Author's Notes: This is relatively short chapter, continuing from where the previous one left off. I admit that this story is going to start rather slow for a while, and it will be some time before the action revs up fully, but that's the way things go. There's a good bit of ground to be established here, as I want to take this story deeper than Behind Killer's Eyes.
Anyway, thanks to those who reviewed, and I encourage additional reviews, it's always very helpful and inspiring.
Chapter 2 – Receiving the TiesGosain entered the Raikage's office only to be struck with a wave of sadness. The room was a small one, used for the private business of the leader of the Lightning ninja, and it was located in a small house far from the formal setting of Raikage's Hall. This room then had escaped the destruction of the fighting that swept through the village, despite its nature, and here Gosain observed all the mementoes of the Seventh Raikage's life, preserved from the time before his death. Seeing these items, mostly weapons and armor, for the Seventh had been a soldier, but also simpler things such as finely made clay figurines and elaborate calligraphy paintings of the one hundred ninja sayings, stuck the chuunin hard. He recalled now that though it seemed like a lifetime the Seventh Raikage had died not more than three weeks ago, and despite himself Gosain found tears slowly flowing down his cheeks.
"It is something to look at," Heposiri Saiyki said from the shadows of a solid desk built into the far wall. "I can't feel at home here, in this place. It is a general's headquarters, this room, the place where he guided all the campaigns both on the battlefield and here at home to try and save us from ourselves. Seeing this earlier today I realized that I had never given him enough credit, or realized just how terrible this position is."
"Terrible?" Gosain asked, his confused mind having trouble sorting through Saiyki's words. "It is terrible to be Raikage?"
"When you are not ready," Saiyki sighed. "Yes, then it is terrible. As he was not ready, neither am I, but for me, even moreso. The Seventh was a soldier, a commander, and a good one. Though he might have had to fight battles that did not suit him in the politics here, he at least was prepared to fight battles. I am not like that."
Slowly Gosain nodded, though he did not fully understand. He did not think like a leader usually, certainly not on this scale. I might lead missions, but I have no idea what it's like to lead a country. The responsibility, I don't know if I could bear it. "Why did you call me here, Raikage-sama?" Gosain asked.
"Sit down, Kabure Gosain," The Eighth Raikage answered, gesturing to a chair in front of the desk. "And please, don't call me Raikage-sama, Heposiri-san will do if you must be formal, but I don't think I could bear to have you call me the Raikage."
"You are the Raikage, Heposiri-san, I should call you that," Those were Gosain's words, but he did not hesitate to drop the title.
"The ranks demand that you should, but I don't feel like the Raikage, I doubt I ever will," Saiyki sighed again. "Besides, even if I am Raikage, I am not your Raikage, that man is dead, and I don't think you will ever honor another who holds this office so. That man had your respect, and he could have ordered you to Hell and you would have gone without regrets. I can't think of myself like that, so I won't try, at least not with you, Gosain. I will do my best to gather your willing assistance, however."
"Why should you need to do anything of the kind?" Gosain questioned. "You are the Raikage, I will serve you as every lightning must. Besides, what does it matter, I am only a chuunin."
"You should listen to yourself." Saiyki replied with a dry chuckled. "'Only a chuunin,' hah, nothing could be further from the truth. Whether you admit it or not, Gosain, you are one of the most important people in this village right now."
"I'm what?" Gosain couldn't believe the words that had been said.
"Be quiet for a moment and listen," Saiyki admonished. "You wanted to know why I called you here didn't?" When Gosain nodded he continued, his tone easy, professor-like. "You are a person out of place Gosain, you are the only chuunin who came through that night alive. You are the only one who was there who didn't fight for the Dark Storm and survived. The Seventh Raikage gave his last command to you, not anyone else. You are the one who brought Draci Xi back to us; you are the one who punished sixty traitors at the cost of five or more years of your own life, and you are the only older ninja who has the respect of the genin at all. They look at the rest of us like cowards," Siayki looked about to say something suitably harsh, but then stopped, appearing to reconsider. "Perhaps they should, after all, they fought when we were not there. Regardless, do you perhaps get a sense of your own importance, Kabure Gosain?"
