Rewatching Shippuden and realizing Naruto never lost the rush in and screw everything up mentality in battle... why does that never change...

A lot of Mika's growth is at least moderatly derived from Itachi, Kabuto and Gaara...

Sai is a really big favorite of mine, such an undervalued character. I love his skills, background, character and everything. He was so bland at times but in others he was just epic.

You Should read Genius sensei by AlexDnD, it is by far the greatest Naruto Fanfiction ever made. I pale as an author.

''

" My name is Shin, Nice to meet you." It was almost euphoric, meeting another person other then his teachers. Especially one that still retained more then a sliver of his emotions. " So, I guess your new here huh?"

" Yes... so may I ask, how long have you been here?" The Kid was at least two or three years older then Mika, and he just seemed powerful. His chakra was strong and the flow was steady, almost rhythmic. His muscles were tight and his stance tense even with his calm demeanor, leaving Mika a little nervous. ' Wait, Mika... I guess I'm too relaxed to really bring out Shiso, that isn't good. This kid, something about him...his chakra reminds me of white chocolate, way too sweet and completely fake.'

" About five years, I was recruited when I was six." His smile just seemed fake, which kind of made sense. Five years in this hellhole he probably lost any trace of identity. " So what's your specialty? Mine is Kenjutsu and Assassination."

" Genjutsu, Capture and Medical Jutsu."

" Huh, not many support types make it past basic training so quickly. Genjutsu and Medical Jutsu training, even in theory, takes a while to really get a grip on. You must be good, otherwise Lord Danzo wouldn't have sent you our way. " Continuing his fake smile, Shin lead Mika out of the small hallway they were in to... a forest? " This is where we train day to day for missions. Tracking, Hunting and so on."

' Kami, I missed this... Fresh air, warm son, a lovely breeze... never realized how much I could appreciate it.' Basking, only for a moment, Mika looked around and made mental notes of the area. ' I can sense only a small group, maybe thirty or so people, all around my age. Other then that, I can barely sense anything. Maybe a few squirels and a few birds. Not really anything of note... wait, what is that? It's strong, but I can barely sense it. They are blocking me, no... they are repressing their chakra. If I hadn't sparred so often with Hama, I doubt I would notice it at all.' " How many of us are there?" ' Yes, keep our abilities quiet. The last thing I need is for too many people to use my abilities against me.'

" Not many, thirty or So I think. Anyway, you can spend your mornings with us, Sparing does more then most exercises so sparring with all of us will help you. Can you Water walk?"

" Yes, but only for a few minutes. My chakra levels are too small for long term usage of anything. I'm not bad with my batons though."

" I think your the only baton user, most stick with our blunt tanto. We do have an archer, and a kusiraga user and a few Kunai and Senbon focused Shinobi but not much else really. Most of the recruits are too young to have much diversity in their skills yet. My brother, Sai, is an art type jutsu user. I think you two will get along, he could use some more friends."

' It changed... entirely, his face, there was actual warmth there for a moment. His chakra is different too, the coldness added for a moment. I think... I think He really loves his brother. Like me he has a mask, a fake self to hold his true self within. To last so long and endure this hell...' Warmth and hope washed through Mika's soul. ' Maybe... maybe I will survive this place afterall.'

Shin hated seeing new recruits, it broke his heart to see more people sacrificed to the madness of Danzo's regime. Having been in ROOT since he was six, Shin had seen literally a thousand kids live and die just dealing with the training Danzo forced them to endure. Most of them died before their first year was even over, either from exertion, suicide or a failed attempt to flee from ROOT. He hoped this kid wouldn't be one of those...

After walking for a few minutes, they reached the larger encampment where the other recruits lay in wait. As always his heart ached seeing them, a reminder that they had basically been sold to become slaves to the village, to die for them all without a choice. No one would remember them, these kids would die for a purpose they never chose.

" Everyone, this is Shiso. He is our newest recruit, and our resident support ninja." A few of the not as broken kids waved and nodded, small hesitant smiles on their faces. The others just looked at him without hope, tired or suspicious. They were too used to death and pain, too close to breaking entirely to really care about a new recruit.

