Chapter Seven


"This is insane. Absolutely insane."

Inoichi slapped Shikaku's slumped back, inadvertently making him hunch over even more. "Cheer up! It's not going to be for long, anyhow. Just think of it like we're taking him on a field trip."

Although Sakusen was excited, he was slightly inclined to agree with the grumpy Nara. This wasn't a very good idea, even by his own standards. And he'd been the one to plan out a whole trip to an outpost just to follow his friend.

Inoichi had somehow managed to sweet-talk his mother and the outpost commander (whose name was Yamaji, which was scary close to his secret nickname for the man) to take him on a "field trip". Kaa-chan had been reluctant, but Yamaji seemed all too happy to let him go. Something about causing more trouble than he was worth? He would have to get food for the commander if they ever met again in Konoha as an apology.

Sakusen suspected there was some sort of ulterior motive for bringing him along. The Ino-Shika-Cho were certainly not strangers, not after what they'd done for him, so he had no reason to worry about whatever Biwako-baa-chan kept worrying over when she always reminded him to not go off with strange people. Seriously, he had an ANBU tail. There was literally no reason to worry about anything when he was inside the village.

The group was currently huddled in Sakusen's room, which they had invaded for the night. He resolved to never sleep near an Akimichi again if he could help it. Shikaku had helpfully handed him earplugs after the third time he'd woken up to Chouza's snores. That man was louder than Haori-sensei when she got mad.

"Okay, everyone listen up. Here's the plan." Inoichi traced out a path on the unfolded map set on the floor. "We follow this trail here, straight to the border. Simple. It shouldn't take more than a day and a half, tops."

"Simple plans are the best plans," Shikaku noted. "We'll stay in Formation E, since we have an escort with us. Inoichi will lead, Chouza will be second, I'll be last. Kid, you stay in the middle, between Chouza and me, alright? Any questions?"

"Yeah," said Sakusen. "Do you guys have formations from A to Z?"

The three ninja laughed. "Of course not, that's too much," Chouza chortled. "Too many makes things complicated. We only have formations up to O."

Sakusen's mouth dropped. "15 formations? That's still a lot! How do you remember all of them?" said Sakusen. He still had a lot to learn, didn't he? No way in hell would he be able to remember 15 different formations.

Shikaku waved his hand. "Experience. Now, we leave within the hour. We'll only be staying out two nights at most. Pack accordingly."

"Okay. Thank you for taking me along on your mission. Please take care of me." Sakusen bowed deeply.

"It's fine. Now get lost, kid."

As soon as the door shut, Chouza whirled on Shikaku. "You saw that, right?" he nearly shouted. "He counted from A to O in his head in like, 3 seconds! Even I couldn't do that!"

"Not that that's saying much, Chouza... you were always terrible with math." Shikaku snorted, but even that couldn't hide the sharp gleam in his eyes. "I think I know how we're going to pass the time now..."


At the gates, Kushina spent her remaining time fussing over her son. "You packed well, right? You'll only need one spare change of clothes, since it's a short trip, but remember not to pack too much - overpacking can make you heavier, and it'll be harder to fight when you're weighted down like a rock... What else? Umm... Do you have enough food for the trip? I have some extra if you need-"

"Kaa-san," Sakusen interrupted, "we have an Akimichi with us this trip. I don't think food is going to be an issue."

Kushina smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, honey. I'm just worried, y'know? You literally got back from your trip a week ago, and now you're off again... I still think they're overdoing it. Who brings a three-year-old along with them?" She huffed, obviously displeased.

Sakusen raised his hand. "Actually, I'm four now. I turned four-"

"A month and one week ago, right?" Kushina finished. She ruffled his hair. "Sorry, I forgot. I've gotten so used to telling other people that you're three years old that it just kinda stuck, y'know? I'll have to get you birthday presents to make up for all the ones I've missed once we get back to Konoha, so remind me then, okay?"

His mother kept track of his birthday, down to the week. Sakusen felt a little warmer inside. "Thanks, Kaa-san." He put on his cutesy face. "You couldn't have gotten me a cool sword from someone you beat on the battlefield, though?"

She laughed. "The thing is, I always break everything they have first, before... "beating" them. And I couldn't get you someone's head, now, could I? That would be horrible."

