A/N: Hello everyone! Good to see you. A slow chapter (again!) but the next chapter is on its way.

A hearty and well-deserved THANK YOU to my beta and partner, ijnt.

My writing commissions are open! If you're interested, message me or check my profile.


Uzumaki


Chapter 39


Lizard was meeting with Owl again. He had heard nothing of their previous meeting, nothing since last time. Owl was here first, head bowed and kneeling on the dry, molded wood of the Uchiha base. He could smell that earthy, twisted smell of rot in the room; a louse crawled out of the splinters of a broken beam beside him as he entered.

Owl must have been fearing punishment or bad news; this meeting had been called last minute.

"What is it that Danzo-sama needs from me?"

"You will be meeting with our contact, Rabbit," Lizard said. "Danzo-sama was previously receiving direct intel, but the situation has changed. You will meet with Rabbit at this location tomorrow, and then every Wednesday evening. You will transcribe the intel into the cipher, and deliver it to Danzo-sama immediately.

"You will give the password: 'What makes the fortress?'," Lizard went on, "Your contact will respond, 'The heavens.'"

"Understood." Owl wrote this on a scroll with a flourish, before pausing. "Why does Danzo-sama not just have Rabbit transcribe directly into the cipher beforehand?"

Questions. Lizard felt sick again, but what a hypocrite he was. He'd betrayed Danzo-sama last time. No. No thoughts. It didn't happen. Tingly tongue: bless the call.

"Rabbit is a spy, and not an official part of ROOT," said Lizard, sharp. "Danzo-sama wishes to keep the cipher internal to prevent any of our intel being intercepted. If the cipher were to be proliferated, Danzo-sama would face issues later on."

"I see. Sensible. Are there any further instructions?"

"Yes. This is an important duty for Danzo-sama. Use your abilities to ensure Rabbit does not stray from Danzo-sama's wishes. If Rabbit shows any signs of disloyalty, take care of it."

"And what are Danzo's wishes?"

"Loyalty." Lizard nodded. "Emphasise to Rabbit the importance of loyalty to Danzo-sama. Remind them what is at stake."

"Understood."

They stood to leave.

"Snake is improving," said Owl.

Lizard jumped, his heart speeding, as though it would drop from his chest. "Don't speak of this."

"But he will never be a shinobi again. He is no longer Danzo's tool."

Lizard felt like he could vomit.

How? What had happened to him? How could this happen to him? He was elite, he had fought with him a number of times. He was not his close partner, but he was…

...no. There was no friendship beneath Danzo. He had a new partner. All was the same. All was well. Bless the call.

"I see," Lizard said, keeping every stutter, every shake from his voice as he stood to leave. "If he could not serve Danzo-sama, then so be it. Praise to Konoha."

Owl offered him a searching look, before disappearing into the dark. "Praise."


The North Base was as barren as the canyon it was carved into: everyone here was in cages. Naruto didn't see any staff as they came in, but he half wondered if Orochimaru had just convinced prisoners to feed, clean and then lock themselves back up at the end of the day. The man had had an aptitude for making his work do itself.

Naruto sent clones to evacuate the place in the usual fashion, and Kimimaro followed alongside him, giving sidelong looks to all of the scurrying prisoners that rushed past them in the tight halls of the base. Distantly, someone let out a celebratory howl; Naruto peered into yet another room.

"Got any idea where Kabuto's room is?"

Kimimaro turned up his chin. "Use one of your clones to find it."

"Yeah, but I dunno who found it… I don't wanna pop them all, you know?" The faint sound of jingling sounded, and Naruto perked up to see a Kabuto-faced one pop around the corner of the hall.

"Got 'em!" he yelled, the cheeriness at entire odds with Kabuto's slimy voice. He chucked the keys overhand, launching them down the hall and leaving them to scrape and tumble across the floor to Naruto's feet.

Naruto bent down, sending the clone a thumbs up, before holding them to the light. "Alright. Which key do you think?"

Kimimaro gave him a long stare, before rolling his eyes and tapping the humongous keyhole on the metal door.

Naruto looked at it sheepishly, picking the key out from the others on the loop. "The big one. Right." He gave Kimimaro a look, poised near the lock. "So, have you thought about it?"

