Night-Blooming Cereus (昙花一现)

by ZoeRubyJackson

She died in an explosion, which was a pretty sketchy situation itself even if she wasn't the one who planted the bomb. So when she opened her eyes again, clearer than ever, she wondered, what the hell does fate want with her. Punishment, atonement, second chance... She has no idea, and she might never find out. Reincarnation!OC, Uchiha!OC

56. Chapter 56 - Chunin Exam: Prologue

Chapter 56

"Nothing?" I asked and Jiraiya looked at me with impatience.

"Nothing," Jiraiya answered, filling his cup with sake. "Contrary to popular belief, people don't just come across S-rank missing-nin every day, and that applies to my information networks as well."

I didn't know what else I was expecting. Orochimaru was like a snake, he littered his abandoned base and failed experiments like old skins, but his actual whereabouts remained elusive to both Konoha and Akatsuki.

"Funny you asked, considering someone else also came to me soliciting information about Orochimaru not long ago. What were you two planning, getting in line to kill him?" Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at me as he gulped down the cup of sake.

"Of course not," I assured him. At least, not until we got what we wanted from him, but Jiraiya didn't need to know about that part.

"Do we have to discuss such an obnoxious topic when I'm drinking? Aren't you and the Hatake kid supposed to be talking to the boy?" Jiraiya said in between his drinks.

"Fine, really informative, Jiraiya-sama." The sarcasm was oozing out of my voice, just in case, he missed it by being drunk.

Jiraiya rubbed his nose bridge and sighed. "I'll let you - both of you - know if I have something. Now let me drink my sake in peace."

"Thank you, Jiraiya-sama." I knew when to call it quits and that was definitely the cue to leave. Besides, Jiraiya was right, I did have a date with Kakashi and Naruto on top of the Hokage rock in a few minutes.

When Kakashi was dealing with his genin, he was usually late and spent his time reading his R18 novel. However, he was having none of that for this matter.

"You brought this upon yourself," I said to the man leaning by the tree trunk as I sat on top of the branch. It seemed like little Naruto had learned to add some time to Kakashi's prescribed meeting time, just so it'd feel less miserable when Kakashi arrived even later.

"That's not fair. I even told him I was going to teach him a super special jutsu," Kakashi said, looking far into the distance. From the top of the Hokage rock, one could see everything in the village.

"Still, compared to your antics, Naruto is rather kind to only be late for half an hour," I said, hearing a series of footsteps approaching from behind.

"Kakashi-sensei! You're here early?" I heard the yell of disbelief as Naruto rubbed his eyes to make sure he's seeing the man in front of him correctly.

"I'm hurt, Naruto, to think that you don't believe in sensei." Even I had to roll my eyes at Kakashi's shameless words.

"But you're always late," Naruto complained as he made his way towards Kakashi. "Ah, Maiko-nee-chan, why are you here?" The boy looked up and saw me dangling above the tree branch.

"I'm just here to observe. Just ignore me for now." I gave him a smile and pointed him towards his sensei. Tsunade-sama might have wanted me to be here for emotional support - whatever that meant - but I was never part of the story that was about to be told.

Naruto didn't argue, his brain was probably occupied by the words 'super special jutsu' the moment he arrived here. " Kakashi-sensei, what are you going to teach me, is it that super cool water dragon, or the lightning that goes whoosh?"

Kakashi had a faint smile as he watched Naruto go on and on with all the flashy jutsu he had seen, despite knowing that the meaning of this meeting was far from what he had told the boy.

Under the boy's hopeful eyes, Kakashi sat down at the edge of the Hokage Rock and patted the grass next to him. Naruto was confused, but nevertheless, he sat down as he was instructed.

"Naruto, do you remember all the Hokages Konoha ever had?" Kakashi asked, making Naruto scratch his head to come up with the answer. Clearly, someone was asleep during history class at the academy.

"Umm, let's see, Shodaime Hokage was Senju … What's his name? Senju … Hashirama!" Naruto yelled out the answers after much thinking. "And then the Nidaime … something something rama as well, isn't he Shodaime's brother?"

Little by little, Naruto tried to account for each and every one of the rock faces engraved on the stone cliff. "Sandaime is the old man who always comes to the academy. Godaime is Tsunade-obaa-san, but she always gets so angry when I call her that. Yondaime …"

No matter how hard Naruto squinted his eyes, the answer didn't come to mind. For a child like Naruto, he grew up when Sandaime resumed his post and lived in the Godaime's era. The Senju surname was so ingrained into the village's history that it would be a blasphemy to forget about them.

Kakashi let out a sigh as if such forgetfulness was to be expected. "The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, otherwise known as the Yellow Flash. He was one of the greatest shinobi during his time."

To my surprise, Kakashi didn't tell him his heritage right away, instead, he started telling stories of Yondaime, about his heroic battles against the Iwa-nin during the Third Shinobi War, about the lives he had saved using the Hiraishin. Naruto, who was bored in his history class, listened to the stories with curiosity. Soon, he was caught up by the thrilling stories Kakashi told, gasping in awe whenever the plot turned.

I never knew Kakashi was such a storyteller, but I supposed when these stories were your treasured memories, it was hard to mess up.

"But then again, even a hero as great as him is only human and needs a home to go back to. At home, rather than the Yondaime Hokage, he is a husband who loved his wife and his unborn child." Suddenly, the story of heroic tales took a turn and became domestic.

"Yondaime's wife, Kushina-san, is a strong kunoichi. She is also a member of a shinobi clan known for their vitality and sealing techniques. At that time, all shinobi villages had figured out a way to seal tailed-beasts - a source of great calamity and power all in one - into human hosts, known as Jinchuuriki. At that time, Kushina-san was the Nine-Tail Jinchuuriki of the village."

"Jinchuuriki, tailed-beast? Now you're just making up stuff, Sensei," Naruto muttered in confusion, but Kakashi didn't answer him immediately. Instead, he rubbed Naruto's fuzzy blonde hair and said, "let me finish the story, I'm getting to the climax."

"As the birth of Kushina-san's child inched near, both Yondaime and his wife prepared in excitement for the arrival of their child. They discussed names - although, I have to say, Yondaime's taste is questionable, thank god Kushina-san was there - bought baby clothes, waiting for the birth of their treasure." Kakashi cast a quick glance over at Naruto, who was lost in the story and there didn't notice the fleeting emotion in his sensei's glance.

"However, there was just one problem - giving birth weakened the seal on a Jinchuuriki that sealed the tailed beast. While Yondaime and Kushina-san tried their best to take precautions beforehand, no one foresaw the sudden rampage of the Nine-tail. Powered by hatred and anger, the Nine-Tail broke free of the seal and started to bring destruction to the village. To protect the village, Yondaime and Kushina-san, having no other choice, sealed the Nine-Tail into their child who had just been born." Kakashi paused a little, trying to find words for the conclusion.

"With the last bit of their strength, they protected their child along with Konoha. In their last moment, they chose to place their hope and love into their child, despite knowing that they wouldn't be able to be with him." At this point, like the flowing ebb beneath the water surface, I sensed the unease buried in Kakashi's calm voice. A hint of fear permeated his silence. What if Naruto couldn't see the man and woman that Kakashi had admired and loved?

Closing his eyes for a moment, Kakashi decided that it was all or nothing. He said, clearly and loudly, "That child is you, Naruto. You're the child of the Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato, and his wife, Uzumaki Kushina, and you're also the Jinchuuriki for the Nine-Tail fox."

Naruto, who was just here for the enthralling story, clearly did not anticipate being a part of the tale. "I … have parents?"

To think that was his first question, I couldn't say that I was surprised.

"Of course, Naruto. You don't grow on trees," Kakashi seemed to find the boy's question funny. Naruto, realizing exactly what he had asked, turned red from embarrassment.

"I know that!" Naruto shouted back. Then, "I mean, my father is Yondaime Hokage, really? How's that possible? Me and him .. the man from your story, and Kushina-san, we are so different."

Kakashi paused for a moment, uncertain of how to answer that.

Naruto might be boisterous and unrelenting, but he wasn't completely out of self-awareness. Especially after the mission involving Zabuza and Haku, Naruto understood how limited his power was in front of those who were experienced.

Namikaze Minato, at least in Kakashi's story, was a legend that was spectacular in every aspect. To Naruto, he was unattainable and as far away as the sun in the sky.

The silence only lasted a second as Kakashi let out a smile as if remembering something far far away. "You're probably right. Yondaime was always gentle and calm. Kushina-san was caring and protective. You're … kind of loud, reckless, unaware of your surroundings, and-"

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cut Kakashi off before he could continue dumping out all the things that Naruto did not want to hear.

"But that's okay, Naruto. You don't have to be your father or your mother. Family doesn't depend on how similar you are to each other, but rather the fact that you're connected to each other."

"'Uzumaki Naruto', 'Uzumaki' obviously came from Kushina-san's clan. 'Naruto', on the other hand, I remembered Yondaime picking out that name from his favourite novel 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi', after the main protagonist who became a great shinobi, just like you aspired to be," Kakashi explained.

"Perhaps it's my empty words, but you're connected to your parents - even beyond life and death - through your namesake, your aspirations, and ideals. After all, before Minato-san was Yondaime, he too, was just a shinobi who dreamed of and worked hard in becoming the Hokage."

Despite a load of information being dumped on Naruto, it only took a minute for a boy to pick out the most important detail of the bunch - to him, anyway.

"Hehe, so my old man thought that I'll be a great Shinobi too!" A wide smile stretched across the boy's face as he made the conclusion.

