A sennin is a ninja who is powerful enough to be a kage. There have been three that we know of thus far...the Sannin who trained under the third hokage. I also consider a kage to be a sennin, so that means there are five within Konoha at this point.
The term sennin means "hermit" and is used in other series, like Kame-sennin, the turtle hermit from Dragonball Z. A lot of folks have told me the term shouldn't be used that way because it doesn't mean powerful ninja below kage rank,but if you think about it, kage means shadow, and it fits with a ninja series. I always think of a saying that would go with it like "the ultimate ninja is seen all around by his friends, but nothing more than a shadow to his enemies." Well, I sure most would say a hermit fits pretty well with the imagery of a shinobi village too. So...nyah! Anyway, back to business.
From the Yondaime Story Arc:
Valor and Harmony
Chapter 4: Awe
"Over here!"
Mitarashi Anko sighed and pushed off to the left toward the sound of the voice, and almost instantaneously, the two other ninjas turned with her and bounded through the trees.
To her right, a large man cut a front flip, and then kicked up his pace. "I'll go ahead," he called back to them. "You guys follow me."
Anko wiped the sweat from her brow and yelled for the world to hear. "Couldn't you have found a straight away, or are you teasing us?" Exhaustion crept into her voice. The route they had taken was jagged and irregular, and all Anko could draw from her memory was that they had gone south a significant distance.
The young boy to her left simply frowned and concentrated all the harder on the larger fellow...his only hope of keeping up with their leader. How can anyone be this fast? We'd never keep up if he didn't keep yelling...
An inaudible yell was heard, and suddenly the large ninja stopped in his tracks, thudding heavily onto a tree limb and alertly looking around. The young boy and Anko landed next to him. After catching her breath, Anko turned to him. "Kotetsu...why did you stop?"
The largest of the group, Kotetsu glanced around and frowned. "He just...disappeared! His trail is gone...I heard something before that, but I can't figure out what direction..."
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Nara growled in pain as she tried her best to keep up. She had demanded no coddling, and none was given to her...but now she began to see the need for it. It was just too difficult keeping up with Jounin ninjas while negotiating wrapped ribs...especially when the leader of your group was the Yellow Flash of Konoha. The rest of her group had gotten far enough ahead that she had to track them in order to follow. Good thing this isn't a mission, she thought, or I might be dead by now.
She had been tracking the rest of the group by the sound of their travel through the forest of Konoha, and they had obliged her by being extra loud. Or perhaps it was simply Anko being Anko. Suddenly, however, she noticed that the noises had disappeared, and she checked the area in front of her to find out why they'd stopped. She nearly jumped out of her skin when a strong set of arms wrapped around her waist from behind.
"Having trouble keeping up?"
She yelped and lifted her left leg from the ground to back-kick whoever dared to do such a thing in the groin, but her foot was immediately met sole-to-sole with another foot, lightly pushing back down on it. Immediately, she knew who her attacker was.
"Arashi...don't sneak up on me like that." She hated when he pulled stunts like this, but the pain she had been experiencing made this one a tolerable surprise. Nara leaned back just a bit, relaxing into Arashi's arms a bit more. Slowly, her brain kicked back in. "Shouldn't you be in front of everyone?"
Arashi quickly swept her off her feet and into his hands, resting one behind her back and the other beneath her legs. "Well...I was. But we're pretty much there now...no more joking around."
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A moment later, Anko, Kotetsu, and Teito turned around to face their blond-haired leader, carrying their wounded teammate. Arashi glanced to Kotetsu as he walked by, and noticed the confused look on the man's face. "What? I went back for her...I asked you to wait and everything...what's so confusing?"
Kotetsu simply gaped. He moved so fast I couldn't even understand his speech…
Arashi blinked, then sighed and shook his head. "Well anyway, we're nearly there, so let's stick together and take to the roads." Arashi made sure he had a good hold of Nara's body and leapt out of the trees and to the ground.
Anko sighed and jumped down after him. "I can't believe I'm going through all this for lunch..."
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About 5 minutes down the road, they came to a small shop and entered. As the smell of barbecue hit his nose and his stomach began to growl, Arashi smiled and took a good whiff. "This," he said ceremoniously, "is THE sushi and barbecue shop that Kami would go to."
Nara, who'd asserted she'd walk the roads herself, took a look around. The place was actually quite small…there were only seven tables and a drink bar. Of course, there weren't any major cities in the southern part of Fire Country, so that wasn't surprising. Nothing about the place suggested it was anything beyond the ordinary, but Arashi had just given it his personal approval…
Nara sniffed the air. Whoa. Something does smell good.
They found a round table just big enough to fit all of them comfortably, and Arashi took a seat between the two kunoichi. After a moment of silence, a smile began to spread across his face, and Anko looked curiously at him.
"You seem...excited."
Arashi nodded. "These lunches are one of the high points of my day." His face blanked as he considered the rest of his day for a moment. Paperwork. Training his new genin. Training himself. More paperwork. "Honestly, this is probably the only time of the day I get to chat with folks my own age..."
