Manifest Destiny

by Shadow0Fire

Wounded by the betrayal of Yashamaru, Gaara flees the Hidden Sand, throwing it into turmoil. Not only is a disgruntled jinchuriki on the loose, but the team that would have been formed from the Kazekage's children is now down one member. Baki finds a boy who may be able to replace the wayward Gaara: can the right person in the wrong place change the future of an entire world?

27. Split the Difference

Here we go again, with another very, very long wait for a chapter. I'm sure nobody is surprised by that, but hey, at least it's a pretty long chapter at just over 20,000 words. Did you know that the first Harry Potter novel was only 77,500 words? I'm just saying.

Some of you may also be happy to hear that we are nerfing a particular technique in this chapter. As for what it is, you'll just have to wait and find out.

---

The week following Ash's reunion with his siblings was nothing special. They had shed tears for Baki, then tried to return to some sense of normalcy. That hadn't gone over particularly well, leading the trio of siblings to mostly sit in silence on the evening of their reunion. When it was time to go home, they made sure all three of them knew where each other lived, then went their separate ways.

Naturally, none of this had an effect on Ash's usual routine. He was still expected to do the same things as always: report in for missions, donate most of his earnings to repairs and whatnot... thankfully, no particularly hazardous missions had cropped up over the past few days. Seeing as how he, Tenten and Neji had not returned with the full armament the Hokage had ordered from their eccentric smithing friend, the trio had been reassigned the same task, which required a second journey to the workshop to collect the standard weapons the Hokage had ordered.

Unlike the first time, the trip did not end in a fight with rogue ninja. In fact, it was almost entirely devoid of anything dramatic. Mostly just walking and talking, though Ash had no qualms with that. Such a casual mission had allowed him to spend most of the time chatting with Tenten, though he hadn't learned as much about her in general this time. She had been far too excited talking about her new katana to do much talking about herself, short of things related to weaponry and swordsmanship. So in a sense, Ash had only gained even more insight into the breadth of knowledge his girlfriend had on the subject.

On the return trip, he had contemplated whether or not he should ask Tenten to train him in the use of some sort of weapon besides kunai. Any extra skill a shinobi had was likely to serve them well on the battlefield, and that was certainly true of swords, staves, and whatever else Tenten knew how to use. However, considering the fact that the brunette was likely in the midst of learning how to use her new weapon herself, Ash had decided against it. Besides, he still hadn't mastered the Leaf Hurricane, so why bother moving onto a new skill before finishing what he was on right now?

Naturally, Ash had seen a lot more of his two siblings now that they knew where to find each other. The day they had parted ways, they'd all agreed to meet at Temari's living arrangement at the end of every day if possible. If they knew in advance that they wouldn't be able to make it for some reason, they always made sure the other two siblings knew about it so they wouldn't have to worry.

Temari's place of relative imprisonment was notably nicer than Ash's own, making him wonder why they had decided to stick him in the busted apartment. Had they just drawn straws or something? Either way, he had yet to inform his siblings that he lived in half an apartment, as he doubted it would go over well with Temari.

Unfortunately, there was no such meeting happening today. Kankuro was being 'interrogated' today, in the sense that the Leaf was grilling him for information and secrets about his techniques and his art of puppetry. Temari was on a mission with some Genin Ash wasn't familiar with, so she was out of the cards today as well. Then again, even if she had been around, Ash likely would have been busy anyway: he had received a very special assignment from the Hokage this fine day, which was why the blonde was hopping across the rooftops to reach a training area on the outskirts of the village.

Apparently, the people in charge around here didn't think they were getting enough mileage out of their hostages, in regards to learning their techniques and their skills. After all, this was a prime opportunity to expand the library of shinobi techniques in Konoha, as having direct access to the skills and knowledge of foreign ninja, even Genin, was extremely rare.

That was why the Hokage had ordered Ash to report to a training area where he would demonstrate and possibly even teach skills unique to him or his village that the Leaf didn't know about. Unique taijustu styles, jutsu themselves, tactics and stratagems... anything Ash knew that his new allies didn't, he was to impart, though the blonde doubted he could do that in one day or even one week.

Not to say that his knowledge vastly outstripped Leaf shinobi, but he was from a different land with different schools of thought and teaching styles. It was just as likely that the Hidden Leaf had a plethora of jutsu and techniques that he could learn.

Since the training areas in Konoha were usually deep in forests of some sort, Ash swiftly ran out of buildings to make use of and found himself on the ground. He could have taken to the treetops, but honestly, he had only been using the buildings before to avoid crowds. He wasn't actually in any sort of rush.

Instead, the blonde chose to stroll rather leisurely through the forest on the outskirts of the Leaf to his final destination. It gave him time to think.

As a shinobi, it was obviously not particularly desirable for him to share his techniques with a bunch of other ninjas. Just on principle, really. Needless to say, sharing a very large number of techniques was usually very hazardous. Anything Ash taught these Leaf ninja could be used against other Sand shinobi that knew those same skills. Even a handful of revealed secrets could significantly turn the tide of a battle between the two forces.

However, Ash was fairly certain that any such battle was years away, possibly even decades. The blonde didn't actually know how many Sand ninja had been lost during the invasion, but even if they hadn't suffered a single casualty, one fact remained: there was no chance to strike the Leaf a second time. The invasion had been possible because the Leaf had not been expecting any sort of treachery from what was arguably one of the weakest of the Five Nations. Now that an attack had actually happened, there was no chance the Sand could possibly organize another offensive against them. The Leaf had their eye on them now. Besides, it would probably be years before Konoha held another event in which foreign ninja were welcomed into their village. Easy infiltration opportunities were out of the cards now.

Point being, there was almost no chance of any sort of major conflict occurring between the Sand and the Leaf within the next ten years. Suna had only stood a chance in the first place with underhanded tactics and a strategy that hinged on one fatal strike. With the element of surprise gone, the Leaf's vastly superior economy and military was more insurmountable than ever.

All of that said, was there really any reason to forego teaching his techniques? Sure, he couldn't hide all of them: he had told the Hokage some of what he knew, after all. But he could teach some things and hide others and the Leaf would probably be none the wiser. But should he? Technically speaking, these people were his allies now... he often stood beside them on missions, meaning their abilities helped keep him and his siblings safe while deployed.

Of course, the Kazekage would be displeased... but hell, Ash had no clue if the man was even alive. He'd heard nothing to indicate whether or not he was since the invasion had ended in failure. And even if the Kazekage was alive... well, it's not like Ash had any real fondness for the man. What did it matter to the blonde if he did something the man didn't like? It wasn't like the Kazekage could punish him in any way when he was under Leaf jurisdiction.

With these thoughts in mind, Ash decided to hustle just a little bit to reach his destination in a somewhat timely manner. He didn't know if whoever was waiting for him would bitch about him being late.

Moving through the forest with a little more urgency, it wasn't long before the Sand Genin arrived at his destination: a large clearing near a river. There was plenty of large open space, but also a smattering of boulders and of course, the forest all around them. Taking the river into consideration, Ash could see why this place had been chosen as a training zone. It had most everything one needed to practice various shinobi arts.

Of more interest than the area itself was the people within it, of which there were more than Ash had expected. In fact, he recognized most of them. Present were many of the Genin from the Chunin Exams. A quick survey of those present revealed that the entirety of both Gai and Rin's team were there. Seeing two full sets of Genin from teams led Ash to believe he would be seeing everyone from the Exams, but he swiftly learned this was not the case. Of the other teams, some members were present, while others were not. Hinata and Kiba were present from their team, but Shino was not. Likewise, Ino was there, but Shikamaru was nowhere to be seen.

It didn't take long for Ash to determine the nature of those who were present versus those that weren't: everyone here was someone that could benefit from close-quarters techniques. Granted, Ash felt that everyone could benefit from close-quarters combat lessons, but perhaps the techniques of Shikamaru and Shino were more conducive to long range fighting. Of course, it was also possible that they were absent for completely different reasons, as Ino also fit in the category of middle range jutsu user, but she had expressed a desire to improve her taijutsu. Really, he felt that Tenten was most out of place, seeing as how her close-quarters abilities mostly relied on weaponry that Ash had no knowledge of anyway. But this was all just guesswork on his part. Maybe Shikamaru and Shino were just sick or on a mission or something.

Either way, Ash wasn't actually complaining. Of course he was glad that Tenten, Ino and Sakura were here. And of course, he didn't particularly care that Shikamaru and Shino were absent. He was still pretty sure that walking pineapple was going to try and stab either him or Temari in the back.

These Genin were not the only ones present, of course. They had supervision in the form of one Might Gai, though Ash didn't think it was for security reasons. Surely the Hokage didn't believe Ash could be a threat to this many ninja together? Ash was only a Genin himself. Then again, maybe it had nothing to do with that. Maybe Gai was just here because he wanted to be.

Finally, there was a girl sitting against a tree that Ash didn't recognize. She had light blonde hair not entirely dissimilar from Ino's, but more noticeably, she had glasses with strange spirals on them that couldn't be seen through and a lab coat. Taking the clipboard in her hands into account along with all of that, Ash assumed she wasn't a shinobi in the same sense that everyone else was.

The first person to notice Ash's arrival was, unfortunately, Gai. Naturally, he wasted no time in making that fact common knowledge, his bellowing voice absurdly boisterous as always.

"Ah, finally! I was just shy of assuming your flames of youth had faded away, young Ash! Welcome to the humble abode in which we will train in the heat of burning passion!"

Despite the fact that everyone else had been scattered around the clearing in a pretty wide pattern, doing their own things, Gai's voice was impossible for anyone to miss, so Ash's existence in that clearing didn't remain unknown for very long. It was mostly hooded or disinterested looks from people he didn't know very well, or simple glances of acknowledgement from those that were indifferent to him. Tenten on the other hand, had her head buried in her hands, likely due to the fact that Gai was her teacher and completely outing himself as an eccentric weirdo with vernacular that no one could understand the necessity of.

And yet, however embarrassed she may have been by all of that, Tenten absolutely did not miss the very cheerful way Ino greeted Ash, exuberant smile and all, and Ash did not miss the not at all pleased expression it put on his girlfriend's face, even as he tried to disguise a cringe upon noticing it. Probably didn't help that he was waving back to the platinum blonde and now Sakura as well, though the latter was a lot more toned down about greeting him.

Noticing a mostly confused frown on Tenten's face, Ash wondered if this was going to be his first taste unwarranted possessiveness from a significant other. He had only ever read about that or heard about it from other people. He didn't honestly think Tenten was the type of person to get jealous over him being friendly with any other female in existence, but considering the fact that he had yet to get any evidence one way or another, he could be mistaken. Still, he certainly hoped not. As important as Tenten was to him, he wasn't going to forego platonic relationships with any other women if that was what she wished. That being the case, such a sentiment would surely be a point of conflict for them...

However, there was no way to know how the situation would evolve, and certainly no time to ask. They were surrounded by far too many people for one, and Ash had little doubt that he would be ushered into his purpose here in no time, something Gai proved relatively quickly with his booming voice.

"Alright everyone, gather round! It's time to discuss the reason we've all been ordered here."

