Shinobi: Team 7
Act I
Chapter IV
Secrets, Secrets
"I want Zabuza dead, and I want those bloodline bitches' heads on fucking pikes!"
-Tasuto Li, Commander of the Water Daimyo's Samurai Army
A year passed, and Naruto was thirteen.
The leaves of Konohagakure drifted idly through the early morning sky, red and yellow and orange against blue and white. Naruto did his best not to trace their paths through the air and instead listen to what Mizuki was saying.
"Your taijutsu is…just above par," his instructor said, chewing absently on the end of a pen as he read through Naruto's yearly evaluation. "Physical conditioning, excellent. Ninjutsu, a bit below par. Chakra control, the same. Genjutsu, several steps below par, but we were sort of expecting that weren't we?"
Naruto nodded wordlessly. He thought he had done well for himself, relatively, but Mizuki always had high expectations.
"Overall," Mizuki said, finally stuffing the report into one of his many flak jacket pockets, "I think you're doing pretty well, Naruto."
Naruto grinned. Pretty well wasn't the same as incredible, or amazing, or easily the lead candidate for Rookie of the Year, but it was a start. The past three years had seen a dramatic improvement in his Academy scores. He had stopped getting funny looks from his instructors, and Sakura had actually managed to dig up a student with even worse grades than Naruto currently had. (To make it even better, the kid had been an Uchiha.)
"In fact," Mizuki said, "I think you're ready to move onto ninjutsu."
For a moment, Naruto couldn't believe it. He and Mizuki had barely touched ninjutsu since they had started their sessions – and the only time they had worked on it, it had been improving techniques Naruto already had. "Really?" He asked, his eyes widening. "Is it fire releases? Wind releases? Oh! Oh! I bet there's some awesome lightning releases you could teach me, maybe we could–"
"We'll be starting with medical ninjutsu," Mizuki cut in, the barest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Naruto nearly collapsed.
A Never Ending String of Disappointments
"Medical ninjutsu is one of the hallmarks of Konohagakure," Mizuki said.
"Mmf," Naruto said, nodding to show that he was paying attention. Mizuki was currently sitting in the front of a training field while Naruto did pull-ups on a rusty old iron bar. It was old and worn and cracked, and the metal dug painfully into his hands, but he pushed through.
Mizuki smirked. "We have the largest number of medical Shinobi in the world," he continued, "and our technology and techniques are advancing at a much quicker rate. The most famous medical Shinobi of our time was…" he trailed off and gave Naruto an expectant look.
"Um," Naruto muttered, eyes going towards the sky in a desperate, silent plea to the Will of Fire to release him from this hell. "Uh…um, Sanin Tsunade?"
"Good," Mizuki said, looking pleasantly surprised. "You really are getting better at this. Sanin Tsunade, known at the time as Senju Tsunade, implemented reforms throughout the medical corps and pushed medical ninjutsu forward twenty years. Her crowning achievement was the…" he trailed off again.
"Fuck that," Naruto muttered through gritted teeth.
Mizuki sighed. "The Strength of a Hundred Seal, Naruto. Pay attention, this is important. See, the basic theory behind medical ninjutsu is using your spiritual, or yin energy, to prod your patient's physical, or yang energy, into overdrive. Essentially, you supercharge the body's ability to heal itself. The Strength of a Hundred Seal is that theory perfected – it's a massive store of spiritual energy that when released, makes its user essentially invincible."
Naruto hung from the pull up bar, panting heavily. "Invincibility sounds cool," he said after a moment. "Don't you need to be really good at chakra control to do that though?"
"Usually, yes," Mizuki said, motioning at Naruto to let go of the bar. "Messing with someone else's chakra is always risky, and doing it with anything less than perfect control could be disastrous. But if we focus more on self-healing, and build something catered to boosting your already impressive healing abilities-"
"I'll be a GOD!" Naruto shouted, lifting his hands up to the air. "An unkillable lord of destruction!"
"You're going to make me regret this," Mizuki said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
He Does That A Lot
It was light when Sakura stumbled out of Advanced Bloodline Genetics, complicated family trees and half validated theories swimming around in her head. She really did enjoy the class, but she was beginning to think the material was a little over her head.
