A Crown of Black Blades

by J.B. Macleod

Massive AU. On one fateful night, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally acts. Hidden away in the mountains of Tetsu no Kuni, Naruto dreams of becoming a Shinobi. Meanwhile, a new menace, the Seifuku-sha, threatens the Elemental Nations. Hunted by dark forces and facing insurmountable odds, Naruto must forge his own path in a world full of terror, power, and betrayal.

25. Chapter 25: The Field Exam

Chapter 25: The Field Exam

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"I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature."

-Paulo Coelho

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"Insert another quote here, probably something poetic about what happens when people are piled high with too many bodies, drowning in grief, and sheathed in power. [long pause] Uh, I changed my mind, take that shit out. Might as well say, 'duh, obviously' at the end and save us some trouble."

-Young Thunder, author of the Icha-Icha Series

Above is an excerpt from 'An Illuminated History of the Shattered Empire,'

XVII. pg. 874. Notes on the Reunification

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/Hokage Tower

/The Village Hidden in the Leaves

/Fire Country

Shikamaru Nara

The air felt strained. Like a pane of glass at the first touch of a thrown rock, the ripples from this meeting might shatter it all.

That was all to the good.

Shikamaru, having been given only an hour to clean himself, dress in presentable clothing appropriate for a private hearing of this magnitude, and eat something, felt his white-knuckled grip on his innermost thoughts loosen, just a smidge, letting his joy out.

He had played the long game and this was his first big move to shift the needle.

Konohagakure, at least amongst the Hyūga, felt like a kicked anthill.

Mr. Smiles, everpresent now since the day he'd completed the technique and imbued his shadows with a level of sentience they were forbidden to have by Clan law, purred in his head.

Power was a lever, but it was what you did with it that truly mattered.

Today marked the first of his movements towards a goal that he doubted anyone in this room, save perhaps the Hokage or his father, could begin to guess at.

Resplendent in layered robes of ebony and mauve, the materials an obvious giveaway to the cost, stood out on the Hokage as an on-the-nose reminder of her status as one of the sole-remaining, and still wealthy, Uchiha. Lurking like the headsman before their next victim, the Headmaster sat at his imposing desk and simply stared at the three of them.

On Shikamaru's left was Naruto, on his right Neji, both looking as exhausted as Shikamaru felt, though he was careful to maintain the facade. No benefit to giving away more information than was strictly necessary.

Sometimes appearing tired was a good thing, just not today, and not for this.

Neji looked as if he'd seen a ghost, then been run over by an autobus. His forehead, once covered by hair, was pulled back into a rough ponytail exposing...nothing. Nothing but pale, smooth, unmarked flesh where the cruel edges of the Caged Bird seal once sat like a lead weight, weighing down his future, drowning him and the entire Branch family.

Shikamaru looked forward to watching that clan break under the weight of its own hubris.

Naruto looked as if he was a million miles away, thinking about anything other than what was going on and idly, Shikamaru wondered about just what that was, but no immediate ideas came to mind.

The office, one he'd seen far too many times for comfort, was visible through the door; it was a testimonial to a man who liked to travel, who liked expensive things, and wanted visible reminders of his own success. It could not be helped that Shikamaru was a consistent visitor to the Headmaster. That was just the way things had to be.

As though a hurricane front was rolling in, several people walked in who clearly wanted nothing to do with each other and tried not to let the others on to their feelings.

All of them failed. Well, almost all.

Tsunade deliberately ignored Shizune who walked next to her. To the Nara, even from here, it felt like the air had become several degrees colder as they entered. Hiashi and Shikaku, Shikamaru's own father, had no overt expression but it was obvious to Shikamaru that Hiashi, at least, was barely restraining himself. There were minute tremors in his fists, and the very feel of his chakra cycling gave it away.

Hard to miss being this close. Also a topic of embarrassment if one mentioned it.

Now the question being: why were certain people here?

Shikamaru understood why Hiashi and his father were here, but why Tsunade and Shizune? He knew that Naruto had a history with Shizune and Tsunade… or alternatively they were to provide expert medical testimony given the suspected terminal side-effects of a partial removal of the Caged Bird seal?

Why both of them?

"Why are you here, Jonin Shizune?"

Headmaster Saito, and here Shikamaru put the title anyway out of respect, even in his head, spoke flatly.

"We did not request your presence here, just that of Jonin Tsunade. You may go."

Shizune did not bat an eye, folding her arms over her medical uniform proclaiming her status as the Head of Konoha General and the Commander-General of the Iryounin Corp.

"I'm here as a representative for Uzumaki Naruto, as I do not believe he has adequate support, let alone ones inclined to his best interests. I'd thank you to not push the matter, Saito, and not waste the Hokage's time with this."

Headmaster Saito blinked, and Shikamaru revised his opinion of Shizune on the spot, making a mental note to himself.

Neji and Naruto both kept their mouths shut, though it seemed both for different reasons.

One out of fear and wonder, the other… seemed to be biding his time.

The room felt as if it was holding its breath. Then Saito removed his hands from where they were clasped in front of his face and he spoke, picking up a piece of paper. Shikamaru could tell it was the Field Report on the Joint Preparatory Exercise based on the standard dimensions and color and where it was in relation to the other items of note on the Headmaster's desk. Saito had a regimented organizational system that he'd spotted on his first visit.

"I'm left with a hollow feeling at the idea that trainees of the KSMA would undertake such unbelievably reckless action, with no regard to Konohagakure's security infrastructure or internal clan politics, and do it in a simple training exercise while on wartime footing."

Shikamaru let the words pass in and out of him. They meant nothing.

"We have no place for students who regularly, and so flagrantly, breach the Code of Conduct of the Konohagakure Shinobi Military Academy, let alone violate the Clan Charter established by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha and the Founding Members. I have half a mind to expel the both of you on simple principle."

Here he looked at Naruto directly, clearly exasperated.

"And you, I'll be releasing you for the second time! You know what we call a shinobi who can't follow directions? Dead or Missing-nin."

The last word he hissed, suddenly visibly furious.

"I personally see this as an act that fits the criteria for treason. To deliberately, knowingly act to destabilize a clan is exactly that. I cannot, in good conscience, call it anything else, regardless of the context or circumstances."

The Hokage said nothing throughout his entire speech, but Shikamaru was mostly watching his father whose dark eyes, mirror images of his own, bore into his only child.

Shikamaru wanted to say he was sorry, but that would've been a lie. Shikamaru was not a liar. Well, only when necessary.

There was more to this than they knew and he wasn't about to enlighten them.

Naruto opened his mouth, his face thoughtful.

"Did you know that the Yondaime already had a design for a script that would free the Branch family from their servitude to the Main Family? He believed, and I quote, 'the Will of Fire cannot be sustained in truth if we are not willing to do the right thing for those around us,'"

Naruto, at this point, turned to look directly at Tsunade who shifted slightly, not looking at him, Shikamaru noticed. The blonde moved again, staring at Hiashi Hyūga.

"...even if it is hard- especially if it is hard. Tradition,' and here is my favorite bit, 'is a noose around the weak and the disenfranchised and I will not countenance its continuation in my village. The Caged Bird seal has to go.' End quote."

Silence strangled everything. Hiashi scoffed. The sound echoed.

Naruto ignored it, rolling over the silence.

"I find it amusing that my father wrote this to me as one of the last entries in his journal before he died fighting for his Village. On top of that, he wrote that he was speaking to you, Hiashi Hyūga, about his upcoming amendments to the Charter. You didn't like them, did you?"

The revelations about Naruto's parentage was… shocking, but not so far from the realm of possibility that he was unmoored from his objective here. Naruto was faster than he had a right to be, more skilled than he'd ever expected, and far more analytical- despite his emotional imbalances- so this better aided his modeling of Naruto. What was more telling was how many in the room did not react to the news.

Which was exactly zero people.

Unless you counted Neji, who went from almost catatonic, to whipping around and staring hard at Naruto who promptly continued to ignore the Hyūga. Shikamaru would ruminate on what this all meant later, when he wasn't being threatened with expulsion. He strongly suspected that that was just an idle threat. They were on a war-time footing which made their need for bodies more important than their need for strict discipline.

The Code of Conduct and military ethics said otherwise, but the Nara already figured that given the nature of what Naruto had done and what Shikamaru asked of him, that this informal hearing would classify what happened under Village Secret. Most of the observers saw the technique, but couldn't independently confirm the result without violating Neji's right to privacy and more importantly, Clan Privacy.

This was a sham to scare them.

Consequences would be coming, but Shikamaru could handle those and Naruto was used to being a punching bag for the administration. He felt a little guilty about that, but not much. There was a little bit of revenge in there for the blonde.

Those consequences, as 5U discussed, would follow them all.

Which is why the Field Exam would be so, so important in getting them all out of the proverbial doghouse.

Shikamaru knew, at least a little bit, about why Naruto went along with his plan- about why everyone in Class 5U put up no objections to their strategy. The civilians in their group, Ami Totsuka, Aiko and Yuna Kiroshiba- they all knew what it was like being a First-Generation clan member who, in some ways, experienced prejudice in their careers as shinobi, and the very real, deadly consequences they would face on missions. Clans concentrated power and established techniques, honed them and refined them since the days of the Warring States and sometimes beyond; then handed those down to all who belonged to them.

A civilian-born Shinobi?

They scraped and clawed and had to work three-times as hard to achieve the same status. Original techniques were difficult to create, and especially new or powerful ones were even rarer. A statistic that shook Shikamaru to his core when he stumbled across it in… places he wasn't supposed to be… was that civilian-born shinobi died at far higher rates than Clan shinobi. There was a stark contrast in the data that was easy to see.

Ami, Aiko, and Yuna were more vulnerable than they knew.

The issue wasn't new, the theme was the same: those with power had responsibility to those with less. The Hidden Village system itself perpetuated the very opposite notion. Power concentrated at the top so as to keep the power out of the hands of those without. This action was only the beginning.

The rest of his crew, the kids he'd spent the majority of his life with and had gone through some truly terrible things together knew his mind. This wasn't random, or unplanned, or a rash act.

He wouldn't balk at a slap on the wrist. Neither would they.

He had a sneaking suspicion that Naruto wouldn't either, which was confirmed by him quoting his father. Fascinating that the Yondaime Hokage believed the same things that Shikamaru did...

In Shikamaru's mind, all his philosophy came down to one quote by the Sage himself: stop talking about being a good person and be one. Shikamaru intended to do just that. Unfortunately, there was still some 'talking' to do before they could get to the 'action.'

Hiashi spoke flatly.

"I will not sit here and be lectured on the ethics of the Caged Bird seal by someone who may or may not be Minato Namikaze's spawn-"

There was a slight grin on Naruto's face as he spoke.

"-you're standing actually. But go on."

Tsunade snorted involuntarily and Shizune simply sighed.

Hiashi ignored him, and the byplay, and spoke on, "the policy of this administration is to allow Clan affairs to be handled internally. I don't believe that has changed, has it Lady Hokage? If it has, I believe the Heads should be notified that our Hokage has shifted position. I think they'd find that as... fascinating as I do."

Shikamaru noted the heaviness and the implication of such a noncommittal word.

Headmaster Saito made a soothing noise in the back of his throat.

"Be at ease, Hiashi. I don't think the Hokage intends to allow this to go unchallenged. I might recommend, if I may, that Neji be rebranded and this situation be rectified immediately. I also move to strike 5Us win from their academic record and give them the bare minimum passing grade as a consequence-"

Shikaku opened his mouth.

