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Appreciation,

A Naruto Fanfiction,

By Aleh

Chapter Three: Of Kitsune and Kaijuu, Part Three

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Disclaimer:

I do not own any of the series used or referenced in this story. Said series are the properties of their creators and/or publishers.

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Several minutes later I led my team to the edge of a nearby wooded area. I was somewhat at a loss as to what to call it -- it was too small to be considered a forest but too large to be considered a grove. The training grounds of Konoha had these interspersed throughout them, a legacy of the First Hokage that the shinobi of Konoha continued to use for their original purpose: training.

Of course they didn't last long when I was around, which was part of why Tenzou was rarely assigned to prolonged missions outside the village.

"Right," I began. "To start with, I'm going to teach you a rather useful chakra control exercise."

My students' reactions were a bit of a mixed bag.

"Look," I explained, "Naruto-kun needs the control training and the exercise forms the basis of a rather useful technique in and of itself. Additionally, better control won't hurt any of you and this is on the list of things that you pretty much have to master before you can be considered chuunin."

I shrugged. "Besides, I don't expect all of you to master the exercise at the same time and that will give me a chance to teach another exercise to whoever finishes first."

I noticed that Naruto and Sasuke looked... disconcerted? Regardless, they seemed a bit put off.

"After you master this, I have a list of exercises to teach each of you, but they're different exercises for each of you," I clarified. "If you all finish at the same time, I'll have to split my attention three ways to teach three different exercises at the same time. If you don't I can stagger the schedules somewhat and check between you."

Naruto nodded in understanding, before scrunching his face up in thought.

"Why different exercises?" Sasuke asked.

"Each of you is suited for different techniques, which means that you'll have to learn different things in order to master them," I answered, shrugging. "The one good thing about the D-ranked missions that we'll be stuck running is that they can usually be adapted into team coordination training, so we'll be doing that while we run them."

"Ne, Sensei?" Naruto asked. "I understand why I need to learn chakra control, but why are you starting with it for Sakura-chan and Sasuke?"

I grinned at him. "I had originally intended to start with an answer to that," I told him, "but we got distracted and I decided to skip it since I'd covered a bit of the material when I evaluated your ability. On the other hand I think that the explanation and demonstration could do you some good, and you just gave me the perfect lead in, didn't you?"

Naruto nodded in understanding, a small smile gracing his face.

"Anyway, to an extent, your ability at ninjutsu can be measured by three things: how much chakra you have, how well you can control it, and what you know how to do with it. Naruto-kun has a huge amount of chakra but not much control. Sakura-kun, on the other hand, has very little chakra, but has the best control of the three of you. Sasuke-kun falls between Naruto-kun and Sakura-kun on both categories, but is somewhat ahead in terms of the third category."

Sasuke looked at me.

"I'm referring to the fact that you know a form of fire-style nature manipulation," I clarified.

"Hn," Sasuke replied.

"Anyway, having more chakra means that you can put more power into your techniques, can use more techniques before becoming exhausted, and can use techniques that require more raw power. Knowing more abilities means that you can do more things with your chakra. Finally, having better control means that you can use your chakra more efficiently, using less chakra to achieve a specified effect, thereby effectively increasing your reserves and letting you use techniques that require finer and more precise control, something which is not to be discounted in terms of importance."

Seeing that my students were following me, I walked up to a tree and gathered a good amount of chakra into the basic pattern of a rasengan. "This is a fairly large amount of chakra, formed into a fairly advanced jutsu, although without the control that would be needed to complete the technique."

With that I slammed it into the tree where it dissipated, leaving a few scratches in the bark. "As you can see, it didn't do much. With good control, however," I said, holding out the index finger of my right hand and gathering some chakra into it, "considerably less chakra can be used to accomplish a great deal more." As I finished I lightly tapped the tree with my finger, releasing the chakra I had gathered in a single controlled burst.

The tree cracked and fell over, much to my students' surprise. Naruto's eyes actually bugged out somewhat.

"That was a small demonstration of what can be done with enough chakra control," I told them. "With enough raw power... well, you've all heard stories about the Kyuubi's attack." I shook my head. "Lots and lots of power, very little control or precision."

Naruto quickly calmed down at that, although the expression on his face was thankfully more of determination than depression.

"On the other hand, you get the best results when you combine the two," I continued, gathering my chakra in a completely different manner and focusing my senses on another tree. After a moment of concentration I moved, a blade of wind-natured chakra forming as an extension of my arm and slicing through the tree. Not one to let it end there I quickly took the blade back around for another slice, using my momentum to bounce off a nearby tree and come back for another cut. Within a few rebounds from the nearby foliage I had cut through the tree nearly ten times, easily preparing it for the finisher which consisted of a chakra-enhanced kick that sent the pieces crashing away from my students before the tree had time to begin to fall over from my first cut.

All in all, I thought that it was a rather impressive demonstration. Naruto, apparently, agreed with me.

"That was so cool!" he exclaimed, leaning forward as he stared at one of the pie-shaped slices of the tree.

I grinned, panting as I held my hands to my shins. "I'm glad you think that," I told him. "That first ball of chakra took more out of me than I thought. Give me a second, would you?"

After a few moments I managed to catch my breath and figured that I had recovered enough to use a technique that I normally saved for emergencies. Focusing within, I formed my remaining chakra into a metaphorical battering ram and forcibly opened kyuumon for a few moments, flooding my system with chakra and filling my reserves.

I'd pay for it later, of course, in the form of slowed regeneration for a few days and a nasty headache in the morning, but I couldn't afford to show weakness to Sasuke and that meant that I couldn't admit just how much those techniques had really taken out of me.

