Chapter 1-12

"It's time." Torune commented after he finished one of the nutrient bars we took from our last victims.

There was no grand thinking involved, they didn't need it anymore, being dead and all, and we could save a few of our own rations for the long trek back home.

Fu nodded along.

"Tomorrow is the last full day of the survival exam, we make our exit tonight and gain as much ground as possible." He added, voicing the next phase of our mission.

I simply gave a thumbs-up, pretending to be occupied with my own snack, because…

Because I honestly didn't give a fuck anymore. What the hell am I doing here?

Our mission went well, too well, I thought with disgust.

After the formalities of signing up went without a hitch we found ourselves staying the night in some barracks just outside the village proper. Breakfast came and went, and in little to no time we were greeted by the first part of the exam.

To be honest the second I noticed my growing feeling of déjà vu and recognized the signs of a written test incoming I kinda zoned out until embarrassingly enough Fu had to telepathically remind me, that I actually had to pass the test so we could proceed with our actual mission.

Strangely he didn't quite believe me when I told him that my oh-shit moment was just for show in respect to the watching examiners. Long story short, he gave me the answers so I could get on with my part of the preparations for the upcoming slaughter.

Apart from the four teams we were briefed on beforehand, we had free reign to pick our targets and since I was the most precise regarding sensing I was tasked with finding candidates for our hitlist according to various signs I could pick up on. Chakra capacity, chakra flow and the signs of nature mastery, all the things that in conjuncture with each other give a hint towards the potential of the shinobi in question.

Ten teams I had picked out and mentally conveyed to Fu, who in turn forwarded the information to Torune, who planted a bug on each of them.

16 teams, 16 teams in less than two weeks were butchered by three little kids in a frankly disturbing amount of varieties to make a connection as difficult as possible. It was a surreal experience when we 'bagged' two more teams, because they were literally just in our way to the next target.

Furthermore, this whole shitshow wasn't something I had in mind when I developed my chakra-strings, but they sure as hell were handy when I used them to search in the bloody remains for the respective id-cards.

Heaving a big sigh, the finish line in sight, I quietly took out the little sealing tag, that held my anbu-gear and my dead little passenger.

The All-clear from me went without saying as they both knew, that I had my long-range sensing in constant use and would have signaled them accordingly if something was wrong.

I was glad, that apparently I wasn't the only one who finally wanted to get home since all three of us were dressed in a matter of moments and even the corpses were in their original get-up.

"Any preferences or plans for our final trick?" I asked Torune as he was more or less in charge of this final puzzle piece with me and Fu acting as glorified assistants.

"I have something in mind, that should look convincing enough." He answered with confidence as he gazed at the rock overhang above the little niche where we had our base.

"Alright," He nodded more to himself. "those two go outside."

We mock-saluted him and did as we were told, while he placed the last corpse directly at the entrance of the little hideout.

That done he stepped next to us and started to form handseals. My focus was still on our surroundings, but I couldn't help but feel the earth-chakra race up the cave-walls.

"Earth Release: Rock Lodging Destruction" A subtle crack and a sizeable part of the ceiling came down right on top of target number one. Not sure if it was intentional by Torune, but the arm sticking out of the rubble certainly tied the whole picture together.

"Good, now take this one by the shoulders and keep him upright just outside the rubble." He instructed us.

I bowed low. "As you wish, Master."

"Now have him face in my direction and brace yourself!" He said and speed through handseals.

Fu and me both felt the chakra coming and gazed expectantly at the ground at our feet, the corpse still held upright between us.

"Earth Release: Tearing Earth Turning Palm" In a patch of roughly ten feet around us the whole ground slowly rose up and split apart, keeping my balance I looked up to see Torune concentrating and holding the last handseal. Apparently, he kept the technique active and firmly under control.

"Alright, lower one leg of the body into the gap between you." Doing just that, we felt the ground shift again and saw or more importantly heard the foot and a part of the shin get crunched to a bloody mush.