Shiso didn't seemed bothered by this in the slightest, he just nodded and took everything in. Quick shooting glances told Shin quite a bit, for one he was not as broken as he may have shown before. He was analytical and untrusting, cautious to the point of paranoia. Every single muscle was tense, twitching in case he needed to flee or fight. It was actually quite impressive but just as depressing, no child should have to be that vigilant, under that constant level of mental stress. That was the reason most kids killed themselves, they just couldn't handle that kind of damage such stress inflicted on the body and mind.

After a mere ten seconds of extreme analysis, Shiso finally spoke. " It is nice to meet you all, I hope we can maintain a productive and valuable comradery."

' Huh... maybe he will survive this afterall.' As Everyone dispersed, doing nothing of particular value, Shin lead the new recruit to Sai. His younger brother was drawing as he always did, with a small smile on his face. " Sai, this is Shiso, say hello."

Tiny and pale, Sai looked up and gave a genuine smile the new kid. " It is nice to meet you."

" Same, your brother said that you are an artist... may I see your work? I like to write myself." An honest smile popped on Shiso's face as he sat next to Sai, who shly but eagerly showed his work. " Wow, this is actually pretty good. Reminds me of some of the art to come out during the Warring Clans era. Thick lines, semi realistic with wide swoops."

' Finally... I'm glad. Maybe Sai will have a freind before I die, someone to keep him going without becoming Danzo's complete pawn.' Warmth flooded his weak, damaged heart, leaving him hopeful for the future for the first time in a long time.

""""""

" We are almost ready, we have a heavy stock of weapons and explosive tags. " Fugaku wanted to snap Yashiro Uchiha's neck, but refrained. He wasn't unaware of the man's cowardice and deceit, he knew that Yashiro had his own dark reasons for instigating the coup to begin with. However he stayed his hand, Yashiro had far to firm a grip on the other Uchiha far greater then his own. All Fugaku could do was make the most of this horrible situation, limiting the deaths and making it as successful as possible for this was what his clan wanted.

" Yes, we do however we have far too few Jonin and Chunin thanks to the War and the Kyuubi attack. Spending the next few months training them to better hone their skills will ensure a lower death count and drastically increase our fighting potential." Turning away slightly, Fugaku struggled to hide his frown. ' Besides, maybe I will be able to stop these hard headed idiots before they get us all killed.' There were many he would like to kill, to destroy, within his clan. Yashiro was one of them, as was Desmend, Hiten, Yura and unfortunately his own wife. She wasn't much better then the others, just as paranoid and obsessed with their clan's position. It made sense, given that she was from one of the previous ruling families in their clan, being a direct descendant to Izuna Uchiha himself. Their son Sasuke was practically identical to all of the drawings they had from that time period. ' She is by far my greatest enemy... and my greatest love.'

He met his wife's gaze for a moment, admiring her beauty and remembering their entire life together. He truly did love her, despite his annoyance and occasional desire to kill her anyway. She was his equal in all things, power, skill, intelligence, passion, devotion. She had been just as feared as he was in the war... and because of that she was the main reason he could not fight the Coup. She may be able to over him all on her own, and then she could lead their clan in his place. No one would question her, many already saw her as the power behind the throne as it was.

' Caught between a rock and a hardplace.' Knowing better then to stick in such a mindset, he turned to Yashiro. " Have the newer genin and chunin make round around the village, disguise it via patrols. If our Coup is to be successful, then we will need any edge we can manage." He turned away, nodding at his wife. " Do your best to create as many seals as you can, binding and explosive as top priority. If capable, create one of the seals Kushina taught you. If we can suppress the Jinchuuriki's chakra before using the Sharingan, it will make tapping into his power all the easier. It should help prevent that idiot Danzo from controlling him against us."

Lovely and sweet, Mikoto nodded with fierce determination. " I have a few seals in mind that could work. Kushina was working on a seal specifically that could shut down demonic chakra, causing a dormancy in any host. Apparently it was supposed to be for training purposes. I will need some of the boy's blood though. It will make for a far greater conduit then any of ours."

" Kaname, your mission is to gain at least a single vial of the boy's blood as quietly and efficiently as possible. Hiruzen always has him watched over by ANBU, and I am sure Danzo does as well. Your our best assassin, the only one capable of such a task. Do not get caught, use others if you need to."

