Konohagakure
Chizuru and Hinata walked together down the street, they had finished another day at the academy and were on their way to Hinata's. It had been a while since her meeting with the Hokage, and Chizuru had been making use of the supplies she was given to complete her mission.
She was given assorted hair whitening products, as well as some nutrient pills crafted specifically to make hair smoother and less spiky. Their purpose was to make Chizuru less reliant on her henge, and more reliant on chakraless ninja techniques. As well as hide her alternate identity from dojutsu users.
As the two girls neared the Hyuga clan compound conversation began to pick up again.
"So what are you going to do tonight?" Chizuru asked.
"Huh? Oh. I guess I'll take care of the garden... Until father decides it's time to train..." Hinata sighed dejectedly, then continued. "What about you?"
"I'm going to continue my fuuinjutsu training with some kage bunshin, and then work on my taijutsu with a few more." Chizuru said nonchalantly.
"You're really lucky... To be able to do the kage bunshin no jutsu that is... At least at the level you can..." Hinata mumbled.
"I guess I am." Chizuru said while scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.
"Um... Why do you train so hard... Or at least... As hard..." Hinata trailed off.
"I train as hard as I do because I want to be the greatest ho-" Chizuru began before coughing into her fist, "Kunoichi ever."
"Are you alright?" Hinata asked.
"Yeah I'm fine, I almost swallowed wrong was all." Chizuru said.
"Almost?" Hinata questioned quietly.
"I caught it at the last second, anyways we should train together one of these days." Chizuru said.
"Yeah... That sounds like fun..." Hinata said.
The two arrived at Hinata's and parted ways with a hug.
Elsewhere in Hi no Kuni
"I swear sensei's off his rocker." Jiraiya said dejectedly.
He was currently leaping through a thick forest toward the last known location of his current mission's fist target.
"I understand bringing her back into the fold, but him?" Jiraiya sighed, "This is going to be very troublesome."
"You know what I mean?" He turned toward his two ANBU partners to gauge their reaction, and saw that neither seemed to care.
"Kids these days... No respect!" He grumbled.
One week later
Chizuru put down her brush and gazed upon her paper. She looked between it, and the yondaime's book a few dozen times before shutting the book.
"I think I've finally got it." Chizuru said.
She placed the book's back on her most recent practice paper, and pulsed a small amount of chakra into the seal. The seal lit up and scanned the practice paper, before burning it and puffing out a small rolled up piece of paper.
Chizuru confusedly picked up the paper, and unrolled it. It was a note that read, 'Congratulations! You have completed the first book, and are well on the way to becoming a fuuinjutsu master. The yeast results show extreme promise, and as such you will skip directly into book four, to deeper learn the concept of sealing, and take your first steps into sealcrafting. The other two books would have expanded upon your calligraphy, but it seems you need no help in that front. Now, place your thumb on the small sealing matrix on the bottom right of the back cover, and pulse some chakra into it after putting this note on the main matrix.'
Doing as instructed Chizuru pulsed her chakra and the book poofed out of her hands, and was replaced with the fourth book, 'Fuuinjutsu for beginners: Book 4P of 6, A Real Prodigy I See'.
"Book 4P?" Chizuru questioned.
She flipped the book open and read the first page.
'If you are the prodigy my last book thought you to be, then you are probably wondering what the 'P' in the title stands for. It's simple, by proving yourself in the first book, you've been given the 1st book of the Prodigy branch of the series.' Chizuru stopped reading for a moment to chuckle at the yondaime's eccentricity. 'In this first book you will learn all about sealing theory, and making the first three essential seals. Have fun!'
Chizuru flipped the page, read the first few lines, then got up to go make a cup of coffee.
"It's going to be a long night." She sighed.
The next day
"Young Chizuru, I have some grave news for you..." Hiruzen said to the child.
"What do you mean?" Chizuru asked.
"It's about your parents... They were found dead this morning... An accident occurred, and their cart went over a cliff... I'm sorry..." He struggled to get out.
"My... No... You're lying! You have to be lying!" Chizuru screamed.
"I'm afraid not." Hiruzen began, then motioned his ANBU to leave. Once they were gone he continued. "Good acting. You almost had me convinced."