Both mother and son laughed, and the nearby Ino-Shika-Cho sweated nervously.

"Oi, that's a little morbid... Is that okay?" Chouza whispered.

Inoichi shrugged. "Well, it could be worse. This isn't bad at all. Although, I think we can derive his future sense of humor from this incident."

Kushina stalked over to the trio, causing them to snap to attention. "Now, you listen up here, and listen carefully," she growled. "If my boy comes back with even a single scratch on him, I'll show you just how angry I can get. Understand?" She punctuated her words with stabbing motions of her finger.

Shikaku laughed nervously, fully aware of her short temper. "Of course, Kushina. We just want to take him sightseeing, that's all. He'll be safe with us. Right, Inoichi?" The Nara not-so-discreetly elbowed said Yamanaka, causing him to yelp.

"Yes, that's right. Your son is in safe hands. Just think of it as a field trip. An educational experience. He'll learn more about the borders, and how the patrol works as well. No fighting at all, remember? It's just a delivery mission."

Kushina's eyebrow steadily rose higher with every sentence Inoichi rattled off, and she sighed exasperatedly when he was done. "Don't think I'm stupid, y'know!" The trio blinked, exchanging glances that seemed to say When did we say that? "I know you're just interested in seeing how he acts. I know my son's a genius, but that doesn't mean you can pick him apart, y'know? Remember," she finished threateningly, her famous red tails swaying in the air, "one scratch! Whether it's a physical one or a mental one!"

Kushina kissed Sakusen on the forehead, drew him into a big hug, and swept away. As she was about to reenter the gate to the compound, she called back over her shoulder.

"Inoichi! Your 'professional psychologist' tone is still crap! You didn't fool me for a single second!"

Sakusen took a glance at the faces of the trio and blanched. All of them had turned a pasty white.

Chouza spoke first, in a strangled tone. "She saw through the excuse... not that it was really strong in the first place, but still. How terrifying."

Inoichi wilted like a dying flower. "She had to kick my self-confidence like that, didn't she? I spent years learning how to talk like that."

Shikaku took out a cigarette from his jacket pocket and lit it. "I think," he mumbled around the stick, "we should change our formation. Remember the one we did to guard the daimyo?"

Sakusen tilted his head. "Isn't that a bit too much?"

"Trust me, kid," Shikaku said, taking a puff, "nothing is ever too much when dealing with women like those. I have one at home, I would know." He exhaled a cloud of smoke. "How troublesome."


Sundown came surprisingly quickly. That might have been due to the fact that Sakusen wasn't dead focused on getting to where he needed to be, meaning that there was time to actually admire the views. Time seemed to pass by much quicker when he was having fun.

Chouza had somehow managed to produce a pan that was almost as tall as him while his back was turned, and was in the midst of making some sort of stew from their rations. Inoichi was making the fire, and Shikaku was rummaging around in his jounin vest pocket.

"Found it," grunted the Nara, pulling out a tiny scroll that was flecked with bits of gray ash. Gross. Was that his secret cigarette trash can or something?

When Shikaku had disposed of his cigarette earlier during the day, the man had fixed Sakusen with a glare so severe that the boy had been momentarily paralyzed. "Don't ever smoke in the future. And if you do, don't say you learned it from me. Got it? I don't need any more issues than I already have."

In the present, reading into Sakusen's slightly disgusted gaze, Shikaku dusted off the scroll and unrolled it, revealing a complex design inked onto the surface.

"Sometimes, there'll be missions where I can't leave any trace of our presence behind. So I just stash the butts in here. Makes a little mess, but it's better than being captured. Now, this is what I wanted to show you."

Sakusen was tempted to voice his opinion on the smell of the cigarettes probably being more noticeable than the finished blunt, but he was distracted by the puff of smoke that suddenly burst from the inscription. When the smoke cleared, a box had appeared out of nowhere.

Like magic.

Sakusen's mouth dropped open, and the trio burst out laughing.

"The looks on their faces when that happens!" Chouza was chortling so hard that he nearly dropped his cutlery. Also summoned from somewhere. Definitely not a from scroll, because he wouldn't have missed a big cloud like that.

Inoichi was grinning widely. "First time seeing a sealing scroll, huh?"