Being ninja and all, it didn't take long for everyone to converge on Gai's position, at which point the flamboyant man launched into his explanation with gusto.

"As you may have surmised, this is a joint training exercise! The Chunin Exams made a great many things clear to our wise Hokage, not the least of which is the fact that each of you has skills or abilities that may benefit your comrades! Thus many of you have been gathered here today for the purpose of sharing your knowledge."

Sakura was the first one to make any comment on this, not that Ash was surprised. She was the observant, curious type. It made sense that she asked a lot of questions, and moreover, they were usually good ones.

"Excuse me, Sensei. While I understand the inherent value in this type of joint training, is this really the right time for it? The village may have gotten off of its knees by now, but we're still in the midst of recovery. I know we're just Genin, but wouldn't our time be better spent running missions for income or achieving some objective that will speed up the village's recovery?"

Much to everyone's surprise, Gai's expression actually grew serious. Even more than that, his tone changed in the same manner.

"You're not mistaken. However, I said the Chunin Exams made several things clear to the Hokage, not just one. The most important piece of enlightenment is that our image of strength has been compromised in more ways than one. An invasion like the one we suffered is enough to bring the strength of any village into question, but more than our image, our actual position has been harmed. We suffered many losses during the battle... not enough to cripple us, but enough to tilt the balance of power among all the ninja villages."

Ash was honestly surprised that Gai of all people was speaking in such a manner. He didn't know the garish man was capable of lowering his voice in the first place. More importantly, it was weird to see someone like Gai actually considering the logistics and politics of the world, as he didn't seem the type to know about them or even care. Of course, he was a very prominent Jonin in the Hidden Leaf, so it was foolish to assume as much. The man continued to stun Ash further by actually displaying just how informed and aware he was.

"The Hidden Leaf lost many shinobi, most of them being Chunin and Jonin, the ranks that make up the main fighting force in every war. We were arguably the strongest village of the Great Five before the invasion, so even with those losses our position hasn't been utterly demolished... but the difference in strength between us and our potential enemies was always slight at best. Considering our casualties, the Leaf is in a compromising position, still being strong, but now being vulnerable enough to attack under the right circumstances. The point is, everything else that was lost can be recovered. We can get new weapons and build new walls, but restoring the strength of our shinobi force will take years. That's why the Hokage is doing this: now that we've lost some of the advantages that kept the village safe from large-scale conflict, each of our shinobi needs to be as skilled as possible. At this point, every time we lose a ninja, our situation grows more dire. We must compensate for our new weaknesses by increasing the quality of our shinobi at every opportunity."

Judging by the looks on some of the faces around him, Ash could tell that some of his fellow Genin were lost. Kiba and Kuito, most notably, though he could tell that the majority of them were unaware of the reality of the situation one way or another. Honestly, only Sakura and Neji really seemed to fully grasp what Gai was talking about.

Naturally, Ash did as well. Pakura had always placed heavy emphasis on the political aspects of their society, as politics was almost always what dictated where a shinobi would go and how they would die. The situation Gai was referring to was the tenable power balance between the Five Great Nations. Following the Third World War, the Leaf had assumed the position of strongest village, for a variety of reasons. Mostly thanks to powerful warriors like the Yellow Flash, Konoha had come out of the conflict with significantly less casualties than their counterparts, and of course that man had become the Fourth Hokage shortly after the war, making the idea of fighting Konoha again very unpleasant for everyone else.

On top of that, the Leaf was already in one of the most favorable locations as far as trade was concerned, and being the victors in a major war landed them the most profitable contracts and missions for years afterwards. Needless to say, the notion of going to war with them at that point was a pipe dream for most.

Unfortunately for Konoha, their position had weakened considerably over the years, relatively speaking. The attack of the Nine-Tails had robbed them of their greatest asset, the Fourth Hokage, and claimed the lives of many powerful shinobi besides. While that may have been a good time to strike, the continued existence of powerful clans like the Uchiha had still presented a major obstacle for foreign powers. Of course, some years later the Uchiha clan was annihilated, but with that being an internal incident, the opportunity to attack that such a thing would have presented had passed by the time anyone else learned of it.

But even losing one of the strongest shinobi in their history, not to mention one of the most feared ninja clans ever, Konoha maintained a powerful position due to years of overall peace, which let them keep their numerical advantage from the Third War. Having lost far fewer shinobi back then, they didn't have to play catch up with their military like everyone else did, even with the aforementioned tragedies taken into account. A booming economy had also kept them in the lead.

That said, The Hidden Cloud had never been terribly far behind. While they had taken more casualties than the Leaf in the war, they had been at roughly equivalent strength at the time as far as numbers were concerned. Nestled deep in the mountains, they'd always had access to plenty of valuable minerals, so their economy had managed to stay strong after the conflict. With two Tailed Beasts of their own and a mastery of one of the arguably most powerful elements, Kumo had long been the looming threat to the Leaf, and Ash had little doubt it was them that the Hokage was most worried about. Now that the Leaf had taken a serious blow, the Hidden Cloud was probably on par with them in logistic military might, or very close to it at the least.

Ash imagined that the situation was more dire than that alone. The Hidden Stone had arguably come out of the war worse than anyone else, suffering catastrophic casualties at the hands of the Yellow Flash. Needless to say, they had a bone to pick with the Leaf even still. And even though they had been leveled quite severely during the war, Iwa was also the village with the largest population in general. With how many years had passed since the war, there was little doubt that their shinobi numbers had returned to some semblance of what it had once been. The problem was that the vast majority of those shinobi were probably relatively young and inexperienced, what with so many veterans dying to the Fourth Hokage.

Even so, numbers played a large part in battle, and since neither the Cloud nor the Stone really liked Konoha, the chances of them uniting to attack were pretty high. If they did join forces, the balance of power very suddenly but surely shifted against the Hidden Leaf, which was likely the scenario Gai was referring to. And Ash had to admit, the Hokage had every right to be worried.

That said, there were two more villages to consider, though their impact on any potential conflict was minor at best. The Hidden Mist had been embroiled in a civil war for years now, effectively nullifying any threat they would have posed to another village. One would think then that the Mist would be an easy target for any other village, but this was not truly the case.

If there was one blatant disadvantage the Leaf actually had compared to all of the other villages, it was that it was not situated in any naturally defensible location. The Stone was guarded by canyons, and the Cloud, huge mountains. The Sand had a massive desert as a barrier between them and everyone else, and the Mist had... well, mist.

That sounded a little underwhelming compared to the others, but the nigh perpetual mist that surrounded Kiri was in fact a very potent defense against their enemies. When it came to battles between ninja, the most powerful weapons were stealth and exclusive knowledge. Growing up in the Mist village, being trained in secret arts that took advantage of their environment, Mist ninja in their own territory were extremely dangerous. They had ways of identifying their foes in even the thickest mist, while their enemies would be hard-pressed to have even an inkling of where their attackers were. Attacking any village on their home turf gave them the advantage, but the Hidden Mist was on another level. The nature of their homeland had caused other villages to balk at the thought of direct invasion for years.

Besides, they also had an ocean protecting one of their sides, and even though they were at each others' throats right now, the Mist village would quickly unite, albeit temporarily, to beat back some foreign invader. In short, while a civil war made them more vulnerable than they were normally, it was not so much that one of the other villages would attack.

Finally, there was the Sand to consider. Unfortunately, they were almost undoubtedly the weakest of the Big Five. By far living in the most inhospitable environment on the continent, their population had always been sparse compared to everyone else, and less people meant less shinobi. With the Hidden Leaf being their closest neighbor and by far the preferred choice for most contracts and missions, the Suna economy had been in shambles for some time, an issue that was likely to worsen even further when the invasion and its outcome became common knowledge.

That said, while Ash had not received any information of the sort from anyone, he could imagine that the situation might not go so unfavorably for the Hidden Sand. If an alliance between the Stone and the Cloud posed a significant problem for Konoha, they would be eager to secure any allies they could: even ones that had literally just attacked them. The Sand may have not had the greatest numbers, but they had other strengths no one else could offer, with unique arts such as puppetry and a highly advanced understanding of toxins that few could match.

It was very likely that the Leaf would be looking to make the Sand their allies, though it could be as a subservient faction. While Ash had little doubt many Suna natives would be unhappy about that, it would probably be good for the village overall: like Gai had said, money and materials could be regained. Once the Leaf had its own affairs in order, it was possible they would look to strengthening their allies to better prepare for some future conflict. If Suna's economy was bolstered by outside assistance... well, it would still be some time before they could solve all of their other problems, but that would certainly be the starting point they needed.

Of course, this was all assuming the Leaf was interested in an alliance, but honestly Ash couldn't see any more logical alternative. Konoha had a strong hand to play in negotiations: they had soundly defeated the Sand and could technically launch an attack against the much weaker village, even though that was unlikely. Moreover, they had the Kazekage's children under their thumb, and in all honesty, the Sand didn't have much to gain by refusing an alliance. Considering their current state of affairs, continuing to struggle alone would probably lead to an inescapable downwards spiral.

But that all depended on how negotiations went between the Kages, and frankly, Ash didn't know what the Kazekage would do. He was a stubborn man, that one. He could refuse an alliance on principle rather than logic. Beyond that, Ash didn't even know what the situation with the Kazekage was. He had been present at the Chunin Exams when the invasion had commenced, to the best of his knowledge. But what had become of him? Was he still alive? If not, that seriously complicated things.

Thinking about the Kazekage's potential demise gave rise to other undesirable thoughts. Ash could readily admit that he wouldn't be bothered on any personal level if the Kazekage bit the dust. However, he didn't know if the same could be said about Temari and Kankuro. The three of them didn't really talk about the man that much, but Ash's siblings had been born to him and had known him as their father since birth. Whether or not their relationship was particularly close, the blonde doubted they would be completely unaffected by his death. Not to mention that losing him right after Baki would just pile on the pain...

Ash didn't get to devote any more time to these thoughts, as Gai was eager to get things underway between all of the Genin in his care for that day. His voice was back to the enthusiastic boom it had been before.

"Well, now that we've established why this needs to be done, let's go over how it needs to be done! The point is to impart transferrable skills that you possess to your comrades. In order to do that, we need to establish who has the most to teach, and who has the most to learn. Both your Jonin teachers and myself have pored over each of your strengths and weaknesses to reach a consensus on this matter."

Ash saw many of his fellow Genin get a little antsy. After all, they were essentially about to be graded, in a sense. Those looking for affirmation of their strength were eager to receive it, and those worried about their proficiency were dreading confirmation of it. That said, Ash didn't feel the same way about it: Gai had made it clear this was about who had skills to teach and who didn't. It didn't necessarily imply that one individual was stronger overall than the other.

Neji, for instance, was a very strong shinobi. But his strengths were in skills he could not teach others. His Byakugan was something only Hyuugas possessed, and his great skill in Gentle Fist couldn't be taught without access to that Dojutsu. Technically speaking, Neji had very little to teach anyone else, even though he was arguably one of the strongest among them.

Gai made sure to reinforce this notion before going any further, perhaps understanding that the Genin before him might misconstrue the purpose of his selections.