"Thank you Jiji. I think it's all the caffeine and tiredness." Chizuru explained while scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.
"Fuuinjutsu?" Hiruzen prodded.
"Fuuinjutsu." Chizuru replied.
"How far?" He asked.
"I just finished book 4P before getting here." Chizuru said.
"4P? So you're a natural I see." Hiruzen joked.
"Yeah! I have something I'm good at Jiji, and the yondaime keeps putting little notes, or slips of paper that kinda make me feel like he's right there teaching me." Chizuru said.
"Little notes?" Hiruzen questioned.
"Oh like, if the books open for 6 hours a note poofs onto the page you're reading to remind you to stretch, eat and get some water. Or there are the occasional 'You're doing great' in the margins. It just feels so warm, and nice to get praise from my hero like that." Chizuru explained.
"He always was a bit quirky when it came to writing... At least Jiraiya stopped him from making the Fuuinjutsu pop-up books he wanted to." Hiruzen said.
"Pop-up books?" Chizuru asked with a sparkle in her eyes.
"Uh oh." Hiruzen sighed.
With Jiraiya
"Hime." Jiraiya greeted Tsunade.
"Baka." Tsunade greeted back.
"Sensei wants you to return home." He said, while holding out the mission scroll.
"I have no home." She said while taking it, "At least, not anymore..."
She opened the scroll and her eyes seemingly bulged out of her head.
"What the hell!?" She screamed, "Does he know how much debt I'm in? Does he know how much the new medicnin program will cost? Is he crazy?"
"Yes, yes, and maybe." Jiraiya said.
"But... But..." Tsunade stuttered.
"No buts, technically this is an order, but he's at least giving you some real incentive. Plus, you'd finally be able to see your goddaughter." He said.
"Goddaughter? I thought... Wait... Does that mean-" Tsunade began.
"Yep, just like Hatake." Jiraiya said.
"Huh. Kid's gonna need all the help she can get I guess..." Tsunade started, "I... Fine. I'll come back... But send Sensei this."
Tsunade pulled out a scroll and quickly wrote something down before handing it to Jiraiya.
"Alright. Let's get onto the second part of the mission then." Jiraiya sighed.
Back in Konoha
Hiruzen had just sent Chizuru home with a note for class, and a small container of fake tears. When suddenly a road hopped onto his desk.
"A message from Jiraiya already?" He mused.
He unrolled the scroll and stared dead-eyed at the message for a good minute.
"Goddammit." Hiruzen sighed.
On the scroll was a massive middle finger and the words 'You'd better buy some sake for my welcome home party!'
"You know. I think I could go for a walk right about now." Hiruzen said, then got up and headed for the door.
Three Months Later, Training Ground 3
Chizuru summoned a shadow clone and without giving an order, it started running to the wooden posts on the other side of the field. Chizuru pulled out a sealing scroll and quickly began drawing a sealing matrix on it, when she finished, the clone reached the post. Chizuru then grabbed a sack off her belt, as the clone began charging her, and poured it's contents onto the matrix. Out of the sack came a bunch of shattered kunai pieces. Quick as she could, Chizuru sealed the kunai pieces into the matrix and pulled the scroll out across her chest. The clone was bearing down on her, so she pulsed a bit of chakra into the seal and released a hail of metal onto the clone.
"Gotcha." Chizuru said cockily.
The metal shards flew at the clone four times faster than Chizuru could throw, and spread out as they neared their target. The clone dispersed when the shards made contact, and Chizuru watched as the pieces shot toward the wooden posts.
"Hell yeah! Maelstrom variant storage seal field test successful!" Chizuru shouted.
Chizuru stared at the now metal embedded wooden posts, and smiled triumphantly. A fully realized version of this move would need a name... I got it! It will be called Fuuinton: Tetsu no Dai Uzu no Jutsu(Sealing Style: Iron Maelstrom Jutsu). Chizuru silently contemplated. After packing up her supplies she sat down in front of the posts to relax and get a drink of water out of her canteen. A few minutes passed and Chizuru noticed a familiar bluenette walking onto the field.
"Hinata-chan! Ready for today's training?" Chizuru called out, while waving.
