Chapter 9:
A/N: quick thing, I've retconned something. Heiko's mother is said to be an active duty ninja in chapter 2, but I've gone back and changed that. Her new status is not elaborated on.
It did not take Shodo long to arrive at Kushina's house, hopping over the roofs of the village with her sealing satchel slung over her shoulder. Her destination was a reasonably sized apartment situated in the commercial district. She knocked on the door, which was a bright yellow, with the red Uzumaki swirl painted in the middle.
A moment later, the door swung open, revealing not Kushina, but rather Minato, clad in a frilly pink apron. Shodo managed to contain her shock at the visage before her, as her sensei's best friend gave her a smile.
"Hey Shodo, Kushina mentioned you might be coming by. She's just woken up, so it might take a while for her to finish getting ready. Can I get you anything while you wait?" He said as he led her to the apartment's living room.
"Oh thank you Minato-sensei. If I could get a green tea that would be excellent."
"Not a problem, take a seat on the couch and I'll be out with it in a sec." Shodo did as instructed, sinking into the plush cushions. She glanced around the room, seeing various pictures of it's two inhabitants, both alone and with friends placed on the walls. One in particular that caught her eye was a picture of Minato and Fugaku as Genin, Jiraiya holding the two of them on one shoulder each.
She didn't have long to appreciate it though, as Minato quickly emerged with a green tea for both of them.
"So," he said as he sat down next to her. "Have you made any progress on the Flying Thunder God?"
"No," Shodo hung her head as she took a sip of her drink. "The most progress I've made is figure out the physics behind the technique, but that doesn't exactly help me in using it." Minato gave a hum of thought as he tilted his head slightly, before smiling.
"You'd be surprised how much it helps. Tell me what you've figured out."
"Well, the technique uses 4th dimensional hyperspace as a shortcut to move between two 3rd dimensional points. The seals act as anchors, to allow you to "pull" yourself back to the normal world after moving to hyperspace."
"Correct so far."
"However, I don't understand how one actually gets to hyperspace in the first place. I mean, the amount of chakra required to open even a small aperture would theoretically be dozens of times greater than the chakra reserves of a normal kage. I could believe Lord Second maybe having that much chakra, but that doesn't explain how he was able to use the technique in rapid succession. Or, and no offence here Minato-sensei, how you're able to use it with reserves nowhere near that amount."
"No offence taken Shodo. Now, I think I can begin to see where your problem lies. How exactly did you calculate the required chakra input for the technique?"
"Well part of the notes that came with Tobirama's seal was the "breach energy level" required to pierce into hyperspace. I simply just multiplied that by the approximate volume of a person, and came out with that number."
"And how much chakra did you calculate for you to pull yourself out of hyperspace?"
"Far less, because you already have a connection to 3D space through your markings, you don't have to force a breach open..." Realisation lit up Shodo's face. "Wait, you don't mean?"
"Yep, you have to figure out how to get a marking into hyperspace." Minato smiled, happy that she had made the connection so easily.
"But still, I don't have the required chakra to get something small into hyperspace. Plus, I haven't even worked out how the markings function or how to make my own, or how it would even begin to actually teleport."
"Well I'm not going to just tell you."
"Why not?" Shodo was somewhat surprised at this reaction, Minato had seemed so keen to help her just a moment before.
"Technically, the technique you're trying to decode is an S-Rank Forbidden Technique. It's only by special exception that you're even allowed to be studying it in the first place. If I share it's secrets, that's effectively high treason. I can give you some hints here and there, but I can't give you the answers." Shodo nodded in response, she understood what he was getting at. But still, it was frustrating to have to work through it all herself.
Get ahold of yourself Shodo, Minato and Lord Second both figured it out, the least you can do is give it a shot. With that, the Genin resolved to keep at it, to unlock the secrets of the Flying Thunder God no matter how long it took.
"Excuse me blondie, did I just hear you leaking S-rank secrets to a lowly Genin?" Minato blanched as a hand placed itself on his shoulder. Shodo's eyes widened as a shadowy figure loomed behind the Jonin, an aura of red chakra leaking off of it.
