A/N: I am back. So yeah. Here ya go. Thanks for all the reviews on chapter 8, they kept me fed aplenty. Which is fortunate because I own nothing.
Oh yeah: holly shit, more than a thousand favorites? Damn!
"You called for me, Hokage-sama?" A tall, slim, ninja with his black hair done in a high, pineapple-like ponytail and a scarred, seemingly peevish face asked his commander-in-chief.
"I did, Shikaku," answered Hiruzen Sarutobi, nonplussed by the apparent annoyance displayed by the man at being here. Shikaku Nara was always annoyed to be anywhere anyway. It was a certainty, much like a law of Nature. "Have a seat please."
The ninja sighed but sat, sprawling his body in the chair without regard for etiquette. As the head of the Nara clan, he had the duty to preserve the legendary facade of laziness all his clansmen were proud of. It was a not so subtle game of deception that the Hokage accepted; it was the price for exploiting his intelligence. Plus, the chair was really comfortable.
Shikaku sent a look the Hokage's way, waiting for the older man to speak. He stifled a growl when the Sarutobi simply took his pipe and prepared it with slow, measured movements, careful not to lose any speck of tobacco. The Nara watched with equal part vague annoyance and mild curiosity the manner in which the Hokage prepared his smoke.
He could be playing shoji right now, what a bother. Or drinking some sake with his friends. Or watch clouds go by. At least he was nowhere near his bothersome wife.
Eventually, the Hokage looked at his handy work with a satisfied grin and lit it with sheer elemental manipulation: by converting a burst of chakra erupting from his finger into a fire. A blueish smoke rose from the furnace and the embers sizzled when the Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe. With a long, slow exhale, the Hokage blew a plume of smoke that twirled in a spiral above his head before sending a pointedly questioning glance at the jonin commander.
"So, how are you today, Shikaku?"
Shikaku allowed one single eyebrow to rise and straightened from his spread position to an upright one. The Nara shrugged, joined his palms, and twisted both of his wrists once to the left, once to the right.
"Fine Hokage-sama," grunted the jonin in a deep, dry cut voice.
The Hokage blew a perfectly round circle of smoke. "Good, good. I would like your opinion on the chunin exam that'll be held in Kusa in a month."
Shikaku sighed before he brought his right hand to his chin in order to give his goatee nine solid scratches. "What exactly is your concern, Hokage-sama?"
The older man waved slightly in a circular motion. "Oh, you know… The usual questions. Should we send anyone and if yes, how many and who?"
The jonin propped his right elbow up on the chair's armrest and supported his head with his thumb and three fingers, before he abruptly folded two of them against his palm, leaving only his index pressed against his cheek, his thumb playing once with his goatee.
"Kusa being our ally, I think it'd be good to send one team strong enough to make a good showing but not enough to actually win the tournament. To show respect, five teams top should suffice." Shikaku answered while looking straight at the Hokage, one of his eyebrow raised.
The old Sarutobi nodded twice. "I see. We wouldn't want to offend them after all. But are you certain we do not need more?"
"Our roster of chunin is currently sufficient for us to handle all our missions," explained the Nara with his left-hand palm open and up, his index finger pointing surreptitiously toward the left wall. "There is no immediate need to send too many of our genin, especially when our own turn to organize the exams is coming soon."
"Home field advantage, huh?" The Hokage said more than asked while slowly nodding again. "Speaking of our exam, a new village has expressed interest in joining in."
"Oh?"
"Indeed, Otogakure I believe it is called. It would be a good thing to," taking a long drag of his pipe, the Hokage once again exhaled spiraling smoke. "Increase the standing between them and the village. Unfortunately, we already had some incidents and there is some bad blood." Hiruzen sent the same pointed look at the Nara. "How would you go about it?"
Shikaku nodded and coughed once. "Well, we should extend a friendly hand to them and if they agree, maybe try to show them in a positive light to our ninjas." The Nara coughed again. "We need to keep a close look on them first of course. How much do we know about them already?"
The Hokage sighed. "Not much, I'm afraid." He answered while shrugging slightly before puffing out a long, thin, slithering plume of smoke while the embers in his pipe hissed.
Shikaku refused to outwardly react and slowly sagged back in his chair, the picture perfect of laziness given flesh. "Then we observe until we know more. I would not accept them in our exam for now."
"That would be an opportunity to learn more."
"It would but it would also be inviting a potential snake in the hen house. What does Jiraiya-sama have on this village?"
