Chapter 8
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We made the trip home a quick one after we linked up with Josai at the border of Grass/Fire border, Fuuma was able to keep pace once we got to our borders. We entered the village a bit after nightfall, it had snowed heavily it seemed in the last few days as the snow crunched beneath our feet as we made our way to Tsuchikage tower. We passed villagers who were either just getting off work or closing up shops and were in a hurry to get out of the cold. Not a word was said to us as we passed, sure we got some weird looks because we were so underdressed for the weather however thank kami for chakra that was what was keeping me warm at least. We entered the tower and made our way down into the depths of the building, we quickly said our hello's to the desk chunin and entered through the door to the right. We briskly walked down the hallway until we entered the hall were we received our mission, the cloaked person was still there waiting for us.
"Ah, I see the second group of brats made it," it said with amusement. So I'll assume that it means Jin and his group had made it back well that's good, I did not want to have to deal with the in-fighting that would have ensued should they have died. " Do you have the intel you were sent to receive?"
Josai pulled the scroll out and tossed it to the person who in turn caught it and tucked it away.
" Excellent, congratulations young ones you have passed the selection course and shall from this moment on be known as "San'in" and welcome to the special ops corps," It said with pride. San'in, Mountain shadows huh? Well I could think of worse names so I guess I'll let that one slide. "Now there are somethings that need to be addressed, but I am a very busy person so I'll be taking my leave,"
"Hold on," I said now genuinely confused, " If you're not going to explain things to us then who the hell is?"
" Why, your captain of course, now if you'll excuse me" and in a split moment it was gone. It wasn't body flicker, it wasn't an afterimage left it was like an optical illusion "it" was there and then "it" was gone. Now the next question who was our captain going to be? Again Iwa wasn't talked about at all in the series so this is all new to me. We sat and waited for what seemed like hours before finally hearing footsteps echo through the hall. A voice shot through the silence with power and a hint of endearment.
" Ah, so these are my precious new students huh?"
Wait, I know that voice…
"Akako-obasan?!" I said half in disbelief and half in shock as I stared up to the second floor balcony.
" That's Akako-taicho to you now, Yuudai," she said with a cat-like grin. "Glad to see you make it through selection."
" I never would have guessed," I said still trying to get over my shock.
" Of course, how do you think you okaasan got so skilled? We were in competition with each other in our younger days," she then sighed. " Of course now we have been put into supervising positions, so things aren't as exciting for us anymore, hence why I am now ya'lls squad captain." She finished. She really didn't sound too enthusiastic about this new job of her's. " So let me give you brats your initial briefing, first and foremost you are to never speak to anyone outside the corps about what we do and our dealings in and outside the village. Second you are to at all times obey my orders no matter how crazy they may be, you listen to me and me alone the only person that outranks me is the the old bastard. Third and finally you are to never under any circumstance allow your skills to get rusty or go unimproved, trust me you won't live to regret breaking that rule. Any questions?"
" What will be the role our squad will play for the corps?" Josai asked.
" Good question, we'll mainly be a combat and assassination squad however we could be called upon to fill a variety of roles, you just need to be ready," Akako-obasan moved right in front of us with a body flicker. " For now, you are to go home and prepare for training tomorrow I'd suggest you get plenty of rest because… Well Yuudai knows my training methods well he will fill you in if you are curious." In a flash she was gone leaving us in the empty hall. We went to the desk in the center and picked up our headbands that had collected some dust and fasten them in their appropriate place. We made our way outside and said our goodbyes and went home, I knew tomorrow would be a long day but a fruitful one Akako-obasan's training always taught you something new and if it didn't then you were just being a blind idiot.
I again took to the rooftops seeing as it would be quicker, I just wanted to get home and relax. I entered the Tsu compound and made my way to the branch side of the estate. I snaked through some small homes before getting to mine. The lights were off I guess mother was working late tonight. I slid open the door.
"Tadaima" I said to the empty house.
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The next morning I was awoken a by a sharp shock to the stomach. I instantly coiled in a ball due to the pain. I looked up at the grinning face of my au- I mean captain.
