Fate

by PancakeFlying

The Kanbayashi were supposed to die, wiped out and never mourned because in the eyes of the world, they never existed. That is not what happens, nor what should have happened. A black alien creature came for them and burned everything they loved to the ground; Sachi, against all odds, survives when she wouldn't have. This will change everything. [Fem!OC] [Fix-it fic]

12. The terror trio

XII

THE TERROR TRIO

"Orochimaru."

"Hokage-sama."

Dan looks between sensei and student. The snake Sannin was wearing his light grey yukata and his lab coat, most likely having been called in the middle of one of his experiments. The Hokage, who had recovered from his migraine crisis, had to face another challenge.

"Here," the Hokage shuffles a manila envelope towards his student. "That's your genin team."

Orochimaru looks down at the documents on his desk, quirking a fine eyebrow and squinting his eyes in annoyance. "I do not wish for any genin team, Hokage-sama. Respectfully, of course."

"You have valuable skills that must be passed down, Orochimaru," the Hokage decides. "I have put this away for as long as I was able, but it's time you get back into the mentorship program."

Orochimaru didn't like that. Dan could tell, in spite of the Sannin being a very difficult person to read, and he understood why he was so miffed about the ordeal. Orochimaru had had one genin team in the past, and they all died.

"I am a very busy individual, Hokage-sama, I cannot waste my time teaching genin when I am researching. All for the good of Leaf," he argues coldly.

"I understand, and all your new jutsus and scientific breakthroughs will serve this village well," the Hokage amends, just as icily. "Nonetheless, I insist you pass this drive of yours to the next generation."

Orochimaru's gaze darkened, and Dan could feel how his corrosive chakra, so tightly bound, was fluttering around him in warning. There was a reason he was like that, but Dan wouldn't ever dare voice it in front of him, mostly because it was not his place to do so and because he would be crossing the strongest shinobi in their ranks.

Still, Dan wished he had the fortitude to tell him that because his team had died, it wasn't his fault.

But couldn't.

Tsunade had entrusted her little brother to her teammate, knowing that if there was someone who would look after him besides herself was Orochimaru. Dan remembers those days, because Nawaki would always come back grinning and chatting happily about what new cool jutsu his sensei had taught him, or how he had been praised for one thing or another.

When Nawaki died, Tsunade wasn't the only one that mourned. Orochimaru had been on their way to one of Leaf's outposts for a mission during the war, only to be caught in a trap that not even the great snake Sannin could have seen coming; avoiding it was out of the question.

For Orochimaru, whose emotions were like a poison he avoided indulging himself in, had to see how his students were all but blown to pieces in front of him. All the way being under fire when the enemy squad descended upon them.

Dan was busy comforting Tsunade, but he got a glimpse of Orochimaru at the funeral. He had been looking at the three closet casquets, the ones he had to fill because no one knew what happened and had no reinforcements to aid him.

"Very well," Orochimaru takes the envelope, not even opening it. "Is that all, Hokage-sama?"

"No, you may leave."

He does, but it feels as if Dan had just witnessed the grounding of a child by his father. The Hokage doesn't sigh, but he closes his eyes for a long moment before gathering himself. He cared for Orochimaru like a son and knew better than anyone how difficult Orochimaru could be.

"It is for a good cause," Dan says, if only to ventilate that atmosphere of bad blood.

"Let's hope so."

Orochimaru was currently the strongest shinobi, and the Council had been pressing the Hokage to give him another team. The general opinion of him was prejudiced, in Dan's humble opinion, but it didn't change the fact that Orochimaru had techniques and skills that were paramount to be preserved in the village. Because he had no intention of marrying and having children by himself, an 'emotionally constipated bastard' that Tsunade lovingly called him, he was then somewhat forced to leave a legacy via mentorship.

But it wasn't that easy.

That very same afternoon, the manila envelope is sent back to the office with the stamp of 'REJECTED' on each page. The Hokage receives three different letters of complaint, coming from the genins' families, which threatened to follow up at court.

The Hokage puts his head in his hands and, for the first time in a long time, lets out a heavy sigh.

.

In her last year of the Academy, two interesting people appear in her class.

"Anko look, it's her…!" Kurenai whispers, shaking her to turn around.

The first thing Anko thinks when she sees those two, is that she knows the tiny bastard. Kasui or something like that, he was an orphan like her, a couple of years younger. The only thing that stood out was his enormous round glasses, but Anko couldn't remember anything noteworthy about him.

Strange, considering he had been promoted two years ahead. Anko's eyes went to his companion, who was speaking to the teacher, and she was pretty tall. An Inuzuka, but she didn't have any dog with her, oddly enough.

Then, it clicked.

"The bastard Inuzuka!" Anko exclaimed before Kurenai slapped a hand over her mouth.

The class falls silent, and there it is, the very thing she was famous for: her golden eyes. They were truly golden, like polished ryō coins that caught the sun's light. Not that there was any warmth in them, but the same feeling you got when a kunai was headed your way.

"We won't need to introduce ourselves then," the Inuzuka smiles, and Anko's hair stands on end. She smiles too, mirroring the truly vicious grin on Sachi's face.

This was going to be fun.

The teacher shakes his head and lets them sit. They choose one of the middle rows, making small talk with their neighbors, otherwise not engaging with anyone. They don't have much time, the lesson is already starting, but Anko can't keep her eyes away from them.

They are the two geniuses that everyone was talking about. The bastard Inuzuka that was crippled or whatever, the one that got burned by that crazy Uchiha a month or so ago; and then Kasui, the ninjutsu prodigy that was soon becoming Senju Tobirama's reincarnation.

"Anko-kun," the teacher calls, and she knows she's screwed by his tone. "Care to tell me which consensus the Nidaime and the daimyōs from Tea Country and Noodle Country reached?"

Oh no. She hadn't been paying attention, again, and now she was lost. Were they in history or in politics? Kurenai by her side was pointing something on her notes but Anko didn't understand them. She really didn't need the teachers to single her out, walking on a thin thread as she was...

"Why don't our new classmates answer?" Anko says, excited. "To welcome them!"

"Anko-kun, I asked you a question."

"It's okay, sensei," Kasui, surprisingly, agrees. "The Nidaime proposed a deal to help Fire Country be integrated into the Baibai Peninsula, which is the epicenter of maritime commerce," he explains smoothly. "In exchange of having the centerpiece of the peninsula, between Tea and Noodle Country, they would offer their services and establish outposts to protect them from Water Country's sabotage and piracy."

"Very well—"

"Kasui's right, but it's also because Tea Country and Noodle Country were competing for the monopoly of the Kanashii Ocean and its trade routes," Sachi intervenes easily. "The Nagi and O'uzu islands, then in the Archipelago Empire under the first Mizukage, were actively attacking the main ports, as well as sinking the ships, to put pressure on the Continent and take over the shores. The Nidaime used Uzushio as leverage to ensure they had a reliable naval fleet, which combined with regular shinobi on their ships, helped them establish what it is now."

"A-ah. That is… true. Good job, Sachi-kun, Kasui-kun," the teacher praises, a little taken aback.

Anko huffs; nerds, both of them. But she could tell that the teacher was impressed, and discreetly checked the facts in his book. Showoffs too. When did that boring Kasui get so smart, anyway? Bright kids got adopted early, or recruited, but to Anko's knowledge, Kasui was still in the orphanage.

The lesson passes painstakingly slowly, and Anko struggles to take down as many notes as possible, but the teacher speaks too fast and often skips entire chapters that they needed to revise by themselves. Anko was not having a great time, theory her worst nightmare. Thank the Sage she kicked ass in ninja arts and chemistry.

When the break begins, Kurenai grabs her to meet their new classmates. She goes with her, other students talking to them animatedly. Everyone was curious, fresh meat, and Anko gave them a week until they were forgotten.

"Is it true? Did you get full marks in the midterms?" Kurenai asks.

"Yep."

"Wow! That's amazing."

Anko is blinded by Kurenai's social skills, too friendly, that one. Up close, those two don't seem too out of the ordinary. Sachi was supposed to be at least a little bit singed, but Anko couldn't see any indicator that she had been, indeed, nearly smoked to death. Then again, Sachi wore long sleeves, and Anko could only see her face. Maybe she was hiding her scars…?

"It's not that hard, really," Sachi chuckles.

"Such a genius answer," Anko says, bored. "As expected from a genius, isn't that right?"

Oh damn.

Previously, Sachi was all smiles and grins, but now she was dead silent and staring at her like she was up for a fight. It had the same sense of doom Anko got anytime a venomous snake crawled up her leg, and she was sure Sachi wasn't as nice as the snakes.

Kurenai elbows her to shut up, but Sachi tilts her head to the side and huffs. "So?"

Anko bristles. "So? What kinda of answer is that?" The Inuzuka shrugs. "Oi, don't ignore me!"

"Anko!"

Sachi leaned over, and damn, her eyes were brighter still. "What are you going to do about it?" The girl smiles, and it's a threat. "Burn me too?"

Similar to lightning, Anko has a shiver run down her spine watching those glowing irises mock her. That girl was fearless, and Anko was overwhelmed by the sensation of facing a predator.

Kurenai apologizes in her place, pulling her away, but Anko has her eyes locked on her. The adrenaline makes her smile. Inuzuka Sachi, she will remember that name.

.

Apparently, that sly Inuzuka bitch was good at running away. It didn't help that they were in different groups when it came to kunoichi lessons or sparring sessions, which took place in the last period. Anko did her best to finish her advanced genjutsu classes, but by the time she went out to catch her, Sachi had already left; along with that lap dog named Kasui.

That couldn't do.

Anko had a plan.

Those two were cheaters. They didn't pay attention to the classes, studying instead from notebooks that Anko knew they must have bought somewhere. Sachi was smart, that much Anko could agree on, but she was cheating the Academy. She knew a lot, and that's why she was regarded as a genius. That's why Kasui, who was as bland as one could be, had been promoted two grades; all because of those notebooks of theirs.

Anko wanted them.

Cue her trying to steal them. She was stronger than them, she was sure of it. They had no muscles on those scrawny bones, much less a match for her extreme accuracy for throwing weapons.

Thing is, Kasui was wicked with ninjutsu. When catching Sachi turned out to be too hard, Anko went for the easy way out: Kasui. Because they had different advanced classes for extra credit, Anko wanted to corner Kasui and maybe rough him up a bit, threatening him a couple of times. She had done so countless times with the other kids in the orphanage, and he wouldn't stand a chance.

Until she saw him cut a tree in half with a water jutsu. Maybe the rumors were right about one thing.

However, Kasui was still an orphan, buddy-buddy with the crazy Inuzuka or not. Anko had been waiting for him for hours, up in the trees of the orphanage. It was too early in the morning to be awake, and so cold, but Anko was patiently waiting for him.

There he was.

Kasui walked up the path to the orphanage without even noticing her. She had hidden her chakra as much as possible, just in case, and blended in the shadows while he passed right under her. Anko jumps.

She lands on Kasui, pinning his body with her legs and reaching to hold his hands, but he had twisted in a second and put a kunai to her throat.