Repeated uses would of course exact a higher price. Fortunately, I could afford to take it relatively easy for a few days -- after using that technique, I'd need to.

My reserves recovered to near their maximum, I stood up and focused my attention back on my students. "Anyway, that last thing was a technique I'm working on; I call it 'kaze no yaiba'. Ideally, I'd be able to form the blade in an instant and use less chakra than I do, among other things, but... well, that's why I'm still training."

Specifically, the ideal version of that technique would be able to cut through armor. While I was at it, the ability to cut through a manifested aura would be nice, too.

Oh, and "less chakra" meant less than a tenth of what it actually took. If it wasn't for Naruto I wouldn't have bothered with fuuton techniques, honestly, but... well, each fuuton technique I picked up or developed was one more to teach Naruto -- one more way in which Naruto could become stronger.

Well, that and fuuton techniques were rather useful for directing a giant cloud of nerve gas.

"Alright," I said, shaking myself out of my thoughts, "anyway, Naruto-kun, you have ridiculous amounts of chakra, but not much knowledge of techniques or control over that power. Sasuke-kun has some knowledge of ninjutsu and high reserves for a beginning genin, as well as decent control for a fresh graduate. Sakura-kun has fairly low reserves for a beginning genin, but makes up for that by using what she has efficiently. Regardless, as I said, all of you could use better control, which is why I'm going to be starting with one of the more useful control exercises. The fact that it also makes a useful technique in and of itself is a nice bonus."

I chuckled for a moment. "Actually, Naruto-kun, I've already demonstrated it for you." With that I walked to yet another tree, planted a foot on it, and proceeded to walk up it for a bit. When my feet were around my students' eye level I turned and crouched against the tree, sticking to it by my back. "The idea is to walk up the tree like I just did, although you've only really mastered the technique when you're able to go up all the way to the top. The trick is to expel a precise amount of chakra from the bottom of your feet. Too little, and you fall off. Too much, and, well..."

I "stood" back up, once again standing horizontally against the tree, and deliberately expelled an overly large amount of chakra from my feet, leaving a dent in the tree and forcing myself off. After a quick flip, I landed on my feet and finished the instructions. "It helps if you start at a bit of a run; save walking normally for later. Also, Naruto-kun, while it's easier to do when you're calm, that'll be truer for you than for most. Mark your progress with a kunai; that way you'll have an idea of how much you've improved. I'll be here to catch you if you fall or push yourself off the tree with too much force and can't recover on your own."

And, with that, my students started their training.

--

I wasn't surprised that Sakura was the first one to complete the exercise or that she managed to accomplish that before either Sasuke or Naruto managed to get more than five consecutive steps up their trees. I was, however, surprised that it took her nearly three hours. I supposed that I shouldn't have been; while it was true that Sakura had mastered this exercise almost instantly in the other timeline, she had done so after spending a while training under one of Konoha's foremost experts on traditional ninjutsu.

In the meantime, while they were working, I focused on giving my students the occasional tip. There wasn't much that I could say, really, given the nature of the exercise, but I did tell them what I could and caught all three of them at least once each.

Truth be told, Naruto needed catching most often. Not using enough chakra caused you to fall, true, but you were still in contact with the tree and could catch yourself pretty easily. Using too much, however, could send you flying. Sasuke and Sakura tended to make the former error more often than the latter, while Naruto actually had to switch trees once thanks to the indentations in the trunk weakening the tree's overall structure.

Soon enough, however, Naruto was no longer flying about and Sasuke was no longer slipping... and Sakura had managed to complete the exercise. Leaving a kage bunshin to watch over my other students (and mourning the loss of the chakra used in creating it), I took Sakura aside to explain the next exercise.

"Alright," I said after we'd cleared the edge of the miniature forest, "the next thing to work on is your chakra reserves. Like I told the others, you have good control, but not enough stamina, and you get the best results when you have both. You'll never be in Naruto-kun's league when it comes to raw power, of course, but you still need strength to work with or all the finesse in the world won't do you much good."

Sakura nodded in acknowledgement. "So how will I work on that?"

"You're going to make dinner," I replied, smiling mischievously.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched, a vein on her forehead standing out prominently as she visibly restrained herself. "I assume that there's something more to this," she flatly stated, her suppressed anger leaking into her voice.

I grinned. "Of course. The best way to increase your chakra reserves is to use them -- they're like muscles that way, although physical conditioning exercises and meditation can help somewhat. I usually design training exercises to accomplish as many goals and teach as many skills as possible without becoming so difficult as to be useless, so the fact that this exercise will produce a meal is just an added bonus -- and make no mistake about it, all of you will be rather hungry by the time you're done training." I frowned at that. "For that matter, I'm maintaining a kage bunshin at the moment, and will probably continue to do so until you stop training. I'll need to eat as well."

Sakura nodded in understanding. "So what do I need to do?"

"First," I instructed, "use henge to transform into me."

After she did that, I counted some money and handed it to her. "That should be enough to buy some ingredients. I want you to go shopping while maintaining your disguise. I'll switch places with my kage bunshin and have it follow you in case you run into trouble; many chuunin and most jounin will be able to see through your disguise, so I'll have to be there to explain."

Sakura's eyes widened, something that looked rather strange on my face. "You're not only trying to get me to exercise my chakra, but you're also trying to teach me how to maintain a jutsu without focusing on it, right?"

I smirked. "Of course. You'll also have to imitate my mannerisms somewhat; the ability to do all of that subconsciously will be a major help later on."