Serves you right for signing up for a class with all fifteen year olds, she thought to herself. Sakura groaned and smacked herself in the head. That seemed to do the trick. The headaches were growing worse, and more frequent. She had considered getting a prescription, but that would bring with it questions from teachers and exams and potentially her expulsion from the Shinobi program, which was unacceptable. So for the moment, it would be headaches. She kicked a rock, and watched it bounce across the ground until it hit the large wooden fence that separated the street from the hot springs. An old woman looked at her disapprovingly. Her head continued to stubbornly ache.
Her pounding head was interrupted by someone knocking into her shoulder, sending her spinning. Books fell to the ground, papers flew into the air, and it was only her extensive training that kept Sakura on her feet as she did a little pirouette.
"What the hell?" She heard herself ask, her voice harsh. She immediately regretted it. Naruto and Sasuke were rubbing off on her, or maybe the headaches were just making her more irritable than usual.
"Geez, sorry," said the boy that had bumped into her. "It was an accident." Sakura said nothing, but bent down and began gathering up her papers. The boy knelt down next to her, giving Sakura her first look at him. He was her age, in the Academy, her year, with black hair drawn up into a spiky ponytail. She recognized him from some of her more advanced classes. He was a Diplomat student, she knew that much. And a Nara.
"It's alright," Sakura said, grabbing more papers and shoving them haphazardly into her bag. The lack of organization killed her, but she would fix it later. "Sorry for snapping."
"No big deal," the Nara boy said. He grabbed one of her papers and stood up, and Sakura was on her feet in a flash, reaching out to snatch the paper from his hand. He was too quick for her though, pulling back as his eyes darted over the formulas filling the page. "This is pretty advanced stuff," he said finally, raising an eyebrow.
"It's none of your business," Sakura shot back, grabbing the paper and putting it into her back pocket. "That's private."
"I'll bet it is," the boy said. "Let me guess – it's extra credit?"
Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Yeah…"
The boy nodded. "Your teacher suggested it to you, even though you're doing fine in the class. As far as you can tell, the opportunity hasn't been offered to any other students. You're not supposed to tell anyone about it, and it's much, much more difficult than anything you're covering in class. You don't know how to tackle it at all. Your teacher said that's alright though, just do your best and turn it in."
"Is this some kind of test?" Sakura asked, taking a hesitant step back. "Because none of it's true. It's just-"
"You're lying," the Nara said simply, shrugging his shoulders. "It's true. I'm right. And I know," he said, pulling a paper from his own back pocket, "because the same thing happened to me."
Sakura gave him a puzzled look, but took the paper. A quick once over told her that it was code breaking and decryption work, but far more advanced than anything Sakura had ever seen. The Nara had scribbled all over it in large, messy handwriting, but he hadn't seemed to make any progress.
"What is this?" She asked finally, handing the paper back to the boy.
"My Advanced Decryption extra credit work," he explained. "What class did you get yours from? Chemistry?"
"Advanced Bloodline Genetics," Sakura said.
The Nara winced, seemingly despite himself. "ABG? I heard that class is a nightmare."
"Yeah, well," Sakura said, shrugging her shoulders. "Advanced Decryption isn't really any better."
"I guess not."
"So…what's the point of it?" She asked. "Why the extra credit? Are there any other students doing this kind of stuff?"
"I'm sure there are," the Nara said. "I haven't been able to find them though. I found you by looking through the records. You've got the hardest course load of anyone in any of the four academies right now, you know. I figured if anyone would be doing this, it'd be you."
Sakura smiled slightly. She had been taking an especially hard course load, though she hadn't known that it was the hardest.
Well, that was a lie. She had known. But it was nice that someone else had finally noticed.
"Anyway, my theory is that this is stuff the legitimate offices are working with," the boy continued. "The things the village itself can't figure out."
"Seriously?" Sakura asked, arching her eyebrows. "Isn't that a huge security risk?"
The boy shook his head. "Not if they do it right. The stuff isn't complete, I'm sure you've noticed that. Just little snippets, and they never relate to each other. And besides, we're never gonna figure this stuff out. They're just looking for some insight. Something they overlooked. From the mouths of babes, that kind of stuff."
Sakura bit her lip. "You really think so?" The idea seemed to be sound, especially if the kids were kept in the dark about what they were doing. And the boy was right about their work being in bits and pieces – part of what made the work so hard to do was that she never had the full picture, and could only poke and prod at certain aspects of it until her head slumped down onto her desk and she gave up on accomplishing anything more than partial completion.
