"How are you feeling, Michiko-chan? We missed you!" Akio's usual scowl cleared up as he grinned at Michiko.
Itachi and Akio stood before Michiko. Muscle and chakra atrophy aside, she didn't look like she'd been in a coma. She sat perfectly poised in her hospital bed, a scroll on her lap, a brush in her hand and an ink pot by her side. Her hair was longer, just above her elbows, and out of its usual messy bun. She was paler and looked a little more fragile with her smaller chakra presence, but the glint in her eyes and the smirk on her lips were exactly the same.
"I feel just fine. I am due to be discharged tomorrow and I'd dearly like to check my physical conditioning. How have you boys been holding up?"
Akio's scowl returned. "They replaced you with some whore, but now that you're awake, you can beat her up and show her who's boss! She's so fucking annoying and she's always all over Itachi! Even Itachi blew up after a month and yelled at her!"
Michiko's amused smile lit up her face. "Her talents must be substantial then."
"Yeah! The two of us managed to get a ton of info on her."
Michiko's smile widened into something distinctly feline. "Oh? The 'two of us'?"
Akio flushed. "It's just that Kaori's super annoying and Itachi's annoying too, but he isn't trying to kill you. Well, except for that stabbing incident, but he didn't really want to kill you and he's not that bad. I mean, he is still horrible, but like not Kaori-horrible and-"
Michiko giggled. "You're rambling. It's fine. I'm proud of you."
"-Kaori's just- wait, what?"
Michiko smiled gently. "I'm proud of you, Akio. You're growing up."
Akio gaped for a moment before engaging in a full body blush and looking away, mumbling to his feet. "I guess Itachi isn't so bad and he can sometimes be okay when he doesn't act all posh."
Michiko nodded approvingly. "Good. But I'm afraid you aren't allowed to stay for long. Itachi, report."
Itachi straightened up at the command.
"The Uchiha Council got impatient in your absence and made a deal with Shikaku-sama. You are to battle a replacement of Uchiha Fugaku's choice to decide Team 11's roster before the Sunagakure chuunin examination in January.
"The temporary replacement for you is Uchiha Kaori. She is part of the Red Army council and is currently considered the top candidate bride for me. However, she displays a lack of emotional self-control and her mentality is that of a child, making her unsuited as both a kunoichi and the future Lady Uchiha. Nevertheless, she is the granddaughter of an Uchiha Council member and her bloodline is flawless. She is the top Uchiha kunoichi in our generation and the Uchiha Council relish the idea of a generation of geniuses enough to overlook her poor conduct.
"But since her main merit is her strength and success, if you defeat her, she should lose enough favour for her position to be lost. Your battle is also doubly important as it determines our jounin sensei. Arakida-sensei is presumed dead and our new sensei has yet to be decided as the Uchiha demand an Uchiha jounin to replace him. It has been decided that if you win, their argument of an 'all Uchiha team' would no longer be valid thus the Konoha Council will pick a suitable replacement. Naturally, if you lose, the Uchiha get to decide."
"Shikaku-sama told me as much. I know of Uchiha Kaori's circumstances, but what of her physical abilities?"
"They are considerable, I would say top Class C. Apparently she was held back from taking the chuunin exams by her teammates and the clan would like to take this opportunity to have her promoted. But her training is purely Uchiha through and through and she is resistant to learning anything outside of commonly accepted training for Uchiha kunoichi.
"Her attacks are more powerful than they are fast. Her physical strength is around 70% of Akio's and her speed is 30% of mine. But her resistance to change has led her style to become predictable and she is prone to habitual bias. She has a heavy reliance on reflexes and simply overpowering her opponent so she rushes into battle often with little to no plans. Though she is capable of trickery and can come up with good strategies, she chooses not to utilise this ability and when she does, her plans are one dimensional with no backups.
"Her only elemental release is fire and she knows no jutsu that I don't already know. She seems to be starting to learn the Earth Release and hasn't completed her training. You should have no trouble shaking of her genjutsu and her taijutsu is average, around my level when I was a fresh genin, though her shurikenjutsu is fairly accurate.