"Before I say anything further, you all need to understand that this isn't a rating of who is stronger and weaker. That being the case, don't let any of this get you down, and don't let it go to your head either. No shinobi, no matter how powerful, knows everything. There's always new skills and techniques to master."

His words appeared to help some of the young shinobi calm down a bit, so Gai decided that he would start with the selection now.

"As far as who has the most to teach to everyone else... it pains me to vote against my fellow Leaf shinobi, but it is most likely Ash."

While he had been hoping otherwise, Ash was not actually surprised to be selected. After all, this was a decision based on who had the most versatile moveset, not who was the strongest. Pakura was all about versatility: she had made sure he had a wide array of skills of adequate quality, rather than one particular skill that he was an unmatched expert in. Since everyone had a different weakness, he was the one most likely to know something beneficial for each person present.

Of course, not everyone agreed with this sentiment, something that Kiba made perfectly clear.

"What, him? C'mon, what the hell can he do that the rest of us can't?"

Recalling that Kiba had been knocked out just before Ash and Neji's fight in the Exams, the blonde didn't blame him for being a little skeptical, since he hadn't seen anything of Ash's abilities. But even giving him the benefit of the doubt, Kiba struck him as the kind of guy that didn't like playing second fiddle. That said, there was no need for Ash to defend himself, as Gai decided it was better to just make the point himself.

"Ash, how many elements are you capable of utilizing via jutsu?"

Seeing where this was going already, the blonde had no choice but to be honest. Gai already knew the answer to these questions he was going to ask, after all.

"Five."

"And how many taijutsu styles are you proficient in?"

"Three."

"And how many of the Six Shinobi Core Arts are you at least adequate in?"

This question was a little more unusual, since the Six Shinobi Core Arts didn't come up very often. They were more of overarching skill trees that each shinobi was supposed to have some proficiency in, rather than specific techniques or knowledge that could be learned. In essence, the six core arts were things that defined what a shinobi was and what they did. Those arts were combat, stealth, subterfuge, strategy, diplomacy and survival. A true ninja was to master all six of these fields of knowledge, though that was easier said than done of course.

"Four. I haven't had much experience with diplomacy or subterfuge yet."

Feeling that his point was made, Gai directed his attention back to all of the Leaf Genin.

"As you can see, Ash has a very versatile array of knowledge each of you can likely gain something from. Again, this is not to say that he is stronger or better than any of you. Indeed, the issue I described earlier is probably why his knowledge is more diverse than many of yours. The Hidden Sand has had to work with far fewer shinobi than we have in the past, so each of their ninja had to be able to cover a wide array of skills. The Leaf has had the luxury of letting their ninja focus on specific avenues of knowledge due to our numbers and our strength. We won't be able to do that any longer."

With his objection mostly defeated, Kiba had nothing else to say, though he didn't look particularly happy with the development even still. Ash figured he would get over it eventually: assuming this joint training was something that would occur fairly often from here on out, it was likely that Kiba would have a chance to teach everyone else something one day. His scouting skills, perhaps.

With no one offering up any other dissent, Gai continued with his lesson, though it was pretty clear that he wasn't the one that would be doing much of the teaching.

"Of course, I'm well aware that most of you, or maybe even all of you, are lacking in teaching experience. So don't worry, it's not like I'm going to force any one of you to shoulder the full burden of all this. However, there are some things that you kids may know that even I can't teach, so you'll still play a leading role! Ash, you're in charge for today. You're free to do things at your own discretion, but feel free to ask for direction at any time."

While a normal kid probably would have been significantly more nervous about this whole ordeal, Ash was moderately less so. Not to say that he was not nervous at all, but thanks to Pakura's teaching style, Ash felt that he had a decent grasp on teaching others. He at least knew where to start in going about it, though it still felt a little odd to be thrust into it right off the bat by Gai. Then again, maybe Gai was more self-aware than people gave him credit for. Maybe he knew that his personal teaching style wasn't the best for anyone who wasn't named Rock Lee.

With all of that taken into consideration, Ash took a brief glance at each of the Genin around him, making judgments based on what he knew about them on the surface. It was necessary to determine what he should teach first, since it seemed that he actually had a degree of freedom in choosing the lesson. He had thought he would be told what to teach, from the way the Hokage had spoken earlier that day.

Frankly, he felt that Hinata and Neji were the biggest outliers. On the surface, they seemed to have no skills they could teach to anyone else, though he would probably need to ask to make sure. Sakura had demonstrated a pretty advanced understanding of traps in the Forest of Death, which was something she could definitely teach to everyone else, but it was probably more important to get her up to snuff on combat arts first. Based on the fight he had seen against Ino, it wasn't that Sakura or her blonde rival were bad at taijutsu, but they were decidedly average. They had no special techniques or advanced maneuvers to make them dangerous in close quarters, putting them at a disadvantage against foes like Neji, Lee and Kiba.

Really, the problem was that everyone here was too specialized, just like Gai had said. They focused everything into one skillset, forcing them to rely on teammates to cover weaknesses. Of course, there was nothing wrong with that, but it put all of them at a great disadvantage when they were caught alone. Unfortunately, this meant he had an even bigger task ahead of him.

That said, based on what he had seen at the Chunin Exams, Ash could think of one thing he knew that many of his allies could benefit from. He did need to ask Gai a question first though, so he wasted no time in doing so.

"Is it permissible to have everyone learn the Shadow Clone jutsu? I know it's a forbidden technique, but... well, it's an immensely useful tool that can serve as the basis for many other tactics and techniques."

As far as Ash knew, Kuito was the only person here that knew the Shadow Clone jutsu, so it was definitely something that everyone stood to learn. But it was a universally forbidden technique for anyone under the rank of Jonin, precisely because it had the potential to be extremely hazardous if misused. That said, there was no overstating how useful it could be.

Gai frowned for a moment as he pondered the answer to Ash's question, since the blonde had brought up good points both for and against the notion.

"Well... technically, the Shadow Clone jutsu is only an A-rank forbidden jutsu. A Jonin can decide whether or not it can be taught at their discretion. I believe each of you is competent enough to handle it. That said, I believe there's a few of you that don't need any lessons on that front..."

While Ash knew Kuito was already proficient with the jutsu, he didn't know who else was omitted from this. He assumed that Gai was aware enough to make the decision on his own, which was made evident when he next spoke.

"Kuito, Lee! Since you two have nothing to learn in this particular lesson, you'll both be with me today. I think it's time you learned to use some more frightening taijutsu with your army of clones, Kuito."

The only Jonin present dragged his two pupils for the day away from the rest of the group, leading Ash to cock an eyebrow as he turned back to his students for the day. Man, that felt weird to say, especially when everyone was roughly the same age.

"Does Lee already know how to make Shadow Clones?"

Being familiar with him and more talkative than Neji, Tenten answered this for him.

"Not at all. Lee's chakra network is stunted, has been ever since he was born. He can't utilize chakra beyond some of the most basic things: he can strengthen his muscles and walk on walls and stuff, but most actual ninjutsu is beyond him."

Honestly, Ash was a little surprised to learn that this was the case. Lee was such a formidable shinobi... honestly, to know that he had such a handicap only made his level of skill even more impressive. On that note, he was surprised it had taken this long for Kuito to dedicate some time to major taijutsu training. What was scarier than an army of Shadow Clones? An army of Shadow Clones with Lee's level of melee ability. That'd be a nightmare.

Honestly, taijutsu didn't receive enough appreciation in ninja circles. Yeah, fireballs were cool. Yes, illusions were powerful. But all of those could be negated by certain techniques. At the end of the day, hand to hand combat was the one thing that was always available to you. In Ash's opinion, that made it a worthwhile skill to ace for every shinobi. Besides, as Pakura had taught him in many theoretical lessons, there was far more to taijutsu than just punching people. Ash himself wasn't really ready to develop such a technique yet, but once elemental augmentation was brought into the mix... well, his deadliness would multiply exponentially.

If it were up to him, he'd choose to cover the taijutsu weaknesses of the other Genin around him, but Ash had already brought up Shadow Clones, so it would be odd to do something else now. He figured there was no reason to delay getting into the lesson at this point. However, before he even had a chance to do that, the voice of a girl from behind him interrupted him. He didn't recognize it.

"Excuse me."

Ash glanced over his shoulder to lay eyes on the girl with the lab coat and the strange spiral glasses. He had honestly forgotten that she was present. Since it was obvious that she had his attention, said girl continued on with what she had to say.

"I was supposed to be present to record data on any jutsu Konoha doesn't possess in its library, but it seems the Jonin supervisor for today has elected to allow instruction of a technique our village is well aware of. That being the case, I'll be returning to the village proper. Good day to all of you."

With a bow, the flaxen haired girl turned on her heels and began walking back towards the village, leading Ash to merely cock an eyebrow at her departure as he turned back to his fellow Genin.

"So uh, who was that?"

Most of the other Genin either shrugged or flat out didn't respond, but evidently Sakura actually knew the answer.

"I think her name is Shiho. Supposedly she's training as a cryptologist, but she's been ushered into a wider range of logistics roles thanks to the personnel shortage. At least, that's what I was able to gather when I overheard her discussing the supply situation with the head medic last week."

With nothing to really do with that information, Ash decided to simply catalogue it for later, provided it was actually needed at some point. For now, he could only acknowledge that he'd had a hand in making Shiho's life harder, much like many other Leaf ninja.

"Well, I assume we'll be seeing a lot of her in the future. For now, we've got our own task to attend to. Before we can really get into this, does anyone actually know how Shadow Clones work in principle?"

Immediate silence followed this question, though the various expressions before him revealed different reasons for why. For some, like Hinata or Ino, it was clear that they didn't know. For others, like Sasuke or Neji, it was clear that they didn't want to admit that they didn't know. Kiba's disgruntled expression made it obvious that he wouldn't have answered even if he had known. Sakura was the only one glancing around at her comrades, likely wondering if she was the only one who actually knew the answer. It almost seemed like she didn't want to be that one kid that seemed like a know-it-all, but that hesitation only lasted a moment. They'd been asked a question after all, and she was a good student.

"As far as I know, the technique evenly divides your chakra into however many copies you make, so the more you make, the weaker they are. But I don't actually know the technique, this is something I asked Rin-Sensei in regards to Kuito's clones."

Glad that someone was already a step ahead of everyone else, Ash prepared to give a majorly simplified version of how everything worked. If there was one thing that Pakura's tutelage had done for him, it was provide him with plenty of easy to understand examples, analogies, and explanations.

"It does get a little more complicated than that, but at its core, yeah, that's how it works. However, because of the nature of this jutsu, there's a couple of things to take into consideration that sets it apart from more traditional jutsu that you may be used to. Like all jutsu, the Shadow Clone technique takes a certain amount of chakra to use at all. For the sake of simplicity, let's say that's 10 percent of your full chakra capacity. You're now left at 90 percent, which means that if you make just one clone, it has 45 percent of your chakra, not 50 percent. It's important to keep this in mind, because if your chakra reserves aren't high in the first place, using the Shadow Clone jutsu may screw you over more than it helps. There's certainly times when having an extra body helps, but in some situations, one body at full power is more useful than two at less than half."