"Yeah, I think so," the boy said, nodding. "Anyway, that's about it. I just wanted to test a theory. If you find any others, send them my way, huh?"
"How come?" Sakura asked.
"I'm curious," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I'm Nara Shikamaru, by the way."
"Haruno Sakura."
"Be seeing ya," Shikimaru said, turning around and walking away. Sakura watched him, go, headache all but forgotten. When she got home, she'd dive into that extra credit with a vengeance.
Because If Anyone Could Solve It…
It wasn't that Naruto hated medical exams. He didn't like them all that much, what with the poking and the prodding and the blood samples, and the fact that the staff never gave him free lollipops anymore (seriously, what was up with that, turning ten didn't make you suddenly hate lollipops). But no, Naruto didn't hate medical exams. He just didn't like them all that much, and Mizuki forcing him into a random one when it wasn't anywhere near his birthday didn't exactly endear Naruto to his tutor.
"Are we almost done?" He groaned, keeping himself from wincing as the doctor drew yet another small blood sample. "We've been doing this forever."
"Drink your juice," Mizuki said sternly from where he was leaning against the wall. Naruto stuck his tongue out at the silver haired man, but took a long swig of apple juice. Delicious.
"This is important," Mizuki continued. "Doctor Minami is giving up one of her vacation days as a personal favor to me just to examine you. Don't embarrass me."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "I just don't get it," he said. "I've had plenty of medical exams before. Why don't you go look through those old files?"
"Because this particular test is one you've never taken before," Mizuki said. "I've asked Doctor Minami to look over your healing abilities. You recover from injuries rapidly, and while part of that could be your chakra reserves, I'm not convinced it's not at least partially biological."
"Like a bloodline limit?" Naruto asked, sitting up a little. Bloodline limits were the real deal. The three greatest noble clans all had bloodline limits, and the other six all had jutsu so unique to their families that they might as well have been bloodline limits. Everyone knew that a Sharingan or a Byakugan could make the difference between a career Chunin and an ANBU operative.
Mizuki shrugged. "Maybe, though I doubt it. More like the beginnings of one. Like it's some sort of genetic quirk specific to you. Your great-great-great grandkids might be considered bloodline users, provided you pass this on and it doesn't fizzle out. That stuff happens more than you think."
"Really?" Naruto asked. He knew Sakura had been studying bloodline limits, but she hadn't really told them anything about how they worked. It had all seemed dangerously boring, but Mizuki had a knack for making big, complicated ideas relatively easy to understand.
"Oh yeah," Mizuki said. "Chakra plays hell with genetics. Basically, it's really, really hard to properly pass on a bloodline, which is why most clans intermarry. Remember the first Hokage?"
Naruto nodded. "Of course." The First Hokage was awesome. Everyone knew about the First Hokage.
"Well, what you might not know is that he was the first Senju to manifest the wood release – he was the first person to be able to use trees as weapons," Mizuki said, correcting course when Naruto's face briefly flashed with confusion. "Shortly after founding the village, he fell deeply in love with a girl. He wanted to marry her, but his younger brother, who would go on to be the Second Hokage, convinced him to marry within the clan instead. That meant the wood release was passed down to his children, and now it flourishes within the clan."
"Oh," Naruto said. "That seems kinda sad, that he wasn't able to marry the girl he loved." He couldn't keep his mind from flashing to Sakura, and how he would feel if he had to marry like…Musuu. Well, maybe Musuu wouldn't be so bad, but she wasn't Sakura.
Mizuki smiled somewhat. "It's said that in time, Hashirama and his wife found happiness together. But he never loved her like he did the first girl. A famous poet wrote about it. Do you want to hear it?"
"Eh," Naruto said, returning his attention to his apple juice. Still delicious.
Mizuki, however, barreled on. "And so the girl with Scarlet hair, and eyes of deepest ocean blue, went down the lonely road of life, and happy breath she never drew. Time heals all wounds, she once believed, but never did her heart prevail. When lovers crieth to the night, they imitate poor Mito's wail."
"Nooooo," Naruto groaned. "Poetry is so boring."
Mizuki chuckled. "That's only the last stanza. The poem really is horrifically long, but I'm partial to it."
