Ascendance Chapter 7, a naruto fanfic

AN: Sorry for the long wait, so here's a much longer chapter to make up for it. It does start off a little dry, though.

Chapter 7

««««««««»»»»»»»»

Brush.

She opened her mouth.

Brush.

She closed it.

"You were about to ask how it predicts the future, again."

Kushina scowled. "That's so weird."

She realized a moment later that Minato, while still adding minute detail to the seal expanded over the wall, had said her words in sync with her. It wouldn't have been that bad, if he hadn't copied her exact tone of voice throughout.

"I don't like that," they both said. She frowned and he grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry," he said, clear insincerity laced in his tone, "but you have to admit it's pretty awesome. It's almost like having the sharingan."

She shook her head, and merely continued to make notes in the folder on her lap.

"One of these days, Minato…"

She blinked. "Did you just do it agai-"

"Sorry!"

«««»»»

Just when Naruto thought that the dreams were over, they returned. This time, at least, they weren't inherently negative or barely comprehensible, so they didn't ruin his nights. He could pretty much remember them completely, and he couldn't help the smile that came up sometimes when he thought about the silliness of his parents. He still had to get used to that word. Parent. In his dreams, they were either late-teens or early-twenties – he wasn't sure – and they acted with the boisterous energy of children.

"Parent. Parent. Parents. Parents." He knew he was wasting time, even if most of his attention was focused on the folder in his lap. While standing and reading wasn't troublesome, he couldn't help but emulate his mother's posture when she'd been entering his father's changes into the logs. Sitting down allowed the awfully invasive mists of blue and – he only noticed the second colour recently when he looked carefully - silver chakra to cover him with its foggy embrace. It was an odd experience, the mists both wet and billowy, but leaving him dry.

After almost two weeks of reading through the orange folder, it was beginning to wear on him, and he was really itching to find some ink and change a couple things. Every now and again, typically after he read any particular facet of the seal to be finished, he would flip back through the pages and work to understand how that part of the seal functioned from the scribbles they left him. Doing this took much more time than the reading itself did, but it was also much more important. Sadly, he simply wasn't going to be ready to touch anything until he had gone over every single piece of information available.

After the few passages he read on his first night within the warm but wet atmosphere of the sealing room, the notes grew significantly closer together by date as the Uzumaki started using the seemingly infinite reserves of the Traveller to go crazy with designing and testing new seals. It was vaguely explained why, but only so far as they understood it. If a researcher made a mistake that would usually end in their blowing themselves up, which could only happen with an error that resulted in a seal attempting to use too much chakra at one time, the excess chakra would instead siphon off into the master seal – i.e. the Traveller – the moment it diverted from its assigned route within the sub-seal. It was a side-effect due to the master seal being foe-living, or at least, that was the presumption. This plummeted the workplace casualty rate to zero, and let the researchers work with a zeal usually restricted to those that weren't afraid of a bit of bodily harm.

He decided that this expanded to him. At one point, he'd have to try making an explosive seal at some point just to see what would happen.

«Not Available»

That textbox right there was the most prominent reason that he was itching to have a go at touching up the seal himself.

18 UZU, June 3rd

Hisatsugu Uzumaki, Tourism Security, Enforcement
and Response Division.

The mega-barrier was successfully switched off
for a period of three days, in which two thousand
foreign shinobi and civilians made their way into
Uzushiogakure without incident. The mega-barrier
was then reinstated, and it did not affect those
that had already made it inside.

Figuring that this one seemed vaguely important, he flipped through pages until he could find the tail-end of that entry.

«Not Available»

18 UZU, June 25th

Hisatsugu Uzumaki, Tourism Security, Enforcement
and Response Division.

Following the end of the chunin exams, there was
some confusion in leaving the island, but it was slight
enough that it did not warrant switching the mega-
-barrier off for those leaving its boundary. The strength
of the mega-barrier proves to be such that none of
those that have previously entered would be able to
return until it is again deactivated.

Murashige Uzumaki, Department of Research and
Development.

This was a comprehensive test for measuring the
feasibility of running the mega-barrier long-term.
It was a resounding success and opens the mega-
-barrier to further alteration in the future.

As interesting as the entries were – they all are, which is why he hadn't stopped reading even when he truly realized the monumental effort he was ascribing himself to by choosing to read all of it - he couldn't help but think that none of this really helped them in the end.

«««»»»

Kushina was fairly concerned when she saw her husband crouched outside of the building containing his new pet-project. "…what are you doing?"

Minato paused, bent over with his hands on the ground. He was clearly fishing for an excuse, but he mustn't have found one he liked. "Uhh… I'm just… testing it."

"I thought you said that chakra was too dangerous," she said, brow cocked with crossed arms.

He didn't respond.

"You're about to do something dumb, aren't you?"

He snorted. "I'll be fine, watch."

So she watched…

Boom!

…as the massive stone walls of the building beside her disintegrated, her husband nowhere to be found.

"M-Minato?! Don't tell me you just ran through that fucking building!"

«««»»»

Resolutely ignoring that his father was somewhat insane, Naruto sped through breakfast and kicked back to make more progress on the folder. After more than three weeks, he was finally approaching the end of the stack, and he was rather hoping to finish it soon. He only had two more days before he had to be back home in Konoha, and he hadn't so much as wet a brush.

«Not Available»

35 UZU, December 31st

Genjirō Uzumaki, Department of Research and
Development.

Subject UZG fully compatible with all facets of
the SAICC sealing configuration. At a maximum
of 45% power draw, the subject does not suffer
from the pernicious nature of the Traveller's
chakra as seen in previous subjects. The only
difference in the seal between the times of
testing subject UZG and previous subjects is the
method employed to neutralize the chakra
charging the seal configuration.