Anko giggled at him, and he smirked back. Being 4 years his junior, she didn't exactly fit that category. "Okay...my own age group. At least you're not 5." The whole table chuckled lightly, and Anko blushed slightly.
Soon the waiter came to take their orders, and conversation drifted to talking about the menu items. Arashi knew what he wanted already, so he stayed quiet and took a look around the table. This was a much different lunch from the majority of the ones he'd had thus far with the chuunin and Jounin of Konoha. He actually knew more than one of the faces at the table already!
He glanced to his right. Mitarashi Anko was 12 ("going on 13!", as she said), the youngest of the chuunin, and the prize student of the sannin Orochimaru. She'd attended the very first lunch he'd had as Hokage, and had tagged along on nearly all the others since -- every one she had her schedule free to attend. She was young and bright, and she had a mouth like an adult. And Arashi suspected she had a little crush on him...
Next to her was the one person at the table that Arashi didn't know this time. He'd introduced earlier himself as Teito, a 14 year old chuunin who had advanced with Anko at the last exam. He seemed to be much quieter...shy, perhaps? Arashi looked at him and saw a lot of himself as a ten-year-old...he'd have to see what he could do to help the boy's confidence along so he'd be a capable leader.
Almost opposite Arashi was the largest (by far) of their crew, Koji Kotetsu. A former member of the ANBU, Kotetsu had swapped over into the ranks of the Jounin teachers a year and a half ago. He was a hulk of a guy, 6'10" and probably 300 pounds of muscle. Arashi chuckled as he glanced beneath the table and noticed that Kotetsu had actually pulled two of the armless chairs together to rest his rear on.
And then, looking to his left, he saw his best friend, Uzumaki Narashima, her eyes glued to the menu. She probably noticed me going around the table. The irony of the last few weeks had settled within him; he no longer had a fit when he considered the fact that he'd broken his best friend's ribs and nearly killed her. It wasn't a comforting fact, but part of him had come to accept it. And if they made it through that, it would only make their friendship stronger, he decided.
But, yes, this lunch definitely had a different feel to it. Most of them started with just a taste of awkwardness. A few of the rank and file wouldn't know each other, and Arashi would probably not know any of them unless they were old ANBU. That's one of the reasons Anko continued to come; she apparently knew nearly everyone. She'd go about introducing everyone, pretty much spitting out everything she knew about them-- including their fighting style and any rumors she'd heard about their off duty activities. Arashi chuckled...it had only taken him 2 days to learn when to cut her off. It had seemingly taken him two hours to stop a certain brash Jounin from doing so with a kunai at the second lunch, and Arashi would never let that happen again.
The waiter came up to Arashi and smirked. "The usual, sir?"
Arashi chuckled and passed him the menu. "Of course."
Small talk continued as everyone waited for the food. Arashi didn't really have a plan for the lunch...he just let things go as they would. After all, they'd introduced themselves before they'd made the trip.
The food began to show up. Arashi hadn't listened to the others order, so he was somewhat surprised. "So everyone went with sushi, huh?"
Most of them chimed that they'd never had barbecue, or at least not the Japanese variety.
Arashi smiled and shook a finger at them. "It's not the Japanese variety..." He sniffed at the air for a moment, and it looked like he nearly fainted. "It's ready...see for yourself."
The waiter came out and placed a tray of barbecue chicken on the middle of the table, along with a jar filled with a dark red sauce. Then he plopped down a loaf of bread. Everyone looked around and noticed how huge the tray was...was he really going to eat all this meat? And the bread?
"I figured I'd get enough for everyone to try it. If you don't eat it, I'm taking it home." A moment of silence passed as the smell filled the air..."Enough talk! Let's eat!"
Everyone at the table yelled, "Itadakimasu!"
And that's exactly what they did.
Everyone tried the barbecue and liked it, though Kotetsu was not a big fan of the tangy sauce. The waiter brought out a mustard-based sauce on his request, and he chowed down on barbecue. Their sushi portions were not big enough for his liking anyway. (A/N: The mustard-based sauce is a North Carolina thing, if you're wondering.)
When conversation started up between bites, everyone began to discuss just how awesome this little shop was. While Arashi kept eating, the conversation flowed, until Anko laughed aloud at the irony. "I think it's funny the person who invited us here to get to know him isn't talking at all!"
That got everyone's attention, and Arashi stopped chowing down to respond. "Well, I don't know...ask something. This food is too good for me to have spontaneous conversation right now..."
Nara chuckled. She had no clue Arashi liked barbecue this much. It was almost like her and ramen. Almost.
As no one else was coming up with anything, Anko felt like it was her job to break the silence, as always. "Okay then...I have a serious question."
Arashi raised an eyebrow and tore off a piece of bread. Chewing and swallowing what was left in his mouth, he replied, "Fire away."
"We're considered by most to be the most powerful of the ninja villages…why is that?"
Wow. That's quite the deep question...I wonder if she realizes how deep. Arashi took a bite from the bread in his hand, then swallowed and tilted his chair a bit in her direction. "Well...do you think we're most powerful?" Then he realized how vague that was. "Wait...let's shrink that question a bit. Do you think we're stronger than...say...the Sand?"