"Fu, stab him with a regular Kunai in the back of the head and let him fall forward." He said and released his hold on the jutsu.

We stepped towards Torune and the last guy, a glance back already told me roughly what kind of story the bug-user had in mind for the Kiri-team.

"Can you hold this one, too, the place is fine." He said while lowering himself into the ground.

The use of Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique was evident, even without handseals, which was impressive.

This is something I noticed in the past months. I pushed myself, I pushed myself as far as this little body could handle and the missions allowed. I learned and more importantly mastered more than a handful of techniques. And yet, my two little teammates tried to keep pace with me, obviously I helped them whenever and however I could since we were fighting for the same team, but honestly…I didn't know how to feel about this given what part of the team we were fighting for.

My silent contemplation was suddenly interrupted as the corpse held in my hands was ripped from my grip and dragged into the earth until only the head stuck out. I raised one eyebrow as Torune rose from the ground the same way he disappeared into it and unceremoniously plucked a kunai into the forehead of his dead buddy.

"Not too shabby." I commented somewhat impressed by the gruesome scene in front of me.

"Team's hideout gets compromised and tries to flee, the first one is too slow, the second one steps into the trap and gets snuffed out and the last one runs into the arms of one of his attacker. Basic tactic and basic Earth-Release jutsu favored by Iwa shinobis." Fu summarized in an approving tone.

I giddily rubbed my hands and turned to my teammates.

"Let's get home buddies, this is the home-stretch." I couldn't keep the glee out of my voice even if I had wanted to given that I just wanted to bury this whole mission in some deep dark part of my memories.

The last thing I saw of my teammates was the satisfied smile and the Tiger hand-seal.

'Hiding with Camouflage Technique'

Breathe in…breathe out

Nothing

Breathe in…breathe out

Nothing

Breathe in…breathe out

I could feel Torune's bugs get antsy inside of him.

Breathe in…breathe out

I could feel Fu's finger tap on his knee at a rapid pace.

Breathe in…breathe out

Nothing

I was so fucking close to pacing around.

Breathe in…breathe out

I opened my eyes, the sun was about to rise over the tips of the mountain peaks on the horizon.

"Fuck it, we are leaving!" I turned towards my teammates, taking charge here.

Fu stilled his tapping. "But protocol says…"

"Fuck protocol, it's been six hours by now and not a single sign of our escort out of here."

"Daiki, we can't just leave…" I held up my hand to stop Torune right there.

Breathe in…breathe out

They were little tykes, scary zealous little tykes, but still little tykes in a tight spot.

"Listen, let's be rational here." I sat down, giving myself precious few heartbeats to gather my thoughts and settle my nerves.

"Our main priority is not getting caught and avoid any and all signs of Konoha's involvement. So far we did a pretty good job on all fronts. Should things turn sour we will use the Body Elimination Technique."

I paused for a second, checking for any input but only receiving contemplative frowns, which I could work with.

"Our second objective is to return to Konoha and report. Another Anbu-Team had the mission to be at this rendezvous point at the allocated time and escort us through enemy territory and across borders."

I paused again, meeting their stares.

"They are not here! Our objectives are still in place!" Slightly relieved that they suddenly sat a bit straighter I continued.

I nodded towards Fu. "You are a highly talented prodigy of the Yamanaka-clan," I turned to Torune, "and you are an equally talented member of the Aburama-clan with unique bugs. And I am…"

I pointed both thumbs at myself, deciding to bring some levity back.

"I am a roguishly handsome fellow with a charming personality, that the women of Konoha would sorely miss." Glad to see Torune stifle a snort and Fu roll his eyes good-naturedly I continued with my train of thought.

"We are valuable assets, that Konoha invested a lot of time and effort in and I have a few people at home, that I wanna see again, sooo… I have absolutely zero interest in dying at this rocky arse end of nowhere." I finished by making my point clear.

"We need a plan." Torune helpfully pointed out the obvious while Fu nodded already deep in thought.

"Let's go through our options and weigh up the pros and cons." I offered and turned to Fu.