Sakusen was slightly spellbound. "I've never seen one before," he admitted. "So you can put stuff in them? Where does it go? There's no way the scroll can hold a box that big."

Shikaku lifted the top off the box, revealing pentagonal pieces with characters etched on them. "It goes in a pocket dimension, or so the story goes."

"Does it only work on paper? What does all the writing mean? How much can you put in there?" Sakusen asked relentlessly.

"I don't know about the last two so much," Inoichi said while propping his chin up with his hand, "but I remember this one time where we were fighting against the Iwagakure sealing team. They ran out of explosive tags, so they started putting explosion formulas on rocks and throwing them at us. We couldn't differentiate between those and the regular ones, so we had to retreat."

The Yamanaka didn't miss the small flinch Sakusen made when he mentioned Iwagakure, and winced internally. It was understandable. He'd almost died to a ninja from Iwa, after all. Maybe his spur-of-the-moment decision wasn't such a smart one, considering that their destination happened to have a large amount of Iwa nin on hand. But there wouldn't be any fighting. They would be fine.

Shikaku raised his hands, as if to protect himself from the next onslaught of questions. "You'll have to ask your mother about those more, or the Hokage. Your mother is the foremost sealing expert of Konoha. She can teach you a lot more than we can. What we can do, though, is teach you shogi. C'mere."

Reluctantly tearing his eyes off of the formula, Sakusen scooted over to Shikaku's side. The Nara promptly slapped a thick manual down in his lap.

"Read it, and commit the whole thing to memory. I'll give you, uhh," he scratched his goatee, "10 minutes. Go."

This time, Chouza actually did drop his knife mid-chop. "Shikaku, you can't just give him a manual on how to play shogi and expect him to understand everything!" he protested.

"You should probably help him out a little," agreed Inoichi, fighting back an exasperated smile. "He's still very young... very very young. At least give him a little tutorial."

"Nonsense," Shikaku said, waving his hand. "He's doing just fine. Look at him."

And indeed, Sakusen was already completely absorbed into the book. He didn't know he was doing a game. Games were fun. And this game looked a lot more fun than what the other kids his age seemed to be interested in.

He completely ignored the escalating argument of the adults nearby, drowning out the sounds of Inoichi proclaiming his opinion as a psychologist and pediatrician to be better than what Shikaku thought his obviously superior intellect contributed to the matter at hand. Every piece was so interesting!

A cry of "Chouza, the food's burning!" abruptly ended the argument as the Akimichi ran over to the fire to mourn the remains of the beef skewers. Both Shikaku and Inoichi glanced nervously at each other. To ruin an Akimichi's dinner, even if it wasn't directly their fault, was to ask for death, after all.

A minute later, all the adults, both Inoichi and Shikaku fighting with each other while each being held in a headlock by Chouza, were stopped with the sound of a book slamming shut. "Done!" Sakusen exclaimed. "Can we play now?" They all glanced at him incredulously.

"It's been," Shikaku managed to free his arm from his side to check his watch, "5 and a half minutes since you started. Are you sure you read everything?"

"Yes," Sakusen asserted impatiently, wiggling from side to side. "Let's play!"

Shikaku poofed out of existence in between Chouza's massive bicep, and the real Shikaku dropped down from the trees above. He'd switched with a Shadow Clone the moment he'd sensed that something bad was going to happen. Inoichi fixed him with a deadpan stare, which he pointedly looked away from.

Sitting himself down on the other side of the board, which Sakusen had set up during his self-teaching session, Shikaku gestured to the pieces.

"You move first," he said.

Inoichi managed to squirm out of Chouza's other arm and went to clean up the burnt mess at the fire.

"Sorry for distracting you," he mumbled. "I'll help you cook. This should take at least an hour. Shikaku will probably have to teach the kid the whole game. There's no way he understood everything from just reading the manual."

Chouza simply agreed with a nod of his head, giving a last sorrowful look at the skewers, before heading back to start from square one. At least the stew wasn't ruined.


The game took 20 minutes to finish. Which sounded like a lot of time, but was actually relatively fast for a shogi game. Average shogi games varied from 30 minutes to over an hour, so he didn't do that bad. Although he suspected that Shikaku went easy on him for his first time.