Fourty five and heavily scarred, Kaname was an interesting Soul. Rarely speaking, or really showing any sort of emotion at all. Still he was loyal to a fault. " I will do as you wish, my Lord."

" Wonderful... Danko, I need you to double your patrols within the compound. We cannot have anyone discovering out coup before we initiate it. Itachi has assured me that the Leaf remains ignorant. It will not last for long, not with Danzo's ROOT being so persitent. His Parinoia will be our undoing if we do not practice caution."

Yashiro's smug grin left a nasty taste in Fugaku's mouth.

' We will fail, and it will be his fault...no, it will be my fault for being to weak to stop my own clan's impossible goal... damn you Yashiro,... Damn you Hiruzen, Danzo, Homura, Kotaru... weakness and greed and paranoia has forced us into a corner...'

"""

" ... Adding chakra makes the ink take on a more physical form when it leaves the scroll. I've been trying to find ink better at channeling the chakra I put in it but that isn't always possible."

Sheer amazement flooded Mika as he brushed his fingers against the tiny bird in front of him. Crafted entirely out of ink it radiated chakra that was heavier then normal chakra, warm and pleasant as well. ' How can chakra do this? Is there any limit to what chakra is capable of? Illusions, controlling the elements, healing the body of nearly any injury and crafting sentient creatures out of ink!' The soft inky creature responded in kind, twitching towards Mika and hopping on his fingers. " It doesn't feel like ink, it's warm and soft like snake skin."

Sai seemed over the moon that someone was enjoying his art so much. " It's not supposed to, it has to blend into the environment. If it was soft and inky it would dispel to easily. I'm trying to make them sturdier but I haven't figured that out yet."

" Maybe you need to make the chakra denser, or add a better conductor like blood? Some of the Medical books I've been reading talks about using blood as a medium for certain rituals, and hair actually. Maybe doing something like that could help with the strength of the Jutsu."

" Yeah, I'll try that. So you study medical jutsu, what's that like? I heard it's really hard."

" Not really, it all kind of makes sense to me but I haven't performed any actual jutsu so I wouldn't know." Wanting to turn the conversation back to something he was honestly curious about, Mika turned and Shin an assessing sort of stare. " So Sai, is he really your brother, Biologically anyway? You look nothing alike." ' Not to mention that your chakra is completely different, but I'll keep my sensory abilities under my hat... for now. I don't trust these people, they have been around Danzo and his croneys for way too long. Who knows how broken they are.'

" Oh, I'm an orphan and I had no brothers or sisters before I can into ROOT but they paired me with Shin, he became my brother almost immediately. He gets me these books to draw in and helps me get better at fighting so I don't get in trouble." Sheer innocence made Mika smile despite himself.

" I imagine that's nice to have, with all we have to do here." Keeping his tone as polite but emotionless as he could, Mika did his best to not showcase even a little bit of exuberance or valuable emotion. He refused to die or be punished for something so easily avoidable. Fuu and Hama may not be here but he knew that they would have someone watching over him. If they didn't, Lord Danzo surely did. He refused to die because he failed to maintain the most basic aspect of ROOT Life, the one thing drilled into him from literally his first day in ROOT.

Apparently, Sai wasn't as diligent for he went full emotion, smiling and beaming with sheer happiness and adorable pleasure. " Yeah, I don't know how I would get along without him."

Then it hit him... with a horror beyond horror, sheer terror and the desire to cry...' I hope I'm wrong about this...' Shuddering just a little, Mika asked the horrible question. " So, um... why are there so few of us? I figured that there would be more of us, what with our purpose as a personal army.

Sai shrugged, looking a little confused. " I'm not sure... but I know that a lot of us have died. Every few months two of us disappear, I'm not really sure what happens or why but Shin told me not to think about it too much, said I would understand when the time came... apparently Shin and I are going to be going on our trip soon... I think that is when stage two is done, when we become Full ROOT Ninja..."

