Alexander Jay: Thank you to all reviewers. It always helps to get compliments, and those offering constructive criticism are especially appreciated. To one in particular, Undeniably Uzumaki, I feel I ought to address your thoughts on Chapter 10 directly, especially as some of this will be important in future chapters. In my eyes, I don't really see chakra as something you can only use through training. Molding it into jutsus and using it efficiently, yes, but I don't see why someone couldn't instinctively use chakra just to be stronger or faster than normal. In my stories, you can safely assume that the most successful bandits/rogues and such have chakra at that level, even if they could never perform a jutsu. This is definitely a deviation from canon, but it makes sense to me. So I do think that a fully grown man with enough strength to swing around a broadsword as long as Naruto is tall could inflict greater than lethal injuries on clones of a twelve-year-old, made of stone or not.
As for the difficulty of the situation? Yes, Itachi had several options available, but he didn't use them because he saw that Sasuke was moving to handle the situation. Given another thirty seconds, he probably would have done exactly as you suggested. He also somewhat expected Hinata to free herself, so he didn't jump to save her. The situation was somewhat manufactured to have the Genin learn a lesson, but it was simply that they need to kill sometimes, because in that world it is the only option. If you read chapter 11, you'll see that Hinata's upset with herself for being too weak to kill him, and Itachi encourages her to be more decisive in the future, so I'm not looking to apply the "killing is wrong" message here. Although it should be said that, canonically, Konoha is the most peaceful and the Genin are consistently shown to be upset by people's deaths before Shippuden.
I hope you're still enjoying the story. Explanations over, on with the next chapter!
Chapter Twelve
"What are you doing here?" Itachi asked. "Don't tell me there's another escort mission waiting for me downstairs."
Yugito chuckled. "No. I've been assigned as Kumo's official ambassador to Konoha."
He blinked, taken aback. "That's great," he said. "But I thought you were too valuable an asset. You're one of their top shinobi."
"Thanks," she said, smiling. "But I requested this. We've heard for years that Konoha's Jinchuriki is accepted as a regular shinobi, and while the Raikage doesn't think much of your approach, I'm rather interested in meeting him. And I saw how you and your students treated me, even knowing what I am. It's just for two months right now, until the Chunin Exams is over, but," she smiled, walking closer to Itachi. "I'm looking forward to it."
Itachi smiled, struggling to keep his attention on her eyes. "It'll be good to have you," he said. "I did just stop by to greet you, I need to get back to my team."
"Say hi for me," she said. "Oh, and can I ask something?"
"Of course."
"The Jinchuriki, where can I find him?"
Itachi smiled. "Tell you what, how about you come down with me and I'll introduce you."
"He's here right now?" she looked excited. "Please!"
He led her out of the room and down to the mission hall. His students were just walking in through the main door as he arrived, and all three did a double take when they saw him, turning around with bewildered expressions. Clearly they hadn't caught his disappearing act.
"Yugito-san?" Hinata was the first to notice the older kunoichi, smiling at her.
"Good to see you too, Hinata," Yugito smiled back at her.
"Now then," Itachi said, walking over to his students. "As promised. Yugito, this is Naruto. Naruto, Yugito."
His students looked even more confused than before. Yugito blinked a few times before it clicked. Then she was left gaping at Naruto.
"You're the Jinchuriki?" she gasped.
He scowled a little, but nodded. Yugito laughed incredulously, bringing her hands up over her mouth. "I can't believe I never realized," she said. "I still can't feel anything, how do you hide it so well? I can usually sense another Jinchuriki's chakra, it's pretty distinct."
"I never use it," Naruto said. "I just use my own chakra, the Kyuubi is under lock and key. And someone else has the key."
Yugito's smile faded as she took in his grim expression. Walking forward and crouching down on one knee, she stared him in the eye. He looked back, undisturbed by her closeness.
To everyone's surprise, Yugito put her arms around him, drawing him into a tight hug, eyes closed against some remembered pain. "It's okay, Naruto," she said, so quietly only he could hear. "There's nothing wrong with you for losing control."
His breath caught in his throat, and he was abruptly blinking back tears. His arms came up to wrap around her neck, holding onto her reflexively. "Y-you too?" he asked, just as quietly.
"Twice. You'll do better next time, I promise."
"But I-"
"Not your fault. His."
One hand came up to stroke the back of his neck tenderly, and before he knew it, he was crying on her shoulder.
"Well that was unexpected," Sasuke muttered, looking at Hinata and Itachi. They were just as surprised as he was by the sudden emotional display from the Jinchuriki.
