Chapter 2: Temporary Measures

"You must have said something. Come on, tell me what you said!" Junzo hissed at Hayate, a bead of sweat forming on his forehead, showing quite obviously his unease at the situation.

The Jounin raised an eyebrow at the genin beside him, who was drawing a curious stare or two from the ninja staff who worked in the administration building as they made their way through its halls upwards to the Hokage's office. "Tch, I told already what I said." He sighed and shrugged as he repeated the short of it, "All I said was that you seemed to be ready for a new team and with one you could make the next Chuunin Exams."

It was primarily what he'd said when he passed his report personally to the Hokage, as the Hokage did always request such whenever it concerned the genin of Konoha, despite the fact that there were literally some hundreds of the youths. But if the Sandaime was to be accused of anything, it was a genuine concern over the generations after him. He reflected on the meeting some days ago, as it was also when the Sandaime handed him the two curious scrolls that he'd been helping Junzo with ever since he'd opened it a few days ago.

The man coughed as his charge walked along a bit behind him, mumbling on softly. He had no idea why the Hokage had the scrolls for Junzo in the first place, or why he wanted to meet the youth. Junzo was certainly quite skilled and had potential to be one of Konoha's better ninjas, but the request was somewhat out of the blue. He glanced back at Junzo and thought again on the two scrolls that the Hokage had handed to him earlier on in the week. One thing was for sure, the old goat knew something about Junzo, much more then he let on. Secrets on secrets, eh?

Hayate sighed softly, drawing a wary look from the genin in question, as the two stepped up in front of the Hokage's office's double doors. They opened suddenly as a jounin stepped out, holding some papers in his hands. Hayate exchanged a nod with him, recognizing the man as Raido, who was one of those who served as the Hokage's aides on a more regular basis. The jounin glanced curiously at Junzo and turned his eyes to Hayate meaningfully, who replied with a simple look of "beats me."

The Hokage was old, but he was hardly dulled much by it, considering his age, and he managed to catch Hayate through the doors as they swung. "Ah, Gekkou Hayate. Please, come in!"

Raido shrugged and moved off to continue his job, as Hayate turned to Junzo who had a slightly nervous and concerned look on his face. It was obvious that the genin wasn't comfortable too much with attention. Hayate coughed, and pushed open the door, motioning for Junzo to come along behind him. The genin quickly fixed the Konoha cap on his head and took a quick second to make sure he had his Konoha band strapped on securely around his arm before he followed Hayate inside.

Sarutobi smiled amusedly at Hayate and his charge. It was his first time to meet Junzo face to face in such a formal setting as his office, although he'd certainly kept track of the curious youth as he did with quite many of the Konoha genin of rather interesting situations. "Come, come...don't feel too nervous, Mizushin Junzo. Just think of me as just another old man, mmm? Well, more or less anyway." The old man winked at the genin, chuckling softly as he tapped his pipe.

The genin managed a small smile and nodded weakly, though he was still a bit wary of the old man, despite the rather unexpectedly warm greeting. "H-hai, Hokage-sama."

The Hokage nodded slowly as he thought, and after a moment or two of silence as he took a quick puff on his pipe, he addressed the genin once again. "Hayate-sensei here has told me quite a bit about you." Junzo kept silent but shot a glare at Hayate, who ignored it pointedly. The Hokage smiled again, then continue on. "Your progress has been quite good recently, excellent. He has requested me to include you into a genin team in the near future. He seems quite free with his words that it was a shame you could not compete with the rather unique cast of genin we have in this examination."

"My sensei overestimates me, Hokage-sama..." Junzo spoke up immediately, barely an instant passing from when the Hokage's words seemed to trail off.

"Ah-ah!" The Hokage shook his head, raising a finger in a no-no gesture. "I admire initiative young one, but in this case I have to say that perhaps you underestimate yourself. I am not saying you could easily match up with those competing for Chuunin in this exam, but I am not downplaying you either. I do however agree with Hayate-san here, that with experience on the field in a team you could perform quite agreeably." The Hokage smiled at that. "After the Chuunin exams, I would think." He turned to look at Hayate, who nodded slowly in affirmation.