«Not Available»

36 UZU, January 3rd

Sumimoto Uzumaki, Tourism Security, Enforcement
and Response Division.

Routine shutdown of mega-barrier for three days, in
which four thousand foreign shinobi and civilians
entered the village. Mega-barrier reinstated without
issue.

«Not Available»

44 UZU, March 12th

Kushina Uzumaki, Konoha.

We just got here, and Minato already connected
himself to the seal. He's repeating everything I say
as I say it, and it's really, really annoying.

He glanced to the bottom half of the page, and sure enough, there was a very detailed diagram showing the part of the seal that Minato fiddled with that day. Then, he realized what that meant, and his eyes dashed back to the date on the previous page. Thirty-six years after its founding, on the – he flipped back to the earliest chunin exam(which took way too long to do), compared the date to the second and did the math – 12th exam hosted in Uzushio, it was destroyed. He already had a vague idea of the timeline from the library, but this was the first bit of dated evidence that was actually cut-off by the event. Judging by the event's typical length of about three weeks, Uzushio was probably attacked on about the 20th of January on the year of the second shinobi world war.

He, uh, didn't actually know how long ago that was.

He turned the page… and couldn't help the smile when he realized that the pop-up didn't pop up. That was an improvement, but the skill still didn't work, and the next page itself was just as distracting as the last.

44 UZU, March 13th

Kushina Uzumaki again.

Minato just ran himself into a building, and he
broke an arm and two of his ribs. Seriously, what
was he thinking?

Another page another diagram. This one showed the part of the seal that his dad had altered to speed himself up, after he modified the design of a reinforcement seal that was already part of the major one, the alterations catalogued with pin-point detail in the diagram. It was not something that Naruto was going to be able to replicate, but he didn't need to. The work was already done.

44 UZU, April 17th

Kushina Uzumaki.

MN rewrote the entirety of the quarter of the seal
responsible for knowledge and skill transference,
using the templates provided for ease of replication
on entries #1780 and #1802. I can't even begin to
understand how he did it, but the seal in that
quadrant is now specifically designed to record and
alter itself automatically. Designs provided below,
as far as I could copy it.

«««»»»

As the day wore on, the entries became more and more complicated, and he realized that being able to add any of his own changes was starting to seem like a pipe-dream. Minat- his dad, had obviously been incredibly good in his field.

Though, it was borderline unbelievable that he made so much progress in so little time, compared to the Uzumaki themselves. He was definitely some kind of prodigy.

By the time he truly made it to the end of the stack – and wow was it satisfying to finally close the folder – his drive to do anything himself with the seal was overruled by his urge to sleep. He was once again thankful he remembered to pack his alarm clock, or he was sure his internal clock would be ruthlessly destroyed down here, deep underground with the distinct lack of daylight that being underground brought with it.

«««»»»

It was difficult to ignore, even with her head in a book, whenever Minato insisted on bursting into off-tune whistling.

Kushina, sat as she was in the middle of a complicated seal matrix that she was not at all worried about smudging, shut her book with a wince at a particularly high-pitch and off-tune note.

But she knew that he only whistled when he lost himself in something fundamental.

"You've been staring at nothing for at least a minute now, you okay?"

It was unlikely she could truly help her husband. He was awfully good at fuinjutsu for a non-Uzumaki – would've been awfully good at fuinjutsu for an Uzumaki, even – but he hadn't stopped for longer than a handful of seconds all day. The part of the seal he seemed to want to adjust was one of the most important parts; it controlled the limit on chakra that was allocated to his person, chakra channelled through the SAICC configuration that directly affected his body. It was a reasonably simple part of the seal compared to others, though.

She couldn't understand how the seal drawn in this room affected his body when there was no more than a simple correspondence seal transcribed on his scalp, but then, it wasn't her job to understand. Minato understood. For her, she was experienced enough in fuinjutsu to transcribe what he was doing, and that was good enough to give her something to do.

He blinked, seemed to remember where he was, and spared her a look. "I was just… thinking."

While that was obvious, Minato's ideas were always pretty cool, and she wanted to know. "And?"

His gaze travelled to her stomach, and when she instinctively raised a hand to block his view, he seemed to realize his mistake. He blocked a cough with his off-hand and met her gaze with a sheepish grin.

"Right, well. You understand why babies eventually make for better jinchuuriki than adults, right?"

While her first reaction was to blush and splutter, she knew he wasn't thinking along that wavelength. A baby makes for a fantastic jinchuuriki because, as their body grows, it grows with the expectation of having the secondary chakra present, from start to finish. Their body grows to accommodate it, and when their chakra coils eventually thicken and grow alongside the child, they are not only shaped to channel and contain their own chakra, but also the secondary chakra that has always been a part of them. The coils of a jinchuuriki are literally grown to specifically handle the chakra of a biju.

"Y-yeah, of course I do. Why?"

If Kushina had the kyuubi sealed into her only a few years earlier, she would have been able to effectively use its chakra. Her coils were already growing when she received the kyuubi. In the time between her receiving the kyuubi and her coils maturing, the best she could do is channel the chakra sparingly, but she couldn't truly use it. As is, at best, she was at risk of accidentally harming herself if she let go of her emotions and a bit too much of it made its way through her body. Her body could only really handle it in-so-far as being an Uzumaki protected her.

Minato nodded. "Well, I was just thinking… I can only use 35% of the SAICC configuration's predicted chakra capacity – which I used all of to make myself quick, of course – and the last person hooked up to this thing could use 45%, since he was an Uzumaki, which is pretty unfair, really, but he was also pretty young, and even though it's so easily adjustable, I don't think-"

She glared, and he realized he was rambling. It was something that quickly became a common occurrence once they visited Uzushio. She was the one that wanted to visit though, so she couldn't truly complain.

"…so I was thinking, isn't that exactly like you and Mito, with the kyuubi?"