"I'm impressed, Mizuki," Dr. Minami said, stepping back into the room. She was a short, blue haired girl. She had a pretty smile, Naruto thought. Not too many teeth. "I didn't take you for a poetry kind of guy."
"Yeah, well, what can I say?" Mizuki asked, grinning. "Hidden depths."
"Did you finish the tests yet?" Naruto asked, glancing back and fore between Mizuki and the doctor. He was getting real tired of this medicine thing, and the sooner he could leave and go hang out with Sasuke, the better.
The doctor gave Mizuki a look and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Yeah, actually, I did," she said, handing Mizuki the reports. "I don't want to say anything until Mizuki double checks me, but…"
"Are these accurate?" Mizuki asked, flipping through the papers with a look of disbelief on his face. "Please tell me these are accurate."
"I triple checked," Minami said, nodding earnestly. Excitement was spreading across her face now – Naruto could see it in her body language too, the way she pushed herself up onto the balls of her feet "It all checks out. Mizuki, this is huge. This is huge."
"What's huge?" Naruto asked, straining his neck to get a look at the reports. They all looked like gibberish to him, random strings of numbers and letters that told him nothing except that he'd never, ever be a doctor.
Mizuki looked up at Naruto, his mouth hanging slightly open. "We need to take this to the Hokage," he said, looking back to Minami. "We need to take this to the Hokage right now."
"Nobody tells me anything," Naruto groaned, sliding off the table and tossing his apple juice into the trash.
Typical, Really
By the time the three had arrived at the Hokage's office, Naruto still had no idea what was going on.
"The Hokage isn't taking appointments right now," the reception lady said as they passed. Mizuki ignored her, and Naruto followed him with no small amount of triumph in his eyes. Reception lady had been the bane of his existence when he was younger and pretending to be an explorer – her punishment was right and just.
The next people to get in the way were two Chunin, but Mizuki simply fixed them with a glare and pointed back at Naruto, then at Dr. Minami. The two Chunin exchanged a look and backed off, apparently deciding that whatever the deal was, it was above their pay grade.
After that, people seemed to get out of their way, as if warned of their approach. When the three of them reached the door to the Hokage's office, two black-cloaked ANBU shimmered into vision, regarding Mizuki stoically before fading back into the wall. Naruto saw Minami shiver, but Mizuki simply pushed open the door.
The Hokage – Itachi (it still felt weird to think of Sasuke's older brother as the Hokage) was seated at his desk, scribbling on some paperwork while nursing a hot cup of tea. He looked up at Mizuki as the three entered, and Naruto instinctively bowed.
"Mizuki," Itachi said finally. "I was told you were on the warpath."
"I'm sorry sir, for the interruption," Mizuki said, coming out of his bow. "I wouldn't have bothered you if it wasn't important."
"I don't doubt it," Itachi said, his face impassive. "I assume it has something to do with Naruto? Has he been caught vandalizing again?"
Naruto scowled. That had been like, three times. Five times. Seven times. But Itachi should only know about six.
Mizuki shook his head emphatically. "No, sir. Naruto's done nothing wrong. It's these reports." He placed the reports on the desk, and Itachi grabbed them, looking them over with a curious glint in his eye. "I asked Dr. Minami to run a few tests, to see if we could identify what gave Naruto his unique healing properties."
"Shinobi, along with Academy students, aren't to be given unscheduled exams," Itachi said, not looking up. "Why didn't you clear it with the hospital?"
"I'm – I'm sorry, sir," Mizuki said. "It's just…that rule is rarely enforced, and I didn't want to waste the hospital's time."
"Rules exist for a reason," Itachi said simply. "But please. Continue."
Mizuki nodded nervously. "Of course. Well, Dr. Minami ran the tests, and we discovered…we discovered Naruto has a bloodline limit."
"Seriously?!" Naruto asked, practically leaping into the air. Itachi failed to look surprised.
"Seriously," Mizuki said, nodding again. "Sir, it's a form of cellular regeneration." Itachi said nothing, so he continued. "When we heal, sir, our cells make…copies of each other. But it's never perfect. There's always wear and tear left over." Naruto recognized the tone Mizuki was using – it was his teaching voice, the one he adopted whenever Naruto was having trouble understanding something. Itachi probably didn't need the explanation, but it seemed to be making Mizuki feel more comfortable. "Naruto's, though, is perfect. Or near perfect. He recovers basically completely from any injury he receives. No build up of scar tissue, or anything. And he does it fast, which, coupled with his chakra reserves, explains the healing."