Sakura-in-my-body suddenly frowned. "But shouldn't I start with someone closer to my size?"

I shrugged. The amount of chakra used in henge no jutsu was proportionate to the differences in size and shape between the user and the disguise, but... "No, not really. I'd have more trouble explaining to various people about what's going on if you were to transform into someone who isn't on this team, and I have notes on Sasuke-kun and Naruto-kun's relationships with some of the vendors, so I can advise you on how they'd act if needed. Additionally, I assure you that doing this while disguised as either of them will be considerably more difficult than doing it while disguised as me."

My temporary double looked at me in confusion. "Why would..."

I grinned. "You'll understand that tomorrow," I told "him". "For now, though, I decided to start with the easiest." I shrugged again. "Besides, this will also hopefully give you some insight into your teammates, thereby providing another benefit to the training."

Sakura-disguised-as-me again nodded in understanding.

"Oh," I said suddenly as I recalled something that I'd forgotten. "If you think that you can't maintain the disguise and need to take a break, put your right hand into the right half of the 'tiger' seal without lifting it. My clone will take that as a signal to lead you somewhere safe to rest."

Seeing that Sakura didn't seem to understand, I decided to elaborate a bit more. "People suddenly using or dropping a transformation in a crowded area could cause a disturbance," I explained, "so it's best if you don't do so. I don't want ANBU to get involved."

They'd understand, of course -- this was only a minor adaptation of a standard exercise, after all -- but it would be a hassle. Besides, the extra scrutiny could be a problem in a few days if everything went according to plan.

Sakura gave me an odd look. "Why not?" she asked.

"It would be a hassle," I responded frankly. "This is an adaptation of a standard training exercise, so they can't cause me too much trouble, but there are some members of ANBU who I don't get along with all that well, and I don't think they'd be above taking the opportunity to annoy me as much as possible."

Sakura frowned and sunk into a decidedly non-masculine posture before yelping as I appeared behind her and hit her upside the head, causing her to drop the henge.

"That," I chided her as the smoke dissipated, "would have given you away. Watch your mannerisms."

"Yes, sensei," she acknowledged before resuming her previous train of thought. "Why..."

"Don't I get along well with some of ANBU?" I asked. "Some of it's the usual personality conflicts, and some of it's the usual 'history' between shinobi, but I was specifically thinking of 'former' members of the 'Root' organization when I said that."

Seeing Sakura's look of confusion, I decided to elaborate. "The 'Root' organization was a subdivision in ANBU that was run by Danzou. It was officially disbanded, but the members of it were almost universally personally loyal to Danzou to the point that they viewed themselves as his tools. Because of that, it has lived on in an unofficial capacity... and is still loyal to him. As for the rest... I don't think that I've made a secret of my enmity with Danzou, and I assure you that the feeling is mutual. I wouldn't put it past his followers to take just about any opportunity to hassle me."

Sakura nodded in understanding. "But wouldn't they see through the henge?"

"Of course," I admitted, "but there's a difference between interrupting a training exercise and deliberately being overly heavy-handed and annoying when 'investigating' a 'disturbance' like the one you'd cause if you suddenly dropped the transformation in public."

"Ah. Understood."

"Good. When you get back, my clone will alert me, and I'll set up some equipment to cook with. You'll also be maintaining the henge while cooking, so take that into account; for now, at least, you don't want to get anything that requires overly elaborate preparation, and I speak from experience when saying that precise movements while 'wearing' the appearance of an unfamiliar body can be difficult, even if it is technically only an illusion. It takes a while to get used to doing so... which is another part of the purpose of the exercise."

Nodding in confirmation, Sakura re-applied the henge. I gave it a cursory check-over -- the hair was the right shade of green, the features shaped correctly... only her body posture gave away that it wasn't really me.

Well, that and the aura, the 'feel' of her chakra. Just sensing that, however, was a high chuunin level skill; actively faking it was a skill that even I had yet to master, and I was a jounin, a recognized master of the shinobi arts... for all the good that the status did me.

Once again forcing my attention back to the task at hand, I sent Sakura into the main portion of the village and set off to once again swap with my clone.

--

Meeting with my clone only took a few seconds; exchanging our memories of the events that took place in the meantime took a few more. Doing so was a technique that I had been been careful to master in order to conserve chakra; I couldn't afford to create and dismiss them the way Naruto did. I could think of circumstances under which it would be useful for Naruto, too, but it was beyond his ability for the time being, and even if he'd had the control to learn it, there were other things that would be more useful.

In other words, it was a matter of priorities. Besides, even if anything happened to me, I had... taken steps... to ensure that Naruto got a copy of my notes on jutsu, including that one, in addition to the trust fund, the safe houses, and the other things that I had left him.

My clone had needed to catch Naruto once while I was away; fortunately, it had been able to do so without dissipating. That... would have been problematic, given the technique I had used earlier. Pulling off what I needed to without overextending my reserves would be tricky enough with things the way they were.

As that thought ran through my head, my bunshin jumped off to find Sakura. Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I turned to resume catching duty with Naruto and Sasuke.

--

Sakura's shopping trip went fairly well; my clone only had to warn her off of a course of action once, and that wasn't technically her fault -- while she probably could have guessed that I knew Outa Gibi, she had no way to know that I disliked shrimp, nor that Gibi was aware of my dislike... and the reasons for it. If you get sick every time you're exposed to a food for the first twenty five years of your life, you tend to avoid it, after all.