"Huh?"

"You've talked about it before, remember? Mito Uzumaki sealed it into herself when she was an adult, so she couldn't access the kyuubi's chakra even if she wanted to. Her coils didn't even have a door for it, they were fully developed by the time she had the kyuubi's chakra to contend with and they never shifted to accommodate it. Right?"

Not really sure where he was going, Kushina could only nod and wait for him to continue.

He licked his lips and paused for a moment.

"And your coils," he frowned, "were in the middle of growing, but because they were already fairly developed, you can't really act as a jinchuuriki either." Another pause. "You could, however, at least use part of it if you really really tried, and every single jinchuuriki made from newborns that I can think of were incredibly good at using their biju's chakra." A third pause, and he scratched his chin. "…I have no idea how B, that new eight-tails jinchuuriki, can use his biju so well when he didn't get it until he was the same age you did, but lightning nin are weirdos anyway. You're following my train of thought, right?"

"This is the part where you start talking about the seal again," she provided helpfully.

He hummed, nodding his head. A grin spread across his face, and he couldn't hold back a laugh at something she didn't catch, but when he eventually calmed down he would obviously tell her.

"Well… heh, don't you think that the same principle would apply if we linked the seal to a baby?"

"What."

"Think about it! If they grew up with this seal's chakra reinforcing their body, wouldn't their body eventually learn to filter it the same way chakra coils eventually learn to filter biju chakra in jinchuuriki's? Maybe they'll only be able to use one or two percent for the first couple years, but eventually, eventually it'd have to start increas-"

She interrupted him with a long-winded sigh. "Is this the part where you say that you want to start a family, Minato?"

He clicked his tongue, his grin dropped, and he raised a hand.

"Guilty."

«««»»»

"Examine."

«S.A.I.C.C Configuration»
This is the center of the Strength, Agility, Intelligence,
Charisma and Chakra mega-matrix. The configuration is designed to
reinforce the single connected individual it is created to accommodate.
«Connection»
Naruto Uzumaki
«Primary Effects»
Physical reinforcement.
Mental stimulation.
Prediction of significant events.
«Unique»

The SAICC configuration accounted for more than half of the seal. The rest of it dealt with a myriad of other experiments the Uzumaki partook in, of which he could scarcely understand, like the barriers. In examining it though, he was kind of hoping for a little bit more than-

«Authorization Accepted»
Modify?
[Yes] [No]

Oh.

«««»»»

«Skill Lost!»
Examine [Lv.80(MAX)]
«Active»
Provides the user with information about the target.
«Skill Evolution Bonus: Provides approximate statistics of a target»
No cost.

He dismissed the notification without much thought. If he did the rest of it right, then all he had to do was take the brush, and carefully… carefully…

«Skill Discovered!»
Examine [Lv.80(MAX)]
«Active»
Provides approximate statistics of a target
No cost.

«Skill Discovered!»
Observe [Lv.80(MAX)]
«Active»
Provides the user with information about the target.
No cost.

He released a sigh of relief, finally able to seal the brush and ink back into the folder where he'd found it. Separating the old Examine into two skills so that he didn't have to work with the second step every time he wanted to know something would be fantastic… but it wasn't the first thing he had wanted to do. He'd already tried to find whatever secret special and passive skills he might have, but as much as he tried, he couldn't find a thing. Whether that was because there wasn't any left, or that they were somehow hidden, he wasn't sure. That wasn't to say that doing what he ended up doing was easy, though, and if he had messed up… well, he didn't, but his motions were vaguely guided by the system anyway. He was still well aware of the supposed infallibility he had according to his Uzumaki Heritage.

Immediately after finding out that he had free reign to safely change the seal, especially considering that he was knowledgeable enough to simply change some numbers, he had a seriously long debate with himself. This was, of course, because he could simply change his level. The primary reason against it wasn't that it seemed unnecessary, he knew it would be ridiculously easy to die no matter how strong he was; even when he looked to the kage at the very top, none had ever died to old age. It was that the only reason the seal's power intake was limited in the first place, was so his body could acclimate to the chakra before it took too much too fast. The issue with that, of course, is that he had no idea how much he could safely take. As far as he could tell, his dad seemed to have compiled all the test results he could find and devised his own limit with an extremely complex formula he drew up, that Naruto personally had no hope of understanding. After an hour of indecision over whether or not he should simply give himself a heap of levels, he eventually left the option open and moved on to something else.

When he'd eventually found the portion of the matrix that modulated its power draw, he had discovered that the seal governing it drew a percentage equal to his level. That is, at level forty-three, the seal was automatically drawing forty-three percent power. This is the seal that he would change, would he give in to the temptation. Since he had until tomorrow, he would at least add in some kind of cheat-code to do it from a distance, just in case – if he could set something like that up, then he wouldn't fuss too much over leaving himself to his natural progression.

The seal's simplistic representation of level insinuated a number of things.

First; and this one wholly positive, it could only make sense if all of his passives and skills were not powered by the matrix, but only the attributes that he gained from leveling. It would only make sense if his skills and passives were simply a result of the matrix facilitating real, tangential progress. His attributes affected his body – and it was weird to realize that this meant his 'muscles' had to be chakra constructs that constantly required recharge – but it was his skills, such as Taijutsu Prowess; that taught him how to use his body and make him effectively more powerful. Along the same vain, Chakra Reinforcement must be a boost to his ability that anyone could have if they practiced enough, though for Naruto himself the system effectively trained it for him. If the SAICC configuration was somehow destroyed, he would probably retain the benefits of his 'passives' – as far as he could remember how to use them – because they weren't actively born of the seal.

On the flipside, he couldn't increase the level of his skills or passives with fuinjutsu.

