Note: Hey, sorry everyone. I forgot that the first week of the year is just as hectic as the holidays, and on top of that we're short-staffed at work, so I've been doing overtime every day for the past two weeks (on the plus side, my paycheck is going to be beautiful). Also I'm going to be out of town this weekend, which is when I usually get most of my writing done, so...
Yeah, I'm stuck being a slow updater for a while. I didn't think four months was long enough to "see myself become the villain", but there you have it.
December 2000
Haru was grateful he had had a chance to set up the protective barrier before his identity was revealed: it had been a long and difficult process, almost surgical in nature, to extract Atsushi from the much younger boy. By that time, his voice was nearly hoarse from answering so many questions. 'Yes, he uses shadow clones all the time.' 'No, I haven't met Kurama; it's not like Ji-chan lets him out for fun.' 'Ramen, always from Ichiraku.' 'Orange, duh...' 'I'm not going to answer that, it's private.' 'How should I know if he's planning on another kid?' 'GAH! Why Would You Ask That!? I Can't Unsee That Now! Where's A Yamanaka When You Need One?'
Needless to say, the group of six didn't get to the far more important discussion of their strategy for almost two hours.
"Now that… that is over with," Katashio said with a pointed glare at Atsushi, "I believe it would be best to survey both drop-zones and pick the most suitable location to set the ambush."
"Nope," Isamu said. "Better to pick one now and go straight for it. The more time we spend wandering around and dallying, the more time the other teams have to set traps for us."
"Which means we need to scout both locations to make sure they're not already booby-trapped," Yokazeha said.
"And since we're doing that anyway, we might as well pick a location afterwards," Katashio pressed.
Haru furrowed his brow and said, "Both are good ideas, but without knowing how aggressive or defensive the other teams area going to play we can't make a fully informed decision."
"Who cares?" Nobutoshi asked. "There's six of us, we're twice as strong as the other teams."
"Unless a few of those teams got the bright idea to team up like we did," Isamu said.
"Which would put us on the same level, or even a disadvantage," Atsushi said.
"The time limit is also going to effect how people go about this challenge," Yokazeha pointed out. "The closer it gets to the deadline, the more aggressive all the teams will be, regardless of how they started out."
"Which means that our ambush strategy will be most effective towards the middle of the week, so that we can be set up before the defensive teams get aggressive, but after the initial aggressors have their run," Haru decided.
"I'm not sitting in this cave for a couple of days doing nothing!" Nobutoshi said, jumping up.
Atsushi pushed him to sit back down. The oldest said, "We won't be doing nothing. We'll be gathering Intel, surveying the area, trying to get a read on the other teams."
"Atsushi-san, can you provide us with a rough map of the land with our location and our drop-zones marked?" Haru asked.
"No prob," the teen said, already sketching into the dirt on the cave floor.
Yokazeha wrinkled her nose. "Not to sound like Nobutoshi-san, but I really don't want to be alternating between stuck in a cave and doing reconnaissance for two or three days. I'm more suited to attack."
"We're shinobi. Deal," Katashio said, earning himself a glare from both the kunoichi and the two who were civilian-raised.
Atsushi called everyone's attention back to himself. "Okay everyone, crude map time. It doesn't show elevations, though I marked the seven 'landmark peaks' and river valley. We're here," - he pointed to circle - "about two miles SW of center. Our, that is my team's, drop-zone is here," - an x across the map was indicated - "almost five miles ENE of us, and your drop-zone is here." Haru gaped. Atsushi was pointing at an x that was right next to their circle.
"This base is that close to our zone?" Isamu asked incredulously.
The older teen Naruto-grinned, and said, "Yup, half a mile due south."
"That's practically on our doorstep!" Nobutoshi said. "...You know, if we had a door, and if it was facing south instead of NW."
"Should we set the ambush at that one first, since it's closest?" Yokazeha asked.
Haru shook his head. "No, I think it'll be better if we trap it, and ambush the farther one. I have more seals that gather chakra, and I can set them to work remotely gathering thick chakra in their vicinity. I'll hide a bunch of them at our drop-zone, and set traps that will make anyone passing through the area use chakra to either evade or take out the trap. Since it's so close to our base I can regularly change out the seals – maybe twice a day or so – and look for patterns. If the same chakra signatures keep coming around, they are either lost or have a reason to be in that area and we can track them later."
Katashio smirked. "I like the way you think, kid."
Haru huffed. "I'm only four years younger than you."
"Still makes you a kid," Nobutoshi said with a smile.
"Hey!"
"Give it up, pipsqueak," Yokazeha said.
"You're barely more than a baby," Isamu said.
"Not you guys too!"
The rest of the day was given over to setting up Haru's Surveillance, as the other's took to calling it, and hammering out the details of their ambush strategy. It was decided that they would travel to the far drop-zone in the predawn hours of the third day, taking advantage of the time most people – even shinobi – would be sleeping to scout and set up their trap. The next two days would be spent at that location unless the rival team was caught before then; at which point the focus would shift to ambushing the other location. Hopefully they would be lucky enough not to have to go actively hunting, though if it got down to less than 48 hours they would.
Despite the barrier, the six decided it was better safe than sorry and set a watch schedule. They drew lots, and Haru ended up on first watch. That was okay, at least it was better than Nobutoshi's unenviable duty of waking everyone up after his shift – neither Yokazeha nor Isamu were morning people. It only took a few minutes of shuffling for everyone to settle down and fall to sleep.
Well, almost everyone.
"Hey, Haru-kun..." came a nearby whisper.
"What's up, Atsushi-san?" Haru asked. He wondered if the oldest teen was going to launch into another interrogation. If that was the case, Haru hoped the others would forgive him for waking them up to help bind and gag the fanboy.