See, talking to Naruto was a simple task, depending on how you looked at it. When Kakashi and I worried about the deception, the loss, and the pain, Naruto decided to focus on the positives first - the dream, the ambition, and the hope.

Silently, I made a hand seal and a shadow clone appeared next to me. Giving me a nod, the shadow clone flickered away and headed straight for the Hokage Tower.

However, just because Naruto would zoom in on the positives first didn't mean he didn't see everything else. "Wait, how come you never told me this before?" Naruto asked Kakashi, before turning around and catching me sitting on the tree branch. "Maiko-nee-chan, do you know this too?"

In this matter, none of us were innocent.

Silence ensued because Kakashi couldn't answer. This was the one question that he wasn't sure how to answer. He had thousands of reasons to pretend to be a stranger and hide the truth, but those all seemed to be meaningless to the child in question.

"Naruto, like I had told you before, dangers exist even in the safest corner of the village," I said when it seemed like Kakashi wasn't going to. "Yondaime's heroic tales were not without aftermath. To be a hero to Konoha meant being the most hated enemy of other villages. Being the Yondaime's child and the Nine-Tail Jinchuuriki meant that there would be a lot of people who would want to harm you, for revenge, for power, and for greed. We thought it would be safer to keep your heritage and identity a secret."

"Still, we apologize for keeping you in the dark and failing to keep the rumours spread. It was arrogant of us to think that we could make every decision for you." I apologized to the boy, on behalf of Kakashi and on behalf of Konoha - after all, my presence here was a replacement for the Anbu that would normally follow Naruto at every turn. I could have just told him that it was for his own protection, that it was for his best interest, but that would defeat the purpose of this entire conversation.

By having this conversation, we were acknowledging that Naruto, as a genin, was not a child that needed to be protected in every aspect, not anymore. On the contrary, he had seen the cruelty of human words and the transience of human life and had developed ways to maintain his own ideals through all of that.

"You keep on mentioning the Nine-Tail Jinchuuriki. What does that even mean?" Naruto asked, a little more fervently. He touched his stomach, feeling the power that rested deep within him even if he had no idea exactly what it was. "Is this … tailed-beast the reason my parents are gone?"

Taking a deep breath, Kakashi answered, "Yes. For shinobi villages, tailed-beasts are weapons of great power and it's Konoha's tradition to keep the Nine-Tail. The Uzumaki line had always been chosen as the Jinchuuriki - the vessel - for the Nine-Tail. In the meantime, Nine-Tail had gathered much hatred towards shinobi and Konoha due to the imprisonment."

Letting out a mocking laugh, Kakashi continued. "At some point, Konoha couldn't let Nine-Tail lose, whether for power or self-preservation. Someone had to be the Jinchuuriki, and that someone is you, Naruto."

I had no doubt that personally, Kakashi hoped that the Nine-Tail would just disappear. Konoha didn't need that source of power, he would argue, and then maybe Yondaime and his wife wouldn't have to die and Naruto would have a normal family and a normal childhood.

The history between Nine-Tail and Konoha had been entangled for too long, determined decades before the time of Yondaime and Kushina-san. If Nine-Tail couldn't be used as a weapon, then he would become Konoha's worst enemy.

But Naruto, who was made to shoulder this duty the moment he was born - perhaps even before - never got a chance to understand what it was that he would need to carry, much less given a chance to choose.

"Remember that time you lost control on the bridge and defeated Haku? You were drawing on the power of the Nine-Tail that had leaked through your seals. Great power always requires great sacrifice. For you, the power of Nine-Tail meant that you would be battling with the fox always for control of your body."

"So, if I can't control the Nine-Tail, I could hurt others, just like how Nine-Tail had hurt my parents?" Naruto looked down at his hands, feeling a weight named 'responsibility' settling down in his palms.

I opened my mouth, wanting to comfort him, to tell him that he need not get overwhelmed by this power. At least at this stage, he was not alone in controlling the tailed-beast - Jiraiya's sealing was not just for show.

But before I could, Naruto clenched his fists and stood up. Placing his hands on his waist, making a superman pose, he yelled, "That's okay, I'll definitely be able to beat this Nine-tail's ass and control his power!"

How much of that was to convince us and how much of that was to convince himself, that was something only he could tell.

Naruto turned to Kakashi and said, "Sensei, didn't you say that my mom was a great Kunoichi even as a Jinchuuriki? I can't lose, you know. I'm someone who will become the Hokage, just you wait!"

Kakashi let out a chuckle. Naruto's confidence and determination, he would soon realize just as I did, was contagious.

"That's right, don't fear this power, Naruto. I didn't know Kushina-san, but I've met a Jinchuuriki of another village and he's found peace with his tailed-beast half, albeit after quite a journey," I told the boy.

No matter how much Kakashi wished for the Nine-Tail to go away, what was done was already done and all we could do was continue to live with it. Like all power that was a double edge sword, the moment you started to fear it and let it take over your life, that was when you had lost control.

Perhaps Saiken wasn't a great example considering he barely had any animosity towards Utakata, but some things could still be learned from his experience. Utakata treated Saiken's power with respect and he had made peace with his Jinchuuriki identity. Even without the tailed-beast, he had developed himself into a great shinobi

"Really? There are other tailed beasts? What's he like? " It wasn't my intention, but Naruto's curiosity seemed to be piqued by my words. That was the boy I knew of, already curious towards others and everything they had been through.

"Another time, Naruto, I'll tell you that story. The main character here is you," I said, redirecting his attention to his sensei.

Suddenly, the boy seemed to remember something as he whipped his head back to Kakashi. "Ne, Kakashi-sensei, how come you know so much about my parents?"

Kakashi paused for a moment, rubbing Naruto's head again, "It should be obvious, no? Your father was my sensei when I was your age, just as I am your teacher right now."

Naruto nodded before saying, "If my old man had taught you, and you're now teaching me, it's almost like my dad is also there with me, right?" The boy didn't ask why Kakashi wasn't there for him when he was younger, even though one sentence of that could send a wave of guilt down Kakashi's body.

"You're right. Now that you've mentioned it, the bell test was something I had learned from Minato-sensei," Kakashi said with nostalgia.

"Really, my old man was that sneaky too? I didn't even realize all the traps in that test until Mai-nee-chan pointed it out." Naruto scratched his head, clearly remembering the painful details in that bell test.

"What can I say, it works every time. Those who can't pass the bell test are fundamentally not ready to be a shinobi at Konoha just yet," Kakashi said. The fact that Naruto had passed even without knowing all the caveats said something about his aptitude.

"I wonder what he looked like, my mom as well," The blonde-haired boy muttered.

I let out a chuckle and said, "Well, we're standing over the Hokage Rock, why don't we go somewhere with a better view?" I jumped down from the tree branch and pointed towards the clearing on top of Hokage Tower.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at me, knowing full well that people weren't supposed to climb the Hokage Tower without prior permission. However, he was also the first one to jump down to the clearing, followed by Naruto and myself.

The boy was awestruck when the cliff came into full view. He had probably seen it many times just by walking through the village and playing pranks when he was still in the academy. However, never before had he found the need to examine the features of the sculpted Hokage with care.

The stone face of Namizake Minato stood solemnly on the cliffside. Even with the dignified expression carved in stone, the hint of a gentle smile seemed to permeate through the hard surface.

That was a man who had not only protected the village with all his strength but had also looked at Naruto with care and love, until his last breath.

My shadow clone returned as quietly as she had left, handing me a picture frame before disappearing in a poof of smoke.

"Naruto, here," I handed the picture - the same one that used to be on the walls of the Hokage Office - to the boy and watched his eyes widen as the face on the picture overlapped with the shape sculpted on the rock.

Naruto held the picture in front of him so that it would be on the same level as the stone face in the distance. "So, this is my old man," He exclaimed, as the man in the picture, dressed in Hokage attire, smiled back at him.

Quietly, I moved to Kakashi and whispered, "Please tell me you have a better picture of Yondaime and Kushina-san. Tsunade-sama agreed to let me borrow it for now. If I don't return it in a day, she will throw me down the Hokage Tower."

"I can't believe you took that picture from the office," Kakashi said, but I just let out a shrug. I figured Naruto might want a picture of his parents and this was the only thing I could think of. After all, there was already very few traces of Yondaime left in this era, let alone a picture of Kushina-san.

"I'm not one for pictures, but I'll find something eventually." He didn't sound very convincing. I sincerely hoped that by 'eventually', he meant 'soon'.

"Ah, Mai-nee-chan, Kakashi-sensei, I can't tell all of this to Sasuke and my friends, can I?" Naruto asked as he turned around, hugging the picture of Yondaime in his arms.

"Unfortunately, no," I answered, watching the boy pout at the prospect of keeping secrets from his friends. "It's okay to keep some secrets for yourself, Naruto. Some information does require greater care than others." It wasn't like Sasuke told him about Itachi either.

Naruto nodded, raising his head once again to see the Hokage Rock, shining under a layer of sunlight. Today, the view seemed more memorable than usual.

Kakashi and I glanced at each other, coming to an agreement in an instant.

We couldn't predict exactly what sort of emotions would be lit in the boy by all of this knowledge, but as long as Naruto kept his faith about life, about himself, and about his dreams, that was enough.

As for Akatsuki and Tobi and their stupid tailed-beast extraction initiative, screw all that for now. That was a problem for another day and something Tsunade-sama could explain to the boy.

The real thing we had to worry about was getting the boy a picture of his family that didn't look like it was ripped straight from the history textbook.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"Much of genjutsu is about what your enemy wants to see, rather than what you want your enemy to see. Therefore, setting up your environment to make the enemy believe the unbelievable, becomes an important part of what genjutsu is," Itachi's calm words flowed over the air, from the two boys standing listening carefully in the training ground to me who was sitting by the wooden platform.