Second; and this one a bit worrying, it insinuated that his maximum level was one hundred… but at jounin, he could only go to level eighty. What was he meant to do to go past that? Would the seal let him manually enter in a higher level? He doubted it would be that easy, as his dad seemed to have an awful sense of humor, but he was not about to-

New Quest!
«Reaching the Limit»
You can't reach max level, huh?
Now, how would you fix that?
That's easy, son.
Requirements:
1. Become Hokage
Rewards:
«New Class: Hokage»
«Charisma +100»

Of course his dad would leave something like that in. He decided that level eighty was going to be fine.

Wait! Speaking of quests...

It only took a few seconds of flipping through his backed-up prompts to find what he was looking for.

Ascension [3]
«Complete!»
«Uzushiogakure»
You achieved promotion, found the home of your ancestors,
discovered what happened to it, found their hidden trove of
jutsu and history, and discovered the source of your power.
Requirements:
1. Achieve Jounin Promotion [Complete]
2. Visit Uzushiogakure. [Complete]
3. Discover the library [Complete]
4. Discover the Uzumaki's great secret [Complete]
Rewards:
[New Class: Jounin]
Knowledge: Uzushio's Downfall
Access to the Uzushiogakure Library
Ability to modify and expand Uzushio's greatest asset

It was nothing, then, that he hadn't already fiddled with.

...but it did make him feel somewhat played with, though he could ignore that right now.

According to his clock, he only had a couple hours before he'd have to eat his fill and get to bed. He had to leave tomorrow, so this was – for now – his last chance to touch anything regarding the seal, and he still had a couple quality-of-life improvements in mind. It would've been nice, for example, if he hadn't needed to open his menu and press the screen to input his stat changes during his rush to save Kurenai from Zabuza.

«««»»»

She watched in concern as Minato chewed on a pencil, muttering nonsense.

"Don't you think it's a little bit convoluted?"

His cocked eyebrow told her that he disagreed. "Did you ever play Ninja Fantasy?"

Her mouth gaped. "U-uh, yeah? Didn't Uzu create that series? I remember playing I and II, and I was pretty jealous when-"

He waved her off and nodded, pleased. "Okay. It's just like that."

"…I don't follow."

"It's going to be just like a game."

"The seal?"

"Yep."

"Why? That just…"

"Why not?"

"…that's insanely disrespectful of all the work my family put into this seal."

"See? It'll be fun."

"He's going to hate it."

"How do you know it's a boy?"

"I can tell."

"…how? You know what, no, I don't care. Just trust me, the games were pretty fun, right?"

She reluctantly nodded.

"So, seriously, do you really have anything against it? It's better than just 'Hello, I'm an awesome piece of fuinjutsu reading from a script. Would you like to try increasing your power draw?'" he laughed at his own joke. "Besides, I think I can create a sweet illusion overlay, and I bet I could simplify the seal's functions into categories, like in a game. It would've been a lot easier if I could've pressed a 'make me faster' button, instead of having to come and change bits and pieces of the seal, right? It's not like the kid will be able to touch this kind of fuinjutsu for a long time, and I won't be able to come over to change it manually every time he wants to try something."

"I guess." While Kushina was a bit confused at his insinuation that the two would simultaneously be connected to the seal, she figured he had something in mind.

"Sourpuss. You still think I'll just use our kid as a test-subject, don't you?"

She pouted. "No, I don't."

"Uh-huh. If it helps, I'm totally going to use our kid as a test subject."

She shook her head but couldn't hold in every giggle. "You're pretty bad at lying."

For just an instant, Minato's smile fell, and his eyes spoke of a silent anguish. Kushina mistakenly thought she imagined it, and promptly forgot about it.

«««»»»

Even for the final stage of a chunin exam, Hiruzen was far more tense than usual.

Outwardly, he watched with a tight frown as a surprisingly adept Kabuto Yakushi, previously a disappointing failure, tore apart his poor genin opponent with little regard to the fact that they were both of the Leaf. Perhaps Yakushi's allegiance wasn't quite to him, but nonetheless poor Neji would require a long stay in the hospital.

Inwardly, he prepared himself for the inevitable.

Orochimaru, once his prized student, had been skulking around during the second stage of the exams. Sasuke Uchiha, who Hiruzen had to keep careful watch over – in place of the boy's brother – had been assaulted by his old student in the forest of death, and forcefully given a cursed mark. The rest of the genin team fared no better, and poor Kiba Inuzuka was even eaten alive by one of the sannin's summons. It was only due to the extraordinary circumstances leading to the Inuzuka's death that he chose not to disqualify the two survivors once they reached the tower.

While the death of a genin, the debilitation of a second and the trauma inflicted on another were terrible things, it was all circumstances that Hiruzen had already seen before, and ultimately he was personally unaffected.

If not Orochimaru, but simply another genin team causing this, there would be no cause for concern, not a smidgen. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, and one of his jounin, a rank that was always in exceedingly short supply, was killed within the village during a spy mission that Hiruzen himself assigned him to. Not only is it alarming that someone so skilled at remaining undetected - Gekko Hayate was extremely proficient in the Transparent Escape Technique – was discovered, and that he was killed while stalking Orochimaru's presumed spy, but the man's wounds insinuated that the sand were at fault. Jounin are irreplaceable, but it was in death that Hayate provided the most crucial of information.

In turn, after looking in all the right places, he became rapidly aware of the impending invasion, as did his most trusted shinobi.

Chunin exams were always a time for nerves to be tested. While great for the publicity, and the clients, the 'friendly' competition inherent to chunin exams necessitated that he open the village to foreign shinobi. Compared to other days and events, security would never be as high as it is during the chunin exams, but the village was likewise never so vulnerable.