"Mhmm" Hinata hummed.
The two had been training together for a few weeks now, and were finally falling into a groove. Chizuru would summon fifteen clones, five for fuuinjutsu theory, five for taijutsu sparring, and five for helping Hinata with whatever she was training with. They would start by getting into their stretches, they would then go for as long as they can before one of them decides they need a break, then they'd take a quick snack break, and get back to training right after. Today, however, Chizuru wanted to talk with Hinata before training.
"Hinata-chan, I learned something really cool from hokage-jiji." Chizuru began.
"What is... I mean... What did you learn?" Hinata mumbled.
"He told me how we could end up on a team together!" Chizuru shouted ecstatically.
"He did?" Hinata asked.
"Yeah, well he told me how some of the teams were made, but still." Chizuru began, "Apparently every year there is a team that is made up of the rookie of the year, the top kunoichi, and the dead last of the class."
"Really? What kind of balance... Or more... What purpose..." Hinata wondered aloud.
"Jiji said something about that team being a 'frontline assault team' or 'the heavy hitters' or something like that." Chizuru quoted.
"Hmm... Wait... But if it's made up of the rookie of the year... A-and the top kunoichi... But..." Hinata trailed off.
"The rookie of the year spot isn't just for boys, I think, so we both can be the top two if we try hard enough." Chizuru said.
"But who would be the dead last?" Hinata asked as confidently as she could, after taking a few deep breaths while Chizuru spoke that is.
"Huh. I don't know. Any guesses?" Chizuru asked.
"Oh... Uh... Maybe Kiba?" Hinata said.
"That's what I would think, but then again he isn't a terrible ninja. He may be dumb, but he's still stronger than most in our class... That and he has clan jutsu, and a ninken." Chizuru explained, "Maybe... Ooh! Maybe one of the girls who are too focused on getting with Sasuke, rather than training?"
"Th-that could make sense..." Hinata muttered.
"Now to guess who." Chizuru said while leaning further back against the post.
"Maybe Ino?" Hinata suggested.
"Nah, she has her clan and their techniques at her disposal. Also Jiji said that there'd be another Ino-Shika-Cho team this time." Chizuru began, "I could see Sakura filling that role."
"Why? Doesn't she have the best grades... Written test wise that is... Out of all of us?" Hinata asked.
"Yeah I guess. But you also have to remember that she's bottom of the class taijutsu wise, and, from what she told me, her chakra pool is practically non-existent." Chizuru began, then sighed, "I hope she starts working to better herself... As her friend I can't possibly bear to see her get hurt, but the way she is now, I don't see anything but that happening."
"It's okay Chizuru-chan... I understand..." Hinata comforted.
"I know, I know, I just don't want to see my precious people get hurt..." Chizuru said, then rose to her feet.
"C'mon, I think it's about time we started working toward that team we want." Chizuru said.
Meanwhile at the Hokage Tower
"Chizuru, you could convince a turtle it's a whale, and then make it change it's mind again." Hiruzen joked.
He was looking into his crystal ball while he took a break from the endless mountain of what some called 'paperwork', but he knew the truth, that mountain is hell itself. He took a puff off his pipe, then released it with a sigh. The old man put the crystal ball away and turned back toward his pile of paperwork, when suddenly a toad leaped into his office.
"Jiraiya sent another message? This soon?" Hiruzen questioned, then grabbed the scroll from the toad and watched as it disappeared.
Hiruzen opened the scroll and saw a highly detailed mission report sitting on it, and the words that popped out to him most were, 'mission complete'.
One Day ago, Forest in Western Hi no Kuni
Jiraiya motioned for his team to stop, much to Tsunade's annoyance, and leaped onto the forest floor.
"We'll camp here." He said.
"You do realize it's noon right?" Tsunade growled.
"Yeah, which is the perfect time to stop. We have been searching for two months straight since our last trip into a town, so I believe we can take a day to relax." Jiraiya said, then looked to the ANBU "At least as much as we're able."