"She trains mainly with her mother and has recently started using poisons. I have personally checked her inventory and it doesn't seem as if she has anything you aren't resistant to. I was able to get a sample of her blood two weeks ago and Shikaku-sama confirmed that she has yet to start building up her own resistance to poisons. Overall, she is physically stronger than you, but she has a weak mind and predictable tactics. She is not an opponent you would have trouble with." Itachi took out a scroll from his pack. "I have written down further details in the Class B Information Security Scroll you handed me. This ends my summary on the current situation."
Michiko nodded. "With this information, I should be able to defeat her with ease." But what Itachi heard was:
You performed well in my absence and read my intentions without direct orders.
Itachi nodded at the unspoken commendation. "It was all I could do. Akio-san, let us leave Michiko-chan to her plotting."
Akio grinned. "Yeah, I'm sure you'll kick her ass!"
Michiko smirked. "It's a promise."
And finally, Team 11 was united under the same cause.
It was a month, one week and two days later that the battle between Uchiha Kaori and Nara Michiko commenced.
The turnout was huge. The tension within the Uchiha compound as well as the skirmishes between them and the Nara were far from missed. Every paranoid and interested ninja gathered to the Great Konoha Ninja Stadium, that had been booked specially for this event by the Uchiha Drama Queens. Officially, it was to 'evaluate future potential allies or threats', but in reality, ninja were just the world's worst gossips and busybodies and most of them were chuunin looking for some quick entertainment.
As a former Yamanaka, Arakida Noa knew this very well.
Noa wasn't quite sure why she was here. Out of all his students, Seishiro had liked Michiko the most. His genin team was one of the most discussed subjects in their household of two and Seishiro was always so poetic about it. Itachi was described as a burning flame in the dark, the kind that burned twice as bright as everyone else, but lasted half as long. Akio was a bland darkness. A self-destructive boy would knew only to take, take, take and destroy, who longed for a kindness and a home that never was. But Michiko? She was ANBU just like Seishiro. They were Shadow Ninja. Nameless protectors who could never be true heroes.
Noa had always been bitter about it. She had tried to understand her husband's need to protect at all costs. But as Seishiro always said, she wasn't like him. In her years as a Yamanaka, she found that she couldn't do espionage, interrogation or anything that the clan specialised in, despite her proficiency in the clan jutsu.
Maybe that was why she was here. To see the little girl her ANBU husband had called comrade.
The referee for the match had been a really minor point of contention, but they had settled on Aburame Shibi. Shibi was a talented ninja and his abilities were respected by all. Being from the noble clan of Aburame who were renowned for their neutrality and sound logic, his reputation and credibility were solid and trustworthy, making him an ideal referee.
"This is the match between Uchiha Kaori and Nara Michiko. The victor shall remain on Team 11 and determine the jounin sensei of Team 11. Would any of the participants like to surrender?"
"Negative."
"No."
"Then I shall go over the rules.
"The participants are Uchiha Kaori and Nara Michiko. This is not to be changed at any point of time.
"No one is to leave the stadium's bounds at any time during the match. This includes the Uchiha and Nara Councils.
"No one is to enter the stadium's bounds at any time during the match.
"No non-participants are allowed within the battlefield area with the exception of the referee.
"No traps, jutsu or any other tools that may or may not aid the participants are to be set up before the match begins.
"The participants are not to receive any aid from non-participants.
"Any damage caused to the stadium walls will be paid in full by the participants.
"No lethal techniques are to be used.
"Participants may surrender by saying the words 'I surrender' at any point of time during the match.
"Participants will battle until one side is unable to continue, surrenders, is rendered unable to surrender, or the referee stops the match. In the last aforementioned scenario, the referee shall determine the outcome of the match.
"In the event of the death of one or more participant(s), the referee shall determine the outcome based on circumstances.