It all felt wrong to Gosain, this sort of treatment. After all, it had only been a few short months since he had been a genin himself, one of that lowest tier of ninja. A genin who had been stuck at the rank for six years no less, a man carrying a curse that everyone around him suffered, a curse he still carried. He had been an outcast, a failure, one of so many ninja who would achieve next to nothing important with their lives. That was who Kabure Gosain had been.
Then he had gone to the chuunin exam with Draci Xi, he had been pared with two genin younger than himself, two who were now the powerful and deadly dragon ninja, Neji and Shiren, and they had survived his curse and emerged victorious. They might have adjusted to the power they had gained, but not Gosain, he still thought of himself as a worker, a man who took orders and carried out objectives. I am not what this Raikage thinks I am, I'm just another ninja, but I can't deny his words. "I might be important, but it's just a chance, I'm no genius ninja," Gosain answered.
"Maybe so, maybe not," Saiyki said quizzically. "That remains to be seen, but you are an important ninja, and you have proven yourself. Also, you have proven your loyalty to this village, and not to some lesser faction. Since I must now attempt to save this village it may be that is more important than anything else. Therefore I have a task for you, chuunin Kabure Gosain."
"What sort of task?" Gosain asked, wondering why Saiyki had bothered with all this if he was simply assigning Gosain another mission.
"You are aware of our great weakness in numbers Gosain," Saiyki said, and continued without waiting for Gosain to give his acknowledgement. "We must take steps to remedy that problem as soon as possible. Unfortunately," Saiyki sighed. "It will not be easy. Most of the academy teachers are dead, killed in the fighting, and while the current crop of genin has proven itself, many are sure to fall in coming months, as they must undertake tasks beyond their abilities. However, to teach new students I must pull away talented ninja critically needed to lead our forces. I can replace the academy teachers with some older ninja out of retirement, but there is simply no way that jounin teachers can be spared for the newest genin, even though we must have new genin. Therefore, I am going to do something new. Gosain, you, and a few others among the surviving chuunin, will be undertaking to train new genin immediately."
"Train new genin immediately?" Gosain repeated. "But Heposiri-san, there are no new genin, the class will not graduate for two months." That much was common sense, in fact, Gosain suspected it would be longer, since they would have to make up for time lost in the fighting.
"They will graduate tomorrow." Saiyki answered firmly. "I have chosen the nine academy students in the current class with the highest marks and grouped them into three teams. They will immediately be considered genin, and grouped under three chuunin. There will be no attempts to reject these teams if they prove unsuitable. They will learn to work together because you will make them work together. Likewise, any skills they have not completely mastered you will remedy immediately. I do not wish to do this Gosain, but I must. You will have one week to test them and then I will start sending them on missions."
"One week is not enough time, even if I were a jounin." Gosain replied with a stony voice. "I'm not a jounin, I can't teach, how do you expect this to work?"
"That's why they're the top students, hopefully they can grasp things themselves," However, Saiyki sighed again, and his eyes betrayed little confidence in this plan. He continued in a more friendly voice. "Frankly Gosain, I don't think this will work well. I expect most of these nine will die, after all, there will be no D rank missions, I've suspended them, as a village can only afford to indulge in such things when strong. Likewise, we will be fulfilling only the most profitable of the C rank missions now, the B and A rank missions we will perform, since they are important to our security. However, even those missions will have to be performed in part by genin, there are simply not enough others available. If I can get any one of these three teams to the point where one of these genin is assisting with those critical missions, then I will account this a success, even if the others die. It is a cold calculation, but we need strong ninja now, numbers mean nothing when the ninja are weak. The Sound proved that already in Konoha."
"Heposiri-san, what are you so afraid of?" Gosain asked the question suddenly. He knew the answer really, but he wanted to here it from the mouth of the new Raikage, wanted it in the open, the fear everyone had been carrying since the true cost of the Dark Storm's coup had become known.