"What?"

"What to say to him?" Naruto clarified, holding the key up. "This is your last chance to worry about what to say to Juugo. Y'know… about your feelings?"

Kimimaro stared at that shimmering key, frowning. "Thinking won't help."

Naruto tilted his head. "You not gonna tell him?"

Kimimaro looked away.

"No pressure, it has to come from like… y'know, you gotta be ready, right?" Naruto reassured him. "The more confident you are the better, for sure, y'know?"

"There's such a thing as too much confidence," Kimimaro murmured.

"What? No way!"

"Too confident and it makes it seem like you feel you deserve something, or someone." Kimimaro didn't meet his eyes, staring down the hall, dazed. "Fear is part of exposing your genuine feelings. Part of showing someone it comes from somewhere real."

Naruto hummed, then shrugged. "I didn't think about that." Under his breath, "Too late now."

"What?"

"Okay, so I'm opening the door," Naruto sang, slipping in the key and reaching up to unhook the heavy bolts higher up.

"Careful," warned Kimimaro. "Let me go first."

"Obviously. Okay, opening up!"

The door opened slowly, languid with a heavy, steady creak of metal scraping on the stone floor. Naruto was surprised to hear a wild scream, a tall man with a soft mop of orange hair lurching forward. The metal door slammed into his chest, sending him stumbling back. He wheezed, feeling dumb. The muscular man - presumably Juugo - was dressed in Orochimaru's prison clothing, and he thrust forward from the cell, slamming his hands around Kimimaro's neck. Kimimaro hit the wall with a thud.

"A man," the man wheezed, a wildness in his eyes. "It's a man for sure, right? Right-"

"Juugo," Kimimaro whispered hoarsely, placing a slender hand on Juugo's quaking arm. "Be calm."

Juugo's eyes widened, and he pulled his hands back to his chest fiercely, staggering backwards in shock. What appeared to be a cursed seal retracted slowly, and Juugo's posture changed, curling into himself with every second.

"K… Kimimaro?" he said, his voice barely above a breath. "Am I… Are you really here?"

Kimimaro nodded, a soft smile on his lips as he stepped forward. As he reached for Juugo's hand, Juugo recoiled, pulling his fists to his chest, but Kimimaro clasped his hand in both of his undeterred.

"Yes." His eyes were alive with a silent joy Naruto had never seen in him. "I recovered from my illness. I was due to be Orochimaru-sama's vessel."

"Wow. I'm… I'm so happy you're well, Kimimaro." Juugo's face lit up with a smile, falling crooked as he realised. His voice cracked. "So, if you're… are we saying goodbye again?"

Kimimaro shook his head, a hint of remorse entering his voice. "Orochimaru-sama is… he's dead."

Juugo's eyes widened. "What? Orochimaru is dead?"

"Yep!" Naruto said, stretching and cracking an elbow behind his back.

"So, you…" Juugo turned to Kimimaro. "Did you…?"

Kimimaro's expression turned foul, giving Naruto a scalding look. He quickly stepped in.

"Ah, no, that was me!" Naruto beamed, pressing a firm thumb into his chest. "I killed him! And I really do want you to have this nice moment, like I really do, but I have to blow up this base and I didn't tell my clones to wait for this to be over or anything. So it would be a really big favour to me if you just headed out for now? And I'll see you outside?"

Juugo's jaw was slack, looking at Naruto with a searching gaze. "You… aren't you Uzumaki Naruto? You killed Orochimaru?"

"That's me," Naruto nodded, looking anxiously past Juugo to see what his clones were up to.

"I saw you when Orochimaru brought you by," Juugo said. "With the…" He pointed to where Naruto's tails would be.

"Well, now you know why he's dead," Naruto muttered. "Head on out, okay?"

Something in Juugo slumped with realisation.

"Orochimaru promised to cure me," he said quietly. "If you've killed him… I'm going to be like this forever. He promised me. I gave everything for that."

"He was good at promising things, wasn't he?" Naruto said, bitterness in his voice. "Well, I'm taking all of his research. We can look through it and see if there's anything we can use to help you, but yeah, he's dead. So. I'll see you outside."