"Well then, that settles it I think. After the Chuunin exams finish you can start looking forward to a team to train with, although it will be under a new sensei. I assume Hayate has not told you about this yet?" The Hokage added the latter at seeing a flash of surprise cross Junzo's face. "I have just assigned him to a rather important mission, which he must leave you to accomplish."

"H-hai." Junzo replied simply, a hint of concern flickering through his eyes.

"Hmm..." The Hokage took in a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. After a moment of thought he stood up from his seat and walked over to the balcony that overlooked Konoha. He nodded at Junzo, motioning for the genin to come over to him. Junzo glanced at Hayate, who shrugged, eliciting another glare from Junzo before he walked over to step up beside the Hokage.

Sarutobi took a good look over it all, his gaze finally resting on the Hokage monument to the side. "Jun-kun, if I may call you that?" The Hokage look over to Junzo, waiting for the youth to reply. He did so with a slightly hesitant nod. "Ah, good. Well, Jun-kun, I have to ask you, how has your experimenting with the scrolls gone?"

Junzo paused in mild surprise for a moment, before he coughed to clear his voice and speak. "Ah, well the first scroll I opened with Hayate-san some days ago during training. It was a Summoning Contract, although for some reason I haven't been able to summon much." His voice clearly showed a tone of frustration at that. The Hokage looked at him curiously, but kept quiet his tongue and simply nodded.

"How about the second scroll? I assume you've gone over that one." The Hokage looked at Junzo.

Junzo shrugged and nodded. "Ah, yes. Its rather interesting. It features quite a bit on a form of taijutsu which works with chakra. Hayate-sensei has been training me with it as best as he can, but he's no master of it so it makes it hard to teach. Personally, I've never heard of it before, this Kyokuken style." The youth shrugged and ran a hand over his cap. "I've done some research on it, but I haven't come up with anything."

"Hoho, and I would be surprised if you would." The Hokage chuckled softly, which drew Junzo's attention. "You see, that form of fighting was a style that was invented by your grandfather and was refined by your father during the ninja wars over a generation ago." A flash of surprise once again. The Hokage coughed and raised a hand to stop Junzo from speaking at that moment. "I am sorry Jun-kun, truly. But I have spared as much time as I could have right now. I have to save the story of your father for another day. Perhaps when you join your new genin team, I might be able to tell you more...?" The Sandaime smiled warmly at that last.

"Oh, okay. But I'll hold you to your promise, Hokage-sama." Junzo spoke, a hint of a smile on his face, touched with some disappointment, but not without a hint of interest and hope.

"Very good! Now before you leave, I have a few more things for you to read." The Hokage chuckled as he turned back inside towards his desk. He walked behind it and let his eyes scan over the scrolls that lined the low shelves behind the desk, and in a few moments pulled out two scrolls. One of them was sealed once again with a special jutsu, while the others were tied up simply with string. The Hokage set them on his table and nodded at Junzo and Hayate to close.

"All right, these are the last I have for you. This particular sealed scroll, and even I have no accurate knowledge of its content, was another thing from your father. If I remember right, you should be able to unlock it once you have reached a certain level of mastery in your Kyokuken training." The Hokage pushed it towards Junzo, then moved onto the other two. "This one..." He touched the blue scroll, "has a few Suiton-jutsu, a memento of your mother, whom I have little knowledge of." He looked at Junzo evenly. "The sealed one here is something more on Kyokuken, useless without the primary scroll of course, but necessary to master the true power of Kyokuken. Or so I was told. It's the only thing I know about it." The Hokage cleared his throat then as his office doors once again opened up to reveal another jounin carrying some reports. "Well, I have to go to work now. I shall see you some time, mmm?" He nodded once at Junzo and Hayate, who each made their farewells, and left.

The jounin deposited the reports on his desk shortly after Junzo and Hayate had left, and after delivering a brief oral report of his own departed with the Hokage's dismissal. Sarutobi wrote down a few notes on the reports, reading them and scribbling down as was appropriate. After a few moments he shook his head, and while continuing to write said, "I still don't understand why you won't show yourselves to him. Or maybe it was just his unfortunate luck to have summoned you first, maybe?"

A chuckle filled the air as a curious looking creature appeared in front of Sarutobi's desk in a half-crouch. "Mmm, so you sensed me. I'm not surprised though, you are the Hokage after all." The reptilian-looking summoned beast eyed Sarutobi. "I suppose you're right though, I've had enough time to watch him. He seems dependable enough."