"I fear Jiraiya has nine other problems to take care of nowadays and Otogakure isn't part of them."
This time, Shikaku's eyebrows rose in an almost imperceptible wince that was beyond his control.
"What could be so important that a new village in the vicinity of Fire Country does not hold his attention?"
The Hokage sighed at his subordinate's sudden bluntness. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you that."
The older man chose this moment to blow a plume of smoke without distinct shape, momentarily masking himself from the Nara's view. Shikaku simply nodded.
"Should we warn them?"
"Jiraiya's leads are thin and revealing too much too soon would hold the risk of making them go to ground."
"Does the threat at least have a name?"
"It comes with the dawn. That is all we know for now." The Hokage sighed and more smoke flew in long strands from his mouth, like rain clouds above earth.
"I see. If that is all, Hokage-sama?"
"May I trust you to come up with something regarding our little discussion?"
"I'll do my best Hokage-sama but I see no short term solution anyway. It will take time."
"I know. You have my thanks Shikaku. I wish you a good day."
"Good day."
If Naruto had to put a qualificative on his current situation, he would definitely use the word weird.
He was lying on a rather comfortable observation couch in one of the rooms of the closed-off section of the Senju Hashirama hospital, the one reserved for the ANBU. That in itself was nothing out of the ordinary. Naruto had been to the hospital numerous time and now that he was a recruit in ANBU, it only made sense he could access the particular aisle he was in.
The reason he was squirming slightly was the female ANBU currently poking his bare feet and involuntarily tickling him.
"Stop moving recruit."
The masked blond grunted and bit on his lips to stifle a chuckle. "I'm doing my best, 'ttebayo."
The "therapy" was Dragon's last whim to try and see if Naruto's tenketsus could be opened properly, if forcefully. The ANBU, a Hyuuga Naruto had understood, had a bloodline allowing her to see his tenketsus and a special chakra manipulation technique linked to her taijutsu style that could hopefully grant them the desired result.
It had been a few days already since his first "mission" and Dragon had rather enthusiastically described to him how revolutionary his brand of stealth was, if only it could be learned. Not only did Naruto bend the chakra flowing around him in an instinctual way to form the first step of what was commonly referred as the "chameleon cloak" but his naturally half-closed tenketsus also reduced his chakra trail to nothing.
It allowed him to go under the sixth ninja sense, the sensing ability all chakra users possessed to an extent.
The blond might be only moderately talented when it came to tai- and kenjutsu but he was a stealth genius. Of course, it came with the price of making external and overall chakra control completely abysmal.
What it all meant was that Naruto, in addition to his already crazy routine, had to go to the hospital just after dinner to have his tenketsu points massaged by a Hyuuga ANBU in hope that they would relax. If Naruto's tenketsus could be opened, at least around the feet, he could eventually succeed with the vertical walking.
Easier said than done and more ticklish than envisioned. It was the third seance and there were no results.
Naruto yelped when the ANBU poked the sole of his right foot without warning, a mixed sensation of pins and needles and warmth traveling up his leg in a second. The aftermath of the strike left the blond with the feeling someone was caressing his foot with a feather. It took the boy a deep breath to avoid laughing. He had done so a few minutes ago and the woman had poked him on the side, which had been very unpleasant.
The ANBU hummed and looked up at Naruto.
"I want to test something. Gather chakra in your right foot and push it out on my signal. You can do that?"
Naruto rolled his eyes and drawled his answer, "hai", before he focused on his task. A few seconds later, he gave the improvised masseuse a thumb up.
"At my signal… Three, two, one, now!"
The woman cried and as Naruto pulsed his chakra outward his right feet, she struck the sole of the same feet. The blond had to once again stifle a laugh when the ticklish sensation came back with a vengeance, this time with an intensity stronger than the simple strike had ever evoked.
"Ah!"
It was only the content, victorious exclamation of the ANBU that kept Naruto from exploding in uncontrolled laughter by startling him. With three quick breaths, the boy controlled his urge and relaxed his facial muscles.
"Something happened?" The blond asked with both trepidation and curiosity. ANBU agents were not really talkative and Hyuuga even less so, so the sudden shout and the fist pump was really surprising.
"I got one open!" The woman clamored, the satisfaction of having a hermetic problem finally cracking open evident in her voice. "I think it is staying open."
Naruto could not help but smile behind his mask. That was mighty good news for him. If he could open all his tenketsus, no doubt his chakra control would improve a bit. He kept himself from hollering his joy because while it was progress, nothing could say yet if it was permanent or not. And Tiger would undoubtedly know if he allowed his emotions to surface too loudly and that would earn Naruto a punch.