Regardless, her decision to buy some shrimp would have been enough to alert Gibi to the fact that something strange was going on. Being in a ninja village, where lots of people knew how to perform henge... well, the conclusion would have been obvious. And, given that Mai was Gibi's favorite cousin, well, I could expect... problems... from my least favorite fan-girl and her pet cult.

Gibi, on the other hand, would probably use it as an excuse to try to break into my apartment again. I didn't know just why he kept on trying to steal my underwear, and, frankly, I didn't want to. I wasted far too many antidotes on the idiot as things were. Knowing him, however, chances were that it was a simple case of wanting a nice present to give to his cousin.

Sakura's mother came from a... strange family. It was a wonder that my student turned out as normal as she did.

Ultimately, however, the reasons were unimportant; I had planned for Sakura to need a correction of that nature at some point during the trip. I would have preferred it if she hadn't suddenly started when she heard my voice (or should that be my clone's voice? Was there a difference? Did it really matter?) telling her to skip the shrimp, but she calmed down very quickly when I explained that it was just a genjutsu that I had developed for communications purposes.

Really, what was the point of limiting yourself to using genjutsu to trick people? Practitioners of traditional genjutsu had all too often blinded themselves to the true potential of their art by the whole "fool the senses" by "trapping them in illusion" spiel. Even if you were limiting yourself to the use of genjutsu for deception, the objective wasn't to fool your opponent's senses -- it was to fool your opponent. Additionally, the purpose of genjutsu usually wasn't actually deception, but, rather, prospective control -- that is, you were trying to get your target to act in a certain way.

Part of becoming a jounin was demonstrating mastery of all of the shinobi arts, meaning that, in order to achieve my goal, I'd had to master genjutsu. Call it the remnants of my professional pride as a psychologist, call it a lack of aptitude for the traditional style of genjutsu -- call it what you will, but I had developed an entire school of genjutsu around the concept of the target knowing or realizing that my illusions were not real. After all, with a traditional genjutsu, you were screwed if your opponent saw through the illusion. With mine, well... that was the desired result.

As Sakura continued to shop, my clone explained the basic concepts behind that school, calling into question a number of the Academy's teachings on the subject... and if she seemed lost in thought as she paid for the groceries, well, that was hardly out of character for me. And if someone noticed the chakra I was using and directing at my double... well, most of Konoha's shinobi knew about my communications genjutsu, and it was easier to maintain a link when I wasn't actually talking than to drop and restart the link.

--

Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke's training was coming along nicely. By the time that Sakura had finished her shopping and returned to the training ground, I figured that I could afford to again switch places with my clone for awhile.

Accordingly, when my clone approached me and initiated another memory transfer, I told my students to keep an eye on each other and told each of them to catch the other if they fell. That done, I went to meet Sakura while my clone hid in the trees using a variant of shunshin that made it look like I'd dispelled the ridiculously costly energy construct. If either of my students failed in the second task I'd given them, my clone would prevent the other from paying the price.

On the other hand, a few catches would probably help them form a friendship, and Naruto really needed friends... and then there was the whole bit about forming a cohesive team, which would help improve Naruto's chances of survival once we started real missions. D-ranks didn't really count, after all.

Well, properly-classed D-ranks, anyway. The Million Ryo Kitty was a real pain to track and bringing Vampikitty in was just plain annoying. I kept petitioning the Hokage to re-class those, but... well, I just hoped that we didn't get stuck bringing in either of them; I really didn't want to have to wade through hordes of recently-turned vampiric rabbits again, and at their current levels the bloody things could actually pose a threat to my students. At least I'd learned my lesson after the Kitty of Borg incident and put a tracking device on Nuku-Nuku; that made her a lot easier to find.

Walking back to the edge of the mini-forest I took out the scroll I'd sealed the cooking gear into. Sakura would need it, after all.

As I arrived I found Sakura slumped against a rock, her transformation no longer active. Pausing a moment to observe I noticed that her breathing was deeper than normal and that she was showing several other signs of exhaustion. In other words, she wasn't going to be using chakra for a while. I was actually somewhat impressed, to be honest -- I wasn't expecting her to last as long as she did and she'd done it without stopping to rest.

Put another way, she had worked herself just short of exhaustion and managed to hide that fact until she got to a "safe" location.

Approaching her, I took a moment to look at the groceries she'd picked up. She'd gotten a few types of seafood, some vegetables, some greens, some tofu, a couple of eggs... the real give-away, however, was the mirin and the shoyu. "Planning to make yosenabe?"

My pink-haired student just nodded and handed me the change, still trying to regain her breath.

Idly noting that she hadn't withheld anything, not that I'd expected her to, I smiled. Yosenabe wasn't one of my favorites but it wasn't bad, and it was something that Naruto would probably enjoy, even if he'd probably never had the opportunity to try it. Besides, it was one of those dishes that had thousands of variants; no two families or restaurants made it quite the same way, so it was always interesting to try. More importantly, however, it required very little in the way of equipment to prepare.

Best of all, it was one of those dishes that most people knew about and ate on occasion. It was too expensive in Konoha for many families to eat on a regular basis, but cheap enough that almost everyone could afford it from time to time. If my guess was right and Naruto had never had it... well, Sakura's reaction to that piece of information would be interesting.

"Going by the mirin," I commented as I opened my scroll and unsealed a few pots and a chopping board, "I'd say that your family's recipe is Tokyo-ryu. It's a shame that Kyoto-ryu was mostly lost in the Great Cataclysm, but... well, that was to be expected, really."

Sakura looked up at that. "What do you mean, Sensei?" she asked, still breathing rather hard.