Shizune mirrored him on the other side of the room

Hiashi and Shikaku faced Tsunade and Shizune with the trainees caught in the middle. Naruto's eyes widened, sudden rage darkening them, his mouth opening. Neji went so far as to show the first signs of real life, dropping into a fighting stance. At that, the whole thing went into chaos as Hiashi took a step forward, seeing his subordinate violate social etiquette to such a degree. Shikamaru knew that wasn't all it was: perhaps he was seeing his brother's spirit and face writ large in his nephew.

"Please, Saito, do not presume to think for me."

The Hokage's voice came from behind Neji, where she'd placed both hands on his shoulders. Mikoto Uchiha's flawless face quirked up in what Shikamaru would call a reassuring smile, directed at Neji. Those dark eyes didn't miss a single thing.

Shikamaru hadn't seen any movement, didn't feel a single thing: one moment the Hokage was behind the Headmaster's chair, the next, behind Neji. He shivered.

"Neji is safe under my protection."

Mikoto said it flatly. As it was an immutable fact.

Shikaku spoke, undercutting the Hyūga Clan Head's next words.

"Really Hiashi, you were there yesterday morning. The Jonin Council? Lady Mikoto activated the War Powers Act in response to the destruction of Outpost 41 on the border of Mist. We're officially at war with Mist under the auspices of the new Mizukage Utakata."

Hiashi looked around, teeth gritted, seeing no allies.

Shikamaru and Naruto looked at each other, not feeling very victorious. They both sucked in a breath at the official confirmation of what they were all worried about: war. For real.

Arms folded across his chest, muscles standing out despite the formal robes, Hiashi nodded decisively, coming to some conclusion.

"I understand. However, you cannot countenance a Branch member going out into the Field Exam unprotected by the Caged Bird seal, surely?"

Tsunade interrupted, "Have we even checked whether the Caged Bird seal is removed completely? The amount of control necessary to hit the whole systemic sigil is rare. I doubt anyone can actually accomplish such a thing. Neji could still be in danger of suffering a catastrophic collapse, or ending up a vegetable in the middle of a mission."

Shizune's mouth tightened. Naruto rolled his eyes and sighed.

Shikamaru suspected he knew why.

Tsunade ignored her and Naruto both and looked at the Hokage.

After a held second, Lady Mikoto nodded once.

Immediately, Tsunade stepped forward and green light sprang up around her hands as she ran what was presumably a diagnostic technique through Neji, who shivered. Her face suffered through a remarkable transition: from the furrowed brow of concern, to the pink tinge to her cheeks, to the stoniness of a failure to find what she was clearly looking for.

The third ninja with the honorary title of, 'Sannin' or Legendary Three, stepped back reluctantly, dropping her hands.

"...he's clear. Completely. No remnant. I don't foresee any issues- though I can't be one hundred percent sure, of course. Seals and their removal is not my immediate area of expertise. We'd need Jiraiya."

The adults all exchanged looks.

Mikoto didn't move her gaze from Neji and Naruto, nor did she move her hands from Neji, who'd dropped his hands out of a fighting stance and into a tensely frozen statue-like pose. A deer in the grip of one of those huge mountain eagles.

"Jiraiya is exactly where I want him for now and I don't intend to recall him quite yet. I allowed Tsunade to do her diagnosis because she is confirming what I already know. Neji is no longer subject to the seal. The issue we face now is what to do with that knowledge. Hiashi is correct that I cannot allow an unsealed Hyuuga to roam freely without some protection."

She cocked her head, long hair sliding smoothly over one shoulder and down to the left, hanging free, with eyes calmly coming to rest on Hiashi.

"However, should I forbid Neji from partaking in the Field Exam, I would also insist on forbidding Hayato- and every other unsealed Hyuuga. They are, after all, all equally vulnerable. Do you not agree, Hiashi?"

Icy looks were exchanged all around, most especially coming from the Hyūga Clan Head. He'd been backed into a corner. They all knew it.

While the tableau persisted, Shikamaru tuned in just in time to catch Neji muttering something out of the side of his mouth, pitched too low for anyone except perhaps the Hokage to hear.

"...did Hayato know what he was agreeing to?"

Naruto turned his head slightly, smiling, "Idiot. Who do you think proposed it to Shikamaru in the first place?"

Naruto caught Shikamaru's eye and winked as Neji turned inward, considering.

The tableau broke amongst the adults as they started to argue about consequences for the team that broke every rule that could be broken. The Headmaster's words about treason resonated in all of them, but Shikamaru was confident. Sort of. Only his father and the Hokage were looking at him.

Lady Mikoto beckoned the would-be Genin with a whistle. The three of them turned to face her as the people behind them continued to argue in low tones.

Her eyes, darker than the Nara's, met each of theirs in turn.

"I am going to dismiss you momentarily and when I do, you will go back to your dormitories without delay and speak to no one. This deliberation will not be made in haste and you have work to do in the meantime. Naruto, I may have more questions for you later. You will make yourself available."

Surveying them and seeming satisfied with what she saw, she continued.

"This I can say- well done on your victory. You fought against long-odds and used everything we've taught you, the little we could give you in such a short time, to its fullest. Keep your fires burning. I'm more than proud of this generation of Leaf-nin."

She paused, thoughtful.

"That being said: progress for the sake of progress is mindless consumption, but tradition for the same reasons must be just as thoroughly avoided. Do you understand?"

Neji looked confused, but Naruto and Shikamaru both nodded slowly.

Just then, as Shikamaru really looked at their Hokage, he remembered that Lady Mikoto was the only person, not of the Nara, that regularly beat his father in Shogi. They averaged one-to-one usually, but that was leagues better than almost everyone else with the clan name Nara.

This was Troublesome, in the league of being a Problem. Big problem?

Maybe. He guessed they'd see.

What else had she deduced?

Her red smile, a bare curve of the lips, was answer enough.

"You're dismissed, Trainees."

#

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/Barrier Classroom 4

/The Village Hidden in the Leaves

/Fire Country

Naruto Uzumaki

"Why are we meeting in the middle of our classroom in the middle of the night? You aren't going to attempt to murder me are you? There's cameras, just as an FYI."

Satsuki, whose hair blended into the darkness surprisingly well, less so her eyes that gleamed red, snorted incredulously. As if she couldn't believe that he thought she wouldn't succeed admirably well at killing him. Bastard.

Naruto grinned slightly, then sobered.

"Seriously though. What's the deal? Why did I bring all my scripting and fuinjutsu stuff too?"

Satsuki flapped a hand at him, irritation coloring her voice.

"Can you just trust me for a hot second? I told you, it's a present for Shikamaru."

"Yeah, I got that part, but it's literally everything else I'm concerned about."

"Relax."

"You know, telling someone to relax has the opposite effect?"

"Oh? I didn't know. Thanks for the heads up. Relax."

Naruto muttered something and it was Satsuki's turn to laugh at him. Rare to see her smiling, he thought. Satsuki, someone with whom he could honestly call a friend, didn't give an inch and he liked that about her. In fact, weirdly enough, he was starting to think of himself as part of again.

He was a part of Class 5U.

He was part of the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

That mattered to him in a way that was complicated; Kazan, Furu, Taza, Mifune, and Roran and everyone else that died were outside of his control, in his past, but that didn't mean he had to be alone forever.

The fire burning in his heart told him he was quickly approaching a place in time where he'd do absolutely anything to make sure they were safe. Satsuki being one of those. Shikamaru too, he admitted reluctantly to himself, was someone he meshed well with, when you avoided his tendency to know what you were going to say before you said it.

At the very least, it made difficult conversations easier.

Satsuki turned to him and he could tell what she was going to ask.

"We'll navigate it together, whatever comes, Naruto. So don't worry so much about Saito's decision, yeah? I asked Itachi what we could do and he told me that Mother doesn't intend to punish you or Shikamaru too harshly."

Naruto shook his head.

"I'm not particularly concerned about that. I'm worried about which way the Main Family of the Hyūga will jump when the technique I have is hovering over their heads like a blade about to descend on their necks."

The blonde growled and picked at the threads in his t-shirt.

"There are a thousand ways this could go: Shikamaru is convinced that he knows which way this will play out, but how could he? Hiashi could kill Neji, or have him killed, or he could be rebranded, despite your mom's word. Nobody really knows that Neji doesn't have the seal anymore, besides us and the people who were in the meeting today, right?"

Satsuki watched him from her position sitting cross-legged on one of the tables. She, too, wore garments better suited for sleeping: old sweatpants and a shirt on the baggier side. The shirt had the symbol of the Leaf in white against a green background.

She looked thoughtful, considering the problem from all angles.

It was weird thinking about how the other members in his group were skilled and smart and hard-working too, agents with their own agendas and problems and lives. Naruto sometimes felt like the whole world held daggers against his throat, just his, and that it was personal.

Almost as if it was a boogeyman hunting him and him alone.

But he was coming to see that, despite being alone for what felt like forever, other people had their parts to play. Satsuki was very much her own person and it made him ashamed he hadn't done more to get to know her, or the others.

He made a mental note to fix that.

"With the war, my bet is heavily on the Hyūga doing exactly jack shit about it. They don't want the information to get out, right? The security concerns over your technique are valid, though. I mean, you can pretty much break any seal- or script- based defenses with enough time. You're…"

She searched for a word. "You're a skeleton key to every secure department in Konohagakure. My mother might not care, because she knows how much you care about the Leaf-"

A small part of him, deep down where he kept his closely guarded secrets, winced. The Leaf was better than the other villages, at least from where he stood, but that did not make it perfect. A mental shove put that thought even deeper down.

"-and would never do anything against it. So, my guess? Professional development around operational security. Normally, that's second year stuff. When we get our Jonin squad leaders after Graduation they'll probably have you work a lot on ways to keep your techniques as secret as you can make them."

Satsuki shrugged. "No big deal, right?"

Somehow Naruto knew that was a huge lie made to make him feel better.

"Yeah, maybe you're right."

One could dream, right?

The door to the end of the classroom they used to practice chakra techniques opened and the other ten members of Class 5U crept through the doorway silently. Sort of silently as Kiba and Ino were being snippy, as usual.

"...I didn't want to leave Akamaru, okay? Can you just drop it?"

"Akamaru is such a friggin' rule-follower beta that he tried to get us busted by barking! Control your dog, Kiba. Kami, it's like your one thing. The ONE THING that your clan does."

"Shut the fuck up Ino! You didn't need to mind-control him to sleep!"

"Great comeback. Also, I don't care. He's a dog. Eat shit."

Ami growled at them and rolled her eyes, looking as tired as Naruto felt. Hayato and Shino were following up the rear, covering their movements. Aiko, Yuna, and Sakura were quietly talking in the middle of the back. Shikamaru led the pack. Naruto gave a small wave with Satsuki mirroring him.

They all fell quiet, the camaraderie of battle having provided a temporary glue.

Would it hold?

Naruto suspected he knew why they were all here, then. Someone else was worried about that too.

Satsuki held up a hand.

"Thanks for coming. I know it's late, but since the girls can't get into the boys dorm and vice versa, I thought it was best we meet somewhere else. Naruto here," she pointed her thumb at him at her side, "was kind enough to, uh, temporarily break some security scripts for me."

At that, most of them goggled. All the talk started at once.

"I'm not getting expelled for this!"

"Civilians don't get second-chances-"

"What the fuck Naruto? Satsuki…?"

"Heh, nice going! What're we drawing tits on?"

"U-uh ar-aren't we i-in enough troub-trouble?"

A few shrugs. A few no-reactions. One considering glance and a muttered, 'nice' from Sakura. Naruto knew they had to be impressed given that the KSMA didn't employ guards for a reason. First, there was nothing important here besides the Barrier Classrooms themselves. Just classrooms and offices. Second, there was an elaborate network of monitoring scripts and fuinjutsu.

