'll just become a burden to the team," said Lelouch.

Sakura's expression fell even more as she internally agreed that she would just be a burden.

Lelouch walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. "We're a team now so we need to help each other. Don't be ashamed, powerlessness is not a crime! In this world, people are not born equal. Some are naturally taller, more beautiful, have special chakra…but none of that matters! Time flows constantly, it doesn't care about the people who are struggling. No matter what they were born with, those who fail to act are doomed to die a slow death, while only those who willing to dirty their hands can have a chance to fulfill their hearts' desires!"

Sakura looked at the blonde boy in amazement. As she looked into his solemn eyes, she thought for a second she heard an eagle's fierce battle cry.

"You will become strong!" Lelouch's tone brooked no argument.

Sakura absentmindedly nodded.

O O O

Lelouch walked back to his apartment.

He entered through the door, shut it behind him, and moved through the short hall towards his living room on the left, preparing to take a rest before making dinner.

Just as he walked a few steps, he heard a voice coming from behind him.

"You've really changed, Naruto."

Lelouch stopped and turned his head quickly, but without any jerkiness to give the appearance that he wasn't startled.

He saw Kakashi with his back leaning against the wall beside the door, his arms crossed over his chest, looking back at him. Even though there was clearly nobody in the hall as Lelouch shut the door earlier, Kakashi looked as if he'd been there all along.

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei. I wasn't expecting you. Please, come in and have a seat." Lelouch slightly widened his eyes before replying smoothly with a smile, as if it were just a normal guest instead of somebody that just broke in without permission.

Kakashi's face was an unreadable blank. "Or maybe I should call you something else? Who are you, really?" He made no indication of having heard Lelouch's invitation.

There was a moment of silence as the two observed each other.

'He chose to confront me in this short hall because there's nothing that could be used to make an escape, and in this narrow space Shadow Clones won't do any good before he reaches me with his speed,' Lelouch quickly determined. 'But is he taking action by himself or are the higher ups in on this?'

'No signs of guilty fear when I suddenly appeared without warning, but his reaction was way too calm. Even if I'm wrong, the natural thing to think would be that I came here privately for revenge, but he doesn't even seem even a little guarded,' Kakashi quickly determined. 'Could it be that he's concealing an ace that could defeat me outright here?'

Lelouch's smile turned into a smirk. Then he let out a low chuckle. "What makes you think I was more than just enlightened from the Forbidden Scroll incident and the knowledge of the Nine-Tails?"

Kakashi tensed almost imperceptibly. "A shocking event like that can't change all your mannerisms overnight. Your walking gait, speech intonation patterns, reactive use of vocabulary, these are all formed from years of habit, not something you can just decide to change on a whim."

"You know much more about me than a new teacher would. I suppose there was a reason you were assigned to Team 7. Still, what you've said isn't proof of anything…some special individuals can indeed change these things at will," Lelouch pointed out.

"Ninja arts can accomplish wonders nobody can imagine. There's no such thing as proof beyond doubt in our profession. However," Kakashi uncrossed his arms and lifted his left hand up to his drooping headband. "It is said there exist Three Great Doujutsu whose sight can pierce the truth of the world, and Konoha possesses all except the one considered to be just a myth."

Lelouch felt a sudden tension, as if somebody was holding a gun to his head. He watched with trepidation as Kakashi's headband unveiled the eye covered underneath.

A blood red iris with three black tomoe.

"With my Sharingan, I can see the surface qualities of your chakra that permeates the skin. And I can see that your chakra is markedly more chaotic and dark. An individual's unique chakra signature is formed over time by its Yin and Yang composition as spiritual and physical energies. The amount of change in your chakra would have needed years to accumulate," said Kakashi.

The red eye was spinning slowly and mesmerizingly and Lelouch could almost feel a tangible force pressing down on him, forcing him to be unable to look away. He marveled that this world could have something to so easily see the signs that his presence in this body was unnatural.

He could feel something stirring deep within himself.

Meanwhile, Kakashi was also marvelling at what he was seeing this time. When he had revealed the Sharingan, at first he saw the same surface chakra qualities that led to his determination that Naruto had changed too much to be the same person, barring the activation of some special bloodlines or secret powers.

Now suddenly the chakra seemed to come alive, surging through and forming an invisible (to the regular eye) layer that surrounded every inch of Lelouch's body, without releasing any excess or even chakra pressure beyond it.

It was a deep purple that seemed so thick and concentrated as to be solid. Chakra gathering in such scale should normally be visible even to the naked eye, such as a certain renowned technique Kakashi had modified from his own genin teacher the Fourth Hokage.

But in this case it was almost as if the purple layer wasn't quite chakra but something else, for it was so concentrated that it lacked even the microscopic gaps and flares of normal chakra.

It was…

Majestic.

Eternal.

Infinite.

Those were the thoughts that immediately and unintentionally sprung to mind.

As Kakashi was mesmerized by the strange phenomenon, Lelouch found himself lost in a vision.