#
It took both of them a while to calm down and get control of themselves. A few people stared, but Itachi's cold glare convinced them not to ask questions. Sasuke and Hinata went to speak with Iruka about getting a D-rank mission, both covertly glancing back at their teammate.
Eventually, the two Jinchuriki separated. Naruto dried his eyes quickly, looking embarassed. Itachi put a gentle hand on his shoulder, offering a silent comfort.
"If you don't mind, I have some business to take care of," Yugito said. "See you later?"
"Of course," Itachi agreed. "Looking forward to it."
They both waved goodbye as she left. Turning back to his students, Itachi frowned at the amused expressions on their faces. "Is something funny?"
"Yeah, you've got a crush, nii-san."
Itachi scowled. "A crush? Sasuke, she's a friend. We fought side by side twice. It's good to see her doing well."
"Weren't you both attacked last time because you were out drinking together all night long?" Naruto asked.
"She had been assigned to watch me because I was a foreign visitor."
"And she decided the best way to do that was to go on a date with you?"
"It wasn't a date."
"Sure it wasn't," Sasuke said. "Obviously, it was just a mission."
"She was very professional," Hinata added.
"Yeah, it's totally platonic between you," Naruto said. "Anyone could see she's out of your league."
Itachi arched an eyebrow at him. "I certainly don't need dating advice from someone who thinks it's romantic to sneak into a girl's room while she's asleep."
Naruto went red. "You know I wasn't doing anything weird like that!" he hissed.
"Of course," Itachi said dryly. "But as fun as this conversation would be, we need to take care of our mission."
Sasuke handed over the scroll with the details. Itachi scanned it briefly. "Tracking down Tora. Again. Well, Naruto, if you want to go outside and get to work with your Origami techniques, we can look at getting a second -"
Sasuke cut him off by tossing him a second scroll. Itachi caught it deftly, opening it up. Looking it over, he nodded. "Mail delivery. Always fun."
"I'll handle it," Sasuke said. "I've been trying to improve my speed and accuracy."
"If you insist. But that means Hinata will be -"
Hinata tossed him a third scroll. He read it swiftly. "Removing weeds and dying plants on a farm."
"I can do it in only a few hours," she said confidently.
Itachi smirked. "Is this your way of saying we need to do more C-ranks?" he asked.
All three of them nodded eagerly.
"Since the last one went so well," he muttered before raising his voice. "But since most C-rank missions are longer than a day or two, it will have to wait until after the Chunin Exams. And we'll be skipping missions more often to dedicate time to training. Now get to work."
Once outside, they split up, rapidly handling their assignments. Naruto released a few hundred origami butterflies which spread through the forests, searching for Tora. Within a half hour, one of them sent back a signal registering that particular cat's chakra signature, and Naruto headed in that direction. Once he spotted the cat, he sent an origami cat after it. One hour after getting the assignment, he trotted back into the courtyard, followed by an origami cat carrying Tora in its jaws like a kitten.
Sasuke took about fifteen minutes to make preparations and plan a route. Then he raced throughout Konoha, springing from rooftop to rooftop, hurling kunai with letters attached so they stuck in the recipients' doors. For the long distance shots, he whipped his bow off his back and shot an arrow, landing every shot even while moving at high speed. When he reached the end of his route, his quiver and kunai pouches were empty, and every letter had been delivered within an hour and a half.
Hinata arrived in a strawberry field and positioned herself in the center, using her Byakugan to observe the whole farm at once. Once she knew where all the weeds and dying plants were, she headed out, using needles of chakra, just like Neji had taught her, to sever the plants and remove them easily. She wasn't capable of using the needles accurately in a fight - she could still hardly believe that Neji was able to hit targets with a five-millimeter diameter in pitched combat - but she was more than capable of using it on immobile plants. Instead of wasting time and energy tearing the plants out of the dirt, she just tapped the roots to make them loosen up, then tugged lightly, and they slipped out of the ground with no resistance. In an hour, she delivered a pile of weeds and dead plants to the farmer's compost heap, and in five minutes she was back at the courtyard.
Itachi smiled at his students as they received their payments for completing the missions. They were certainly skilled, and above the level of ordinary Genin. That didn't mean they would win the Chunin Exams, but he was confident that they wouldn't embarass themselves.
#
Kakuzu stomped out of the bounty hunter's office, carrying the briefcase with his payment over one shoulder. It was good to do his regular work again, with a wide array of targets to pick from, instead of the little selection his new boss provided, filtered down to almost nothing. And certainly nothing profitable. As he left the town, he mentally tallied up all the money he had to his name. A nine-figure number satisfied him, but he knew he'd have to spend quite a bit of that in order to fulfill his real orders. The easiest way to stir up trouble and keep Akatsuki busy, he figured, was to invest in the right groups. There were plenty of people who already wanted to upset the status quo, they just lacked the power to do anything about it. And money was power. The problem was picking the right group. Who would use the money efficiently? Who would cause the most trouble? Who would last the longest?