"That's good, right?" The blond opted to say. He was still allowed a bit of enthusiasm after all; he only had to control the decibel output. The woman simply silenced him with a raised, open palm. For a minute, none moved.
Eventually, the ANBU looked at the boy. "More than a full minute and it's still good. No way to tell if it won't close up again anytime soon but I'd say that's progress. Let's wrap this up for today, I'm done."
"Hai. You want me to report in your stead?"
"No, it's okay. I was more careful today so I won't have a repeat of our first try." The ANBU said as she stood up, massaging her neck. "But thanks."
"Thank you for helping me, Owl-san."
"Right. Now hush, run along."
Without losing another second, Naruto put his shoes back on, hopped off the couch, and after a light bow, darted out of the room.
Owl sighed and groaned as she kept massaging her neck. Those "massages" were exhausting for her. For a full hour, she had to keep her byakugan activated and poke at the feet of a teenager using the reverse Jyuuken.
The Jyuuken was a taijutsu style based on closing the opponent's tenketsus, causing the affected area to cramp up and become paralyzed. It was a feared style, if exclusive and chakra intensive because it required the byakugan to see the tenketsus and each strike had to be charged with chakra. It was a style designed to take down multiple opponents quickly.
Of course, the Hyuuga, in their wisdom, had developed a technique counter to it, because waiting for a Jyuuken strike to dissipate was long and, in some situation, bothersome to not say dangerous. During training for example; nobody liked to have to wait three hours for feelings to come back to their legs or to risk cardiac arrest because of a misjudged strike.
The idea was to force the blond's semi-closed tenketsus open with the reverse Jyuuken, so here she was, poking feet until near exhaustion.
Thank the Flame he had the decency of washing himself after his day of training. It was already weird poking at feet, it would have been several times worse had they been smelly. The ANBU shuddered at the thought before she sighted. She dearly hoped nobody would ever learn of those sessions. She knew she was being ridiculous and that it was purely professional but she was also familiar with the kind of humor "en vogue" in the ANBU corps.
She would not stand for sexual jokes about pubescent boys and foot fetishism!
Owl groaned again. She had little hopes for the story to not get out. Everyone always ended up knowing everything in ANBU. A family it was and a family of gossips at that.
Not that surprising, considering it was a family entirely comprised of ninjas.
The ANBU stretched one last time before she gathered a few things and exited the hospital room, not before washing her hands with a copious amount of soap and water. She still had to report the potential progress to her commander. Dragon was taking a very personal interest in this blond recruit and Owl was beginning to have serious suspicion regarding his identity.
He had practically given the boy away by calling him "the prankster king" three days ago during his first virtual mission and there was only one person with this shade of blond hair in Konoha but Owl would not say anything before having seen his face.
They were all ninjas after all and deception was their job. For all she knew, the kid hiding behind the mask was not at all who she thought he was.
In a tired gait, the operator walked out of the hospital and flickered to the entrance of the underground complex in five jumps. A minute later and her knuckles were rasping against the door of her general.
"Enter." The distorted monotone called from behind the panel, which Owl pushed open and closed behind her immediately.
"Owl reporting, general."
"Ah, yes. How goes our little pedicure?"
The ANBU gulped down a retort. She could bite the head of her top commander off without repercussion. She was already tired of massaging feet, she did not want to peel potatoes.
"With due respect, general?"
"Go ahead."
"Could we say we have already had a good laugh, forgo the jokes, and move to the point?" Owl asked pleadingly.
Dragon looked at her silently for a few seconds. Owl could feel him staring at her and she started to sweat bullets. Had she crossed the line? Suddenly, she saw her commanding officer shake.
"It's a shame, I had a really good one prepared too. About younger boys and foot fetish." The general said with mirth indubitably coloring his usually blank tone.
For a second, Owl felt nothing but a pure, unaltered fear of her officer before she regained control of herself.
"But you look tired so I guess it won't be for today." Dragon suddenly spoke with his voice back to its emotionless state. "Report, operator Owl."
The woman felt her body sag slightly in relief, reassured that the general would not roast her beyond recovery of self-esteem and she coughed once to clear her voice.
"I believe we had a breakthrough today. Shortly before the end of the seance, I decided to try something slightly different. Until now, using the reverse Jyuuken to open the recruit's tenketsus was successful but only for a second. I asked the recruit to pulse chakra out of his foot and tried to strike at this exact moment. There was too much chakra for my byakugan to discern clearly what happened but the end result is the boy has now an open tenketsu in the middle of his right foot."