To this day, I found his lectures to be informative and enchanting. Like I said, in terms of genjutsu, even I had to ask him for help.

"The stress of the danger and the unknown makes the mind overly sensitive. It makes the enemy conjure up the worst and therefore, they are more tolerant to surprises and anomalies," Itachi said, waving the shuriken at the boys in front of him. "I supposed it's easier if I just show you what I mean."

Even before he finished his words, the shuriken shot out from his hands and interweaved themselves towards Sasuke and Ryuu.

Without a moment of rest, both of them raised their weapon and parried the shuriken away from their face. Itachi's bukijutsu had always been intricate, one metal clashing into another, setting them in motion like dominoes, forcing the boys to cast all of their attention to stay unhurt.

That was when the magic happened.

Sasuke opened his Sharingan and turned around, slashing his kunai towards nothing but empty air. Ryuu, on the other hand, jumped up from the ground and landed a few meters away, as if expecting an enemy to pop up from the ground.

Meanwhile, I turned towards my brother who had merely flickered to where I was standing and said, "Nice demonstration." To that, Itachi simply returned a smile.

The genjutsu was cast the moment they struck the first shuriken, hidden under the metallic clashes of weapons and the complicated path of the projectiles. Even if they were just talking about genjutsu a moment ago, in that instant, there was nothing more overwhelming than the string of sharp objects crowding their senses. That moment of blankness was all Itachi needed to slip in.

Still, the boys were only fooled for a second. Sasuke's Sharingan quickly alerted him of intrusion and Ryuu's training in Anbu allowed him to find the incongruent details. The boys snapped towards us, seeing nothing but a smiling Itachi standing beside me.

Sasuke opened his mouth in disbelief. Well, someone needed to teach him that Sharingan wasn't immune to all genjutsu.

"Itachi-san, did you cast the genjutsu when our visions were obstructed by the shuriken?" Ryuu asked a little far away, gaining him a nod from their temporary instructor.

"Correct, Ryuu-kun. In fact, it's not just the vision, the cacophonous clashes of the metal, the rush of the wind, all of that stresses your senses, making them unable to distinguish genjutsu and reality in a calm manner," Itachi explained, walking back to the centre of the training field.

"Now, I merely provided an example. Anyone wants to elaborate on what else can be used to set up an environment favourable to us?" Itachi asked, waiting for the boys to come up with their own answers.

"The Hidden Mist Technique," Sasuke answered after some thinking. At this point, he was totally engrossed in Itachi's lectures despite his outward reluctance in talking to his brother.

"Absolutely, that's a good option. The mist not only provides enough sensory occlusion, it also creates a fear of the unknown, all of which will benefit your genjutsu." Itachi gave Sasuke a faint smile before turning to Ryuu, waiting for his answer.

"Darkness and silence?" Ryuu said with uncertainty, but Itachi seemed pleasantly surprised that he had decided to go in that direction.

"Those are certainly great possibilities. Darkness and silence are the other side of the extreme, stimulating fear and stress with sensory deprivation instead of sensory overload. However, in cases of assassination, those conditions are fantastic complementations. Nice thinking." Itachi never was the kind to hold off on encouragement, making Ryuu blush a little.

For a second, I thought I was seeing Itachi before the massacre happened, where he was still free to give comforting words and encouraging smiles to everyone around him.

However, I quickly crossed that thought in my mind. Itachi was simply who he was now. Lamenting what he could have become was simply putting burdens on all of us

Just then, a crimson butterfly flew up into the sky before dissolving in spark. A moment later, the doorbell rang as expected.

"I got it," I told the boys over the training field, before walking back into the main house. The fact that the doorbell sounded meant that it wasn't someone familiar with us. Otherwise, they would know about the butterfly alert that made the doorbell redundant.

Still, it was still a surprise to see the pink-haired girl at the front porch.

"Maiko-senpai!" Sakura greeted me with a small bow.

"Sakura-chan. How may I help you?" I had a feeling who she was here for. After all, there was only one member of our household that she knew passed the names.

"Um, I was wondering if Sasuke-kun would like to … train together." The last few words were barely audible despite our close distance. Still, I waited patiently for her to finish her words.

"Let me ask him for you. In the meantime, would you mind waiting in the house for a bit?" I asked as I led her into the living room. Immediately, the girl gave me a nod. "Have a seat, then, make yourself comfortable." I smiled at the girl who was picking her hands behind her back and pointed her towards the table.

While there was quite a physical distance separating the Training ground and the Main house, in reality, it was just a few body-flickers away. I arrived just as Sasuke was sparring with Ryuu, one of them trying to put the other into a genjutsu while the other trying to defend himself. Itachi stood by the wooden deck, watching with patience.

Both of the boys noticed my arrival, pausing their sparring for a moment as they turned their attention towards me.

"Sasuke, your teammate Sakura is here. She wonders if you want to train with her." I relayed Sakura's message, watching my little brother furrow his eyebrows.

"Can you tell her that I'm in the middle of something right now?" The answer was a 'No' as expected. Still, it was my brother's decision and I was just the messenger. Sasuke was old enough to decide how he wanted to spend his time.

I nodded, allowing the boys to go back to what they were doing before running back to the main house.

Sakura raised her head when she noticed my presence, a little bit of hope brimming in her eyes. Sadly, I was about to crush that spark of young love.

"Unfortunately, Sasuke has a prior commitment right now and he won't be done any time soon." I told the girl, watching her head drop lower. It must have taken a lot of her bravery to come here, a place where she might not be welcomed. A simple crush from the classroom was not enough to fuel that.

"Is there something else that's bothering you, Sakura? You look a bit lost," I asked, noticing the girl widened her eyes, surprised that I had noticed.

"I want to contribute to Team 7. I don't want to feel like I can't do anything, not when Sasuke-kun was injured and Naruto-kun was fighting to protect him." Sakura muttered in a soft voice, ears turning red at the mention of her teammates.

She looked at me and I gave her a nod, encouraging her to continue. "Kakashi-sensei said that my chakra control is very precise and I should exploit that. I've read some books at the Konoha Library, they say that medical ninjutsu requires the most precise care of the chakra."

The pink-haired girl looked down at her hands - already developed scratches and calluses compared to the time I saw her at the bell test - and continued. "Sasuke-kun is well versed in ninjutsu and taijutsu. Naruto-kun's shadow clones attack the enemies by surprise and are able to perform Sasuke's plan whenever he needs it. At my current level, I … want to complement them and I thought, perhaps I can do that by being a medical-nin."

"After all, they are always getting injured." She closed her hands, knowing that both Sasuke and Naruto had much more of these calluses from an even younger age, handling kunai, shuriken, and ninja wires more than they had handled pen and paper.

"But you don't know where to start," I picked up from where she left off, seeing the girl giving me a nod.

Well, that, I could help with, but just to make sure she knew what she was getting into. "Sakura-chan, there is a difference between learning some medical-ninjutsu and becoming a medical-nin. The former, you could probably learn in a few weeks given your talents, while the latter is a career that requires much dedication. Furthermore, Medical-nin, regardless of what they do, are shinobi at the core, they can't hide from danger. They still have to do everything they can to survive, even shouldering the survival of their teammates at the same time."

What happened at the Land of Waves with Zabuza and Haku was a wake-up call, filled with much more bloodshed and violence than she had ever seen or imagined. But becoming a medical-nin was not a path that could shy away from danger.

"I understand. I want to continue to be a teammate to Sasuke-kun, to face enemies together with them. To do that, I want to be useful." Sakura's voice was still on the lower side, but this time, her voice became more steady as she went, until there was only sureness remained.

"Sounds good. Let's go then," I said to the girl, walking towards the door and signalling the confused girl to follow me.

"Where?" Sakura asked, but she followed me out anyway.

"Somewhere you might learn how to be a medical-nin, of course."

I imagined that Sakura might have places like Konoha General Hospital in mind, which was why she looked surprised when I took her to the commission desk where missions were issued to shinobi.

"Shizune-san, how have you been?" I caught the short-haired women by the mission board, looking over the distribution of missions B rank and below across the continent, starting as a dense red circle in the village before radiating out in smaller dots, eventually surpassing the border of the Fire Country.

"Ah, Maiko, it's a rare sight seeing you here," Shizune greeted. She spoke the truth, most, if not all of my recent missions had been given by the Hokage or the Anbu Commander directly. Therefore, I had no reason to come here, whether to pick up missions or to report their completion.

"Things have been going smoothly. As you can see, we're not having a shortage of missions, which translates to sufficient income for the village." Shizune said, clearly proud of the village's reputation to attract clients from afar.

"So, what have you come to me for?" Shizune asked, realizing that my intention for coming here was her.

"Shizune-san, I was wondering if you have some free time to take a look at a girl who's thinking of becoming a medical-nin." I took a step to the side, revealing Sakura who had been following behind me like a puppy.

"Haruno Sakura-chan, is it?" Shizune recognized the girl immediately, clearly remembering her as Naruto and Sasuke's teammate.

"Nice to see you again, Shizune-san," Sakura greeted with politeness.

"Shizune-san is an incredible medical-nin and is the overseer of the medical-nin training in Konoha," I explained. Tsunade-sama established the basic curriculum for medical-nin education decades ago before she left the village. Now that she was back as the Hokage, she made even more improvements on the Medical-nin system in the village and put Shizune as her representative when she was busy with other village affairs.