That aside, shogi was really fun. And hard. All of the pieces were difficult to memorize, and the promoted variants of the pieces didn't make it any easier. His mistake for the first game, as Shikaku pointed out, was that he was too focused on offense and trying to take pieces.

When his King was captured, he quickly reset the board and demanded, "Again!"

In his second game, he was so focused on building an impenetrable castle for his king that he didn't notice Shikaku moving pieces around to draw out each one. By the time he was done, there was nowhere for him to move.

With Shikaku's setup, every strategy he'd tried to employ was easily countered. Like Shikaku knew what he was thinking. But with the sudden increase in stock of mind-readers lately, he wouldn't be surprised if Shikaku had some form of ESP.

"Don't be so one-dimensional," the Nara chided. "Mix it up a little. It'll be too easy for someone to see what you're trying to do if you just focus on one thing at a time. Multitask."

In his third game, he threw in everything he'd learned from the last two games. Shikaku respected his opening game, allowing him to quickly set up a Yagura castle in the corner. He initiated midgame by advancing his Silver General up.

He had at least four different strategies that he tried to implement over the course of the game, but only one got even slightly close to succeeding: a textbook invasion called Climbing Silver, which he had put a slight twist on by dropping the pieces into play. Shikaku had blinked a little in surprise when realizing how close Sakusen had come to breaking his formation, then shrugged

"Eh, you almost got me there. You did a better job picking and choosing strategies. Climbing Silver isn't really one that Konoha players prefer, so that caught me off guard."

Sakusen tilted his head. "Why not?"

Shikaku leaned back on his elbows. "Konoha ninja place more emphasis on teamwork than individual skill. Climbing Silver, while it's a good tactic, requires that you use a pawn as a shield for the silver general, so that it can break through enemy lines. Sacrificial plays aren't really what we prefer, unless it's to guard the next generation. But war is war, and you use what you have to to win."

Sakusen smiled confidently. "Well, don't talk like the game is over. I'm just breaking through your defenses now! I have a chance!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, kid," the man drawled lazily, "but it is over. Checkmate."

A final click of a piece sealed his fate, and Sakusen wailed dramatically.

"I was so close to breaking your defenses, too," he groaned.

"You'll get to do that one day. Just not today. You've already improved a lot since you first started. You even lasted for almost 40 minutes this time," Shikaku noted with a slightly impressed tone.

Sakusen sat up straight. "How long have we been playing?" he asked. It was much darker than he remembered it being.

Inoichi's voice floated from across their camp. "Are you guys finished now? The food's going to get cold if you don't eat soon."

The mention of food summoned vicious growls from Sakusen's stomach, and Chouza came flying over with a speed that belied his great size.

"Shikaku, you've been starving him this whole time! Kids like him need to eat, you know!" The Akimichi plucked Sakusen up and away from the shogi board and plopped him down on a rock next to Inoichi. He shoved a large bowl of food into the boy's lap. "Here, I made a hearty beef stew. It's very good for you. Eat up!"

Saksen had to force himself not to drool, because the smell that was filling the air was positively heavenly.

Not all heroes wore capes.

While he dug in, Inoichi wandered over to where Shikaku was, still sitting by the fire in from of the chess board.

"You should see the kid eat," Inoichi said. "He eats like an Akimichi. Chouza's restaurants are gonna love him." It seemed to be a common trait among Uzumaki to be able to scarf down food faster than it could come. And Akimichi restaurants delivered dishes at a breakneck pace, enough to be able to keep up with the speed of Kushina's eating. One could usually find her there if she wasn't at her favorite ramen joint.

Shikaku hummed pensively. "Really."

He sighed. The pineapple head had a bad habit of waving people off when he was in the middle of a particularly deep line of thought. "You're not even listening, are you?"

The Nara turned to face him. "Of course I am. What do you mean?"

"You have your thinking face on. You know, when you scrunch up your eyebrows and start looking like you're planning to kill someone. That face."

He immediately protested. "I do not. If I really wanted to kill someone, I wouldn't be looking like I wanted to kill them. That would tip everybody off and ruin the surprise."

The Yamanaka snorted. "Alright, alright. I'll bite. How was he? Was he any good?"