"Relax. We'll be fine."

Satsuki held her hand out to Shikamaru, as if giving him permission to speak. Shikamaru blinked and looked around as if to ask, 'what?' Satsuki scowled at him.

"Debrief, Nara! What'd they say? What does this mean for us as a team?"

Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head as all eyes swiveled to him and they fell silent. Naruto almost laughed at his sheepish act. Satsuki was doing this for the benefit of the group. Naruto already filled her in on all he knew about the meeting.

"I've been told…"

Everyone held their breath. Minus Naruto and Satsuki.

"That we'll still be participating in the Field Exam."

A round of whooping came from Kiba and Ino, as Shino and Hayato smiled, the rest's reactions somewhere in the middle.

"Yeah, it was kind of expected honestly. No surprise there. We did well on the JPE, but there will be a microscope on us during the FE."

"A micro-what?"

Shino turned and muttered something, Kiba snapped something back, then coughed, turning red.

"Proceed."

Shikamaru tried not to roll his eyes, then switched tacks, looking serious.

"Uh, I don't… I don't have any intel about the FE. Sorry, everyone. It's a last-minute thing for a reason. Think of it as a real mission- but with training wheels in the form of Jonin and Chunin battalions crawling all over the place, making sure we aren't slaughtered by threats we can't handle. I did learn that Mizuki and a few others were instrumental in getting us this mission opportunity though. Something to do with the Land of Rivers."

Ami, Naruto noticed, swallowed hard. Sakura's face hardened. Hayato's face was a study in serenity. Kiba grinned, showing fangs. Ino's eyes gleamed.

Who knew what the Twins' faces meant?

Satsuki's leg vibrated up and down next to him.

"The only piece of information I have is that we'll most likely be split up into smaller teams to handle different objectives. Our performance will mostly be judged on the rubric we've been studying the whole year: Control, Power, Conduct, Adaptability."

He paused.

"Victory… or failure."

The knowledge that they were going into this blind, he knew, rankled Shikamaru. Whatever his source of information, he'd squeezed it and found it dry. That meant no pre-planning. No algorithmic modelling, just real-time strategy. The thought stopped everyone short as they all went quiet and considered what tomorrow would bring.

Satsuki roused herself from her thoughts and shook off the anxiety.

"Regardless of what we find out tomorrow, tonight we're going to celebrate by letting off some steam."

She grabbed Naruto's hand and pulled him next to her. He almost stumbled, but his body wouldn't let him, training taking over. Trying not to feel self-conscious, he focused on the hand he held. Warmth radiated off of her like a furnace and gave some life back to his hands. He squeezed it involuntarily and she flashed him a smile.

"As we know, our wonder boy here," she gave a kind of tadaa with her hands. Naruto tried not to groan or redden, "is a genius with seals. I was thinking… what does our fearless leader love more than anything?"

Choji, lurking in the back of the group, perked up.

"Explosions!"

Satsuki snapped her fingers, pointing. "Exactly right!"

The knowledge of why they were here in the Barrier Classrooms dawned on everyone. Naruto sighed.

Work was ahead of him, he just knew it. Luckily, he'd already modified a few explosive tags. This wouldn't be that hard. Probably.

Shikamaru lit up and everyone pushed him towards the biggest of the Barrier rooms, a huge room half the size of the gym where they'd all exercised with their Atlas Stones once or twice on off-days. Each of the classrooms had a big room like that, but Professor Nakamura definitely had the largest by far.

Kiba started chanting, "Explo-sions! Explo-sions!"

Then all the rest took it up after a moment of looking at each other. Naruto had to smile and join them, already taking his supplies out of the tiny bag he brought to alter some tags for their fun.

Naruto vividly recalled a time where he was absolutely incandescent with rage over his classmates' seemingly frivolous behavior. At the time, Choji and Kiba launching popcorn at Akamaru and watching him snap them out of the air seemed… stupid. An affront to everyone that died to keep them safe in this village.

The laughter. Stupid. Childish.

Not the antics of would-be shinobi.

Now?

Now, Naruto knew that the world had stolen more from him than he knew. A childhood among the least of the things. Now he envied his comrades that- the lightness that came from staring death in the face and knowing there were things worth fighting for.

Shikamaru, when he told him about what Hayato wanted to do to his cousin, explained that he believed the world bred two kinds of people. Those two presented themselves when you hit the suffering that plagued the life of a human being: the first type believed that if something unfortunate, terrible, or traumatic happened they believed it was a rite of passage life assigned to you and everyone had to experience what they went through, otherwise things weren't fair.

Life was a balancing act in that way.

Some hardships were things that everyone had to experience.

That somehow not going through the same difficulties bred weak people.

The other type of person, the second kind, experienced trauma or hardship and vowed they would never let another person experience the same thing if they could do anything about it. So they worked towards change.

In one, callousness, denial, and dismissiveness.

In another, empathy, responsibility, and action.

Knowing hunger would allow you to appreciate when you had a meal in front of you, did it not? To appreciate being alive.

Naruto knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that his classmates- almost to a person, were the second kind. They would change the world. They would help him plunge his sword into the black heart of that freak Zetsu and the would-be immortal Madara. Naruto wasn't sure what kind of person he really was yet; the first or the second.

His time was almost up with these people, in this place of safety and uncare. War was yomi, as Mifune always told him. More lies told by old people who were bitter and lonely, he'd always believed. Naruto knew that it was no lie.

Tonight, he'd spend some time blowing some shit up with his… friends.

For tomorrow, everything could change.

Ignoring everyone, he focused on his fuinjutsu.

Naruto used delicate calligraphic strokes of a nibbed ink-pen to double the radius of the blast by concentrating the feedback loop, adding symbols and absentmindedly sticking out his hand, yelling for the caltrops he knew were in the cabinets in the back of the classroom. He wasn't sure who brought them, deep in it as he was.

On top of the page, he engraved a fuin-array that would hold the caltrops during the explosion, altered a piece that compensated for timing as the caltrops needed to release into the air, then explode. This could not be a simultaneous effect. That would slow down the speed of the shrapnel, limiting efficiency and radius and wasting kinetic energy.

Taking some time for precautions, the blonde threw up the strongest barrier jutsu he knew: a fuinjutsu-anchored, one-way blast barrier. This one was new and the strongest single-direction shield he could make. It wouldn't stand up to something like Tsunade's punch, but it would hold a certain amount of force. The uni-dimension aspect made reinforcement easier.

Beckoning everybody behind the low-wall separating the room, he gestured for Kiba to hurry up with the training dummies. Against the walls, tall man-shaped dummies were lined up. Kiba and the volunteers he'd nagged into helping him set the dummies into a formation in the center of the room.

Kiba, naturally, resented being the person in the center of the explosion, eying all the volunteers who left him a little too quickly to be comradely. Naruto reassured him with soft murmurs that did nothing but piss Kiba off.

"I'm no pussy!"

Akamaru sat wagging his tail safely behind the barrier.

Ino grinned at Naruto and elbowed him, "No, he's a limp dick. Pussies can take a pounding."

Naruto coughed and tried to bring down, by sheer will, the heat in his face.

When Kiba finished, grumbling all the while, he retreated behind the low wall the rest were crouched behind. Choji spoke up and unsealed a veritable vault of a cooler filled with drinks and snacks, which he gleefully distributed.

Ami, mouth disgustingly full of barbeque potato chips already and looking all the happier for it, crouched on Naruto's other side and spoke, somehow, around her full mouth.

"Do ya know how fuckin' expensive it is to obtain our own explosive tags? The school regulates 'em and shops won't sell them to a trainee! Nobody can tamper with them or take any out from the Armory either unless released by a profs signature. The shit I get ain't worth the paper they're printed on."

Satsuki, putting goggles on next to them and looking ridiculous, smiled for a second time that night.

"To be fair, Naruto is an Uzumaki, so I'm pretty sure we all know what that means."

Ino nodded sagely. Nobody was fooled.

"I mean, Professor Nakamura practically wanted to suck him off, eh?"

Kiba gagged. "Gross!"

Ino made circular motions with her hands that had Kiba going cross-eyed.

Ami laughed and almost choked, coughing. "Gah, I guess-"

Satsuki waved airily, as the girls laughed at the Inuzuka, "Oh Kiba, you would be a huge bitch about that wouldn't you?"

Naruto stood up, ignoring the byplay.

"Everyone down please, dunno how big this thing will be."

[Liar.] Naruto grinned, sensing Kaguya's sudden appearance in his mind.

Class 5U, almost as one, ducked behind the wall, and almost as one, they peeked back up a bit to watch.

[Well… I don't know exactly. I wasn't lying… just fibbing a bit.]

The sense he got was that Kaguya was settling in to watch.

Naruto knew he'd have to be quick with the barrier activation.

He hurled the suddenly glowing tag as he activated it, wrapped around a tube filled with dark metal, like a baseball. That done, he activated the barrier, which fuzzed into existence just in time. They watched, as one, as the tag reached a spot just above the field of fifty dummies and detonated.

The whole thing was odd.

A thermogenic effect used the air as a catalyst and superheated the explosive with a deafening whooshing sound followed by absolute silence.

-then, noise like a physical force crashed into the shield.

Sounding like Choji in his fully Unveiled form wielding his hammer on a house, smoke blew outwards from the explosion as dust immediately filled the space and debris rained down. Caltrops, little spiky doohickies, as Naruto liked to call them, would've killed them all in a spray of blood had the shield not taken the brunt force. Arms, legs, pieces of both limbs, a faux head and torso of the dummies, all were annihilated and sent flying against their defenses with sounds like hail hitting a roof. Fire spread in waves that followed the debris. They couldn't see a thing for a minute. Then two. Fire burned white.

They waited in bated silence as almost five minutes passed.

One spidery crack fissured down from the top of Naruto's barrier and they all watched it ominously. Luckily, the dust was starting to clear and no more debris came sailing out of the cloud. Naruto dropped the barrier before it broke completely.

Shikamaru appeared at his shoulder with a shining gaze and a hundred ryo note held out in one clenched grip.

"Take my fucking money!"

As if breaking a flood gate open, everyone started laughing and falling over themselves yelling. Satsuki caught Naruto's eye and he could've sworn she winked.

The same feeling, was it camaraderie? welled up in him and Naruto couldn't stop himself from smiling so hard it hurt.

Whatever came tomorrow- they'd face it together.

For now, he'd enjoy being happy.

#

---

That same night, or early morning rather as he discovered when he looked at the wall clock, Naruto bid his friends goodnight and sat in their shared living room watching the moon and the play of dust particles flitting amongst the almost solid shafts of light as it pierced the bay window looking out over Konohagakure.

He felt an almost unbearable lightness of spirit as he simply existed.

An unworthy spirit of doubt, of fear, stabbed him like a nail underfoot.

A worm of shouting, raving madness, of helplessness that reminded him of the Naruto that lost Kazan. He honestly did not know what he'd do, how he'd climb out of the darkness again.

[One foot in front of the other, my dearest Seed. As we all must do. Death is a luxury we cannot afford, nor is grief.]

Naruto felt her listening, felt her presence in his mind and wasn't startled. But he thought it was odd she sounded so… old. Worn.

[Yes, I suppose that's true. With Madara out there… and Zetsu. While evil like that walks, we can't lose sight of the path we're on. It's bigger than any Exam.]

Kaguya felt troubled, though.

Like an extra sense, he searched himself for the words to describe how he knew what she was feeling and he found he couldn't. The closest analogy he could find was that she'd forgotten him, like someone focused on their own trauma, reliving a memory, and was preoccupied- too preoccupied to shield herself or her feelings. Like watching a friend struggle; all the lines of tension in their shoulders obvious, the tension in their fists from clenching, or jaw working. Sadness hung around her like a cloak. He knew that like he knew that tomorrow would be a crossroads.