"You awake now? Hurry up and get dressed the others are already at the training grounds, you got 5 minutes." She said and disappeared out of my room. I rolled out of bed and hit the floor still in pain, I got up and dressed myself and was out the door in 2 minutes. I made my way to the eastside of the village were all the training grounds were. I opened my senses when I neared the first training area, I pinpointed their location and made haste. Once they were in sight I could hear my aunt counting my time out. I skidded to a stop right as she said zero.
" Right on the dot, you lucky dog," She said.
" Yuudai, why are you always late?!" Fuuma yelled. " Do I need to come to your house everyday and drag you out of bed?"
" Oh shut-up, I just forgot to set my alarm lay-off would ya," I said. " Plus if you came to my house everyday Keita would get upset and I don't feel like dealing with that."
"Wha- why would he?!" Fuuma said clearly taken aback by my last statement.
" Enough!" Akako exclaimed to get our attention back to her. " You brats can bicker later, right now it's time to sharpen your skills, Let's begin," she pulled out a blindfold and handed it to me, "tie this around your eyes," I did so and the world was black. " So today what we will be working on is fighting with one of your senses impaired, for a regular shinobi this is a skill that is needed over time for special ops it's a must and the enemy's first target to impair you will be your sight. So you need to learn how to not always rely on sight but also on your other senses in a fight. You will be sparring against one another, first up Yuudai and Fuuma."
Oh great I get the one that doesn't know how to hold back as a partner. I already accepted that this was going to be a pain filled spar. I tried to focus my other senses hearing, and smell mostly because they will help me locate her. As far as I could tell she was standing across from me, I could feel her chakra blazing about like a huge flame.
" Ready, begin!"
I took a punch to the jaw, it was quick not a lot of power so I pulled my head backwards and felt the air of her second attack breeze past my face. Then I took a kick to the midsection and was sent rolling I felt every little rock and pebble my skin touched. I heard her quick approach and got back on my feet and retreated back dodging a kick that was aimed for my side, the air whooshed past my forearms and chest. My brain was scrambling and it had no time to process any of the information that it was receiving. Another punch crashed into my cheek causing me to put up a weak guard to ward off her next attack, until I felt my legs get sweeped from under me and I hit the earth.
" Stop" Akako-taicho said. " I couldn't watch that for much longer, take the blindfold off Yuudai,"
I did so and squinted at the light due to my eyes immediate exposure to it. " Ok that was, bad but Yuudai what was the main problem you were having?"
" Not being able to see anything," I said.
" Ugh, besides the obvious jackass,"
" That's it I don't know what else you want me to say." She sighed at that.
" Ok, let me ask this, what was the main problem your brain was having?"
I thought for a second. I wasn't too slow in terms of reaction but there was something about my senses, I was getting more information from them but…
" I didn't know how to use the information from my other senses and create a new "picture" to replace my missing sight?" I asked.
" Correct, see if you actually use your brain for more than just daydreaming you can actually accomplish rational thought." She said in lighthearted tone. " Anyways, yes, see when you have your sight your brain pays that sense the most attention because it is the most direct access your brain has to external information, hence your other senses are dulled just a bit. So we are going to work on sharpening those other senses to help you guys cover blind spots in your vision. If you can avoid attacks blind then you can't be touched when you have your sight."
It was a long training session, and an ugly one too. Akako-obasan found it to be hilarious I mean she got to watch us beat the hell out of each other while one was blind. Of course with each repetition we got we would improve a little more, but we were far from capable of fighting purely without sight. I did however notice that everytime I blinded myself I felt a bit more comfortable and more in tuned with my other senses. We practiced until the sun began to set, and our captain decided to call it quits for the day.
"Good work today everyone, I saw some good improvement from this morning, so how about I get you guys something to eat?" She asked.
" I'm game," Fuuma said instantly.