"In a circumstance not mentioned above, the referee shall decide the outcome.
"The referee's decisions are final and indisputable.
"Failure to abide by these rules will result in an automatic loss.
"Is any more clarification or modification of the rules required?"
The last question was opened up to the audience. Shibi waited for five seconds and continued when no one objected.
"If there are no objections, then the match shall start when this rock hits the ground." Shibi picked up a rock from the stadium ground.
Uchiha Kaori got into a ninjutsu 'ready' position with her knees spaced apart and hands in front of her. Noa could tell that the kunai pouches around her lower legs were a new addition and that the style of her clothing and equipment were carefully chosen for the match. She carried a determined glint in her eyes as she glared ferociously at Michiko, her body locked into position as she prepared for the biggest fight of her life.
In contrast, Nara Michiko kept her arms and ankles crossed. The neutral line of her lips, droopy eyes with dark circles, and casual stance exuded disinterest. She looked more like a street rat than a favoured clan kid. Though her pack was half-opened and everything was meticulously prepared, Noa got the impression that this was something routine to her rather than a special event, especially if she was as paranoid as Seishiro made her out to be. Her dishevelled, senbon-riddled hair, chakra ink-stained hands and dirty clothing suggested that she hadn't bothered to change from her fuuinjutsu experiments. That this was just another troublesome but compulsory appointment on her schedule.
Both could be illusions, but since this was a genin matching with an audience of jounin, Noa doubted it. Unless the Uchiha girl was crazily strong, Noa knew who would win. With the rumours and confirmed sightings of Nara Michiko defeating Uchiha Itachi, Noa doubted she was wrong. Then again, maybe Michiko was just overconfident or pretending. She had been in a three month coma with only a month to recover and Seishiro had said that Michiko was talented at hiding her weaknesses and sniffing them out in others.
Aburame Shibi threw the rock into the air. Kaori activated her sharingan and stared at the rock while Michiko didn't even glance at it. Noa noted the double tomoe. Impressive for a twelve-year-old.
The rock hit the ground and Kaori flew through hand seals. Michiko retreated. She had chosen the spot of the stadium the was shadowed by the tall walls.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique!" Flames shaped in a dragon rushed towards Michiko, the casual use of the B-rank technique more common in jounin than genin. Michiko didn't bat an eyelash and flooded the shadows with her chakra. By flooding the shadows with her chakra, she made them opaque and thus the sharingan couldn't see the fuuinjutsu patterns clearly because her chakra was everywhere. A single rat seal and the flames dispersed against an invisible barrier. Kaori fired off two more fire techniques, both of which dispersed when it hit the barrier. Kaori used the time to close the distance, probably aiming to disrupt the barrier. A barrier that quick and easy was likely temporary and fragile.
Kaori threw a dozen poisoned shuriken consecutively. Michiko made a couple of hand motions that couldn't really be classified as hand seals and dodged the shuriken easily, some of them shattering in mid-flight by her shadows. It was either a trick, the barrier had collapsed or only kept out chakra attacks. The last option was the most likely as shadows shot out when Kaori tried to close the distance. Kaori's best course of action was to finish it fast. If she waited too long, Michiko would have time to set up more complex barriers and with the complexity of fuuinjutsu, it was unlikely that Kaori knew how to counter them even if she had spent the last three months solely on fuuinjutsu theory. She could try to drag it out as Michiko's techniques were clearly chakra intensive and she was likely still recovering, but it was too risky for a high stakes match.
"Blazing Shuriken Dance!" Kaori threw another twenty poisoned shuriken in a wide arc and set them on fire. Michiko frowned and made a nonsensical sequence of hand seals, probably to disguise the ones actually needed. The flames of the shuriken vanished and the shuriken bounced off the barrier and shattered, the metal shards bouncing off the barrier as well. The barrier was modified to keep out physical attacks as it was unlikely that Michiko could control so many metal shards. Michiko took out a few scrolls and opened them. It became evident that they were scarily efficient storage scrolls when she pulled out a 5 meter tall tree with her shadows and threw it at Kaori.