"That also makes my day quite busy. So, Sakura-chan, what makes you think you'll be a good Medical-nin that's worth my time?" Shizune wasn't usually this harsh with her words, but as she said, she was limited in her time and effort. Now, Sakura-chan, don't falter in your confidence.

"I'm good at memorization and learning, I also have sufficient control over my chakra. I won't waste your time and teaching," Sakura said, putting weight into her words to placate her nervousness. It wasn't very humble to boast of your abilities, but at this point, Sakura had figured out that wavering resolve wouldn't convince anyone. "I won't stop until I can be someone that my teammates can rely on, no matter who they are."

Shizune gave me a look as if asking where I had found this feisty version of Sakura, before turning her attention back to the girl. "I like the sound of that. But as for your claim on your talent, we'll see."

Shizune waved the girl over to one of the side offices, opening the door to let us in. She looked around the office and picked up a piece of paper. "As you said, chakra control is the basis of all medical ninjutsu. Your patients can be as vulnerable as this piece of paper and Improper control could mean the difference between life and death."

Then, she placed the paper on the table and said, "Therefore, I want you to pick up this piece of paper using your chakra and stick it to the wall, all the while making sure that not a single mark is left on this paper. You got one shot, treat it with care."

The conditions were strict. Any unevenness in the chakra control could ruffle the paper, let alone having to manipulate it across space. Knowing that there was only one chance put even more pressure on the girl.

Still, Sakura took a deep breath and walked towards the paper without a moment of pause. Her confidence might have been beaten down by Sasuke and Naruto's fast-paced and synergized teamwork, this was one department that she had never lost.

Calmly, the girl hovered her hand over the paper and gathered her chakra. Smoothly, the paper floated up, until it had just stuck to her hand ever so slightly. She made sure to keep a thin and even layer of chakra between her hand and the paper, otherwise, it would get ruffled by the shape of her hand.

Sakura turned along, taking the paper with her as she walked to the wall, not too fast that she seemed impatient, but not too slow either that it made her seem uncertain. With a final motion, she plastered the paper onto the wall and kept it flat using her chakra.

She turned towards Shizune, letting her examine her work. With a small smile, Shizune nodded and a spark of pride and joy appeared in Sakura's eyes.

"I'll take you in for now. But just a warning, my line of medical-ninjutsu comes from Tsunade-sama herself, where the standards are as strict as they get," Shizune said, but nothing would turn Sakura away now, not when she finally got a taste of what it was like to catch fate with her own hands.

"I understand. I won't disappoint you, Shizune-sensei!" Sakura shouted in excitement, only to clasp her mouth a moment later because of how loud her voice was.

Shizune let out a chuckle. "Remember to keep that resolve of yours. Meet me in front of Konoha General Hospital in an hour. As I said, my time is limited, so your training starts now."

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"This is so boring, Ero-sannin!" Naruto yelled for the third time in ten minutes. This time, Jiraiya finally spared a glance at the boy. As expected, ink dripped all over the paper, smudging the already crappy calligraphy work into a monstrous blot of nothingness.

"Look, kid, I know you're bad, but this? This is talentless." Jiraiya pointed at the paper, watching Naruto's calligraphy disintegrate from bad to worse.

"Who are you calling talentless, I'll have you know …" Naruto started strong, but even he couldn't finish his words with confidence seeing his butchered work. "Why do I have to learn how to write things in bold brushes? I want to get stronger and this is not helping."

Jiraiya caught the mutters. To be honest, he was surprised that the boy even lasted for ten minutes.

"You really think that?" Jiraiya asked. Naruto turned away, even if he didn't answer that, Jiraiya could see it in his eyes. Of course, fūinjutsu didn't have the flashy appearance of other ninjutsu, nor were they used extensively in battles due to the long preparation time.

For amateurs, of course. Jiraiya didn't hesitate as he tapped Naruto's stomach with his palm, sending a layer of chakra to the seal on his stomach.

"What did you do?" Feeling chakra stir in his body, Naruto pulled up his jacket in a panic, seeing the circle of black lines appearing on his stomach. "This is …"

"Exactly, this is the seal that keeps Nine-Tail in your body," Jiraiya said, seeing the boy fall into silence. "Without this Eight Trigram Seal, the Nine-Tail would rampage, killing you and a lot more people in the village in the blink of an eye."

The Eight Trigram Seal faded not long after it appeared. After all, Jiraiya wasn't planning to tweak the seal - it was too soon for that - only to make the reality more concrete for the boy.

To be honest, when Tsunade told him to teach the boy about being a Jinchuuriki, he had no idea what he should do. Release the seal and let Naruto battle it out with the Nine-Tail? Devour or be devoured? That was Kumo's method, Jiraiya didn't imagine the end result would be very good, at least not with the way Naruto was currently.

Still, he figured that all of them, be it Tsunade, Kakashi, or Maiko, just wanted the boy to be able to take care of himself, especially when it seemed less and less likely that they could be with him all the time, warding off Akatsuki, Madara, or whoever that threatened the boy's safety.

"This seal allowed you access to the power of Nine-Tail, but the more you use it, the more the seal would weaken. Believe it or not, the tailed beast inside of you is waiting patiently for that day to come when it could get out and claim revenge on Konoha," Jiraiya continued his explanation, pulling out a scroll from his jacket and laying it on the ground.

Picking up the calligraphy brush by Naruto's hand, he weaved the brush across the scroll, writing down each stroke of the seal he had perfected over and over in his mind. Within seconds, black ink made powerful lines on the scroll, complementing the kanji for 'suppress' written in the middle, forming the basis of the integrity that held the seal together.

"This seal will suppress the tailed-beast chakra should it ever leak too much. Of course, such a makeshift seal wouldn't work if you're too far down the tailed beast transformation. Then again, you wouldn't be awake enough by then to apply it on yourself." Jiraiya threw the scroll to Naruto, who caught it by sheer reflex, still trying to process everything he had said.

Yes, Jiraiya was hoping that Naruto would be able to learn some fūinjutsu, at least those that would help control his tailed-beast chakra. After all, somewhere down Naruto's journey, there might be no one there that could help him - not his seals, nor Maiko's Mangekyou.

But whatever, Jiraiya was with Kakashi on this one, Naruto didn't have to be like his parents. Just because both Minato and Kushina were geniuses in fūinjutsu didn't mean that Naruto needed to be one.

"It's fine if you don't like it. There are always other things we can do," Jiraiya said, ready to pack up the calligraphy set and relieve the boy from his headache. He wasn't planning on forcing the boy to become someone he was not.

However, Naruto clutched onto the brush and moved it away from him. "Wait a second, Ero-sannin. It's only been ten minutes, I'm not done with this yet!" Stubbornly, he opened another blank scroll and rolled it flat on the table.

Dipping the brush into ink, he mimicked the kanji for 'suppress' that Jiraiya had written on the scroll, moving his hand in concentration.

The result … was still very painful, Jiraiya couldn't lie to himself and neither could Naruto. However, the boy didn't stop, moving on to another try without saying anything.

Jiraiya said nothing as Naruto continued his attempts, comparing his calligraphy with Jiraiya's example in between each try. By the tenth attempt, Naruto could write the kanji in one setting, without the need to look up in between strokes to check where the next one should be. Half an hour later, at least Jiraiya could recognize the kanji for what it was.

"The stroke is choppy, there's no fluidity, which means that any chakra you inject would break when it tried to flow through the seal. There is also no strength in your stroke, it won't be able to take in chakra, let alone express the command," Jiraiya commented after an hour of watching Naruto butchering the kanji in every way possible. Still, the concentration in the boy was admirable, he would give him that.

Naruto gave him a confused look, as expected. With a sigh, Jiraiya sat down beside Naruto and gripped the brush over the boy's hand. "Take a slow breath in and out." Following his command, Naruto breathed in and at the same moment, Jiraiya moved the brush.

The strokes flowed like water, gliding over the paper without a moment of break. When Naruto finished his breath, the brush ended exactly on the last stroke. "As fluid as a river, as natural as a breath of air. That's how a seal is supposed to feel."

Naruto looked at his hand in wonder, revelling in the new experience, amazed at how smooth that kanji was. Tentatively, but with a clear hint of excitement, he tried again, taking another breath in and out.

He forgot his stroke midway because he was trying to breathe.

Jiraiya couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Hey, Ero-sannin, what are you laughing at! I'll get it, just you watch!" Naruto yelled as he furiously moved on to the next attempt. Jiraiya's laughter awoke the competitive spirit in the boy, or perhaps it was awakened long before that when Jiraiya wanted to give up on teaching the boy fūinjutsu.

The boy's life was a constant uphill battle against prejudice, discrimination, and in general, fate. Jiraiya supposed that it was natural for him to always want to fight, to struggle against what others thought was impossible for him.

Jiraiya watched Naruto practice this one kanji until the sun had started to set, filling up scrolls and scrolls of failed attempts until his hands were covered in ink. Somewhere along the line, Naruto accidentally wiped his face and now half of his cheek was smudged in black as well.

"Alright, kid, let's call it a day. I have somewhere important to be," Jiraiya said, forcibly putting the ink and the brush back into his storage scrolls.

"But I was so close!" He was not close. "Somewhere important to be, right, like a bathhouse?" Naruto snorted in contempt. Oh, one day, the boy would learn the most important aspect of life.

Still, Jiraiya laughed, fumbling around his jacket until he had found the particular scrolls he was looking for. "Here, these are the common diagrams and kanji used in seals. You should try practicing them, though I doubt you will." Jiraiya threw one of the scrolls to Naruto, who yelled in protest, saying that he should trust him more.

Jiraiya ignored him and held up the other scroll. This one had an intricate seal on the front, forming a decorative pattern based on the symbol of the Uzushiogakure.