He was still pondering his dilemma later that evening when he got a room at a hotel. Sitting outside the attached cafe, he perused a list of organizations that he'd compiled over the last few weeks as he ate. Someone passed by, setting a flyer down on his table. His first impulse was to glare at the woman, trusting his red-and-green eyes and obscured face to scare her off. To his surprise, the middle-aged woman just cocked an eyebrow at his appearance before walking away, continuing to pass out flyers to everyone available.
Picking up the small sheet of paper, he looked it over, curious now to see what someone so fearless might be advertising. Under his mask, a smile slowly spread across his face. This might be the answer he was looking for.
#
Naruto was up early the next day, racing around to gather up his tools before dashing to the training grounds, barely pausing long enough to tell his aunt and uncle good morning. Itachi-sensei had promised another joint training exercise, and he couldn't wait for it. This time, his team would do even better!
He arrived to find Itachi and Sasuke already there, the former speaking with Yugito. To his surprise, there were three other kids there, two girls and a boy, one of the girls with pale skin while her two friends were dark-skinned as the Raikage had been. Sasuke was eyeing them measuringly, and the dark-skinned girl was returning his inquisitive stare with her own. Itachi looked around as Naruto arrived.
"It turns out that Yugito-san is standing in for a friend, who is the Jonin-sensei to these three," he explained. "And they also are hoping to do some training before the exam."
"Karui, Samui, Omoi, meet Naruto Uzumaki," Yugito introduced them. She gestured to each one as she said their names, and Naruto returned the greetings with a jovial smile.
"Cool! You wanna train with us? We're already planning to work with some of our other friends."
Their expressions all tightened up. Sasuke chuckled at his friend's obliviousness. "They don't want to reveal their techniques to us," he explained. "And we really shouldn't reveal ours, either. Remember, the exam is a competition between all the villages."
Naruto scowled. "I guess, but come on! It'll be fun!"
Sasuke chuckled again as Itachi favored his student with a gentle smile. "Naruto, surprise and secrecy is a vital part of becoming a great shinobi."
"And what about teamwork? Our villages are allied, aren't they? Wasn't that the whole point of our mission there, to improve relations between Konoha and Kumo?"
Itachi and Yugito shared a look as his words hit them. Making eye contact didn't help them stay resolute in the face of his questions.
"Seriously, how is it an improvement if we won't even show some of our skills? What're you worried about, that Karui'll use a technique and I'll figure out how to counter it and use that against her someday?"
"Yes," Yugito answered honestly as Karui glared daggers at Naruto.
"So you think she won't learn better techniques?" Naruto directed the question at Karui herself now, causing the girl's eyes to widen in surprise. "Are you never going to improve? Never gonna become powerful enough to compensate for one or two techniques being countered? Or is this the best you'll ever be?"
Sasuke felt his eyes widen even as Karui's narrowed. Behind her, her teammates' expressions mimicked Sasuke's, and both of them took a step back. Itachi and Yugito glanced at each other again, but to Itachi's surprise, Yugito shook her head slightly, just enough to tell him to stay out of it.
"What are you saying, Uzumaki?" Karui growled, her hand inching towards the katana on her back.
"I'm saying, if all it takes to beat you is figuring out one or two tricks, you shouldn't be entering the Chunin Exams."
The sword was out before his mouth was shut. The next instant, he was ducking away from her slash, then quickly springing away to avoid a flurry of wild blows. Grinning, he whipped out his scroll and unsealed a mass of paper, quickly turning it into an origami snake. As it slithered around Karui, trying to ensnare her, she simply slashed it in two with her katana before chasing after Naruto. Instantly, the snake reformed into two shorter snakes, both entangling her legs.
Judging from the yell of fury as Karui ripped them apart with her bare hands, he'd succeeded at picking a fight. By the time she was finished hacking his snakes apart into shreds of paper, he'd created an origami bear and a flock of cranes. She grinned at the challenge, lifting her sword readily. The next five minutes were a spectacle of paper, explosions, lightning, swordsmanship, and screaming.
At the end of it, they both came to a halt facing each other. Karui had fought her way through a small zoo of origami animals, along with a couple of Earth Clones. Her selection of lightning jutsu, along with her swordsmanship, had prevailed through it all, even when some of the origami creations exploded. Now, at last, she was face-to-face with the real Naruto again, and he no longer had anything to hide behind.