And Kaori reflexively set it on fire.
It was a terrible rookie mistake as Kaori realised three seconds later when Michiko pulled out three more trees. They all caught on fire. The Uchiha had chosen the midday sun to put the Nara at a disadvantage, but that meant that the sun was brighter than the chakra fire and it cast shadows all over the stadium. Michiko's shadows snaked outwards, expanding their territory with the same chakra cost thanks to the increased shadows. Kaori could barely dodge them all and was immediately pushed into defensive.
The shadows between the logs connected and were quickly forming a fuuinjutsu of sorts. Recognising this, Kaori ran up the walls to avoid the shadows. The shadows chased her as she threw poisoned shuriken backwards with some kunai with exploding tags mixed in. They were ineffective as they slammed against the barrier. Noa frowned. To maintain a B-class barrier while creating new fuuinjutsu, utilising new shadows, adjusting to the unpredictability of the fire's movements and chasing Kaori not only require a lot of chakra control, but a taxing amount of chakra as well. This would be a quick battle.
While thin tendrils of shadow kept Kaori busy, Michiko extended her shadows to capture the circumference on the stadium, trapping Kaori to the walls. Those shadows started forming and connecting with patterns across the stadium floor and it was clear what Michiko's intentions were: to form a stadium wide barrier. Once it was formed, Michiko's victory would almost certainly be assured as the whole stadium, with the shadows, her barrier and her chakra saturation everywhere, would be her territory.
Knowing that she had seconds before her defeat, Kaori created a shadow clone. Noa raised her eyebrows at the forbidden technique. Wasn't this supposed to be a battle between baby genin? The shadow clone jumped down into the shadows. Before it was completely consumed, Kaori used it as a stepping stone and recalled the chakra before Michiko could disperse it. She repeated the technique a few times in a last ditch effort to close the distance. It was risky with lots of chakra investment. If Michiko popped a shadow clone, Kaori would fall into the shadows and if she didn't, she wouldn't be able to recall the chakra and the shadow clone jutsu was one of the most chakra taxing jutsu.
But Kaori had nothing to lose and managed to pull it off. She entered Michiko's shadowed territory with five shadow clones as support. She threw even more shuriken at Michiko and Michiko dodged them all. Michiko's shadows instantly attacked the shadow clones. Two of them burst, costing Kaori a lot of chakra she couldn't really afford while the others attacked. Michiko was a lot faster than Kaori, easily dodging her bulky fire jutsu and Kaori's shurikenjutsu was turned against her with Michiko controlling two more of her shadow clones and their attacks, rendering Kaori less able to attack in return. Kaori recalled them before they burst and produced four more shadow clones. Despite the chakra tax, Michiko was getting more powerful as she could recall a lot of her shadows from the walls to focus on barriers and close combat with Kaori so close to her. Kaori didn't have the luxury as she struggled to constantly recall and produce more shadow clones between attacks, her attacks growing more haphazard.
Suddenly, Michiko jerked to avoid an invisible attack. The shadow clone and 'original' dispelled and the invisible attacker was revealed to be Kaori, who swayed on her knees. Shadows enveloped her in half a second as Kaori stumbled. It had been a sneak attack. Utilising the darkness of the shadows, Kaori used the 'Transparent Escape Technique' to conceal herself against the wall when Michiko was distracted with making the barrier. She used an earth jutsu to slowly travel across the wall to Michiko while distracting her from paying attention to her outside shadows and caused Michiko to withdraw some of her shadows. While acting like she was being pushed to the corner, she sneaked up upon Michiko to deliver the last blow.
"How?" Kaori asked, the poisoned metal shards from her own shuriken were embedded all over her legs. She obviously hadn't developed an immunity to her own poisons. Michiko's shadows formed a protective seal over her temple as she slammed her the blunt end of a kunai into her temple. Kaori mirrored her action and collapsed, unconscious.