"The most obvious route would be straight south, through the Land of Stone, into the Land of Wind, and then through the Land of Rivers." He answered with a shrug, omitting his own opinion.

"Hmm," Torune frowned but voiced his thoughts. "Border-patrols will be tight in all directions given Iwa's less than pleasant dealings with their neighbors and since the second part of the exam is about to end a lot of foreign teams will be escorted out of the country by even more Iwa teams."

"I don't think we are fully prepared to deal with the desert over such a long distance and chances of getting caught by Suna are not exactly small given that it's their turf. They might be allies now," I emphasized, alluding to the Second Shinobi War. "but I don't want to give them a leg-up over Konoha when they learn about our little endeavor."

We fell silent, options like the Land of Rain with Ame remained unspoken since that place was a big no-no and the other places with Shinobi villages carried the same risks as Suna.

"I might have an idea." I said as I gazed towards the rising sun in the east.

"We don't have a time limit to get home, so there's no need to rush into any kind of confrontation." I carried on, my idea taking shape.

"It isn't exactly sneaky or daring, but it should get the job done." I warned, turning back towards my teammates.

"We go east, circle around Iwa on their north side, and carry on towards the ocean. From there we run over the ocean, ignore Taki and its shinobis and go ashore in the Land of Bones. The last bit will be straight south until we hit Konoha."

I was greeted by silence.

"You…absolute…bastard!" I glanced up to Fu, who was currently on his hands and knees busy panting his lungs out.

"Hey, hey, language, young man!" I admonished brightly and went back to tending Torune's gramps, who was lying face first in the sand.

It's not like I could have predicted the bad weather, the towering waves, or the icy spray blasted into our faces by the strong gale.

"Just so you know," I waited until I had both of their attention. "If I have to write the report for the mission I will make sure to mention, that the weather was perfectly fine."

Fu just flipped me the bird and I couldn't help but laugh out loud as I stood up.

"You two can head up the cliff and prepare a camp behind the tree line for the night." I said when I saw them getting their breathing back under control.

"I will catch us some fish for dinner." I added after a moment and headed back towards the sea, the effects of the soldier pill still leaving me chipper.

Thankfully, the remaining journey from the coast of the Land of Bones right into the heart of the Land of Fire was more or less a walk in the park.

The occasional break to stay sharp, some tasty apples we came across and a comfortable silence between the three of us without direct supervision gave me the first chance in months to really unwind.

Which meant I could put my full focus on one of my more recent projects, which had actually been on the back burner since before the whole Root-business, 'cause otherwise my mind might start to wander and I end up thinking about stuff, …bad stuff,

…like the 51 kids and teens we massacred in that canyon …like that terrified gaze of that young Kunoichi when I…

Anyway!

Focus!

My tree-hoping put on auto-pilot, my mind focused inward and my sensing centered around my brain.

I had no idea and no intention at the time, but who would have thought my medical training under Hifumi and my forced introduction into the Gen-jutsu art would lead me to the first two of the Eight Inner Gates.

My ridiculously extensive research into the mind-arts and by extension the different parts in the brain while simultaneously consulting the medical aspect with Hifumi's book, just to get hang of Gen-jutsu, actually gave me a solid theory on how to open the first two gates.

I was confident, that these two gates were firmly within my reach unlike the rest given that the next one was located on the spinal cord and I wasn't going to mess around there without extensive research either.

That said, like Gen-jutsu, I was probably overcomplicating things until stuff had clicked in some weird, twisted way for me, because I couldn't fathom how Gai and more importantly Lee managed to handle those mind-gymnastics I did.

The first Gate, The Gate of Opening, in the left hemisphere of the brain. The part of the brain, that handled logic and analytical thought, which meant you had to focus your Yin-chakra to open this gate.

You had to gather the rational and intent-based part of your chakra to widen that particular tenketsu to let the chakra flow accordingly. You basically had to properly convince yourself to remove your own mental inhibitions.