"Mm-hm," Itachi said. Naruto was too excited to speak.
"Sir, imperfect copies are part of the reason we age!" Mizuki said. "If Naruto keeps making near perfect copies of his cells, he could live…for a long time. A hundred years? More? We could tell with more testing. And sir, this isn't just any bloodline limit. This is the Uzu-"
"I'm going to stop you right there, Mizuki," Itachi said, holding up a hand. "You've done excellent work here. You as well, Dr. Minami. I'm impressed."
"Wait," Naruto said, "what does that mean? What bloodline limit is it?" A non-random bloodline limit wasn't something to be brushed off. A non-random bloodline limit was important. It meant a clan. And a clan meant a…
Itachi, however, simply smiled. "It's not important, Naruto," he said. "Mizuki and Dr. Minami will be stepping out now. Nothing for you to worry about."
"What are you talking about?" Mizuki asked. "What's going on?"
He was interrupted by the sound of wood hitting wood. "I'm going on, Roatsu," said a voice from the doorway.
Naruto turned, and took a step back as he recognized the man. He was tall, and old, Old Man Hokage old, with scars covering the half of his face that wasn't covered in bandages.
Shimura Danzo. That wasn't a good thing. Even Naruto knew that when Shimura Danzo showed up, things had gotten really messy.
Beside him was a man Naruto didn't know, with straw colored hair and green eyes. He regarded Naruto coolly, carefully, like they were always told how to regard enemy Shinobi.
"Roatsu Mizuki," Danzo said, stepping forwards. "Minami Tsubaki. You'll both come with me."
Mizuki glanced back at Itachi. "You knew," he said, his tone accusatory. "You know."
"Of course I do," Itachi said. "I'm the Hokage. Goat, Rat, please escort Mizuki and Tsubaki away. Shimura-san will be taking them now."
There was a puff of smoke, and suddenly Naruto was alone with the Hokage, Danzo, and the straw haired man. He had the sudden feeling that something was very, very wrong. He tried to speak, only to find he couldn't. Danzo stepped past him, towards Itachi's desk, leaving the straw haired man to watch Naruto.
"I'll give them the works," Danzo said. "No lasting damage."
"They won't just try it again, will they?" Itachi asked. He seemed largely unfazed by everything that was going on. Naruto wondered how often he did this kind of thing.
"Of course not," Danzo said. He sounded offended, as if Itachi had personally insulted his mother. "This isn't our first day on the job. We'll put something in. He'll move on with training the boy as scheduled."
"Speaking of Naruto…" Itachi said. "I trust you'll be taking him in next?"
Danzo grunted, and looked back at the straw haired man. They made eye contact for a moment, and then Danzo turned back to face Itachi. "I'd rather we didn't."
"And that's because…"
"He's afraid," Danzo said simply, shrugging in the direction of the straw haired man. "He goes in, he might not come back out. And you know he's too valuable to lose."
"Regardless," Itachi said, "something needs to be done. Are there any other options?"
Danzo rubbed at his chin for a moment. "We could seal the memories," he said. "We've done it before. With the boy's…" he trailed off, and gave Naruto a brief look. "With the previous host."
Distaste flickered across Itachi's face. "Seems like a crude solution."
"It's a crude problem," Danzo said with a shrug. "We could give him to Moreno. He's always got ideas."
Itachi shook his head. "No. Jiraiya is here. Have him do it." He rubbed the tear troughs wearily. He looked very little like Itachi in that moment, and much more like the Old Man.
Danzo bowed. "I'll send someone to fetch him."
"Oh man," Naruto muttered to himself. And then he was consumed by a tide of terrifying blackness.
Beware, Beware, What Dwells In Dark, Beneath The Shady Bran-ches. Beware, Beware, The Deepest Roots, With Greedy Eyes And Hand-ses.
Sakura was just about ready to set her desk on fire when there was a knock on the door leading into her room.
"Sakura, honey?" Comes her mom's voice from the other side of the door. "There's an academy teacher here to see you."
Sakura frowned before answering. That was odd. She had been in the academy for seven years now, and never once had a teacher made a house call. For a moment, her insides froze as she considered that they had overheard her conversation with Shikamaru, but she put that thought out of her mind. She hadn't broken any rules, technically. She had denied everything. It was hardly her fault that Shikamaru had slipped through their security.