Oddly enough, Ash didn't get any questions at this point, which he took as a good sign. Apparently he hadn't confused anyone thus far, so he took the initiative to continue.

"This division of labor is also important to keep in mind because it means a number of things for your capabilities. First of all, just because a Shadow Clone is a copy of you doesn't mean it will be able to do everything you could at full strength. Keeping with our simplified percentage example, if you needed 50 percent of your chakra to use a certain jutsu, but your clone only has 45 percent of your max capacity, it will be incapable of doing that move, and so will you, since you've been weakened to 45 percent. On top of this, any chakra your clone does use will be just like if you had used that chakra. When you dispel a clone or it gets destroyed, you get most of the chakra you invested back. There's some slight loss in transfer: if the clone had 45 percent of your chakra and it's dispelled, you'd only get around 42 or 43 percent back. But if the clone actually used any jutsu before being dispelled, obviously you would get even less chakra back because the clone used some of it. As you can probably tell by now, careful management of your chakra is a must when it comes to this technique."

At this point, some of the people he was in the process of teaching actually had something to say. Notably, Kiba.

"Hold on, Kuito over there craps out Shadow Clones in droves all the time! With the way you're explaining this, shouldn't she be weak as hell when she does that?"

Considering that Kiba made a very good point, Ash didn't blame him for speaking up. He was going to touch on this at some point anyway.

"There's a few explanations for that. One, perhaps Kuito has so much chakra that even dividing them into several dozen clones doesn't set her back that much. Or two, she's actually mastered the technique to its most proficient level, which we've yet to talk about. Finally, maybe they are weak as hell. I don't know her nearly as well as any of you, but based on her performance in the Chunin Exams, it didn't seem that her individual clones were that formidable. She just used them in a clever way to facilitate a win."

Ash had little doubt his temporary students were all thinking back on Kuito's fight with Dosu, in which she had created about six Shadow Clones to defeat him. However, it was a clever ambush she had used the clones to achieve that had scored her a win, not the strength of the clones themselves.

Either way, it seemed like none of them doubted his words on the matter. After all, he did know the technique while they didn't. Tenten, perhaps enjoying the notion of her boyfriend playing teacher, prompted him to continue.

"So, what's this more proficient level of the technique you mentioned? Does it make the jutsu less of a double-edged sword?"

"Well, at the basic level, a shinobi uses the chakra necessary for the technique, then splits their remaining chakra evenly among themselves and the number of clones they make. However, with enough mastery of the technique, you can be far more specific in how you want things to be distributed. Not including the cost of using the jutsu in and of itself, you can choose to use 20 percent of your chakra, and divide it between as many clones as you want, for example. Sure, each clone is weak, but you keep a much larger percent of your chakra, and you can make as many bodies as you want to aid in certain tactics. The ability to pick and choose how much chakra goes where and in how many copies greatly enhances the versatility of the technique and makes it less of an all or nothing risk."

This time it was Sasuke that had something to say, much to everyone surprise. He was usually like Neji in the sense of not saying anything because he didn't seem invested. Of course, Ash could tell that this wasn't the case. Sasuke wanted to be as powerful as possible. Every technique was a step towards achieving that. You could see it in his eyes, if you knew what to look for.

"It doesn't sound like Shadow Clones are very helpful for shinobi that focus on ninjutsu."

Considering Ash's explanation of chakra conservation and usage, he wasn't surprised that Sasuke had come to this conclusion.

"Admittedly, Shadow Clones are riskier for ninjutsu focused shinobi. Being the most chakra intensive of the three shinobi arts, dividing your power may seem like a detriment more than a benefit. But it's not that the technique becomes useless as a ninjutsu expert, only that you have to be more cautious about it. I hope you don't mind Neji, but using my fight with you as an example: the finishing blow was a ninjutsu attack, but it only worked because I used a Shadow Clone to orchestrate things as necessary. Without the Shadow Clone jutsu, I almost definitely would have lost. There's no denying that Shadow Clones are not the right answer to every situation, but knowing how to do it adds an immensely versatile technique to your arsenal. Throwing clones at problems is the most amateur way to use it: using clones to set up other techniques or strategies is the mark of a expert."

It occurred to Ash that, due to his fight with Neji being last in the Chunin preliminaries, not everyone present had actually witnessed it to understand his example. This of course included Sasuke, who had been taken out of the arena pretty early on. Even so, it didn't seem like the Uchiha doubted him. It was a little odd: when they'd first met they hadn't exactly been friendly, but perhaps that was because Sasuke had doubted his prowess. By now, it was impossible for him to feel that Ash was weak or inept. Between the Exams and the invasion, it was clear that the blonde was formidable.

Either way, this was about all of the explanation Ash needed to provide to at least get the concept of Shadow Clones across. There was more to talk about, but it would probably be better to save that for later when it was relevant. Before he could move the lesson forward though, Ino posed a question to him.

"OK, so I get that you have to be careful when using this technique, but why is it forbidden?"

"Solely because the technique has a very high chance of backfiring on inexperienced users. An amateur could very easily waste all of their chakra making too many clones, putting them in a very bad situation or even outright killing them. There is something else that makes it dangerous, but I'd like to talk about that when I can give a practical demonstration. That said, are we ready to learn the seals for this technique, or do we have more questions?"

With no one speaking up, Ash mentally patted himself on the back. Apparently, he was a bit better at this teaching thing than he thought.

"Alright then, the seals are as follows..."

---

As far as teaching a jutsu was concerned, there were many factors that determined how difficult it was to do so. First of all, elemental jutsu became immensely difficult to teach if someone wasn't predisposed to that element to begin with. In such scenarios, you had to teach someone how to mold elemental chakra first, which was an entirely different and grueling exercise.

Thankfully the Shadow Clone jutsu wasn't an elemental jutsu. In fact, it was actually a relatively easy jutsu to both teach and learn, as it was really just an advanced version of a regular clone jutsu, something that most shinobi learned before they were even qualified Genin. The most difficult part of the jutsu was actually learning how to use it efficiently and safely.

Of course, one's level of chakra control was important as well. Naturally, Ash's examples of using certain percentages of chakra were vastly simplified. A ninja didn't actually have some sort of meter that let them measure out exact percentages of their chakra. Pouring chakra into a jutsu was a lot more about feeling how much power you were using, and depending on your level of chakra control, the ease of determining that was difficult. In simplest terms, chakra control was like a faucet to a stream of water: it was all about getting just the right amount, and not going under or over. That could be improved over time, but some people were just born with better innate chakra control than others.

Over the course of the past two hours, Ash had been able to determine who those people were simply by the level of their success with the jutsu he was teaching them.

Most notable was Sakura. Sitting side by side, watching everyone else as they worked, were a whopping seven of her, offering all sorts of advice to the others as she watched their attempts at achieving the same. The girl had displayed the least amount of difficulty in almost all aspects of the jutsu, having little to no trouble in meting out just the right amount of chakra to make her clones.

Of course, the reason she was sitting was because the effort had tired her out. It was obvious that Sakura had fantastic chakra control, which had allowed her to precisely use her chakra to safely make so many clones. On the other hand, it was also obvious that her chakra reserves in general were small, hence the fact that she was exhausted by the exercise.

Still, in Ash's opinion it was better to have superior chakra control than superior chakra reserves. Sure, you needed both to become a truly powerful shinobi, but one was much easier to build up than the other. One's natural chakra reserves would grow over time even without special training, but chakra control required specialized and intentional exercises to grow. Either way, with the basic version of this technique down and considering her intellect, Ash had no doubt that Sakura could use it to devastating effect.

Behind her but still impressive was Neji, who had made four clones, though they were all standing around in roughly the same fashion, arms crossed and with stony expressions. While the image was a little unsettling, Ash was not surprised that he was able to do the jutsu so well: Gentle Fist required precise chakra control by its very nature, so Neji likely had experience. That said, Ash also assumed that his chakra reserves were superior to Sakura's, so it was a mystery as to why he had not outperformed her. Perhaps it was his relative inexperience using ninjutsu. According to Ash's information Neji was primarily a taijutsu fighter, even though he incorporated chakra directly into his style.

Decidedly in the middle of the bunch was, surprisingly, Sasuke, who had made only three clones. Knowing that the Uchiha was regarded as some sort of prodigy for his age, Ash couldn't help but wonder what was holding him back from higher performance. However, he had no way of knowing whether it was control or capacity that was the problem for him.

None of the others had actually managed to perform the jutsu at all so far, for reasons Ash had to discern before he could address in an attempt to help.

Hinata's barrier didn't actually seem to be related to the jutsu itself, but rather her inability to focus on it. It was obvious to Ash, even as a stranger, that she was the shy, nervous type that didn't like crowds or direct attention, and it was possible that she just wasn't great at learning and practicing techniques with so many people around. She had carried a certain look of consternation on her face most of the session, though many of her anxious glances had been directed at Neji. Ever observant, Ash had tried to determine why this was the case, but the male Hyuuga had resolutely ignored her, so he could only guess at what hidden issues plagued whatever relationship they had.

Also suffering from distraction was Ino, though in a different way. While Ash had expected most of Sakura's clones to focus on Sasuke or something, oddly enough four of them were giving Ino their full attention, trying to help her get the Shadow Clone jutsu down.

"Ino, you have to understand your own chakra capacity to measure out the perfect amount to use!"

"Yeah, if you go under the technique will just flop, but if you go over you could hurt yourself, so be careful."

"Just treat it like normal clones, like we learned back at the Academy."

"I honestly didn't think you were going to have this much trouble, Ino."

With her ire properly stirred, Ino broke her concentration, however much of it she had in the first place, to yell at the advisors nobody had asked for.

"Dammit Forehead, how could I focus on doing anything with four of you blathering on about everything!? I'd have gotten this by now if you would have shut up an hour ago!"

All four of the Sakuras muttered something about doubting that, which prompted Ino to go off on them entirely, forgetting all about actually managing the jutsu. Ash figured he would take his fellow blonde's word for the fact that she was just distracted. He would offer help if it was clear she was actually struggling with the technique itself.

Ignoring the spat that had erupted between those two, Ash looked around for Kiba, who had spent most of the training grumbling and cursing as he failed time and time again to do what he was here to do. Apparently, his chakra control was especially bad. All things considered, Ash wasn't terribly surprised by that. Based on the fight he had seen with Lee, Kiba seemed to be a very taijutsu oriented ninja, with few techniques that required precise control. Still, Ash hadn't figured the situation would be this bad. Of all the people to need special attention, it had to be one of the dudes? That said, Ash could see the Inuzuka grumbling to his dog away from the group, so he'd let him sulk on the matter for awhile.

Besides, there was one other person to attend to, and by far the most important...

"Hey, I did it! Ash, check it out!"

Glancing over his shoulder, Ash gave his full attention to Tenten, who now had an perfect copy of herself standing next to her. Both of them shot him beaming smiles as they clasped hands in joy at having finally succeeded with the jutsu.