"This scroll belonged to your mother and can only be opened by the blood of an Uzumaki descendent. It contains some history of the Uzumaki clan, as well as some of their fūinjutsu. You won't be able to understand the fūinjutsu here, but in every right, this belongs to you." Jiraiya placed the scroll in the boy's hands and Naruto instinctively held it tight.

He looked so much like his parents, Jiraiya couldn't help but exclaim. But still, Naruto was neither of them.

With a smile, Jiraiya ruffled the boy's spiky hair and said, "I meant what I said, Naruto. You don't have to follow in your parent's footsteps, trying to make yourself do what they do. In the end, fūinjutsu is just a tool and it will only be useful if it fits you. You're not any less if you don't want to go down this path."

However, Naruto just gave him a wide grin - quite comical with the ink smudges on his face - and said, "I know that. Kakashi-sensei said the same thing, but I won't know if I can do it or not unless I've actually tried. Just you wait, I will figure out that seal in no time and you all don't have to worry about me losing control over Nine-tail."

Poor boy, he still hadn't figured out that learning how to write the kanji was just a small step in the whole fūinjutsu process.

Still, Jiraiya couldn't ask for more. With this attitude, Naruto's options would be endless. Thankfully, Jiraiya had a lot he could teach the boy.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"Distance is a key in Raiton: Narukami. Too close, and it will probably blow you to pieces before it does to an enemy. Too far, and your control won't reach," Kakashi said to the black-haired boy in front of him, surrounded by black markings on the ground, reminding the boy of his struggle the past few hours.

The farthest marking landed five meters in front of Sasuke. A fair distance, but not enough to reach the wooden stool eight meters away.

Despite Sasuke's pissed-off expression, Kakashi called it progress. After all, two days ago, the wooden target stood five meters from him and the boy was struggling to reach even half of that distance.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, which Kakashi guessed was the closest thing to 'I understand' he would get from the boy, before making the hand seals once more. A bolt of lightning dropped down from the sky, cutting through air on its path. However, the construct of chakra burnt out just as it touched the ground, creating a sad little dot on the dirt.

"Release your chakra evenly. Let the power gather as Narukami travels down." Showing what he meant, Kakashi blurred the hand seals and in the blink of an eye, a bolt of lightning shot down from midair, becoming more visible and more deadly as it crashed down, eventually releasing all the energy as it blasted a black crater a few meters behind Sasuke.

"Control is the prerequisite, power can come later," Kakashi had no doubt that this was the comment Sasuke got often from Maiko, but old habits die hard and based on the sour expression on the boy, he knew that too.

"I thought you would be asking to learn Chidori," Kakashi chimed as Sasuke gave Narukami another go. This time, Sasuke held back on the chakra output and instead put more effort into the control. The end result was still a sad little dot just a meter before the wooden stool, but at least Kakashi was seeing true Narukami, not flashy fireworks that were all bark and no bite.

Placing his hands on his knee, Sasuke answered as he recovered his chakra. "For now, Narukami better serves the purpose."

"Oh? What purpose would that be?" Kakashi asked, feeling amused.

A week ago, the boy asked if Kakashi could train him on some Raiton techniques. Upon hearing that, the first thought that crossed Kakashi's mind was 'goddamn it, I'm going to be the jutsu library for another Uchiha.'

"Haku said my firepower is not enough," Sasuke said, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. You still remember that? But he supposed that Haku was the first person in his age that Sasuke had lost to. Probably a big blow to his big lump of Uchiha pride.

"So you're moving on to Lightning jutsu, sounds like a plan," Kakashi said with a smile - the sarcastic kind, which Sasuke had no tolerance towards. Shame, he should take a page from Maiko's book, only sarcasm could fight sarcasm.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke shot back, "No, I'm trying to make my fire jutsu better." As if to prove his point, Sasuke made a series of hand seals and placed his fingers in front of his mouth.

"Katon: Enryū Tensa!" Three chains of fire dragons shot out of the boy's mouth and headed straight towards one of the wooden posts on his left. It missed the target by the distance of a person - which was definitely intentional, given Sasuke's current control over this fire jutsu.

However, without stopping his motion, Sasuke moved on to another set of hand seals and within a second, a bolt of lightning dropped down on where the fire had hit. The moment that electricity hit the diminishing flame, the fire exploded outward, engulfing the wooden post in an instant.

"Not bad," Kakashi commented. The young boy had realized that his fire jutsu suffered from the case of compromise. Katon techniques like the great fireball had a wide range and immense power, but it was slow. Other techniques like the one he had just shown, on the contrary, were faster and more flexible, sacrificing raw power and the radius of impact.

Of course, like what Maiko and Itachi had gone through, over time and practice, the flaws of these jutsu could be somewhat minimized. But Sasuke didn't want to rest his fate in the flow of time, instead, he decided to speed it up.

The addition of lightning chakra overloaded the fire, resulting in fiery explosions that his fire jutsu alone couldn't reach. For that purpose, Raiton: Narukami was chosen primarily for its utility instead of power. The bolt of lightning could act as the perfect trigger to implode the marking of fire from afar - as long as the little Sasuke could get its range figured out first, of course,

Uchiha and their journey of fire jutsu was never-ending. Maiko took a detour in her studies, expanding her knowledge with various jutsu, before finally returning to her roots. Sasuke, on the other hand, never moved his eyes away from his goal.

"In that case, control becomes even more important." The range of Maiko's fire chains was around thirty metres, and jutsu like the Hōsenka could go even further. Kakashi raised his hand and pointed at a tree forty metres away.

For a second, nothing seemed to happen, but it was clear under Sasuke and Kakashi's Sharingan that a spark of lightning slit down the tree trunk, leaving nothing but a thin black line of burn marks.

"The true mastery of a jutsu lies in its manipulation. The key to manipulation, then, lies in knowing how to trade one aspect for others. As a catalyst to trigger your overloading explosions, how much power is needed, and how much flexibility and range can be gained, that's your job now to figure it out," Kakashi said, watching Sasuke's Sharingan swirl, taking in everything he had seen and learned with a hunger that could never be satiated.

Good, that was how a genius should be.

"I understand that," Sasuke muttered, straightening his body and rested his eyes on another wooden post.

However, before the boy could continue his endless journey of trial and error, Kakashi saw the darkening sky and interrupted him. "It's getting late. We should call it a day. Let's go back." Without another word, Kakashi jumped down from the branch and started walking.

It only took Sasuke a minute to realize that Kakashi was indeed walking towards the Uchiha Compound. "I am going back, what are you doing?" The boy asked, clearly not very welcoming of guests - particularly Kakashi - in his house.

"I need to discuss something with Maiko and Itachi. Official business, not for the common ears." Kakashi answered with nonchalance, seeing Sasuke letting out a 'tsk' in irritation.

He was frustrated because he knew exactly what implication Kakashi's words held. After all, anything involving both Maiko and Itachi meant trouble.

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"Ah, Itachi-kun, you're a much better person to chat with than your sister." I heard Jiraiya exclaiming as Itachi placed the bottle of sake in front of him. I rolled my eyes, not impressed with the way Itachi gave in to Jiraiya's whims so easily.

"And? I assume you - both of you - are here for something else other than drinking the bottle of sake that we had in the cupboard for god knows how long." I said, setting the tea kettle down on the table and placing the teacups for the other three nonalcoholics in this room - Itachi, Kakashi, and myself.

Upon hearing my words. Jiraiya paused a little, staring at the bottle of sake with suspicion.

"She's kidding, I bought it a few days ago," Itachi reassured the Sannin, but it seemed that the damage had already been done as Jiraiya put the bottle back down. Somehow, the liquid was not that appealing anymore.

It was Kakashi who dragged the conversation back on track. He laid open a scroll on the table and explained, "This is the list of participants that the other villages submitted for the upcoming Chunin Exam. We will be using this list to hand out exam permits."

Itachi and I looked over the list, seeing the long list of candidates from Suna and Iwa, occasionally a team from minor villages like Kusa and Ame. There were even a few from Kirigakure - The first time they had participated in a Chunin exam out of the village since the Bloody Mist era. It seemed that Mei was ready to let her new village be known to the world.

However, our attention was soon drawn to one of the names under the crest of Sunagakure. "Sabaku no Gaara, he is the One-Tail Jinchuuriki of Suna, isn't he?" I asked, resting my finger on the ink strokes. Kakashi nodded in confirmation and suddenly, the reason he was here became clear.

Usually, the identity of the Jinchuuriki was kept secret from other villages. However, there were always a few exceptions to that rule. If, for example, the Jinchuuriki itself was a symbol of power for the village, such as the Yondaime Mizukage who was the Three-Tail Jinchuurikri, or the Eight-Tail Jinchuuriki Killer B, a famed shinobi and a brother to the Raikage of Kumogakure.

Gaara's circumstances were slightly different. The information didn't get leaked by choice, it was simply too pervasive. Considering the One-Tailed had many small rampages in Suna, causing ruckus and drawing every shinobi, civilian, and traveller's attention before their Kazekage could suppress the tailed-beast.

It was impossible to keep the information inside the village no matter how hard they tried. Therefore, it was common knowledge among the hidden villages that Gaara, the son of the Yondaime Kazekage, became their newest Jinchuuriki - unstable, powerful, and full of bloodlust.

"Why would they send their unstable Jinchuuriki to participate in a Chunin exam hosted by another village?" I asked. Forget about the danger of sending your most precious weapon to another shinobi village, if their Jinchuuriki dared to rampage in our village, that was a declaration of war.

