Chapter 8

Realisations and Applications

Genma was finishing off his latest mission report, 'Kami, I hate these things', he thought giving it a quick once-over before handing it in getting a brief thank you from the Chūnin on duty in the mission hall and received four small sealed packages in return. He and his team had completed another C-Rank, bringing team 12's total to 17, alongside the 53 D-Ranks it had been a good year.

Their latest mission had seen them escort a merchant from Konoha to the Kaminari no Kuni (Land of Lightning) border. The mission had taken them through two minor nations and had taken several weeks. And Genma was of the opinion that it would be the final mission he led them on, well as their Sensei at least anyway. It had been pretty much a year since he'd taken command of team 12.

The Chūnin exams were right around the corner, in fact, team 12 were departing in three days for Kumogakure. While they weren't the only team going representing Konoha, they were the most highly regarded. "All right you three, your pay," he handed them each one of the packages. "Now I want you to take it easy for the next few days before we leave for Kumo, nothing above light training, no need to risk injuring yourself."

"Hai, Sensei," was the collective response. "I'll see you at the main gate, three days, 9:00 am. Bring everything you'll need. Now hurry up or you'll be late." And with that all three were gone in an instant, their destination was the Academy. Today was the day their former classmates graduated. All nine of them were to receive their Hitai-ate's. They'd double-timed it back to Konoha after seeing their charge over the Kumo border just to make it back in time and even then they had cut it fine.

They raced across the rooftops and flew down streets leaving baffled civilians in their wake. Sure they were used to Shinobi rushing around, but not at full pelt. Their path took them down a narrow street, the street was currently blocked by cart with a broken wheel spoke. They bore down on the cart, a cloud of dust behind them. Naruto leapt clean over, Itachi shunshined past it while Tri wall ran over it. He had seen the cart owner struggling to repair the wheel, however, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," While they continued four clones appeared next to the cart owner. "Need a hand?" they all said.

Tri found himself in third place after his creating clones. Ahead of him, Naruto looked back, he had a big grin on his face. Tri didn't like that grin, 'If Naruto beats me to the Academy, I'll never hear the end of it'. With that Tri decided to drop his weight seals, but to do that he had to stand still. He skid to a halt and brought his arms together, his hands on the opposite arm just below the elbow. The pose wiped the grin off of Naruto's face.

Tri was stationary for perhaps a second before he simply vanished. Naruto felt nothing, no chakra signature, no movement in the air as Tri cut through it. Naruto and Itachi arrived at the Academy a few minutes later and of course, lent up against a wall waiting for them was Tri. "You're too fast for your own good Tri," Itachi chuckled, the cloak clad boy only shrugged as they entered the Academy grounds.

"Looks like we just got here in time," Naruto said making his way through the crowd, his teammates following the path he forged. They emerged at the front just in time as Sora shouted, "The graduates of class 14. Step forward Akimichi Maruten, Uchiha Izumi, Inuzuka Hana, Yamanaka Keiko, Kamano Saisu, Kenta Rokurou, Moe Mei, Yuuki Kazue and Yua Saki." The nine stepped forward, all had their attention drawn a loudly cheering Naruto. There were smiles of delight all round on seeing they'd made it, they'd known there was a distinct possibility they wouldn't make it back from their mission in time.

Daikoku stepped in front of his nine latest graduates. "Just like I said to your former classmates last year, it has been a pleasure to teach each of you. Despite the disappointment of having to remain a second year despite all the progress you'd each made. You didn't let it get to you, you used it to reaffirm your dedication and used it as a catalyst to ensure you would graduate this year. And it has paid off. I'm proud to have been your Sensei and I wish you well in your future endeavours."

"Akimichi Maruten, step forward," Sora shouted out as the first of the nine received their Hitai-ate.

The ceremony had come to an end. Class 14 weren't the last class to be called forward this year, so they'd had to wait for everyone else before dispersing. The 'Prodigal Three' stood to the side as their friends were congratulated by their families, it wasn't the best of experiences for Tri and Naruto as it brought back memories of their own graduation the previous year.