Anko squinted for a bit as she attempted to picture the two groups of ninjas. "Sure! I mean we've got the Sannin, and they'd run through the Sand in no time..."
Kotetsu gasped, and barbecue sauce came out of his nose. From the look on his face, one would guess it burned quite badly.
Arashi shook his finger at her. "Don't underestimate enemies you don't know about...the Sand are very strong...and that's a very dangerous overestimation of our advantage."
Anko nodded, but the look in her eyes was pure defiance. Perhaps Orochimaru's confidence in his own strength had rubbed off on her?
Nara frowned, and chimed in on Anko's side. "But, Arashi, you know how strong our top ninjas are...5 sennin..."
Arashi smirked back, but added in a look in his eyes that clearly said "You're not helping..." While it was a light moment, the conversation was serious, and Arashi paused for a moment to figure out how much time he had. Well...if I'm a little late for paperwork, I doubt anyone will mind...or at least I won't.
It was as good a time as ever to shoot down misconceptions, he decided.
"Well…how about I compare us to Sand, since Sand is very similar to us in strength. Our top is indeed very strong. Between myself, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, Tsunade, and of course Sandaime, we have 5 ninjas who could very well hold their own as Hokage if they so desired. Sand, if they are lucky, probably has about 3...but that's not really that much of a difference…where our real strength comes in is in our middle ranks."
What? How could Konoha's strength be in the middle ranks? Anko raised her voice. "What the heck does that mean?"
Arashi took a moment to drink some water. This discussion could last a while. Not to mention, it was a great suspense builder...Sandaime had taught him well in the art of being a professor.
"Well, consider for a moment the situations that come up when a ninja village goes to war with another village. That's the situation where a village's strength would come in handy…so maybe we can think of strength's definition as whatever would help us to win. In a shinobi war, in order for a village towin AND survive, you want as few casualties as possible. That's different from a lot of games. A chess game where every piece except your king and rook are taken is still a victory, if you checkmate your opponent..."
Teito raised his hand. "But a match between ninjas isn't a victory if it goes that way, right? 'Cuz the next time you play that's what you'd start with…" He lowered his hand.
Arashi nodded. "Yep. Life and death are more important than success in a lot of ways…but you're dealing with shinobi…so the situation is all the more dangerous. Just as we are cunning and smart, so are our enemies.
As a leader, everything that you attempt to do to attack the other country is basically a single mission of some sort that you'll send out a group to do. Likewise, everything that they do is a mission, and everything that you attempt to do to counteract what they do is also a mission. So you see, the mission counts will get pretty high pretty quickly."
Everyone nodded. So far so good.
"Okay. So imagine for a moment what would happen if a group of ninjas attacked our walls on the south side." That wasn't enough. "Imagine it was the three lords of Cloud, for instance. Repelling that attack would be an S-rank mission."
Nara took in a sharp breath considering it. "That would suck…"
Anko pictured it for a moment, and then shook off the image. "Well…we have the Sannin…"
Arashi smiled. There was a bit of doubt there at least. "RIGHT. We have the Sannin. Say I send the Sannin over there…and say the 3 Cloud lords are neutralized. Sand may not have a special name for their higher-ups, but they would more than likely be able to repel an attack of this sort too."
Everyone except Anko nodded as they considered their most recent run-ins with the Sand. Yes…the Sand would manage to defeat an attack by the 3 Cloud lords.
"So, the ability to handle an S-rank mission isn't in question here. So what is?"
Everyone paused in their eating, trying to come up with some viable comparison between Sand and themselves that would explain why people thought they were stronger. Nara glanced toward Arashi and suddenly noticed that he'd taken the opportunity to finish off all the leftover barbecue. She fought the urge to giggle, and instead watched him carefully.
Arashi wiped his mouth and jumped back into the lead of the conversation. "Well…what about if Raikage and the Stone Kage attacked at the north wall?"
Everyone gasped.
He had their attention now. "Yes…that would be a SUPER S mission…stopping them would be no easy task for anyone. I believe I need the Sannin over there now."
Everyone nodded. While the lords of the Cloud were powerful, you just didn't mess with Raikage. Nara shuddered at the thought of the Cloud and Stone allying against the Leaf...
"But, wait…now the 3 Cloud lords are attacking at the South wall still…what do I do? The Sannin can't be in two places at once…" Arashi smirked.
"Hmm." Kotetsu nodded in approval as he figured out where this was going. Clever boy, to come up with this on the fly.
"Luckily for me, I haven't assigned myself…I'll go with Sandaime, and we'll take care of the 3 Cloud lords…or maybe we'll flip that and go after a 4-kage battle royale…"
Chuckles began around the table, but everyone remained focused.
Arashi started again. "But the point is, I've got enough guys to handle that. The Sand might have a bit more trouble…but I'm still going to say that they'd hold their own."
Sand Jounin were no joke. No one dared dispute that.
"So now…as these two things happen, suddenly a regiment of Stone ANBU attempt to take out the Southwest wall and pour into the city…they plan to raze the entire thing."
Arashi paused and took a look around the table. Anko and Teito had broken into a sweat.