I paused for a moment. "Kyoto was destroyed in the disaster," I explained, unsealing a portable stove. "The only reason their style of cooking nabemono survived was the fact that while Kyoto itself perished there were people from Kyoto who didn't. Today, Kyoto-ryu is mostly confined to Wave Country, although you can find families that practice it in Konoha every now and then."

Sakura's eyes widened at that. "Sensei? What..."

I shrugged. "The Academy doesn't teach about that part of history," I commented. "Oh, sure, over seven billion people died-"

My student's gasp of shock interrupted my lecture.

"-but that was somewhere around ten thousand years ago," I finished, choosing to ignore Sakura's loss of composure. "The Interregnum as a whole has passed into legend and been forgotten, for the most part, which is a shame; in many ways, the latter parts of that period were the height of human civilization. The Second Age of Magic was really just a throwback to the first, really, despite the mythos that has grown to surround it, and the Age of Overworlders started with a desperate struggle for survival and never reached the heights that were taken for granted towards the end of the Interregnum."

Sakura was staring at me by that point, apparently stunned into speechlessness.

"What?" I asked. "I told you that I was Konoha's foremost expert on ancient history, didn't I?"

Sakura visibly shook herself out of her state of shock. "But... that's..."

I just smiled. "We have some time before you have to start cooking, and I won't make you maintain a henge while you do that. In all honesty, with how tired you are I wouldn't even make you cook if it wasn't for the fact that I don't want the ingredients you bought to go to waste."

Sakura nodded in relief before her curiosity overcame her exhaustion. "Sensei?" she asked. "What do you mean by the Second Age of Magic?"

I shrugged. "Most people just call it the Age of Magic," I answered. "The problem is that it's not the only one. The rulers of the Second Age of Magic legitimized their rule on the grounds that they were the heirs of the rulers of the First, and they really didn't have much understanding of their abilities. They were certainly powerful -- that much is true -- and they did manage to save a portion of humanity from the Great Cataclysm, but they founded a civilization based on magic without knowing very much about the principles on which it was based. During the Age of Overworlders that fact was far more well-known, and the period during which the powers and artifacts on which the Second Age of Magic was founded were created came to be referred to as the First Age of Magic." I paused for a moment. "Of course, all of that was even more commonly known during the Second Age of Magic; it was common knowledge back then, although they had different names for the periods in question."

My student stared at me for a moment before visibly shaking herself out of her shock. I supposed that it was understandable; the Second Age of Magic was one of those things that were typically spoken of in legend and myth, along with the Silver Queen, the Immortal Sage, the Divine Emperor and several other larger-than-life historical figures who had accumulated since the Cataclysm.

People like the Sannin would be forgotten in a few short centuries, never to have the sheer historical impact that those three had. That wouldn't be the case with Minato. No matter what came I wouldn't let him and his sacrifice be forgotten, and both lived on through his heir and his legacy, even if far too many of the people he had died for proved unworthy of what he had done for them.

On another note I wondered what Sakura would do if she knew that I had several of the Immortal Sage's journals in my apartment... including the first and last volumes. Heck, just telling her my opinion of the Silver Queen or the Divine Emperor would probably blow her mind. I might have tried it under other circumstances, but while it could have been amusing the discussion of history was more of a distraction than anything else.

"Sensei?" Sakura asked after a moment.

"Yes?"

"What kind of ninja are you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Could you explain what you mean?"

"Well," she said, "there are genjutsu specialists, ninjutsu specialists, generalists..." She trailed off, taking a deep breath before she resumed talking. "I suppose I just want to know what you are going to teach us."

I nodded in understanding. "Well," I explained, "I'm known for a lot of things, really... I was famous before I became a ninja, and I figured that since being largely anonymous would be impossible I might as well use my reputation to my advantage... but I suppose that's not really an answer to your question." I paused in thought. "I'm an expert on jutsu construction and the theoretical aspects of chakra manipulation, for one thing, so I can teach you that, of course." I frowned and forced myself to focus on something more immediate, taking a moment to unseal a pot and some measuring cups. "Why don't you start cooking, and we can talk a bit more, okay?"

"Okay," Sakura confirmed, before pausing for a moment. "Do you have any water?"

"Of course," I replied, unsealing a gallon jug. "Is this enough?"

"It should be."

"Good," I affirmed. "Anyway," I continued as Sakura started to heat the water, "I'm also one of Konoha's top experts on summoning techniques."

Jiraiya was better than me in many ways but we had drastically different styles, so comparison was often difficult. The remaining competition for the title of Konoha's top summoning expert came from Orochimaru and Anko. Orochimaru certainly knew more than me, but he wasn't a Konoha ninja anymore, so he didn't count. The problem was that I didn't know how much he'd taught Anko.

"I'm Konoha's foremost expert on a number of obscure topics and have adapted large portions of that knowledge to aid me in the field. I'm rather fond of using weapons from the late Interregnum, for instance, and I know how they work and are constructed."

I was especially fond of nerve agents and nuclear weapons, although the odd metric ton or two of C4 certainly had its uses. Guns were nice, too, especially if you used a sarin solution in a hydraulic bullet, and I had a shotgun that had been my constant companion for the past twenty or so years; it was currently sealed into my left glove so that all it would take to release and ready it was putting my hand into a certain position and releasing some chakra in a certain way.

Oh, and don't forget napalm. I liked napalm.

"I've also developed my own school of genjutsu based on a rather thorough understanding of the inner workings of the human mind. Overall, compared to more conventional genjutsu mine are more subtle and take a gentler, more patient hand to make them work effectively, but also have fewer of the weaknesses associated with conventional genjutsu."