Saiyki responded by turning his head and looking south. "What am I afraid of? You should know Gosain, I'm afraid of the Mist." His eyes grew cold. "Five years ago we beat them, the Seventh led us with such skill that even outnumbered we drove them back from the islands lost in the Dark Storm's first coup. Now that leadership is gone, and in those five years Mist has grown ever stronger. I do not fear the Leaf, indeed I have sent a messenger for a full peace treaty with all due speed, since we might help each other. I do not fear the missing-nins, for I saw the dragon ninja, in a few short years there will be no missing-nins in this ninja world, they will have perished. I do not fear these things, but I fear the Mist. Mizukage is a powerful man, and has proven it many times. He has great numbers at his disposal and is confined to a single island. He wants more land, and the Third Hokage no longer stands ready to hold those ambitions in check. The Mist knows their time has come, and they know we cannot easily stop them. Lightning is weaker than it has been in my lifetime, and we have no allies to defend us now. I heard Draci Neji's story, and I have sent to Waterfall, but I doubt it will mean much, they are too far away. So, yes, I fear the Mist; fear them as I have feared little as a ninja. Gosain, I will need your aid, you must succeed at this. I am the Hokage, I am supposed to lead, and when war comes I must be the general. I am a teacher, not a general, but regardless, a general must have weapons. Give me those weapons Gosain, a single sharp sword is worth a thousand rusty kunai against the Mist, and we lack swords. You found strength somewhere, find a way to bring it to these students, whatever it takes. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Gosain replied, deadly serious. I am not a teacher, I do not know how to accomplish this task, Gosain thought these things, but he did not stop with that. However, there may be no other choice, I do not believe in this plan, but the Raikage is a teacher, perhaps he is right, perhaps I can teach them something. I will do so, or we will all die trying. "Who are my students?" He asked.
Saiyki handed Gosain a pale sheaf of papers. "The information is here. Meet them at the Academy tomorrow morning."
Gosain took the sheaf and stood to go.
The Raikage addressed him once more as he walked out the door. "And Gosain, whatever you do, you'd better not die. Lightning needs you."
Gosain laughed darkly at that, cruel bile of bitterness in his throat. "Don't you know Raikage-sama, I can't die, I always come back, it's everyone else that doesn't. I'm cursed, after all."
With that he was gone, leaving Saiyki with a sad expression on his face. Gosain did not see the newly appointed Eighth Raikage take his head in his hands in near despair as he left the room.
It was a long walk back in the dark from the Raikage's office, a walk Gosain did not take easily. He was troubled by everything that had been said, from the importance attributed to him, to the threat from Mist, to this new task. Of them all it was perhaps the last that worried Gosain the most. I am supposed to teach these three students, to make them into ninja somehow. How do you do that? All I know is how to keep fighting and to survive, I could perhaps teach the chain style, but little else. I am no jounin with scores of techniques at my disposal. I am simply another ninja. Worse, than that Gosain knew something else. These students, they are to be my charges, do you know Heposiri, what that means? You have condemned them, as are all who stand by me, to suffer a terrible fate. That is my curse; after all, that everyone near me suffers and is likely to perish. Only the dragon ninja seem to have escaped that, but it was not that they joined me, but I joined them. These students, no, these genin, are they going to die while I am responsible for them? Gosain blinked away tears, and shoved aside harshly those thoughts. It was a burden to labor under, this curse that afflicted him, but he would not let it stop him, he had resolved that long ago. No matter how much it hurt.
Reaching his apartment Gosain did not go immediately to his much needed rest, but instead opened the folder the Raikage had given him and began to read. I will need to know who these three students are, and this is the only tool I have. Gosain read everything carefully, noting names, academy history, scores, and more. They were three talented youths, that was certain, but Gosain had learned well that performance at the academy meant nothing to what a ninja achieved later in life. Therefore, he put the file away perhaps sooner than another might have, determined to see for himself the abilities of the students the next day. The morning would come all too early.