"I'm sure you're starting to see where this is going…"
Nara nodded. "There are tons of situations that could come up during a war with another country, and you can't guarantee that your top will always be enough." She looked back to Arashi, an apologetic look on her face. I never meant to insult the Sand, but my comment came off cocky, and my overconfidence in the Sannin would have fed Anko's. You were right to bring this up.
Arashi looked to Nara and pondered the look she gave him. It looked like an apology, mixed with a touch of respect...more than he expected in that situation. He must have really hit home without intending to. Arashi smiled and nodded in Nara's direction, hoping she'd get his message. No harm, no foul. Apology accepted. "Nara gave a good summary of what I'd say. A ninja village is more than its top, and a ninja village that relies on its top all the time will actually be quite weak in a war with other ninjas."
He thought for a moment as he looked around the table. I could stop there, and it would make sense to them. But...I'm really not in the mood for paperwork. He cleared his throat and got everyone's attention again. Whipping out a pen and grabbing a napkin, he drew a small map of Konoha, and mapped the current attacks out on it.
"Let's continue our battlefield here...in the situation now, our expanded sennin group is already entirely deployed in the field, and we still need to handle the ANBU assault on the walls. It's not like the attack coming at us is weak…this is still an S-Rank mission for a team to take on. So here's where the problem lies…who do I send now? Who's ready for an S-rank mission against 20 ANBU of Stone Village?"
There was silence all around the table, and yet, Arashi noticed that everyone's fists were balled. A bright smile slowly slid across his face.
"Well, that's the good thing about Konoha. There are a whole lot of Jounin out there who'd be confident enough to take leadership of a mission of that caliber, let alone be a part of it. Sand…well…I won't attempt to speak for them, but I suspect the situation is different."
Nara nodded. Sunagakure had superb Jounin warriors, and even a few who might be called sennin, but their numbers did not match Konoha's Jounin in the least...a match with 20 Stone ANBU would be much harder for them to handle effectively.
Arashi continued. "And now you're starting to see the difference between us and Sand. Our tops are comparable, but when you look for true strength in battle, the difference is going to be extraordinary. You better believe there are more than 3 missions at a time in a war."
Anko blinked as she processed what she heard. "So, it's our depth that makes us strong?"
Arashi nodded again. "Right…and depth is more than just numbers. It's not just the size of our village, but the fact that our middle warriors are confident AND experienced that gives our village strength. We have far more shinobi than Sand who could take on an A or S-ranked mission with confidence. Our top might be higher than theirs…" Arashi paused for a moment as he attempted to picture a battle between Konoha's 5 sennin and Sand's 5 best ninjas. "It MIGHT be higher. But our middle rocks the house on Sand, and that's a HUGE difference in strength." Arashi reached for his glass of water and gauged everyone's understanding.
Everyone nodded. Looks like it sunk in well enough. Arashi swallowed and spoke once more. "Of course, if you ask anyone else, they'd probably just say the Sannin would defeat the Sand Jounin and that's why Konoha rocks...but they aren't the one fighting to keep the most shinobi alive." Arashi's eyes drifted in Nara's direction.
Nara looked at Arashi as if she had seen him for the first time. Where did all of this knowledge and understanding come from? He's a brilliant strategist to have considered all of this...Nara noticed Arashi turn to face her, and her breath caught in her throat. Was I just staring at Arashi? Quickly, she pulled her eyes away and looked at the table, but she could still feel her cheeks warming...
Before Arashi could even react to what he'd just saw, Anko raised a thought-filled question. "How in the world did we get so much strength in our middle like that?"
Arashi turned from Nara without letting on anything and smirked, then turned toward Kotetsu. "I'm sure Kotetsu can tell us why..."
Kotetsu looked to Arashi with a clever smile, then nodded and answered. "The ANBU program."
"ANBU!" The cry could be heard in high-quality stereo sound,as Anko and Taito both spoke in surprise.
Taito spoke first in the ensuing silence. "What do the ANBU have to do with anything?"
Anko chimed in. "Stone and Sand have ANBU too..."
Nara shook off her previous line of thought and attempted to jump back in, a bit louder than neccessary. "Are our ANBU organized differently from Sand and Stone?" Being that she'd never served in ANBU, she didn't know that much about it...
Arashi calmed everyone down, then began to speak once more. "Yes, that's exactly right. Traditionally, the ANBU have been the elite of any given country. They were hunters, trackers, defenders…tanks…any type of powerful ninja would definitely serve a long period of time in ANBU. That's because ANBU performed some of the most important tasks a city could have.
After all, it's the ANBU who man the gates of the city in war times. It's ANBU who work as hunter-nins, searching for S-ranked criminals and tracking runaways. And in times of war, it's the ANBU that do most of the battle, while the genin and chuunin of the world continue to train and hope to get involved…"
Anko chimed in..."That's how it is in Konoha too…"
Arashi shook his head. "That's not exactly true. The tasks are the same, but the people are different." He took another swig of his water, and prepared to talk some more.
"Some fifteen odd years ago, the nature of Konoha's population was changing drastically. The wars of the age of Shodaime and Nidaime were coming to a tenuous conclusion, and though some fighting did continue, it was a relatively peaceful time period. Many of you have younger siblings who were born during that next year…because it seemed like things were settling down, and fathers were returning to households safely all over. The period became a baby-booming period for Konoha.