Of course, the crown jewel of my collection wasn't something that I was going to readily share, largely because its reputation had drastically exceeded its reality. A genjutsu designed to take advantage of natural memory processes in order to plant a false memory was scary, true, especially since I could use it without using hand-seals, but it was drastically less useful than most would think, especially given the effort it took to make it work and the fact that it was extremely difficult to plant memories that weren't extremely plausible to the target... although it was possible to use it to alter details in an existing memory or to blur parts of one. In other words, making someone think that you'd ordered yakiniku when you ate dinner with them the previous week was usually easy while making them think that they were really spies from Suna was virtually impossible... and even the former application often took hours and had a decent chance of failure, which made it pretty much impractical for use in the manner in which it was originally intended.

On the other hand the reputation that the jutsu had acquired was rather useful, which was why I didn't want people to know its secrets. Well, that and the fact that its overblown reputation would be... helpful... if I ever really needed to bribe Kurenai.

"I'm a master of katon and fuuton ninjutsu, although I use a dramatically different style of katon than Sasuke-kun's family did. I'm also capable of using a few suiton and doton jutsu, and I've modified jutsu of all of those types to make them... well, a lot more deadly than the original jutsu were."

Honestly, why make a clone out of mud when C4 worked just as well? Oh, and dissolving a few liters of sarin into the water you were going to use for a suiryuudan made that jutsu a whole lot more effective... not to mention the uses of katon jutsu in setting off explosives or fuuton jutsu in directing clouds of nerve gas or radioactive waste.

"I'm fairly competent at fuuinjutsu and know a number of obscure seals, but my knowledge in that area is something of a patchwork."

Most of my knowledge in the area was from my work with Minato before the attack. Basically, if it had to do with the bijuu or with summoning then I probably knew it. I was pretty good with using seals to make things, but I had very little knowledge of the "quick and dirty" sealing methods that were useful in the field; I could make a seal for pretty much anything but I usually couldn't do it quickly. My knowledge of that kind of sealing was mostly limited to nonliving objects that didn't interact with chakra, with the shiki fuujin being a notable exception. I'd spent a long time studying and learning that seal. On the other hand, my glove designs were coveted by many ANBU. If I actually cared about the village I probably would have shared them. As things were, they were written off as one of those secret techniques that most shinobi kept.

"Taijutsu is my weakest area, but I can still give you some training in that."

I'd even created my own taijutsu style. Okay, so combining Tai Chi with Tai Kwan Leep produced a rather... unique combination, but there was something to be said for a combat style based around redirecting the opponent's momentum so that their face hit your boot... and I had mastered both of its component styles anyway. Tai Chi Leep definitely had a good bit of surprise value.

"Still, I suppose that the answer to your question is that I'm a logistic/strategic specialist. However, my real strength as a shinobi doesn't come from any of that -- it comes from two completely different things." I chuckled at that. "The first is the fact that I'm a sneaky, underhanded bastard who can come up with some rather effective, if ruthless, strategies on the spot."

Sakura looked somewhat surprised at that.

"Why be surprised? There's no point in not admitting it -- I'm a ninja, after all."

Sakura nodded absently.

"The other is the fact that I'm not as... bound by tradition... as most people, thanks to when and where I grew up. I look at the traditions that dictate what shinobi do and the reasons those traditions came to be and discard the ones I think are not applicable or are useless. It's an attitude that's earned me a reputation as Konoha's most unconventional shinobi, and helped me take advantage of many ninja's... oh, I suppose you could call them mental blind spots."

The classic example of one of those was why the kunoichi who were sent to seduce me always failed. It wasn't like it was hard to do or anything. All they really had to do was to not give me a reason to dislike them on a personal level and to tell me the truth when I asked them why they were making the attempt. It wasn't that I was any less horny than anyone else stuck with the hormones of someone in their mid-twenties for several decades -- it was that lying turned me off. It also got me rather angry, but that was another matter altogether.

Honestly, you'd think that they'd have figured it out after the first few dozen attempts. Instead, the repeated failures had earned me a "do not seduce" line in several bingo books.

"It's not that I don't respect traditions," I elaborated. "Every tradition came to be for a reason, and it would be foolish to disregard the wisdom and hard-earned knowledge of those who came before us. If you follow them blindly, however, they box you in, limit your thinking, and make you disregard options that otherwise could be useful. Accordingly, I plan to teach you the traditional methods as well as my own and the reasons for both, and let you form your own synthesis."

Sakura nodded in understanding before adding some konbu to the water. So, she was making dashi stock for the base. Interesting... and definitely Tokyo-ryu.

"Anyway, I didn't grow up in Konoha and we didn't have ninja where I'm from. My own homeland's military traditions were... very different... and my attitudes reflect that. One of the things I plan to teach you is how to think about these things; I don't want you to follow my teachings blindly. I want you to evaluate and consider what I say and to reach your own conclusions."

In what would probably seem like a paradox, their doing that would actually make Sakura and Sasuke easier to manipulate. After all, what better way to build trust than to express that desire? Better yet, I was very good at reasoned argument, especially when compared to children who had no training in logic, and had a rather large grab bag of tricks for making something seem reasonable. Additionally, a healthy dose of skepticism would do Naruto good. As for Sakura and Sasuke... well, I was telling them that I wanted them to think for themselves, which was true... but I most certainly would be teaching them how to think as well.

"Yes, Sensei," Sakura confirmed.