He turned to the other corridors to take his keys to the cells, and Kimimaro and Juugo headed to the exit. As Naruto turned rusty key after rusty key into cells filled with wary eyes, he heard their gentle, idle chatter echoing down the halls, like a far off dream.


Satsuki-sensei was about an hour late.

"You're late," Tarou said, dully.

"I'm still adjusting to the time zone." Satsuki stretched, rolling her shoulders back. "Ready?"

"Ready for what?" Ashi said, laughing nervously. Blackfire was whining at her feat. Hanabi gave the dog a sharp look, and he cried a little bit harder.

"To fight me." Satsuki brushed some dirt off of her legs.

Tarou's heart sank, and he stood up, feeling the weight of his scrolls in his pack. Elemental seals… containment seals... well, they all had their uses. They'd have to figure it out. Somehow.

Hanabi stood up, crossing her arms and regarding her with a pearly gaze. "What are the rules?"

"Rules?" Satsuki blinked.

"What are we trying to do?" asked Tarou.

"You're trying to kill me," Satsuki said, "Obviously."

Ashi had her hand up again. Satsuki breathed out through her nose.

"Yes?"

"I don't want to kill you," Ashi explained.

Satsuki snorted. "Funny."

"But I don't," Ashi reiterated. "What if I kill you? Who will teach me?"

"Someone else will."

"I don't think we're going to be able to kill you," Tarou said, hesitant. "Is there no goal?"

"No. You just have to beat me." Satsuki cricked her neck. "Try your hardest to kill me. That's the goal."

Hanabi tied her hair back. "Fine by me."

"She has the right idea," Satsuki nodded. "On three, everybody."

"I'm not ready!" Ashi squealed. Blackfire was howling.

"Three."

Hanabi was silent, lowering herself into the Gentle Fist.

"Two…"

Tarou hooked his fingers into the loops of his kunai, his other hand on a water scroll.

"...one."

The field burst into violence.

Satsuki was surprised to see Hanabi come first.

Her movement was silent, but lethal. Unlike other users of the Gentle Fist, she took no moment to measure her, launching forward like a bullet and launching a charged palm into her gut. Satsuki dodged it, but by a smaller measure than she expected - Hanabi was less quick than she was chaotic.

Ashi fled into the trees, as did Tarou. Wiser.

Hanabi pulled back, lowering and trying to catch Satsuki's left leg. Satsuki pulled back with ease. The difference in speed was too great; Hanabi wouldn't be able to catch her with movement like that.

Hanabi seemed to know it too, but it didn't stop her. She pulled forward once more, charging a palm into Satsuki's hip, and missing by an inch. Satsuki pushed down on Hanabi's arm, and she launched into the ground with a humiliating thwack.

Satsuki put a hand on her hip. "Anything else?"

"Don't patronise me," Hanabi hissed, launching herself off of the ground and swinging forward again.

"You surely know-" Satsuki dodged another hit- "that the Gentle Fist-" Hanabi tried to follow it up, but lost her balance as Satsuki swerved to the side- "is never going to work on me."

"You are years older than me," hissed Hanabi, jumping back and catching her breath a moment. "Nothing will work on you. You're sadistic."

Satsuki shook her head. "My teacher was 15 years older than me, and I landed more than a couple of hits on him."

Hanabi pulled forward again, trying a straight punch that Satsuki blocked. "And did you beat him?"

Satsuki let a smirk quirk her lips as she rebuffed Hanabi's hit, launching her a couple of steps back. "Classified."

Hanabi's eyes narrowed. "I knew it! There's something else to this!"

Satsuki snorted. "You think all these tests are the same? Think again."

That seemed to startle Hanabi, and she pulled back, examining her again.

"These tests have to be standardised," Hanabi said, uncertain. "You can't just fail me or pass me however you like."

"You're wrong." Satsuki shook her head, allowing herself a hint of satisfaction. "Jounin can test their genin however they like, and pass or fail them however they want. This is my test, through and through. If someone else told you how to pass, forget it. This isn't that test."