"Look at you," Anko hisses, amused.

Anko had never pegged Kasui for the cold type, but his glare sure chilled to the bone. His grip on the kunai was steady and calm. He will cut her, there was no doubt. Anko smiles down at him, not impressed but wary.

"Do you want something?" Kasui questions evenly.

"What made you say that?"

Kasui gives her a look, and she decides it's not worth it. "Yeah, I do. How did you get so smart, huh? I want that."

He isn't fazed by her question. "What do you have to offer?"

"You don't deny it!" Anko accuses, mindful of her tone. It wouldn't be good if the nuns caught them. "Offer? Do you really think you can bargain, Kasui-kun?"

He isn't intimidated and that surprises Anko. Kasui was one of the weak ones, the kids that didn't dare to stand up for themselves and were beaten up for it. Kasui's roommates weren't the best, and he had been taken for a walk before.

This time, his eyes are as hard as the edge resting on her throat.

He scoffed. "That won't work on me, Anko-kun. A deal is a deal, it has to be mutually beneficial."

The last part sounded heavily suspicious. "A… deal?"

"You want something that we have, what do you have that we want?"

Anko can't stop thinking about it when Kasui slithers his leg around her and throws her off to the side. He's already walking away, leaving her wondering how the fuck did he disarm her so easily, and why was he so smug about it.

A deal, hmm?

.

At the end of the week, Anko seeks Kasui yet again. She's confident that this time she will get what she wants, and when the blind asshole gives her a bored look, she decides to show him her new toy.

"Seems familiar?"

Kasui's eyes widen behind his glasses, recognizing the scroll. They were in the Academy's courtyard, just after the classes ended, and Anko was determined to get those notes. She had failed her midterms, and only her outstanding marks in ninja arts and extra credit had saved her ass from being held up. They would graduate in less than three months, and she was desperate.

Not that Anko would ever admit it.

"That's how you're going to go about it?" Kasui asks, annoyed. "How did you do it?"

"Oh? Are you interested?" she grins. "Let's talk business first."

Anko had beaten up Kasui's roommates until they told her everything they knew about him. They had told her, in tears and a little bloodied, that he had a scroll that he always kept on him. Except, of course, when he was showering; scrolls were insanely useful, but weak to water. She had spent so many hours waiting for him to go into those damn showers that she had been inclined to jump him again and try her luck, but she couldn't risk messing up.

Her plan had been a success, the scroll now in her possession.

"So, what? You want our notes in exchange for the scroll?" Kasui presses.

"W-well yeah!" Anko falters, confused as to why Kasui was so calm. "This is pretty expensive, you know? What will that girlfriend of yours do when she finds out that you don't have it anymore?"

Kasui makes a disgusted face. "I don't see Sachi in that way, so…"

"Not my point!"

"That's it?" he says then. "The scroll for the notes?"

"Um… yeah. Don't look at me like that!"

"That deal sucks."

"... what?"

"The deal. It sucks," he repeats, pointedly slurring his words. "Do you really think I would give you the notes for that scroll?"

"Yes! This thing is so expensive! You could probably buy your way out of the orphanage, what the fuck? You don't care about it?"

"I'm just saying that your deal sucks. There must be something else that you can give in exchange."

"... Kasui-kun, really, what is wrong with you—"

"Just," he sighs. "Think. What are you good at?"

"Um…"

"That's depressing."

"F-fuck you! Why are you messing with me? This isn't how it was supposed to go!"

"Stop yelling. Come on, what's your best subject?"

"Ninja arts."

"All of them?" Anko nods. "O…kay. What else?"

"Chemistry."

He blinks. "Really?"

"Yeah! What, I don't look like I know my stuff?"

"What about weaponry?"

"I can use everything, and throw them pretty good, too."

"Maths, biology, geography?"

"Straight 100's."

"... really?"

"Yes!"

"Then why are you asking me for notes? You don't seem to need our help."

"That's…" she hesitates. "That's none of your business! What's up with this interrogation anyway? You know what, I'm done, and I'm keeping this scroll!"

Anko turns around, fuming. That fucking Kasui, had she known that he would turn out to be a little shit she wouldn't have bothered with him. Or maybe she would have drowned him in the river, who knows. She was disappointed, because she really needed to pass the upcoming exams, or she wouldn't manage to graduate.

Anko turns sharply on instinct, pulling a kunai that she kept with her at all times and doing a high swipe. It connects with another kunai, and before she knows it—

Golden eyes.

"Hello there, Anko-kun," Sachi sings. "I hear you want to make a deal."

"W-where did you come from?!"

"Trade secret. Hear, stop— stop trying to stab me! Hear me out." Anko stops, but she's wary of them. They had laid out a trap for her. "You want to graduate, isn't it?"

"... obviously."

"What a coincidence! We want to graduate too, thing is, you won't manage to do it by yourself."

Anko's anger rises. "The fuck you're talking about! I can graduate if I want to! I only need to pass my exams—!"

"Let's make a deal," the Inuzuka interrupts her, and her smile is drawing her in. "What if I told you I can help you get to jōnin rank?"

"Bullshit."

"You think?" Her smile was so damn infuriating. "There's one thing you need to know about me, Anko-kun, and it is that I always keep my promises."

"Bull—"

Her eyes are ruthless. "You want something out of us, and we want something out of you. It's a nice deal, isn't it? We help each other, we graduate together. How's that sound?"

Anko feels lost, and the sensation of doom crashes upon her again. What was up with that girl, and why was she almost afraid to be near her? Why did her instincts tell her to run away, and don't look back?"

"How… how are you going to do that?"

Her smile grows. "I have my ways. So, what's your answer?"

Anko takes a big breath. She shouldn't be doing this, but the proof is right there in front of her: Kasui, an orphan just like her, was on his way to graduate early and regarded as a prodigy. All because of Sachi and her mysterious ways. She was going to regret this—

"Okay, but only if you promise me to get me to jōnin. I'll kill you if you don't."

"Great!" Sachi beams at her, brushing off the last part. "I knew you were a smart one. Come on, we have things to do."

"Wait! What… what about the scroll? Don't you want it back?"

Sachi looks back at her hands, holding the purple scroll with black edging. "That scroll is yours, Anko. Consider it a bribe. Now, we need to rush things, finals are coming up!"

Sachi goes ahead, bouncing on her heels while Kasui gives her a look of pity. "Welcome to the club."

.

Inuzuka Sachi was downright insane. As in, properly diagnosed insanity.

"Ashi!" she yells, and Anko is trying to process that she was in the Inuzuka main house, all the while Kasui was completely calm. Fuck him. "I made another friend!"

When Anko looks at his fellow orphan and mouths 'friend?' Kasui just shrugs and taps his forehead. Yeah, insane alright.

"Is that so?" A voice says, and the woman who it belongs to is what Anko strives to be. "Oh, hi there darlin'. What's your name?"

She's still staring up at that unit of a woman before Kasui elbows her. "A-Anko! Mitarashi Anko, ma'am!"

The Inuzuka Clan Head nods, smiling, and Anko doesn't know if she should be afraid or happy. "Nice. I'm Ashi, don't add up the sama please. You kids these days are really polite."

"More like survival instinct. Yo." Anko knows that Inuzuka ninken can talk but hearing the dog's deep voice is still shocking. "You here for the classes too?"

"U-um…"

"Yeah, she is," Sachi answers, excited. "I think you'll like her."

Anko is confused as fuck, having nothing short of an existential crisis as Sachi speaks to the Inuzuka alphas about 'training' and 'pain' and 'team' but she understands nothing of it. Kasui, the lowly asshole, doesn't say anything to her but nods along to what that crazy girl is ranting on about.

"Okay, okay. You go and study and whatever you do, we'll see what we can do," Ashi says, drained from having to stand Sachi on a daily basis. "Not today though, have some business uptown."

"'kay!"

"We'll make dinner, Ashi-san," Kasui offers and Anko is shocked that he was addressing a Clan Head so informally. What was going on?

"Thanks. Have fun."

Anko has half a mind to bow but Sachi is grabbing her by the hand— what the fuck?— and pulling her along into the house. That's how Mitarashi Anko found herself in the Inuzuka clan, in Sachi's room, and facing a human sized tower of notebooks.

"Am I… supposed to remember… all of this?"

Kasui and Sachi nod. "Yeah. The teachers don't like us too much, so they might try to raise the bar this year. The yellow stars are potential questions for the finals, the green are examples, blue are things you must remember…"

Anko points out the humongous stack of notes. "All?"

"Yes. That's all the theory."

Anko was going to fail. She struggled with her own notes, who were like, a hundredth part of that monstrous thing. It was all handwritten, with a color system and full of illustrations. Anko was never one for books, but dammit, that must cost fortune.

"Where did you find this?"

"I made it," Sachi says, not finding anything wrong with that statement.

"You're kidding me."

"Nu-uh. She writes all the stuff by herself, I've seen it," Kasui confirms, having his own stack of books.

"... how?"

"I like to read."

Anko stares at Sachi, she stares right back.

"... did you steal it?"

"No! Why does everyone say that?" Sachi complains, showing her the notebook, she was currently filling in. Sachi was responsible for the deforestation of Fire Country.

Not willing to go on and about why it was ridiculous for Sachi to have made all of the books, there was another issue as well. Anko couldn't read it.

Hours pass, and Anko understands biology and geography, because they have nice drawings that she can instinctively figure out, but the rest? Completely gibberish. Sachi's handwriting is curved, and the words bundle together until Anko can only make out a word from a whole sentence. It doesn't help that Kasui and Sachi were silently studying by themselves and finding no problems at all.

It's what happened with Kurenai all over again. Her friend had tried helping her study with her own notes, but Anko couldn't understand her handwriting either. When she looks up, tired of doing nothing, she catches Sachi's eyes on her.

"What?" Anko bites.

"Why doesn't Iron Country have a ninja village?"

"H-huh? I don't know… Because they're samurais?"

"Iron has managed to be an independent country without ninja influence ever since settling their borders. Why?"

Sachi waits for Anko to answer. When Anko doesn't she continues. "Because of their mining industry. As its name suggests, Iron Country has an overabundance of metal and unique materials that only they have access to. One would think that, because of these rich lands, they would've been invaded a long time ago, since its geographic position is right in the middle of the Northern Belt, with Earth and Lightning Country at both ends."

Anko blinks, not really sure why Sachi told her that. "So…?"

"What Sachi's saying is why is Iron Country so different from their neighbors?" Kasui clarifies.

"... why?"

"Because they have something the others don't," Kasui replies simply. "Where do you think all the kunais and other weapons come from?"

"Iron Country?" Anko guesses.

"Yes!" Sachi answers. "Out of all countries, Iron Country is the wealthiest of them all, and not only because they have so many mines, they will run out at some point, but because they have profited so much from all the Shinobi Wars that they are practically on another level."

"Profited?" Anko echoes.

"Iron Country is the main source of weaponry of the Continent, but they sell to everybody. There's like, hundreds of merchant treaties and alliances between all Elemental Countries that ensure Iron continues to provide them all with weapons, armor and other items."