Prior to now, Ash had not given it much thought, but he supposed it made sense that Tenten's charka control was pretty bad. He had never seen her use any ninjutsu and she had never alluded to whether or not she knew any. She certainly hadn't used any in either of the combat situations he had seen her in, which would have been the opportune time to use them. It was possible that her love of weapons had been born out of necessity prior to becoming a passion: perhaps, not all that dissimilar to Lee, she had realized early on in ninja training that she would have to focus on an art that didn't require excellent chakra control.

Even her sealing abilities were actually in that category. For all but the most advanced seals, all you had to do was pour chakra into it to activate them. Didn't matter how much or how little.

But while those technical details were all well and good, Ash was far more focused on something else that hadn't occurred to him until just now, though he was unsure on how he had made this oversight.

There were two Tentens in front of him. Two of his super adorable, super amazing girlfriend. The things he could get up to with two of her... one could wear her hair down while the other wore it up as usual, or they could both wear different outfits while they took advantage of the intimate benefits of their relationship. And that was just with the ability to make one clone. If she could cultivate the skill even further, the possibilities were endless...

More motivated to teach than ever before, Ash was about to commend the brunette for her efforts, but he didn't get a chance to do so. In a very similar fashion to Tenten's celebratory outburst, the blonde was interrupted from behind.

"Woo, I did it! This is great!"

Recognizing Ino's voice, Ash got a bad feeling somewhere in the depths of his gut, a sort of foreboding that he knew was a bad sign. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it, as two of Ino were wrapping their arms around each of his before he calculated the possibility of it happening.

"Check it out, Ash. Twice the beauty for the price of one! Just think of the things we could get up to!"

Ash felt his soul wilt a little bit as he begrudgingly glanced back at Tenten following this comment and event. Naturally, both she and her clone were sporting very displeased expressions. Their scowls and glares could even give Temari a run for her money, and Ash had never seen a more terrifying expression on a woman's face than that one time with his sister.

With the downright glacial look his girlfriend was giving him, Ash had to reevaluate his earlier sentiments. Two of Tenten... two of the girl who had punched the daylights out of him twice before... suddenly the idea didn't sound like all sunshine and rainbows.

He wanted to be mad at Ino for causing this situation, but he understood that she was just being her usual flirtatious self. He had never told her that Tenten was his girlfriend, and he assumed that even Ino would have the tact to not do something like this right in front of her if she knew that. But when the hell was he supposed to broach that subject anyway...?

Either way, Ash figured the best thing to do right now was mitigate the damage, so he immediately found a way to divert the conversation and the focus of the group to something else, all while subtly shaking Ino's grip off of him. A shame really, as objectively it was a nice situation.

"G-great work, all of you. Now that most of you have succeeded to some extent, I think it's about time we talk about the biggest risk, but also the greatest advantage, of this technique. Speaking of which, someone tell Kiba to come over here. When he eventually gets this right he'll need to know this too."

Ash noticed that he now had a displeased look coming from Ino and her twin as well, though hers was more like pouting than the still icy look Tenten was giving him. Well, at least Sakura didn't seem to have anything against him at the moment...

Being his teammate, Hinata fetched Kiba from his sulking corner, which allowed Ash to present a very important point to everyone present today, clones included. While he was still feeling a little anxious about Tenten at the moment, he pushed it to the back of his mind so he could focus on the lesson to impart. This was, after all, one of the most important aspects of using Shadow Clones.

"Alright, everyone please pay very close attention. This is absolutely vital to take to heart and keep in mind. It's pretty straightforward, but still very important. When your clones are dispelled or destroyed, you will gain their memories."

The expressions on the multitude of faces around him, even though some of them were copies, proved to Ash that this was not common knowledge. However, he was mildly surprised that neither Sakura nor Sasuke seemed to know this, considering that Kuito was their teammate. Had the Namikaze not shared this facet of her jutsu with them? This aspect of Shadow Clones had even been used by Kuito to scout the caves those bandits had been inhabiting, a situation in which many of these Genin had been present. Then again, perhaps they had not been fully informed as to how that was happening or why.

Either way, Kiba was the first to speak, ironically.

"Hold on, what the hell does that mean? That sounds way too good to be true."

He was followed up by Sakura, or one of her, at any rate.

"Yeah, if that's true, isn't the potential of this jutsu even greater than you made it seem? Even with the risk involved in using it, it seems like a technique that valuable would be taught to nearly all shinobi..."

Having been much the same as them when Pakura had first taught him this jutsu, Ash understood why this sounded pretty great. But it was important to note all aspects of this facet.

"It's true that gaining the memories of your clone can be immensely useful: for instance, you can send a clone to scout out a dangerous location. Once it is dispelled or destroyed, you'll get all of its memories, gaining a great deal of intel without ever exposing yourself to danger. It's also a great way to learn skills: have a clone read a book and the knowledge it gained will become yours once it is dispelled."

Forgetting about her ire for a moment, Tenten was amazed enough by this revelation to comment on it.

"Hold on, if it's really that useful why on Earth isn't it taught? Ninja in training could gain all the skills they need exponentially faster with this. It doesn't make sense that villages aren't interested in taking ninja from the Academy to active duty as quickly as possible."

"You're right about that. However, there's a great many reasons the jutsu is forbidden and not taught to literally everyone. Just like with your chakra reserves, there are very many drawbacks that can make this technique immensely dangerous to the user."

At these words, those around Ash grew more sullen. Maybe it was his down-to-earth, serious tone of voice. He was trying to make it sound very dangerous, after all.

"First and foremost: gaining memories from your clones includes pain. If your clone is stabbed through the abdomen with a sword and dispels due to the damage, you'll immediately gain its memories, including the part where it gets stabbed. Technically speaking, your body won't feel any physical pain, as the physical doesn't transfer between the clone and the user. However, the mind has powerful effects on the body. A memory so real and so potent may still convince your body that you've been injured even when you haven't. You may still have a flare of excruciating 'phantom' pain. And even if you don't, having memories of your own death has great potential for messing you up psychologically."

While most everyone seemed greatly put off by this, Sasuke actually had something to say about it. Then again, Ash had expected either him or Sakura to be in that boat.

"You say this, but Kuito uses clones all the time. Plenty of them get destroyed too, but she doesn't seem all that bothered by it. Why is that?"

"There are several possibilities. For one, it seems like Kuito has quite some experience with this jutsu, so she may know how to block out the memories of her clones. This is very advanced, but depending on her level of skill she may be capable of it. Naturally reaching a level of mastery where you can block out the clone memories is extremely useful if you expect them to be destroyed. Other than that, it's possible she is feeling the pain of her destroyed clones, but is simply used to it, or none of her clones have suffered a fate grievous enough to hurt her psychologically."

At this point, the look on Ino's face was pretty concerned.

"The more you talk about this, the less eager I am to actually do anything with it..."

"If the potential dangers in combat are a concern, the technique still has merit outside of fighting. Like I said, you can use Shadow Clones to learn things faster. Of course, even that has risks..."

This time it was actually Hinata who asked a question. Frankly, Ash was surprised this was the case. He hadn't expected her to speak directly to him even once this whole time.

"But, um... if we're not fighting, and the clones aren't destroyed by damage... why is there any risk in that situation?"

Oddly, Ash found himself feeling a little proud. Was this how a teacher felt when their student actually took an interest in the lesson and their knowledge? Suddenly, he felt great regret in the attitude he had taken with Baki's teachings all of these years. Now he understood why the man had always been so disgruntled with him.

Acknowledging that he had been a poor student to Baki in many ways roused a particularly painful feeling in the blonde's chest, amplified by the knowledge that he could not mend the error of his ways any longer. That being the case, he tried to stay focused on the question Hinata had asked of him. After all, this knowledge was probably the most important thing to keep in mind about the Shadow Clone jutsu.

"Excellent question. Fact of the matter is, the greatest danger of this jutsu is something I've yet to even touch on, and it's the answer to that exact question."

Naturally this statement put displeased expressions on most everyone's face, with Kiba voicing the general sentiment.

"I'm beginning to wonder if I should even bother learning this thing..."

Unperturbed by the comment since it was a pretty fair sentiment to have all things considered, Ash continued on with his explanation.

"Like the concept of experiencing the pain of your clones, this danger is psychological. As I said, you gain all the memories of your clones when they are dispelled. Doesn't matter how they were dispelled or what they were doing. Thing is, the human mind is not meant to process more than one existence. Gaining the memories of your clones has the potential to cause a psychotic break. While a clone may be an exact copy of yourself, its memories are not yours, and they're not exactly what you experienced. Processing the memory of what is essentially a second life, brief though it may be, is something the human mind was never meant to do."

Ash could see many of the Genin around him casting concerned glances at the clones that had yet to be dispelled, no doubt worried over what Ash had just said. Naturally, the blonde made to assuage their fears as swiftly as possible.

"Don't worry: dispelling the clones you've made here today is extremely unlikely to have any negative effect on any of you. While the risk of a psychotic break technically exists whenever a clone is dispelled, there are certain factors that make it more or less likely. First and foremost is similarity of experience. The closer the clone's memories are to your own, the easier it will be to mentally reconcile them. That's why all of you are in very little danger. The clones you've made today have been right next to you all this time, experiencing everything you have. While there will of course be slight discrepancies, they are minor enough that there's very little chance to cause any issues."

With a hand on her chin, Sakura perceived the next point before Ash was even able to make it.

"So sending your clones off to do something that you don't experience yourself bears greater risk of mental trauma, because you have to reconcile entirely different memories... by that logic, the number of clones is relevant to the potential mental hazard as well, isn't it?"

Ash once again found himself feeling a little proud, despite the fact that he'd only been a teacher for a few hours. Having a sharp and observant student was great. Maybe this was why Pakura had always been so animated in their intellectual discussions?

"Exactly right. The more clones are dispelled at once, the more memories and experiences your mind has to reconcile with your own. Basically, the more you have to assimilate into your own mind, the more dangerous. This means many things of course: the number of memories you have to assimilate, how different those memories are from your own experience, and the length of the memories that have to be assimilated. The worst thing you could do is spawn five clones, send them all off to do different things, and not dispel them for several hours before dispelling all of them at the same time. The influx of five different experiences that each lasted a significant amount of time, all at once, would bear an extremely high risk of mental or psychological damage."

Tenten folded her arms as she contemplated all that they had been told.

"Guess that explains why ninja don't just constantly send Shadow Clones on missions in their stead... with risks that severe, I understand why it's forbidden."

"That is precisely the case. However, as I said before, it still had great potential and versatility. You just have to be careful with it. If you are going to have a Shadow Clone perform a task that you aren't, make sure it doesn't last very long. If you need a Shadow Clone to scout, only send one, and of course, always try to dispel your clones one at a time. That said, once you've mastered the technique to an extent where you can block out the memory influx, more tactical possibilities will be opened, as you don't have to worry about feeling their pain or the dangers of having multiple memories surge back to you at once. Naturally your own mental fortitude matters as well, but the aforementioned aspects of the jutsu must always be kept in mind, especially now when you are first learning it."

Having finally revealed every aspect of the technique that needed to be taken into consideration by his temporary pupils, Ash wondered if he had done a good enough job with his first teaching experience. While he arguably had a better grasp on good teaching strategies thanks to his unique relationship with Pakura, this had still been his first attempt, and with students that he had a peer relationship with. He wouldn't have been particularly surprised if things had gone badly.