"What prompted this test?"
Owl shrugged. "Honestly? The lack of progress of the other method. I saw no reason to keep going when it was clearly unsuccessful."
"It could have hurt him."
"I pondered it for the entire session and saw no potential risk. At worst, it would have done nothing but blast away my chakra strike."
Dragon laced his fingers together and rested his chin on them, his elbow firmly planted on the desk. "No ill-effects at all?"
"None my byakugan could detect at least."
"And the tenketsus is open."
"Yes, it was still open when he left, five minutes after the strike."
The commander hummed. "The combination of his chakra plus the reverse Jyuuken worked. What could it mean…"
"With your authorization, I would like to treat a more easily accessible tenketsu tomorrow with the same method."
"What did you have in mind?"
"The tenketsus on the hands are easier for our byakugan to read. I was thinking one on the palm."
Once again the general hummed, his gaze lost somewhere in the wall opposite his desk before they focused on the operator.
"Thinking of giving him a handjob already?"
Owl whined as all color lost her face behind her mask. "Oh Flame no, please no!"
It took another two days before the final verdict fell. There was a way for Naruto to open his tenketsus. The blond "just" had to learn the reverse Jyuuken and apply it internally. The venerable taijutsu style being a clan secret, the solution spoke of untold political jousting. Dragon simply ordered Naruto to keep training while he cashed in some favors and gathered the necessary support for the little play.
Clan knowledge was jealously guarded by the Konoha Founding Charter, a corpus of laws protecting the clans from being unjustly exploited by the powers that be. The Village Hidden in the Leaves was, at its core, a federation of allied clans that accepted to work together to avoid fighting against each other. The Hokage's word was not omnipotent. It did carry a lot of power but some touchy subjects were off limits. Ninjas were fans of their secrets, after all, it came with the profession.
Uchiha were never thieving bastards outside of the battlefield in the first place because if they had been, their demise would have happened much sooner.
Days passed with the same routine and the blond boy simply kept at it, progressing by leaps and bound in everything he worked on, save vertical walking of course.
The virtual missions were gradually becoming harder and harder and at the end of the third week, Naruto had been tasked with tagging a particularly paranoid chunin. The blond's target had not only been warned but the high command had also asked the ninja to be ever on guard for the entire day, to complicate the boy's life. It had taken a treasure of ingenuity to be successful.
It was exactly that that Naruto was explaining to his superior officer.
"Report, recruit," Tiger ordered in his tone that let nothing transpire. On either side of the seated man stood Cat and Dog.
"Hai. Today at eight in the morning I was given the mission to tag chunin Iwana Akame as part of a virtual elimination mission," said Naruto as professionally as he was capable to be.
Iwana Akame was a career chunin. The man was thin and wiry, with facial features rather rough and disgraceful, a missing eye hidden under an eyepatch, and his hair covered by a bandana sporting his hitai-ite.
He was also one of the ninjas who wanted absolutely nothing to do with Naruto. The man had been rather vocal about it several times during the blond's youth.
"I localized the target with the aid of several shadow clones as the mission scroll did not give any indication about Iwana's location. I found the target at nine forty-five approximately. I stalked him, finding no opportunity to approach him until he entered a small restaurant, "Shape of the Egg", to eat lunch."
The restaurant was one where Naruto never could eat at. The staff was content with completely ignoring his existence, making it impossible to simply order food.
It was at this moment of his retelling that a smile found its way on the blond's face, hidden by the porcelain of his mask.
"The target ordered a rice omelet and I decided it was a perfect opportunity to act." The blond did his best to subdue the mirth that was fighting to enter his voice. "I substituted a clone with a waitress, transformed into her, while another clone secured her. I myself entered the restaurant under a henge and placed myself in an adequate position."
Naruto took a deep breath to avoid laughing. "I tripped my henged clone who crashed the rice omelet dish on the target's face, smashing the paralysis tag hidden under the rice on his nose. I distracted the target long enough for that to happen by having my henged clone reveal a bit of her cleavage. He dispelled immediately after. The commotion was great enough that I was never suspected."
"Was smashing a rice omelet dish square against chunin Iwana's face really necessary?"
Naruto shrugged at the question. "It was a good opportunity."
"Chunin Iwana's nose was broken by the impact." Tiger deadpanned.
"And you wasted a perfectly good rice omelet." Dog added, perfectly serious if her body language were to be believed.