" Of course you are Fuu-chan," Aoi said " I'll also be attending,"
Me and Josai looked at each other and shrugged. We made our way back into the village and entered what was called "Dinning alley." Bars, restaurants, grilles, and noodle shops as far as the eye could see. A person's nose would be assaulted with smells from all over upon entering the alley. If you like to smell your food before you tasted it then you would be in heaven here. It was expensive to eat out due to the fact that most of the ingredients were imported and the fact the Ko like to line their pockets a bit seeing as they handled most of the importing and distribution of goods to the populace. Which was part of my problem with Ryojin he was at least in my eyes a kid trying to defy is family name and be a shinobi, A rich kid that tries to act hood if you will. None of the other tribes could financially challenge the Ko however what kept them in line were the fact that the other tribes outnumbered them in terms of active shinobi, so to be honest they did right for fear of their lives and I don't blame them one bit.
Since we were being treated we had no say in what we were getting, but I was happy Akako-obasan decided she was craving udon and we entered a small shop and was seated. After placing our orders Akako-obasan began to ask what it is we want out of shinobi life.
" I just want strength, to fight for and protect those who don't have any," Fuuma said.
" Ah, but Fuuma" Akako began " if you become too strong you won't be able to charm yourself a husband later on in life," she finished with a smile. This had Fuuma redder than her hair.
" I-I-I'm not thinking about those kind of things right now taicho!" Fuuma exclaimed " besides I wouldn't fall for a man who was weaker than me anyways, I'd have to babysit him like I do these two," she said as she pointed to Josai and myself. Here we go.
" Oh, you can fuck all the way off you do not babysit us, if anything it's the opposite," Josai said. It didn't take long for our orders to come and thank kami I didn't want to hear those two bicker tonight. I was content with my meal of udon and tempura and ate in silence just listening to the others talk about random topics. One question in particular caught my attention.
" Taicho, where did you get that scar on your jaw from?" Aoi asked. Apparently while I was in my own world Akako had said we were all allowed to ask one question of her. I had wondered that too the scar in question wasn't huge or ugly it looked like one of Naruto's whiskers that was on her right side of her face and started half way from her mouth and ended right underneath her chin.
"Oh, this I got it in the war I was fighting some silver haired ANBU kid from Konoha," she said "next question."
" What is your dream?" Josai asked.
" hmmmm, it's been so long now I forgot," she said. I call bullshit nobody just forgets their dream.
" What is that number tattooed on your hand for?" Fuuma asked.
" Oh this," she said raising her hand a bit so we could see it better it was the character for the number 4. " This is for the group known in the land of Earth as the daimyo's 8 demons, that's the elite shinobi guard that he hires I was ranked 4th in the guard," She explained. " What's your question Yuudai I'm sure you have one."
I continued eating, I was trying to come up with something good.
" Why did you choose the special forces corps?" I asked.
She sat back and put her hand to her chin in thought, had it really been so long she had forgotten? Her eyes then shifted from the ceiling to me.
" So, I could fight the best the shinobi world has to offer," she said simply. " I mean I've fought people from all over, I'll be honest that's what made me such a great shinobi was all the experience I gained in the field. You guys will experience the same growth I did but only if you take your training seriously and work on things by yourself when we are not training as a group."
The rest of dinner went by without much fanfare after that. Akako-obasan told us to do some chakra control exercises and stretch before bed so we wouldn't be sore for tomorrow's training which would be on infiltration and blending in with the populus around us. After she left us we all decided to head back to the training grounds, it was around eight at night judging by the fact the sun set three hours ago, ment in our minds we could get another two hours of skills training before bed.
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Two weeks went by without much happening, I trained with my squad everyday either all day or half a day depending on Akako-obasan's schedule, we were improving everyday. Our teamwork was becoming sharper talking was almost a non-requirement for us when executing battle drills and formations. I can say truly now putting in those extra hours after squad training was worth it. We didn't just stop there the Iwa library was almost a second home for our squad, we spent hours on off days and training half days pouring over the little information us branch members (and Aoi) could get our hands on at our rank, our study group was quite efficient taking down notes and coming up with experimental concepts for jutsu variants and attacks as well as combinations. We spent so much time on our training and sharpening our skills that it wouldn't be usual for Akako-obasan to find us passed out in the corner of the library or curled underneath field blankets in the middle of the training grounds. She would scold us for a bit saying that proper rest is also a part of training and a whole bunch of stuff we wasn't trying to hear, we wanted to, no, NEEDED to become as strong as possible as fast as possible rest be damned to hell as far as we cared. So she dragged us to her home and sat us down to get some answers.