Anko takes all of that in. "So basically, Iron Country is conning all of us?"

"Basically," Kasui agrees.

Sachi disagrees. "Not really."

Kasui and Sachi glare at each other before the latter says, "They're protecting themselves, as well as preparing for the future in which shinobi decide to turn against them. Iron is monopolizing the weapons industry, as well as mining, jewelry and such. They're the ones that say how much a pound of iron costs, or what the value for steel is and things like that. They have so much power that they can threaten all Elemental Countries to ban them from getting iron and becoming an easy target for those that continue to work with them."

"That's… that sounds dangerous, having all power in one country, that is."

"That's why they're neutral. Every Elemental Country knows that if they fuck up with Iron, they're practically dead, which is why they can't have Iron side with anyone," Sachi grins. "Now, why Iron Country does not have a ninja village?"

Anko thinks. "Because… if they do, they're going against the others? I mean, they have all that much power, the resources and the leverage…"

"Exactly!" Sachi bounces in her seat, happy. "You get it! Ever since the beginning of the Elemental Countries, Iron has been at their backs, feeding them kunais and shuriken, and they couldn't be the ones that were ruling the game and playing it at the same time. So, samurais," she summarizes.

"Iron Country has preserved the old ways, the way before the Sage, and managed to continue until the current day because they can afford it," Sachi explains further. "By separating themselves from the rest of shinobi countries, they have become the base for their military while remaining neutral!"

Anko doesn't understand why Sachi is so excited about it, but she can now understand why Iron Country is much more than the Land of the Samurais. What would happen to Fire Country if the treaty between Iron and Fire broke off? Anko shudders. If they didn't have weapons, they wouldn't be able to fight back.

"That's… scary."

"That's politics for you," Kasui says, flipping a page.

.

Uzumaki Kushina, or the vessel of the Nine Tailed Beast, didn't have that much of an interesting life. Sure, she was the ultimate weapon of a ninja village, while simultaneously being one of the very last people from the island of Uzushio and their last sealing master in-village; but boring, nonetheless.

Except for training and preparing her body for the possibility of war, Kushina was left with a lot of free time. That is, until she decided to volunteer to teach sixth graders in the Academy fūinjutsu. The inspiration had come from the Hokage himself, who had casually commented to her on her reports that Leaf would benefit from having more fūinjutsu savvy soldiers.

"Of course, Hokage-sama. Leave it to me!"

Despite what her boisterous personality might suggest, Kushina wasn't an empty headed Uzumaki. She knew perfectly well what the Hokage was suggesting, and she wasn't willing to just teach impressionable children Uzushio sealing techniques just so she could leave a legacy behind. She might be a weapon, but she wasn't mindless.

Still, she was excited to actually do something instead of meditating or training. The class was small, barely a dozen students in it. "Can anyone tell me what this is?"

The previous teacher, who was currently napping in the background, had spent his hours only showing the kids the main matrices so they could recognize and avoid them. Kushina agreed that you needed to know the patterns, but not just to turn the other way.

"You, there!" She points to a boy. "Tell me, what's this?"

"Um… exploding tag?"

"... not quite. This—" Kushina quickly scribbles a regular exploding tag on the blackboard. "That is an explosive tag matrix, but I want you to tell me this one."

Those children didn't have the basics down. Kushina had spent her early years learning fūinjutsu from the priests and priestess from the temple, and she had been half their age when she successfully made her own tags. Uzushio had seals in her blood, and everyone knew them, but Leaf…

No matter how they tried, they couldn't be Uzushio.

It still hurt, because her home had been destroyed without her being able to do anything about it. Leaf, instead of helping, had all but forgotten about everything they had built together.

A sick rumble laughs at her in Kushina's mind, but she takes a deep breath, and it stops. Bitterness and hate will do her no good.

A girl raises her hand.

"That's a smoking tag, mainly Uzumaki style with two-point connectors."

"Yes! Good job! What's your name?" Kushina beams, happy that at least one of her students knew something about seals.

The other students appeared to be wary of her, but she ignored them all. "Inuzuka Sachi."

"Inuzuka?" Kushina blinks, looking around the classroom. "Where's your dog?"

"I don't have one."

The girl had the red fangs on her, but her eyes… those weren't Inuzuka eyes. Kushina stares into them, a strange sense of recognition in her mind that she couldn't quite pinpoint.

(She had seen those eyes before, in Uzushio.)

"Okay, Sachi-chan, what's this one?"

"The seal has triangular matrices, so it's Lightning style. It's a ward seal, meant to release a burst of electricity when chakra reaches the chakra absorption matrix, and has a feature to disregard known chakra signatures on the other side. Good for keeping people away from your stuff."

"This one?"

"That… that doesn't make sense. The circular matrix combined with the three-point connectors are not viable. Circular matrices are good for containing and processing chakra, while the three-point connectors are used to create pathways between the parts of a sided matrix."

Kushina is… pleasantly surprised.

"You know your stuff, Sachi-chan. Who taught you?"

Kushina had the advantage of growing up in Uzushio and having available all sorts of teachers and information that helped her establish her own style; Sachi didn't. The only seals the Inuzuka had access to be the ones that they had for veterinary medicine, and those were primitive at best. For Sachi to not only know different styles, but also understand the general flow of them was odd.

And fascinating.

"I learned by myself."

"... huh."

Kushina could tell if someone was lying, and Sachi was telling the truth. That girl had confidence in her, and she was not taken aback by her red hair, or the strange aura that came from having the Kyūbi sealed within her.

(Almost as if she knew that already.)

"Well, since you know this, let's see what you can do, you know? Uzumaki style, chakra convertor, go."

Another one of her students called out to her. "U-um… Kushina-sensei?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"We… we don't know what you're talking about…?" The boy from before stammers.

"What's a chakra convertor…?" Another student wonders.

A month later, the other students ended up quitting the class, saying it was too difficult for them to understand, much less get extra credit from. Except Sachi, who Kushina was soon seeing as a competitor.

"I don't get it!" Kushina complains to Minato, finishing her ramen and asking for another bowl. "She's too smart! Her seals are good too, you know? She gets seals like the kids from… um… back on Uzushio did!"

Minato chuckles, letting her voice her worries. "Inuzuka Sachi you say? Isn't she the student that was involved in an accident back in spring?"

"Ah!" Kushina exclaims, suddenly remembering it. "Right! Fugaku was sooo pissed about it! Damn, it's the same brat? Gosh, I promised I would beat her up."

"Maybe not, Kushina…" Minato soothes, just to make sure she gets it. Sometimes, Kushina got herself in trouble just to tease him. "But isn't it great? Fūinjutsu is hard to master."

"No," she says, morosely. "Fūinjutsu isn't that hard, the only thing is that you need to understand it. It's what happened with you, you know? You're a genius too, but you don't know when to use eight trigrams or four and which connectors are best." Kushina sighs, remembering the countless times she had spent trying to make him get it and failing.

"Ah…" he murmurs, a little embarrassed. Gods, it was too easy sometimes. "Sorry about that."

"No! Not something you need to apologize for, you know? It's not your fault they don't teach you seals early when you can, you know, get familiar with them and all that stuff. It's like… eating pickled plums, if you didn't grow up with it it's kinda difficult for you to like 'em."

Minato, who wasn't sure if he understood that reference, pays the ramen cook while Kushina demolishes the last bowl. "Well, I saw this thing on my mission—"

"But! That kid is like… I don't know, she understands the seals! I've seen people knowing 'em, like you do, memorizing 'em... She… she gets 'em."

"And… that's a problem?"

"Yes! It's driving me crazy!" Kushina whines. "She's still young, like, at her age I just came here you know? I knew the temple's style and had my own matrices and connectors and stuff, but she… she understands 'em all," she sighs yet again, equal parts confused and frustrated. "I've seen her make this seal that is so weird, like, a sensor type seal that is only focused on Yin and Yang—"

"Okay. Thank you." Minato pulls Kushina away from the stand before she reveals even more sensitive intel. "Are you worried, then? That she knows too much?"

"I… don't know? She's giving me off vibes, like I know her from before, you know? But she's too good at seals not to notice, at least, if you understand them as well. Had Uzushio still been here… I would have shipped her off to the island, so the priests saw her and made sure she wasn't one of ours, you know?"

Minato nods. "We could ask sensei, if it troubles you too much."

"Jiraiya-sama? Isn't he like… dead?"

He laughs. "No, no. He's… travelling, I think he said?"

Kushina didn't buy it. Jiraiya had been one of the gifted children that had gone to Uzushio to learn their ways, and she knew this because he had been in her class. He had also been the one to help her come to Leaf, when she was appointed the next jinchūriki, but it still made her feel strange the fact that after the war he disappeared. And him, not even bothering to send a toad after Uzushio was sunk, only worsened her opinion of him.

"Seems busy," she mutters, trying to get her mood under control. "It would help for him to take a look at one of her seals, though. See what his opinion is and all that."

(They didn't know what they were doing and what repercussions would come of it.)

.

A week passes, and Anko knows something for sure.

"You suck at fighting."

She had taken both Sachi and Kasui, folded them in half, and spent the next five minutes laughing.

"F… uck you."

"Ah-ah, you don't get to say that to me, Sachi. You're the worst, and Kasui's like, half your height and weight."

"I'm… n-not that small!"

Anko hums, not impressed. "How did you even pass taijutsu?"

"They grade based on form and stance," Sachi grunts, holding her head. Anko might have gone too overboard with the elbow kick to the temple. "Fucking hell."

Kasui reaches over and puts a hand on the Inuzuka's forehead. Anko makes a disgusted sound, but neither of them acknowledges it. That boy always checked on Sachi no matter what, even if it annoyed Sachi, especially if it did. Anko didn't get it, but those two were really close, so she didn't bother with it.

"You have a fever," Kasui remarks, frowning.

"I do not—"

"Go cool off," he orders. "I don't have any more ice."

Kasui had a retaining scroll too, a blue one, which half consisted of ice for his precious Sachi. Anko rolled her eyes. Sachi is glaring at Kasui, sizing him up, before she gets up muttering something about 'traitors' and 'ungrateful brats'.

"You sure nothing is going on between you?" Anko asks him once Sachi is out of earshot.

Kasui follows Sachi into the house with his gaze, flipping Anko the bird. "No. She's like a sister to me."

"You're an orphan," Anko reminds him.

"That's why I said 'like', not 'my'."

Sachi was a genius, that Anko had no doubt. She knew everything, as in, you could ask her any question and she would know the answer. It was… mind boggling, because Anko struggled with basic curriculum when that Inuzuka was so far ahead that Anko doubted even a Nara would be a match for her.

Which is why she was suspicious.

"Hey, Kasui. Isn't Sachi… weird?"

"Yes," he agrees bluntly. "What makes you say it?"

"Uh, everything? Why does she know so much? And the seals, like, what the fuck?"

He shrugs. Anko hated his nonchalant personality, even more so when it came to Sachi. "Sachi's like that. She's smart."

"Yeah… but isn't she like… too smart?" Anko presses.