"The winner of the match is Nara Michiko." Shibi declared. It was an unequivocal victory as Michiko only suffered a few scraps from dodging. Kaori had made a good showing with her skills in katon and shurikenjutsu as well as her sneak attack. She was undoubtedly high chuunin level. But Michiko's sheer skill in manipulating shadows was easily jounin level. Her fuuinjutsu, strategy and flexible style made her an unusually specialised eleven-year-old and all together, she was at least tokujou level. She had stood in roughly the same area for most of the match, so Noa couldn't give an accurate assessment of her abilities, but her speed was remarkable even though she only had a one month recovery time. Had this been a chuunin exam match, both would've been promoted.
In other words, Kaori's performance was amazing, but Michiko's was even more so.
Displeasure radiated from the Uchiha as majority of them had gotten a free day off to watch the match. One Uchiha Council member, Kaori's grandfather if Noa remembered correctly, stood up.
"Kaori was able to hide herself seamlessly in the stadium walls. How did you detect her?" Ah, here came the accusations of cheating. Uchiha were world-class sore losers.
"I'm a sensor type." Michiko stated blandly. The unspoken '-you idiot' at the end of the sentence was heard clearly by everyone. Noa could feel the amusement level in the stadium shoot up. The Uchiha were never popular largely due to their arrogant and condescending attitudes. Many snubbed ninja took great pleasure at seeing a mighty Uchiha Council member get taken down a peg or two by a tiny, nonchalant, lowborn genin.
"I find it hard to believe that you could cast a stadium-wide barrier while simultaneously maintaining a pure chakra defence barrier, attacking Kaori with shadows, dodging her close-ranged attacks and expanding your jutsu." Basically, he suspected that she had placed barriers beforehand.
Michiko raised her eyebrows. "I can. I also did it in front of a bunch of Uchiha, Hyuuga, Yamanaka, Aburame and many other chakra detecting specialists."
The council member's lip's pursued. To continue down that argument would be questioning the abilities of not only his own clan, but many other prominent clans. It was a mistake not even rookie genin would make.
"Nonetheless, searching for a sneak attack that likely won't have happened should've been low on your priorities."
Michiko shrugged. "The shadows were a sensing device, not a barrier. I detected her from the beginning. The fancy patterns were just cosmetics." Noa blinked at the new information. That would mean that Michiko's plan all along was to draw Kaori into close combat and Michiko was a long-ranged combatant.
The Uchiha took a few seconds to digest this information. "If you truly could create such a large-scale battle barrier with all the distractions, why didn't you?"
Michiko crossed her arms, her blasé expression having remained unchanged throughout the whole match. In fact, it somehow managed to look even more bored.
"I could, but I didn't want to waste chakra. I was in the middle of something important and have more experiments to run. Pushing the schedule back even more would be troublesome." The girl acted as if she had more important things to do and treated the Uchiha as if they were trivial. Roaring laughter and snickers could be heard from all over the stadium. The implication that the whole matter, that the Uchiha, wasn't important was hilarious even to Noa who didn't have anything against the Uchiha. The Uchiha Council member and many other Uchiha looked outraged.
"Enough." Fugaku declared. Accompanied with a firm look, the council member obeyed the clan head and reluctantly sat back down. "The Uchiha shall accept the loss with grace." The order toned down the glares, but it was clear the Uchiha were going to be sore over this for a long time. They were unmatched by none other than the Hyuuga in the grudge-holding department, after all. Despite his order, Fugaku stared down at Michiko from the stands and Michiko fearlessly met his eyes, an unmistakable challenge issued and accepted.
Michiko had made a grievous enemy of the Uchiha.
"Oh, that's great. I'm not needed anymore." Michiko commented offhandedly. With that, she lackadaisical strolled out of the burning stadium, seemingly indifferent and oblivious to the exchange, but someone who could get so tangled up in politics and win battles before they started couldn't be so ignorant.