Murmuring reassuring nothings, Naruto found himself drifting, thinking about all the things he should've said and hadn't.

So he'd stay here, with her, watching the moon and they'd both try not to think about tomorrow.

[As long as we work together… nothing can stop us. You know that, Kaguya. As long as I have you.]

Blood rushed to his cheeks as he chastised himself for such a sappy, stupid, needy thought: she wasn't his fucking mother, for Kami's sake. Nor a lover, no, that made his face flame and he was suddenly happy she couldn't hear him, so deep in herself as she was.

Was that really how he saw her?

That didn't bear thinking about. Ever.

Retrieving the advanced text on rejuvenative medical chakra processes, he set himself to something he could do: train. Learn. Absorb.

Surviving wasn't enough. He had to make sure everyone else survived too.

#

---

/THRONEWORLD

Kaguya Otsutsuki

The youngest daughter of Basilikus Otsutsuki sat on her throne of titan-bone and brooded. Outside the small extraplanar space she'd carved, howling storms of black and white energy reigned. There was an odd dissonance as the sound, no doubt deafening, couldn't be heard or felt inside her space.

Through quick snapshots of clear sky she glimpsed the now-enormous skyscraping swords of a no-doubt infinite variety. On the ground, a desert of black sand stretched on, contrasting sharply with the actual sky above; every so often, in strangely organized and consisting width and spacing were more swords; basket-hilted rapiers, wavey broad-bladed scimitars, straight-edged tantos and longswords, and every myriad combination she knew of- and even some strange ones she'd never seen before. Lightning, jagged and white and bizarre, nothing like the natural phenomenon at all broke the sky and the storm, never touching the ground. Instead, it formed a vast seal in the sky, a script that she couldn't stare at too long lest her mind ache.

Kaguya was, by her nature, not a brooder; except, she found herself doing many things lately that conformed not at all to the person she thought of herself. An attraction, like the gravitic pull of a black hole, inevitably sucked her into the accretion disk of the boy who held her captive. Subtle, powerful, inexorable- he dismantled her foundational reasoning and rebuilt her mind with kindness and sadness and strength and weakness and distinct human traits.

Kaguya was getting soft. She was molding him, more than he knew, but there was some transformational magics at work on her as well. Ones so subtle that she couldn't break their hold.

When she'd arrived in this world using the trans-dimensional aspect of the Kojiki, programmed by her Worldmind Zetsu, all the moons of Ferandul seemed to have aligned in her favor: no real strong chakra presences or Aspirants anywhere close to her current level as a True Aspirant, on the cusp of Sage.

She hadn't named her First Law, the transformational aspect stage that gave her Sage-status, and so wasn't as valuable to the rest of the clan. This was where she'd come to study herself and perhaps continue to absorb strong sources of Nature chakra through Processing.

Instead, she'd been sucked into a violent society wracked by the nasty and brutish ways of an early civilization made worse by the use of chakra and technology far too advanced to be created by them. Perhaps, she'd thought at the time, they'd murder themselves with things they had no business meddling with… but the more she'd seen, the more the injustices wracked her, straining against the bounds of her mandate of Observe, Absorb, Process, Assimilate, Exit. That time still flailed her with a litany of the mistakes and wrong choices she'd made- so much death, destruction, and misery laid at her feet like a bridal wreath.

She followed no mandate or protocol when she descended like a goddess and gave them language, culture, laws, and taught them the basics of the Path of the Aspirant: tiny Seed, to Nascent, to Sage, to Judge at the heights.

But the Path didn't serve them the way she wanted.

The old argument, The Argument, that was central to why she'd left the clan behind to set out on her own, the very same argument that tore apart her relationship with her Judge of a mother, was her assertion that the Final Law of the universe was that of survival and strength above all.

Kaguya, at least initially, rejected such a premise, horrified that the beauty of chakra could be so turned against the things she believed. Yet the reality was that outside the living, traveling gas-giant homeworld of the Otsutsuki, war and death and chaos raged.

Chaos they created.

The horror of it struck her and a period of madness descended until she'd snapped out of it and decided to find somewhere she could walk her Path in peace. To make sense of a universe that didn't make any sense.

Naruto walked a blade's edge between war and peace; serenity and rage, civilization and anarchy; order and chaos. But he believed in needing the strength to make things right and didn't that align with what Kaguya herself found in the thousands of years she'd been here?

How was that any different than taking the Fruit, as she had done, and made this the Garden world of peace she knew it could be?

Why had they rejected her? Could she go through this again, let him go through this the same way she had? Was this how her Mother felt? Resigned to watch the cycle of disappointment play out in her daughter, doomed to do nothing about it?

Should she tell him what was really happening?

That he was an ant so far beneath things happening that actually mattered, that killing this Madara person ranked as insignificant?

Her mind churned with thoughts as the storm raged outside.

#

---

/Konohagakure Shinobi Military Academy

/The Village Hidden in the Leaves

/Fire Country

Naruto Uzumaki

Umino Iruka, Class 5U Advisor, swept through the door with no fanfare and began speaking even before settling his things on the wide table in front of the tiered seats where Class 5U sat lounging.

"I hope you all finished the pre-Exam supplies and pre-Operation checklist I posted on your terminals because details have solidified on this year's Field Graduation Exam."

Iruka eyed the class, scar crinkling as he smiled.

"I'm proud of how far each and every one of you have come this year alone, In the last five years you've gone from scared children to upright soldiers of the Leaf, and after this Exam, I am sure most of you will be heading into three-man squads under the heading of your Jonin Masters to begin the next phase of your career."

Naruto tipped his chair back, propping his head against the edge of the next desk up to keep himself balanced. The quiet background noise of Choji chewing away was a soothing white noise.

"...the field exam is a traditional staple of the Hidden Leaf, as you all know, and this year the request for this large operation comes directly from the River Daimyo himself, Todo Hiranami."

Iruka backed up and activated a light projection that threw a large map onto the wall behind. Naruto leaned in closer, setting his chair down gently. He tried to recall what he had learned about River Country in Geopolitical History and Report Writing.

Something about protectorate-status for military or policing endeavours?

Naruto jammed two fingers into Shikamaru's side and the strangled yelp that came out of the sleepy Nara was incredibly satisfying. This was the first time ever that Naruto caught Shikamaru napping: something that was usually in character for the Clan, but wildly out of the ordinary for this Nara.

Ever since their win, the genius tactician seemed much more relaxed. The Nara realized what was going on and cut off his yelp before it disrupted Iruka's briefing.

Instead he was whispering in a deadpan voice.

"I fucking hate you sometimes, Naruto."

"Love you too Shika, hey what do you remember about River Country? Protectorate status right?"

Shikamaru rubbed his head for a second, thinking.

"River Country doesn't have a substantial shinobi village or military presence from what I remember. Main exports are tourism from the gambling boats and trade from shallow-water shipping. But yes, protectorate status in Fire, same as Water Country actually."

Kiba, close by, scrunched his face in confusion.

"Why the hell are we going there then?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Naruto sighed.

"How about you just listen?"

Kiba started grumbling.

Naruto tuned back into Iruka's briefing.

"The Fire Daimyo has given us this as a high priority. The mission as a whole is as follows; one of the last remaining global communications towers, located in the town of Genbu, fell to a well-known group of mercenaries operating under the alias Bakkuoshan, or Black Ocean in the old tongue."

Shikamaru raised his hand. Iruka stopped, surprised.

"Why, Shikamaru, I'm glad to see you're awake…"

"Har-har, so funny Iruka-sensei. Literally the first time."

Iruka's horizontal scar crinkled as he smiled.

"I'm kidding. Go ahead."

"Is Bakkuoshan affiliated with any known country? Do they use chakra? They sound serious, is this something we're prepared to handle?"

The smile fell away from their Advisor's face. Naruto hadn't seen Iruka this serious in a while. The past few months of maneuvers, long-ass runs, weapons training, taijutsu and chakra-training had been...well, almost pleasant.

Everybody was in a good mood. Even the instructors, despite war on the horizon.

Today, you could almost feel the difference, the tension.

Naruto didn't think the school would deliberately set them up to fail, so these mercenaries were most likely small-fry, non-chakra-using operators. But something about the way Shikamaru's eyes roved over Iruka, who was a stone-wall now, told him the Nara didn't buy the shallow reassurance, and it paid to listen to the Nara.

Enemies could still slit your throat if you didn't see them.

"Our initial reports tell us none of them use chakra or even have the capacity. Past action with them tells us this is most likely the case. They consist of mostly hired thugs. Gato Informatics Corporation has had extensive dealings with them and they don't use shinobi. Never have as that would be a violation of the weapons embargo."

Iruka set his pointer down and moved from the board close to where Naruto sat. Naruto noticed the white skin around their Advisor's hands. Everything else about him was calm.

Was there something to Shikamaru's question that bothered Iruka?

"Listen, the Examinee's in all graduating classes will be assigned a specific objective per Shinobi Academy Field Graduation Exam doctrine. 5U," he looked at Shikamaru, "and I hope this answers your question, Shikamaru, your job will be to simply lock down and secure the town of Genbu, specifically the three main plazas. These are the access in-roads to the Tower. Other teams will cover the harbors and gates, some on evacuation, but the main focus…"

He pointed with his stick to a large map of River Country and a sub-map detailing Genbu.

"The Communications Tower sits on top of a large hill inside the town. You will simply go in, and follow operational procedure to clear the civilian presence and establish area denial for existing troops and reinforcements, as Jonin and Chunin teams accomplish WHEELHOUSE: securing Setsuna Plaza and subsequently thereafter, the security of the Comm-tower. Hiranami was explicit that the place not be entered by outside personnel. This was followed by a direct order from our own Daimyo to the same effect."

Shikamaru reluctantly nodded.

"There are other objectives within the area of Operation WHEELHOUSE that other classes will be attempting to achieve; and despite precautions, there most certainly will be a high-chance of encountering enemies. This is where we will test you. Can you follow orders while being threatened? Can you detect and defeat a highly-trained adversary, albeit those that can't fight with chakra, like shinobi? Will you freeze when it comes time to take a life in service to the Leaf?"

Kiba Inuzuka scoffed loudly.

"What kind of fuck-wit freezes in battle? We're fucking shinobi for crying out loud. We'll tear 'em apart. Won't we Akamaru?"

The white ninken barked loudly. Iruka looked less than pleased at either of them. Akamaru put his head down into Kiba's jacket. He knew Iruka was pissed.

"Figures your dog is smarter than you are Kiba."

Naruto grinned. Kiba made a face.

"Administration has determined this situation to be as ideal as possible for our Exam. The area around WHEELHOUSE will be engaged and swept for other ninja by our Jonin and Academy Proctors who will act as overwatch while you all take care of your piece of the objective."

Iruka indicated the tables in front of them with a hand and a nod.

"Please turn to the booklets in front of you that detail the rest of the operation. For expediency sake, I will read the summative overview."

He cleared his throat while the Genin-hopefuls opened their blue books simply titled, 'Genin Graduation Field Exam.'

"You will be split into teams to fulfill specific objectives in concert and symmetrical with maneuvers we've already covered as per Shinobi Operational procedures. This will, by no means, be a 'safe' area. Be on your guard. This is your last warning."

"Each Examination proctor will be grouped with a full class of Genin Examinee's for their particular section of the test and they will be graded according to the rubric provided in this book. Look this over and memorize its content. Each proctor is using this rubric to grade you as well as providing overwatch during the duration of the test. They will only intervene in the case of potential loss of life or the presence of chakra-empowered opponents. You will, of course, in the event of the second scenario, retreat back to the LZ where hydrofoils will be waiting for extraction."