Kasui holds her eyes, a challenge. "What about it?"

"Keep it in your pants, Kasui. I'm just saying that no amount of studying can make someone that smart." Anko waves a hand at him to simmer down. "When does she have the time to write that much? And why is she helping us?"

"Sachi is a genius," he simply says. "And she's helping us because we're helping her too. We will be graduating soon, and we'll need a team."

"A team! How are you so sure we're going to end up in the same team? They're random! Not even someone so geniusy like her is gonna do it."

"I trust her."

Anko groans. "How? How do you even believe her?! It's just… she's too smart, I can't trust her."

"That's your problem."

"Kasui!"

"No," Kasui stubbornly refuses to listen to her. "She's helping you graduate, why are you so against her? You came to us, are you backing off our deal?"

"I came to you, not to her!" Anko reminds him. "Why was she there anyway? How did she know I was there? She's— she's weird."

"Quit, then."

"What?" Anko croaks.

Kasui dares her. "If you can't stand her, quit."

"You're defending her," she accuses.

"So what? She's my friend, and I trust her. If you don't, why are you here? She's helping you, you should be grateful."

"Grateful?" Anko echoes, getting angry. "For what? Bribing me? Giving me notes that I can't fucking read? I won't graduate! I can bet you that when the time comes, she's going to stab us in the back!" Anko yells at his stupid indifferent face.

"What's in for her anyway? We're orphans, we have nothing! She has everything! She's smart, she's the daughter of Ashi-sama and has a whole clan and future ahead of her, what about us?" Anko demands. "Is she going to help us all of our lives or what? No one will do that! No one has ever done that!"

"I'm back!" Sachi says, approaching with a bag of ice on her head. "I have this idea—"

"Ugh! I'm done with you!"

Anko leaves and doesn't look back.

.

"Hokage-sama."

"Danzō."

Hiruzen studies him, someone he had once called a teammate, a friend. Nearly named him godfather of his first son had Biwako not opposed it. Time has not been kind to Danzō, and it shows on his scars and his hunched gait. He has grown old, too, but that hasn't stopped him from being one of the pillars of their village.

(A rotten one.)

Danzō puts a stack of manila folders on his desk. Hiruzen doesn't need to open them to know what they are.

"I did say I would give it some thought, although not so soon," Hiruzen remarks dryly.

"You must be very busy, Hokage-sama, I just wished to relieve you of your duty," Danzō amends, devoid of any emotion whatsoever. "These are the candidates that I've decided would be best." Hiruzen relents and glances at the folders. "As you can see, they aren't perfect, but rather ones we can mold and work with. Not too many, either."

Being Hokage was no easy task, and every day proved to him that it only got harder. Hiruzen had tried to stay as benevolent as possible, bringing the same warmth as the first Hokage, while staying as pragmatic as the second. Still, it was not enough. With the title came the responsibility, and sometimes, it was too much.

ROOT was born out of desperation, a force only loyal to Hiruzen and merciless to any other, including Leaf. He hadn't had the time to get used to his position, to be eased off into the role of a leader. Hiruzen was crowned Hokage in a decision that, despite coming from the Nidaime himself, was rushed. And everyone knew it.

The war had been raging and Hiruzen was forced to end it. With no prior experience except leading his battalion, he had been outmatched and outclassed not only by his enemy, but those that served Leaf as well. Danzō, his friend and comrade, had proposed the idea of ROOT when everyone was turning on each other, and would have undoubtedly come for Hiruzen too. And he had accepted, if only because it was his only chance at fulfilling the promise to his late teacher and kage.

Hiruzen cannot say, with a clean conscience, that he had won the Second War only by his merits alone. He had taken the public face while Danzō, not one for the spotlight, remained in the shadows, at his service.

Now, after the war has ended and he has established his support, there is no need for ROOT anymore.

And yet.

"You want only four recruits," Hiruzen states, seeing the picture of all the poor souls that had caught Danzō's eye.

"The soldiers are… old. We have waited too much, Hokage-sama, we need to train them."

Hiruzen knew what kind of soldiers he was referring to. Young minds, to the point that they had trouble counting to ten but not any qualms on slitting throats.

"We aren't in times of war."

"Not officially," Danzō says on reflex, as he has often reminded him ever since the Second War ended. "Uzushio has been destroyed in times of peace. Stalling will only ensure we lose the next war, Hokage-sama."

Danzō didn't believe in peace, always looking forward to the next skirmish, the next battle, the next war. There was a line between being cautious and actively instigating conflict; Danzō had long crossed that line. Hiruzen wonders if there's anything else than duty in Danzō's heart, but he might have lost it during the war, just like his eye.

"I don't need to remind you, Hokage-sama, that war does not have a set date, and it does not need an invitation. If something were to happen, we would be prepared."

"And that's why you have selected these four students?" Hiruzen muses, not convinced. "Do you believe that having them in your care will win us the war?"

Danzō doesn't flinch, and barely reacts at the accusation. "War cannot be won by a single soldier," he replies easily. "It's best we have a few that might turn it to our favor, however."

"I cannot take gambles, Danzō. Might is not sufficient."

"No, it is not," he surprisingly agrees. "But you must see reason, Hokage-sama. We cannot let the next generation rot away."

We. Hiruzen suppresses a scowl. "Your point?"

"Peace tends to create soldiers too full of themselves, reckless, untrustworthy… We must look for the truly shining ones, and make sure they are trained to their full potential."

Hiruzen doesn't shiver at his toneless voice. "You must have something in mind, speaking so confidently."

The reports are a bitter surprise. A boy with sandy blonde hair and round glasses, a girl with purple hair and confident smirk, another girl with red fangs and golden eyes and the very ghost of Sakumo stared up at him from their portrait pictures. Hiruzen knows them all, difficult not to when Ashi's reports spoke so much about the first three, and he had kept a close eye on the last one.

Truly shining ones, Danzō said.

Unnerving.

"Their grades are impressive," Hiruzen amends, going over the reports he knows his own recruiters hadn't written. "But this one…" he points to the Inuzuka. "Is not someone I would say fits your criteria."

"She has behavioral problems," Danzō accepts, but doesn't appear overly bothered by it. "But nothing we cannot… trim. Her handicap will not help her in battle, but she has shown a talent in gathering information and using it. Perhaps even seduction."

A twelve-year-old in seduction. Hiruzen lets the disgust wash off him with a calming breath. Danzō never changed.

"As for the orphans," Danzō continues. "It would be their best choice."

"How come?"

The old hawk straightens his back. "With prodigious chakra control in the boy and immense power in the girl, one can see the potential. The Hatake boy… you know my regard for him."

Hiruzen's skin is crawling, hearing him speak about children under twelve years old as if he was assessing the perfect lambs for slaughter. But Hiruzen has done the same during the Second War, and he acknowledges the hypocrisy in himself.

"We can work with them, shape them to be our finest soldiers once they leave behind that attitude of theirs," Danzō finishes, confident in his observations.

The image of Sachi, lifeless in the hospital with the Archive active, appears before Hiruzen's eyes. Followed by a similar image of three other kids that would lose their minds after Danzō's training program is completed. If they survive, that is.

ROOT soldiers were devoid of any emotion or sentiment, a running theory of Danzō's that preached how they were the bane of any shinobi. One would say that they were without humanity too, but humanity has no place in war.

"I believe the Academy serves them well, and they will make good soldiers in the regular forces," Hiruzen points out.

Danzō gives him a look that could be interpreted as hysterical laughter by how his brow went up a quarter of an inch. "I have the best interests of Leaf in mind, Hokage-sama. You cannot be foolish; we cannot allow for this kind of recruits to be untutored. I can assure you that I would see that they are made into the best version of themselves, to serve their duty without flaw or stutter."

"It pains me to hear your opinion of the Academy's teachers, Danzō."

Danzō nearly bristles, anger quick to show its face in his indifference. "What about the Hatake?"

"What about him?"

"You have let him waste away in the Genin Corps for three years. Time we could've used to train him until he surpassed his father, bringing back the White Fang. Had he been in my care…" Danzō stops himself, gaining his composure.

"Freedom will only corrupt them. Sakumo sacrificed himself and only for himself," Danzō stares coldly into his eyes. "You owe the dead no debts and no promises. The boy has been made the prime messenger for the village, but he has a chance to become great if only he has a truly deserving mentor."

They had this argument after Kakashi graduated at only eight years old and he decided, as Hokage, to let him mature inside the Genin Corps. He was far too young to be put into a genin team, not because he was lacking, but because he knew he would be dead before reaching chūnin. Hiruzen won't deny Kakashi's talent, but he won't defy the dead and their sacrifices. The Hatake Clan had been protectors of Leaf ever since it was founded, and to see them die and thin out with every war, and then Sakumo's suicide… Hiruzen couldn't let Kakashi go into the field, not after finding his father's corpse.

"Rest assured, Danzō, I will see that their potential doesn't go unnoticed," Hiruzen intervenes, his words neutral but cold. "I am thankful that you have brought this to my attention."

Danzō catches his drift. "You have something planned for them, Hokage-sama?"

"I might. Anything else?"

"... no. I'll take my leave now. Hokage-sama." Danzō bows, limping towards the exit. Before he crosses the threshold, he stops, and without turning to Hiruzen, he adds, "You haven't hesitated before."

No, he hadn't, but those were different times. He wasn't free of sins, nor of mistakes, but it is a bitter rebuke to make. Hiruzen hadn't hesitated before, and he had sent his own son to Danzō, trusting his friend to take care of him.

What Danzō did to Shōrai… He changed him. So much that Biwako didn't recognize her own child anymore. She wouldn't forgive Hiruzen, neither of them, but as Hiruzen sees his son, less and less as he fades away, he won't either.

ROOT was not to be trusted, and when that has changed, Hiruzen doesn't know. He would not let any of those children who have no one to fight for them be erased from the books as they go underground, devoid of their souls. Hiruzen had seen Sachi's eyes tangled with the Archive, and he had promised to never allow such hollowness upon a child again, not by his own making.

Hiruzen looks down at the four photos and mourns the fact that they have been foolish enough to shine so brightly, attracting unwanted attention.

Hatake Kakashi, Inuzuka Sachi, Aeka Kasui, Mitarashi Anko… What is he going to do with them?

.

"Anko… are you okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You haven't been taking notes…" Kurenai, her friend notices, pointing to her blank notebook. "Did something happen? Did Sachi-kun—"

"Why does she have anything to do with me?!"

Her voice is too loud, but Anko has not been having the greatest of times. Fucking up her only chance at graduating, she was left at square one. Her notes were as indecipherable as Sachi's, and she was not a step ahead for finally getting out of the orphanage.

The teacher turns to her, and she can already feel the embarrassment for not knowing the answer again.

"Anko-kun," he says, and she holds a groan of frustration. "Can you tell me why Iron Country has a samurai-based military?"

Her self-loathing comes to a halt.

"Because Iron Country can't… um, have a ninja military and remain neutral," Anko recites, remembering her talk with Sachi and Kasui two weeks prior. "They have kept their ways because they can afford it, and because then they can keep selling their resources without being involved. Like what happens during the Shinobi Wars."