Only the Nara could cause such a huge exhibition with so little effort.
"Hey, beautiful. You sure kicked ass back there! It must be super hard to be stuck on a team with two Uchiha!" Michiko looked up from a luckily not-so-important seal in her private training ground to see suitor no. 9. One Sarutobi Yuuma, in fact. The eldest son of a mid-upper-class, well-respected Sarutobi family. Not a bad match for an arranged marriage and obviously his parents saw that.
"May I ask for a name?"
Yuuma rubbed the back of his head. "Oops, I guess I got too excited. I'm Sarutobi Yuuma! A chuunin, as you can tell. Nice to meet you, Michiko-chan!"
Michiko gave a polite smile back. "I would like to return the sentiment, but I'm afraid I have around 40 seconds before my seal destabilises."
Yuuma gulped, obviously having been warned about her fuuinjutsu experiments. So his parents had researched her abilities, but didn't do enough in-depth research on her personality before throwing him at her.
"I guess I'll leave you to it then. When is it convenient?"
Michiko's smile turned politely apologetic and she looked back at her work, swirling her brush across the paper skilfully. "My schedule is dependent on my work and my work is unpredictable. You'll have to try your luck next time. But if you see me around the village, feel free to give me a shout. There is a 70% chance that I would not be doing anything urgent or top priority."
Yuuma nodded, but his chakra and subconscious body language revealed his nervousness. "Right. I'll see you around. Bye, Michiko-chan!" Michiko smiled and nodded as Yuuma left. The moment he did, she allowed her eyes to twitch in irritation and she ground her teeth. Truthfully, the seal would've destabilised, but it probably would've just caused certain components to evaporate and produce harmless smoke.
After the whole fiasco, she was hailed as a genius. Not a prodigy like Itachi, but talented. The spar had been seen as her 'debut' though it was usually the chuunin exams or inter village tournaments. And for a kunoichi like her, that sort of debut brought marriage proposals.
An arranged marriage was between parents and clans. It always came with a brideprice/dowry and lots of negotiation. If both the parents and clan accept, the courtship would begin. Acceptance was usually based on brideprice/dowry and social standing. The clan's acceptance depended on a few things: the danger of clan secrets being leaked, the danger of kekkai genkai being leaked, the benefits the clan would receive from the union, the relation of the parties from the main family and so on.
Basically, the major liberal clans took a look at her profile and went: "Hmm… Young talented girl… Easy to mold… Naive, impoverished civilian mother… Simple to convince… Diluted non-kekkei genkai bloodline… Straightforward negotiations… Perfect for letting new blood into the clan!"
Michiko had anticipated something like this. By purposefully humiliating the Uchiha, she had intended to gain some favour, but not on this scale. She had underestimated their unpopularity and it had backfired on her. Even the more conservative clans were scouting her. Not for marriage, but for future favours. While it opened up many new avenues, she had to wade through a lot of nonsense to get to the gems. Even though she had only received half a dozen proposals or so, she was losing hours of work everyday because of politics, meaninglessly lengthy social interactions and having to plaster even more seals all over her house and Aina because some clans could try to pull something and Aina was a civilian. She'd contacted Shikaku to ensure his cooperation. Some could try to rush the process so Shikaku would stall them until Michiko could get to the bottom of the problem because Aina would never, under any circumstances, allow a marriage against her will.
This would not do. She could accept the Nara's standing proposal for a handler for her training ground, but she would give up too much privacy and freedom and her plans were dependent on those elements. Not to mention that the handler would report back to the council. She needed someone loyal, willing and capable enough to do their job and keep her secrets. Itachi wasn't capable of standing guard 24/7 because of his duties, using Shisui on a menial task would be a waste of resources (not to mention he reported everything back to the Hokage) and she didn't want anyone to know about her other contacts.
That left one last option and Michiko wasn't quite sure if it would be beneficial or detrimental in the long run.
But then she sensed suitor no. 10 approaching, a Shimura suitor, and she made her decision.