Shikaku shrugged. "I guess. He was definitely better than what you thought he'd be. He had all of the pieces memorized. Moved without thinking first, though. He got better at strategizing over the games."

"And?" he pressed. "There's got to be more, or else you wouldn't be sitting here like this."

"It's nothing. He just..." There was a pregnant pause. "He has a very steep learning curve. The kid stumbled a little in the beginning, but by the last game he was going pretty strong. It was like he was picking up an old skill. It's a little scary how good he was for someone who just learned the game."

"And for someone that's just four years old," Inoichi added.

Shikaku shook his head. "I've since learned not to apply age restrictions to him. If you treat him like others his age, you're making a mistake. He's wise beyond his years. You're taking notes on him?"

He nodded. "When he's not looking. It's such a rare chance to be able to spend the entirety of a couple of days with a kid like him that I just couldn't pass it up, you know? Still, he's scarily mature. Even more so than I remember Hatake being."

This was a little worrying. Such precocious mental development, while not bad per se, was a little unusual and had certain social drawbacks. Apparently, Sandaime-sama had gone out of his way to secure the boy a friend in the Uchiha clan because he didn't seem to like playing around with the other kids at the playground. In addition, the trauma of being in his first battle would probably stay with him for a while, even if he managed to hide it. Well-developed minds were sometimes such a hassle to deal with.

Shikaku barked out a laugh. "Well, Hatake was a brat. Plain and simple. Nothing more to it. This one's something else. I feel like we should be doing more for him."

"Well, we can now say that we've taught him shogi, at least. Kushina will be happy about that." He snapped his fingers. "Speaking of which, he's probably going to ask to learn sealing from her as well. You saw his face when you opened the sealing scroll."

Shikaku smirked. "Uzumaki blood runs through those veins. Most definitely. Do you think that we're looking at our next sealing expert?"

The blond started cleaning up the pieces on the board. "I say that he becomes the best seal-user in Konoha by the time he's 20. 1000 ryo on that."

"I say by the time he's 16. And my bet is 5000 ryo." He lifted the lid of the box, letting Inoichi dump the pieces inside.

"Don't you think that's too much? Sealing is a hard art. Kushina is an Uzumaki, and she's barely an expert. You know how well she took to the sealing arts. And she had Uzumaki Mito as a tutor."

"Don't underestimate the future generation. Remember, the next generation will-"

"-surpass the previous one. Yes, I remember. Sandaime-sama says it all the time. I still think it's by the time he's 20, though. I'll stick with that bet."

"Prepare to lose, loser."

"We'll see."


By the time the team had made it to the edge of the border, Sakusen had grown quite a fondness for the outdoors. Something he really couldn't explain. He felt right, at home, out in the forest. He inhaled deeply, enjoying the fresh, loamy smell of the dirt and the warm sunlight on his face.

"There it is," said Shikaku, He pointed in front of them, where the forest boundary seemed to thin out. "Destination reached."

Sakusen could only gape as they escaped the cover of the trees and stood out in the open. The sight he beheld easily ranked top among the strangest things he'd ever seen.

It seemed to him that he was standing on the edge of three different worlds. To his left, a vast expanse of sand could be seen, which could only have been the beginnings of the desert of the Land of Wind. To his right, huge rock formations littered the ground, with stones everywhere. The Land of Earth.

Maybe the strangest thing was how the three biomes were divided. Like Kami-sama had taken a giant katana to smite the ground with, a twenty-foot-wide chasm was ripped through the ground, splitting into two where he stood to separate the individual lands like humongous pie slices. The chasm seemed to go on for miles, both to the sides and downward, and he couldn't see the ends of either one.

"Amazing," he muttered. "Is this natural? Or is it man-made?"

"Some say that the formation is natural, a product of this continent's shifting plates," Shikaku said. "But most from the Shodai era say that the original Kage used their powers to mark the boundaries of their territory. Personally, that's what I believe too."

"How is that even possible?" Sakusen breathed. To have enough power to be able to terraform the land to this extent was a terrifying thought. He couldn't even begin to think of how much chakra it would take to use jutsu of this extent.

"In wars, these are important keystone points. That's why when Kannabi Bridge was destroyed a couple of months ago, Iwagakure knew the war was almost done for. Supply routes like those are essential for maintaining stocks."