In most places, that would be great, but for us it was a curious situation. Konoha's upper ranks were strong, but slim. Casualties in the wars with Cloud, Sand, and Mist had hurt us greatly. Very soon, when these younger children entered the academy, we realized that we were going to have far more genin than Jounin…WAY more genin than Jounin.
And when these kids became genin, it was going to be a great question…how are we going to gain these new fellows experience…without risking everything on their actions? Because these elders of our village will not be around forever…we must make the youth stronger."
Arashi looked over to Kotetsu, an old ANBU superior of his, once more. "Were you around for Sandaime's response, Kotetsu?"
Kotetsu smiled and nodded, and then lightly added in his deep voice. "I was already in the ANBU during Sandaime's restructuring."
Arashi nodded. "Would you like to explain, then?"
Kotetsu blushed slightly, then shook his head. "You could probably speak of it a thousand times better than me. I fumble with words." He looked away, slightly embarrassed, then reached for his glass of water. Arashi would not press him, and instead nodded and cleared his throat once more.
"Saru—excuse me...Sandaime considered the options, and decided that it was time to pull the elder shinobi out of the field as much as possible. If the children were going to prosper, they were going to need the best trainers available…and that meant the Sannin and the elders." Arashi glanced to his right. "That's why Anko got Orochimaru's training…and that's why I got Jiraiya's."
Nara soaked in his words, but something didn't feel right about what he said. "But, wouldn't that have left a shortage of capable ninjas in the field? I mean, who took over their jobs?"
Arashi smiled. "It wouldn't have been possible if things on the battlefield hadn't been dying down already…but it's true it was a struggle. There was a definite gap between the capability of the elders…and the rest of the chuunin and Jounin of Konoha. But the lull in activity gave the chance they needed."
How could Arashi paraphrase his grand-sensei's activities? They actually were quite brilliant, but they sounded way too risky to those unused to considering it. He needed a way to make it sound brilliant. "What Sandaime decided…was to split the elders up. Some of them remained within the ANBU ranks as coordinators and Captains. The rest took on genin teams. Meanwhile, he took many of the chuunins and younger Jounins and removed their ranks."
"WHAT!" Three voices. Arashi didn't even bother to see which three, because he was fairly certain it wasn't Kotetsu yelling.
"He didn't make them genin or anything…he just removed from the field. These guys and girls became the new ANBU for that year."
Nara frowned. A bunch of inexperienced chuunin and young Jounin attempting to RUN ANBU? How'd that work?
Arashi almost read her mind. "They didn't have to run the show there, since many of the elders were still around. The elders led the teams, and the young shinobi filled out the rest of the teams. That way, their inexperience didn't matter so much. At first, it was an awkward fit, but it eventually blossomed into what we have today."
Taito raised his hand, then spoke. "Why would having more inexperienced warriors in the field be beneficial to any team? Especially something as crucial as ANBU?"
Arashi replied, "Well, think of the other possibilities. It was either do this, or put those inexperienced chuunin and Jounin out in the field on their own. A field Jounin leads a team of really inexperienced genin, while an ANBU shinobi works on a team of chuunin and Jounin...his equals and superiors in rank. It gives him the opportunity to work with experience…or at least with confidence, and learn from his mistakes in a way where they probably will not result in failure of a mission. If one chuunin makes a mistake on an ANBU mission, there is a team of 3 other chuunin to back him up and correct his mistake. Compare the chances of a success there with a team of 3 genin, and you will see immediately why ANBU being organized this way makes sense."
Taito nodded, and Arashi continued. "This lets the inexperienced gain experience, while freeing up Konoha's best ninjas from doing (important, but) everyday activities, and allows them to be the teachers for the academy. And when serious conflict happens, our best fighters are fresh. When the ANBU members graduate, they will be ready to join that group."
Nara sighed. "I was never invited to ANBU..."
Arashi looked her way and raised an eyebrow, wondering if she meant that. After pausing for a moment and getting no response from her, he figured she did not know, and decided to let the cat out of the bag. "True, there are exceptions. There are chuunin who don't do ANBU…but these are chuunin with skills that Konoha needs in the battlefield immediately. Or really confident ones who don't need ANBU encouragement." He looked Nara's way, and found her face slightly redder than before. He chose to ignore that.
"There are also Jounin with special skills that aren't ready to lead a team of genin…they shall be ANBU first, more than likely. Every now and then, there is an elite one who gets into ANBU for different reasons. This hasn't happened yet, but if there was ever a really young Jounin...like if Kakashi were to become one within the next 5 years or so, he'd probably be in ANBU for a while."
Kotetsu raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?" Of course, Kotetsu had no idea who Kakashi was...
Arashi chuckled. "Because he's 5, that's why...even in 5 years he'd probably be younger than his students! There's no way they'd listen to him. Instead, we'd put him on a tiger team in ANBU and watch the other shinobi learn to believe in his leadership skills. Not to mention, any prodigy kid like that who proves his worth that quickly shouldn't be forced to do C and D rank missions again after so few years of advanced missions. That's my opinion, anyway."