"Exactly, Suna would have their turn hosting the exam next year, they could have waited until then," Itachi said in agreement. Then, he added, "Unless, there was a reason that they couldn't wait until next year."

We both looked at Jiraiya. In terms of the international state of affairs, he was the expert. "Two possible reasons, or perhaps it would be better to say two parts of a reason." Jiraiya held up two fingers in front of him.

"One, their Jinchuuriki has finally grown to a point that he can control his immense power. After all, what we know of Sabaku no Gaara might be outdated." Jiraiya tucked one of his fingers down.

"And two?" I asked, watching Jiraiya lowering the second finger.

"I've gotten … words that Suna is having a financial crisis. The Wind Daimyo is more willing to use the service of neighbouring shinobi villages than Suna, and that influenced the citizens of Wind Country to follow their Daimyo's example. Rumours had it that this started when their Jinchuuriki didn't fulfill the promise that Kazekage made, to be a weapon that is powerful and controlled."

Jiraiya didn't need to elaborate further. The Chunin exam was a showcase of a village's potential, where Kage and Daimyo of various nations would come and observe. There wouldn't be a battleground that was better for advertisement, forcing the Wind Daimyo to see that their Jinchuuriki was a success in order to restore the Daimyo's faith in the village.

"If the second part of the reason is urgent enough, then the first part might not be as important. Sadly, that's troublesome for Konoha," Itachi concluded immediately, gaining a nod from Jiraiya.

The Kazekage wanted a showcase of power and in the Chunin exam, all forms of bloodlust could be explained in the context of a competition. After all, shinobi was a profession that dealt with bloodshed. They could afford to slack off a little when it wasn't their village and shinobi in danger. Who knew, maybe having their Jinchuuriki destroy Konoha's next generation would please the Wind Daimyo even more.

"Along with their Jinchuuriki, they bring the possibility of Akatsuki," I pointed out the other matter that complicated the whole situation. Akatsuki's pattern of activity had always been perplexing. However, knowing that the One-Tail Jinchuuriki was out of the village, that was definitely a sign of vulnerability that Akatsuki might jump on.

"Are you nominating Naruto to the Chunin exam?" I asked Kakashi. Normally, I shouldn't be asking, considering my little brother was also on his team. However, this was a matter beyond normal measures.

"I'd rather not stop them from achieving their dreams for reasons that they couldn't control," Kakashi said, looking at the list of Chunin candidates which he had collected. "They are not so strong that they will dominate the challenges, but they are not so weak that it would be a waste of time for them to try."

The Chunin exam was an experience for all shinobi to train and reflect. One couldn't grow without being tempered by challenges and tests. Robbing those children of such a chance because of something that was not their fault, none of us wanted that.

"Okay." That was all I said. After all, we were supposed to be the barrier that protected these kids while they train and grow, until they could do so themselves. "What does Tsunade-sama plan to do about this?"

"You probably already guessed, we will be increasing Anbu security measures during the exam. Other than the Anbu observing the exams, your subordinate, Sai, is that his name? He and two other young Anbu agents would be joining the exam as genin, with Yamato as their Jonin leader, and they will watch the exam from the inside," Kakashi explained.

"By young Anbu agents, you mean former Root operatives." I got the hidden meaning. At this time and age, if they could pass for fresh genin, then they were most likely child soldiers trained in Root before their integration into Anbu.

"They are technically genin since they never needed to pass the Chunin exam," Kakashi said with a shrug. True, I couldn't argue with that.

"Tsunade also plans to send envoys to each of the participating villages, to keep an eye out on the One-Tail Jinchuuriki's trip to Konoha while not being too suspicious-looking," Jiraiya said, finally decided to stop wondering how long the sake had been in my cupboard and just chugged it down.

"That's a lot of human resources for one Chunin Exam," I said, not liking my upcoming work schedule already.

"Special time, special arrangement. " Jiraiya shook his head in pity, already foreseeing how busy Anbu, or just the general Shinobi force, would get during that time. "I doubt the major villages would let our 'envoys' go to their villages, so we would most likely have to settle for the point when they entered Fire Country. Still, something is better than nothing and you know how Tsunade hates to sit and wait."

"Let me guess, I'm being assigned to the Suna envoy?" I said, couldn't imagine why we were discussing this if that wasn't the plan.

"That's a good guess, but that's not the plan." I blinked my eyes in surprise upon hearing Kakashi's words. "We have other Anbu agents for that, and Tsunade-sama definitely does not want you to be responsible for keeping another tailed-beast in check after the side-effects from last time." Kakashi raised an eyebrow at me as if saying 'what else do you expect?'.

"However, we are thinking of sending someone to Suna to gather intel on the current state of the One-Tail before the Chunin Exam," Kakashi emphasized the words 'gather intel' and I had no doubt that it was directed towards me.

Come on, have some faith. I was not saintly enough to put my life on the line just to stop the One-Tail rampaging in Sunagakure. Unlike the case with Utakata, everybody, including Akatsuki, knew about the One-tail Jinchuuriki's identity and location. Suna could deal with their beast themselves, not like they needed any help before with the Kazekage around.

"Speaking of which, there's someone in Wind Country that might provide you with some information. In fact, I got the info on Suna's economic situation from them," Jiraiya said from the side, piquing my interest immediately.

"One of your informants?" I asked, fully aware of how vast the Sannin's information network could be.

"Actually, no. I had to pay a big price for their information. They are their own information network, think of them as a business for information, not belonging to any country or village, run completely by civilians."

That's crazy, that was my first thought. Civilian-ran information network in a world dominated by wars of shinobi, that was unheard of. Jiraiya must have seen my disbelief since he took another sip of the sake and laughed.

"I thought it was crazy too, but they do exist. As civilians, they hear more than what shinobi like to believe. However, they rarely work with shinobi, and even if they do, they don't sell information about individual shinobi and secrets relating to shinobi villages. The info about Suna's relationship with Wind Country was a close call, but they relented because it involved the civil side of the Wind Country as a whole."

"Even if they do hear more than they sell, information on the One-Tail Jinchuuriki clearly belongs in the category of shinobi matter. How did you really get them to sell you that piece of info on Suna's economy?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

I didn't buy Jiraiya's story that they had relented because the information on Suna was hard to categorize. Clearly, the reason this information network stayed away from the shinobi affair was so that they wouldn't cross the shinobi villages. However, Suna's financial crisis? That was a piece of information too close to home to sell to a random shinobi from another village.

"Can't hide anything from you, Ojou-chan. I wasn't lying about the reason why they were more relenting with that piece of info. However, you're right, we do need something else to make them relent in the first place." With that, Jiraiya pulled out a storage scroll and let the content pop out onto the table.

Those were something I thought I'd never see again. Shrapnels from Land of Snow scattered on the scroll, reminding me of that time when their Daimyo decided to attack Kakashi and me for no good reason when we were just trying to negotiate metal pricing.

"Turns out, their leader was the one behind Land of Snow's innovation of these … projectile mechanisms. The Snow Daimyo sold him out to us after Konoha demanded payback, however, imagine my surprise when I ended up finding an information network made up fully of civilians. I convinced Konoha to let them be and in return, they give us a discount on information and occasionally sell us more than they would otherwise, if I pushed hard enough."

My eyes twitched at Jiraiya's nonchalant words. "If I understand correctly, their leader has the innovation to revolutionize a country's military power, and you decided to leave them be for a discount?"

"Perhaps, but revolution takes resources. These new brands of projectiles only work against shinobi when complemented by the chakra-neutralizing armour, which needed a special metal that could only be found in Land of Snow. Otherwise, it's no more destructive for us than an army of soldiers using bows." Jiraiya explained, picking up a piece of shrapnel, watching the metallic surface shine under the light.

"Only the Land of Snow could support their ambition. However, their relationship with the Land of Snow broke the moment the Snow Daimyo sold them out under Konoha's pressure. They won't be trying something like that again."

I looked at the reflection metal with unease. Jiraiya's words were logical, but I couldn't shake off the mixed feeling in my heart. After all, to me, these shrapnels and the volley guns they were paired with were the predecessors of actual guns and ammunition in my past world.

"Does this organization have a name?" I asked, reaching out to take a piece of shrapnel for my own examination.

"They called themselves 'Okuyama'."

My hand froze for a second when I heard that name. However, I quickly recovered, picking up the shrapnel and observed it like nothing had happened. In the corner of my eye, I saw Itachi looking at me. I had no idea if he had noticed my little pause in motion.

"Just out of curiosity, how do you write that?" I asked, knowing that Jiraiya was giving me a strange look for the randomness of my question. Still, he ran his finger across the table and showed the strokes that eventually formed two kanji '奥山'.

"I see." I put down the shrapnel, laughing at myself internally for thinking of the impossible. It was just a coincidence. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Great, one of you can go take that mission and see Okuyama for yourself, while I try to teach our young and naive Jinchuuriki lessons on life," Jiraiya said, putting the shrapnels back into the storage seal and pushing it towards Itachi and me.

"What do you mean by 'one of us'. Itachi can't …" I stopped in the middle of the sentence to look at Itachi. "You told Tsunade-sama that you're ready for the mission again?"

Perhaps there was just a trace of anger in my voice because he told the Hokage before telling me. However, a part of me always knew that I couldn't keep him in the compound forever, recovering from damages that he might never get rid of.

Itachi wouldn't be content with doing nothing and being sidelined, not when the threat of Akatsuki roamed and he had the power to help. That was just how he was.

"Only for emergencies, Maiko. My body has recovered from the worst - You were with me on my last examination, even Tsunade-sama agreed." Itachi placated my agitation with his gentle voice, before turning to Jiraiya, "So, what's so urgent that you need both of us?"