Sakusen nodded. It made sense. If you couldn't supply your soldiers, then sooner or later they would run out of necessary materials. And by controlling those areas, you could choose how far in you wanted to advance. Obviously, Iwagakure was not very proficient in guarding their key points, if the fact that a single team from Konoha was able to destroy the bridge was any indication. Or maybe they were just exhausted because of the war effort.

Shikaku checked his watch, frowning slightly. "I hope we're not late," he said under his breath. "There might be some time for the border patrol to wait for backup if it comes to that, but I think we should be fine." Sakusen had no idea what that meant.

Chouza nudged his team members. "Look sharp, we have incoming," he warned.

Sakusen looked up and froze as he recognized the uniforms that were starting to appear. Red headbands, brown flak jackets.

Iwagakure.

A large squad of Iwa ninja, presumably the border patrol, were starting to materialize from behind the rocks. The leader was a large man with rippling, muscle-bound arms. That seemed to be an ongoing theme with Iwa ninja. Big muscled brutes. Everywhere. The Iwa jounin planted himself firmly at the edge of his boundary.

"Who goes there? Speak your business!" he bellowed.

Sakusen watched as Shikaku retrieved a scroll from his pouch and tossed it over the divide. It sailed straight into the leader's outstretched hand.

"Those are the terms for the peace treaty. Deliver them to Tsuchikage-sama!" Shikaku called out. He was a different man than before now. Hardened, with a sharp glare that seemed like it could pierce stone. Dangerous.

The Iwa leader sneered, a manic grin stretching across his face. "There's no need for that. We'll give you your answer right here!" The whole group bristled, and gleaming kunai appeared in their hands. Sakusen's heart caught in his throat, and he glanced around nervously. Was there going to be a fight? Judging from the trio's expressions, they hadn't been expecting this either.

The leader noticed Sakusen and immediately narrowed his eyes in recognition. "You..." he growled.

Inoichi stepped protectively in front of the boy and spoke in a mild tone. "We thought it would do some good to bring my son out for sightseeing. Obviously, it doesn't seem to be going as planned, but it doesn't matter. By the time we all return home, we'll have seen many sights. It's up to you on how much you'd like him to see."

Sakusen caught the subtle threat in Inoichi's words. The man had just implied that regardless of what happened, the whole Ino-Shika-Cho plus stowaway would all be returning home. And those weren't just puffs of hot air coming out of his mouth. The trio was actually that good, and chances were, the border patrol probably knew it as well.

But why had he lied about being his son? Sakusen opened his mouth, then quickly closed it. Inoichi lied for a reason, and it was probably a good one, so he didn't want to expose him. They could pass off for father and son, if you squinted hard enough.

The leader still didn't look convinced, and was about to say something when Sakusen felt a tingle on his senses. He perked up at the same time as a weasel-ly looking Chuunin from the Iwa border patrol. Obviously the sensor from their side as well.

He'd unconsciously been circulating chakra and pulsing it in the waves that characterized the sensing technique. On any other occasion, he would have cheered, because getting to the point where you started sensing without even knowing it was the beginning mark of a true sensor.

But he was more concerned with the massive wave of signatures popping up on his invisible radar from the Suna side.

Sakusen looked sharply to the left, as did everyone else, and watched in mute horror as sandy wraiths began rising out of the desert sand of the Land of Wind. They shook the sand off, revealing themselves to be ninja from Sunagakure. Easily identifiable by their beige flak jackets and turbans, they lined the dunes in a formation that easily outnumbered both the Ino-Shika-Cho and the Iwa squadron combined twice over.

Sakusen tightened his left hand around the handle of his wakizashi, feeling the surge of killing intent rise in the air. This was not what he was thinking of when he'd been promised a "safe, danger-free" mission.

His vision sharpened with alarming clarity, and he inhaled deeply. Time seemed to slow down again, and Sakusen got a strong sense of déjà vu. If there was going to be a fight, at the very least he wouldn't be a burden.

A golden plume of sand erupted from the ground in the middle of the Suna forces, scaring him out of his thought process. He looked a little closer, narrowing his eyes. The sand was unusally... shiny. Like those bottles with golden glitter inside that made a mess everywhere. When the sparkles dissipated, a stern-faced man was standing in the center of the blast zone, with his arms crossed.