"Uh, I'll be out in a second," Sakura said finally, covering her extra credit work under a mountain of random papers. She wasn't getting anywhere with it anyway. Maybe it would be a welcome distraction. She was up and about to open the door when it opened entirely without her prompting, and Inoue-sensei, an old, surprisingly spry man with a disheveled mane of grey hair, stepped into her room.
"No need to worry, I'll let myself in," he said, his back to Sakura. "I'm sure Sakura won't mind. Will you, Sakura?" He asked, turning to her and smiling.
"What?"
Thump. Click. The door closed and locked. Sakura tilted her head in confusion, because while the person in front of her certainly looked and sounded and moved and even smelled like Inoue-sensei, he wasn't acting at all like Inoue-sensei. The man usually wore a constant grimace, as if life was going out of its way to torture him specifically, and never called her anything other than Haruno.
So she did what any sensible Shinobi in training would do, stepping forward and hitting him full across the face.
She didn't stop the motion, instead continuing and spinning around, grabbing the kunai lying on her desk. Still not stopping, she spun back around, intending to put it to "Inoue-sensei's" throat, but before she could the old man lashed out and caught her wrist. His grip was like iron, and before she could so much as scream his other hand had covered her mouth.
"Not bad," the person disguised as her teacher said, grinning in a very un-Inoue-sensei like way. "Really not bad. Stronger than I figured you'd be." He chuckled, and his features seemed to ripple, like water. Sakura watched in amazement as Inoue-sensei lost a few years (but not many), and revealed himself to be none other than…
Sanin Jiraiya.
"Oh wow," Sakura whispered, her voice still muffled by Jiraiya's hand. "Oh wow, oh, Sage."
Jiraiya was…difficult to describe. He was old, with the years (fifty-seven, if her history is right, which of course it was) etched solidly onto his face. But at the same time he appeared young, youthful energy shining though his smile in a way that reminded her a lot of Naruto. His hair was long, and solid white, and that combined with the red tattoos on his face make him look a lot like a Senju. Sakura had always wondered why he had those markings – they really were unheard of for anyone outside the Senju clan. The Inuzuka had their classic fang marks of course (and even those were inspired by the Senju marks, from when the Inuzuka served under them during the Warring Clans era), but those were vastly different from Jiraiya's twin lines.
Jiraiya's smile widened at her expression, eyes blazing with almost manic energy. "Surprised you, didn't I?" He asked, letting go of her wrist and mouth. "I mean yeah, alright, it's not every day a Sanin shows up to your house, but I think I have a pretty good reason."
"Uh," Sakura said, taking a hesitant step back, towards her desk. "Okay."
"It's about this," Jiraiya said. He held a piece of paper out to her and she took it, eyes widening as she realized what it was – a perfect replica of her extra credit homework. She stared up at him.
"I pickpocketed it from you as you were walking home," Jiraiya explained, still grinning like an idiot. "Glanced at it, memorized it, wrote it down for myself." He pointed at one of the equations Sakura had been slaving over all night, his own handwriting filling in the missing pieces. "This is how you complete that formula, by the way."
Sakura nodded slowly. That made…a lot of sense. "I didn't…" she said, desperately searching for something to say, "I never confirmed or denied Shikamaru's suspicions. I didn't reveal anything. Him figuring it out is the village's fault, not mine."
Jiraiya laughed. "You think I'm here about Shikamaru? I mean, from what I've seen the kid is smart as hell, but code breaking isn't really my forte, you know?"
"And bloodline genetics is?" Sakura asked, scrambling to keep herself from stuttering.
"You could say I've got a lot of secondhand experience with the subject," Jiraiya said. He leaned against the wall. "One of my old friends was kind of Konohagakure's pioneer on the subject."
"Oh." Sakura felt her stomach drop, and she nearly smacked her own forehead. Of course. Orochimaru. He had practically written her textbook, and he and Jiraiya had been teammates. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"But Shikamaru's right, you know," the Sanin continued. "About the whole extra credit thing. The village is trying to get a fresh perspective on things."
"How do you know?" Sakura asked, before she could stop herself. He was Sanin Jiraiya. You didn't just ask him how he knew things.