The Hokage nodded, writing along as he moved one sheet of paper to another stack. "That's nice. I do hope you aid him as much as your kind did for his father." The creature chuckled softly in reply and vanished once again just as Raido opened the doorway to deliver another sheaf of reports.

"Hokage-sama?" The ninja asked him, having sensed another presence in the room just prior to his entering. The Hokage waved him off and motioned for him to add the new bunch to the pile of reports.

Ah, endless papers.

"You know, the Sandaime seems to be a rather approachable Hokage..." Junzo laughed to himself, as the feeling of having to face the leader of Konoha wore off him. He took his cap off and fanned himself with it as he and Hayate sat once again on their curious spot on top of the mountains of Hokage monument.

Hayate sighed at that, which turned into a few coughs. He let himself recover from that for a bit, then shrugged. "Well, I did tell you not to worry. The Sandaime is a good man and he loves the village as much as anyone. That's why he's the Hokage after all, you know."

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." Junzo mumbled and shrugged. He grew quiet for a short while more, then turned to Hayate with a lopsided smile. "Hey, hey, why don't we go train again? This Kyokuken thing is kind of cool. I bet that once I get the hang of it, combining it with your family's swordsmanship would be just awesome huh?" The genin's eyes almost seemed to glow with anticipation at that.

Hayate coughed into his hand, and allowed a smile to flicker across his face. "Heh, yeah, well you have quite a way to go. If you want to get strong fast, you have to train hard and well." He shrugged and looked at Junzo. "I suppose I won't have to hold back in training you anymore."

Hayate chuckled amidst a cough or two, as Junzo reacted with a look of disgust and threw a glare his way, ending up with him rolling his eyes. His parents huh? Its been a while, I almost forgot that he never really knew his parents, being without them for most of his life. Hayate stood up and dusted himself, taking a step towards the steep mountainside that would prove the shortest way to their favored training site. "Well, let's go?"

"Race you." The genin smirked at Hayate, a somewhat cool and cocky expression crossing his face. Hayate raised an eyebrow at that, and shrugged. A tense air rose up between them for a moment, before the pair suddenly burst into action. Hayate shot down the steep mountainside, his chakra making his footsteps on the mountain solid and firm as he ran at a headlong rush. He dared a glance at Junzo and almost launched into a series of coughs as he saw the genin slide down the side of the mountain. He was using his chakra as a brake, instead of making it stick, and made his way down almost in a half-controlled freefall.

The genin was certainly heading down at a ridiculously fast rate, and Hayate stepped up the pace to keep up with him. "Junzo! What the hell do you think you're doing!" The jounin barked out at the genin, who had by now went out of hearing range, much to his dismay. "Kuso!" His eyes widened slightly as the genin reached the mountain bottom and stopped with a rather large dust cloud forming from where he'd landed. Fear constricted his heart for a moment until he saw the gray-blue clad form of Junzo erupt from the cloud at a run. He landed a second or two after and glanced at the spot where his genin had landed.

Hmm?

He took a moment to look it over, the sign of his impact being a completely uniform crater mark. Spider web cracks originated from the center, but besides that there were no uneven features in the impact crater. He glanced upwards to the long trail that had marked his genin's passing and shook his head, before turning around to run after him.

Hayate caught up with him a short while later, arriving to see the genin standing with his arms crossed. The jounin simply shook his head and gave him a stern glare as he landed smoothly on the ground in front of him. The genin fidgeted after a moment or two under those eyes and sighed. "All right, I'm sorry." Hayate nodded a moment later in approval.

"What happened to you, you're usually not so impulsive in that manner. No, nevermind that." He shook his head almost as soon as he'd finished and instead turned to look at Junzo. "So, was there a reason you did that?"

"Well actually yes, there was. I was kinda practicing the new form of taijutsu in the scrolls." The genin shrugged and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I just got so gung-ho over it, I assure you I'll be more focused on its application next time around."

"Fine. The least you can do is tell me what exactly you were doing with that stunt."