"Yondaime Kazekage!" the Iwa leader stuttered out.

Next to him, Shikaku exhaled. "Rasa-sama is here."

Sakusen nearly fell over. This was Rasa of the Gold Dust? He'd heard stories of how the Kazekage commanded gold dust with his Magnet Release that swept entire armies away in the desert. This man certainly didn't look like a Kage. He was almost nondescript, wearing black clothes with mesh underneath, with a small canister attached to his hip. Where was his cool hat?

"These lands are Sunagakure's lands," he announced chillingly, and the air temperature seemed to drop a couple of degrees. "If you fight here, we will be forced to intervene." He fixed the full intensity of his wide-eyed stare onto both sides.

For a moment, it looked like the Iwa squadron was going to retreat. But then a gruff voice sounded out from behind them.

"What the hell is going on here? Report!"

"Shit," Shikaku hissed uncharacteristically. "We were late."

Now Sakusen understood. Border patrols had a set schedule to keep, and a set path to take. Shikaku must have wanted to reveal themselves to a border patrol that was just passing by them, so that they would have the maximum amount of time to deliver the message before the next patrol came by. If they arrived late, the border patrol that had already passed could be able to sense them and backtrack, which took time. That meant less time to talk, and a greater chance that reinforcements could stumble upon them. In the undesired situation that there would be a confrontation, to be early would give them the best conditions for a fight.

In other words, this was literally a worst-case scenario situation. An impending fight, between not two, but three countries, and their opponents both had a lot more shinobi than they did.

Sometimes Sakusen wondered if it was because of his luck that things like this happened.

The Iwa squadron parted down the middle to make way for a man that was even bigger, meatier, and more muscled than the leader. He had a bulbous nose, with a prominent jaw that stuck out like a bulldog's. His biceps were the size of watermelons.

"K-Kitsuchi-sama," the leader attempted to say casually, "w-we were just passing by, and this group was causing a disturbance, and-"

The aforementioned Kitsuchi's eyes were panning around the area while ignoring his blubbering subordinate. They settled on Sakusen, who returned his gaze semi-evenly, for a brief moment before moving to the Kazekage.

"You picked a fight," Kitsuchi rumbled at last, "not with just the Ino-Shika-Cho, but the Kazekage as well. After explicit orders to not instigate new incidents."

What? He didn't want a fight?

"P-Please, Kitsuchi-sama, it's all just a misunderstand-"

"Idiot!" he roared as he raised a fist. "Shinobi of Iwa do not make excuses!" The already monstrously large fist was encased in rock after two quick hand seals, and everyone watched as the leader of the border patrol was effortlessly smashed into the ground with a single punch. The rock casing broke away, and Kitsuchi turned to face the representatives from the two countries, dusting off his hands.

"Apologies, gentlemen, Kazekage-sama," he said, nodding to each side in turn. "I hope my ninja didn't cause too much of a ruckus."

"No harm done," said Shikaku mildly, seemingly unperturbed by the potential disaster they had just avoided. "Just make sure that scroll that the leader was holding isn't too squashed, and deliver that to your father. We'll be on our way, then."

Chouza put a hand on Sakusen's back to steer him in front of the group as they turned to leave, when Kitsuchi's firm voice stopped them.

"Wait."

Shikaku turned back resignedly, as if he knew what was coming next. "Is there something that you need, shinobi-san?" The distant way he referred to the man did not go unnoticed. A subtle reminder that all of them were ninja that had their own secrets. It didn't appear to affect Kitsuchi.

"Who is that child?" he asked, pointing a finger straight at the boy. There was a calculating look in the man's eye that Sakusen never thought he would see on the face of an Iwa ninja. Maybe they weren't all dumb.

"He looks rather familiar, wouldn't you say?" the large man continued. Sakusen felt a bead of sweat roll down his neck. Was today "Investigate Random Kids Day" or something like that? Because he was getting a lot of interest that he didn't want. Even the Kazekage appeared to be listening intently.

Inoichi rested a hand on top of his messy hair. "My son. He is of no importance. We'll be taking our leave now, if you don't mind."


Shikaku almost sighed in relief when nothing else was said. They would be free to leave, and he was more than happy to leave this nest of troublesome situations behind.