Naruto hesitated a second. "Well… You don't get to an egghead without breaking some omelet?" Panting to contain his laughter, the blond fought to not fold in two and stand straight. "Or… Or something like that?"
A snort, coming from somewhere behind Tiger, nearly made Naruto lose his battle against the mounting bout of hysterical laughter he was desperately trying to keep inside his chest.
"Chunin Iwana's broken nose is swollen." The ANBU sergeant spoke in a slow voice and its emotionlessness was a special kind of torture for the boy. "Do you know what it looks like, recruit?" The operator's tone suddenly had a dangerous edge to it.
"N-No."
"It looks like a hard boiled egg," supplied Dog.
This time, it was Naruto's turn to snort. It gave way to peals of laughter that asked for nothing but to escape his constricted throat.
"I see you do not take this debriefing seriously, recruit?"
"Ah ah ah, n-no! I… Ah ah, I do!"
"Is there something funny for you to be laughing like that, recruit?"
"I… I… No, sergeant!" Naruto answered in-between deep, calming breaths.
Behind Tiger, Dog was mimicking with her hands a nose swelling to comical proportions. Naruto silently swore to get revenge in some fashion as he fought once against the urge to laugh. It was a fight he nearly lost again until Cat elbowed her younger colleague to make her stop. The blond breathed widely to center himself.
"You need to be able to repress such outburst recruit. An ANBU rarely laughs while on duty and debriefing is part of the mission. You can't laugh when the Daimyo of River Country enters a room yet he is the most hilarious looking man I have ever seen."
The boy had difficulties to imagine Tiger laughing but nodded. It was true that an ANBU laughing at the appearance of a lord would not make for a good advertisement for the village. Naruto straightened and saluted.
"Hai sergeant. I'll do my best so that it won't happen again."
"Good. Now about your methods. While unorthodox, they have the merit to work perfectly. You weren't caught; actually, you weren't caught once during the week, no matter the alertness of your target. You intelligently struck during moments when the target was relatively relaxed, which lowers their guard and partly ensure the success of your plan. You also show great imagination and quick thinking, as you can think of a working solution in nary a second. In fewer words, you performed adequately."
Naruto beamed behind his mask. Tiger giving praise was a rare thing so the blond allowed himself to bask in the compliment for a second before he brusquely bent his torso to the right to avoid the brace of shuriken his instructor had just hurled at him.
"Stay focused."
The blond muttered a "love you too, taicho" under his breath and stood straight again. "Hai, sergeant."
"Starting next week, you'll get different missions. It is too soon for you to try and tag jonins but you'll be started on what we call "long distance removal". You'll have a few days to establish contact with the target, find out patterns and whatnot, and prepare whatever you need. The catch is that you or your clones cannot approach the target to tag them. You'll have to find another solution."
Naruto's blue eyes widened behind his mask. That definitely sounded tough but after a second of reflexion, it was nothing impossible either. He had led his fair share of chunin inside traps of his own making that could trigger automatically. Finding a way to tag his targets without being close to them was far from intimidating for Naruto Uzumaki.
The blond focused again on his instructor when Tiger extended his hand, a folded note in it.
"If you ever seek help, know that Crane Five is our foremost expert regarding trap making in our company." The man said, explaining the content of the paper.
Taking the slip of paper, the blond simply nodded. "Hai. I'll not hesitate."
"You are dismissed. See you in two hours and a half at the training ground."
The boy saluted in a fluid motion, an elegant position that was a lightyear away from the sloppy stance he had assumed, three weeks ago, in the Hokage's office. Naruto stood like that for a second before he turned heels and exited the room. Silence fell in the room and on the three shinobis still inside.
"So, verdict?" Cat asked suddenly.
"Physically, he is chunin-level without a doubt, even if he probably does not even realize it himself. All his skills are coming along nicely, considering he was a dead last genin twenty days ago."
"All his skills but one, taicho," interjected Dog. "I'll admit I… Misjudged him and acted bellow what was expected of me at first but it does not change the fact he cannot walk vertically."
"Dragon is taking care of that, Dog. We all saw how his virtual missions went this week. All completed within three hours save the one for today due to the extra complication. Never detected, never using a single jutsu save the shadow clone and the transformation."
"The shadow clone is a pretty powerful jutsu," remarked Cat in a neutral way.
"Yes, now think about what he'll be capable of with genjutsu in his arsenal."
"I'd wager genjutsu will be impossible for him, Sarge. He is a walking chakra reactor but his control is abysmal."