That was soon forgotten as their friends made their way over one by one. Tri had just finished giving Mei a congratulatory hug, the only warning he got was "Tri-kun!" before he was practically tackled to the ground by a brown-haired Inuzuka. "Congratulations Hana-chan," he replied, returning her hug. Besides Naruto, Itachi and maybe Shisui, Hana was his closest friend, definitely his closest female friend.

Hana who had almost tackled him to the floor was soon bested. The moment he let go of Hana, he did end up on the floor as he was mobbed by the Haimaru brothers. They still hadn't fully grown but they certainly weren't puppies anymore. "Yes. Hello, you three. Yes, I missed you too," was all he managed to get out while Hana and the others looked on. They tried not to laugh, they really did. But they all failed miserably as Tri's face was covered in slobber. Hana eventually had to call them to heel so Tri could actually get up. "One several week C-Rank mission, that's fine. But one Inuzuka and her Ninken and you've had it," Itachi said poking fun at him, earning him a glare.

Tri used his cloak to wipe his face while Mei spoke, "How long have you been back?"

"About half an hour," Naruto replied. "What did you saunter back or something?" Saki jokingly accused. Naruto shook his head, "No, we double-timed it back. We ran into some miserable weather in Shimo no Kuni (Land of Frost) on the way there that delayed us by a day or two."

"So how are we celebrating?" Keiko asked joining the group. "Food?" Maruten hopefully asked. "Fine with me," Mei mused, the Akimichi's suggestion going down well as more of them agreed. "It'll be the evening," Itachi warned. "You'll likely be exhausted as well," chucked Naruto. The three of them had already been warned about revealing the Genin Exam their friends would be subjected to tomorrow. "That's alright Naruto, they'll have worked up an appetite," Tri chimed in, Hana noticed the evil little grin he had on his face but ignored it.

"Ok, so what time and where?" the Inuzuka asked. Maruten assumed a thinking pose, stroking his chin. The rest looked on as Maruten went through all the possibilities in his head, a quick shake of his head telling them he'd dismissed an option. This continued for almost a minute before Maruten clapped his hands together. "So where'd you decide on Maruten-kun?" Saki asked. They'd all unconsciously decided long ago that whenever it came to deciding on a place to eat, they'd just let Maruten decide.

"This time, it shall be Yakiniku Q! And it shall be at 7:00 pm!" he declared. "Well then, it settled," Saisu said clapping a hand on Maruten's shoulder. "As for now, however, I'm going home before I fall asleep standing up," Naruto followed up. The group all bid their farewells until tomorrow before going their own separate ways.

The two brothers reached home. "Nii-chan!" rang down the hall as they were greeted by a five-year-old Rezano. After hugging Naruto he got a boop on the nose from Tri before being picked him up into his arms. Kushina joined them in the hall, a two-year-old Minusha in her arms. "Welcome back Tri-chan, Naruto-chan," she welcomed them as Minusha let out a joyful giggle. "Hi Kaa-chan," was their collective reply. "Everything go ok on your mission?" she asked, leading them into the dining room.

Tri pulled a chair out, sat in it and pulled Rezano onto his lap while Naruto theatrically fell into another chair. "Tri answered his question, "Yeah, no problems. A brief blizzard in Shima no Kuni delayed us a day or two, but other than that, nothing."
"Yeah, still got back in time to see our friends graduate," Naruto added, lying cheek first on the table. "How long have you been back?"
"About an hour Kaa-chan."
"So you barely made it," Kushina smirked. "Yeah, minutes in it."
"Aren't you doing anything to celebrate?"
"Yeah, tomorrow night. Everyone's celebrating with their families tonight and we're exhausted. So we won't be here for dinner tomorrow," Tri said, the tiredness coming through in his voice. Kushina internally winced at his comment.

She was saved from the awkward silence that would have followed by Rezano. "Nii-chan! I've gotten a lot better with my shuriken," the boy declared. "Is that right," Tri replied, tightening his arms around Rezano's belly, "Well you'll have to show me tomorrow."
"Are you not on any missions tomorrow then?" Tri shook his head, "No Kaa-chan, we're off-duty until we leave for Kumogakure."