It was almost unsurprising when Uzushiogakure was invaded and subsequently destroyed while hosting chunin exams, and the village served as an example to those that still practiced the event. Losing the Uzumaki was a harsh blow to their strength that the Leaf wouldn't soon forget. Almost overnight, one of his students went from being an amateur fuinjutsu practitioner to a leading expert of the art, by virtue of having a pittance more experience than the few that remained.

The Uzumaki came to mind because they played a part so crucial to learning of this invasion. A long time ago, though only shortly before Uzushio fell, the Uzumaki, in a show of faith, provided Konoha with its very own state-of-the-art mega-barrier, free of charge, simply to help its stalwart ally. Being designed to detect each and every person that leaves or enters the barrier's perimeter, and even able to individually recognize anyone by the second pass, it has only grown more and more useful as time has passed. The crystal ball linked to the barrier, to be used like a set of all-seeing eyes and ears, was especially irreplaceable.

"What are you going to do about the Uchiha missing his match?"

Knowing that a genin's intentioned tardiness was the least of his concerns, Hiruzen waved his nonchalance down to the replacement proctor, who had been eyeing him keenly. In response, the man made the preplanned call to postpone the match and moved on to the next set. Hiruzen idly realized that not only did he forget to clap for the spy, but that he didn't so much as react when the kazekage's older son forfeited. He supposed he might be acting suspiciously.

"Playing favorites, Sandaime? That's unlike you."

He resisted the urge to frown. Orochimaru's ignorance to the barrier feeding the Konoha Intelligence Division all of his movements and conversations in the past week was a true blessing.

"If one of us were to be playing favourites, I would think it be you, Rasa. You've spoken twice more words of your jinchuuriki than for the collective sum of your other two children."

The skin of the kazekage guffawed and returned its attention to the arena below. Let it not be said that any of his students were terrible actors, but Orochimaru specifically was particularly good at it. Whence it came to the more subtle arts of ninjutsu, Jiraiya had boasted a significant specialization in stealth, Orochimaru was a brilliant actor, and Tsunade-

The Nara struck a brilliant trap through an otherwise obvious red-herring, and Hiruzen reminded himself that he had to focus.

Intelligence was a fantastic equalizer in shinobi, and the Nara clan boasted a particularly high rate of higher-ranked shinobi because of it. Shikamaru Nara, though he just forfeited in an obvious feat of apparent laziness, would probably be promoted. It helped that; indeed, he and most other Leaf shinobi were actively conserving their strength, so he had an excuse. As they were stuck in the middle of the arena and like to be slaughtered, Hiruzen had all of the Leaf contestants pulled aside and warned of the invasion on the cusp of the morning. To their credit, none looked any more nervous than was normal for contestants in a potentially life-ending tournament presented in front of their families and potentially important clients. As carefully trained members of the military, even as children, they were each aware of the dire consequences should they give the impression that they are aware of the invasion, and they did a fine job of acting as they were expected to. Kabuto Yakushi was the only leaf genin participating that was not told, as that would have defeated the purpose.

He realized he was tapping the side of his padded chair in a fit of impatience, and slowly halted the movement.

In the guise of protecting the crowd from the potential problem the ichibi jinchuuriki may or may not impose, which Orochi-Rasa readily agreed with his reasoning on, he had dramatically increased the security around and within the crowd. He had a number of his jounin standing around the rim of the stadium, and once he'd placed as much as he could without being overly suspicious, he had dozens more take on the guises of ordinary civilians sitting within the crowd. The rest of his jounin, as few and wonderfully powerful as they are, are accompanied by myriads of chunin and protecting strategically important locations and assets. Others were ready for exceedingly important counterattacks, and Jiraiya – his only truly loyal student, and the incredibly strong man he was – was at the helm of that. Orochimaru had made modifications to archaic summoning rituals and allocated them to his shinobi to wreak havoc throughout the city. Jiraiya's own summons would play a key role in repelling them.

He frowned. Speaking of jinchuuriki and jounin, he had expected the kyuubi jinchuuriki back by now. Setting the deadline for the final day of the chunin exam didn't mean he wanted the lad to miss it, especially when it turned out that they needed all the help they could get. In retrospect, he should have set the deadline for an earlier date on principle. There was never a completely clean and safe chunin exam, though this one was an admittedly harsh example.

He made every effort to keep himself ready to move once Sasuke Uchiha arrived on schedule, and the ichibi jinchuuriki left its waiting area to confront him.

In the wait that followed, he found himself drawn back to thinking of their own jinchuuriki. As opposed to Suna's, Konoha's jinchuuriki was healthy, fit and of a relatively suitable height for his age. He was also, without the assistance of his biju – almost at all – far above his peers in terms of ability. It was comforting to know that the Leaf's jinchuuriki was objectively stronger than the Sand's. He not only reminded him of his successor – may his soul one day find peace – but of his wayward students. The child was driven to better himself but was without a reason for that drive. Aimless as he was, he was oddly reminiscent of Jiraiya before the war, even if – by any other metric – he was just like his father, down to their crutch.

It was, perhaps, why Jiraiya had always been his ideal choice for hokage, and when he simply wouldn't accept the job, the man's student. An empty slate, over time, grew resistant to dramatic change, and such a man grew the closest to an abject objectivity than most others. While Jiraiya eventually grew to seek peace, traumatized by war, he was perhaps the most realistic man that Hiruzen knew. Minato was another stellar example of a successful man behind a strongly objective personality, though the blond man was quite different to either of them. By necessity, the best kage was both strong, objective, and willful. Both Minato and Jiraiya fit reasonably well, though not without their faults.

He glanced to the animated form of the Yondaime Kazekage who sat an arm's length to his side, rambling incessantly over the fight below. Rasa would have made a good hokage.