Of course, that's where things had to go wrong.

"Hang on," Sakusen blurted out. The trio's eyes widened as he dashed back to the edge of the precipice. If he blew his cover, Iwa actually might not let them go without a fight. The son of the Yellow Flash would be the ultimate prize for an Iwa ninja.

"Wait, Sakusen-!" Shikaku attempted to call out, but the kid beat him to the punch.

"I killed one of your ninja!"

There was complete silence for a couple of seconds.

Shikaku resisted the urge to do an impression of a dying fish. He was going to kill Inoichi when this was over, if they weren't already dead by then. This was very bad. Noticing the looks the Iwa ninja were giving each other, the Yamanaka began slowly inching towards Sakusen to be able to grab him and run if needed.

"He was a little short, and he was with this guy that had a big silver hammer. My friend killed that one. He's a couple of months older than me," Sakusen added with a hand on his chin.

Well, Shikaku thought miserably, there goes all chances of 'danger-free,' straight out the window. The kid was actually trying to get them killed. What was he thinking inside that head of his, provoking literally the whole side of Iwa? Was he gloating?

And then, unexpectedly, Sakusen bowed deeply. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to."

One day, Shikaku was going to have to figure out the enigma that was Namikaze Sakusen. Literally nothing about him was predictable.

Kitsuchi raised a single thick eyebrow, then sighed.

"Don't be. This is war. People die. He died doing his duty, you lived doing yours. And there's nothing we can do to change that."

Sakusen tried to reach for words, but found that he didn't have anything else to say, so he just nodded and ran back to the stunned group. Together, they disappeared into the forest until their figures were swallowed up by the leaves.

The group ran in relative silence for some time, until Inoichi broke it by speaking with a strained grin.

"See, I told you the kid would be an interesting-"

"You shut your damn mouth," Shikaku hissed, whacking his blond teammate upside the head. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'll take the next two weeks off, and spend that time drinking so much that I'll completely forget that this whole thing happened. And we will never, ever speak of this incident again."

The thought of an angry redhead finding out what possibly could have transpired prompted the other two to agree.

Sakusen tilted his head. "Did I do something?"

Kitsuchi reached down and plucked the scroll from the unconscious Jounin's hand, storing it in a pouch for safekeeping. Hefting the man over his shoulder, he took a last glance back at the Kazekage and his troops.

"If that's all, we'll be going as well. There's a peace treaty to sign."

The Kazekage spoke up, halting Kitsuchi in his tracks. "He wasn't the Yamanaka's son, was he."

Kitsuchi paused for a moment. "Most likely not. I have suspicions, but that's all they are. Suspicions. Children seem to be getting more powerful these days, though, eh?"

"Indeed," the Kazekage agreed. "My apologies for keeping you here longer than necessary. Keep your interactions civil when they take place on my border."

The Iwa ninja inclined his head. "Goodbye, Kazekage-sama."

The border patrol, coupled with reinforcements, walked in silence over the barren cliffs until one decided to speak.

"Kitsuchi-sama, do you think that boy is really-?"

"We don't know, and we won't assume until we know," Kitsuchi spoke with finality.

"Even so," another said, "to kill one of ours at such a young age is an insult to our forces. Konoha will eventually parade this boy over our heads. What do we do?"

Kitsuchi smiled, not unpleasantly. "The boy is interesting. He's bold. I like that. I'll respect him, regardless of his heritage. My daughter is of age to begin her own training. I think we'll match their prodigies against one of ours."


(A/N)

I'm so so so so tired... I had the chapter all done, but the servers decided to stop working, so I had to redo some parts of it. If you've ever written a story, and something happened so that you had to rewrite what you wrote from memory, you'll know that it's one of the most demoralizing things in the world.

Anyways, I feel like I'm moving pretty fast. Some feedback on that would be nice. I believe that a good story has a fine balance between actual content and filler. If it's too much content, then the story feels like you're moving through at a Roadrunner pace. You know those stories. I don't want this one to be like that.

I breached the 1000 views level with the last chapter, so I'm hoping to get up to 1500 for this, as well as some reviews. Feedback/criticism is greatly appreciated. Thank you to all of you who have said nice things about my starter story! Seeing those really makes my day. Drop a review if you like the story!