"Oh sure, no problem. I'm not quite sure why, but its in the scroll. Kyokuken is a taijutsu style that incorporates using chakra auras over, within, and under the person's skin layer." Junzo began, reciting the brief description written on it, though Hayate had already heard that part the last time. "Oh, sorry. Ah, the exercise basically was practicing how to channel my chakra through a variation of the tree-climbing technique. Instead of holding me firmly, I had to develop enough control and refine it so it would just slow me down instead of stopping me and holding my to the surface. At the same time, it was meant to force me to focus chakra into my skin as well so it wouldn't be damaged from the heat and the friction, and as such negate any possible damage from the slide down."

"Lastly, the impact served the purpose of making me generate enough force to counter act the fall. I basically slammed my fists into the ground, and with the aid of the chakra running through my skin and body, the shock from the impact was evenly distributed straight into the ground." Junzo took up a deep breath after that, and paused for Hayate.

"I see. You could've practiced that in another manner you know."

"I know." The youth replied with another sigh. He shrugged and patted the scroll in his side pocket. "But still, from what I can tell, Kyokuken is standard high-power and speed taijutsu, only that it reinforces things with chakra and refines a person's ability to use chakra and infuse it into his very skin as a fine aura to make it stronger. "

"Which is quite useful, I remind you. Not having to use an elemental force, like sand, makes that technique rather useful. It's like having an armor of chakra, despite being bound to your skin." The jounin shrugged. "Better to not let your foe get the chance to hit you, or get hit by an enemy in the first place though."

"Yeah, well..." Junzo shrugged and was about to say something else when his vision suddenly blurred, as if he'd suddenly been plunged underwater. He blinked and shook his head, raising a hand to clutch the side of his head as a tremor of disorder surged through his body, and cool feeling blossoming from his shoulder. The moment passed quickly enough, he shook it off in a moment.

Hayate quickly closed and touched his head and the shoulder. His eyes narrowed at that, and shook his head. "Another one? You would do best to have this examined you know. I thought you were going to ask the Hokage about this. You had the chance before you know." The jounin eyed Junzo as he withdrew his hand from his charge.

"Ah, well...its all right. It never really bothers me anyway." The genin waved it off as he breathed in once again, and gave Hayate his patented half-smile. The jounin sighed, and coughed once again into his fist.

"Fine, fine. But the next time you have to go see one of the village's Seal jutsu experts on that." Hayate shrugged. "I'm fair enough as things go, but your tattoo is quite a curiosity. A resonance of chakra comes from it, you know?" Hayate scratched the top of his head in irritation. "Tch. Well, never mind that. Let's get started shall we?" He turned to look at Junzo who nodded in agreement, his half-smile shifting to show just a bit of confidence come through.

The pair stood where they were for a moment, Junzo eyeing Hayate intensely as he brought forth his chakra to infuse his body once again, heightening his strength and reflexes as the energy of his body and spirit echoed to enervate himself. The smile on his lips grew just a bit, which did not go unnoticed by his sensei.

Oh?

An instant later, two small craters and swirls of dust were all that remained of where they had been standing, the forest immediately filled instead with the sounds of steel and the staccato sounds of feet on wood as the pair launched into another one-on-one duel.

Hayate was quite impressed with Junzo's progress. The training over the past few days in this Kyokuken had truly enhanced the genin's chakra control. The basis of Kyokuken was quite similar to basic short-term chakra enhancement of specific body parts to increase speed and power, true. But it took it one step further in applying it in a more controlled and efficient manner, in manifesting chakra throughout the body and containing it within the skin and muscle systems. A truly formidable hijutsu.

He grit his teeth as Junzo launched yet another series of slashing attacks at Hayate, who was actually being pressed back beneath the genin's rapid assault. The kodachi in Junzo's hand blurred in its speed, and Hayate was finding it somewhat hard to keep up with him with his katana. The jounin was still by far the more experienced though, and seeing his student perform a strike that was just a split second too long in recovering, he spun and turned the attack around.

A particularly strong strike later, and Junzo somersaulted away, leaping from tree to tree. Hayate followed him as the genin leaped upwards in angles, and dodged a falling branch that Junzo had sent downwards to him, which he simply slashed out of his way. He'd finally caught up with him and launched a thrust with his blade upwards, which Junzo just barely deflected as he spun upside-down from a tree branch. The smile on his lips was all the warning Hayate needed however, and he moved away and spun to avoid sudden attack by yet another Junzo. Kage bunshin?