Iruka eyed each one of them.

"Study this, memorize it."

Iruka paused, face shifting through emotions Naruto couldn't place exactly. He looked out the broad window at the Hokage Mountain, clearly visible from their vantage, and seemed to come to a decision. He held a hand up.

"Lastly… lethal force is authorized by the Hokage in anticipation of heavy resistance from any adversaries. Fight to kill or you will be killed yourself. We have prepared you as best we can for this moment, and I know that, normally, you would get three more years of training."

Iruka paused again.

"...but in past exams, Genin hopefuls have been killed by anything from failure to act, just rank cowardice, to just plain bad judgment. Squads of Chunin will be attached as extra protection; emergency protocols will see them in the area in under two minutes. Your proctor will be close enough that they will be there in less than a second. Despite that..."

Their Advisor closed his eyes, the scar morphing as it stretched across his face.

"You are one of the most gifted classes I've ever had the pleasure to mentor and I would see you all pass. Please. Don't be careless. You all better come back, whole and healthy, to the tree that shelters us all."

Silence. The weight of what they were about to do- a real mission- pressed down on them.

Murmuring started.

Iruka sagged, as if the energy had leaked out of him and left a tired man behind, instead of an accomplished shinobi on the eve of an exciting milestone.

"We will be leaving this afternoon as a group. The Exam, Operation WHEELHOUSE, begins at dawn tomorrow. Pack for one week of urban and forest operations and meet by the South Gate at 1400. You are all dismissed."

Then he held up a finger, as if remembering something.

"Also… make sure to pick up your uniforms before we leave today, 1100."

Almost universally there was a massive, collective groan. Iruka, finally seeming more like himself, smiled.

#

---

The uniform was standardized, but despite that it looked of high-quality, in Naruto's wildly uneducated clothing opinion; dark blue heavy-weave pants and a long-sleeve jacket combo with a high collar, accented in silver.

This was very different from the dress uniform of Genin.

The Konohagakure Shinobi Military Academy acronym, 'KSMA' was printed on the side in its usual patch formation with the symbol of the Leaf crossed by a blazing fire. The whole ensemble looked tailored on Shikamaru and Hayato, like the thickly-padded zipper-covered clothing was their usual outfit. Naruto, by contrast, just felt stiff and uncomfortable, as though he didn't entirely belong in it.

Kiba just told him to shut up and quit whining.

Using twice the time to put the thing on as everyone else, having struggled mightily with the straps. Naruto finally felt comfortable, having adjusted his blades in their sheath on his back and his medical pouches, sealing scroll, and knives, before running through several slow strikes to assess his flexibility in the new garment. None of the utility items moved due to the silent velcro running over everything. Shino just ran a critical eye over him once, adjusting an epaulet that was crooked, then nodded, tipping his dark shades back up onto his nose.

Naruto tried not to be obnoxiously grateful, but it was hard- he wasn't used to this feeling yet. The feeling that he wasn't alone trudging towards… whatever awaited him.

Hayato came out of their shared room slinging his quiver around his waist and buckling it in one smooth motion, curved mechanical bow attached firmly on his back. After him came Choji, pulling on the dark polymer plates of armor over his uniform; Naruto hopped over to assist, yanking on the straps that Choji couldn't reach, slapping the pauldron when he was done.

He knew the feeling hovering in the air; anticipation. Excitement. The same heady cocktail that filled him before each fight in the Gutter.

A knife's edge as Tanaka called it.

Naruto almost jumped when he realized Shikamaru shaved his head.

No ponytail to be seen, just a short cut on the sides and slightly longer on top. Overall, he looked… serious.

"Nice cut, Nara. Careful, they might take you a little too seriously now."

"Depends what the hell you mean by, 'they.' You got the tags?"

In response, Naruto pulled a stack of enhanced exploding tags out of the pouch attached to hard points on the back of his belt, swapping tags for the money in his friend's outstretched hand.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Shikamaru just grinned, slinging an arm around Naruto's neck, "I can tell this is the beginning of a truly beautiful friendship, don't you agree?"

"Between you and my wallet maybe."

"Get a fucking room you two. Don't we have enemies to slaughter and a Daimyo to save or some shit?"

"Hell yeah."

Every eye in the apartment entranceway turned in shock to Hayato who was grinning innocently.

"What?"

#

---

Passing through the ashen spiraling water-like architecture of the KSMA was always awe-inspiring to Naruto. The male half of 5U met up with the female half and with barely a ripple, fell into formation, picking up speed towards the deployment center at the South Gate.

Though the Nidaime had the idea for the current Shinobi Academy as a premier military school for chakra-using applicants, and Minato Namikaze put it into practice as it currently stood, it was the Shodai that used his Mokuton ability to create it as a symbol of the Leaf's power; a special flawless white-birch powering upward from the ground in swirling, sweeping arches surrounding the main building, one of the largest in the city aside from the Administration Center and Hokage Tower.

The varied uses of chakra never ceased to excite him.

Moments later, when 5U dropped down to the paved streets leading out to the South Gate as an ordered formation, they entered into the pandemonium that was the once-a-year Field Exam deployment.

Jonin, the elite of the Hidden Leaf military apparatus, were uniform in look, if not feel. To Naruto at least, they were easily picked out as they all carried a barely-suppressed feeling of impending action, the dangerous aura of strong chakra.

For this, he didn't need Kaguya.

Naruto, if he closed his eyes, stood in a field of blazing pyres that represented chakra. The whole area had a strange smell, the cousin of impending rain, a kind of ozone scent Naruto associated with active ninja processing chakra.

Fifty to a hundred ninja held formation in the area, a solid battalion strength unit. The would-be Genin, significantly shorter in stature than every other person in the battlegroup, were in ordered ranks off to the side of the implacable presence of the script-covered South Gate.

The Village Hidden in the Leaves consisted of three cardinal entrances. This one, the South Gate, was representative of one of the nine Sage-beasts of myth, not to be confused with the actual tailed beasts. Nine total, four represented cardinal directions, and Naruto couldn't remember the last five. He mentally shrugged. Geopolitical History treated myth as cursory topics of passing interest.

Satsuki, Shikamaru and Naruto moved amongst the crowded street leading 5U to stand with the rest of their cohort. In this case, it was 5K, 5N, and 5Na: all of which were double and triple-checking their inventory in case there was an inspection.

There was always an inspection.

Iruka landed in front of the main group, dust swirling, readying a pen and clipboard. The little bastard of a clipboard was a KSMA student's worst nightmare: Naruto never missed an item since he joined. As an expert in Scripting and Fuin, keeping everything he needed was child's play.

"Please open up all backpacks for inspection. You know what I'm looking for, and exactly what needs to be in there was in your Field Exam booklet, so don't be surprised if I grade extremely poorly for missed items. A grade will be the least of your concerns if you are stupid enough to come back in a bodybag because you didn't pack enough medical-grade wrappings...and yes, that's happened."

A full hour passed for the full inspection; everywhere the blonde looked, people were dressed in their uniforms which was a rare event. His gaze swept the other groups, watching as the other Examinees went through the same routine and the same rough grilling by their Advisors; Professor Kurama, Professor Nakamura, and Professor Mitarashi moving amongst their Advisories.

Another twenty minutes of preparation fell one anxious minute by anxious minute. There was a commotion in front, a ripple of barely felt chakra pulsing in precise delineations that meant the start.

This again, was a very ordered procedure.

You could tell the Jonin were in the front simply by the supernatural way they simply faded from view in a burst of movement. That fading, he'd learned, was the eye catching up to the brain in processing the sheer speed.

Not that Naruto had much trouble keeping up with that since he did feel them, if not so much see them.

Naruto hoped one day he'd catch up to those Jonin and surpass them: he needed to, if he wanted to survive till his twentieth year.

The call came from Iruka, one of the three Administrators keeping everything moving smoothly, "Alright 5U, let's move out!"

Naruto caught looks from his friends, he wasn't sure if they were nervous looks or not, but he gave them a thumbs-up anyway. In one movement they'd all practiced a thousand times out in the field, together, 5U pushed chakra to their muscles, beautiful energy sweeping through his body in a way that never seemed to lose its novelty, and disappeared in a similarly regimented, but less-pronounced, blur of speed.

The Konohagakure Shinobi Military Academy Genin Graduation Field Exam had officially begun.

#

---

/Hanguri Gulf Coast

/Genbu City

/River Country

Naruto Uzumaki

Matching his center of gravity to the gentle sway of the ship floating off the coast of the area of operations, Naruto bled chakra to his eyes in order to briefly enhance his view of the embankments behind which he could see figures manning posts.

They'd made the boundary of Operation WHEELHOUSE yesterday, just outside the city limits. In the early afternoon, they had settled in and made quiet camps in preparation for the dawn start. Limited fires, so no hot water. Quiet conversation was not outlawed, but was discouraged. Food was basic, so Choji shared some simple spices from his pack that gave it a fresh twist.

Say what you will about the Akimichi, but they were good for morale.

An hour ago the various trainees and their Proctors boarded the strange ships, metal things that seemed to float on fin-shaped loops attached to the bottom of the boat, lifting the whole ship out of the water when put into high-speeds.

Currently, as 5U crowded the high-walled front-space of the ship and examined their dropzone, Naruto was increasingly certain something was wrong. Even that feeling, as strong as it was, didn't match up with the visual reality.

"Is it just me-"

"No, and I know where you're going- there aren't supposed to be that many on the beach."

"More for the rest of us."

"I'm not worried about numbers, I'm worried about what else they got wrong and why they haven't stopped the operation."

"Oh I don't know… maybe that's not how real missions work?"

"Ino, how much leeway do you think they want on a live mission involving Academy students?"

"Enough to make sure we can handle being Genin, obviously."

Hayato looked thoughtful, Byakugan active, easily surpassing Naruto's crude technique.

"There seems to be heavy resistance on the beach… but not much further out like they printed in the mission intelligence."

Hayato squinted.

"...our actual objectives are fairly clear."

"So- what does that mean? Big picture, that is?"

Everyone waited for Shikamaru, except for Naruto who eyed the needle-like structure at the center of the city, soaring into the sky surrounded by buildings and rock that sheathed it, a visible landmark even from this distance so far out in the water.

Iwashi, the Jonin assigned to them as their proctor, interrupted whatever their Team Leader was going to say, the hiss of the door behind them echoing.

"Be ready. Five minutes till disembarkment. Heavy resistance."

There was no hint that this was a man assigned to watch over literal children as they threw themselves into what was sure to be a grinder. A death trap filled with professional soldiers armed, armored, and fully prepared and twice their size.

Twice their age.

Questions ran through Naruto's head as he turned, facing the older, grizzled veteran.

"Prepared. Who tipped them off?"

"What makes you think someone tipped them off?"

Naruto stared at him.

Iwashi stared back, unblinking.

"We haven't exactly been subtle, have we? Hydrofoils are not stealthy, trainee."

Sakura tugged on his sleeve and he backed off, nodding once to the proctor.

"Two minutes. On alarm, we engage."

With a last, hard, searching look at all eleven trainees, he left.

Nobody said a word, but everyone started arranging themselves towards the off-ramp, an industrial door that opened outward from the viewing portal they were standing at. Above them, on the main deck, was the pilot steering them onto the sandy beaches of Genbu. Choji, who was detaching a three foot, by one and a half foot slab of steel- his towershield- anchored himself in the front of their wedge formation.

"This was a terrible idea, putting us in a fucking tin can."