Orochimaru would have made a poor hokage. He was not objective, though he was incredibly strong and of unbreakable will. The man feared death so much so that he had experimented on the Leaf's own denizens even while in the running to take the spot of the yondaime. He had, at some point, discarded his own flesh, and taken another's body in his experiments, in an effort to retain a youthful and endless life. By now, Orochimaru must have walked in a dozen other men's skins, and some women aside. Even for a shinobi the man was a monster, and objectively unfit to be hokage. He was the kind of cowardly ruler that would go on to sacrifice the village to save himself.

But like any insane individual, he saw himself in the right, even if he was – paradoxically – intelligent enough to know that he was in the wrong. He had sought to be hokage despite his misgivings and refused to see the reasoning behind Hiruzen's denial in his egotism.

Hiruzen knew that he was the man's target, but Orochimaru was his own mistake, and he was prepared to die to make up for that, so that others didn't have to. Jiraiya was adamantly against his decision, but it was Hiruzen's own to make. He could only hope that he brought the snake down with him, and that when he invariably fell, that Jiraiya would step up to take his place. He had refused before, but he knew that Jiraiya would sooner accept the position than leave it to anyone else. Danzo, who was otherwise technically best suited for the position, was effectively a traitor that worked within the scope of the law, and the only other S-ranked shinobi that technically remained in their employ was a drunkard that he had granted leave to in a moment of weakness. Tsunade proved of a poor mentality, however, and never came back.

He felt the flair of chakra before it went off and had already moved into a leap before the room exploded into smoke, Orochimaru and his two guards – two swiftly became four – followed him closely. They landed on the roof of a near building, and he watched wearily as those accompanying his student spread out, and immediately acted to summon Enma when they began spinning through handseals. His personal squad of ANBU had just barely followed them to the building by the time a twice-layered wall of corrosive purple chakra sprung up between and around the sannin's underlings, leaving his squad useless outside of the barrier's perimeter, and his student's guards protected from either side.

Despite his apparent success, the man still wasn't pleased. "So you knew!" Orochimaru sneered, staring to the arena below as Hiruzen likewise looked down, to find someone's mass genjutsu proving utterly ineffective to his ready and waiting forces. Aware that his squad would otherwise do nothing, he gestured for them to assist in the chaos below.

Despite himself and the situation, Hiruzen grinned and threw off his ceremonial robes, leaving himself in the garments – armor and helmet included – that he had worn in his youth. In his aging body, Hiruzen's speed and physical strength had diminished over the years, but his reaction time and sensory perception remained more than good enough to prove himself formidable. That said nothing of his knowledge, knowledge that hailed him world-wide as The Professor among all shinobi. He knew that the title irked his offending student, since, if nothing else, Orochimaru was a scientist with an ego. Doubtlessly, he'd think the title belonged to himself.

Wearing armor of all things proved beyond paranoia that he was fully aware of the snake's plot, and it did not miss the man.

"It is of no matter," Orochimaru said, feigning indifference. "While I had hoped this would be more satisfying, you will get what you deserve today." While speaking, he began running through handseals in a sequence that Hiruzen easily recognized.

Adamantine staff in hand… he did nothing and watched in no slight satisfaction as Orochimaru's face twisted into something foul. The jutsu did nothing, his sacrifice void, the coffins and sacrifices destroyed and detained as soon as Orochimaru had waltzed into the stadium's kage box that morning. It would've been a ridiculous folly to let that jutsu succeed.

"I may be older, weaker and slower, Orochimaru," Hiruzen's face morphed into a grin, and his tone picked up a competitive edge. "But I will not be easy prey. Make one mistake and watch what happens."

«««»»»

"You have to be kidding me."

New Quest!
«Konoha Crush»
Using the open borders typical of a nation
hosting the chunin exams, the Sand and Sound
forces, commanded by Orochimaru, have invaded
Konohagakure. Minimize casualties.
Requirements:
1. Konohagakure survives
2. Save Konoha inhabitants [0/100] (optional)
3. Prevent Hiruzen Sarutobi's death (optional)
4. Defeat Orochimaru (optional)
Rewards:
1. Retain [Jounin] status.
2. Self-respect.
3. Konoha's gratitude.
4. +?

There was so much to unpack from that pop-up, but the nature of the quest didn't leave him any time. He had honestly been ready to enjoy the break for lunch too, having accidentally come across a deer that looked unnaturally delicious after a month of military rations. Salty that he had to put out the fire and leave the raw meat as it was, he nonetheless quickly left without even bothering to seal up the cooking pot.

He'd had enough wits about him to leave behind an easy way to get back to Uzushio, but he'd never taken the risk to leave the same seal at home. If he'd known that they were going to be invaded of all things while he was gone, he would've bitten the bullet and done it.

Fully cognizant that someone was dying right now, he picked up the pace and effectively became a blur.

«««»»»

When the attack was so obviously predicted, Kabuto didn't let it affect him too much. After all, he still had another job to do… but when he turned to leave the stadium, he barely ducked a swipe that would have left him bereft of a head.

A familiar woman dropped to her feet in front of him. "Ya think you can just leave, kid?"

He scoffed and pushed up his glasses. "Anko."

"Anko-senpai," she enunciated. "Be polite. I'll have you know I'm your superior, as Orochi-fuck-face's first apprentice. I'm not allowed to deal with him, because the hokage called dibs. But you? I'll enjoy this."

It was no matter to Kabuto. This insane woman hadn't a clue what she was getting herself into.

«««»»»

A ridiculously big snake abruptly tore through Konoha's wall and into the streets like a starving Gamabunta would crash into a buffet. The damage made Jiraiya cringe.

Poof.

"Yo."

"Oi, Gamakichi! Are they all ready?!"

"Yessir! Hurry up, they're gettin' antsy!"

«««»»»

Kurenai carefully wove genjutsu around those that were affected by the spy's knock-out genjutsu, rendering the civilians within relatively safe and invisible. Once she was able to spare the time to look around and find her team, she discovered that the situation was being handled above and beyond expectations.