A rustle. Someone was approaching from the back, but Satsuki waited a moment, listening to give them a shot. Hanabi's eyes trailed to them - these children were so conspicuous.

It was Tarou, Satsuki decided; Ashi was faster than that. Hearing the grass beneath his feet, she turned to block his hit.

Tarou's eyes widened as she rebuffed his fist, stumbling back a couple of steps, but Hanabi took the opportunity, launching forward to lay another hit on her. The palm missed her head narrowly, but Tarou was already coming forward, pulling something from his pack.

Now it was getting interesting. Satsuki planted a firm kick into Hanabi's stomach, using the momentum to launch her backwards and out of the way of whatever Tarou was going to throw. To her surprise, he didn't pull a shuriken or kunai, but a scroll.

Huh. He had mentioned seals proficiency. Hanabi had been thrown across the clearing, winded, but Tarou only took a moment to unfurl the scroll with one hand and send chakra down it with the other. The symbol glowed: lightning.

Lightning? she thought. How does he expect to use lightning at range?

Hanabi was looking just past Satsuki, still wheezing on the ground, when Satsuki realised.

A tiny, imperceptible glow of wire was between them - he must have used that punch to tie it to her! Fuck!

Satsuki swore, sending a stronger surge of her own lightning chakra down the wire to neutralise the flow, making it by just a split second. Tarou looked alarmed, reaching in his pack for a handful of shuriken.

"Lightning chakra? I thought Uchiha used fire," he sighed. "Goddammit."

Hanabi was at her again, slower and definitely winded, but Satsuki was still trying to remove that electrified wire, which was a distinct advantage. She hurled a palm at Satsuki's leg from a low stance - Satsuki barely caught it, kicking Hanabi's hit aside and finally prizing the electrified wire from her arm. The trees - Ashi was coming.

Goddamn, these children were ruthless. Time to use force.

Satsuki unhooked her fans from her belt with an imperceptible click-click, keeping them closed.

Hanabi flung herself forward, left palm poised for Satsuki's arm. She had her eyes firmly on her wrists - savvy. Those tenketsu would screw up Satsuki the most.

Tarou was coming from the side, two of him. Bunshin. She wasn't going to activate her Sharingan for a 12 year old - only one of them was actually making impressions in the grass.

Ashi was anyone's guess. Satsuki didn't know what went through that kid's head.

Hanabi's hit would be difficult to dodge with Tarou coming at her from the other side - Satsuki slammed the bottom of her wrist with the fan, sending her attack wide. Tarou and his clone launched shuriken; she caught them barely with a clip-clip of her fan. Even so, he was undeterred, pulling in with a kunai. She closed the fan, slamming it against the side of his weapon and knocking it right out of his hand.

"Hyaaa! Sensei, I'm so sorry!"

That was Ashi. She was coming from above.

Satsuki remembered how Kakashi had to coax her team into the murderous urges. Seemed this team came with them. Bloodthirsty little bastards.

The game was up, she decided. She slammed her arm into Tarou's stomach, sending him on his ass into the grass, heaving for breath. Hanabi pulled forward again, and Satsuki pushed two fingers, very firmly, into her forehead, and pushed. She stumbled to the right.

Ashi slammed down, and Satsuki barely made it. Her fan screeched against the force of Ashi's punch, grinding against her iron knuckledusters. Satsuki's eyes widened.

Those were tekken. Who the fuck had taught this maniac how to use tekken?

Her body weight coming down behind her, Ashi drove her left punch into Satsuki's face, gasping as she did.

"Oh my god, no, sensei's dead! I killed Satsuki-sensei! Is that illegal?!"

"Look, you idiot," Hanabi snapped.

Indeed, Ashi had drove her tekken into a log, and there was a splinter in her middle finger. She picked it out with a wince. "Oh… shit."

"It's not illegal."

Satsuki slammed a fan into that sensitive crook of Ashi's shoulder, and she went limp, flopping into the grass.

"What is the point of this test?!" Hanabi yelled, lowering into the Gentle Fist and targeting her with a desperate final flurry. Satsuki dodged it all easily, and she allowed herself a chuckle as she arced her fan and slammed it into the crook of her neck.