Choji shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by Kiba's words.

Naruto moved up front, following Shikamaru's orders from earlier. Kneeling at the front-right corner of the ship bay, he ran his hands along the wall and found the seam where the door split to open outward. Three inches to the right, he tapped the spot he was searching for and pulled out his Etcher, quickly finding a different tip, this time designed for etching harder surfaces, and began crafting a script matrix. Looping fuinjutsu gave it power and the script gave it direction.

A process that would've taken anyone else an absurdly long time took Naruto only a minute or two. Their plan was set.

Levering himself to his feet, he nodded to Satsuki who shouldered past Choji to stand in the front, jumping up and down, bouncing from foot to foot and shaking her hands out, flexing.

"Everybody ready?"

Shikamaru let out a long breath and shadows filled the corners of the room; an oppressive, living darkness. White eyes and a long, slow-grin shifted along the walls like the rainbow shine in oil spills.

A soft glow radiated from the high-collar shielding Naruto's Lightning Mark from view, contrasting with the opaque shadows. Living lightning galloped through his veins and he knew that whatever lay on the other side of the door stood zero chance of survival from the onslaught that was gathering.

The air felt suddenly hotter and windier under Satsuki's subtle, powerful processing.

A stab of pity passed through him and left just as quickly: mercenaries that preyed on civilians deserved whatever fate brought them to their doorstep.

They would receive no mercy.

An alarm blared and the door began to open, sunlight streaming in from outside and even that couldn't dispel the darkness inside.

#

When the door opened upward, letting in the half-twilight of dawn and the colorful facade of the city of Genbu's coastal homes, Naruto had about an eighth of a second to process the writhing mass of black-armored figures, perhaps a hundred spread out across a thousand feet of white sand, before his instincts kicked in and he froze.

"Hold!"

No one needed to be told.

The genjutsu that he'd anchored to the front of their opening, showing nothing inside to the gathered forces outside, gave them the crucial split second of hesitation in their ranks Shikamaru wanted before 5U's conjoined techniques; a liquid-looking wave of flames made white-hot and fast by added wind chakra met Naruto's own colorless lance of wide branching lightning, arcing like a tesla coil, that met and detonated in a roaring conflagration that glassed a hundred and fifteen feet of sand where a devastating hole ripped open in the lines of mercenaries, burned meat and exploded limbs created by something they couldn't see inside the boat, causing pandemonium. Unfortunately for the faceless enemies in their dark helmets, they were met as they turned to break, panic sweeping the once-ordered formations, by more furious techniques of trainees coming from other boats, landing in a concentrated wave.

5U, breaking the genjutsu barrier, sprinted at full-speed in the original wedge formation straight at the now broken Bakkuoshan. The Black Ocean was being boiled away as each of them split off to engage.

Choji, utterly silent and terrifying as he soundlessly led the charge, expanded in a first level Unveiling and the whole battlefield fell into a true rout, chaos giving them the advantage as they swept in, fulfilling their first mission.

Take the beach.

Naruto's dark blades, just metal for now as there was no need for Tool Creation, crossed his body in diagonal slashes, sweeping through vulnerable throats. Without bothering to watch the men bleed, the sounds of the dead and dying and blood on sand blurred together in a cacophony that sounded of victory; he blurred across the once-white sand, now a burnt red in huge swathes, and converged with the rest of his team on where they knew civilians were being kept hostage.

Sakura, lept to the top of the embankment, a one story leap that had her pink hair swaying in the wind. As she passed the point where sand met paved concrete, she disappeared for a moment, only popping back up with blood on her knife and motioned the rest of the squad, also finishing off their opponents with quick efficiency, forward towards 5U's real objective: the plazas.

#

---

/Tadashi Square

/Genbu City

/River Country

Naruto Uzumaki

Despite the fact that Operation WHEELHOUSE began on a deserted stretch of the Hanguri Gulf coastline, the area of engagement was inside the porous stone walls of the city of Genbu, which ran between the Gulf and the enormous lake to the north named Ototo, or 'little brother,' as the locals called it.

The houses crowded the entrance and seemed tightly packed everywhere that Naruto could see. They were tall affairs, painted a riot of colors with none matching any other. Thin stone bridges connected the second story homes forming arches that shaded the streets in intervals. Flowers and shrubbery, vines of ivy in strange colors, and grass choked everywhere there was stone in an oddly organized fashion.

To Naruto, the sight was like someone completely colorblind and obsessed with greenery had coordinated the look of the city. Two and three-story houses seemed crammed together as if afraid to run out of space, like the books in the Konoha Memorial Library; squashed and dense.

The overall effect was painful to look at, but beautiful in a chaotic way, and Naruto decided he liked it. Especially since some of the houses were the brightest shades of orange he'd ever seen. That color called to him, but he knew only an idiot would cover himself in it and think he'd blend in as a ninja.

"Fuck, you'd think these civilians would be friggin' blind the way they've painted this shitty city."

Kiba clearly wasn't a fan and judging by the derisive bark, neither was Akamaru. Aiko and Yuna fanned out behind him in an octagonal formation, framed by Choji—normal-sized now—Ami, Ino, Shikamaru, and Satsuki. They spread out in a loose formation with three scouts—Sakura, Shino, and Hayato—ranging above them on the buildings to each side of the crew, as they cautiously entered the city proper via the obvious thoroughfare Sakura spied after leaving the beach.

Above them, the occasional bridges connected various dwellings and domiciles. Naruto couldn't differentiate which of these houses were shops and which were actual living spaces. Occasionally there would be simple signs, but no words. For a center of commerce and trade between Wind Country, Fire, River, and the archipelago's, this place was as confusing as Yomi.

"I like the colors."

Kiba snorted at Naruto's comment.

"Of course, you of all people would love them. Colorblind, you are."

Naruto rolled his eyes, fingering his sword hilts, all of it was functional and darkly colored, except the wrapping; a garrish dyed-orange leather. He'd commandeered two longswords from the armory and made them his own.

"Be quiet. We're approaching the gates."

Shikamaru was all business.

Naruto shook himself and focused because as usual, Shikamaru was right. This wasn't just a training exercise. Everything hinged on the success of today's Exam.

Naruto's eyes swept up to their scouts.

Sakura, her short pink hair swaying, was relatively visible from their location on the ground, but both Hayato and Shino were out of view. Naruto just assumed they were there. But Hayato's voice, for once not stuttering but utterly focused, came crackling through his earpiece.

"Contact. A full two dozen ahead in Tadashi Plaza. These… look a bit different than the others."

Satsuki and Naruto looked at each other, mirrored thoughts on their faces. Two dozen mercenaries? That was… more than they'd been expecting given their reception on the beach. The Field Exam was always a real operation, he knew; usually large-scale, but ninety percent of the heavy lifting was supposed to be done by the Jonin and Chunin battalions. The examinees were always given lower-risk assignments. That was exactly why they'd been given the task to secure Tadashi Square. The beach situation, despite the numbers, was considered low-risk due to the sheer volume of trainees participating in that objective. But this? Securing a position was supposed to be a two-to-one ratio in favor of the trainees. This was, at best, the other way around.

There were three large plazas in Genbu, the largest of which, Setsuna Plaza, guarded the only way up the mountain access road towards the communications tower at the pinnacle. That was presumed, at least in the intelligence briefing, to be where most of the actual resistance was, given that the civilians, as many of them as could be helped, had been evacuated or told to stay in their homes—and then at their own risk. A quarter of a million people called the city home as it was the 'shining jewel of River Country,' and the Uzumaki could see why they called it that.

The place really was picturesque, in a crazy sort of way.

Regardless, With under a thousand vanilla mercenaries, no matter how well-equipped or provisioned, they couldn't secure a town of five-hundred thousand, especially one with protectorate status by Fire. They had to know that shinobi would respond.

Even one Jonin could defeat a thousand mercenaries, barring a lucky shot. That simple arithmetic was the sole reason why no country fielded armies of regulars against shinobi.

Shinobi versus shinobi, in sanctioned conflicts, and strict rules of engagement had been the standard since the Warring Clans era. Anyone who broke or flaunted that risked having a staggering death toll and no civilian population left after.

So… what was the play here?

The inner and outer harbors were already cleared, given the chatter on their comms, so that just left the succession of increasingly larger plazas as the only hot zone of suspected activity.

Were the numbers of their enemies wrong?

Where were the Jonin and Chunin battalions? Already at the Tower?

Sakura spoke into her headset on the open team channel. It came through loud and clear and made everyone's blood freeze.

"Four more approaching from the west. I'm coming down."

That made thirty mercenaries, of unknown skill and ability, sitting between them and accomplishing their objective. This was… well, frankly, it was supposed to be at or above their abilities numerically speaking. Thirty to five odds were not, strictly speaking, a high-odds of a successful engagement. Then again...

Naruto felt a thrill rising in him.

He could see the same thing on Kiba and Satsuki's faces, thirsty grins. Shikamaru was tense next to him and showed little of the excitement the others shared. Sakura arrived in a deep crouch, having fallen a considerable distance from the top of the building, but even she had a grin on.

Naruto knew this was their time to shine, to prove to themselves and to their commanding officers, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they were all ready to be shinobi of the Hidden Leaf.

Choji spoke quietly, knowing this was a big decision for them as a team. Satsuki looked at Naruto first. Naruto looked at Shikamaru. Shikamaru sighed. The dark haired Shadow-user always took tactical point.

"Fine. Fine. Troublesome, but thankfully, with Naruto's assistance, I have a full bandolier…so six? That should do."

Sakura's face morphed from excitement into alarm and Naruto followed.

"Uh Shikamaru, do you really need—?"

"You want to go hand-to-hand, five against thirty? Really?"

Naruto scratched his head and Satsuki rolled his eyes. Sakura continued to eye the bandoliers of explosive tags like someone would eye a Sand Lion from Wind Country. Dangerous and unpredictable.

"I guess not."

"Then ten it is."

"Ten? You said six!"

"You decided to question me. Now it's ten. Want to make it fifteen?"

"Kami no! There won't be a damn thing left..."

Sakura hushed him, Ino huffed and rolled her eyes, muttering something about stubborn men, and Shikamaru started drawing on a piece of paper with charcoal and they all huddled close, bent over the crude map-in-progress. A part of him wiggled with anxiety, this was too far off what we were told to expect, but another part—a larger part felt...

[Careful, my Seed. Distraction has killed greater beings than you. Stay focused.]

Naruto tried not to roll his eyes then realized she could feel his emotion anyway.

[There is nothing here that can threaten us.]

[How sure are you of that? Would you stake your friend's lives on such confidence?]

He hated to admit it, but Kaguya was right.

Naruto tuned back in, just in time to catch the plan.

#

---

From Naruto's vantage point on top of the eastern-most building overlooking Tadashi Square, the once-bustling commercial center unfolded in front of his eyes like a checkerboard with an enormous fountain set in the very center.

Four gates, ornate and taller than the buildings bracketing them, had their various names engraved in the center.

At least the gates were labeled.

Thi was the first easy-to-recognize thing in Genbu.

One led northwest to the inner harbor which connected to the northern Otōto Lake. The bottom gate opened south-east, leading to the outer harbor which connected to the Hanguri Gulf. The others led straight to the main target; the communication tower and back in the direction they'd come from.

Some of 5U had entered the square by scaling up the smooth siding of the houses via chakra, to the rooftops, and others dove straight through back-alleys that opened into shops. Each of them were stationed strategically along the buildings and stores to ensure they hit from all sides once Shikamaru popped the surprise.

All Yomi was going to unleash on the unsuspecting foes below them.