"I'm sorry."
Haru blinked. In the darkness it was hard to see more than the outline of Atsushi's figure, sitting up with a bowed head. "About what?"
"Earlier," Atsushi said. "I got too excited asking about Naruto-sama, and I think I made you uncomfortable. So… Sorry."
"No worries," Haru said. "It wasn't fun, but there's no harm."
Atsushi shifted, but he made no move to lie down. "It's just… I was three when the Fourth Great War happened. I don't remember anything personally, but Otou-san and Okaa-san would tell me stories afterwards. Naruto-sama… he saved their lives, y'know. If... if he hadn't," Atsushi paused, drawing in a shuddering breath. "If he hadn't been there, I'd be an orphan, and I wouldn't have my little siblings; I'd have nobody.
"And then in the Academy, learning about history and everything… You know how every Great War has only been fifteen to twenty years apart depending on what you count: the beginnings to the beginnings, or the ends to the beginnings. Anyway, if the pattern held after the Fourth Great War, and we're twelve years after it ended, then… we'd be getting ready for the Fifth Great War ourselves. This Exam… it wouldn't be a fun, if challenging, competition; it would be a bloodbath. A time to size up the opposing side, and take them out if possible. Me and you… we wouldn't be sitting here together, just talking, we'd be trying to kill each other, and I think… one of use would have succeeded."
"Atsushi-san..." Haru started to say, but trailed off as he realized he had nothing to say. It was a terrifying thought: them pitted against each other as Genin for no other reason than which village they were aligned with. He would never know that Atsushi was a quirky, excitable 15-year-old, nor that he had two younger siblings, nor that he preferred to talk his way to a conclusion… instead he would know that he was a formidable opponent, and one that needed to be eliminated before he became a real threat to the Leaf. The boy shuddered at the sudden chill that had nothing to do with the howling wind outside their cave.
Atsushi continued, "But Naruto-sama stopped all that. He made friends with all the other Kage, and we have peace, real peace, between the Five Great Villages for the first time. I'm not naive: I know that there are still skirmishes with and between the smaller villages, and there's always nukenin to deal with." His tone of voice had Haru picturing the painted face screwed up in an unhappy grimace.
"But," he said, "compared to a time where even 'allies' were regarded with suspicion and everyone was trying to stab everyone else in the back, I think this is the closest we've ever been to real World Peace before. And, maybe this is childish, but even if this only lasts for ten years longer than the other 'peace times'… I think even then, Naruto-sama should be hailed as a hero, as the greatest hero of all the nations. Because, even with just ten years, it means that an entire generation has been allowed to grow all the way up without war. The kids that were born after the Fourth War ended – like my imouto and otouto – will be grown up Chunin, or even Jonin, before they have to march onto a battlefield."
Minato and Hiruzen, and Hikari too, would be in their early to mid twenties, maybe even married, Haru thought. And Itachi and Kushina would be just behind them in their late teens. Little Obito would be graduated from the Academy and more than likely participating in the Chunin Exams himself. And I… I would be back from England for several years, maybe with a wife and kids of my own.
"That's why," Atsushi said, his voice interrupting Haru's musings. "Why I look up to Naruto-sama so much, why I try to be like him as much as possible, why I make sure to tell everyone what a hero he is. And if the day comes when we have to fight in the Fifth Great War, then – if it's in my life time – I want to do everything I can to bring about the same peace that Naruto-sama created, so that a new pattern is set where Great Wars are thirty or more years apart; and someday, in the future, there might be another Naruto-sama, who will change the world again, and make it so that the Great Wars are forty or even fifty years apart… If we keep doing that, can you imagine? Someday, far off, a person will be able to live their whole life, from birth to death, in peace time. That… That's something worth giving my life for, even if I won't get to see it myself."
Haru decided then and there that he was going to introduce Atsushi to Naruto. He might be from Stone, but he carried the Will of Fire in his heart. There was no telling how far this young man would go under the guidance of the Rokudaime Hokage.1
"For what it's worth, Atsushi-san, if you give your all for that, and others follow you as you've been following Naruto-jichan, then that day might not be as far away as you think. Not to mention that I'm sure that we'll have a lot longer than thirty years as long as Ji-chan stays friends with the other Kage. I'm going to be pushing for as long of a peace time as I can too," Haru said. "Now get some sleep, you have next watch."
Ending Notes:
1. Yes, yes, I know that in the Naruto-Canon the Rokudaime (Sixth) is Kakashi and Naruto is the Nanadaime (Seventh), but c'mon... Kakashi! I know that Tsunade the Alcoholic Gambler isn't much better than the Chronically Late Porn Reader... ugh, I guess I just really struggle to see Kakashi as Hokage. So in my world he isn't, Tsunade stayed Hokage for a few more years, and Naruto took over a couple years after the twins were born.
This chapter got away from me. My plan had been to start writing the action oriented sequences, but... have you ever had a scene that just writes itself? And you look back on it and go 'well that makes perfect sense, but I have no clue where it came from.' That happened to me, as soon as I began their planning meeting. I almost got into an argument with a fictional character because I wanted them to set up the ambush that night, but Haru said that it was smarter to wait a few days, and I said that it would require changing my outline... then I realized that Haru wasn't real, but I still couldn't make him take his words back so... yeah.
Plus there won't be anywhere else to fit in a real heart-to-heart between Haru and Atsushi, so might as well accept defeat and write another non-action chapter, then jump right into the action nest time.
P.S. What are y'all's thoughts on the OCs? I had initially wanted to avoid them, but now they are pretty entrenched in the story. I guess what I want to know is a) do they fell like real people? b) do they have too little/enough/too much screen time relative to Haru? c) should they become reoccurring characters in the broader story of the HP XO Naruto series I'm planning?