The group began setting up their camp, minus Jiraiya, who just needed to unseal his tent, and belongings. Jiraiya sat in his tent, which was five sizes too large, and pulled out his writing supplies. He sat and wrote in his tent for all of 4 hours before he was called out for dinner. The group ate together, and Jiraiya excused himself to use the bathroom. After Jiraiya finished, he started walking back to camp, when a kunai flew past his head and into the tree to his right.
"I was wondering when you would show up." Jiraiya joked.
"An informal visit I see." The assailant deduced.
"No, completely formal, in fact," Jiraiya began, then tossed a scroll in the direction of the attacker, "You've got new orders."
"Orders?" The man asked.
"Yeah, sensei's acting all uppity and is recalling all the powerful shinobi he can." Jiraiya explained.
"The organization's not going to like me leaving like this..." The man said.
"You wont be up and leaving just like that, just read the scroll already Itachi." Jiraiya said.
Itachi opened the scroll and scanned through it before rolling the scroll back up.
"So..." Itachi began, "I guess I'll be seeing you in four years."
"Don't get your hopes up kid, you already know we'll be seeing eachother next year." Jiraiya joked.
"But what if I don't think he's..." Itachi started.
"Ready?" Jiraiya finished, "Kid, I don't think he'll ever be ready. But, that doesn't stop time from progressing and enemies from growing stronger."
"Right. He needs strength... And I guess... He needs me..." Itachi sighed.
"Right. Have fun Itachi, and, try not to get into trouble." Jiraiya said as he turned to leave.
"Hmph." Itachi hummed, before shunshining away.
Four Months Later, Konoha Ninja Academy
Chizuru settled into her taijutsu stance and watched as Hinata activated her byakugan across from her. Her byakugan would have normally worried Chizuru, but recently an old lady set up shop in the village's main hospital and called her in for the occasional checkup. The appointments were established to further Chizuru's disguise, what with chakra infusions that were meant to make certain hormones produce quicker, or in greater quantities, or others the opposite. Some of the appointments had her getting treatment on her eyes, which, to her surprise, was able to change their natural pigment to the green she had chosen for her henge, or getting her whole body infused with special chakra that was meant to change properties within her cells, or something like that, she could only follow so much of what the old lady was saying.
Hinata and Chizuru were getting ready to have their first one-on-one spar, as their names were pulled to begin the kunoichi bracket of the taijutsu spar. They hadn't attempted a one-on-one before, because they wished for people to see how much they had grown since they began training together.
"Alright, I want a nice clean fight, taijutsu only, whoever leaves the ring first is eliminated, and the winner moves onto the next stage." Iruka announced, "Any questions?"
When neither party answered, he left the ring and stood on the sidelines.
"Ready?" Iruka began, "Begin!"
The two flew at eachother and Chizuru made the first move by moving her fist in for a punch. Hinata saw this and bobbed to the side while throwing a jab toward Chizuru's shoulder. The white haired girl predicted this however, and pulled back her punch and rolled backwards out of reach of the jab, while kicking out at Hinata with her left foot. Hinata reacted by leaping backwards, which forced her on the defensive. Chizuru threw a kick with her right foot, which Hinata dodged, then punched with her left hand, another dodge, before trying to sweep Hinata's feet out from under her.
Hinata seeing this as her opening leaped into the air and threw a roundhouse kick toward Chizuru's head, which she caught. Hinata used the leverage of Chizuru's hold on her ankle to throw herself toward the girl with a punch. Chizuru released Hinata and brought her arms up in an 'x' to absorb the punch, and skidded back a foot when it made contact.
The two threw themselves at eachother again, and again started trading blows, Chizuru got a punch in on Hinata's shoulder and the two separated, then flew again into combat. Hinata got a solid strike with her knee into Chizuru's chest, and the two went back and forward, each solid hit made the crowd lean in closer, and watch with further interest, while every dodge was a spectacle to see. The two spun around one another, and traded blows as often as they could, until they separated and took a step back from one another to catch their breath.
"You're way better than I expected." Chizuru complimented.
"You too." Hinata said simply.
"But it's time to end this." Chizuru said.
The two launched at eachother again, and once more began trading blows. A kick here, a punch there, and finally, a tackle. Chizuru leaped into Hinata and wrapped her arms around her back as they flew toward the edge of the ring. Hinata tried to wriggle out of the grip, but couldn't and the two laded on the ground as Iruka called out Chizuru's victory.