"You ready for this, blondie?" she asked him, ignoring the aching of her arms as she raised her sword once more.
"You bet," he said, grinning broadly.
To her surprise, she was grinning back. It wasn't often she found someone who enjoyed a fight the way she did. Between Omoi always second-guessing himself and Samui remaining cold and uptight, it was a relief to deal with someone so upfront and happy. Readying her sword, she crouched, preparing to leap the ten feet between them in an instant. He tensed, planting himself firmly as his hands drifted together for a jutsu. Before he could do it, she would strike, aiming at his hands to disable them. She focused chakra to her legs, gathering it for one powerful thrust -
Yugito-san was suddenly there, right in front of her, one hand over Karui's keeping her sword from being swung, the other on the girl's shoulder, holding her in place. "This fight is over," she said calmly. "You two have fought enough. We're keeping everyone waiting."
"What?" Karui yelped indignantly. Looking past Yugito, she could see Itachi restraining Naruto. The blond boy looked similarly upset over having their fight stopped. But the firm look in Yugito's eyes kept her from arguing. Instead, she angrily sheathed her katana, stalking over to her teammates. Now that she wasn't fighting, she noticed that two other teams of Konoha shinobi had arrived, and a dark-haired girl with the Hyuuga clan's distinctive eyes had joined Itachi's brother. The girl was looking anxiously at Naruto as he walked glumly back to them.
"You're lucky that sensei stopped it when she did," Samui murmured as she handed Karui a canteen.
"What?" Karui snapped before taking a drink.
"You were going to lose," Omoi said, also speaking quietly so the Konoha shinobi couldn't overhear.
"I wasn't-!" she hissed, ready to tell Omoi exactly where he could shove his pessimistic attitude. Samui interrupted, cold blue eyes boring into Karui's dark ones.
"You were running out of chakra. You couldn't have fought much longer. He's barely breathing hard. You lost, Karui, it just hadn't happened yet."
"I was about to close the distance! His specialty is in keeping it at long-range, it would've been over at close-range before I was done!"
Samui shrugged indifferently, as if to say that Karui's opinion didn't matter. The dark-skinned girl felt her blood boil at the motion.
"So, it's settled," Yugito announced, joining her temporary students. "We'd like to join you in your group training exercise."
Itachi nodded, smiling slightly. Asuma also nodded amicably. Kurenai hesitated, but also nodded.
"This should be fun," Itachi said. "We've already prepared the training grounds for three teams, but I think we can make this work. The objective is simple." He held up three silver medallions. "Each team will have one of these. The winner is whichever team acquires all three. Each team will have a small base to operate out of, which is already made for you. The time limit is sunset."
"What about them, sensei?" Hinata asked, looking at the Kumo shinobi.
"Well, I hadn't shared the last part of the exercise. You see, you won't be working with your usual teams."
Everyone there seemed to grasp it instantly as their eyes went wide. All twelve Genin began looking around at each other. Itachi smiled. "Now, we will simply have three teams of four rather than three teams of three. Omoi, you will join the team of Sasuke, Kiba, and Shikamaru. Samui, you will join with Naruto, Shino, and Ino. And Karui will be with Hinata, Sakura, and Choji."
The Genin followed his orders dubiously, gathering in the teams he'd specified, more than a few of them casting doubtful looks at each other and their senseis. Karui and Sakura glared at each other fiercely, making Choji look away uncomfortably while shoveling potato chips in his mouth. Shikamaru and Omoi both looked a little depressed as they observed their teammates, Kiba practically sniffing around Sasuke, who just stared back coolly. Samui and Shino both eyed each other with no expression, while Ino looked the other blonde girl up and down condescendingly. Naruto frowned at the lot, as if unsure what to say to any of them.
"Keep in mind that we did not select these teams as an ideal mix of abilities or personalities," Itachi said.
"The goal here is to overcome bad luck," Asuma continued as he lit up another cigarette. "You don't always get to work with people you like. But if you can't overcome that and work together anyway, you won't get that far in your career."
"Remember that any failure will reflect badly on all of you," Kurenai said. "You can't blame each other. The entire team succeeds or fails as a unit, no matter what you think of one another as individuals."
Yugito nodded, eyeing not just her temporary students, but also the Konoha Genin, especially Naruto. "You won't win because you have techniques, or strength, or even experience. You'll win by covering for each other's weaknesses and letting your teammates help you where you're weak."
"Now let's begin," Itachi said, handing out folded maps to each team, along with the silver medallions. "These show you the location of your base, but not the other two. There are no limitations except to avoid killing or maiming opponents. Good luck. You may begin now."
Thus began a most vicious training exercise.