' I was right.' All feeling faded from his body as Shiso took full control. All of the knowledge Fuu and Hama and Danzo had forced him to read came to light, he knew what was happening. 'They... I wondered how they would get people to truly forget themselves, forget their compassion and self loyalty... Torture is only part of it, and it starts you on the path... then they connect you with another person, using the isolation and desperate to overcome loneliness to make you reliant on another person. Humans need company, we are social creatures... so your partner, They become your anchor, and with their death you lose any part of yourself tied to your emotions... or you kill yourself, unable to handle the loss and it's effects on your mind.' Shin's cold, emotionless logic kicked in. ' I need answers before I make such heavy judgment.' " So Sai, you said we break off into pairs... is that encouraged?"

" Yeah, Lord Danzo said we need to bond with a partner to reach our full power. You'll probably get a partner in a few days, maybe a week. It depends on whomever you get close to or who's skills work well with your own."

' I need to find a partner, I will not be the reason Sai dies.' Already he felt an attachment to this boy, he was nice and not as annoying as other kids his age tended to be. Standing, Mika gave Sai a final smile. " Well, I better find a partner. Do you know anyone here that would be a good mesh with my genjutsu and medical abilities?"

Focusing for a minute, Sai nodded slow." I think so... Mayuri Nara is a pretty good match. He's a shadow user, like most Nara, but he is the heir to a lesser branch who use shadows in a more defensive way, Like barriers only they can wrap around ninjas as well. It's a pretty good capture technique and would make it easier for you to cast wide spread genjutsu and heal your comrades in peace."

" Great, I'll see you later Sai." Turning on his heel, Shiso erased his fake emotions and focused entirely on his mission. ' I hope I'm wrong... but if I am not, then Danzo really is a monster...' Flashes of information crossed his mind, more obscure texts he had read in preparation for joining the academy. History had been a bit part of that. 'The Bloody Mist Village, famous for their sensory Ninjas, use of Kenjutsu, Water Jutsu, Poison and infamous for their dark academy graduation exam. All of the children are led in a mist covered area and ordered to slaughter each other, with the survivors becoming shinobi. It is what has made them a powerful force but also what created such unrest within their village and led to the many civil wars that have ravaged their country since it's inception. The Hope of this examination is that it would strip their shinobi of mercy and loyalty to their comrades, making them willing of doing anything to get their mission accomplished.

Please... if there is a Kami, Yami or Shinigami... do not let this be true... please do not allow for any of us to endure a test anything like that...'

In a Side village in Frost Country, fifty miles east from their Hidden Village.

" I'm tired Lady Tsunade, can't we go to the Hotel yet?" Maybe it was whiny, but Thirteen hours of straight gambling wore on Shizune's mind. ' Why did I agree to join her... no, I can't think like that. I owe her, she adopted and apprenticed me despite all of her bad memories, and despite the fact that I am a reminder of my uncle.'

" Be quiet Shizune, this Time I am going to win!" Arrogant and prideful as always, Tsunade boasted wildly and tossed down another lump of cash before grabbing her cards.

' Great, just great... Why can't we go back to the Leaf, I am so tired of living like this. I Miss the village.' Shutting down such thoughts, Shizune sat down and held Tonton close to her chest. " Very well."

With a building not fifty feet from the Gambling hall, a Hyuuga ROOT agent stared at Tsunade and her captive apprentice with great distaste' Fifty Thousand Ryo more in debt, will she never stop shaming our village? Still it is good that we are collecting the names of all of those she owes. It will be fantastic blackmail if we ever need to force her back into the village, or have someone kill her.' A Pleased smile crossed the ROOT agents face. ' Kannosuke will need a copy of this report soon.'

Shoot through a heavy flow of signs, the ROOT agent summoned a tiny pigeon and placed a scroll in the pouch around it's throat, just underneath the feathers. Years of training kicked in and it shot into the sky, hurrying to their master.

' I am glad Kannosuke does not require her DNA the same way he required Jiriaya's. Seduction wouldn't work on Tsunade... and I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of her temper...sober or not.'

"""

Chapter end, tell me what you think in the Reviews.

Mika has been studying Psychology as part of his medical training. He made deductive leaps based on experience and knowledge, I think it fits... more so there is a historical precedent for this in the series...

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.