Hayate was not too surprised. After all, his Mikazuki no Mai did use a variation of Kage Bunshin, despite being primarily a taijutsu-based attack which demanded speed as well as ninjutsu. Figuring out how to accomplish Kage Bunshin from that was hardly a shock. The clone frowned at missing and promptly vanished however, making Hayate rethink things over.

It seems its still not a real Kage Bunshin just yet. He doesn't know the full seal sequence or the proper chakra molding forms for it, so he makes do with the temporary ones that are a part of Mikazuki no Mai. The jounin reflected this as he skipped away from Junzo to pace himself again, before heading back into the fight, as Junzo seemed to pause for a while as well. Hayate let a smile appear on his lips, seeing his charge begin to tire from the fight and from the slight but constant drain of chakra he was using with Kyokuken to keep up and match Hayate's speed.

"Oi, Junzo! If you can get me with your next move, I'll make sure that the Hokage gets me as your sensei again." Hayate nodded at Junzo, coughing slightly again. He saw the mild surprise in Junzo's eyes, who replied with a nod of his head and a grin of his own. It was easy to see what came next, as the two prepared to unleash the one move that had been much of the focus of their training until the scrolls.

Mikazuki no Mai!

The genin breathed heavily as he waited, summoning all the speed and strength he could muster to match Hayate's. An echo of chakra resonated throughout his body from the tattoo on his shoulder, but in tension of the moment before the unleashing of the storm it went unnoticed. I'm not losing!

Junzo and Hayate each blurred into three forms at that moment and clashed in a brief, but furious exchange of blows. A cloud of smoke appeared around the pair on the right, as the rest vanished, the clones that they were. A grin appeared on Junzo's lips as it cleared, revealing Junzo positioned in a low stance, holding the edge of his blade along Hayate's abdomen, with his sensei's katana having missed him completely, having managed to dodge low enough to avoid it.

"Heh..." He spoke, as the weariness of using the intense burst of chakra overtook him. "I guess I won this time, sensei." He managed to say somewhat weakly, but triumphantly. Hayate chuckled softly at that and shook his head.

"Gomen, Jun-kun." Hayate murmured as he erupted as well into smoke, much to the genin's surprise. The tip of a katana rested once more on the genin's shoulder, which made the youth grit his teeth in annoyance, biting back a nasty word. "Didn't you remember what I just said? Better to avoid a blow in the first place, mmm?" He removed the katana from Junzo's shoulder and sheathed in smoothly as he let the genin stand.

But still...if I hadn't made the extra effort. Hayate shook his head mentally. The final moment before Junzo had struck, he could have sworn that he had seen a curious aura around the genin. That incredibly low duck and rise lunge was done with such speed that he was certain was beyond any normal genin and was easily comparable to the kid who had lost to the rather frightening Sand genin, despite his peerless taijutsu and speed, for a genin.

"Hmph. Well, close enough." Hayate shrugged, which elicited a curious look from Junzo. The jounin waved his hand dismissively. "Get to the ground, lets try practicing the new jutsu that our beloved Sandaime gave to you to practice..."

Ugh, how tiring.

Junzo barely managed to pull himself out of his clothes and into more comfortable house clothes, not that his daily clothes were all that uncomfortable anyway. He tossed a shirt and shorts on, as he sat himself down on his bed and put all the five scrolls he'd gotten from the Hokage in one form or other before him. He took up the two scrolls on Kyokuken and decided he'd had enough physical-based activity recently, and set the two aside. He'd done quite a lot of ninjutsu practice today as well, and put the scroll of Suiton-element jutsus, which included rather lengthy explanations on the construction of the few jutsus actually listed within.

Tch! And it seemed quite thick too! He lamented over the scroll, which had in reality only two standard jutsu and two applicable jutsus which were designed as basic training jutsu and support jutsu. He sighed and pushed that one away as well. Which then left him with the Kuchiyose no Jutsu to practice, he thought, as he eyed the last remaining scroll, which was at least twice the size of any of the other scrolls.