"Nothing that cannot be worked on."
"You are very enthusiastic taicho." Cat said suddenly, stopping her leader in his tracks.
The man kept silent for a few seconds as his subordinates and friends observed him.
"I'll admit that I enjoy teaching the boy. He has a modicum of talent and the will to see things through. Do you think it is impeding my judgment of his capacities?" Tiger asked, with in his voice a slight hesitation that betrayed his worry.
Cat hummed. "You deal with him more than we do taicho, you know him better than us. I do admit that for someone who graduated not a month ago, his progress is off the charts but I think that would be true for anyone with three dedicated teachers and enough chakra to create shadow clones en masse. I've no doubts he will make a fine ninja and I do think your evaluation of his capacities is correct but personally, I've yet to see what makes him worthy of ANBU."
"We will only get this kind of feedback from real missions, Cat." The man opposed, his tone back to its dull monotony.
"Real missions he is supposed to begin in three weeks, sergeant." The woman answered, pressing. "You said it yourself, taicho, he will be held to the same expectation of other recruits. He won't be able to begin his missions if he cannot master vertical walking and that means de facto elimination from the trials."
Silence fell again on the three figures.
"What say you Dog?" Tiger asked his second soldier suddenly.
For a few seconds, all could hear the distinct sound of someone sucking on the inner flesh of their cheek, before the teenage ANBU spoke.
"I don't know anymore taicho. The kid is strong-willed for sure and anyone with half his handicaps would have given up. That's what makes a damn good ninja for sure but joining the family… Yeah." Dog shrugged. "I fully wish he would get this damn vertical walking under control but like Cat, I do reserve judgment until I see him under fire."
"I see." Tiger joined his fingers together once again to rest his chin on. "I admit I had several discussion with the recruit, discussions that make me believe he has what it takes. That being said, the decision is collegial and Dragon-sama did stipulate that he would not benefit from any kind of favoritism."
The man sighed. "Dog, you'll work closely with Owl in order to find a solution. I ask you to trust me on this but it would be a waste for the corps to lose Uzumaki."
"Hai Sarge, I'll do my best."
"Cat, I want all the clones you'll get under your supervision to work on chakra flow within senbon. That should help him with his personal vertical walking technique."
"Hai, taicho."
"Good. Meeting adjourned, let's go have lunch ladies, my treat."
"Oh? Where are we going?" Asked Dog with a twinge of excitement in her voice at the prospect of being invited by her captain.
"The central ANBU cafeteria." The man deadpanned.
"So smooth taicho." The teenage girl grumbled while Cat shook her head.
"Hiashi-san."
"Dragon."
There was nothing but coldness in Hiashi Hyuuga's voice as the Clan patriarch greeted the ANBU commander who was darkening his doorstep. It was considered bad omen to have him knocking on your door. Ninjas were surprisingly superstitious regarding certain things and ANBU was one such subject. They were the boogeymen, the small bunch of assassins that kept the larger bunch of assassins in check, with extreme prejudice if needed be. A parent did not threaten their child with tales of nuke-nin, ninja traitor to their home, but with stories of the dogs mad enough to hunt them.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"We have a rather urgent deal to pass."
Hiashi tensed in his grey kimono and his pale, almost white eyes narrowed slightly. What Dragon had just done was the first error in negotiating anything. Never admit to any weakness. To anyone, admitting the business was urgent was allowing the other party to ask for a higher price.
With Dragon, it meant you better walk on the straight and narrow and accept his conditions quickly enough. The man had enough dirt on each and every Konoha clan, even the most proper of them, to get any of them in jeopardy. The ANBU corps was the Hokage's way to maintain the power balance between himself and the clans and the man hiding behind the mask was known for using it.
"Let us go to my office."
A minute later and the man and the ANBU were seated in a small, spartan office that actually closely resembled ANBU's own workrooms.
"You wish something of me." Hiashi did not ask a question. Dragon would not be here if he had not a demand of some sort.
"I need your official authorization to teach part or totality of your clan's taijutsu to one of my recruits." Dragon explained with his droning voice.
"Why?"
"That is none of your concern. I believe I prepared a contract with enough confidentiality clauses and binding enough for it to be satisfying. I intend to repay this in gold but am open to any other suggestion."
Hiashi Hyuuga had enough control over himself not to flounder at the abrupt rebuttal. The man only narrowed his eyes further. He knew he could not outright refuse Dragon's demand. The man had enough political clout to make life extremely difficult for the Hyuuga. But Hiashi could get a favor out of the man.