A moment later though, the genjutsu sloughed off to reveal Kushina, dressed in a standard flak jacket and black pants, hair done up into a high ponytail. She laughed as victims relaxed, shaking her head as she plucked the green tea out of Minato's hand, much to his chagrin.
"So Shodo, looking forward to some proper sealing training?" She said after taking a sip of the drink.
"Absolutely Kushina-sensei! It's an incredible opportunity to learn from a real master!" Shodo could honestly barely contain her excitement, this was going to be so much better than having to learn it all from old textbooks. Sure they had their place, but Kushina Uzumaki, teaching her sealing... wow.
"Oh you flatter me, well then there's no time to waste! Minato-dearest, if you wouldn't mind giving us a lift to training ground 10?"
"Nope, consider it your punishment for giving me a minor heart attack. Plus, I've still got a few things to do around the house. See you two later!" Minato smiled and waved as Kushina rolled her eyes and led Shodo out of the door.
Kushina watched her new studently intently as the pair made their way to training ground 10. She'd read the girl's file when Fugaku contacted her yesterday, and had seen the attached pictures of the seals the girl had painted directly onto her own body. Kushina knew from first hand experience on both sides how volatile direct to skin seals could be, especially those that tapped directly into one's chakra network. So the first thing she asked when they arrived at their destination was to inspect said seals firsthand.
"Shodo I'm gonna need to take a look at your body seals if you don't mind, both to get an idea for your style and also to check for any mistakes."
"Ummm sensei, some of them are in pretty compromising locations…"
"Oh not to worry Shodo, I'll throw up an obsurement seal." With a practiced ease, Kushina slapped her hand onto the ground beneath them, a formula spreading out along the dirt. When it finished growing, what appeared to be a faint heat haze appeared around it's edge. Shodo knew that from the outside, the haze was strong enough to completely block vision.
Shodo quickly showed Kushina each of the seals, somewhat embarrassed even with the seal up, not to mention someone she had only met once before looking at her so intently. Kushina didn't speak during her inspection, but made various noises of contemplation.
Shodo didn't exactly have many seals on her body, just a chakra storage seal on her 3rd, 6th and 8th gates, as well as a fortification seal on each limb.
"Well, looks like you've done a pretty good job on those, nothing urgently wrong that I need to correct," Kushina finally said, a wide smile splitting her face. Shodo gave a sigh of relief and quickly redressed as Kushina dropped the obscurement seal.
"Alright, the first thing we're going to learn is auto-tagging. You already know what that is right?"
"Of course."
"Well then, lemme get you started on that. Take a seat." The Uzumaki sat down on the grass of the training ground. As Shodo followed her lead, the older woman ran through a series of quick hand seals and tapped her palm to the ground. A flat square of rock rose up from the ground between the two, giving them a clear space to work on.
"Okay first, picture a seal in your mind. It can be any seal, just as long as you know it well," Kushina instructed. Shodo closed her eyes, imagining the linework of a parent attraction seal.
"Got it?" Shodo nodded in response to Kushina's question
"Okay, place your hand on the rock." Shodo reached out and placed her hand on the cool stone, feeling the tiny cracks and ridges that covered it.
"And push out your chakra in the shape of the seal." Shodo did so, feeling the chakra leave her body through her palm, imprinting the shape of the seal onto the rock. When she opened her eyes though her "seal" was a mess of squiggly lines.
"Don't worry 'bout it Shodo, that was a pretty good first try. Keep practicing. Once you've got that down, I'll get you started on converting your chakra to ink so that your seals actually work. Seal won't work if the chakra doesn't have anything to flow through! Once you're finished with tagging, I'll give you some help on some more practical combat seals." Kushina grinned. Shodo just sighed, and returned to her task, dutifully imprinting onto the rock.
This was going to be harder than she thought.
Heiko was just finishing up her warm ups when her father returned. Riku found her standing in the garden, completing the final steps of a kata.