"That was SO much fun!" Chizuru yelled while properly hugging Hinata.
"Y-yeah!" Hinata squeaked out.
The crowd of kids was cheering wildly at such an awesome spar, while Iruka tried to settle them down, to get the next participants into the ring. Chizuru released Hinata and got to her feet, she then held out her hand to lift Hinata off the ground.
"Wanna get some Ichiraku's after class?" Chizuru asked.
"S-sure!" Hinata replied louder than she planned.
"Hell yeah!" Chizuru said, "I'll pay don't worry."
"Y-yeah..." Hinata mumbled.
"Hey let's go sit together to watch the rest of the fights." Chizuru said, while pulling Hinata to the bench beside the ring.
Later that day
Chizuru and Hinata sat together and ate their fill of ramen, joking all the while. They finished up and Chizuru paid like she said she would, before heading home. Chizuru walked Hinata home, before setting off to her own place. While walking she began to lose herself in thought. Only five months until we become ninja... I really need to think of a proper outfit don't I... Oh but I'd need to get something custom made... And replacements for it... Damn... That's gonna empty Gama-chan more than I want to right now... Maybe Jiji can help me get it! Yeah, he'll definitely help! Now what's for dinn- Before she could finish her thought process she bumped into someone.
"Sorry!" Chizuru called out.
The man who she bumped into turned around and stared at her for a moment before smiling.
"No no, it's alright, I'm the one who suddenly stopped." The raven haired man said.
The two stared at each other for a minute, before Chizuru got bored and started looking around. She looked at what he was previously staring at, and saw that they were standing in front of the Uchiha Clan compound.
"Did you know them?" Chizuru asked.
"Yeah, I was friends with a few of them." He answered.
"Must be hard then..." Chizuru said sadly.
"Hm?" The man hummed.
"Losing your precious people can't ever be fun..." She continued, to which the man sighed.
"You'd be right, it is really hard." He agreed.
"You look like someone I know, but you're not as much of a teme as him." Chizuru changed the subject.
"Oh really," the man started, then gave something eerily like a knowing smile, "And what's his name?"
"His name is Sasuke, and he's got a real 'thousand-mile-pole-up-his-ass' personality." She joked, to which the man laughed heartily.
"Really now?" The man asked then looked at the setting sun, "It's getting late, shouldn't you be getting home to your parents?"
"Oh, I... Uh yeah..." She mumbled.
"Goodnight." He called, then turned to leave.
"Goodnight." She said.
That Night, Hokage Office
The hokage sat in his office and stared out the window, he sent his ANBU guard out of his office in anticipation of his special guest. Hiruzen was starting to wonder where his guest was, when, as if on queue, he appeared behind him bowing in full ANBU garb.
"Weasel reporting for duty Hokage-sama." The ANBU stated.
"There's no need for that, you're ex-ANBU now." Hiruzen sighed.
The ANBU took off his mask and in his place stood Itachi.
"Now Itachi, it's good to see you again. Anything to report?" Hiruzen asked.
"Yes sir." He began, "The network was a total mess, and took me nearly the whole period in between receiving my orders and now to fix it back up."
"Figures, Jiraiya was starting to drown himself in his sorrow before I recalled him. What is the situation of the network now?" Hiruzen questioned.
"From the stories I've heard, and some of the documents given to me by Jiraiya-sama himself, it is running smoother than it did in its prime." Itachi reported.
"Good." Hiruzen commended.
"The next order of business is in regards to S-Rank traitor Orochimaru." Itachi started, to which Hiruzen nearly visibly flinched, "After his departure from the Akatsuki, it seems as though he took it upon himself to take over Ta no Kuni, and establish a new Daimyoship, as well as a hidden village of his own."
"He what!?" Hiruzen yelled.
"I have no idea how it slipped past the network before, but, after renewing it to it's former glory, we were easily able to put two and two together, especially with how much Oto no Kuni smells of snake." Itachi reported.
"I take it Oto is the new name of the land?" Hiruzen asked.
"Yes sir." Itachi answered.