And yet, everything seemed to have gone decently well. After all, everyone that he had been ordered to teach seemed to understand the gravity of the technique at hand. As best as Ash could tell, none of them were confused about anything he had said. Of course, a few of them had failed to actually perform the technique, but that was secondary to whether or not they understood how dangerous it could potentially be. That being the case, Ash felt comfortable in saying that he had done a good job.

If anyone had any other questions to ask, they didn't get a chance to. That was thanks to the arrival of a booming voice and presence behind them. It seemed that Gai was finished with his training for the day.

"Judging from the many clones I see standing here, it looks like the training was a success! I'm impressed with both the teacher and the students for doing so well!"

Instead of answering to that, Ash peered around the bodies of his comrades to spy Lee and Kuito, who had been drafted into Gai's training for the day. Lee looked fine of course, probably because he was used to Gai's grueling training. Kuito on the other hand was practically dragging herself after them, looking far worse for wear than her compatriots.

Honestly, Ash was surprised that Gai was wrapping things up so soon, if that was indeed why he was here. He didn't seem like the type of man or teacher to do two hour training sessions if he could help it. Apparently Tenten felt the same way, and she knew him better than Ash did.

"Done already, Gai-Sensei? That might be the shortest training session you've ever done..."

A brief frown crossed Gai's face as he offered an explanation. Considering his usual attitude and personality, Ash was always worried by actual frowns from the man. He likely only did that when there was something serious afoot.

"There's a serious matter to which I must attend, even at the cost of this youthful training. That's why I must cut it short, unfortunately. That being said, I'm confident in the ability of you fine young ninja to train without my supervision, so feel free to continue! It's not like you need me to keep an eye on things."

Ash heard Kuito mutter something under her breath akin to 'not a chance in hell.' Apparently, Gai didn't hear it. Then again, the larger copy of Lee was already sprinting off back in the direction of the village, the speed of his movement rustling everyone's hair. He hadn't even waited for a response from anyone. Neji folded his arms as he watched his teacher leave.

"An urgent matter, is it? Why do I have some doubts about that?"

Perhaps feeling a need to defend his Sensei, Lee was quick to offer an explanation only he and Kuito were privy to.

"A Chunin from the village arrived but minutes ago to summon Gai-Sensei back! Of course he has very important business to attend to!"

Ash's expression turned to a frown as he contemplated what that could mean. Generally speaking, if a ninja showed up to call you away somewhere on urgent business, something undesirable was occurring. Of course, that wasn't always the case. It was possible that Gai was needed for something mundane. But it was also possible that a dire situation had come up.

Naturally, Ash didn't care about this hypothetical situation if it didn't affect him or his loved ones. But fact of the matter was that he didn't know if that situation would do so or not. For now, he could only hope that whatever demanded Gai's attention would be limited to the Jonin of the village.

Either way, it seemed that his fellow Genin weren't putting as much thought into it. They were more focused on their training for that day, or rather, whether or not they really wanted to continue it. Kuito was raising a fair point on her own behalf.

"I don't know about you guys, but I think I've had enough training for one day! If Bushy Brow Senior isn't here to watch, I'm going home!"

Lee, on the other hand, was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

"Kuito, you can't quit just because Sensei isn't here! With conviction so weak you'll never become a great ninja!"

"Yeah well, Mom says great ninja aren't made in a day, and she was married to one of the greatest ninja of all time! How about that!?"

Lee didn't really have anything to say to that, since he couldn't quite deny what Kuito had said. Sasuke on the other hand, did.

"Probably for the best. An idiot like you will just pass out overdoing it like you did in the Land of Waves."

"Hey, you nearly passed out with that training too!"

Sensing an altercation coming on, Sakura butted in before it could really get started.

"Look, you're both the type that go way too far way too often. I don't know where either of you gets off thinking you're not as bad as the other."

Not all that eager to continue with today's training since he felt like there wasn't much else for him to offer at the moment, Ash figured he'd make his own opinion known, just in case anyone else wanted to base their decision on it to some extent.

"Well considering that most of us have gotten the basics of the Shadow Clone jutsu down, there's not really much reason to stick around and train as a group. Everyone can go off and do their own thing at this point, whether that's training or resting."

There were a few nods and mutterings of agreement from those around him, something that prompted Ino to comment with what was, in her opinion, a stellar idea.

"That's fair, but c'mon! We're barely halfway through the day, it'd be a waste to all run off and do our own thing at this point. Why don't we all go out to eat together? That gives everyone a chance to relax, then we can all go off and do whatever, whether that's training or something else."

Kuito perked up upon hearing this suggestion.

"Yeah, great idea, Ino! We can all eat at Ichiraku-"

Already foreseeing an issue with that, Sakura cut the blonde off.

"There's not enough room for all of us at Ichiraku. That place has like, four seats!"

"We can take turns! Come on, it'll be fine!"

"Kuito, there's other food worth eating besides ramen!"

With the two of them bickering, a few of the others began to mention whether or not they were down with the idea. Not to any great surprise, Sasuke started with disagreement.

"I'll pass. I don't have time to waste on unnecessary things."

The look on Sakura's face made it clear that she wanted to object, but Neji spoke agreement before she could.

"I wouldn't call it unnecessary... but either way, there are other matters to which I much attend. My father is waiting for me at the clan compound."

Ordinarily Tenten would have been a little miffed at Neji skimping out on some R&R with the team, but this time he had a fitting excuse. Besides, there were other things on her mind right now...

Ino was more vocal about these developments, though she didn't seem really bothered that either boy was leaving.

"Well, any other mood killers want to make an exit?"

In the past Ino would have found the whole venture pointless if Sasuke wasn't going to show up, but now she didn't really care much about that. In light of the last two months or so, she'd come to the realization that Sasuke didn't think of her in almost any regard. Her past self would have taken that as motivation to try even harder to get his attention, but she'd matured a bit, in her own opinion. There were other guys out there worth paying attention to. Guys who actually treated her well and made her smile.

To the rear of the present group, Hinata began to raise her hand, likely about to excuse herself from a large gathering, but Kiba caught her in the act before she could, stopping the motion with an arm around the shoulder.

"Oh no you don't! C'mon Hinata, you can't run away from your peers forever! A pack's gotta stick together!"

"B-b-but, so many people..."

"Experience allays all fears. My sister says that, at least. I think it means what I'm trying to say."

For Ash's part, he had to put a little more consideration into Ino's proposition than he normally would have. Under ordinary circumstances he'd have no qualms whatsoever agreeing with his fellow blonde. After all, a group lunch did sound like a lot of fun. However, he'd already picked up on Tenten's irritation with his obviously friendly relationship with Ino. Would his girlfriend be upset if he agreed to these lunch plans, which involved spending time with the target of that irritation even further?

After all, he could take this opportunity to reveal that he and Tenten were an item, probably by implying that they had plans together. Establishing a firm boundary like that was what a boyfriend was probably supposed to do...

Unbeknownst to the blonde that was mulling over his options, Tenten was actually cutting him some slack. Sure, she was still more than a little miffed to see another girl getting all cozy with her boyfriend like that, but it wasn't like it was Ash's fault that she had done that. He had even been pretty quick from getting out of her clutches, though he could have stood to be a little less polite about it. While she may have wished it, it would have been pretty rude to literally throw Ino off of him.

Of course, there was the question of what kind of relationship they had. The two of them certainly seemed pretty comfortable with one another, or at the very least, Ino seemed comfortable with him. Tenten knew the two of them had exchanged some words during the Chunin Exams, but she hadn't been able to overhear them. Maybe this Ino girl was just the obnoxious flirty type that got too comfortable with guys that didn't even know them?

Maybe Tenten wasn't looking far enough into things, honestly. But truth be told, she still felt pretty bad about the fact that she'd been avoiding Ash at a point in time when his teacher had just been killed. For something relatively minor like this, she wanted to at least give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, it wasn't like she was really afraid of him cheating on her with some other girl. After everything they had been through, after literally putting his life in her hands to prove the sincerity of his feelings for her, she didn't doubt his faithfulness to her in the slightest.

Didn't mean she liked seeing another girl hanging off his arm though.

Either way, Tenten felt that, for now, it wasn't necessary to play the role of jealous girlfriend. There was no need to stop Ash from hanging out with other people. Besides, she was going along too, so what was the harm? With that in mind, she figured it would be best to let him know that she didn't object to this course of action: vehemently, at any rate.

"That sounds like a pretty good idea. I am kind of hungry."

By the expression on Ash's face, it was clear that he hadn't actually expected Tenten's agreement with the proposition. However, by the relieved look that followed, it also seemed that he had indeed been concerned about how she felt on the matter. Knowing that, Tenten's previous irritation diminished even further. He had her in his thoughts all the time. It was silly to be concerned...

At least, she was able to tell herself that for all of three seconds before that Ino girl was all over him again, hanging off his arm.

"Great, well let's get going! There's this restaurant that opened up across from my family's flower shop recently, and it seems pretty popular. Why don't we give that place a try?"

There were no objections to the idea, especially since nobody knew what this mysterious restaurant had to offer, meaning there was no meaningful objection that could be made. This allowed Ash to remind everyone of something important, while he tried to avoid the renewed look of ire from Tenten.

"Well, before we go anywhere, everyone needs to dispel their clones. One at a time, preferably."

Considering that most everyone was pretty new with the Shadow Clone technique in general, none of their copies had the self-awareness to complain about being dispelled while their creators got to eat. It was possible to create clones with a great degree of self-awareness, but it required skill in the art. With most of the present clones being created simply to exist, they had little to say in regards to being dispelled.

Thankfully the process of doing this forced Ino to release him, at which point Ash was able to consider the depths of his dilemma once more since it was now renewed. Even now, he could feel his girlfriend boring a hole into his back with her glare. He could tell already that he was going to have a lot of explaining to do later.

---

The trip to the restaurant Ino had selected for everyone was a relatively brief one. Having already excused themselves from the event, Sasuke and Neji went their separate ways from everyone else. Hinata tried to escape from the situation a second time, but Kiba had stopped her from doing so. Once all the clones were dispelled and everyone was ready to go, Ino had taken it upon herself to lead the group of Genin to their destination.

Of course, she hadn't been content to be at the front by herself, practically dragging Ash along with her so he would be walking beside her. Naturally, Tenten had been unhappy about this, though her displeasure wasn't verbalized. Ash was at an impasse with all of this: on one hand, he felt like he was obligated to establish a firm boundary and tell Ino that this kind of behavior was inappropriate.

But on the other hand, he felt like that was a little much. For one, there was certainly no need to have that conversation while all of these other people were present, which could only serve to make her uncomfortable or even humiliate her. On top of that, Ino had done a lot for him: she was partially to thank for his successful confession to Tenten in the first place, and she'd proven to be a great friend time and time again. It wasn't like she was actually making any real moves on him or anything, so was there any real need to tell her to keep her distance and stop acting so friendly with him? It just felt like that would be a shitty thing to do. This kind of behavior was just how she was, it didn't mean she was trying to steal him away or anything.