Nine pillars in a circle formation stretched up and down as far as the eye can see, a magenta atmosphere and white fog gathered in cloud-like forms floating about, stone platforms hanging in the air with shifting staircases moving between them.

Three individuals stood on the biggest central platform. High above them was suspended a giant structure made of interwoven metal shafts formed into the approximate outline of a sphere. Inside was a bright mass of light with a connection to eight of the nine pillars. Of the nine pillars, one was dim and seemingly non-functional.

There was also a line of light connecting downwards.

The three individuals stood surrounding the position of the line of light. Lelouch could make out two of them as his long time accomplice C.C. and the captain of his former royal guard Jeremiah Gottwald, but the last one was blurred and he couldn't tell.

Then he saw what was at the light.

It was a rectangular box-like object, with something inside.

A corpse in extravagant white robes with a peaceful expression on its face.

The corpse of Lelouch vi Britannia, 99th emperor of the Holy Britannian Empire.

The vision faded.

On Kakashi's side, he was beginning to feel out of his depth. What he had just seen just now, although it was strange and different from anything he had seen before, there was one thing he could be sure of.

The boy in front of him had chakra of such potency to match or exceed the levels typically only found in S-rank ninja or the Five Shadows!

Kakashi had estimated previously that Naruto had about four times his own chakra, an amount which could be said to be on the upper ceiling of elite jounin. It was impressive but understandable given the circumstances of Naruto's birth. Kakashi himself had also been out of shape for quite a while after he left the ANBU corps several years ago and was far from his peak when he had about triple the chakra he did now.

But nonetheless, he was shocked! Because the gulf between A-rank ninja like himself and S-rank ninja like the Shadows and Sannin was truly vast.

Although it was not true that one needed incredible chakra reserves to be considered S-rank, it was true that ranking somebody below S when they had such reserves was seriously questionable, because those reserves fueled the uses of extremely devastating S-rank techniques. Even Jinchuuriki did not wield such chakra unless they could openly unleash the full power of their Tailed Beasts.

Kakashi knew very well his position in the village. Based on his peak abilities, he was widely rumored to be the strongest jounin in Konoha below the Sannin.

In Konoha, there were only 3 true S-rank ninja now. These were the Hokage, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and the Hokage's old teammate Danzo of the Darkness. Other than these, there were two ninja that could temporarily achieve S-rank threat level. These were Chouza Akimichi after eating the Rainbow Supreme Pill (actually, the existence of this secret pill has never been confirmed, but it is widely speculated), and Might Guy after releasing the 7th Celestial Gate (similarly, nobody has seen Guy using anything more than the 6th Gate, but Kakashi is quite sure he has achieved it).

And Kakashi knew very well that he stood zero chance against any of them should they use their full S-rank capabilities. He would be defeated in an instant, because the gap was just that large.

'Is this the power of the Nine-Tails? But that chakra should be boiling red and filled with hate,' he wondered in confusion.

The two of them returned to their senses at almost the same time.

"To think that you had such a power, Kakashi-sensei. You were really holding back on us, huh?" Lelouch broke the silence first. "But I suppose there's no point in denying it then. You are right, I am not the Naruto you all knew. But, you should know the seal of the Nine-Tails is still on me and can be easily verified, so I am curious, who do you think I am, if not Naruto?"

Naturally, Kakashi was aware of this. The Sharingan could not see past the chakra that naturally seeps at the surface, but Konoha's other Great Doujutsu, the Byakugan, could see through a person's whole body, and even into seals to some extent.

That was why Naruto hadn't been immediately secretly hit with Yamanaka mind techniques to probe the truth. Somehow, even though he couldn't be the same person as before, he also was not an imposter. Barring something truly outlandish which was always possible with ninja, that led to a somewhat obvious but equalling befuddling conclusion.

"Are you the Nine-Tails that broke the seal and took over? But I can't imagine why you haven't destroyed Konoha yet and instead are staying in a human body and playing at being ninja, if that was true," though he knew it was farfetched, Kakashi tossed a brick and waited for the jade.

Lelouch answered with a deep, malevolent cackle.

"Don't put me in the same category as a mindless beast." Lelouch finally said after he finished his villainous laugh. "I am much greater than that."

Lelouch raised his head slightly as if in pride.

"I was born innocent and pure. But the world was too savage and heartless. There was a time when I believed that my parents died for a good cause," Lelouch began narrating the truth. Indeed, he had never been more satisfied than the so-called Gods erased Charles and Marianne by his command.

"There was a time that I believed I had people who cared about me." That was Nunnally, the light of his life.

"That I had a purpose to struggle towards despite the hardship." To obliterate Britannia! As he solemnly swore before Suzaku on the battlefields of Japan during the invasion of 2010 A.T.B.

"But time showed me the truth. I was nothing more than a powerless corpse going through the motions of living. For as long as I can remember, I've been living a lie. My name is a lie. My background is a lie." Whether it was the false peace of Aries Villa or living as Lelouch Lamperouge, they were all lies.