The hokage's decision to go extremely top-heavy by putting only his very strongest – almost all of his jounin – within the stadium had been an incredibly wise decision. They were able to effectively launch their own ambush, and those that may have killed some of them with the element of surprise could do nothing when the same advantage was instead given to the Leaf's most adept.

She spied her pair of genin safely retreating to the shelters, both to hide and to protect the civilians within, and decided they would be fine. The fighting within the stadium was already winding down, though the fighting outside of the stadium roared, ripe with shouts and explosions. Gazing to the massive purple barrier across from the stadium had her gritting her teeth, but she had to move on and help elsewhere. The hokage, who's arena was now surrounded with hopeful spectators that she was both annoyed at but could relate with, clearly wasn't doing so well. She spied someone's clone attempting to get through the barrier and lost a bit of hope when the earth it was made up of dissolved to dust.

The ichibi sat within the grounds of the stadium roared, and the sound set her back into the correct mindset. She had her job to do, just as – she gazed down to the shifting sands below – others had their jobs to do. She could only hope that the hokage survived and that the Leaf's apparent mokuton user did his job, and she left with several others to commence the counterattack.

«««»»»

It was with a strong regret, but an equally strong resolve that Naruto avoided entering any of the conflict until he could find the old man. Nothing was more important than saving the hokage, especially when he still had so many things he needed to ask him about.

That, and of course; even if they didn't really talk, the hokage was one of his few acquaintances.

After finding a frazzled Kurenai, he immediately moved to her and asked about the old man. Now he was outside the stadium and looking to the next building over. It did not look good.

He ran up the building and stopped beside the huge purple barrier, eyes searching for someone he knew, when he spied Squirrel – the ANBU that worked in the hokage's office that he accidentally sent to the hospital that one time. He still felt bad about that.

"Oi, Squirrel," he quickly stopped by the ANBU's side. The man sat crouched beside the barrier watching the battle within intently, while one of his squad mates futilely tried to create a leak in the barrier. When Squirrel cocked his head, Naruto asked what was going on.

The man behind the mask almost seemed like he wasn't going to answer, but when the hokage had almost gotten incapacitated three different times in one moment, he eventually did so. "Sand and Sound attacked. We prepared. Hokage-sama honourably chose to deal with Orochimaru, but you can see how that's going. The barrier is impassable." The man's tone was dry, humourless and unhappy, understandably.

The hokage in question took a savage elbow to the face, blood erupted, and he barely stumbled out of the way of the blade held in the same arm when it extended. He watched as the hokage attempted a skilful counter that simply scratched the pale-man's cheek and landed himself on the ground.

While the exchange was invariably eye-catching, it caught Naruto's eyes for a completely different reason to the onlookers.

It was far, far too fast.

'Examine. Examine.'

[Hiruzen Sarutobi]
«Third Hokage»
STR: 429
AGI: 498
INT: 260
CHA: 200
CHK: 5500
[Buffs]
[Chakra Enhancement]
[Taijutsu]

[Orochimaru]
«Snake Sannin»
STR: 504
AGI: 559
INT: 255
CHA: 100
CHK: 6400
[Buffs]
[Chakra Enhancement]
[Taijutsu]

…Neither Zabuza nor Mizuki had those buffs, so there was clearly something going on that he didn't know about. While he thought he might have a way in, would he even be able to do anything?

He ruthlessly squashed the alien fear that welled up in his gut, a fear that only festered at seeing numbers higher than his own for the very first time. The situation was terrible before the enemy was suddenly a billion times stronger than him. He had to focus.

He watched as Hiruzen pulled off a legendary manoeuvre with a wind blade that ended with Orochimaru losing a finger when he should have lost his arm, and it occurred to him that he even if he was outclassed, he still had to try. He picked a pair of kunai from his pouch, shoved one into his off-hand for the Kenjutsu boost to his agility and reflexes – actually, how the hell did that work? That wasn't a realistic passive! - and he chose that kunai to activate Weapon Channeling: Lightning for the further boost to his reflexes. For the other, he carefully held it in the palm of the other hand and focused to bring about a jutsu he'd never truly used, even if he left a variation of it back in Uzushio for convenience.

«Skill Level Up!»
Chakra Transcription
[Lv.1 » Lv.5]
Speed of seal creation increased.
Lifetime: 100 seconds » 500 seconds
Uses: 1 » 2

A bright light blue seal emerged from his palm and flowed onto the kunai, drawn with chakra as opposed to ink that he didn't have, and he released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when it solidified onto the blade. He wasn't sure that would work.

"Observe." If he said it out-loud, nobody bothered to acknowledge it.

«Kunai»
Once a gardening tool, the cheap yet sturdy
nature of this weapon made it a popular item
to add to any shinobi's arsenal. This kunai is
transcribed with a Hiraishin seal.
[Effect: Hiraishin]
Allows the seal creator to instantaneously teleport themselves,
others, objects or chakra constructs anywhere within three feet
of the seal location. This seal was formed with chakra, and as
such is temporary. It allows for only two uses.

When he accidentally learned this from the scroll of seals, this is not the way he thought he'd first use it, if he ever used it at all. It was going to be a problem to explain how he learned it, but it would be a much bigger problem if the hokage died when he might've been able to do something about it.

He looked back at the barrier. Really, truly looked at it, and estimated that the gap within the pair of barriers – the gap was just wide enough to comfortably contain the casters of the barriers - was about two and a half feet apart. Theoretically, with three feet to work with, he would be able to cross from outside of the barriers to within the inside barrier if his kunai is just about against the wall.

Time was ticking, the hokage just took an ugly hit from the tip of Orochimaru's blade that left his front swallowed in blood, and this was his last opportunity to change his mind.