Ash didn't know if that argument was going to gain any traction with Tenten, but when an inevitable conversation about this cropped up, hopefully it would help her see that he wasn't being seduced by other girls or anything. Unfortunately, that argument was probably going to get harder to make the longer the day wore on, as Sakura ended up being pretty talkative with him during their trip as well. Not that she was even remotely as touchy as Ino, but it surely wouldn't be lost on Tenten that he was pretty friendly with the pinkette as well.

Thankfully, Hinata seemed to have no particular interest in him at all, mostly sticking to the very rear of the group so as not to be noticed. Ash wasn't sure if he would survive the day if he was flanked by three girls at the same time, with none of them being his girlfriend.

Ultimately, this lead to a very interesting procession and state of affairs. Aside from leading everyone, Ino's attention was solely on Ash. Sakura was paying attention to him as well, but was also dividing that attention between deflecting Kuito's complaints about their restaurant of choice and several attempts by Lee to woo her in a not so subtle manner. Tenten was behind them, not really feeling like talking considering the situation, instead choosing to burn holes through her boyfriend's back with a fiercely displeased glare.

This left Kiba behind all of them, the young Inuzuka thoroughly confused by the scene before him. Aside from Hinata, who was hiding behind him, and Kuito, who couldn't think of anything about other than the fact that they weren't going to Ichiraku, this blonde foreigner kid appeared to have girls falling all over him, and he wasn't even doing anything. For the life of him, Kiba couldn't understand why this was the case.

He'd missed Ash's fight with Neji during the Chunin preliminaries, though he'd heard that the blonde had won in the end. But then again, Kiba didn't know squat about Neji other than some people saying he was strong, so he didn't really know what that win represented. Was this kid really strong? On the other hand, he'd displayed the fact that he was pretty knowledgeable during their training today, so were all the girls impressed by his smarts? To Kiba, the kid didn't look, act or smell like the kind of male that could command this much attention from the opposite gender...

He didn't get it, but he did know that he was frickin' jealous. At least Hinata didn't seem to care. Kiba wasn't sure he'd be able to handle her pining for this guy too. From within the confines of his jacket, Akamaru barked his own opinion, though Kiba was of course the only one who understood it, and thus the only one that could be unhappy about it.

"What? Something like that isn't it! Although..."

Unaware of any of this, Ash mostly spent most of the trip in an awkward trance, juggling the situation at hand. It was difficult, considering that he had to be nice and friendly with the girls asking for his attention while also acknowledging yet ignoring Tenten's icy countenance due to that exact behavior. Between a rock and a hard place was a fitting, yet altogether insufficient means of describing the situation.

Somehow, he managed to survive the entire ordeal, which was about twenty minutes of being on his girlfriend's bad side. A miracle, really. In the end, the restaurant that had opened across from Ino's flower shop was another meat joint, though it wasn't specifically for barbecue. Maybe Choji's tendencies had rubbed off on her, though of course Ash was wise enough to avoid bringing that up.

Apparently it was a pretty busy place, but not to the extent that the group of Genin couldn't get a table even for their large group. With pretty large booths, there was enough room for four to each side. This of course, presented a problem Ash was capable of identifying from a mile away. Of course, that problem had to do with seating. He knew already who would want to sit next to him and who would be upset about it.

The smart thing to do would be to wait until everyone else took their seat. Then there'd only be two spaces left on the edge of one booth, and assuming Tenten had the same idea, they could easily sit together. Then again, they could end up with one open space on either side of the table, which was also a problem...

Trying to make a judgment call on whether or not this idea was the right course of action, Ash unfortunately didn't get that much time to do that. As always, Ino was a step ahead of him in regards to getting and doing what she wanted. Before anyone else took a seat at all, the platinum blonde essentially dragged him into one of the booths, guaranteeing her a space next to him. Considering that she had been at their side with little trouble for the whole walk, Sakura took the seat on his opposite side. At least her intentions were probably mostly innocent.

Even so, Ash dared not even look at Tenten in this moment. Never had he thought that being well-liked by girls could be such a problem. Was this what Temari had truly been aiming to protect him from for all of these years?

Either way, Ash figured maybe now was as good a time as any to lay down the law, though he had no idea how he was going to do that. While usually gifted with words, at the moment he had no idea how to broach this subject in a sensible, unobtrusive way...

As for Tenten, she was indeed greatly disgruntled with how things had played out. To an extent, she was of course upset with her boyfriend for not denying such actions from other girls. But oddly enough, she was even more irritated with herself for letting this happen. Sure, some part of her wanted Ash to shut down what was happening here, but objectively Tenten was able to see why this was probably difficult for him to do. It wasn't that he wasn't committed enough to her, he was just too nice. It was pretty clear that Ino and Sakura weren't strangers to him, meaning they were probably friends at least.

And that being the case, surely Ash would be hard-pressed to do anything that could be construed as remotely mean or cruel to them. If there was one thing Tenten knew he hated, it was hurting those close to him. Since that was so, it fell to her to establish quite firmly, in front of all of these other girls, her relationship to him. After all, girls had to defend their territory just as much as men. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

With this in mind, Tenten drew a few curious glances while everyone else was taking a seat, as she began to shimmy into the same booth as Ash and the other girls. The looks of confusion were replaced by shock, however, when she promptly planted herself in Ash's lap as soon as she was close enough to do so. Naturally, the boy was just as surprised as everyone else, though he was also blushing quite a bit.

"T-Tenten, isn't this a little-?"

"What, you don't really mind having your girlfriend in your lap, do you?"

Of course Tenten made sure to say that line loud enough for everyone else to hear it. Subtle, but effective. It got her point across to anyone else with funny ideas, without being combative or obnoxious.

The announcement, subtle though it was, garnered many a reaction from the others. Hinata blushed, somehow embarrassed even by things that weren't happening to her. A vein bulged on Kiba's forehead as his jealousy from before erupted to new heights, though no one knew that was the cause. Sakura, polite as she was, smiled and immediately scooted over to the side of the booth so Tenten and Ash would have more room, though there was a somewhat consternated furrow to her brow. Lee was exuberant, even more so than usual.

"Tenten! You did not tell the team that you had joined our dear ally in youthful unity! Gai-Sensei would have been overjoyed!"

"That's exactly why I didn't say anything. And you know, I think you can start calling our 'dear ally' by his name now."

From behind her back, Ash agreed with that sentiment.

"Yeah, I think our relationship is at that point."

To the side was Ino, sporting a notable frown. Tenten didn't miss the brief expression of unhappiness, but it was soon replaced by an easygoing smile that was, as far as Tenten could tell, perfectly genuine.

"So, you're the lucky girl. I was starting to wonder if you actually existed: with all the great things Ash had to say about you, it was starting to sound like he'd made you up."

Naturally the boy in question was quick to defend himself.

"Come on, I wouldn't go so far as to get a bouquet from you to sell you the idea of a fictional girlfriend. That would have been a waste of your flowers and your efforts."

Recalling the quite beautiful bouquet Ash had presented during his confession and connecting the dots between the conversation now and the tidbit about Ino owning a flower shop, Tenten quickly concluded that she'd been the one to provide it to her boyfriend for that day. Ash made it sound like she'd had a personal hand in it, rather than just selling him something while being unaware of what it was for. If that were true, then Ino had knowingly aided him in wooing another girl, so maybe Tenten had misjudged her attitude after all?

She didn't have much time to contemplate that reality, as Ino was soon talking to her, easy smile never falling from her face.

"He's got a point. I hope you've been taking care of those flowers: I know it's been awhile but with proper care they should still have a some life left in them."

Now put off and a little worried that she'd been a little too harsh in judging someone's character, Tenten's response was less firm than she had intended.

"O-oh, I uh... I've got them in a vase at home. I've making sure they've stayed hydrated, but... they have started to wilt a bit..."

While that fact was usually put out of her mind during her day to day activities, remembering it now did actually make Tenten a little upset. Those flowers represented something really meaningful, after all.

"Is that so? If you'd like, I can teach you a little trick you can do with your chakra to revitalize them. You can use it to keep flowers you really like going for far longer than their normal lifespan. You just have to promise not to tell anyone: if everybody knew how to extend the life of flowers, nobody would buy them anymore."

Actually overjoyed to hear that this was possible, Tenten was cut off by a comment from Ash first.

"Oh yeah, I think my sister knows a thing or two about that. There's a flower from years ago that she still manages to keep alive."

Naturally, Tenten honed in on this instead of what Ino had said, for the moment.

"You never said anything about that! That would have been helpful to know before now!"

"S-sorry, it kind of slipped my mind with everything that happened after that day..."

Unable to really blame him for that since it was true, Tenten had nothing to say. Besides, Kuito was clearly getting a little fed up with things not related to food.

"OK, OK, that's all great and stuff, but can we order now? We can talk over lunch, right?"

With truer words never spoken, no one had any inclination to disagree. Ino flagged down a server, and the restaurant prepared to serve eight Genin anything and everything they asked for, so long as they could pay for it.

---

About an hour later, everything was said and done. The restaurant was able to dish out food surprisingly quickly, so the wait wasn't long. The food was fine, but more interesting was the dynamic itself.

It was odd, sharing a meal with people that were more or less strangers, in some ways. Sure, some of them were friends and teammates who knew each other, but others really didn't know anything at all about their table partners. That said, there was a strange camaraderie that quelled most awkwardness and tension among them: perhaps it was the mark of individuals who shared a way of life. Even without knowing each other personally, knowing that they were ninja meant they all understood each other to some extent.

That was not to say that everyone didn't have a distinct presence in some way or another. Lee and Kuito competed for most boisterous, with the most raucous laughs or most passionate spiels, with the notion of an eating contest put forward at some point. Sakura and Ash were the polite, more considerate pair of the bunch, shooting down the aforementioned ludicrous idea and often reminding their louder comrades that they were indeed in public and should be mindful of their surroundings. All the while, they managed to hold pleasant, meaningful conversation with everyone else.

Hinata was quiet, of course. But while the full measure of tension never left her body, at some point during the gathering her nerves did calm a bit. She didn't say much, but smiled and giggled and clearly enjoyed the antics or presence of her comrades and friends. Kiba brought a different kind of rowdiness to the mix, not being as loud as some of his compatriots but always coming off as a little too extroverted. He spent most of the meal either challenging others to theoretical contests of worth, boasting, or trying to get Hinata to open up a little more to everyone else. Occasionally he shot a certain blonde dirty looks, but his fellow male never picked up on them, or perhaps he chose to ignore them.

Ino was the cheerful, bubbly element of the party that wanted everyone to have a good time, without being forcible or obnoxious about it. She told great jokes, shared funny stories, and generally made sure everyone had a smile on their face at all times. By this experience alone, Tenten felt that she really had misjudged the slightly younger girl. She actually felt a little envious: Ino was fun, friendly, and pretty. She was forward in a way that wasn't irritating and seemed to be genuinely invested in those around her. Honestly, Tenten wasn't sure how she had garnered Ash's attention over her. Maybe there was more to romance than the sum of one's parts, but the brunette felt a little lacking in comparison. Perhaps she was just being too hard on herself: Ash said that to her at least once a week.