I turned to Jiraiya as well, wondering the same question. If all they wanted us to do was to go to Suna and gather intel, there was no need to choose between the two of us, I was enough for that.

"I have news on Orochimaru. Supposedly, a possible base in the Land of Rivers was sighted, an active one, it seemed, given the clues." Jiraiya said. He was just getting us news that was more and more exciting, it seemed.

"It might be a trap." "It's a trap." Itachi and I said at the same time. With all the dead trails Orochimaru had given us, he was an expert at hiding his tracks. This was too careless and too artificial for the likes of him.

"Good, looks like we're all on the same page." Jiraiya laughed, raising his bottle at us. "But what can we do, we still need to send people to check it out."

That was the sad reality, whether it was real or not, whether it was a trap or a slip-up, Konoha would not let any details of Orochimaru slide. That was the weight that Orochimaru, the worst S-rank missing-nin in the history of Konoha, held in our village.

"Since I clearly remembered that you two are looking for him, I figured that one of you wants to check it out by yourself. But before that, what do you want with him?"

Itachi and I exchanged a glance, then he spoke up. "We suspect that he might have our Father's Mangekyou Sharingan. Maiko needs another pair of Mangekyou to slow the deterioration of her own and to protect her mind from the assault of tailed-beasts. Since she won't take mine, we have to look somewhere else."

"That sounds like bad news," Jiraiya commented without holding back. We couldn't argue with that. The moment Itachi and I needed something from Orochimaru, we were already at a disadvantage.

"Anyway, Tsunade-sama agreed to let you or Itachi go confirm Orochimaru's presence. Yamato will be going as well, but all of you have to get back before the Chunin exam," Kakashi explained. It made sense, rather than sending teams of Anbu in such a time where resources were thin, Tsunade decided to send fewer people, but each had enough tricks up their sleeves that we could get away even if it was a trap.

"I would like to go see what Orochimaru has planned, Maiko, unless there is a reason you don't want to go to Suna," Itachi said. At this point, it was clear that he had noticed my moment of abnormal reaction towards Okuyama, even if it only lasted a fraction of a second. How could I say no, really, when he asked like that.

I shook my head, "It's fine, I can go to Suna." As much as I worried for his health and the fact that he was wanted by Akatsuki. I needed to have faith in him. My brother used to be an S-rank missing-nin himself, after all.

Itachi had chosen the life of a shinobi and he was a damn good one, as long as we took out the part where he was killing himself. But hey, we were working on that part.

"Other than that, I'm more worried by the chance that if this is indeed a trap or a distraction from Orochimaru, then what is he trying to do next?" I said, turning my gaze towards Kakashi and Jiraiya.

Finally, Jiraiya finished his bottle of sake and replied, "I'd like to know that too. I suppose we can all think about that, then, shall we?"

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

"Since the beginning of Mankind's civilization, Mount Olympus remained as a symbol of power. Olympus was where gods reside, and OLYMPUS is built by people who wanted to be false gods."

The boy's voice rang distant in my head as I waded through the desert, seeing the village protected by a stronghold of sand. It was one of the more prosperous villages in Wind Country, located near Sunagakure itself and served as a node of intersection and communication

I wasn't sure why that memory decided to resurface just now, but I had to shut it down as I pushed open the door of an unremarkable shop. Skeletons of instruments made from wood hung on the wall and were stacked in the corner. Biwa, koto, shamisen, and some others were too niched for me to tell.

"How may I help you?" The woman sitting by the table asked, eyes not leaving the biwa skeleton in her hand as she sanded the surface. "This is only a workshop though, for special orders. If you're looking for ready-made, we have a shop in Sunagakure."

"I want an instrument that allows me to hear interesting things," I said to the woman, watching her hand pause mid-motion before she looked up and examined me. Personally, I thought this passcode was kind of dumb, but who was I to judge.

There was a reason why Jiraiya wanted either Itachi and me to go to Suna and make acquaintance with Okuyama. Now that Jiraiya had an active role in Konoha's government and was spending much of his time training Naruto, he wanted to pass his vast information network onto someone else so that they could be used even in his absence.

Who else was a better candidate than the Uchiha walking in the shadows?

The girl gave me a once over, before returning her attention back to her unfinished instrument. Suddenly, the metallic lock on the door snapped shut and the feeling of discomfort that was nagging my body since I stepped into this place had finally come to fruition.

My chakra stopped flowing, frozen by the aura of cold metal around the shop. Okuyama lined their workshop with specialized metal taken from Land of Snow so that once the last piece of the puzzle - the lock - closed the loop, the workshop served as a deadland where every shinobi and civilians were put in an equal position without the favour of chakra.

"We don't deal with your kind; we won't have what you need," She said without batting an eye.

I didn't question how she knew I was a shinobi, even if I had tried my best to mimic the appearance of a civilian traveller. There were always ways for people who knew where to look and what to hear.

"For this one, you might make an exception." Slowly, I pulled out a leaf from my coat and threw it to the girl. I picked up a random leaf from Fire Country's trees just before I left the forest and entered Wind Country's border, as instructed by Jiraiya. It was a symbol of Konoha, a symbol of Jiraiya's deal with Okuyama.

"Let her in, Ayumi, I'll deal with her." A dim voice sounded behind the woman, making her nod her head. The nod wasn't for me. There was an array of mirrors all over the workshop, using the law of reflection to create the most primitive version of a security monitor without the need for chakra as a source of energy like those used in shinobi villages.

The woman - Ayumi - stood up and opened a door to her right, motioning me to go in with her hand. "This way please, just go straight down." I gave her a nod as a thank you, before stepping down the stairs.

The deeper I descended, the more my body felt restricted. The heaviness of the metal crashed down on me, suffocating my chakra system that was yearning to breathe. How much of the Land of Snow's metal supply they had managed to pillage before their relationship ended, that was a curious question indeed.

"I only deal with one person from Konoha, and not by choice either." A man stood in the depth of the room, metal parts clicking under his hands. The moment I saw his dark blue hair, tied into a ponytail behind his head, I was hit by a sense of familiarity and my mind raced back to that time I had come to Suna right before my confrontation with Orochimaru.

Suddenly, it all clicked into place. I didn't know why I hadn't made the connection sooner. After all, innovations of firearms were a rare sight in this world dominated by chakra and ninjutsu.

"I know. Jiraiya sent me here," I told him while glancing around the room. Metallic parts hang around the room, making much less sense compared to the wooden parts of instruments in the room above us.

However, I wasn't unfamiliar with the shapes. It was parts that could be assembled into firearms, handguns mostly.

"If Jiraiya truly had sent you, then you would also know that I told him specifically that he is the only one I will deal with, not just anyone from Konoha." The man turned around, staring at me with harsh eyes full of displeasure.

"He's busy. But he did tell me the deal you made with him over what happened in the Land of Snow," I said to the man, watching him narrow his eyes at me. "It seems like you're already working on something else. Impressive."

"What can I say, while I'm not doing that kind of business anymore - One Kazahana Dotō was enough to show me the stupidity of an overly ambitious human - I do need something to protect my other business." The amount of contempt he had in his voice for the Snow Daimyo was immense and in all honesty, I didn't blame him.

"Does it work?" I asked, eyeing the partially assembled handgun on the table behind him.

Noticing my gaze, he turned halfway and picked it up. "It works well enough against non-shinobi," he said, clicking in the rest of the parts one by one. "Even against shinobi without their chakra." Click, he pulled the safety lever.

"As I thought, you know what this is." Without a warning, he pointed the gun at me, his finger rested on the trigger. I had the sense to cock my head to the side and let confusion fill my eyes. However, he just snorted in amusement upon seeing my feigned innocence.

"Body reflexes don't usually lie. The muscle at your neck tensed when I pulled the safety lever. So you know what this particular part does and exactly how a gun works," He said, triggering my danger alert with each and every word.

"By the way, it's not loaded - ha, there it is, your muscles relaxed when I said that." Now he was just showing off. I was dealing with a professional here, someone that rivalled my training in reading body cues.

"Just kidding, it's loaded."

My body moved before I could stop it, charging into him before he could pull on the trigger. I could feel the amount of intent to kill that radiated from his eyes - he wanted to kill me, there was no doubt about it.

I grabbed his wrist and angled it to the side. A gunshot fired past me and the bullet embedded itself into the wood panels before it was halted by the metallic linings underneath. Without a pause, I brought my elbow down on his arm in an attempt to disarm him.

However, he grabbed my arm and pushed. The pain erupted as I felt my elbow joint being twisted apart. Immediately, I swiped my leg under his, making him lose his balance and thus, had to let out of my arm before the joint was snapped

I wasn't done. I surged forward, striking his shoulder, carving my fingers into the crevices of his shoulder joint. I felt it move, but not before he kneed me back and threw me to the wall.

In the span of a few seconds, I was rubbing my elbow that almost got dislocated and he was putting back his shoulder that was actually dislocated. It was a small price to pay, I supposed, considering that we got what we were looking for.

"Why did you name your organization 'Okuyama'?" I asked, watching him pick up the fallen firearm, shut the safety lever, and place it back on the table. The intent to kill was gone - or rather, people like us could make it come and go as we pleased - because we had something more important to discuss.

"The fact that you asked had said enough," he answered, rolling his shoulders in a circle to ease the pain. "I hate that name, but tragically, that's all I know."

If you translated Okuyama, then tweaked it a little, it became an abbreviation of Mount Olympus. The techniques we had shown in hand-to-hand combat, it was a mandatory course taught to all of us trapped in OLYMPUS.