He sighed in exasperation at it, poking it with his finger. He'd been trying to summon something for a week now, but much to his chagrin, he failed to summon anything at all. Junzo grumbled if it was even worth attempting again, but after awhile decided to try it again. If anything, it was helping him perform seals faster and was something of an exercise in building his chakra and stamina. He moved to the side and opened the scroll again, just to check one more time if he'd signed the scroll with his blood properly, before frowning and biting his thumb to begin the summoning sequence.

All right! Here goes!

The seals flashed in quick order, his hands somewhat practiced with the sequence by now, and finally he slammed his hand down on the grounds as he channeled what was left of his chakra into the jutsu. A cloud of smoke erupted from the floor of his apartment, causing him to cough. He waved the smoke away, which dissipated in a moment to reveal...nothing. Ah, shimatta.

Junzo sighed and slumped down on the floor again, too tired to try and perform another summoning attempt, completely tired out from the day's training and the summoning attempt, which took up quite a fair bit of chakra. "Damn, I'll never get this...I'm too tired." He mumbled the latter belatedly and dragged himself over to his bed and proceeded to try and fall asleep.

His head had barely hit the pillow when he heard a smooth, but somewhat low voice fill the air. "You should be ashamed of yourself boy, living in a dump like this."

Junzo's eyes widened in surprise and his hand flashed towards the holster of shuriken and kunai by his bedside. Barely an instant passed from that moment, and he threw a trio of the projectiles at where he'd heard the voice come from. The figure was hunched over the Summoning Contract, and shifted into motion in an instant, using a pair of tanto to deflect the trio of shuriken. "Hey! What's the idea!"

Junzo had by now gotten his kodachi out of its sheath and held it at the ready. "How the hell did you get in here?" He barked out at the creature, which was clad in a curious looking robe of some sort. He moved quickly to try to disarm the thing, and launched himself to attack.

The creature responded wordlessly as it raised its twin tanto to block Junzo. The sound of steel rang out as Junzo pushed it up against the wall, his blade caught between the cross of the other's. "Calm down you baka! Of course I'm here, you idiot! You summoned me!"

"Summoned...?" He eyed the creature curiously. He eased the pressure against his foe, or summoned beast as it might be, and warily moved backwards. Backing away from it, he managed to get a much better view of what he'd just fought.

The creature before him was most definitely a lizard-man of some sort, standing a little above three feet high. Its scaling was a shade of light orange, and it wore a loose black robe that was clinched at its waist by a belt, where it had the sheaths for its paired tanto. "What are you...?" The genin mumbled out, shocked by the presence of the thing.

"What do I look like, huh? A frog?" The lizard grumbled as he sheathed its weapons and smoothed out his clothing. "Tch, the chakra you used this time around was smaller then I'm used to. I could barely get here." It mumbled grumpily.

"Whoa, wait...so that means I finally summoned something?" He suddenly blurted out. Junzo blinked in surprise, then smiled. "Cool. Its about time!" The genin grinned as he sheathed his kodachi and sat heavily on the bed, chuckling with relief. "I've been trying to summon something for over a week now...hey, wait a minute." The genin looked back at the lizard, a suspicious look in his eyes. "You said the chakra I used this time around was smaller then usual? What do you mean by that...?"

The lizard, if it could look sheepish, shrugged and coughed. "Ah, yeah, well you see...you haven't really been failing all that much. Actually, you've been summoning me most of the time, since I'm usually the wait paying attention to a summons. Kind of like waiting at the gates for the call."

"Oh, okay...but if I've been summoning you all this time, why haven't I seen you up until now." Junzo asked the lizard, after taking in his explanation.

"Well, that's another thing. I kinda wanted to roam around a bit, so I pretty much scooted off to look around Konoha." The lizard grinned at Junzo and clasped its claws behind its head. "I haven't been here in years, you know?"

The genin frowned at that and eyed the lizard. "You could've just asked me if you wanted to go around, you know. Are all your kind like you?"

The lizard shrugged. "Well, you could say they are...we do like to travel and such."

Ah, great of all the things to get... The genin slumped against his pillow face down and shook his head. "Perfect. Why couldn't I get a more reliable bunch of summoned beasts instead." He mumbled woefully.

"Hey! You could at least get my name you ingrate! I finally decided to appear to you and you reward me by attacking me! The nerve!" The lizard shouted as it hopped onto Junzo's bed and began kicking at the youth's pillow.