While Anko was probably thinking it, it was Nara who got the words out. "Well, why are we still doing things that way now? I mean, it's not like we have a shortage of ninjas at the top anymore…"
Arashi smiled and began to count with his fingers. "This is true. Between myself, Sandaime, Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade, we have 5 Sennin or kage level ninjas in our village. In addition, we have a multitude of chuunin and Jounin who are confident enough to pull off all types of missions. But this situation is a direct consequence of the way ANBU has been organized…remember…a strong top is vital, but a nation that has a strong middle—or even a tough bottom—is going to outlast a nation with just a powerful top, more than likely. Unless the tops are just not worth comparing..."
Nara blinked and tried to avoid staring, but she was quite amazed. It was hard for her to wrap her head around the concept of Konoha's middle being its defining strength, but she could tell Arashi had faith in that. He's really been studying Konoha's organization…and he deeply believes in it. Astounding.
Kotetsu smiled and spoke, his booming voice relaying its approval."It's great to see, Yondaime-sama, that you are so in line with Sandaime's methods."
Arashi chuckled and reached up, scratching his own hair nervously as he realized everyone's attention was on him. "Well, to a point I was a product of them, so I definitely see the merit of them. I never would have been trained by Jiraiya if not for that change…and I never would have joined ANBU if they were as elite as they were before. I would have just been a shy kid."
Nara blinked. That's true…you were a shy kid. The thought sunk in a bit more. You've grown entirely out of that...to the point that I almost don't remember that shy kid as you...
"And I certainly wouldn't be making my own jutsu…"
Nara's eyes widened. Your own jutsu?
Anko's nose flared, and her bossy tone came out. "You know you can't say something like that and just get off…"
The lunch had been great, but this was entirely different. At lunch, there was food. At lunch, there was playful discussion, yelling, and...well...food. There had always been the sense of distraction, even as he was talking.
Now, there was just him...and them. And the tree, of course. Everyone's eyes were entirely on Arashi, and it was just the slightest bit unnverving. Even with his back turned to them, he had the unshakable feeling of being watched. And Nara's eyes, his subconscious expected, were boring into him further than anyone else's. It kinda made him proud...but it threatened to make him awkward. He'd better get moving before his adrenaline got out of hand.
Nara watched carefully as Arashi placed a hand on the tree in front of him, and whispered I'm sorry to it. That got her blood pumping...this technique must be quite damaging if he's feeling bad for the tree.
Arashi turned back to everyone and extended his right hand to them. "My technique involves the manipulation of chakra flow in a very concentrated manner. I call it the Rasengan...and I'm still in the process of improving it, but I'll show you what I've done thus far." Arashi looked around, and immediately regretted it. He quickly pulled his eyes away from Nara's intense focus and back towards his hand. I need all my concentration for this...no looking around anymore. Let's get started. "This is a bit difficult to do in stages, so forgive me if I zone out anything you say."
Arashi willed his chakra into his hand, and slowly extended it beyond his body...a light wind began to flow from his palm due to all the energy moving about. He opened his lips and spoke with measured words, keeping his concentration on his hand and not his speech. "The first step is to channel chakra to the hand and get a flow going around the center of the palm...a strong flow that could burst a water balloon." As he finished speaking, he put his heart into what he was doing once more, and the wind began to flow at a perceptible speed...he heard the gasp as everyone felt the air rush toward them. Arashi felt the muscles in his hand tense up a bit, and he carefully lessened the flow.
Even though there was total silence, Nara was pretty sure she was the only one who noticed just how much concentration and care Arashi was operating with while doing this. In fact, she was so absorbed in what he was doing that she was holding her breath.
"Step two," Arashi said, the edge on his voice increasing,"is to push this flow to the limits...concentrate it on one spot...and extend it from the hand..." He immediately began to do so, and the change was immense. The wind blew like a typhoon, and everyone steadied themselves as they realized that Arashi was really pouring his chakra into this...
Nara didn't even bother to steady herself...her right foot automatically slid backwards, and she kept her eyes on Arashi. The wind shook her just enough to alert her that she wasn't breathing, and she began to breathe heavily, but otherwise stayed still and watched. Sweat was beginning to form on his brow, and his eyes were wide and focused...almost as if he were locked into looking directly at a certain point on his hand. She was certain there was a lot of detail she was missing, but she could see the blue chakra extending from his hand...flowing in random directions...and she could picture the spot Arashi was staring at...the eye of the hurricane. The wind forced his hair back, and the light from the chakra began to glow upon his focused face...
He looked ridiculously cool. Suddenly, he extended his hand further, and Nara snapped back to reality.
"Step three..." Arashi said, his voice booming from the adrenaline of the moment, "is THIS..." His eyes shut tightly as he focused his entire mind on the hardest part of the entire process.
Nara immediately noticed the difference in his concentration as his eyes snapped shut, and the sweat began to flow down his forehead and nose. She could hear the sounds of straining and struggle exit his throat as he attempted to force his will upon the chakra in his hand...the frequency of the sound increased. As she looked on, she could see the blue chakra in his hand twist and curl around his fingers, and form into a ball. Wait a minute...