"I'm not an Uzumaki with red hair. My parents weren't heroes. Nobody loves me!" Of course, he had learned some things he could make use of regarding this body's previous owner as well.

Although he was fairly sure the person in front of him wasn't Naruto, Kakashi still felt the urge to protest all three of those declarations. He felt deeply offended on behalf of Naruto's parents.

Lelouch's face turned dark and his voice rose. "For so long, I didn't understand why. I searched for the truth desperately while denying what was right in front of my eyes!" Even though he told the Black Knights his goal was to liberate Japan, from the beginning his true purpose was to uncover the truth behind Marianne's assassination and Charles' complete disregard for it, before obtaining justice and a gentle world for Nunnally.

"Starvation, filth, decay, constant war and fear, we're just rats running in a wheel known as world."

"I was a pathetic child that refused to accept reality! I was just a pawn for others with ambitions of power!" He and Nunnally were sent to Japan as expendable hostages to lower Japan's guard before the invasion. Yet, it all seemed so foolish of him to desire justice for Marianne when the damn woman was alive in Anya and didn't do anything to stop Charles from carpet bombing the Kururugi residence, all because their dead children would obviously be back after completing Ragnarok.

"And yet, I – no, Naruto Uzumaki trudged on, day after day, pretending that he was just a simple orphan of heroes that died fighting the Nine-Tails, pretending to be a dim-witted, attention craving, rowdy child like any other and not a vessel for the monster that supposedly killed his parents. How absurd." Lelouch spat out the words disdainfully.

"But one day…the truth could no longer be denied." Lelouch's face returned to a slight smile. "For the truth was finally told straight to him."

"Yes…on that day, the lie of Naruto Uzumaki ended…because he realized…he never existed." The last part was said with a deep and hard voice, in contrast to his cheery expression.

Lelouch swept out his arms in a dramatic gesture. His eyes widened and his smile grew wide.

Kakashi on the other hand, grew increasingly disturbed as he understood what this rant was implying.

"That's right! From the very beginning, It wasn't me that was wrong! It was the world!" As Lelouch's voice rose continuously, his speech turned into a shout at the end.

"And I, Zero, have emerged from the darkness to change everything!"

As he continued to observe the manic boy, who seemed to be consumed by a lengthy fit of shaking cackling complete with bloodshot bulging eyes, Kakashi came to his conclusion.

'This is an extremely severe case of dissociative identity disorder. No, it might even be more than that. This new personality is highly unstable and dangerous. I need to report to Lord Hokage and consult with our psychiatric specialists as soon as possible,' Kakashi thought.

O O O

AN: Toss a brick to get a jade gem – Strategem #17, this is the art of using baits to entice the enemy and giving up something of lower value to gain something much greater, or giving up some real information such that the opponent comes to a lengthy (and hopefully wrong) deduction causing a critical error that can be capitalized. It originated from a non-military scenario, in which a budding poet desired to complete a poem and wrote his incomplete verses on a wall in a temple that he knew a master poet was going to visit. As he expected, the master poet was intrigued with the incomplete verses upon seeing them and finished them. It's now also an idiom that refers to throwing out incomplete ideas during brainstorming.

The title stratagem will be in the spotlight for several chapters. Some other strategems will also feature but I'm only going to do an official review of the title stratagem at the end of these chapters.

Answers to last chapter's question on the examples of the title stratagem Cover the sky to cross the ocean:

1. Lelouch testing his geass on Iruka while pretending to give information on Mizuki's plan.

2. Lelouch suspected that the Third had faked being defeated by Sexy Jutsu and was actually monitoring him. He pretended to nearly commit suicide while his real goal was to prove his loyalty because a real spy would need to transmit the secrets of the Forbidden Scroll before offing himself.

3. The bell test is a version of this, hiding the goal of assessing teamwork behind capturing the bells.

4. When Lelouch first attacked Kakashi solo, it appeared to be testing the waters to gauge Kakashi's capabilities, while Lelouch hid his trump card ability shadow clones. In reality, it was to disguise his level of skill in stealth and keep Kakashi focused on the actions that Lelouch wanted to show.

5. The fake Kakashi and enemy ninja used the surface goal of capturing Sasuke to give Lelouch an opening to take down true Kakashi.

6. The entire plan to take down true Kakashi was masking the true goal to make Kakashi tell Sakura and Sasuke the answer to the test before time was up instead of fruitlessly trying to persuade them himself while Lelouch had no credibility. The poison itself could also qualify for this, but it would be more appropriate to classify it under "Openly repair the galley roads and sneak through Chencang", because the poison was a different path to achieve the same goal to take down Kakashi, rather than a different goal.

A lot was covered in the story dialogue as well, and some was subtly implied. In general, I will try create situations where the strategies are revealed directly after the fact in-story, to ensure that everyone can follow what really happened. Also just going off of the response to last chapter, everyone thought Lelouch was awesome but nobody tried to answer the challenge question so I guess it was just too hard? But don't worry, if you keep following along, you can learn to be like Lelouch too…maybe…