Tarou looked at her with pitiful eyes, still flat on the ground and wheezing a little. "Is this part of the test?"

Satsuki felt a twinge of something looking at him, walking over slowly.

Tarou sighed. "Can you use genjutsu to put me out? I don't want to get up."

Lazy bastard, Satsuki thought. But she obliged: with an instance of red, Tarou was limp in the grass.

Now for the hard work.


The sun was high, and Sakura was wrestling with the instincts of a jounin, in the mind of a genin.

She threw a punch. The wood did not bounce back; it crumpled like foil beneath her glove.

Training had, once she'd built herself up to it, seemed like the best choice. But with each hit, all Sakura realised was that she was strong. Her muscles rippled with each hit, and she felt it in her movements. She was far stronger than she'd been before, but it didn't mean she knew how to punch: there was instinct, but it wasn't enough.

Sakura pulled her senbon from her belt pack, the metal glinting in the light, and she threw, and threw, and threw. Her aim was decent, maybe better than it had been before, but was that just her strength? She couldn't tell. She threw again. Again.

Nothing. Nothing was coming back.

Sakura let out a sigh of frustration, slumping into the low choppy grass and staring at those senbon protruding from the cracked tree trunk, the sun making it seem like a bright light was beaming from the holes in the wood.

When Temari had choked her, Sakura had initiated a strong, chakra-fueled kick to her stomach - so she knew those instincts were still there, in the back of her mind, locked away somewhere. She couldn't get them out.

She leaned back into the grass, grabbing a dry tuft of grass in both hands and plucking it from the acrid dirt. Sakura sighed, and thought about it.

The note.

Sakura felt her chest seize up with that certain panic, the panic she'd associated with forgotten homework or an embarrassing putdown by Satsuki, or answering a question wrong in the academy. Remembering it made her chest tight and her breath scarce. Seeing it, she realised something about it composed a deep, shameful secret.

Something she couldn't tell anyone.

But she had to. What could she do on her own, without her memories? She reached into her pack, slumping forward and reading that crumpled message again: the newspaper was getting worn from the opening, and unfolding. Her fingers were shaking.

It was her only clue. Sakura had started to tear her room apart, and there was nothing. No journal, even though she'd always kept one. It was all business, no details. Weapons, new clothes, and forgotten birthday cards down the side of the bed. No notes, no cute photos, no nothing.

The letter had to mean something. But Sakura knew that something about it - there was no way she was receiving a letter like this out of the blue. On the other hand, nobody she knew had anything to offer about those missing years. She was angry, she was tough, she was strange, but that was it.

How the hell was she supposed to figure out what happened if nobody seemed to know anything? How could that be true?

The clearing was shaded, and the light midday heat didn't affect her; the shade was cooling, almost a little too much so. Sakura felt the sun on her thigh, a single speck of it, and she finally admitted it.

Someone knows something, she thought. Someone is lying to me.


Tarou awoke to Ashi's frantic yelling.

"Ah! Where am I? Mom? Ah, I'm late for the academy!"

"Ashi, we're tied to a log." Hanabi said, exasperated. "It's the genin test."

"Oh, I'm a genin!" Ashi said brightly. "Phew."

Satsuki shook her head, waving a slender finger. "No, you're not."

"My neck hurts," Ashi whined. "Why did you knock me out? I'm sore!"

"Yeah, mine too," Tarou lied.

Indeed, they were tied to a log in the field, all around the same singular log, stood completely upright. Ropes were bound around them. Tarou could see some knots at their side. He wriggled, but it was a very tight fit.

"So Hanabi, you got beat too?" Ashi moaned.

Hanabi sniffed. "She's a jounin."

"Can you guys cut off the ropes?" said Tarou. "I can't feel my pack."

"My pack's gone too," said Hanabi.

Satsuki came out from behind Tarou, placing a timer on the tree stump beside her. "By the way, I tied your dog to the other log. He tried to bite me."

Blackfire was on the stump to Tarou's left, crying. He didn't seem to be in pain, just burdened by the general sentiment of the situation.

"Blackfire!" Ashi commanded urgently. "Now's your time to use your final move!"