Nara looked again. It wasn't quite a ball...the chakra was rushing around so quickly and violently that it was hard to call it anything. But a pattern had been established...all the rushing chakra was concentrated in this one spherical area. Holy cow...it's like a small typhoon. The wind died away, probably because this "controlled", rushing chakra was containing the wind as opposed to tossing it around. Nara couldn't peel her eyes away from the thing, and probably would not have if it hadn't been moving.
Arashi couldn't keep his hand still because he was taking in deep breaths. The chakra in his hand remained in a tight ball even as his hand moved and his fingers twitched...his eyes remained closed. "Step three..." he said with slight breathlessness, "is to concentrate the chakra into a ball, and increase the spin to a point where the ball is tight...and then keep it there." He took a deep breath, then turned toward the tree. "Now I guess I should show you...what it does..."
There was utter silence in the area as the four shinobi watched their Hokage measure his distance and get into battle stance, the Rasengan in his right hand. A low growl began deep within Arashi, heightening into a yell as he thrust his open palmed attack into the tree. "Rasengan!"
If Nara's theory was correct, then the chakra would hit the tree and disperse across it in random vectors, causing major damage to the bark of the tree…and anything that could cause damage to tree bark would do much worse to human skin. Creative, Arashi-kun…you sure did build that up dramatically...
She was wrong.
Arashi's thrust did not end where it should have…he continued to slowly move his palm forward. As Nara looked again, she realized that the ball of chakra was not dispersing…but the tree was…the chakra was spinning so powerfully that it was tearing the bark away! Immediately, her mind processed and understood what had happened. The third step...I didn't really understand it...but since the ball of chakra's so tight...the energy doesn't diverge! Nara looked wide-eyed at Arashi once more. When did he become this...amazing?
Arashi continued his thrust until his palm was fully extended…by then everyone could clearly see the hole…the energy had cut cleanly through the tree, leaving a gaping hole bigger than Arashi's hand. Silent awe dominated the area as Arashi retracted his hand from the hole in the tree. Silently, he massaged his right hand with his left, letting the feeling return. But what he said next changed the mood entirely.
Arashi walked back toward them and frowned. "Darn…I still can't consistently do it the way I want."
It took a few seconds for it to sink in.
Anko scratched behind her ear in thought. "Wait a second..."
Nara's jaw dropped. "You mean you did it WRONG, and it did THAT!"
Kotetsu yelled. "What the heck is it supposed to do?"
A smile crossed Arashi's face as he lightly slid back into his battle stance. He really hadn't intended to mess up, but maybe it was for the best. Now someone would appreciate the years he had spent creating this technique. Extending his right palm in front of him, he began to concentrate once more. "This..."
Again, the chakra began to flow, kicking up a sudden and short gust of wind as it binded itself into a tight ball. Nara watched as Arashi closed his eyes and concentrated further, and the ball began to glow brighter than ever before. Was he putting more chakra into it?
Nara froze in place as she watched in awe. He's even more powerful than I could have ever imagined. Somehow, I'd missed this much…
Arashi yelled fiercely this time as he pulled his hand back to his side…and then ran toward the tree, thrusting with force…
Nara was the only one to see the full detail of what happened next. As the ball of chakra hit the tree, it was exactly as before…the tree attempted to absorb the chakra, but the fiercely tight spin of it began to tear it apart piece by piece. But then...as Arashi's eyes opened in a moment of supreme focus…Nara noticed the spin change slightly, and the ball lost shape for a moment…suddenly, the ball of chakra was absorbed into the tree.
"GET DOWN!"
Nara's eyes were wide, and she spoke without full thought…but some part of her brain had registered what would happen next. With a sharp yell, Arashi released the tight structure of the ball of chakra…and the loose chakra tore through the tree in random directions. The tree exploded as if each piece had been individually detonated, sending wooden shrapnel into the sky, and the shinobi who had stood watching quickly ducked for cover…
Nara did not move at all. She simply stood there, semi-panicked, for she had just realized a very important detail.
Flashback: Chapter 1
He stood upright for a moment, his eyes revealing the earlier annoyance. Arashi looked directly to the eyeholes on the mask of the adversary. "If this is someone's idea of a joke, you picked the absolute worst time ever to screw with me…"
Blazing forward at a speed few could pick up with their eyes, Arashi seemingly glided toward the hunter, and quickly pinned the warrior against the side of a tree with his left forearm. In a surge of anger, he raised his right hand--open-palmed--and his eyes widened.
The hunter blinked behind the mask, then her focused eyes diverted their sight towards the open hand, just in time to see the air around it seemingly rush about in a tight ball. The hunter lightly gasped and began to struggle for freedom, feeling the intense amount of chakra in the man's palm…
My God, she thought as debris began to hit the ground around her. He was going to use that technique on me!