The second Gate, The Gate of Healing, in the right side of the brain was a bit trickier at first. In hindsight, it was obvious that it was going to need pure Yang-chakra to open given the whole Yin-Yang, heaven and earth, theme, but the why was just as fascinating as the left side.

The relevant factor of the right side of the brain was the emotions. Fear and stress being the most prominent ones given that they literally got your blood pumping, let you run faster, push harder and so on.

This is where it got interesting.

You had to use your yang-chakra, the chakra of your body, to push your right side of the brain into a state of extreme stress so your body, in turn, was allowed "to deal with the threat" whatever the cost.

The tricky part would be to stay in control.

Your body was allowed to be in a state of panic to reach its physical limits, but the mind, the left part of the brain, had to stay firmly in charge.

'Stop!'

I nearly fell out the trees.

'Four signatures rapidly approaching from 10 o'clock!' Fu's voice blasted in my mind.

We were instantly in formation and combat-ready, our masks on our faces since we left the exams.

'This isn't a patrol-route.' I remarked as my sensing zeroed in on the four signatures.

'Above-average level, highly focused, one fire, one water and two earth!' I continued as the four signatures came to a halt within hearing distance.

Did they have a sensor, too?

Clicking, Konoha-code. 'State your rank and business!'

Fu and Torune remained silent so I answered in the same code.

'Genin, returning from a mission.'

Silence.

'Stay, we approach!'

'Understood!'

"This is highly irregular." Torune remarked quietly, I just shrugged, we weren't exactly defenseless.

Suddenly four Anbu silently landed on some branches a few feet in front of us.

One Anbu cocked his head slightly and I had the feeling he had expected something else when he first sensed us.

"What kind of Genin are you?" He asked in a tone I couldn't quite place.

Now it was my turn to cock my head.

'It's a casual, I guess Root is really only need-to-know basis.' Fu supplied helpfully and I could almost feel his mental-shrug.

"The prepubescent-kind with masks." I said as straight as possible while trying to hide the smile in my voice.

Silence.

"Right."

"Yep. Now what?" I asked, trying to get the ball rolling again.

The Anbu seemingly in charge straightened, apparently coming to a decision and turned to his team-mate next to him.

"Report to Commander, we will escort the Genin towards headquarter." He commanded calmly, apparently the novelty of seeing three little boys with Chunin-level chakra and Anbu getup had worn off already.

One room, one table, three chairs on one side and one chair on the other side.

One tired Shikaku Nara and three stunned former Root-Anbu.

'I guess getting an affordable apartment just a got lot easier.' I thought faintly.

Itachi Uchiha actually did it and Root was officially …poof…gone.

"This is a lot to take in, but it is how it is." The Jonin Commander drawled.

"Root-operatives are given two options," he continued and held up his left index finger. "One, you will be integrated into the regular Anbu-forces." I could practically feel the relief of Fu and Torune next to me as some of the tension left their posture.

This is something I hadn't considered. For me Anbu was a fast track to fire-power, for normal Shinobi it was either a retirement plan or pride and prestige that made them join and stay.

The sheer amount of missions, which rarely went below upper c-tier and the various special allowances meant that you could save up quite the fortune even as a Chunin, which in turn meant, that you didn't need to look for a desk-job or something similar at the end of your career.

For my team-mates, however, members of a clan, a position in Anbu or more importantly as Anbu-captain carried a lot of prestige within the clan especially since they weren't the heir. I had no idea what benefits they could expect, but it seemed enough to drive Fu and Torune to great lengths.

Shikaku raised his left middle finger.

"Two, after a furlough for a period of two weeks to acclimatize yourself you will be integrated into the regular forces." He paused for a second.

"You…"

"We take option one." Fu and Torune almost chorused, their age shining through and I could feel their gazes on me. Waiting for me to join in, we were a great team and practically friends, weren't we?

I focused on the Jonin Commander instead, I didn't want to see their reaction.

"Regarding option two, what rank would we be talking about? We did technically participate in a Chunin-exam quite successfully." I asked finally.