Jiraiya, however, didn't seem to mind. Instead, he pointed his thumb at his chest. "Because I started the program," he said. The smug rolled off him in waves, practically a physical force that threatened to knock Sakura off her feet.
"Oh."
"I've always been a big proponent of fostering talent in the younger generations," Jiraiya explained, meandering over to her desk and glancing over her papers. "When I'm dead and gone, you guys will be the ones protecting the village, after all. Hell, with the way things are going politically, you'll probably be protecting the entire country." He waved his hand dismissively. "But that's neither here nor there. The reason I came here today is…" he shrugged. "I guess I kind of wanted to see my idea in action."
Sakura felt her face flush. "Well I hope…I hope I haven't disappointed," she said.
"Are you kidding?" Jiraiya asked, raising his eyebrows. "Hell no. You've exceeded expectations, if anything. Keep up the good work." Sakura's face felt like it was on fire – at this point she knew she must've looked ridiculous, pink hair on top of beet red face, but she couldn't control herself.
Jiraiya noticed, and chuckled. "I'll keep dropping by," he said, walking over to the window and opening it up. "To check up on you. You've got my interest. He paused for a moment, studying her with a curious eye. "You've got near perfect marks on chakra control, right?"
Sakura nodded eagerly.
"Do me a favor, would you?" The older Shinobi asked. "Buy some water balloons, fill 'em up. Try to make them pop by holding them in your palm and spinning your chakra. Think you can do that?"
Sakura nodded again.
"Awesome," he said, turning back to the window. "Well. See you in a year or so." And then he was gone.
A Bit Eccentric, That One
"You don't need to bring that, you know," Shisui said, pointing at the chokuto strapped to Sasuke's back.
Sasuke grunted. "I'm supposed to keep it with me at all times," he said, hands absently drifting to the hilt of the weapon. "To get a feel for it." He had had the sword for a little over two months now, and was only now getting used to the feel of it. It was a bit different from the more standard katana, but Sasuke had found himself preferring the straight blade of the chokuto to it's curved katana cousin.
"Well, yes," Shisui admitted, taking another flying leap from one rooftop to the next, "but we're practicing ninjutsu, not kenjutsu. I think your tutor would understand."
"I like having it," Sasuke said.
Shisui shrugged. "It's your call," he said. "Up and at 'em." He leapt up towards the massive stone walls that surrounded the village, feet blazing with chakra as they stuck to the side. Sasuke followed suit. He had gotten much more proficient with the wall walking technique over the last year, enough to keep up with Shisui's brisk pace up to the top.
The older Uchiha waved to the Chunin on guard duty, who returned the wave politely and then returned to their conversation. Technically, nobody was supposed to leave the village without a check, but Shisui was such a highly respected Jonin that he could slip by without trouble.
"So," Shisui said as they skidded down the other side of the wall, Sasuke funneling nearly all his focus onto keeping his chakra level steady (going down a wall was much more difficult than going up – it required enough chakra to remain on the wall but not so much that you couldn't slide down it). "How have classes been going?"
"They've been fine," Sasuke said. "Itachi's been busy lately."
Shisui rolled his eyes at the abrupt change of subject. "There's a lot of stuff going on," he said, leaping off the wall, flipping in midair, and landing on a sturdy tree branch. "This civil war in the Land of Water is really taking up a lot of his time."
"Anything you can tell me?" Sasuke asked.
"You know most of it already, probably," Shisui said with a shrug. "Momoichi Zabuza's heading the whole thing up. Calls it a "revolution of the people", claims the Mizukage's been abusing the bloodline clans."
Sasuke frowned. "Why would he do that? Bloodline Shinobi are too important to abuse."
"It's different, in Water," Shisui said. "There's a lot of tension between bloodline users and everyone else. Wars, attempted coups. The Mizukage had to put a lot of them down himself, so he started tightening control over them. Taking away a lot of their freedoms. It was popular with the Daimyo."
"But now he's dead," Sasuke said with a grunt.
"Yep," Shisui said with a nod. "Zabuza beheaded him to kick the whole thing off. Which is an issue in and of itself, because it's drawn attention to just how insignificant his death actually was."
Sasuke fixed his cousin with a questioning glance.