We continued to talk for a while after that, with an occasional pause as Sakura needed a new cooking implement or as she entered a phase of her culinary efforts that required more of her concentration. I was certainly beginning to enjoy this job... even if Sasuke was still an intolerable angst machine. That, after all, was what the Prozac was for. I'd even included detailed dosage instructions on the side of the bottle. What could go wrong?

I'd later regret that thought.

--

After a while Sakura finished cooking and I dispelled my clone and went to tell Sasuke and Naruto to end their training for the time being. On the way back I sent Naruto ahead and took Sasuke aside to talk to him for a moment.

"So, Sasuke-kun," I asked the sole "loyal" survivor of Konoha's most arrogant clan, "have you given any thought to what we talked about yesterday?"

"Yeah," Sasuke confirmed. "As long as Itachi dies by my hand... I don't care. I want to kill him."

I smirked. This was perfect. "So, poison's fine, then?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Poisoned weapons, yes."

I could work with that. "No poisoning his food or water, then."

"To weaken him, perhaps," Sasuke allowed. "But if he were to die by his own action, would I really have ended his life, or would he have died by his own hand?"

I smirked. "In other words you want there to be no doubt that you were the one to end his life, right?"

A terse nod was my only answer.

"Good," I told him. "Now for the other part. I told you that I'm willing to help you. The other question you need to ask yourself is this: do you want my help?"

Sasuke's eyes widened at that.

"I'm going to work you as hard as I can. I'm going to push you beyond anything you thought possible. I'm going to attack your weaknesses -- and don't think you don't have them -- like a zombie chipmunk that just finished eating the brains of a rabid dog." I blamed Vampikitty's undead hordes for my choice of analogies. Those things had a tendency to be annoying. "By the time I'm through with you... well, let's just say that you'll be able to make Itachi look like a joke... and you'll be able to kill him long before I'm through teaching you."

"Heh," Sasuke said, the sound coming out as halfway between an amused laugh and a contemptuous snort. "That's just how I want it."

"Perfect," I replied. "Now let's eat. You're probably hungry and you'll need your energy."

With that we headed to join the others.

--

While early, our dinner was a fairly subdued affair when you consider just who was participating. Judging by Sakura's expression when Sasuke and I arrived, Naruto had said something that shocked her and she was deep in thought, occasionally glancing at Naruto or picking at her food while myriad expressions passed across her face. Naruto, in turn, eagerly inhaled his food. Sasuke, while not nearly as enthusiastic as Naruto, was also devouring his meal, although I suspected that it had more to do with his training and wanting to keep his energy up than a desire to eat.

I, on the other hand, calmly ate my dinner while watching my students and taking some time to analyze the taste. As it happened I was right -- the yosenabe was definitely Tokyo-ryu.

Like all things, however, the meal eventually came to an end and I sealed our used utensils back into the scroll I had extracted them from, grateful for the fact that the completed seal array for a clean dish and a dirty one looked completely different. Keeping a separate scroll for refuse and unwashed dishes would take up storage space that was useful for carrying other things -- if I had to do that I'd actually have to ration my use of C4 on longer missions. As it was, I already had to tone down the explosions to avoid getting yelled at by the Third.

Oh, well. Even if I was limiting myself to two or three tons of the stuff per opponent, that much ordinance was usually enough to take out an enemy ninja if it went off at point-blank range.

"Right," I said after a moment. "Normally, I'd keep all of you a bit longer but I have things that I need to talk to Naruto-kun about, and I suspect that'll take a while. Sasuke-kun, I'll work out a strategy for your goal and get back to you tomorrow."

Sasuke grunted in confirmation.

"In the meantime, feel free to continue with the tree-walking exercise, but stay close enough to the ground to avoid injury if you fall."

Seeing that he understood I turned to Sakura, only to have her preempt me.

"Recca-sensei?"

"Yes?"

"Could I talk to you for a moment? In private?" she hesitantly asked.

I gave her a gentile smile. "Sure," I replied. "Just a moment."

"Naruto-kun?" I asked, turning towards my yellow-haired student. "Could you meet me at the park by the Academy -- the one you used to visit after school? I'll head there when I'm done talking to Sakura-kun."

I deliberately avoided mentioning why he visited the place. While saying that he went there to watch the other kids play despite the fact that they'd never let him join in would help advance my plans with Sakura, it would also be a painful reminder to Naruto. In fact, even mentioning what I did was problematic on that count... but it was also the only landmark that Naruto would be personally familiar with on the way from my apartment to this training ground that could double as a meeting place.

"In any case," I finished, "you're dismissed."

With that, I gave my team a quick smile and used shunshin no jutsu to transport myself back to where Naruto and Sasuke had been training. Modifying the jutsu to bring Sakura with me was somewhat difficult... but well within my abilities.

It was fortunate that shunshin didn't use that much chakra, even if it did take a great deal of concentration. I knew that I'd need my chakra in the days to come.

--

As we arrived at our destination Sakura started.

"Your first time being taken along with someone when they use shunshin no jutsu?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied, staring at... something.

I followed her gaze, only to find one of the trees that Naruto had accidentally broken by using too much chakra in one of his climbing attempts. It wasn't anything too spectacular, really; just a tree that had been broken at a point about four meters off the ground by a sudden concussive force. Okay, so the tree had been almost a meter thick, but she'd seen me slice an even larger tree into pieces earlier.

"What is it?" I inquired, curious as to what she was thinking.

"I never realized," she softly remarked. "I remember hearing that tree fall over, but... it was Naruto-kun who did that, right?"

I nodded my head in confirmation. "Yeah," I told her. "I think he was doing something similar in the Academy... that's why he could never master the basic bunshin. Hopefully, this will help."