"You're what, seventeen, eighteen? That would make you around ten years younger than me. If time is linear - which is some bold assumption of trans-universe migration I'm making - perhaps you died, let's say, ten years after I did." The man raised his head, taking his time to think over his options. "That's a lot of guesses. You're going to help me out here?"

The way he just accepted that reincarnation was a thing and not an exclusive one-time miracle was quite amazing. But sure, let's run with his assumption. If he had died ten years earlier than I did, then for me at least, there weren't many memorable options.

"Someone once told me that OLYMPUS was run by people who wanted to be false gods. Are you trying to do the same by bringing … industrial revolution to the Land of Snow?" I asked, watching his fingers freeze at my words. Well, that confirmed it.

"To answer your question, we all have phases that we're not proud of. Now I really wish I never bothered with the Land of Snow, then perhaps Konoha would have never found me and I would never have met you again," He said, his brown eyes burning into mine with a knowing look.

"I've only ever said those words once before I died. What a small world," he smiled, but there was no humour there. "It's good to see you again, 31."

What was the most awkward thing that could happen in my life? Before this day. I wouldn't have a concrete answer. However, after this moment, I could say with confidence that meeting someone I had killed in a past life - by his request, for that matter - after both of us transmigrated into a new world pretty much took the top by a landslide.

"I despised that number, just like you despised the number 32," I said.

"You're right, my apologies. In this life, I go by Tsurune, the seventh owner of the Haneda Workshop for Traditional Instruments. What about you?" he asked with feigned politeness.

"My name is Maiko," I replied. "As you can see, I'm a shinobi from Konohagakure."

"That's unfortunate," he said with genuine emotion. True, we started and ended our lives - the old one - training to become killers. Yet, in this life, I still couldn't escape the fate of dealing with bloodshed.

"Says the one who built up a spy network and named it 'Okuyama'," I couldn't help but say. "I thought you wanted to escape that hellhole." Isn't that why you decided to perform suicide by my hands just so you could say a big 'F you' to OLYMPUS?

"That hasn't changed. But I told you, that's all I knew in my nine years of a short, insignificant life. When I decided to build Okuyama, I needed strength. Sadly, OLYMPUS was the strongest thing I knew." There was probably a big story there, about why he had decided to build Okuyama, likely filled with a lot of personal struggles. However, I wasn't into gossiping and neither was he very willing to share.

"Still, Okuyama and the people in it are my responsibilities now. Whenever Jiraiya comes, he always makes life harder for me. So, what does Konoha want this time?" Tsurune asked, eyeing me with caution and I couldn't blame him for that.

We might have known each other as 31 and 32 in a previous life, but it was clear to both him and me that we were not 31 and 32 anymore. Perhaps we still struggled with remnants of the past - after all, for bad or worse, it shaped us into what we were today, in another life, in another world - but how we decided to deal with it was our own business.

In fact, I was sure that neither he nor I considered this meeting a blessing. Unfortunately, the fact that Jiraiya had passed the contact with Okuyama to me meant that we would probably be seeing each other often in the future, handling information attached to a price tag.

"Yes, he told me that you don't deal with shinobi matters, so you're not going to like what I have to say," I answered. "We want to buy information on the One-Tail Jinchuuriki of Suna."

Tsurune laughed, astounded by my stupidity. "We are but civilians, we don't go near a monster that even a village of shinobi can't deal with."

"I just want to know if he is in a stable state of control of his power now," I said with patience.

"Stable? When is a monster like that ever stable?" There was too much emotion in his words, so much so that it was abnormal for people with our training - then again, many years had passed since then and there was no OLYMPUS here muttering their brainwashing principles.

"Perhaps the power of the tailed-beast is beyond human control, but that doesn't change the fact that people still want to control it," I told him in a calm voice. "I want to know how many rampages he had gone on in the past year, how much destruction he had caused. How long does it take for the Kazekage to suppress him … These are things that someone like you can see and hear, are they not?"

"So you want a record of his temper tantrum," Tsurune summarized for me, quite accurately, if I had to say. "What do you need that information for?" That curiosity was a built-in mechanism for information collectors, I supposed.

"If I say it's for world peace, would you believe me?" I replied with a smile, to which he just muttered a 'yeah, right'. Too bad, I spoke the truth, in some way at least.

"Fine, it's my fault for leaving something in Konoha's hands in the first place. I hope you understand that it will cost you." He made a number with his fingers and I nodded, handing him a storage scroll hidden in my jacket. Well, Jiraiya could explain all this crap to Tsunade, it was his suggestion in the first place.

Nevertheless, it was the most time-efficient method at the moment. Konoha did have spies in Wind Country intermittently, but none of their coverage was as wide and inconspicuous as Tsurune, who on the outside was just a civilian running an instrument shop in Sunagakure.

"The short answer is that yes, he is more 'stable' compared to a few years ago. I don't know how you shinobi train your Jinchuuriki, but the instances of his rampage had clearly decreased, although not down to zero. As for more details, give me a day, I need to organize the information." Tsurune tucked the scroll into his drawer, along with the firearm he had assembled earlier. "In the meanwhile, please continue to act like a traveller."

He gave me a once-over before leading me up the stairs that I had come from. "You were pretty good at pretending to be a civilian, I'll give you that. But people at Okuyama are trained in the skill of ears. Makes us great musicians and craftsmen of instruments."

He knocked the walls as he ascended the stairs. "The building is lined with chakra-neutralizing metal, which I'm sure you've realized. No matter how you try to pretend to be a civilian, the way your shinobi body reacts to the sudden discomfort creates 'sounds' that are clear to our ears - for example, the sudden weight of your feet drilling into the ground because your body tensed on instinct."

"Nice skill, your point?" I raised an eyebrow. Surely, he didn't give me that little tip so that I could improve my skill in disguise.

"We are civilians, sure, and we will never match up to the strength of the Shinobi. However, we're not completely useless. I gave in to the demands of Konoha because Jiraiya knows boundaries. So if this relationship were to continue, you should do well to learn that habit." Tsurune warned, not at all holding back the threats in his words.

Okuyama didn't trade in shinobi secrets because it would open up a lot more unwanted clients and retributions that Tsurune didn't want to entertain. After all, this world had a lot more civilians compared to shinobi and he was happy with that 90% of the population as his clientele.

Konoha was an exception because he made a mistake. Information on Suna's economy, fine, it wasn't much of a secret on the civilian side anyway, given the Daimyo's blatant favour for other villages in acquiring shinobi services. One-Tail Jinchuuriki's temper tantrum? That was pushing it, but what I asked for was a descriptive chronicle that everyone in and near Suna all had an idea of. Suna itself had long given up on hiding their Jinchuurirki's destructive tendencies. Okuyama was merely more professional at collecting the details.

However, if Konoha ever decided to push past what Tsurune could tolerate, then he would throw us all into hell by releasing the things his information network had gathered on Konoha. His little organization might be the first one to take on Konoha's retribution, but the trouble it would bring to Konoha would also be quite problematic.

After all, it wouldn't be the first time he had tried to leverage everything he had - even if all he had was his life - just so he could make things a little more painful to swallow for a powerful entity that no one dared to touch.

"I understand. Trust me when I say Konoha definitely doesn't want more trouble," I replied. There was a moment of pause before I spoke up again. "Personally, I don't want you as an enemy."

Tsurune turned around at my words and his brown eyes locked onto my black ones. "I lived in OLYMPUS for ten years after you died and never once had I forgotten the words you said to me before forcing me to put a bullet through your head."

As number 32, he had once grabbed my hands and forced me to point a gun at his head during our final match to death. He had yelled at me, and at OLYMPUS as well, "I said, kill me! It's the only way that I will get out of this hellhole!" He ended his life, defying the script written by OLYMPUS, in a way that he alone had chosen.

"It's shocking, what you said and what you did, and it was probably the only thing keeping me questioning OLYMPUS throughout my miserable days as a puppet. It helped me retain the last bit of my heart, I supposed, no matter how much guilt, regret, and desperation it made me feel." I said, giving him a genuine smile. "It worked out in the end for me, in a way that I had never imagined."

So, on a personal level, without considering my allegiance to Konoha and the responsibility my current position held, I truly wished that he was living his current life with more freedom and hope, just as I had.

After all, it wasn't every day that we were given a second chance at life.

Tsurune understood what I meant. A moment later, he said, "My life as Tsurune isn't all roses and rainbows - otherwise why would I build Okuyama in the first place? But it is much better than my last experience."

There was no time to reminisce. The past was in the past, none of us wanted to be bound by the memories as merely 31 and 32.

Tsurune released the lock on the door and with a surge of power, my chakra started flowing again. As a last warning, he told me before I left. "Keep safe, remember to pick up your 'order' tomorrow. After all, you know very well that there is a child in Sunagakure not far from here, who couldn't control the power of a monster inside of him."

---

A/N: This is me trying to clean up after 'me' four years ago, filling up foreshadows that my brain doesn't remember. Maiko's time in OLYMPUS was hinted at in chapter 29 (I think? lol), and she had met Tsurune before the Orochimaru chapter, which even I don't remember the exact number at this point. Still, the previous chapters are very very bad and very cringy to read even to me. Okuyama won't have a large role, they are civilians, after all, built up with a lot of effort, but still could fall apart at a single touch.

Also, Naruto. He is too hard to write. But positivity is a skill, and so is the ability to know when to look on the bright side.

Chunin Exam will be a long-ass section. You think Orochimaru will back down even with everything that's been changed? The man's crazy and thinks he's amazing. Itachi: Look who decided to show up just when we need him : ) Jokes aside, I hope I can find the time to finish all my ideas about this arc. It'll be a challenge, but whatever.