Hanabi groaned. "Your dog does not have a final move."

"You don't know that!" snapped Ashi. "Blackfire! Now!"

He howled in return.

Tarou struggled. He couldn't reach the knots at all. "I think there's gotta be something else to this. Right?"

"Your time starts now." Satsuki clicked the top of the timer. "Five minutes to get out of these ropes."

"Five minutes?!" howled Ashi.

Satsuki shrugged. "Five minutes or I kill the dog."

Ashi's voice turned acid. "You dare touch my-"

"She's not going to kill the dog," Tarou sighed. "I don't think she's allowed to do that."

"You don't know that!" Ashi wailed. "We have to figure this out, now!"

"Only two of us are gonna pass, right?" Hanabi asked. "So it's the first two of us to get out of this?"

Satsuki shrugged. "Five minutes."

Tarou struggled desperately against the ties, hearing the others do the same on the other side of the log. But he didn't feel the strain in the ropes at all, and it didn't seem to get any tighter when Ashi desperately pushed against them either, despite her strength.

"My Gentle Fist doesn't work against these ropes. Dammit."

Two knots on either side, around hand height. So it had to be doable. Satsuki had set up a scenario where there was at least one way out. Tracing along the ropes, it seemed that the ropes tying him to the log was on his right.

Tarou wiggled his right hand, trying to reach it. Nope - not even close, not even if he stretched with every fibre of his body. There had to be another way out.

"I think we're all on different ropes, because I can't feel you guys moving," he said. "I think the ropes tying me are tied to my right, but I can't reach the knot."

"I can't reach it either," Ashi whined. "This isn't realistic! Blackfire would save me no matter what if he could!"

Tarou bit his tongue. That dog can't save itself from its own loneliness, let alone save you from a trap.

"I can wiggle my hands a little bit, but I can't reach my knot at all," Hanabi admitted.

If I had a seal on my skin, maybe this wouldn't be so difficult, he thought. I was stupid to not prepare for getting captured… that's one of the biggest risks of being a shinobi. But who gets tested on things like this?

"Clock's ticking," Satsuki said, tapping the clock.

Hanabi seemed to have finally cracked. "Do you guys have anything at all to get us out?"

"Only two of us can pass, Hanabi," Tarou admitted, feeling a little defeated himself. "What's the point in trying to work together?"

"It's better than no one!" she cursed. "I can't do it on my own. These ropes are too tight and I can't reach the knot to even try. But if pulling this hard on the ropes doesn't undo them, then I don't think even reaching it would help."

"Do you guys know anything about knots?" Ashi asked, desperate. "I definitely slept through that class."

"I don't remember," Hanabi confessed. "I didn't think something this dumb would ever happen to me."

"I only remember a tiny bit," Tarou said. "But I think this might be the one that people use when rock climbing and stuff."

"Two minutes, kids."

"Get moving, Tarou!" Hanabi urged.

"Okay, it's um, I think… I think it's called the Bowline knot, and you can't undo it with tension. But if you pull it by hand, it comes apart really easily."

Hanabi let out an angry noise of frustration. "If we can't reach it, that doesn't matter anyway!"

"What about the other knot?" said Ashi, looking at the one to her left. "Is that gonna free us somehow? I might be able to reach that if I really try."

"We're all on different ropes anyway," sighed Tarou. "The knot to my right frees me. I don't think the other one is gonna free you at all."

"Well, is it gonna free someone?" Ashi asked, a little helpless.

Tarou blinked, looking at her hand inching towards the knot.

"Wait, that's my knot," he said. "You can reach it!"

"Yeah, if I stretch really hard."

"But only two of us can pass," Hanabi huffed. "What, so we have to ask someone else to try free us? That just means we have to choose between us who gets out!"

"If we free each other at the exact same time," Tarou offered, thinking hard, "Satsuki-sensei can't choose it on that, right?"

"She probably will anyway," Hanabi sighed, "but we have to try. Okay, Ashi, I'm going to try and undo yours."

"Hanabi, I'm on yours," nodded Tarou. "When we're all ready, let's count down."

"One minute."