And a favor was exactly what he would get.
"Gold is not a problem for the Hyuuga clan."
The ANBU general stopped waving the contract in front of Hiashi's nose and lay it flat on the table.
"What would be your price?"
Despite the modulation intended to make the ANBU's voice as impersonal and lacking in feature as possible, the heavy bass of a threat could be heard clear as day in Dragon's question.
Hiashi felt his lips dry up and the man discreetly humidified them with his tongue. The Hyuuga swallowed once, brought a long strand of straight brown hair back behind his ear, and steeled his resolve. Positioning his hands flat against the table, the man pushed his chakra inside to wire of conductive steel.
The entire walls lit up, a network of conductive steel embedded in the wall shining through the paint, obscuring the office from any byakugan-based indiscretion.
"I find myself in a position I do not find satisfactory, Dragon. My power as the clan head is… Undermined constantly. I'm in need of some… Support."
The room fell silent and Dragon and Hiashi started a glaring contest, one the Hyuuga lost, much to his secret shame. The man mentally reminded himself that wearing a mask during a staring contest was definitely cheating before berating himself for caring about such a childish thing.
"I see. And this support would take form as?"
"A set-up and the following arrest."
"You would do that to your very clansmen."
"Their belief in their own superiority has since long turned into arrogance. It hurts us. And this kind of accident would allow me to finally see eye to eye with the laws passed by our Daimyo."
"I see. I have no reason to refuse, you'll have the support of some of my men when the time comes. The set-up is on you. The Hokage cannot be linked to this. It reeks of a violation of the Clan Charter."
"Of course. Who will be my contact?"
"Someone good enough to avoid your eyes. If that is all, sign this paper. Time is tight and I don't doubt it is the same for you."
"Of course." With a gasp of exhaustion, the man stopped pulsing his chakra and took a moment to recuperate. In a few quick but elegant motions, Hiashi signed the paper. Both men rose from their seat, the Hyuuga on shaky legs.
"It was a pleasure making business with you, Hiashi-san."
The Hyuuga hesitated a second, flashed his byakugan for an instant, and took a step closer to Dragon to whisper low.
"It needs to happen quickly. They hold a power too great for them, over innocents. I will not stand for half of my clan being taken hostage by a bunch of fools." Hiashi's plea was hurried and pressing.
"It will be swift as thunder, Hiashi-san. We'll only wait for your signal." Dragon assured calmly in return before his voice rose again. "I wish you a good day, Hyuuga-san."
Naruto stood at attention in front of Dragon in the office of the general. It was a very small cubicle, without any kind of decoration. It was dry, lifeless, with the wall painted a drab maroonish color past its prime and the entirety of the pieces of furniture old and squeaky. For the second most powerful man in the village after the Hokage, it was certainly not what Naruto was expecting.
For Flame's sake, Dragon did not even have a framed picture. There was always at least a framed picture of someone on the boss' desk, right?
Apparently not or maybe Dragon did not buy into the traditional boss act. It was probably it, Naruto surmised.
"Do you know why I called you here, recruit?" The fake voice of the general called the blond back to the present.
Naruto nodded once and answered in a measured tone. "Hai. I believe it is to inform me of a potential solution for my tenketsu problem."
It still felt weird for Naruto to speak like that. "Like that" meaning without screaming, using words that did not really exist, nor onomatopoeia or wide gestures. It felt ordered, efficient, professional.
The blond liked it even if he was not yet used to it.
"Indeed. Your next task is to learn the reverse Jyuuken. The objective is for you to be able to internally open and close your tenketsu at will. If your attempt is successful, this method shall be taught to all the corps to better our stealth."
The blond's blue eyes widened behind his mask. That would be a rather big contribution to Konoha if he was not mistaken, something he could be proud of.
"I will not lie to you recruit, it will not be an easy task, especially considering you have a time limit."
Naruto felt his breath catch in his throat. A time limit? Dragon had never been forthcoming as to the length of Naruto's trial run yet now he was imposing a time limit to learn something that would obviously be difficult? The blond breathed in deeply and frowned.
"Might I know the reason for the time limit?"
"Because your assessment is coming to a close. Any new recruit is given a month and a half for acclimatization before they must go on missions. Without vertical walking, you cannot be allowed to go."
Naruto squashed down the fury he felt mounting within his chest and took another deep breath. Closing his eyes for a second, the blond oscillated back and forth before he glared at Dragon.
"Permission to take freely requested, general."
The ANBU marked a pause before he answered. "Granted."