"I mean, power's been shifting from the Daimyos to the Kages for years now," Shisui admitted. "The Hidden Villages are way more independent than they were just a decade ago, and the Kage wields a lot of powers that used to be the Daimyo's. But the Water Daimyo's death, and the way the Mizukage has basically been running the country in the past year, has shed a lot of light on just how serious the shift has been. The nobles have realized it, and some are even hiring outside groups for certain jobs that Kirigakure Shinobi should be handling. Mercenaries and such. In protest, I guess."
"But that happens whenever there's a war," Sasuke said. "The village devotes more manpower to fighting, so there's less to do the odd jobs the civilians need to have handled. It's half the reason independent Shinobi organizations exist in the first place."
Shisui shook his head. "Civilians, yes. Nobles, not so much. And that's not all. There are rumors that the nobles are employing Iwagakure Shinobi."
"Ah," Sasuke said, nodding. "That could be serious." Mercenaries were one thing – it was the price of going to war. But having your business redirected to another Country's Shinobi village was another thing entirely. It was unprecedented.
"It'll certainly put a different spin on the next Chunin Exams, that's for sure," Shisui said. "Stop here."
They came to rest in a clearing with a small pond. Sasuke glanced around at the thick vegetation, eyeing it warily. "Is it really safe to practice fire releases here?" He asked, arching an eyebrow at his older cousin.
"That's what the pond's for," Shisui said with a grin. "Ready to start?"
Sasuke nodded.
Shisui clapped his hands together. "So," he said. "Elemental techniques. Water, fire, wind, lightning, and earth. They make up the vast majority of offensive Ninjutsu, so get used to them."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. Shisui pretended not to notice.
"Like all chakra users, you have one specific elemental affinity," Shisui explained. "In your case, it's lightning. It means your chakra is most similar to lightning chakra in composition, and makes lightning techniques that much easier to use. Unfortunately, it has the side effect of making wind technqiues that much more difficult for you to use."
"Naruto has a wind affinity, and he still manages to use fire techniques," Sasuke pointed out. "That Ash Pile Burning thing."
"I've seen Naruto use that technique," Shisui said. "He sucks at it."
Sasuke grunted.
"Besides, why do you think Asuma taught him that?" The older Uchiha followed up. "He's teaching Naruto to work with his opposites. It's important. You'll get to it later, because – well, don't get me wrong, I love Naruto, but you don't need the work nearly as much as he does."
Sasuke grunted again.
"Anyway, you can be considered competent in the use of an element when you can perform several techniques with it and reliably channel chakra purely of that element. You'll most likely become competent with lightning chakra when you're a Chunin, so not for a while yet. Most Shinobi never become competent in more than two or three."
"What about Itachi?"
Shisui sighed. "Itachi's the Hokage, you don't need to worry about-" Sasuke fixed him with a glare, and Shisui threw up his hands in defeat. "Itachi was competent in all five elements six months after he was deployed into the field. Happy?"
"Not really."
"I didn't think so. Today, as is tradition for all Uchiha your age, you'll be learning the Great Fireball Technique."
"Great," Sasuke said, cracking his knuckles eagerly. "Let's get to it then."
"The Grand Fireball Technique," Shisui continued, pointedly ignoring Sasuke, "was originally developed by Uchiha Izuna during the Warring Clans Era. It was originally intended as a counter for Senju Hashirama's wood release techniques, which…explains its growing popularity when the Senju clan as a whole began inheriting the bloodline."
Sasuke smirked slightly. Keikan was in for a surprise the next time he tried to use those damn techniques. Sasuke could already smell the burning leaves and broken dreams.
"So we'll start by gathering the chakra in our lungs," Shisui said, drawing himself up to full height. "Stand up straight and just gather it. Don't worry about trying to convert it to fire chakra – the hand seals will do it for you. Now breathe. In…out. In…out.
Author's Note:
If you have any questions about how things work in this reboot, (things I've already somewhat covered, that is) feel free to ask. This is a big project, and I'm going to miss some stuff.
I want to leave a quick note about the use of honorifics, because I didn't feel like I did a great job last chapter. Basically, because I don't like having to use honorifics all the time in my stories, I made them part of a dying language in my reboot-verse, only used by people who are intentionally being very formal and polite. Someone like Hinata would use honorifics a lot, Sakura only really uses –sensei, and Naruto still doesn't really have a grasp on all the different ones, if that tells you anything.
Thanks for reading, and please leave a review!