"That was pretty good Heiko, you've fixed up the problems in the stance you had before," he said, offering his daughter a high five.
"Aww thanks dad," Heiko said as they clapped their hands together, a tiny burst of yang chakra radiating from the point of contact.
"So, Fugaku has tasked me with whipping you into shape for the chunin exams. And a joint one too? You're going to have your work cut out for you."
"Well then what are you going to teach me? Brilliant Blade? Brightwhip? OH! Maybe Yang Shadow?" Heiko was positively bubbling with excitement, jumping up and down on the spot in anticipation.
"Yin release." With those two words, all of Heiko's enthusiasm instantly drained away to be replaced by anger.
"No," she growled out, "I refuse to."
"Come on Heiko, you need to get over it at some point."
"No I don't. What I need is to understand why you don't seem to care!" She shouted, immediately regretting her words as her father's face fell.
"I do care Heiko it's just that… I've put aside my feelings about your mother. Right now, we need to focus on getting you ready for what might possibly be a lethal experience. So please work with me here?" Heiko was silent for a moment, before shaking her head.
"Sorry dad, I just can't. Maybe someday, but not now. Can we please just focus on Yang release and general stuff?" Riku sighed, but nodded.
"Fine, but you're going to have to train twice as hard to make up for it."
"I wouldn't dream of anything else."
=== A week later ===
Team 3 had gathered at their usual training ground to do some teamwork drills. After all, the Chunin Exams were primarily a teamwork exercise, and a month of solo training wasn't exactly conducive to that. Currently, they were practicing synchronizing kunai throws on a single target.
Unfortunately, that was interrupted by an unexpected guest.
"Ah Team 3, I see your training is going well." The Genin jumped and spun around, to reveal Hiruzen sitting on a rock behind them. The Hokage was clad in what seemed to be some sort of battle armour, as opposed to the robes they normally saw him in. None of them had felt so much of a hint of him sneaking up on them.
"Good morning Lord Third, to what do we owe the honour?" Fugaku asked as he made his way over from where he had been watching his students.
"I was in fact looking for you Fugaku. I was hoping I could steal you away for awhile to run over some details of the Chunin exams?"
"Of course Lord Hokage. Team 3, keep at your teamwork drills for the rest of the day if I don't come back." He received a chorus of affirmatives in response.
"Come Fugaku, we have much to discuss. I hope your training goes well with Team 3." With that, Hiruzen and Fugaku disappeared in a body flicker, leaving Team 3 to continue with their drills.
When they emerged from his body flicker, Fugaku found himself in a section of the forest he didn't recognise. Minato was standing just in front of them, leaning against a tree. He quickly fell in behind Hiruzen, and leant over to stage whisper to Fugaku.
"You know what this is about? Lord Third just told me to meet him at these coordinates."
"Well he told me it was to do with the Chunin exams, but I'd hazard a guess it is actually related to the S-rank exams," Fugaku said back, at a similar volume. Hiruzen rolled his eyes at the two as he stopped at a seemingly random spot.
"I need you to follow my footsteps exactly. You may also want to memorise the steps yourselves, it will be useful later." he said, his tone serious. The pair following him both nodded in understanding, their jovial attitude evaporating. What followed was Hiruzen taking measures strides, carefully weaving between the dense forest, Fugaku and Minato following closely behind.
Around 10 minutes later, Fugaku and Minato felt a strange chill pass over them as they emerged into a clearing, easily 500 meters in diameter. Around the edges was a series of wooden buddha statues, each carved in a lotus position.
"Welcome to Training Ground Zero gentlemen," Hiruzen smiled as his subordinates glanced around in surprise.
"How the hell did you hide something this big so close to the Village? And isn't training ground zero where we keep the exotic animals?" Fugaku asked, he and Minato following Hiruzen as they made their way towards the biggest statue, which was close to where they had emerged.
"That is just a cover for this place. The true training ground Zero was built during the founding of Konoha, by Madara, Hashirama, Tobirama and Mito. It was designed as a secret place close to the village where it's most powerful members could come to train in peace. All four of them offered their expertise to help build the ultimate training area, able to simulate multiple battlegrounds and allow powerful shinobi to bring their strength to bear without risk of harming the village." The Hokage turned to face them as they arrived in front of the statue.