"Anymore?" Hiruzen prodded.
"Nothing important, the rest is written on this report." Itachi said while pulling a scroll out of his pocket.
"Good. You're dismissed, but." Hiruzen said.
"But?" Itachi asked.
"I just wanted to ask how your hospital trip was." Hiruzen said, while smiling darkly.
"It was fine, why?" Itachi asked, while trying not to sweat.
"Oh no reason, a small toad just told me that someone was getting torn a new asshole from our resident slug princess." Hiruzen said.
"That was definitely not me." Itachi lied.
"Right." Hiruzen said, "Have a good night, Itachi."
"Good night Hokage-sama." Itachi said.
One Month Later, Park in Konoha
A group of three academy students sat together in the shade of a tree, Shikamaru and Choji, who were frequenters of this spot, and their friend Chizuru, who had only joined them a few times before. Choji and Chizuru were munching on some chips together, while Shikamaru laid down trying to sleep in the shade.
"It's weird to think we'll be ninja so soon." Choji said.
"Yeah, only four months left." Chizuru agreed.
"It's a good thing this month's our last break before the three month grind for our final grades." Choji said.
"More like 'it's troublesome'" Chizuru joked, to which Shikamaru sighed.
"At least with graduating I'll be paid for waking up." Shikamaru said.
"That's the spirit!" Chizuru shouted, eliciting a groan from the lazy boy.
Chizuru was smiling happily while she sat with her oldest friends, she hadn't been able to hang out with them much in between training and hanging out with Ino, Sakura, and Hinata. She felt as if she were neglecting them, so she approached them a few weeks ago to rekindle a friendship.
Three Weeks Before, Konoha Ninja Academy: Chizuru's Memory Version
Class had just ended, and everyone was packing up and leaving, Chizuru had spent another day perfecting sealing matrices instead of listening to something she already knew, blowing through an assignment, then getting right back to it. Most of her days consisted of this, yet when Iruka had approached her asking if she wanted to advance to genin early, she declined. Her reasoning being 'I'm graduating in a few months anyways, so I may as well use all this free time to train without worrying about missions', which got a knowing smile, and sagely nod from Iruka, who responded with 'Training is important, and the survival of a whole team may depend on the power of only one of it's members, I hope to see you go far' and then they went out for ramen, it was fun.
She packed her things away and remembered Hinata had training to get done, Ino had to work, and Sakura wanted to go 'bird watching' again, so she was out of options of friends to hang out with. Chizuru started heading for the door when she overheard Choji and Shikamaru making plans to go to 'Yakiniku Q'. Realizing her own hunger, she asked to join the two, Choji looked really confused at her request, and Shikamaru agreed, further confusing the big-boned boy. The three ate together and Shikamaru kept telling stories about the two boys' days with Naruto, and all the trouble they would get into. Choji would ask questions like what Chizuru's favorite food was, or what her favorite flavor of chips was, while sometimes asking for her favorite color, or spot in town. They joked, laughed, talked, and ate, before they knew it the sun was setting, and they paid and left. But just before they parted ways Shikamaru gave Chizuru a slip of paper saying she dropped it. Thanking him and turning to leave, she opened the note and froze. 'Tell me if you need any more book recommendations. -Shikamaru'.
Present day
She snapped out of her thought process when an acorn hit the side of her head.
"Hey!" Chizuru said.
"You were zoning out, Choji and I were thinking of heading to Yakiniku Q, wanna join us?" Shikamaru said while palming another acorn.
"Don't throw anymore! And hell yeah, I'm down for some Yakiniku." Chizuru said.
"Alright, let's get going then," Shikamaru said, while rising to his feet.
The three got up, and headed out of the park towards Yakiniku Q, and began conversing again.
"You guys are lucky to be getting on the same team." Chizuru said.
"Oh so you know about the team placements too?" Shikamaru asked.
"Yeah, Jiji told me while I was visiting him." Chizuru said.
"I'll never get used to your familiarity with our village's strongest members." Shikamaru joked.
"Oi just because I know Ero-sennin, Tsunade-baasan doesn't mean anything." Chizuru said.
"And to give them such mean names..." Choji said.