The teacher is baffled, and Anko realizes something. She knew the answer, she knew the fucking answer! Kurenai is gaping at her side, even Asuma had turned around to confirm she was the one that said it.

"That's… right. Very good, Anko-kun. It seems you've finally started studying."

Anko looks at the middle rows, seeing Sachi smiling at her.

The class ends not long after, and Anko ignores Kurenai who is asking her how she knew the answer, or Asuma congratulating her. She goes directly after Sachi, who was on her way to fūinjutsu class.

"You… how did you do it?!" Anko demands, out of breath. She ran fast. "Sachi… how did you do it?"

Sachi looks at her with that expression, one Anko couldn't quite describe but that made her feel as if she had asked something obvious. "You're not as dumb as you think, Anko." And before she tells her to fuck off, she adds, "Just because you learn differently, it doesn't make you less."

And just like that, she leaves.

Anko is so damn angry at her for leaving her in the dust after class that she goes directly to the Inuzuka district. Her will falters when she sees the giant archways, wondering if Sachi had banned her from entering or the Inuzuka wouldn't let her in.

"Oh, hiya there!" A brown dog comes up to her. "The pups' are inside, if you wanna go see 'em."

"Um, hi… Is Sachi here…?"

"So you're the other stray pup!" A man, the dog's partner, appears from thin air. "My, our Sachi sure knows her people. Come in, come in, don't be shy!"

"How… how did you—" Anko stops, and reconsiders. "I have her scent on me, don't I?"

"Yep!" The dog says, turning her ears slightly. "You know the way, the other one is here too. Don't wanna be late to play, don't ya?"

Anko passes the gates, confused as to why they were so friendly to her when she had sent Sachi to hell not even a week prior, but she wasn't about to complain. She rushes to their designated training ground, finding Sachi and Kasui sparring together.

"Took you long enough," Kasui greets, swiping at Sachi's feet for the last time before they stop. "Done moping around?"

"Fuck you," Anko growls, but takes a deep breath. "I want to apologize—"

"Don't," Sachi interrupts her, unbothered. "I should be the one that should apologize."

"... huh?"

"I mean, I rushed too much, and you got scared. It's okay," she says, for once honest. "It's okay if you don't trust me—"

"No! No! Don't…it's not like that. I was mad at you because you didn't tell me anything but… how did you do it?"

"I didn't do anything. Anko, do you know what dyslexia is?" The name is so foreign to her she considers it to be a different language. Sachi is serious, and she tells her no. "I'm no medic or Yamanaka shrink, but I think your brain doesn't let you read properly."

"Are you telling me I can't read?"

"No. Um, listen. When you read, do the letters change? Like, the lines in the kanji shift and make out words that shouldn't be there?" Anko nods, weirded out as to how she knew that about her. "That's dyslexia. You have trouble reading because your brain is mixing up everything, it isn't because books are hard, or because your handwriting sucks."

"I'm stupid then."

"No! You answered correctly today, right? You remembered what we talked about a week ago, which means you have a pretty good memory, and you understand things pretty much the moment you hear them," she explains. "I wanted to verify that, so, um… sorry for that, and for not telling you."

"T-then…I have this… dyslexia you're talking about. Does it mean I won't ever become a ninja?"

Oh no.

"No, no, no! Fuck. Anko, it means that you need to learn differently. Instead of reading, you can listen."

"And who's gonna lecture me?"

"That's what friends are for, right?" Sachi smiles, and it's warm. "Anko, I should've told you sooner, but you're really strong."

Anko gives her an unimpressed look. "Flattery—"

"I'm not jacking you off with words," she says quickly. "You can go against Tōkuma in taijutsu, and he's a fucking Hyūga. I've seen you throw a senbon from almost two hundred feet away from the target, and your genjutsu skills are terrifying."

"So?"

"Gods be damned, Anko! You're strong, we need you. Out of all of us, you're probably going to make jōnin without needing help from us, but you need us to help you pass the theory because the teachers won't accommodate you."

Oh.

"A team needs to be balanced. Kasui has perfect chakra control and he's good with ninjutsu but doesn't do well in other ninja arts." Kasui protests in the background. "I'm a chakra cripple, but I'm smart and have seals. You're strong and have all ninja arts and kunoichi classes down but have trouble with control as well as theory. See where I'm going?"

"... we're a perfect team," Anko whispers in disbelief.

"Yes." Sachi says and her eyes are glowing like the sun. "That's why I said we need each other. I… forgot to tell you this, since I thought you would figure it out. But! I learn from my mistakes. So, are you still in?"

For the first time in her life, she feels that something it's right.

"I don't trust you. Yet," Anko tells her, just to make sure. "But I'm in."

(Anko doesn't know how much that decision will affect her life, or the world around her.)

.

"Hello, Tsunade-sama," Sachi greets, stripping.

Ever since the Archive was opened Tsunade has insisted on seeing Sachi more regularly, just to make sure she doesn't go to the deep end again. "Have you had any fevers?"

"Yeah."

"Bad ones?"

"Hmm… nothing an ice bath couldn't solve."

Tsunade pats her on the back, hovering her hands across her scars. "Activate it." Sachi does, and soon her back is inky black before turning a shiny shade of gold. "What's your name?"

"I'm Sachi, really, I'm fine," Sachi huffs, still normal. "I can tell you what kind of tea Mito-sama liked, though."

"Don't push it."

Sachi was now able to access the Archive without getting trapped in it, something she described as 'keeping the door open', which only made sense to her. However, as long as Sachi didn't become a mindless puppet Tsunade was willing to let it pass.

The terms of their deal had changed. Sachi was able to use seals and the Archive as long as she was willing to share the information. Tsunade knew that her sensei had a long discussion after the trial ended, and he was… satisfied with the result. It was a slippery slope, and Tsunade wasn't that willing to trust it yet.

But, Tsunade had to admit it was useful. She had asked Sachi about medicine and techniques she could implement in her hospital, and Sachi had shared it with her— and how nice it was to have your brain fucked— as long as she didn't abuse it. Tsunade didn't want to get caught in the Archive with Sachi, no matter how enticing the knowledge might be.

Still, one question that remained unanswered was how to heal her.

"Take a deep breath…" Tsunade puts her chakra through, feeling the ghost of her pathways and healing the windows to her bloodstream as best as she could. "Hold on…"

It was painful for Sachi. Her nerves might be burnt, but she could still feel a great deal of pain. The Kanbayashi chakra coils were insanely flexible, tied to their bloodline limit that allowed them to absorb and manipulate chakra, and complex as well. It didn't help that Sachi had only Yin and Yang chakra, which forced Tsunade to heal her with only Yin to avoid rejection.

Tsunade tries her best, knowing that it would give Sachi momentary relief from slowly being burned from within, and some resemblance of control over her chakra. At least, she wasn't spewing chakra everywhere, and could mask it somewhat. There would be no cure for her, Tsunade knew, but she still tried, unwilling to give up on a patient.

"How was the date?" Sachi asks her through her teeth.

"Nice. He took me to an Akimichi restaurant."

"Oh, the fancy stuff," Sachi nods approvingly. "He's treating you good."

Another thing that came from Sachi using the Archive was nostalgia. Sachi had aged after reviewing the Archive, and it showed in her interactions with others. As if she was looking at them from the eyes of their relatives, Tsunade had caught her on more than one occasion just staring at her and giving her the smile that her mother used to make when she was in a good mood. It wasn't intentional, or Tsunade would have beaten the audacity out of her, but… strange.

That was the Archive's duty, after all, to keep the dead as if they were alive. Tsunade didn't know how to feel about it but then Sachi had shown her mother's memories, and she had been able to see her father as well, her aunts and uncles in Uzushio... Her little brother.

"Okay," Tsunade sighs. "Let me see your hands."

Sachi turns around, giving her the palms of her hands. Her bloodline limit was something out of a fairytale, and what people would kill to have. Shockingly, her hands were in good condition, considering what she went through. Sachi couldn't do basic hand seals because her chakra coils let either too much or too little chakra through, but the diamonds on her palms had direct pathways to her gates. Allowing her to absorb and manipulate external chakra as if it was her own.

There were also cuts on her fingers and palms, and Tsunade frowned at them. "How did you get these?"

"Dunno. I've been training a lot with Kasui and Anko, falling out of trees and what not."

"... falling?"

"Yeah. Tsume's teaching us how to tree walk, but I keep getting blown away."

Tsunade blinks and holds a sigh. "Show me your feet." Sachi does, and there they are, even more scars. "Did Ashi-sama heal them for you?"

Her soles of her feet had pink scarring, healed recently. Tsunade studied the state of her seventh gate and mapped the coils down to her toes. "It doesn't look good. Do you feel pins and needles?"

"Yeah."

Ugh, this kid.

"Do you feel this?" Tsunade pinches different parts, taking count of her expression to see which she feels the most. "You'll need to stop doing that. Your feet don't have the same coils in them, and you won't be able to stick to trees without stable feedback between them and your body."

Sachi already knows this, but she's too stubborn to accept it. "I get it."

"Good." And, just because she had changed for the better these days, Tsunade adds, "You'll find a way, won't you?"

Sachi grins. "I always do."

Tsunade resumes her checkup. "Kasui and Anko… You've made friends."

"They're gonna be my teammates," Sachi nods, proud.

"That so? You're pretty sure you're going to end up in the same team."

"Obviously. We're a perfect team, you know? Those two are powerhouses, and I'm the brains. Perfectly balanced out."

The medic lets Sachi rant about how all their skills were in perfect synchrony, or how they were going to become jōnin and be the best team Leaf had ever had. It reminded Tsunade of her own team, and how those very same thoughts had been said aloud during their early years.

They have changed since then.

"— about you?"

"What?"

"Your team. The Sannin?" Sachi repeats, glancing back at her. "Leaf has you and your team as the best they have to offer, so I'm curious, what about it?"

The fact that Tsunade doesn't know what to answer bothers her greatly. It was true that the Sannin, and how she hated that fucking nickname, were the heavy hitters of their village but she didn't feel proud of it.

They weren't supposed to be a team, three prodigies that didn't need anybody, stuck together until they got over their egos. Tsunade looks back at her childhood, or the twisted version of it, and envies the time she got to spend with her teammates, when they were forced to work in tandem.

But now…

It was over.

"Doesn't your Archive have the answer?" Tsunade asks, perhaps more bitterly than she wanted.

"I'm asking you," Sachi huffs. "I have memories about all three of you, but you're different from what the Archive shows—" Tsunade pinches her lightly. "Ow. I know you, what about the other two?"

Tsunade thinks for a moment. "Jiraiya is an idiot, especially around women. The only good thing about him is how he knows fūinjutsu and can reach the highest shelf. Also, he always managed to charm our bill."

Which was a talent she arguably had used before, even Orochimaru, not that he would ever admit to it. But Jiraiya was in another league completely.

"He got into a lot of trouble, and…" she stops. They were convinced that Jiraiya wouldn't survive by himself without his teammates but then again, he was the only one that didn't come back. "Bad at keeping in contact too, that dick."

