"Very well, then. Now that we are all present and accounted for, let us move on to more important matters."
His student immediately turns to face him, eyes shining. She still doesn't quiet make eye contact, but it no longer feels as though she is looking through him rather than at him. A major improvement, no less.
"Come September, I am being assigned to border patrol in the northwest."
"Kusa?" Minato asks. "Is Iwa still attempting to gain a foothold there?"
He nods.
"Sensei believes stationing one of the Sannin nearby will be a sufficient deterrent."
Minato doesn't look convinced, and, for once, he agrees with him.
"The rotation will be three months long. In addition to basic border patrol duties, I am independently being tasked with routing enemy camps across the border, and Sandaime-sama has given me leave to recruit whoever I see fit for this task. However, the daimyō of the Land of Grass is not currently permitting any force greater than a four-man team to cross into their country."
Minato's student scoffs. "Iwa is literally invading them with an army and they're treating it like a squabble over stolen sheep."
Minato regards the information more solemnly.
"They're… they're expecting a four-man team to rout an enemy encampment? There could be entire platoons of shinobi."
"Indeed."
"How many are we allowed at the border?" Honōka asks.
"Kusa is not objecting to any number we might station on our side of the border." They won't see it as an aggression against them, at least.
"How many are being stationed at the border then?"
"Two platoons."
"…" even Honōka looks skeptical. "Who are you taking with you across the border?"
"That depends,"
Her brow wrinkles, and then her jaw drops. She points at herself. Smart girl.
Minato has likewise dropped his jaw and looks to be gearing up to throw a tantrum.
"Orochimaru-san, are you—are you serious? If I may speak freely, no, I will speak freely! Honōka-chan is not ready to take part in a mission, in a battle, of this scale!"
"Honōka-kun, what did you learn from today's play date?"
"Being untraceable doesn't mean un-trackable, and there are ways to hide from sensors like me. When facing an opponent that can track me, retreat to a safe location, preferably where an ally is. And, I need to learn how to imitate non-human chakra signatures to be a more convincing cat."
"Very good. Minato, explain to Honōka-kun how you and your student were able to avoid detection."
Minato flashes him a look that is positively mutinous, but gathers himself with a deep breath. He pushes it aside after likely considering what it would take to go blow for blow with one of the Legendary Sannin. Given how he idolizes Jiraiya, he probably thinks it's much harder than it actually is. Orochimaru would prefer he keep thinking that.
With another put-upon sigh, he rolls up his sleeve and peels off a paper tag.
"Oh, that's the same one the puppy was wearing. Kakashi has one too?"
"Puppy?" the boy snorts. "Pakkun is a ninken, not some puppy."
Honōka makes a face at Minato's student.
"He's a juvenile."
"Children," he interrupts. "Be silent."
Honōka sticks her tongue out at the boy and he pulls an eyelid down at her. Orochimaru shoots them a look that isn't killing intent, but is nearly something not nice, and they stop bickering.
"Right," Minato continues. "So, this is an Uzumaki sealing tag. I tweaked it so it does what the Second Hokage's Shōkyo jutsu does, more or less, except it doesn't affect the user's ability to sense others or their ability to cast jutsu. This is because it's creating a mirrored barrier to disguise chakra flux."
Honōka takes the paper tag from him and studies the seal. It's either incomprehensible gibberish to her, or simply boring. He can't say which from the unimpressed look she gives it. She might even be the slightest bit annoyed that a piece of paper bested her. But he is not an Empath like his student, so who is he to say?
"What's the drawback?"
Minato offers her a small smile.
"What makes you think there is a drawback, Honōka-chan?"
"Everyone would want to use this if there were no drawbacks. So, these paper seals are either ridiculously expensive to make; impair the user somehow—or maybe even both."
"It is a bit of both," Minato admits. "You have to use special chakra infused paper and ink, and have plenty of chakra to play around with. Kakashi's and Pakkun's seals were programmed to draw chakra from mine, so I had triple the draw to fight against."
She nods.
"So, unless someone else knows how to use Shōkyo or a similar technique or has one of these seals or something similar… I'm more or less Iwa's worst nightmare."
His lip quirks up. She's a little premature to be calling herself a nightmare.
"Having a sensor of your capability will certainly make discerning and picking off Iwa-nin a much simpler task."
"But, Orochimaru-san—"
He holds up a hand.