"Mean? They seem to like my nicknames, much like Shika over here likes his." Chizuru said.
"I guess, but every time I see you call Tsunade-sama that she looks ready to kill you." Shikamaru said.
"Oh that? I think that's because she's a tsundere." Chizuru said.
"Did you- Did you just call Tsunade of the Legendary Sannin, let alone her being the physically strongest member of it, a tsundere?" Shikamaru asked incredulously, while Choji laughed hysterically.
"Well yeah, but I don't mean it in the way of an academy student not wanting to admit a crush, just more of a 'I like you but you have to learn that I do yourself' type of way." She clarified.
"Makes sense, but god that's hilarious!" Choji said, before laughing a little more.
"Fine let's just get back on topic." Chizuru pouted.
"I guess you're trying to get top kunoichi?" Shikamaru asked.
"Nah, rookie of the year." Chizuru clarified.
"Oh right, I guess that role's technically not gendered so you can. Who do you want on your team anyways?" Shikamaru asked.
"Well I know Hinata will make kunoichi of the year, and I have already talked Jiji into changing the dead-last from just being measured on lowest grades, and actually basing it off the person's ability to be a ninja. So that leaves a good portion of girls in our class to fill the last spot due to their 'duck hunting' habits, but I think Sakura would be the final member of the team." Chizuru explained.
"Why so?" Shikamaru prodded.
"Easy, her mother is on the council, and will hound Jiji unless he puts her on a team with either Sasuke, or a strong clan heir. And by putting her on a team with the two strongest ninja of her class, she wouldn't need to hound him." Chizuru said.
"Sound reasoning." Shikamaru said.
"Nothing else, no more questions?" Chizuru joked.
"No, too troublesome to talk." Shikamaru joked back.
The three laughed at that, before arriving at their destination, and entering.
One Month Later T&I Department
"Right this way Sasuke." A man who introduced himself as Inoichi led the boy through the underground pathway.
"What am I even doing here?" Sasuke asked angrily.
"By orders of Hokage-sama you are to help us in rehabilitating a prisoner." Inoichi declared. "Also, until further notice, you've been promoted to genin, and will be taken on as my apprentice."
"What?" Sasuke asked incredulously. "Just like that?"
Inoichi nodded, then turned toward a solid steel door on his right. He put a key into it, and unlocked it, then pushed it open revealing a pitch black room. The two entered the room, and Inoichi shut the door, and activated the lighting seal. The room flashed into sight and revealed a normal looking apartment, one without windows, but an apartment nonetheless. There was a kitchen, dining area, living room, a few bedrooms and bathrooms, and then another massive steel door where a supposed back door would be located.
"This will be our home away from home while I train you on 'interrogation' and other information gathering tactics, and back there," Inoichi began, then pointed at the other steel door, "Is our prisoner."
"Who is this prisoner?" Sasuke asked.
"I'll show you." Inoichi said while he lead the way toward the steel door.
He opened the steel door with a sealing key, while passing another to Sasuke.
"We will have a two person identification system in place, I open the first door," Inoichi began while placing the seal onto the door and activating it, before removing the paper, "And you open the second door."
The door opened, and revealed the area to be an airlock between the apartment and the prisoner. Sasuke did what Inoichi instructed and opened the second door, only for another airlock to be revealed.
"Now that our chakra has been indexed along side our personal seal keys, this is the final part of identification, we have to both place our seals on the door, mine on yours, in order to unlock it." Inoichi finished.
The two placed their seals, and the door unlocked, Inoichi opened the door and the two stepped inside. In the last room was a massive pane of heavily reinforced and seal-laced glass, in front of the pane was only a couple of office chairs, while behind the pane was a hard prisoner's bed, and an open doorway which led to a bathroom, as well as the prisoner. The prisoner had raven colored hair, was wearing a pitch black cloak, and was sitting with his back turned to the door. Inoichi closed the door, which seemed to make the prisoner stir, and Sasuke watched as the man got to his feet and turned around. The boy's breath hitched in his throat as he stared at the man in front of him, his eyes narrowed, and his face morphed into a snarl.
"Itachi." Sasuke said, venom lacing the word in it's entirety.