"Shut up!" snapped Hanabi. "Okay, let me just…"

There was a shuffling. If Tarou positioned his body just right, stretching so hard it felt as though a tendon in his shoulder might snap, he could reach Ashi's knot.

Feeling as though his arm was being rubbed raw by the rope, he finally managed to hook a finger around the freeing loop of the knot, tugging it bit by bit with all the strength he could muster in his outstretched hand. It loosened, and loosened a little more, until it was just on the edge of falling apart.

"I'm ready!" he said.

"Me too!"

"Got it. Okay, so, on three…"

"One, two, three!"

Tarou yanked with all he could, and felt the ropes slacken. He stumbled forward, exhaling deeply and holding his knees. Ashi cheered, running over to Blackfire, whose cessation of crying seemed to indicate the cheery atmosphere. Hanabi allowed herself a sigh of relief.

"We did it!" Ashi cradled her dog, spinning happily. "So are we genin now? Who passes? I really feel like I'm already a genin, so please don't take it away from me."

Satsuki stopped the timer, crossing her legs on the tree stump. Her silence dampened the good moods.

"Am I getting sent back? Who is it?" Tarou asked hesitantly.

"No. These tests are supposed to test teamwork, plain and simple," Satsuki said finally. "Teamwork, and being able to use your powers as needed, with full killing intent. I think you guys are almost a little too bloodthirsty, but that's besides the point. You helped each other when necessary. In the fight, maybe you weren't using teamwork, but you used each other's attacks to leverage the best possible outcome individually."

"That part of the test is a lie," Satsuki finished. "All three of you can pass, provided you perform. I told you otherwise to test your teamwork. You guys haven't failed yet."

"Yet?" Ashi groaned.

"Yet," Satsuki confirmed, standing upright. "One last part of the test."

"What is it?" Hanabi said, looking at her closely.

Satsuki walked pointed to the five stony Hokage faces. Tarou had never liked them: Tsunade looked particularly sour. "You see those carvings, right? Do you know what they mean?"

Ashi put her hand up. Satsuki nodded, looking exhausted. "Yes?"

"They're the Hokage faces, so if your face is up there, then you're Hokage."

Satsuki sighed. "Yes. But what else do they mean?"

"They mean you earned the respect of everyone in the village, and that you protected it?" offered Tarou.

"Yes," said Satsuki. "But respect can be a harmful thing."

Tarou blinked.

Beside him, Hanabi folded her arms, giving Satsuki a skeptical look. "Where is this going?"

"Respect for your superiors, and for the line of order, isn't always the right thing to do," Satsuki went on. "If your superior ordered you to leave each other behind for dead, when you knew you could maybe save them, should you do it?"

There was a tentative pause in the group.

"I wouldn't want to, but I think it'd be the right thing to do," Tarou said, hesitant.

"But would you do it?"

Tarou looked down. "I'm not sure I could."

"That's the instinct of a ninja," nodded Satsuki. She looked at them all, a sense of the dramatic about her. "Being a ninja is not about respect. Respect to the detriment of progress is the thing that ninja sought to leave behind. Use cunning to fight for what's right, and disregard the social order. But on the other hand, being a ninja in some way compels us to disregard our feelings. I don't believe that's right.

"Being a ninja requires us to value something - it requires us to protect something. But that doesn't mean we have to spread needless suffering. We don't have to hurt others and ourselves in pursuit of nothing but honour. Do what is right, not what is expected."

Silence.

"So what does this have to do with the Hokage...?" Tarou asked, confused.

"The Hokage is the person who hands down those orders, and we have to know to disregard them in the face of a greater good. What would you all say is the greater good, right now?"

Ashi had her hand up again.

"Ashi."

"Passing the genin exam."

"Exactly."

Tarou gaped, and next to him Hanabi almost choked on her own saliva.

"So for the greater good," Satsuki offered, "You must disobey what the village tells you is right, and honourable."

Hanabi groaned in frustration. "What are you saying?!"

Satsuki reached behind the tree stump, slamming down three heaving buckets of paint. She pointed to the stone faces.

"You're going to desecrate them."


A/N: Join my discord! It's a very nice place: discord . gg / WAdaFkV