That bastard hasn't written to her, not once.

"And Orochimaru? I haven't seen him in the village."

"He's in Leaf, mostly, but never leaves his lab these days." Which made Tsunade worry because he was pale as milk and she knew he wasn't taking his vitamins. "Very smart, but too dumb when it comes to social interaction. He often gets stuck in his head a lot, and nothing short of a beating will bring him down."

Sachi listens, and the medic realizes that Orochimaru reminds her of Sachi a little bit. That parallel doesn't sit well with her at all and decides to forget about it.

Jiraiya and Orochimaru… They hadn't been on the best of terms. Tsunade had known Orochimaru since he was a child, their mothers were teammates apart from neighbors; it was only fitting that they would be friends. Jiraiya… she had loathed him, at first, the class clown that never took anything seriously. But, Tsunade reluctantly admits, he was fun to be around, and was honestly reliable when he wanted to.

Tsunade misses them.

"My team is going to surpass yours, just so you know," Sachi comments off-handedly.

"Oi, you cheeky brat."

Sachi giggles, and Tsunade can feel genuine happiness coming from her. The scare of the Archive had passed, but it was still a threat. The memories of Tsunade's family were with Sachi, and to lose them…

"You'll see," Sachi insists.

"Well, then get out of my office, you're done for today. Don't do any risky jutsus and keep cycling your chakra carefully."

Sachi nods, and the eerie glow of her skin slowly fades away as she closes the Archive. Tsunade can feel it on her skin when she does, all that chakra rushing back to their pathways. Sachi's face contorts in pain, but she bears it well, already used to it.

"Ashi-sama is a good healer, but if it's bad, come to me. Got it?"

"Will do, ma'am," she salutes, putting her clothes back.

Sachi goes away, and Tsunade can finally relax. That is, until the door of her office opens again.

Speaking of the devil.

"Orochimaru," Tsunade greets, hiding her surprise. "Are you hurt?"

"No," he answers flatly, the same curt tone he had begun using ever since the war ended. "Cellular regeneration."

"Another science question?" That was the only thing he sought her for, and always ended up the same.

"You heal yourself constantly, I want to know if your cells' telomeres are affected, or the DNA sequence is restored or not."

Tsunade couldn't stand Orochimaru like this. When Jiraiya left, and they had to come back by themselves, the last remnants of Orochimaru's restraint had snapped. Now… he was unhinged, a type of ruthlessness that gave her shivers. His eyes gleamed dangerously, and Tsunade sees the same hollowness of the Archive in them.

Lost.

"So what? You want a biopsy?" Tsunade teases, but the joke falls short.

Orochimaru considers it, and Tsunade can only feel pity. He had never stopped to question the morality of his actions. He had no use for it, after all. But back then Orochimaru had leaned on them to know which he should or could not do. Regardless, Orochimaru has drifted away, and Tsunade can't reach him. He doesn't want to.

"It would certainly be helpful."

"Find better hobbies," Tsunade says instead of addressing the wrongness of it. Orochimaru would question why it was strange, and Tsunade didn't have the time to indulge in another humanity lesson. "I know sensei is matching you up with a genin team."

Orochimaru's eyes hardened. He was never one to show any other emotion besides contempt, but anger was a very close second. Tsunade wasn't afraid, for she knew Orochimaru would never hurt her, but her hands closed into fists just in case.

"I do not have the time to waste on babysitting. My research cannot be halted."

Research, research, research. Tsunade held a sigh. Orochimaru had always preferred his lab rather than missions, although he had liked whenever they went together. He got too caught up in his experiments, and Sage knows why he enjoyed doing them, but it worried her. He was tired, Tsunade could tell, lost weight that he did not have and probably dehydrated, the fool. The dark bags under his tattooed eyes showed the obsession and focus, to the extreme that his health came second. Friends… they weren't even considered.

"You can do both," Tsunade tries. "I'll even consider giving you a sample, if you agree."

The wrong thing to say, as his expression darkens further.

"Tsunade," he says her name like a warning. "I would expect you, out of anybody, to understand why I will not agree to another team."

That hurts her, more than being abandoned, than to see her team being broken apart like they had never been together in the first place. The admonition, as if he was expecting her to hate him for what happened. He had already given up.

"Why not?" Tsunade challenges. "You can do better than find another jutsu sequence or reinvent painkillers for the nth time!"

He doesn't flinch at her tone, used to withstand rather than run away. That was what set him apart from Jiraiya, and it only vexed her even more.

"My research—"

"Orochimaru." It's Tsunade's turn to warn him. "There's a reason why sensei wants you to take a team."

"It is not important enough," he decides, definite. "The Hokage will understand, eventually."

When, when did Sarutobi-sensei turn into Hokage-sama?

"I have bothered you enough. If you'll excuse me—"

"Nawaki wouldn't want this."

It's futile, and it hurts to say it. The war hadn't just broken their team, but had taken precious people away from them. People that they couldn't save, no matter how hard they tried. For Orochimaru, whose family was purged by a genetic disease, who had only his team and the little brats he had agreed to tutor… The war had left him alive but barren. Tsunade could see grief hanging from his neck, but he refused to do nothing about it, and she was going to lose him too. She had Dan, and duties, dreams, plans for the future… Orochimaru didn't.

Orochimaru doesn't say anything more and disappears in a body flicker.

"Damnit!"

.

Finals day.

The Academy readies itself for the exams of the last years, the ones that decide who makes the cut for the genin teams or get thrown into the Genin Corps. Here is where those that are truly worth becoming a ninja are selected and those that aren't will have to either accept remaining a normal soldier or work their way up by themselves. A cutthroat week that will set any classmate against the other, competition as harsh as the lives they were preparing themselves for.

"Aburame Tōchō."

The teachers and proctors call the students, pointing them to their seats. The amphitheater type classroom is soon filled with anxious children, some excited and others trembling at the sight of the ten-page exam folder.

"Aeka Kasui. First row."

The boy complies without question. The pattern repeats when the teacher reaches Inuzuka Sachi and Mitarashi Anko, taking great care of putting them as far from each other as possible. Three prodigies, mysteriously being regarded as such after they affiliated themselves with the Inuzuka bastard. No teacher sound of mind would overlook how suspicious it was, but they had no proof; even more reason to watch out.

Sachi is in the middle row, right up in the middle section and facing up the desk of the supervisor. She sits back with her arms crossed over her chest, her usual haori discarded at the end of the class. Her eyes are glowing like beacons, and they're satisfied.

"The exam will begin in five minutes. Take out your stationery and do not flip the exam."

The students do so, and the proctors check for the daring ones that might want to cheat. As usual, the proctors pull out a few plants, to scare them a little bit, and the nervous cloud of worry thickens.

"Begin."

They were expecting Sachi to do something, the sense of foreboding hanging in the air. That girl was incorrigible, and not even a near death experience would curb her behavior. Insane, but always getting her way. It didn't matter that they had engineered a test to try and halt her progress or had very nasty surprises for her.

She raises her hand.

"Sachi-kun. What is it?"

"First page, fifth question. It says, 'describe the Wind-Fire concordat'."

"Yes. What's your question?"

"The question is alluding to the one with Iron Country, right?"

There was only one Wind-Fire Concordat. "Yes," the proctor confirms.

"Okay. Thanks."

Time passes, and another hand is raised.

"Kasui-kun."

"Fourth page, tenth question, 'enumerate the benefits of Senju Hashirama's hidden village system'. Can we put good things that changed even after he died?"

"Yes."

"Another thing," Sachi intervenes, not bothered by the growing vein in the proctor's neck. "Same page, eleventh question, shouldn't it be 'select any of the hidden villages and explain their regime' instead of 'choose a hidden village in the Elemental Countries'?"

"The question is fine—"

"But Elemental Countries do not cover small satellite nations like Bear, Fang or Claw Country. Can we select one of those, for example, despite not being considered an Elemental Nation?"

The proctor sighs. "Yes, the question covers all kinds of hidden villages. Any more questions?"

She smiles. "I'll let you know."

Three agonizing hours later, the written exam ends. The class empties, and the students break out into two groups: the regular ones and the unlucky few that must take the extraordinary exams after failing their midterms, such as Mitarashi Anko. Kasui and Sachi head out to their respective kunoichi and shinobi classes, leaving Anko behind.

Kunoichi had to deliver a message through flower language and play the role of either a lady of a noble family or the maid of said lady, while shinobi had to disguise themselves as ninja from another village or a civilian. Sachi and Kasui pass without problems, and Anko follows during her turn.

Then were the ninja arts exams, which tested their ability to perform ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu. The proctors keep a keen eye on Sachi, although she performs the hand sequence without problems and can describe in great detail the effects of genjutsu on brain waves, as well as manage sufficiently to pass. Taijutsu, she performs well enough, despite being with Hyūga Tōkuma, which puts a smug smile on her face that nearly starts another scandal. Kasui and Anko have an outstanding performance, the latter dragging Akimichi Gan through the ring like a force of nature.

Weaponry goes without a hitch, even though an unseen senbon slipped very close to Tōkuma.

The final test regarding ninja arts were to perform a henge, a kawarimi and a body flicker.

"Inuzuka Sachi… pass."

The Hyūga proctor announces much to his chagrin. The girl had not only passed but had done it well enough to put it into the top marks. It wasn't that uncommon in clan children, but she was a chakra cripple that not too long ago had been at death's door. Kasui and Anko did very well, too, which didn't sit well with the major clan children, nor with those that wanted to see them fail.

Lastly, extra credit classes. Kasui gets top marks in advanced ninjutsu after he successfully performs a Water Bullet that puts a hole into the wooden dummy. Anko, taking advanced genjutsu, creates an illusion so horrid that it makes the proctor gag.

"What's up with Sachi? She's good at fūinjutsu!"

"Maybe she's taking the test again?" Kasui ventures, letting Anko push him higher on the swing.

"Didn't she say that the teachers wouldn't make her do 'em twice anymore? Because of what happened with the Uchiha and all that."

Kasui's mood is momentarily soured by the mention of the incident, but he shrugs. "Arguing with the teacher? I don't know what they teach, wasn't it supposed to be like, just theory?"

"Whatever it is, she should hurry up. She's keeping all of us waiting, and I can't stand it anymore!"

The results were posted the same day of the finals, but all the exams and tests were to be completed first. The other students were waiting for the results around the courtyard, the afternoon stretching on and on, and Sachi was yet to rendezvous with them.

"Finally! Over here, you idiot!"

Sachi waves at them, running and grinning ear to ear. "Hi!"

"What took you so long?" Kasui asks, slowing down. "Was it hard?"

She scoffs. "Not at all. Kushina-sensei tried to test me and told me to try my best at doing, and hear this, a retaining scroll." She takes in their unimpressed glares and huffs a laugh. "My reaction exactly."

"And? Did you do it?" Anko asks, well aware of her rules.

"Yep. Didn't have a choice, did I?"

"Ashi-san's gonna be mad at you."

"No seals out of the house," Anko adds. "What did Kushina-sensei say?"

"She just took it."