"But that doesn't explain how no one has found it," Minato pressed. He was sure he had been in this direction before, and had found nothing. How had it remained hidden for so long?
"A combination of sealing, genjutsu and space time ninjutsu protect this place. If you do not follow the exact path we took on the way in, you will simply never arrive. However Minato, you may place a Flying Thunder God seal here in order to return at any time." As they arrived in front of the statue, a small platform of wood rose out of the ground, the outline of a pair of hands the only markings on its surface.
Hiruzen placed his hands on the markings and concentrated, a visible chakra aura swirling around him. A moment later the statue began to glow with a soft green light, joined in quick succession by the others. The light spread upwards, creating a circular barrier around the clearing. Simultaneously, the ground beneath them shook, as it began to form boulders and trees to use as cover.
The process took a few minutes, but the empty clearing had transformed into a battleground littered with uneven terrain, cover points and even small ponds.
"As you can see, this place is quite incredible. However, I did not bring you here just to show it to you and tell you that you could use it." Hiruzen smiled as his subordinates' faces revealed their realisation at what was happening.
"Why don't we have a quick spar? The two of you against myself? I haven't gotten an opportunity to stretch my muscles for a while."
Fugaku and Minato nervously agreed, but quickly resolved themselves. This was an excellent opportunity to practice against an S-rank ninja that they had barely any experience fighting. The group moved to the middle of Zero to begin the match.
Hiruzen launched the first attack, a triple barrage of lightning, fire and water dragons, the intelligent projectiles quickly seeking out their targets. Minato flung a kunai through the opening between the attacks, warping himself and Fugaku into melee range, the latter's Mangekyo flaring to life.
Hiruzen formed a pair of shadow clones in response, the solid copies moving forward to intercept the aggressors as the original wove a quick set of seals. The resulting jutsu was a wave of earth that knocked his opponents off balance.
The pair were pressured by the clones, but quickly managed to overwhelm them once they regained their balance. However rather than the usual puff of chakra smoke, the clones exploded into a cloud of ash.
The sudden wave of darkness brought upon by the attack sent Minato and Fugaku into a short coughing fit. The latter glanced up to watch the cloud, eyes widening as he perceived the glowing form of a charging Hiruzen.
The Hokage leaped out of the smoke a moment later, Adamantine staff held high. He swung it around in a huge arc, Fugaku's Mangekyo-assisted reactions allowing him to dodge. Minato however, having been blinded by the ash, was hit with the full force of the attack.
The blond Jonin was sent flying, crashing into a tree, which splintered from the force of the impact. Fugaku didn't have time to help his friend though, as Hiruzen swung the staff around and over his head, then brought it straight down. Without time to dodge, Fugaku reacted without thinking, and braced himself for the pain.
But not the pain of Hiruzen's attack.
Fugaku's eyes flashed as silver light spun around him, crimson and onyx orbs blazing with huge amounts of chakra. The silver light coalesced into the shape of a ribcage of pure chakra, surrounding Fugaku with an unbreakable defence.
Hiruzen's staff slammed into Fugaku's Susanoo ribcage, the construct cracking slightly under the force. Hiruzen was caught off balance slightly by the jarring impact, his staff rebounding from the silver barrier. Fugaku looked up into the Hokage's wide eyes, casting an enhanced Bringer of Darkness genjutsu before he could close them. Hiruzen landed on the ground a few metres away, footing stable even without his sight.
At that moment Minato appeared behind the Professor, having used a FTG marking that he placed when he had been hit by the adamantine staff. The blond held a spiralling sphere of blue chakra in his left hand, the new technique that Fugaku had seen him working on.
Simultaneously Fugaku dropped his Susanoo and rushed forward, brandishing a kunai flowing with lightning chakra. The two brought their attacks in from opposite sides, their target still blinded.