" The hell is wrong with you brats? I've never met a group of kids who rather train all day and night than I don't know enjoy being young, youth doesn't last forever you know?" she asked, no one acknowledged her not out of disrespect but out of the fact she had woken us up and dragged us here half-asleep ( and possibly sleep deprived seeing as we did pull an all-nighter on ninjutsu, blind taijutsu, and throwing drills.) I don't know what more she expected out of us. " You guys look like you're on the verge of keeling over at any moment, what's this all about?"
" Taicho," I started still trying to knock the sleep out of my voice. " You said that we can't let our skills get rusty or go unimproved."
"Tch, don't give me that shit, Yuudai your okaasan asked me the other day was I holding training at 3 am! Because you were getting up in the middle of the night and leaving the house, what the hell?!" She exclaimed " You guys are not leaving until I get some straight answers out of you four!"
We kind of jumped at her yelling not because we were scared it was just our senses were acute now thanks to all the blind fighting, I already tried so it was someone else's turn to offer an excuse.
" We are-" Fuuma started. " We are simply doing what it takes to become great, no, legendary shinobi, this village has shown and taught us from a young age power means everything and those with it make the rules," She paused. " I lost my otou-chan and onee-chan, because I was powerless and I'll be damned if I lose anyone else close to me due to the fact I lacked the power or the skill to stop it." She bit out.
" Taicho," Aoi picked up. " You are our goal as of now, we can tell simply by the few accomplishments you spoke to us about you are an elite shinobi maybe even rivaling the Tsuchikage himself. We want to surpass you no matter what it takes or what price we have to pay,"
Akako-obasan leaned back and gripped the bridge of her nose. " Kami-sama give me strength, still you think that by training yourselves to death you'll surpass me overnight? I've been a shinobi for 21 years, you brats are a 100 years too soon to talk about surpassing me hell you haven't even fought in a war yet," she said
She's right we haven't fought in a war, but that will change after all the 4th great shinobi world war will happen in what? 2 ½? 3 years? Point is we would be fighting in it, should we survive.
" I think there is something deeper motivating you four and I told you your not leaving until I get the answers that I want the truth,"
" Fine taicho," Josai spoke up " We want freedom," he said simply.
"Freedom? From wha- oh," she paused and looked down, then her eyes snapped back to us in an intense glare. " You brats think that you will liberate the branch houses? How foolish can you four be?! There is no way they would cut you down before you guys made one handsign, the last revolt cost us dearly no one wants to relive that too much blood was spilled, and some powerful bloodlines within the branch families were ended all the way down to the children," She stood and intent not killing intent but intent to do harm began to flow off of our captain. " Now, you four heed my words, what ever plot you are conjuring up it dies today, do you understand me?!" she grounded out. We all nodded so as to not anger her any further, she then made the serpent sign. " earth release: stone sealing jutsu."
Before we could move the stone beneath us sprang up and swallowed us up to our necks. Escape was impossible, Akako-obasan sighed.
" Now, you four are gonna stay put until I get back from alerting your parents that you WILL be spending the next two days at my place for "training" and when I get back you will bathe, eat, and go to sleep, got it?" she asked.
" Yes, taicho," we said in unison.
As soon as she left we all passed out guess we really didn't know how tired our bodies and minds really were. I was sure after this our non-squad training would be monitored severely for the next few weeks.
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A/N: So this was a bit of a longer chapter I felt I was too short with the last one. Hey I got some people who said they loved the last two chapters others not so much and that's fine the people who had a problem with it brought up some valid points, that I am taking note of so I do not repeat the same mistake later on, and I thank them because it's going to make me a better writer. I'm hoping no one is shocked by who the squad captain is, I think you guys will really like her character especially when I reveal her skill set. In closing thank you guys for reading as always I hope to return for more…. Until next time my friends.