"That sounds bad," Kasui muses. "It's gonna give you trouble, isn't it?"

(It will.)

"Nah. I wanted to impress her, since she's an Uzumaki. That way I can get that license once and for all."

"Right! You still going for that?"

Sachi had shared with them her desire to get recognized as a seal master, to show them how it's done, in her words. And also to become filthy rich in the process. Kasui and Anko knew that she was already a seal master in terms of knowledge and skill, but Ashi seemed wary of her showing her talent to anyone she didn't trust; meaning, the main Inuzuka household and them two.

"Yep. I need a recommendation from a sealing master, and because she's the only one in-village… It's kinda obvious," she smiles, proud of herself for some reason. "I think she will at least admit I'm good, we'll see if it's good enough for the Hokage to approve it."

"... okay," Kasui says, seeing the teachers emerge from the building. "Let's get closer. Want to bet?"

"Damn, I'm not ready—"

"Ugh, you did fine." Sachi takes both their hands and pulls them along, saying, "We're the perfect team. I can bet you we're the top three in everything."

Anko, who after finishing her tests looked as if she swallowed a lemon, wasn't so sure. "If this doesn't work… what if we get—"

Kasui slaps her up the head before she finishes the sentence, gathering with the other children as they see the teachers pinning the results on the board. Anko is hesitant to search for her name on the list and not find it, and when her eyes search for the last numbers and she finds nothing, she panics.

She failed, she failed, she failed—

"Ah-ha!" Sachi exclaims, attracting Anko's attention. "Look, look, there we are!"

Lo and behold, there they were.

Inuzuka Sachi Aeka Kasui Mitarashi Anko

Kasui and Anko look up to Sachi, whose smile is blinding, and her eyes are sparkling with victory. "I always keep my promises, don't I?"

(She did.)

.

"Here they come!" Haiiro barks, Ashi peeking outside to see a dust cloud that formed behind their three stray puppies. "Oh-ho! They smellin' happy."

"Ashi!" Sachi's voice carries over, in the lead as she bounces from the rooftops to their house. "Ashi!"

The Inuzuka alpha has only a second to open her arms for the child to fall into them, hugging her tightly and bubbling with so much joy that it tickled her nose in the best of ways. "I get you passed?"

Anko and Kasui drop next, and they're barely holding together their voices to mind for Hana, but Tsume was already calling them in. "C'mon! Sing! Did I lose my money or not!"

Sachi scrambled over Ashi's shoulder to shout into the house. "We were in the top three! We graduated top of the class in everything! I hope you pumped the odds because we're gonna be rich!"

"Don't forget our cut!" Anko reminds, already throwing her sandals away.

Kasui gives Ashi a tired look, but Ashi can feel the excitement out of him. "Get in there, we have to celebrate."

She doesn't need to tell them twice. Truth be told, they had been planning and working very hard for that day. Ashi had seen them study until they collapsed, and she had lost count how many times Haiiro went to nap with them in their puppy pile to keep them warm. They were good kids, smart ones, and Ashi was happy to see them succeed.

"What is this?!" Sachi says, bewildered at the table full of food. She turns in her arms, her golden eyes shining so bright Ashi had to squint. "Did you cook?!"

"Of course not," Tsume says, offended. "We got Akimichi takeaway."

"No way!" Ashi drops Sachi, too squirmy to hold.

"For us?" Kasui asks, and Ashi pats his shoulder to take a seat.

"Who else? C'mon, show me your hitai-ates."

All three put their forehead protectors into the air, and Ashi envies their happiness. The metal is shiny, and she is already grieving the day it would dull with use and be scratched. For now, she puts a smile and coos how nice they are and checks that their genin serial number is correct.

The conversation falls short as they start to eat, famished after spending a full day writing tests and performing trials. Tsume had Hana play around with Sachi's hitai-ate, the little girl mirroring the cheer while Kuromaru kept her safe. Haiiro was at Ashi's side, the old dog sighing contently watching their feral pups have their fill.

"Thank you for the meal!" They say in unison, flopping on the floor absolutely stuffed.

Tsume, taking her cue, goes into the pantry.

"So, how did ya do it?"

"What're you saying, Haiiro?"

"Don't bullshit me pup, tell me, what did you do?"

Kasui and Anko immediately look at Sachi, who isn't fazed at being found out. "We passed, fair and square."

"Yeah, sure."

Tsume appears, putting three bottles of sake on the table. "This'll loosen your tongues."

"Alcohol? That's your bribe?" Kasui asks, holding his smile back.

"Is it workin'?"

"Yes."

Ashi stops Anko before she reaches over to the bottles. "I can smell it on ya. What did you do?"

"Okay, okay. Sachi did it."

"Snitch!"

Kasui, ever the buffer between the girls, says, "Sachi planned it, we went along with it."

"Traitor! You are getting cocky with me now that you're a genin?" Sachi complains, giggling as Anko tells her to hurry up so they can finally taste Tsume's brew. "Um. We had two problems. One is me and ninja arts, and the other is Anko and her dyslexia."

"Go on."

Tsume and Ashi knew that Anko had trouble making out what she read out sometimes, since Sachi had come up to them in case they had any advice. It was a handicap, and they had told Anko to keep it a secret since it would only impair her further to graduate. Similar to Kasui and his poor eyesight and Sachi's chakra condition, those kinds of quirks were frowned upon and could prompt the higher ups to discard them into Genin Corps arguing that they were unfit for work.

"Anko knows her stuff, but can't read it well, so we only had to say it out loud."

"Say it?" Tsume echoes. "Whatcha mean, say it?"

"We just raised our hands and repeated the question," Kasui explains before Sachi went on a rant on technicalities.

"All of them?"

"Nope. The proctors could ban us if we did, but once you figure out their exam system, it's easy."

Ashi, for the sake of conversation, asked, "And what you did was…?"

"There are topics that almost always appear in exams, some longer like Hashirama's hidden village system or the Nidaime's political treaties and other short, just like the Wind-Fire Concordat or the Water dispute for Uzushio," Sachi explains, the other two nodding along.

"If you know which are the ones that are longer and which are shorter, you can predict which would be paired with which," Sachi glances at Anko and grins at her. "Because Anko could get them confused, we only had to tell her which they had chosen for the exam and then she would know what to put in them. Easy."

Ashi remembered the day that Nara Shun told her that he crafted his exams diligently, and yet Sachi had figured him out with no trouble at all.

"That's it? They didn't notice?" Tsume asks, jealous. "What the fuck?"

"They were trying to find out if we were cheating with notes or something like that, but Anko knows everything she needs to, so we only helped her."

"Yep. And the numbers too, with where the comma was and what not in the maths and physics problems."

"Well, obviously. They write the things so small it's almost impossible to tell, even with my eyes," Sachi easily defends. "And because they have certain exam models for the finals and the extraordinary exams, we didn't even need to be with Anko when she took those."

"Had I known it was that easy…" Tsume laments.

"Now, me. As you know, I have a chakra condition—" Sachi begins, everyone recognizing her about to go on a rant.

"Hurry it up, the sake's getting bad."

"— anyway. Kasui and Anko don't have this problem, so they took it for me."

Ashi, Tsume and the dogs stare blankly. The other two tykes don't see anything wrong with that statement and nibble on the macarons. "Explain."

"But you told me to hurry up!" Tsume kicks her under the table. "Such abuse. Okay, those damned proctors were waiting for me to make the slightest mistake to fail me. You know that I can do the kawarimi and body flicker just fine, but the henge…"

Sachi could perform the substitution jutsu, but she lacked the finesse to land where she wanted; the same happened with the body flicker, Sachi either ending up too far or too short. In open spaces it was fine, but they held the test in the dōjō, and Sachi faceplanting into the wall would instantly fail her. The henge was a lost cause, since her chakra was too uneven to craft into the illusion needed to change your appearance as well as making an afterimage that could stand by your side.

"So Kasui and Anko did it for you. How?"

"Genjutsu-seals," Sachi said, as if it was good enough for them to understand. "I created them. Kasui and Anko can hold up genjutsu, but the exam would take a lot of time and they would need to take their tests too. So, I made a seal that would help them distribute the chakra all over their body and keep the image without them having to consciously maintain it. Which was absolutely brilliant because the Hyūga proctor tried to use his byakugan to see if I was cheating, but because the seal was active, he got blinded as if I was the original Sachi."

Ashi holds a sigh, refusing to get a headache over this. "And they didn't notice you three switching up?"

"Not at all!" Sachi laughs. "Kasui's first on the list, so after his test he took the kawarimi and the body flicker, while Anko made the henge because we were too many and we got separated by gender. It was easy to switch, since there were so many kids."

"Right, we kept bumping into one another, so cramped!" Anko complains, Kasui snickering behind them.

It was her fault, it was Ashi's fault. She had been the one to tell Sachi to try and make some friends, and she had stupidly believed Sachi would find good influences. Sachi, Anko and Kasui were cut from the same cloth, and Ashi would regret the decision to keep them together, she knew it.

(She wouldn't.)

"And it worked?" Tsume asks, bewildered. "Wait a sec, did you switch up places in front of a Hyūga proctor and they didn't notice ya?"

"Those milkies aren't that great if you know how to play 'em," is Sachi's answer, the sly bastard, as if she didn't have the Archive. "We kicked them in the teeth, we're in the top three! I told you I would graduate at the top of my class."

An Inuzuka was the top student. Now that was something to be put in history books.

"Yeah, yeah. Good thing I bet on you."

The Inuzuka had a pool bet for whether Sachi would graduate at the top of her class or not. Ashi would be lying if she hadn't let a rumor or two out that it didn't look good for Sachi, and with her recent hospitalization… It was all for a good cause, of course. Tsume laughed with them, happy that they got away with it. Ashi was too, but she didn't want to urge them to continue pushing their luck.

"It wasn't our fault the examination system is flawed," Sachi excuses herself, the master of finding loopholes and exploiting them. "But, it doesn't matter. We're going to become jōnin, it's in the best interest of Leaf."

"You're awfully sure you three are gonna end up together," Kuromaru comments, nuzzling a sleeping Hana on his belly.

"That's because we will."

"Don't the top students get paired with the dead lasts? Mine was like that," Tsume recalls.

"Ours won't. Wanna bet?"

Tsume, sensing Sachi's confidence, backs away. "Drink up, pup, let's see if you can hold up or not."

It's the only encouragement they need. Opening a special sweet sake was a tradition for any graduating student, usually letting them get a shot or two to celebrate their achievement.

"You passed, so you three are now considered adults," Ashi says, watching how they get their first taste of Tsume's special brew. "This is our welcome gift. Okay, hold on, don't drink up the whole bottle—"

.

"Orochimaru, welcome."

His student is the perfect depiction of a wet cat, hissing like one too. "What is the meaning of this, Hokage-sama?" He demands, seething at being called to his office yet again.

"I have a mission for you."

"I will not take another team," he says, determined. "I refuse."

Hiruzen hates to see that kind of expression on him, but he knows it's necessary. "I decline. I have explained why you are an important asset that must pass his legacy onto, and I will see to it."