My student paused for a moment at that, looking around. "Isn't it dangerous?"

I smiled at that. "That's why I was there to catch you," I told her.

"But... when we went shopping..."

"Kage bunshin," I answered. "Actually, I doubt that they'll need my help tomorrow; both of them have improved to the point where each of them can catch the other if something goes wrong."

"I see," she commented. "That's part of why you had all of us training in this at the same time, isn't it?"

"Yeah," I confirmed. "There were a lot of reasons, but that was one of them. It also makes a decent team-building exercise; relying on someone to do something like that is a good way to build trust between you, and can accelerate the beginnings of a friendship... and, to be honest, both Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun need friends."

I chuckled at that. "Of course, the trick is going to be keeping Naruto-kun from becoming Sasuke-kun's closest friend until I can convince Sasuke-kun that killing his closest friend in order to obtain the highest level of his family's kekkei genkai is... inadvisable. Death threats only go so far, after all."

Sakura stared at me, her eyes wide. "That's..."

I shrugged. "Sasuke-kun is obsessed with power," I told her. "I don't know if he'd really do that, but I can't afford to take the risk. I've already talked to him about it, but I'm not sure how much really sunk in, so I'll have to revisit that point from time to time."

"Oh," Sakura replied, staring at her feet.

"So," I inquired after a moment in an attempt to break the metaphorical awkward silence, "what was it that you wanted to ask?"

My pink-haired student looked up at that, causing me a moment of shock when I noticed tears forming in her eyes. "Why?" she asked.

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

Sakura wiped her face, cleaning the nascent tears from her eyes, and visibly firmed her resolve. "I want to know," she said after a moment. "Who were Naruto-kun's parents? Why is he treated like that?"

That was surprising. "Well, telling you who his parents were would only leave you with more questions," I answered. "I told you before that I'm willing to tell you, but I seriously doubt that you know half of how he's treated... and telling you who Naruto-kun's parents were won't tell you what you want to know."

"But..." Sakura paused for a moment before her determination once again won. "I still want to know," she stated.

I sighed and pulled a folded piece of paper out of my vest pocket. "This," I said, unfolding it and handing it to her, "is the exact wording of my promise to Danzou. Pay close attention to the part that says that I'm obligated to make anyone who I tell make the same promise; if I tell you, you'll be bound to these terms as well."

Sakura skimmed the document for a moment before looking up. "This is... unusually thorough," she remarked.

I shrugged. "Of course," I agreed. "Danzou knew that I'd exploit any loopholes he left."

Sakura nodded, going through the paper much more closely. I noticed that she paused at one point as her eyes widened... I guessed that it was probably the clause that would require me to kill her if she violated the terms of the agreement. Eventually, however, she looked up and met my gaze. "Alright," she said. "I'll agree."

I smiled. "You still want to know?"

"Yes."

"Very well," I told her. "Naruto-kun's mother was named Hotaru. She was a civilian, not a ninja, but she was well-known amongst the shinobi of the village as a kind, supportive wife and a talented nurse, even if she had no training in or ability to use medical ninjutsu. In all honesty, I haven't heard anyone speak poorly of her -- she was nice to pretty much everyone."

Sakura's eyes widened a bit at that.

"As for Naruto-kun's father," I continued, "his name was Namikaze Minato, but you probably know him better as-"

"The Fourth Hokage," Sakura whispered, interrupting my speech.

"Yes," I confirmed. "Exactly."

"But..." she objected tears again forming in her eyes, "why? Why is he..."

I sighed. "There isn't a good reason," I answered. "In fact, Minato-sama's dying wish was that Naruto-kun be treated well."

"But... if that's true..."

"I told you that the answer to your question would only leave you with more questions, didn't I? The fact of the matter is that most of the village doesn't know or believe the truth of who Naruto-kun's parents were, but they do know of his father's last request -- just not his reasons for making it -- and they choose to ignore it." I let out another sigh. "I can't tell you the whole story," I confessed. "It ties into a certain state secret, but I can tell you this. They don't have a real reason for treating Naruto-kun the way they do. In the end they treat him as they do because they believe a lie. No matter how many times the Third Hokage or I told them the truth they refused to believe it, and instead chose -- and still choose -- to knowingly ignore the last request of someone who they claim was the village's greatest hero." I closed my eyes in reminiscence as the discussion called to mind my memories of my closest friend. "And, frankly, they were right about that, at least. Minato loved this village so much that he voluntarily sacrificed his soul and condemned himself to eternal torment to protect it... and all he asked in return was that we look after his only child since he wouldn't be able to do it himself."

Opening my eyes again, I found that Sakura's face was almost totally drained of blood as tears leaked down her face. At some point during my little tirade she'd apparently taken a step back and tripped, leaving her sitting in a rather awkward position as she stared at me.

"But... how... why..."

I sighed again. "I'll tell you what," I said. "I'm limited by that state secret -- it's integral to the whole story -- but Naruto-kun is allowed to tell people. If he decides to tell you -- and make no mistake, he has every reason not to -- I'll tell you everything. Just... don't pressure him, OK?"

Sakura mutely nodded.

"Anyway, I need to get going," I stated. "I need to meet Naruto-kun."

As I moved to form the seals for shunshin, however, Sakura interrupted me.

"What... how can we apologize? What would be enough? For something like this..."

I snorted. "Short of a harem of devoted sex-slaves?" I sarcastically asked before finishing my jutsu. "I can't think of anything." With those words, I vanished in a swirl of leaves. In retrospect, if I'd known the chaos that last comment would cause... I'd probably still have made it.

--