"I do not expect Honōka-kun to face any enemies at all, Minato. In fact, I am forbidding it."
His student frowns at him. Who was it that said his precocious little student was 'driven' but not 'impatient'? Her Academy instructor? He clearly did not know her well enough.
"You have the rest of July and August to learn evasive tactics. You must learn how to become un-trackable and untraceable; how to disguise yourself as creatures native to the northwestern woodlands—including their chakra signatures; how to use Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu. In the event that you cannot avoid being discovered by an enemy, you must learn how to dodge and deflect projectiles until you can do it in your sleep; how to land a fatal blow; and how to avoid a fatal blow."
There's more, but she's already nodding. She understands he could go on—that there are many things for her to learn to be even half of what he considers 'battle ready'.
"Sensei, Minato and Kakashi are training with us—does that mean they're going with us in September?"
He nods and Minato sputters.
"I am not taking Kakashi on border patrol again! Last time was a nightmare—I barely slept for the entire two months!"
Minato's student glares and he roles his eyes at them both.
"Your student will make sure my student does not get herself into trouble, or worse, while you and I terrorize the Iwa forces."
Minato covers his face with his hands, near vibrating with some stoppered emotion. He exhales a long breath, visibly deflating.
"Okay… okay. I don't like it, but okay."
He pushes off the wooden post and lands next to his student.
"No further questions?" he asks.
His student shakes her head.
"They can wait until tomorrow."
"Very well. Dismissed."
Minato drills his student on how to counter explosive tags safely and disarm traps while Orochimaru stands with his arms crossed, facing the entrance to the Third Training Ground. His student is late, and he hopes she can feel his displeasure from wherever she is.
She turns the bend, carrying in her arms a cat, of all things. On closer inspection, it looks like the calico bobtail she transformed into yesterday.
"Sorry, I'm late! Madara does not like the Body Flicker Technique at all!" As if the scratches on her arms and face weren't already evidence enough.
Minato does a double take.
"Madara?"
She holds up the cat, who looks nearly as fed up with his student's antics as he feels now. Minato's student has stopped what he's doing to stare, one eyebrow twitching.
"Honōka, why did you bring a cat?"
"Madara is going to be my assistant today!" she says.
"Why 'Madara' though?" Minato asks, still fixated on the name.
She looks at him like he's thick in the head.
"Because he looks like a Madara, and it drives Obito all kinds of crazy when I call him that."
The boy looks to Minato, who just shakes his head. Orochimaru can only imagine the things they've seen and heard his student do already.
"Very well," he says. "What can you tell me about this Madara's chakra signature?"
"It's small and cranky and rotates counter-clockwise. Madara has a hard lean on yang chakra despite being from Uchiha-ku."
"…do you think Honōka-chan stole someone's cat?"
"…it's called borrowing if you return it before they realize it's gone."
"It's only borrowing if you have permission, Kakashi!"
"…"
Why did he think it was a good idea to have three children on one training ground? If one weren't already a jōnin and the other two functionally chūnin, he might mistake them for the genin team he's been staunchly refusing for the past five years.
"What do you know about mimicking chakra signatures?"
"Nothing," she cheerfully tells him. "But I have a plan."
'I have a plan' is soon going to be on his list of things that never fail to give him a headache and drive his blood pressure up. He sighs.
"Shall I leave you to it, or would you like a rudimentary explanation?"
"Hm… I'm good!"
He leaves her to it. Either she'll grasp it on her own, get frustrated and ask him for the explanation, or come up with a completely new method.
The end of their workday arrives and his student has said not a word to him, Minato, or the boy all day. She's kept her feline assistant fed and watered and entertained, all while silently contemplating her task.
At fifteen hundred, he prepares to dismiss them. Honōka picks up the cat and trots over to him.
"Well?" he asks.
"It's not like Shōkyo. With Shōkyo I don't have to alter my chakra's composition—I just change the way it sounds. When it sounds like everything else, it doesn't matter if it's big or small, soft or sharp. It could be as tall as the Hokage Rock, and everybody would just look right through it. It could be thicker than water and still taste like air. It could—"
He holds up a hand. He is not a sensor, and none of that was even remotely relatable to him.
"Your descriptions, as usual, leave much to be desired."
His student shrugs.
"I need to think about it some more."
He nods.
"Do not be late again."