He pushes three manila envelopes towards him, but Orochimaru doesn't even glance at them to glare at him for daring to get him out of his lab. He had been hesitant when taking Nawaki and his other two students, but Hiruzen knew he had done his very best to tutor them. They had been close, Orochimaru and Nawaki, which had broken him beyond recognition after the latter's death.

Orochimaru wasn't incapable of emotion, but it burdened him so. Hiruzen had recognized that fault early and believed that Tsunade and Jiraiya would help him grow out of that emotional stupor that he found himself in after his parents and clan died. And it worked, but when it came the time for Orochimaru, the heartless prodigy that was misunderstood, to finally be recognized during the war, it all went to hell.

Nawaki's death, although violent, was not uncommon. A missed explosive tag that not even the fastest shinobi, and not even one of Orochimaru's caliber, could avoid for the sake of his student; not when he was soldiering the worst part of the attack. That bond, of teacher and student that Hiruzen cherished still, had been buried in Nawaki's casket for Orochimaru.

"I understand, Hokage-sama." And Orochimaru spits that name like one of his snakes' venom. "You know best."

"These three are special," he warns him, but Orochimaru loses himself in anger quickly, aloof as he tries to be. "I will not see them fail without a proper reason."

With Jiraiya gone, and the aftermath of the death of the honorable grandson, Orochimaru's reputation fell into the slums. Already ostracized by his brilliance, Orochimaru had stopped caring about how others perceived him: emotionless, ruthless, merciless… A mad dog that only heard his master's call; if that.

Hiruzen could only do so much for his student, but hiding in his lab and doing his experiments, no matter how useful they were, would be frowned upon by those that couldn't get past their misconceptions. Orochimaru had fought with Leaf like no other, and no soldier without a heart and honest loyalty would do the same in his place; fighting for the sake of those that crossed to the other side of the street when they saw him, or those that spoke ill of him, even to his face.

(They said that he killed Nawaki on purpose, weeding out the competition early. There was only one ambition for someone like Orochimaru, no one was safe.)

Looking at Orochimaru now, his hair in a messy bun and his eyes purple not from tattoos but from lack of sleep… Hiruzen pushes the envelopes further. "Take them. They will do you good."

"Is this a social intervention?" Orochimaru asks, bitter. "Three sacrificial lambs to appease the dragon?"

"You're no dragon," the Hokage chastises him.

"Oh no, I'm a snake, which is worse."

The jab is harsh, but Hiruzen is willing to let it pass. Orochimaru had always seen his way first, but he would understand, he needed to.

"Give them a chance." And because Hiruzen is willing to try one last time, he adds, "If these genin don't suit you, I will stop pushing the mentorship on you."

His student considers it, and Hiruzen already knows what he is planning. And yet, this time the Hokage has an inkling that it won't work out.

(A battle of wills.)

"I see," Orochimaru hums, but it's not true. Because when he takes the folders, without even opening them, he doesn't know what he is in for. "I will see you soon, Hokage-sama."

Orochimaru vanishes, and Hiruzen can feel his wary bones settle in his body, but he's… content. He was not only trying to save his student, but three young minds that would waste away if someone couldn't protect them.

"Let's see what you can do."

(No one would see them coming.)

.

The following morning is filled with curses and moans of pain.

"Drink this."

"... I… I won't ever drink anything again."

"Just drink it."

"... so loud, so, so loud…"

The pups were all in various states of hangover. Kasui was facing a corner of the living room, his glasses gone, and just focused on breathing. Anko was sprawled on the floor, mesmerized by how the ceiling spun, and Sachi… Sachi was the most awake, but didn't look happy at all.

"My head hurts. What the fuck does Tsume put in her sake?" Sachi complained. Ashi wasn't sure if alcohol hit Sachi harder because of her seals or her condition, but she was looking downright miserable, holding her head in her hands, nothing sort of begging.

"Drink it up." Sachi does, and grimaces more because of how her head turns than how bitter the drink is.

"Agh, gods, I'm so sorry… so sorry…" she groans. "What did I drink? Vinegar and vomit?"

"Egg yolks, more likely," Haiiro says, utterly amused at the scene. "Welcome to adulthood, pup."

"Fuckin' great."

Ashi had tried to warn them, Tsume's sake not for the weak of heart, but that was a lesson that was learned in blood. They had drunk a bottle each, which was impressive, but they soon went down as it kicked. And it kicked hard.

"I hate you… fuckin' Rice Country… you just had to come from there, did you…?"

"There, there." Ashi pats her on the back, not pitying her in the least. "That's the Inuzuka recipe for you."

Sachi curses them until their very first ancestor. The Inuzuka were originally from Rice Country, and they had the sake to show for it. Tsume had memorized the recipe and kept the relations with the noble farmers in the north to keep their tradition going, and every year she took a mission to help them out in exchange for using their brewery. Hard alcohol was a favorite for ninja, and Tsume was overzealous of her dear sake, but she was willing to let others have a taste as long as she had some incentive.

The fact that Tsume laughed into hysterics at watching those three getting shitfaced, with Kasui making water bubbles and Anko wrestling with Kuromaru and Haiiro, all the while Sachi was busy trying to teach the mirror seals because she couldn't recognize herself.

A well-rounded evening, that ended up with Ashi holding them by their tunics while they puked in the bushes outside the house and then hauling them into the living room. Kasui and Anko glued themselves to Sachi, whose warmth was too tempting to let go, and then waking up with a skull splitting headache.

"Kasui, Anko, drink this," Ashi prompts. "C'mon, darlings, we have things to discuss."

Bringing up serious business makes all three of them snap their heads to look at her and groaning on cue. They listen, for they crawl their way to the table and lean on Sachi to soothe their wrecked bodies.

"What is it, Ashi-san?" Kasui asks, polite even when hangover.

"We've let ya celebrate that you passed, and that's wonderful, but we need to talk. Before you get scared, it's nothing bad, so you don't have to fret."

They do anyway, Haiiro sneezing at their concern.

"Kasui, Anko, now that you've become adults, you will be moved to the Genin Corps." The mention of it contorts their faces in shame. "Not your fault, but it's gonna happen."

Orphans that successfully graduated from the Academy were thrown out onto the streets. They usually went into Genin Corps since they didn't have a penny to their names or a place to fall dead on. Even the truly gifted orphans, the ones that would be picked up by a mentor, would be forced to stay into the designated apartments meant for young broke genin until they had enough funds to move out.

Genin Corps was a lawless land that would ensure no one would rise up the ranks. The most insane soldiers Ashi had ever met came from Genin Corps, and that was to say something. Kasui and Anko already knew this and had packed all their belongings in their retaining scrolls beforehand so they could stay the night and celebrate. Now that they did that, they were faced with the harsh reality of becoming an adult at twelve.

"Here, have a look." Ashi unseals a stack of papers, Kasui searching for his glasses to read them. "You're adults, so we can't adopt you, but—"

"A sponsorship?!"

"— but we can sponsor you."

Kasui and Anko were holding the form with trembling hands, Sachi reading over their shoulder to see what it was about.

"A sponsorship is a way for bright minds like you without resources to be able to train as any other clan member," Ashi tries to explain, but all three of them had their eyes glued to the papers. "Listen to me, c'mon. Because I don't need to pass any of my techniques on to you, I've decided to buy your talent."

A sponsorship served as a getaway to provide a legacy without having children or harnessing skills that would serve the contractor well. Ashi wasn't that heartless to say that she had chosen to sponsor them because they were prodigies, but she had seen a potential in them that others would undoubtedly try to take advantage of. She had first dibs on them.

"Until now I didn't ask for anything more than for you to study and graduate, and you did, but things change now. The Inuzuka clan, and me personally, will take care of your taxes, housing, equipment, weapons, and medical insurance; as well as help ya out if something happens or you get in trouble." Which Ashi is certain will occur but prays it won't' be too expensive.

"You're genin, and it will be a while until you pay back the amount I'm putting on you, but you can start by pulling your weight in the clan." Ashi won't have slackers in her clan.

"Helping with the ninken, the clinics, keeping the training grounds clean… things like this. You might not have the red fangs, but for all intents and purposes, you're Inuzuka until this fee is paid up, understood?"

They nod without a word.

"Good. It's not me gettin' soft, and I might like you, but I won't allow for any of you to forget what this says here. This will cover until you make jōnin, so you better keep that promise of yours to get there," Ashi sighs, Haiiro putting his nose on her side with glee. "We'll get you settled in one of the apartments in the compound or you can stay in the main house. We will need to see a cleric to have this put into the records. That is, unless you don't want to."

When Ashi looks up, she finds the three of them crying silently while staring at her.

"Darlings?!" Ashi exclaims, shocked.

Before she knows it, all three of them vault over the table, not hindered by their hangover anymore and hugging her tightly while they bawl into her shirt and rub their snot all over her.

"Ashi-san! Ashi-san!" They cry out to her, a mix between relieved and happy. "T-thank you so much! So much, so much—! We'll make you proud, we promise!"

"Why are you crying? Hey, darlings, don't cry, what is it?"

Haiiro barks a laugh. "You have three pups now. Three!"

"I don't!" Ashi says, but the evidence is all over her. "C'mon, don't cry, isn't it supposed to be a good thing…? Sachi, why are you crying for?"

The Inuzuka alpha can only sigh and let them cry until they exhaust themselves. The sweet aroma of happiness, paired with the saltiness of tears is a balm to her worries about their future.

Ashi could only help them so much, and she knew it was a little strange for her to take all three of them under her wing, but she couldn't help it. Those three were meant to be together, and Ashi believed that they would make the best ninjas the world had ever seen.

"I hope I made a good decision…"

(Ashi would die convinced that she did.)

.

Aaaaaand, we're done here! Thank you for reading this arc, we we'll see each other in the next: FAMILY OF MISFITS.

This fic takes a lot of my time, and I'm trying my best to keep up, but I'm going to be busy until the summer so expect a slow update. Also, the next arc is focused on the innerworkings of a genin team, and how they're trained to serve. We'll see how the terror trio fares, fluff or angst, only time will tell.

Here we have them Sachi, Kasui and Anko, graduated top of their class and will be quite the team. Who knows what they will do, or if they will surpass the Sannin. Sachi always keeps her promises though.

Anko and Kasui would've ended up in the same team in canon anyway, which will be explained someday (hehehe). Hyūga Tōkuma would've been their third teammate, but Sachi is here to change things.

Kushina and Minato! Of course they will show up, but oh, look at this foreshadowing.

I have to say it now, I'm not the biggest fan of Jiraiya, but I swear this isn't a Jiraiya bashing fic. It's obvious that Tsunade and Orochimaru would be pissed at him for leaving them in the cold, but so far, we don't have all the details.

I didn't find anything that confirmed that Orochimaru was Nawaki's sensei (Tsunade's brother), but Orochimaru was with him when he died, so I think it is heavily implied. Anyway, this is my fic, and I wanted all that Orochimaru angst, so here we have it. There will be plenty in the next arc too.

As always, thank you so much for reading! see ya in the next arc, stay safe!