All of that said, Tenten wasn't sure where she fit in with this odd group of young ninja, but she hadn't felt out of place either. This gathering was probably the first time she'd spent any significant amount of time with a group of people this large, and that group actually cared that she was around.

It was such an unusual experience for her, that by the time it was actually over, she was upset about it. But everyone had things to do, so they couldn't loiter around all day. Sakura was still helping out with hospital duties, and had a shift not too much later. Ino had to watch her family's flower shop for a few hours while her mom ran some errands. Kiba swore he had something of critical importance to discuss with his mother, though something about that seemed dubious.

Naturally Hinata wasn't terribly comfortable with the one person she was familiar with making an exit, so she excused herself without providing any meaningful excuse at all. Finally, Lee had dragged Kuito off to finish whatever had been interrupted earlier that day when they were training, much to the chagrin of the late Fourth's only child.

With everyone going their separate ways (which included a blown kiss from Ino, something Tenten had to answer with a glare on Ash's behalf), the only people who didn't really have anywhere pressing to be that day were Tenten and Ash. Today's schedule for serious shinobi work had been dedicated to the joint training, which had been cut short. Gai hadn't implied that they needed to report for missions or work with their newly acquired free time, so they should have reasonably been free to do whatever they wanted.

They just weren't sure what to do exactly. At this exact moment, they were simply walking through the streets, no particular destination in mind. Ash was commenting on what he'd been told earlier by Sakura.

"I wonder if she's getting paid for all this work she's doing at the hospital? Seriously, doing that on top of her usual obligations, she could stand to be a little more selfish..."

While not truly disgruntled about it by now, Tenten figured she could rib her partner a little bit about his focus on other girls.

"But that kindness is something you really like about her, isn't it?"

With Ash looking away from her for the moment, he started answering earnestly before turning to face her.

"Yeah, she's always thinking about other people. It's nice that-"

Laying eyes on the crossed arms and cocked eyebrow of his girlfriend, Ash cut himself short.

"Ah, sorry... guess I shouldn't talk about other girls like that..."

Dropping her feigned irritation for a rueful smile, Tenten refuted his statement, only somewhat begrudgingly.

"It's not that you shouldn't... in fact, I do like the fact that you really appreciate people's good points. Besides, I can tell the difference between you fawning over someone and earnestly praising parts of their character."

"Hold on, and what difference would that be?"

"Well, fawning was definitely the way you talked about me the day you confessed, right?"

The blonde beside her blushed a bit, but he didn't reel the way he had in the not so distant past. Was he already developing some resistance to her teasing? That just wouldn't do.

"That said, what's with all of these girls in your life? Do you let all of them be as flirty with you as Ino?"

This time, Ash's blush deepened, and his response was stammered. The attack was successful.

"N-no, not all of them. Wait-!"

Probably realizing a little too late what that answer implied, Ash had no way of backpedaling as Tenten's expression became a bit more threatening.

"Oh, so just some of them then?"

"No, it was a one-time thing that I had no control over! Besides, it was more teasing on her part than actual flirting..."

A little miffed to hear that, especially since it was kind of vague, Tenten instead focused on a different bit of information that she wanted to discern.

"Ash... exactly how many girls are you 'close' to anyway?"

While she had half expected this question to throw the blonde off again, Ash's expression actually became contemplative as he clearly started thinking. The fact that he had to think about it for several moments worried Tenten greatly.

"Uh... fifteen, I believe."

"F-fifteen?!"

"Well yeah, there's Temari, and Pakura of course, and then-"

"I don't need to know about people you consider family!"

Pausing to recalculate, Ash gave a new answer in short order.

"Oh, then just ten."

"That's still way too high!"

"Well if we aren't considering you then it's only nine."

Not sure how to respond to that, Tenten settled for fuming silently instead of accosting Ash about this further. After all, she had only asked about girls he was close to. Having already included his sister and his teacher on that list, it was quite possible that the other nine people in question were well and truly just friends. Still, that number seemed really high...

Tenten's vexed train of thought was interrupted when Ash appeared to remember something.

"Oh, speaking of which: do you mind if we stop by the post? I should be getting a letter pretty soon."

"From a girl?"

"Uh... yeah... but she's just a penpal, don't worry about it! She's already got her own long-haired blonde."

Instead of asking for more detail on that, Tenten merely grumbled to herself in light of all this new info.

"Geez, it's a wonder I even got your first kiss..."

While Ash's expression was totally neutral and didn't give him away in any meaningful fashion, Tenten could sense something off. It was too much of a poker face right after her comment, prompting her to correctly assume the truth.

"Seriously?! With who?!"

"Uh, do you remember that girl with the really long black hair from the preliminaries...?"

"Vaguely, I guess! Hold on, that was super recent! When did this happen?!"

Reminded of his sister when she was angry, Ash felt a pervading sense of danger looming over him. This was treacherous ground.

"Remember, I'm telling you the truth because I love you. It was the morning of the finals-"

"What?!"

Fully aware of why that would rub her the wrong way, Ash swiftly finished the condensed explanation that would save his life.

"But it was one-sided! She surprised me with it, I didn't have time to stop her! And this was right after I saved her life, so it was almost definitely just an appreciation kind of thing!"

Gritting her teeth, Tenten judged how irritated she was and how much she wanted to punch someone in particular. On one hand, this revelation really irked her, and that was an understatement. On the other hand, she was inclined to believe that Ash hadn't been making moves on another girl after hitting it off with her. For one, if he really wanted to hide this he could have made something up that didn't sound quite so incriminating. She knew he wasn't such a bad liar that he would make something up that sounded even more damning than the truth.

On top of that, she didn't think he'd nearly die to prove his affection to her the same day he was making out with someone else. She was a little confused as to what scenario would have called for a life or death situation to save a girl from at the time, but she could ask about that later. For now, she had just recently established some plans for the day.

Firmly grabbing Ash's hand, she looked him dead in the eye and told him where he was going now.

"You can get your mail tomorrow. I know you don't have plans today, so you're coming over to my place!"

With that, the brunette began forcibly dragging Ash in the direction of her choice, leaving him with the assumption that he was being taken to an isolated location to die without witnesses. Surely, his ANBU escorts wouldn't allow this? Thinking of that, Ash realized that he forgot to include Kitten in his list of close females, but then again, maybe they weren't close at all. Besides, it certainly wouldn't help his situation to bring that up now.

His almost certainly ridiculous fears were not assuaged for most of the forceful walk, as Tenten was deathly silent as she dragged him along. There was a part of Ash that was worried about whether or not she was truly angry, but he didn't have the gumption to say anything right now. Best to let her have her way.

The tension was a shame though, because it kind of messed up the experience that was going to Tenten's home for the first time. It was an apartment complex, not unlike Ash's own, which came as no surprise since he doubted Tenten had enough money for better living arrangements. Unlike him, she lived on the ground floor, and more importantly, her home actually had four walls and a kitchen counter that was still in one piece.

Ash would have liked to give her living space some more attention seeing as how it was his first time there, but he didn't get much of a chance to do so. All he was able to do was determine that her small couch was green, the walls were gray, she had a target set up across from her seating arrangement, and the bouquet he had given her was indeed in a vase on a window sill. He was unable to commit any other details to memory before he was dragged into the bedroom and essentially tossed on the bed.

Naturally, his thoughts leaped to scandalous places almost immediately, something that was not helped at all when Tenten got on top of him, pulling off her headband before leaning down to look him in the eyes at a very close distance.

"I'm not very happy knowing that I wasn't your first kiss. But that can't be changed now, so here's what we're going to do: we're going to make up for that great travesty by making out. A lot. If I start to feel like there's been enough compensation, it just might be warm enough that I'll have to take something off. That's all fine with you, right?"

While externally stunned into silence, internally Ash bowed to the celestial powers that be and thanked them for their generosity. Whereas other men would be slapped, yelled at and given the cold shoulder for revealing the things he had today, Tenten had simply decided that the best way to overcome her irritation with the scenario was to love him even harder. Surely, this was the apex of his existence. He couldn't possibly get luckier than this, right?

While uplifted in spirit, Ash couldn't answer his girlfriend with any confidence at first. She was an inch from his face, breathing right on him, staring into his eyes with a look that let him know there was no escape. Sure, he knew this was the heat of a moment, and he doubted things would escalate to something truly serious in the long run, regardless of what Tenten said to rattle him. They were still kind of young for that, after all.

But ultimately, he wasn't going to bother trying to predict where things would go from here. He was just eager to start, his own confidence boosted by the knowledge that Tenten wanted this just as much as he did.

"That's all fine with me."

---

Far away from the relatively inexperienced throes of teenage love and the Hidden Leaf in general, a number of Sand ninja stood amidst the whirling grains of their home desert, looking down into a chasm that had been formed by erosion over the years. It was here that three bodies almost entirely buried in sand had been discovered by a border patrol.

The ninja that were here now had been called to the scene to investigate, as the border patrol had been far too inexperienced to deal with the nature of the bodies: the Third Kazekage, Rasa, and the two Jonin that had been his escorts for the trip to the Hidden Leaf for the Chunin Exams.

The rightmost ninja, Sasori, didn't seem perturbed at all by the trio of bodies several dozen feet below him.

"Most impressive. I wonder who had the strength and skill to pull this off?"

The leftmost ninja, officially retired, narrowed her wrinkled gaze at her grandson.

"We should be lamenting the loss of our leader, not admiring the handiwork of his killers."

The middle ninja, Pakura of the Scorch Style, scowled as she likewise peered into the chasm below. Having only recently returned to the Hidden Sand, she was not pleased to have this situation thrust upon her so soon after the anxiety that was having Ash and his siblings taken captive by the Leaf.

"Sasori's got a point though. This is the Kazekage we're talking about, and Shumin and Juda were some of our top Jonin. Whoever did this is a force to be reckoned with."

Sasori wasted no time in extrapolating on that train of thought.

"Moreover, these bodies have been here for some time. Likely before the Chunin exams even started. The village had an imposter in its midst for some time. We'll need to thoroughly sweep our sewers for rats when we return."

Chiyo's thoughts were more on the political aspect of things.

"Electing a new Kazekage will not be easy with the circumstances the village finds itself in right now."

With a weary sigh, Pakura looked up from the scene below her and cast her gaze out at the horizon.

"All things in due time. The first priority is actually something else: weird as it feels to say this, we need to inform the Hidden Leaf."

---

This chapter was a great deal of technical talking. For many people, I know that's not their thing. However, I felt that there needed to be a significant discussion regarding how Shadow Clones are going to be handled in this fic, so that the readers will be aware that the technique does not function the same way it did in canon. As for why I felt the need to change it, that's simply because, frankly, canon Shadow Clones are way too OP.

Besides, I feel that this extremely long chapter was interspersed with enough other interesting parts that it didn't end up just being a ton of technical jutsu talk. Maybe that's just me though.

Finally, if anyone noticed that I mentioned Neji's father and a lack of being dead, that is on purpose. More on that in later chapters, just didn't want anyone commenting on how there was a mistake.

With this, we finally get into the next major story arc, which many of these past chapters have been serving as a bridge for. We're going back to the Hidden Sand, and that sucks. It's coarse and rough and irritating there.