Hopefully, given Shikamaru's track record, they'd be able to hit hard and fast and eliminate them all without any casualties on their side. Thirty to five did not good odds make in a straight-up, dust-up. Not that Naruto was at all opposed to losing battles. He'd fought them before and often. He was just getting used to winning now.

Naruto held out a fist to Satsuki, as he'd seen Kiba do to Shino, and she bumped it without turning her head from where they lay prone, watching their prey.

"Let's kill these assholes quick, yeah?"

Satsuki didn't respond. When she did, it was slow and thoughtful. Like she was trying to feel something out that she'd forgotten.

"When Iruka-sensei gave the briefing, do you remember what he said about this mercenary outfit?"

Naruto fixed his position, a tile digging into his side. Shifting, he lay flat on his back, staring at the cloudless stretch of beautiful blue sky. Naruto wracked his brain: the face of Sukumu Gato swam into view, but what were the odds this was the same Gato?

"Bakkuoshan, or something like that? They are an arm of Gato Informatics."

The truth poured in the more he thought of it. This was the same Gato.

Naruto snapped his fingers.

"Sukumu Gato is also the head of the Yakuza. Iruka didn't tell us that, but I've had… an unfortunate run-in with his thugs."

Cocking his head, he whispered as he thought.

"Iruka said they don't use rogue-nin. Other than that… heavily armored? Skilled? They didn't put up much of a fight on the beach."

"No unaffiliated ninja, yes, but these guys seem different. Strange armor. Look. It's just like you said."

Naruto flipped himself around, trying not to jostle the loose tile as he peered harder at the men in the square. Most were in a loose circle talking, several were stationed in pairs at each of the gate entrances. One and all were decked out in...what the hell was that?

Flashes of his time in Iron Country, Ouran's tutelage.

Don't think about that.

Naruto moved past the red memories tearing at his mind and shoved them away, focusing on his time at the side of Master Ouran. The Fuinsmith dealt with a lot of armor, very advanced and very basic, non-Fuin based armor, and this reminded him more of chakra armor than it did of regular heavy plate. Some had the regular plate-and-mail of standard Heavy Infantry like the Fire Daimyo utilized, but there were three men in the matte-black special stuff.

Satsuki knew the expert between the two of them was Naruto, so she waited for the blonde to speak. This wasn't something that Sakura or Shikamaru could've caught from a distance either.

They looked like regular infantry, even from up close.

"I don't like this."

Satsuki drew in a breath and activated her headset connecting her to the rest.

"I know, but we have to warn the others regardless. We have to engage, so this plan is still better than nothing."

Reluctantly, still squinting at the armor, Naruto nodded.

Static crackled in his ear as Satsuki went team-wide.

"Naruto and I think there are at least three enemies using some type of powered armor. Be alert."

Ten acknowledgements came through right after. And then they waited.

The armor still bugged Naruto, triggering a memory. Before he could seize it and examine it, a deep bass note rolled out over the square and everything went to hell in a handbasket as Satsuki and Naruto ducked behind some eaves. Staccato cracks that sounded like a giant using the ground as a punching bag echoed and amplified in the box-like square, reverberating off the buildings. Naruto thanked everything he held dear that he had his headset on and it cancelled some of the sound. Not always the best thing in combat, but here it helped.

That was the signal.

Despite his ears muffled, they were ringing slightly as he rose into a crouch with Satsuki. An active, torched battlefield awaited his vision as at least a half-dozen Bakkuoshan were splattered across the square. Bodies, dismembered and flung aside like children's toys, rained down the lifeblood of the soldiers, filling the fountain with red, streaks of it coated the ground like city-art.

Pock-marked now, the once-pristine checkerboard street was chaotic as the remaining two dozen men pulled into a semblance of formation with expert, albeit woozy precision. Most of them were covered in black soot streaks, armor dented, faces covered in scratches from the shrapnel. But almost all were still alive and in full-fighting shape as Naruto watched them draw blades and axes, some unhooking shields that hadn't been harmed.

The three black-armored figures were completely free of damage.

At that point, Naruto lost track of everyone as chakra burned in his veins and suffused his body with an almost unbearable amount of energy and he followed Satsuki in a tunnel-vision inducing charge that took them from the top of the street, right up into the middle of the phalanx. The group took three seconds, an eternity in a firefight, to notice the enemies in their midst.

Satsuki and Naruto took full-advantage.

Naruto swept his blades out, taking the first man under the leather strap of his helm, blood flying in a perfect arc as the blonde executed him with a gurgle of suffocation. Blood did that when it went the wrong way.

Back the sword went and with a flick of his wrist, completely free of blood. Just in time. Memories of Mifune's instructions flowed into him like water now; new and old experiences fused into muscle memory that he leaned on.

Satsuki dispatched another in a jab to the throat. Spinning, she moved on, pulling the upraised shield of another man in defensive posture forward, overbalancing her foe. Over-extended now, Satsuki tucked the man's arm into her shoulder, leveraging him into a throw that spun him straight into the ground. Satsuki followed up with a barrage of punches that crushed the Bakkuoshan's face into unrecognizable meat. The soldier went limp.

Satsuki dropped what Naruto recognized as Shikamaru's explosive tag bundle on the body.

The two of them immediately turned, sprinting backwards, and into a leap in opposite directions. Naruto threw as much chakra into his legs as they could hold without burning his tenketsu in order to gain distance and vertical height, as the phalanx around them, the rest of the men attempting to pincer them, converged on nothing...

...only for the second explosive bundle, dropped by Satsuki during the fight, to grey the world out with a second rumbling bass note, pure and clean.

A fist made of compressed air and sound slapped Naruto into a bakery window; vague, but delicious smells assaulted him at the same time the explosion did. Glass shattered all around him and he went tumbling, shrugging off the minor scrapes and cuts as he used chakra to right himself and stick to the back wall. He ended his flight facing out onto the square and the devastating results of Shikamaru's plan.

Five men.

That was all that remained of a unit of thirty.

Needless to say, they'd come upon the perfect recipe for manslaughter and the evidence was staring him in the face, a perfect testing ground. The square looked like a battlefield, and it was, but for the length of time they'd been there it shouldn't have looked like they'd been waging war for three months.

Naruto watched a man crawling with part of his face and arm missing, blood spilling like a creek after it rained. He ignored it. It was almost easy.

The blonde stood back up, glass fragments falling off his uniform, right hand on the hilt of his right blade as the other, clutched in his left, wiped sweat off his forehead.

Scanning, he spotted Sakura, Ami, Kiba, and Choji engaging the last five men. Shikamaru's orders were to keep the chakra use to a minimum, though they'd mostly broken that with the explosive tags.

Naruto watched as Sakura slid past an armored merc and hamstrung him, finishing the man with a casual backhand strike of her thick-bladed knife. Choji strove evenly with two soldiers, trading blows that fell on his armored plating like water on a roof.

Choji's shield, big enough for two men, caved in and splattered the first man's brain into his helmet. The scratching and crunching sound of armor and flesh was something you couldn't mistake.

The other soldier though…

"Move Choji!"

Naruto ran, yelling into his microphone.

More enemies poured into the square; two, then three. Not huge reinforcements, but enough.

His tenketsu, all three-hundred and sixty five origin points for chakra expulsion, burned in his body as the world slowed down just slightly, enough. His Lightning Mark crackled with lightning.

The man had unfrozen and whipped his blade, fast for a civilian, in an overhead strike that might've cleaved his friend's helmet and head in twain, distracted and tangled with the mushy dead weight of the corpse of the first enemy as he was, if Naruto hadn't reached him first.

Batting away the downward strike effortlessly, Naruto stabbed his off-hand blade straight. The man was off-balance and unable to counterattack his new opponent or even get the deflected blade in between the point of Naruto's blade and his exposed chestplate.

The tip skittered off the strange armor.

His enemy, a young man seemingly only five years older than himself, judging by the stubble on his chin visible through the dark barbut, smirked at him.

That wouldn't have happened if I'd used Tool Creation.

Backpedaling, Naruto reassessed the situation.

Satsuki was engaged with the second assailant.

Sakura circled her opponent waiting for an opening and Shikamaru...

Where was Shikamaru?

There was no time for that. There were new opponents.

Sakura spun into a side spin, kunai leading, that sent her blades singing, but her opponent, a freakishly tall specimen, deflected both strikes skillfully with a longsword, resetting his stance and repositioning himself out of the trap that they were setting. The young man and the tall one formed a semi-circle, weapons facing out.

Naruto narrowed his eyes. Where was the third…?

Feeling deeply, he Sensed the faint chakra signature of a civilian behind him moving. Simultaneously, Sakura's eyes widened at something over his shoulder. Naruto was opposite her in the circle. He didn't need Kaguya's warning or Sakura' shout.

"Naruto!"

Before she even spoke he was moving.

A blade narrowly missed entering his ribs as Naruto threw himself to the right, spinning to face his opponent as he did so. Blindly, the blonde launched an elbow backwards as well, colliding with a helmet. A grunt of pain followed. But the man, wider than the others and with a knot of rank on an epaulet, recovered quickly.

A second man stepped up next to him, different from the rest. Choji, Sakura, Satsuki, and Kiba all retreated slightly to form up with Naruto.

Where the hell was Shikamaru?

Naruto put his hand to his hilt and the movement shot agony through his side. He touched a hand to his side where a jagged gash, almost his death, waited for the tips of his fingers. He brought them up to his face; blood, the scent weak against the backdrop of the rest of the carnage. A decent amount, but nothing his body and chakra couldn't fix afterwards. More than he'd expected to have given who he was fighting. Chump civilians.

The overwhelming stench of offal, shit, and piss filled the previously clean ocean breeze. Naruto ignored the scent, barely registering.

Naruto was more mad at himself than anything. That was a stupid choice not to bring overwhelming force to each fight.

Satsuki spoke quietly to the new foe.

"This won't end well for you. Give up."

The tallest one was a Captain, as Naruto narrowed his eyes and wracked his brain, remembering all the military rank identification training they'd all had in Report Writing.

It was important to know who to kill, after all.

The three of them, Captain and two underlings, all looked at each other, barely even winded. Why were three higher-level officers securing a place that had no real strategic value? Why were they even here? Attacking a defunct communications tower? Naruto couldn't help it. He had to ask.

"This square is meaningless. Tell us your purpose."

The three shifted together, gathering tighter. None of the three looked to be in a mood to speak, judging by the way they immediately engaged without speaking.

Within two steps, they were frozen in place under the shadow of the fountain. Locked by a shadow tendril connecting each of them, a black figure, a horrifying facsimile of Shikamaru, rose up from the pool of inky blackness at the feet of the three assailants and long, sharp fingers ending in dagger-like points erupted through the vulnerable points at the neck.

Two bodies dropped, fancy armor useless.

The other, the Captain, somehow took the needle-like claw of Shadow Release on the breastplate… and was totally unharmed, the chakra melting off it like water on the back of a duck.

Then a senbon, a slender silvery needle, burst in the man's eye and blasted out and clanged in his helmet.

Naruto could barely make out part of Shikamaru's face in the unnatural blackness, a place of deep shadow near the edge of the bakery shop, the one to which Naruto was unceremoniously blown towards. But Naruto looked up at the angle to which the senbon came and realized Aiko saved the day. He waved.

Kiba whistled, grinning.

"Hot damn Shikamaru, here I was thinking you were useless. Color me surprised."

Satsuki barked a short laugh and it was almost crazier than the nightmare Shadow clone sinking slowly back into nothingness.

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Shadow release is perfect. Doesn't have to do any work whatsoever."

Aiko and Yuna, who'd been providing overwatch, dropped to the pavement from the south. Hayato and Shino came from the other direction. Hayato was missing some arrows and Shino had a singed sleeve on one arm. So there were more enemies over there...