"Hey! Look out!" Arashi leaped forward and smacked a tree section that was about to hit Nara in the face. "Nara, snap out of it!" Arashi turned back to her and snapped his fingers in front of her face. He paused and looked into her eyes. They were wide open and twitching in...fear. Arashi grabbed her hands and could feel her body shuddering and twitching. "Hey...hey..." Finally, he began to understand what was happening to her. "Hey...you're okay. Nothing happened..." He had entirely forgotten that she had seen that technique before. Carefully, he drew her into a hug and hugged her as tight as she could stand with her rib wrappings. "Everything's okay, Nara...snap out of it..."
Nara heard what he was saying, and she automatically hugged him back, but she was not in control of her body's response anymore. She felt the guilt for what she had done take over and her hands shook more. "I...I..."
"Shhhh..." Arashi patted her back and just held her. "It's okay."
Nara burst into tears and buried her face into Arashi's shoulder, sobbing and shaking. Arashi stayed still and let her cry, lightly squeezing her.
Suddenly,her body fell limp in his arms. She apparently fainted...too much excitement for her body to handle.Arashi took a deep breath and leaned in towards her ear.He calmly whispered into her ear. "I'm sorry I showed you that...I wasn't thinking. But all is forgiven...once you forgive yourself." He didn't know whether she could hear him or not, but as he spoke her spasms and twitching had stopped, and her breathing had calmed.
Arashi slipped behind Nara, bent down as before and lifted Nara into his arms, and felt his right hand go numb. "Ack! Kotetsu! A little help here!" Kotetsu ran over and helped as Arashi's arms faltered a bit, and Arashi dropped quickly to his knees so that he wouldn't drop Nara. "Careful of her ribs." Arashi gasped and held his right hand as Kotetsu lifted Nara's body up and over his right shoulder, holding her carefully.
Kotetsu raised an eyebrow to Arashi. "Is she okay?"
Arashi nodded and started to rise. "She just fainted...too much drama for one day. She'll be fine."
Taito and Anko ran over to Arashi and helped him to his feet. After being assured that Nara was okay, the conversation went back to the Rasengan.
"Holy crap," said Anko, "I thought the first technique was rough…boring a hole into something…but then you made it…"
Arashi smiled. "Yeah…if I can time it just right, I can combine the 2nd step with the 3rd, and send such a large amount of chakra into the ball at just the right time…that it overwhelms whatever attempts to absorb the energy. But I have to be careful…" He raised his hand to them, fingers twitching, "...or else I'll give too much and end up damaging my tenketsu, or worse."
"Sugoi!"
"Awesome!"
"I never thought I'd see the day…that someone surpassed the--"
Arashi cut Kotetsu off, being sure to lift his left hand as opposed to his right. "I haven't surpassed anyone, Kotetsu. I've got a long way to go before I can say that." Arashi sighed; the adrenaline was finally leaving his system a bit. "It's late. We should head back now."
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End Notes
I really hope that ending didn't come off rushed. I made a decision at 11 that this chapter would be out before I went to bed...and it's 4 in the morning now so I think I got a bit impatient...maybe it won't come through though. On another note, I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written for anything...
One of those Naruto inconsistencies that I just can't follow...I just realized today that in this time period, Anko would be...3. It doesn't make any sense.
I mean, Anko was around long enough to be experiemented upon and trained by Orochimaru. How long do you think Orochimaru hung around after the Arashi became the Fourth Hokage? I expect, not long. And since the Fourth trained Kakashi from age 5 up to 16, I figured Anko would be older than him...if he was just training when Anko had already been around, it made sense for her to be maybe 10 years older than him.
And forgive me if you are a huge fan of her, but I look at her in the series and I think of a mid-30's girl who's aging quite well...I never thought of her as still in her 20's.Well...according to the manga and the age books, she's actually 2 years younger than Kakashi. She's 24 in the anime, and Kakashi is 26. And that makes absolutely NO logical sense unless Orochimaru hung around for a good 10 years after Arashi became Yondaime, OR unless a very young girl stole her way out of Konoha to meet with Orochimaru after he left. I really don't picture Konoha allowing 5 year olds(or even younger) to sneak out of their heavily guarded village...especially with an S-ranked ninja having just escaped and threatening to return to raze the city. I refuse to consider that possibility, so in my fics, Anko will be 10 years older. She'll be 34 in the anime, and 12 in these scenes. So nyah.
I do not know if anyone agrees with my theory about the Konoha ANBU, but it's just a little something that watching the anime made me think about. When the Sand and Sound unite to take down the Leaf, it's the Jounin of Konoha -- not the ANBU -- who fight the battle in the arena. Meanwhile, the ANBU set up a counterattack and fight in the streets. But, remember, the main plan of Orochimaru and the Sand was centered around Gaara going to war with the Jounin. It seems like the entire plan was structured around the Jounin being occupied and destroyed...and I just don't see that as logical if the top fighters in Konoha were the ANBU. We've never seen a single ANBU person from Konoha do anything important...
Which is why I suspect that the ANBU are actually not the top tier that we picture them as sometimes. I think they're a tough middle tier as a team, but I think the toughest individual fighters in Konoha are the teachers. And that makes sense to me...if you want to be successful in the long term, then your best and brightest should be teaching the next generation...not getting themselves killed in the field (if you can avoid it).
Feel free to review!