Naruto tried his best to control himself but his question came loaded with more venom than he had expected. "Did you set me up to fail?"
Dragon paused once again for a second before lacing his fingers to rest his chin on top. "Why would you believe that?"
The blond had to bite on the flesh of his cheek to not hurl insults at the man sitting in front of him. Naruto swallowed to clear his mouth of the verbal poison he was ready to pour on the man and tightly leashed his need to burst. His voice was only slightly shaking with contained anger when he spoke.
"While I do not doubt that I will be able to master whatever is thrown at me, I do not believe I will learn the Jyuuken in a matter of three weeks. I will obviously fail."
Dragon looked at Naruto but kept silent. Behind his blank, white mask, the blond was left to wonder what the man could have been thinking. After at least a long minute, the general cleared his throat.
"The reports from operative Tiger denote a will to never give up a task. Are you giving up, recruit?"
"With due respect, Dragon-sama, it is not what I said." The blond answered frostily.
"Do you doubt your capacities?"
"Not in the least. If anything, I have a clearer idea of what they are. But the first lesson I learned here was the need to limit them with humility. Or do you not remember, Dragon-sama?"
For a second, the temperature in the room dropped below zero and Naruto fully expected to be killed on the spot for his impertinence. Much like when Tiger had blasted him with his killing intent, Naruto felt his breathing stop, his body lock up, and primal parts of his brain started to order him to flee. Suddenly, the air was breathable again and the blond nearly peed himself as his body relaxed almost against his will.
"You have a willful tongue, recruit. Be careful that it does not lead you astray."
"Hai, general," said the boy with a crack in his voice.
"To answer your question, no I did not set you up. I promised you and my soldiers you would not benefit from any favor. I could not foresee this problem you are encountering right now."
"You could have asked, I'd have told you my weakness was chakra control." Naruto retorted in an emotionless tone of voice.
"You could have talked."
"No teacher ever listened to me. And didn't you have a detailed file on me anyway?"
At that, Dragon sighed. "I never imagined the problem would be that big. It is the first time I ever hear of such a condition. You cannot accuse me of not having anticipated such a unique thing, can you?"
Naruto slowly shook his head no. Indeed he could not. As much as some people may have had actively worked against him, sometimes it was simply bad luck that impeded him. Simply, stupid bad luck, unrelated to anyone, just fate beating on a dead horse and striking him with yet another complication related to his condition. The commander sighed again and rose from his chair, circling around his desk to stand in front of the blond. Dragon squeezed the boy's right shoulder
"We identified the problem and we came up with a solution, recruit." The general's tone was stern, admonishing almost. "I made you a promise I'd give you a fair chance and I keep my promise." The man continued, his voice almost gentle this time despite the mask's alteration. "You learned the shadow clone technique in an hour. You have already accomplished the impossible so I trust you'll succeed at your task within the next three weeks."
Naruto felt himself vibrate along with the sheer confidence he could hear in the man's tone.
Dragon trusted him?
Dragon trusted him.
The blond silently swore that the man would not have his trust disappointed.
Naruto turned and tossed in his bed. It seemed that, deep as he was in the guts of the Hokage Mountain, sleep could not find him. The blond knew why of course. It had been time for him to assimilate the memories of the clones sent to the library and of the lone replica sent to the Mission Assignment Desk.
The blond felt his eyes prickle when the memories of his clone working alongside the old man, giving the Sarutobi the coldest shoulder possible, circle within his mind.
How much time would Naruto, could Naruto, continue like this? The blond had no idea but he knew the mental images were akin to torture for him.
He wanted nothing more than to shrugg his anger of and hug the man he considered as and called his grandfather but he could not allow himself to do that. That Hokage was the target of all his pent up aggression and rage. He could not allow the old man to be off the hook yet. Not as long as his anger against Konoha had not petered out and left him. He could not allow himself to feel his rage against his village, he did not know what he would do if the pit of destructive fire were to be let out.
So he kept being angry at the Hokage. He kept being angry at his grandfather. He kept at bay the one man that had always been there for him.
Could Naruto really weight off twelve years of lies against twelve years of love?
The blond forced his eyes closed as bitter tears streamed silently down his cheeks.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed. I feel conflicted. Do I write Naruto struggling to learn the reverse Jyuuken? I am afraid to completely kill my pace if I do so. Answer in a review!
P.S: if you understood nothing to Hiruzen and Shikaku's discussion... It's kind of a little game for you to solve. I've never described smoke so accurately.