However, a moment before their strikes landed both Jonin froze, muscles completely locking up. Hiruzen grinned, a pair of black tendrils connecting his own shadow to his opponents'. He rubbed his nose, which Fugaku could see was filled with a chakra similar to how he had seen Inuzuka enhance their sense of smell.
"Enma, if you would," Hiruzen said, unable to break out of the extremely powerful genjutsu without significant effort. An arm grew out of the Hokage's staff and punched him in the arm, before disappearing back into the black surface. Meanwhile, Minato and Fugaku strained against the hold of the Shadow Possession, but to no avail. Even in his mid fifties Hiruzen's chakra reserves were too vast for the pair to contest, both of them boasting relatively small reserves for ninja of their caliber.
Hiruzen then raised his staff and tapped it against his opponents heads in turn. They understood the message, he could have used mind destruction on both of them. A moment later the shadow possession dropped and the trio relaxed. The whole fight had taken less than a minute, but it had still been good practice.
"Excellent work the both of you, you almost had me at the end there. Fugaku, I see you have gained the ability to use the Susanoo."
"Yes Lord Hokage, although I'm hesitant to practice with it due to the drawbacks of the Mangekyo…"
"A fair decision, and your other special abilities?"
"I have good control over my right eye's power, but I'm still hesitant to use it for the same reasons as the Susanoo. I only used the Susanoo against you because I reacted instinctively "
"And the other?" Hiruzen pressed, last he had heard, Fugaku had not yet figured out the ability of his left eye.
"I have a vague idea of what it does innately, but I'm not quite sure how to utilise it yet. I doubt it will be ready in time for the exams."
"Do not worry about it, your skills are more than fine as is." Hiruzen turned to the other Jonin, a smile crossing his face.
"Minato, that new jutsu you used there was also particularly impressive. An original creation I presume?"
"Indeed Lord Third, I designed it to complement my existing fighting style." Minato's chest puffed out a little at the comment. It was nice for your technique to be recognised by the Professor himself.
"In any case, you two are now free to use Training Ground Zero, although I would ask you not to spread its existence. If it is not too much trouble, I would also ask for you two to meet me here every three days for more sparring." He received two nods.
"Excellent, well you two are dismissed." Hiruzen turned to leave the training ground, leaving Minato and Fugaku to glance at each other, grins quickly forming.
"Feel like going a few rounds? I'm still pretty fresh," Minato smirked at his best friend, a kunai raised in challenge.
"Damn right I do," Fugaku grinned in return. Hiruzen smiled and shook his head as the two began to clash. He was beginning to doubt his decision to make Orochimaru his successor. Those two would both make an excellent Hokage.
Once they toned down their antics.
=== 3 weeks later ===
Takanome was very surprised to find that they were the only Konoha team participating in the Chunin Exams. In hindsight it made sense, last year's group had already been promoted, and out of their year, they were the only ones who had ended up with a Jonin sensei who could train them up to the appropriate level.
As such, the party they would be travelling with to the Exams was quite small. It included Team 3, Minato, The Hokage, and somewhat surprisingly, Lady Tsuande. The Sannin had apparently decided to tag along in order to evaluate the medical standards in the Land of Iron, as well as lend a hand during the exams. Takanome was very intimidated by her if he was being honest, especially since she was seemingly hungover, and as such only a moment away from flattening whatever pissed her off.
A large number of ninja and civilians came to see the group off, wishing Team 3 good luck at the exams, and the Hokage at the negotiating table. They were just leaving as Takanome turned to take one last look at the crowd, and he saw something that made his heart skip a beat.
Hiashi and Hizashi were watching him from the back of the crowd. When he locked eyes with them, they both gave a single quick nod, before disappearing with a body flicker. Takanome smiled, the hole in his heart growing ever so slightly smaller.
A/N: Chunin exams next chapter! Lots of new faces will be showing up in the next chapter, some of whom will be important later on. Also, we passed 2k views and 50 follows on FFnet, so big whoop!
Hope you all enjoyed it, please review if you have any feedback.
Unicorn out