Shikamaru didn't look remotely phased as he gingerly stepped over the broken glass and the dead bodies of the men his shadow had slain. The guy looked amused.

Amused!

"Nice shot Aiko."

"...you're. Welcome?"

Naruto stepped closer to the bodies, ignoring the rest of the Team who fanned out to secure the perimeter. Sakura was already scaling a building to stand look-out, Satsuki was just standing, slightly lost, in the center of the square. Ignoring her, he knelt down and felt along the sides of the body, trying to see if they had any written orders or tangible information he could use.

The men had nothing on them besides the armor. Which was interesting in and of itself as most paramilitary organizations like Bakkuoshan had strict orders and usually Captains kept actual written logs, at least according to Professor Umino.

Naruto kept looking, but ultimately found nothing of note, not even an inked Fuin-glyph. Most people stored things in Fuin-glyphs as they were not constrained by the average weight requirement of a backpack. Expanded space pockets were mind-bending to think about and even more finicky to program with Fuin or script.

Gazing around, Naruto had an intense feeling of being watched; like a hand lightly grazing the back of his neck. Kiba was suppressing laughter next to him as he rubbed a fussy Akamaru who had blood and… was that a piece of liver? -coating his muzzle. He must've made a face because Kiba absently started wiping it with his hand. It didn't help.

All twelve of them crowded around the fountain in the middle of the square. Apparently everyone had the same thought, that nobody in their right mind would give two shits about this stupid square if the Communications Tower was still being fought over. The only appropriate exit strategy had the enemy going North and out that gate. How many mercenaries could there possibly be anyway? They'd killed, alone and unaided, a little less than half a battalion.

Naruto went to where Satsuki, Sakura, Hayato, and Kiba were talking.

"You believe this shit? This stinks like the aftermath of an Akimichi barbecue."

Satsuki eyed Shikamaru and Shino who were conversing with Choji in low-voices.

"I know, this seems… irregular. But we have our orders. Part of us passing includes us following orders to the letter. Iwashi told us to stay put and our briefings told us to stay put. So, ergo, we stay put."

Sakura wasn't wrong, but she wasn't entirely right either.

"The briefing actually said for our group to secure Tadashi Square. We did that. Nowhere did it say we had to stay put."

Naruto watched Ami, Aiko, and Yuna grab seats where they could and pull out rations. Ami's huge hammer slipped from where she leaned it against the scorched side of a cafe and it made a large clanging sound that had everyone wincing.

"Sorry! Sorry!"

Satsuki sighed next to him.

Naruto watched Shikamaru walk over to them and he had a feeling he knew exactly what he was going to say. Switching to the team channel, Shikamaru called for everyone over mics.

Once they were gathered, Ami juggling her hammer and a slightly singed muffin she no doubt scavenged from the cafe, Shikamaru cleared his throat.

"Anyone know who is directing communications?"

"Assistant Professor Mizuki Touji, I believe. How do I know? Professor Umino listed most of the positions in our briefing booklet."

Shikamaru cocked his head, finishing listening to Shino, eyes scanning the rooftops.

No one spoke.

"So- briefing told us to secure Tadashi Square and wait for word about Setsuna. Supposedly there is a Chunin battalion assigned closer to the Communications Tower, right?"

Naruto could barely hear Aiko confirm his statement.

Yuna repeated it louder and Aiko gave her sister an annoyed stare.

"I for one don't intend to lose points over worrying about things above our pay grade."

"Yeah, weirdly- I'm with Ino on this one."

"I'm uncomfortable with Ami agreeing with me. Someone tell me I'm wrong, quick."

Ami, purple ponytail swaying, made a nasty face at the Yamanaka.

"All I'm saying is that if the brief tells us to stay, we stay. Sour Cream and Onion chips, anyone? Anyone?"

Naruto ignored Choji, and the proffered bag, and opened his mouth, but Shikamaru cut him off.

"No. Captain's orders. We're staying put. I have questions, but no answers, and that's kind of the way missions go according to my father. Sometimes you never do get answers. Not to mention I have no data beyond the intelligence we've gathered today. Questions in questions. But I feel…"

Satsuki finished his sentence, quietly, but it cut through everyone.

"...there is more to this operation than we're being told?"

The Nara nodded, face serious.

"We wouldn't be given deliberately misleading information in such a meticulously planned operation, such as a Field Exam. The danger lay in operating outside our strict mandates and objectives. If there is more here under the surface, breaking protocol is the fastest way to find ourselves in hot water. Not to mention, they might be trying to induce such a feeling in us. To test how we react."

Satsuki hummed.

"My mother wouldn't allow the Headmaster to do such a thing, not on a war footing."

"Hang out, in the hot sun, doing nothing, playing guard dog for an empty road? Smells like a shit assignment to me."

"We're also not facing certain death either, dog breath."

Hayato, quiet up to this point, spoke up, suddenly animated.

"If we're here, wh-where are the rest of the classes? Where are the Second Years, Third Years, and Fourth Year? Why so much resistance on the beach and so many more enemies in the city than planned?"

"...but, no reinforcements? That guy Aiko killed was a Captain. A shit Captain, but still higher up in the food chain than everyone we've faced so far. If there are so many more enemies, then where are they all, and where are they coming from?"

Shikamaru hand waved the questions.

"Valid. But irrelevant for our purposes. We will have plenty of time to question command afterwards in the Afteraction. I want to get us in, ace this rubric, and get out. Iwashi doesn't seem like the kind of Proctor who encourages trainees to step out of the bounds of their mission parameters."

Grumbling and nods followed his statement.

As the sun climbed higher in the sky and flashed light onto the riotous rainbow city, Class 5U settled in to wait for their orders.

#

---

/WILDFIRE Communications Array: Deep Storage

/Genbu City

/River Country

Fugaku Uchiha

The thin soles of his crushed velvet slippers made an eerie tapping noise against the metal floor as he stepped off the elevator, emergency lightning flaring orange in regular intervals.

Racks of servers, twice the height of a man and still not touching the ceiling for all that, blinked in lonely lock-step around him in a constellation that stretched further than he could see, even with his Mangekyo Sharingan active. The echo of his steps followed him down the softly lit path to the mainframe, the prize he sought on behalf of his God.

Defunct, non-operational, Fugaku needed to delve deep into the Communications Array to reach Storage, to reach the bowels of the tower. As he was, they were far underground, several dozen stories in fact. A blinking light greeted him, set in the largest piece of equipment yet. Floor-to-ceiling panels faced him like a many-eyed spider, each with a thick layer of dust.

A blinking query line awaited with green text.

THE ARK. ACTIVATE? Y/N.

Reaching out with his Senses, he detected nothing through the thick sealing in the walls and sheer amount of rock and steel above and on all sides of him.

The colors flipped; green and black, to blue and white as he typed in a few lines from a small, leatherbound black book he produced from his pocket. Lines of code swirled the blue screen. Options unfurled in front of him, the light reflecting off his Sharingan. Pausing as he used a ball set into the mainframe to move around in the options, he opened a few boxes labeled, 'DIRECTORY.'

#

-RepositoryFILE PRIORITY1/Unauthorized/Access/WILDFIRE/Break/Password

#

This was an unsanctioned delve, by Madara at least—but Fugaku knew there was more here than just a simple switch flip.

Juzo, being merely a murderous beast, was suited only to such tasks as befitting a beast: like carving a red line through the fodder above. Jonin and Chunin, all, but died so easily nonetheless.

Slaughter was all well and good, but Fugaku was no Hidan, devoted to the ritual slaughter and pain of Jashin—as long as death served a purpose, he accepted it. There was no benefit to doing this any other way than quietly. Yet—his God commanded it and thus he obeyed.

Beyond that, he was indifferent.

Like he'd said, there was more at stake here than anyone save the Inner Circle understood; and even the Conqueror wouldn't interfere with his Lord's plans here, part and parcel of each other as they were. The Conqueror accepted that he had an ally in God, yet failed to pierce the illusion God weaved over him.

Madara believed he sought the same prize, but God's went a step above and beyond. If word of God's plan reached Madara and he attempted to thwart him?

If he did, he would be eliminated—just like the rest.

Carefully so as not to let his sharp nails slice into the metal, he tapped one letter at a time, then pressed enter on the password given from the Daimyo's own lips.

:NAHO1:

ENTER.

What unfurled was a bunch of text, slowly scrolling down, with names, names that Fugaku recognized: the deceased, a trail of murder across not just one, but two continents.

The last bit, the gem he was looking for, was hidden in an innocuous folder. Fugaku watched the screens, all nine of them, flicker on and off. Annoyed, he knew something was trying to keep him out.

A natural firewall, as his God told him?

Or another operator?

Finally, a name appeared as he countered the flickering with a few carefully input lines of code from the notebook he clutched like a holy relic.

SEALED BY FIRE TEMPLE INQUISITION, ORDER: T. BANSAI.

ASUKA GENMEI. ALIVE. AGE UNKNOWN. LOCATION.

VERBAL-ONLY. NO RECORDINGS PRESENT.

Sighing, Fugaku brushed some hair out of his face, tilting his head back, and shaking his straight, waist-length hair to keep it proper, the former Clan Head of the Uchiha clan tapped further lines on another console. Light flickered, ancient white phosphorescent globes set equidistant, clicking on in a steady clanging sound that reached from the elevator all the way down, terminating in a larger light set above him.

A deep rumbling shook the tomb-like silence of the facility and Fugaku knew that outside, visible from miles around, would be the activation and unfurling of the Elemental Nations largest remaining antenna-based array.

He could picture it from what God had told him: a miles-high tower unfolding like some transforming, flowering tree into a precision instrument that could reach across the world to a distant land. Not unlike the stories he'd heard of the wings on Lord God Pein's back; no doubt just one of the miracles available to the Kojiki.

This was the first time in a decade that River's tower was active.

A line popped up on the massive screen above him.

-Waiting on the Chat function:

-response-

-PRIORY-COMMAND: CURTAIN-DROP.

Three dots popped up signifying someone responding.

-Y/N?

-...CONFIRM. PASSWORD: NAHO1

-CONFIRMING CURTAIN DROP?

-Y.

-AUXILIARY COMMAND CODE: NAHO1

-CONFIRMED.

Fugaku had nothing left—or almost nothing, yet he had enough human in him to marvel at the beauty and power of ancient engineering. He was able to talk to the Priory, an organization on the other side of the world from him from this very place.

The emotion, as faint as it had started, faded and he remembered.

Only His Lord, His Will and, in a distant third, his vengeance remained.

This world would be scoured in fire and left with nothing but rivers of blood and storms of ash; but today, at least, would be a good day.

Once they had the Key, only the Lock and Door remained… and his Lord would get everything He deserved. A boon for a boon.

Then Fugaku Uchiha could rest knowing he'd left the world better than he found it, as he'd always wanted.

All three of his wishes would be granted and in one fell swoop too.

Today, they would kill a Kage...

...and Fugaku would get everything he ever wanted.

Today would be a good day.

---

A/N: Hey folks. Thanks for reading. Big thanks to my betas Fuyuriku and Mistical Ninja. Sorry it took so long- I had to finish plotting till the end of Book 1 which is currently two chapters away. A lot of things shifted because of where I want to go with the story, so I wanted to make sure it all lined up properly before hitting send on the chapter. There is one more full chapter, Chapter 26: Praxic Grief, which should be a LONG one, then the Epilogue, Chapter 27. That will end Book 1. Should be a wild ride- thank you to those who reviewed, even the cheerful folks who told me to kill myself. lol. Yikes guys, relax!

Till next time,

J.B. Macleod