'Stats.'

What appeared was an interface he created to be like an Examine for himself the night before. It only showed totals, and as that made it easier to understand, it effectively replaced his old attributes page.

[Naruto Uzumaki]
«Jounin»
STR: 289
AGI: 348
INT: 384
CHA: 73
CHK: 9830
Points: 15

"Points, Agility." He watched as the points value shifted directly into a zero. That was the voice command he'd wanted. Any little bit helped, and the effect of STR dropped off after a certain point, whereas AGI did not. He blinked when the interface did not change to show AGI: 363, but instead it presented a much heftier AGI: 398. That's an insane multiplier, and it did serve to make him feel slightly better about this. The sudden tension in his muscles attested to the difference.

Squirrel laid a hand on his shoulder. "You would be better served helping with evacuation instead of sitting-"

"I've got this, Squirrel."

"…you do, do you?" he asked doubtfully. "What do you 'got', jounin?"

The blond shook his head, content to milk some surprise out of what would ultimately earn him a lot of trouble. "Just have the medics on standby, the old man's in bad shape."

To his credit, Squirrel didn't ask again.

But he wished he had, when in a flash of silver, Naruto Uzumaki was suddenly inside the barrier.

...inside the barrier, and well aware that the only way the Sandaime could be saved would be if he himself took his place.

«««»»»

Hiruzen struggled to stay on his feet, the gentle encouragement from Enma perhaps the only thing that kept him going to this point. While not uncurable, the poison lathering the sword that Orochimaru almost carelessly waved around would soon enough kill him within minutes, and he would bleed out before then.

Orochimaru laughed giddily, clearly quite capable of taking great pleasure from inflicting injury to his person. All Hiruzen had been able to do was remove a pinkie, and perhaps burn the man's back. The roof was utterly decimated by his own earth and fire collaboration jutsu, but it had done little for him in the end. It wasn't a terrible feeling being beaten when he had done all he could, but it soured his mouth that he would have squashed his student had he gone to the lengths for youth that Orochimaru had. Such disgusting acts should not be rewarding his ridiculously gross and malicious student.

"Does it feel good, sensei? It's often said that the master is to be overjoyed when the student surpasses him in his trade." Orochimaru took an odd pose, one hand on a hip and the other over his chin. He was having far too much fun at Hiruzen's expense. "Maybe not in this case, I suppose. As you are about to die, I would be so glad to tell all people of your last words, if you would have me."

As one of the few that could comfortably say they truly knew Orochimaru, Hiruzen could say with confidence that he did, indeed, hate him.

But when he opened his mouth to offer his best and perhaps last rebuttal, he was interrupted by a flash of silver that he spied in the corner of his eyes, and both his and his student's heads snapped in its direction.

Naruto, of all people, with a clone by his side, stood with the stupidest half-grin half-grimace – the most expressive he'd ever seen the child – on his face.

"Accept it!" the boy yelled.

That boy was in way over his head! "Accept what!"

A slew of things happened at once.

A strong force of chakra pulled at his core, and he at once let it take him. He fell to a crouch by the boy's side, the clone took his place, Naruto offered him a wink, and in a flash of silver, he was suddenly on the outside of the barrier.

In shock, there was naught he could do but accept the emergency first-aid from his equally surprised guards and watch as the boy's clone dispersed and Orochimaru immediately moved to kill him.

«««»»»

Orochimaru was particularly displeased, but he had always prided himself in being able to make the most of a poor situation and killing Konoha's jinchuuriki was as good as killing Hiruzen himself. The biju would be released, and it would inevitably kill Hiruzen regardless, for he was the type of man to sacrifice himself to stop the beast. He felt an incredible welling of frustration in his gut at the old man surviving – for now – but he was patient.

His Sound Four looked quite confused, but he waved off their concern and gestured for them to keep doing what they were doing. They were useful, if perhaps a bit dumb. He spared a moment to look around, through the barrier, and seeing the old man getting treated so quickly ticked him off. Stopping to treat the old man when they knew he could order the barrier away and attack at a moment's notice was rather insulting.

He was doing everything he could to help them, but by the very nature of an invasion, he knew that he would not be appreciated.

Without any of the flair he'd admit to using against Hiruzen earlier, Orochimaru stepped forward and dashed toward the stupid and nervous blond child, his sword already halfway through its arc by the time he reached striking distance.

He would always remember the visible ease with which the jinchuuriki anticipated and moved with the strike, the edge of Kusanagi's blade practically melding to and moving with the blond's chest until he twisted and bent back, his blade skimming the tip of the kid's nose but not actually piercing the skin.

A fluke.

He swept the blade back, watched as it was just as easily avoided with minimal movement, and kicked the blond harshly in the stomach. That was not avoided and he punched forward with his off-hand and sent the blond sprawled to the floor.

"You've had very impressive training for a twelve-year-old."

He stepped back and allowed the boy his space, content with his superiority. The jinchuuriki, shaking, pushed himself slowly to his feet, and spat a disgusting glob of blood. "Thirteen," he corrected.

Orochimaru truly couldn't care any less.

«««»»»

AN: Alright! Lots and lots and lots happened! I have viable explanations for why nobody else he'd checked had been buffed like Orochimaru and Hiruzen had, least of all being that only Naruto bothers being ready to fight 24/7. They'll come later in story. We had a bunch of old Minato/Kushina interactions, some world building, some optimization, some explanations for why things are the way they are, and a large portion of this story's chunin-exam arc completed this chapter.

I won't bother with writing up a character sheet chapter for the other story, because practically nothing has changed. I hope the wait was worth it, I can't realistically hold my old schedule at this point, and I might permanently shift into the long-wait + longer-chapter way of updating. It gave me a lot of time to think about the chapter and tie everything together.