Kushina didn't want her children competing in a Chūnin Exams held by Kumo. She bore a great deal of animosity towards the Village hidden in the Clouds, and for good reason. They'd tried to kidnap her when she was a child and then there was the Hyūga incident three years ago when a Kumo nin had tried to kidnap the Hyūga Clan heir Hinata for her Byakugan.

But she had no say in whether they competed or not, only Genma could decide whether they did or not. And he had forwarded their names as soon as Minato started taking applications for the Chūnin Exams. Of course, she'd immediately tried to argue with Genma over the matter. She questioned whether they were truly ready to enter an Exam they could die in, whether they were strong enough, developed enough both physically and mentally. Genma had shut her down in short order.

*Flashback*

"What can I do for you, Genma?"
"Hokage-sama, I'll be entering team 12 into the Chūnin Exams." Minato and Kushina were both caught off guard by the Jōnin's declaration. "What? They've only been Genin for a year. How can they be ready for the Chūnin Exams?" the Uzumaki matriarch asked. "It doesn't matter how long they've been Genin Kushina-sama. I am absolutely confident they are ready"

"How can you be sure, how do you know how they'll react when it's kill or be killed?" she continued, her question confused Genma. "Did you not know?" was his bewildered question. "Know what.. You mean they're blooded?" [1] she asked, her emotions starting to get the better of her. Deciding to be blunt, Genma replied, "Hai, they were all blooded just more than eight months ago, since then they been in combat several times against both regular bandits and missing-nin. This was all mentioned in my mission reports."

'How did I not know this? Who helped them come to terms with their first kills?' the thoughts raced through Kushina's head, did they hide it from her, or did she simply not notice, 'I wouldn't have missed it, surely?'.

"How many kills are we talking here?" Minato queried. Genma thought for a few moments, "Each of them is past a dozen, they're desensitised to it and don't allow emotion to cloud their judgement." Kushina was now desperately looking for excuses, reasons for them not to compete. "How can you be sure they are good enough for the Chūnin Exams?"

"Kushina-sama. How do you know they aren't. Because trust me, they are," Genma said frankly.

"I..I." Kushina tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come. His response stuck in her mind, How did she know if they were good enough or not. The more she thought about it, the less she realised she knew. Their strengths, their weaknesses, their fighting styles, their attitudes, their training regime. She didn't know any of it. 'Why don't I know any of this? Why didn't they ask for help? Did they ask? Did I ignore them? When was the last time I helped either of them? When was the last time they asked?'

Minato reached into one of the drawers on his desk. "If you think they're ready Genma," he said handing him three sheets, "Have them fill these in."
"Hai, Hokage-sama."

*End Flashback*

"So how are you spending the next couple days?" she tentatively asked. "I'll probably be training Kaa-chan," Naruto replied. Tri had noticed the lack of surety in her voice, "Except for tomorrow night and some light training in the early mornings, I'll be here. I haven't seen any of you for ages and I'll soon be gone for several weeks more," he said giving Kushina a warm smile. He noticed a nervousness in his mother in recent weeks and it seemed to have made her more mindful of how she interacted with him and Naruto.

He thought he saw a brief flicker of relief in her eyes. "Anyway, I think I'll go take a nap before I fall asleep on the table," Naruto stated, dragging himself to his feet before shuffling out of the room. "Ok, Naruto-chan, I'll wake you when dinners ready."
"Thanks, Kaa-chan," he replied from the hall.

Tri's extreme stamina training meant that even after a three-day charge across several hundred miles he was good until evening rolled around. Instead, he pulled a pair of Fūinjutsu books out of a storage seal, one was a level 7 book, the other was his personal notepad, well one of them. He had numerous notebooks filled to the brim by now. And with Rezano snuggled into his shoulder, on the edge of dozing off himself, he picked up where he'd last left off.

Her interest piqued, she sat down in the chair next to Tri. "What cha' working on?"
"My Fūinjutsu, Kaa-chan," he said still scribbling away with a pencil. "You persevered with it, fantastic," she happily said. "Where are you up to?" she was expecting high level 2, low level 3. "I recently started level 7, Kaa-chan,"
"Level.. Sev… Seven?" Her voice was despairingly quiet as her eyes widened in shock. "How?" Tri looked up to find a sad look on her face and deciding now was the time to begin to confront the issues of the past four and a half years. "I have a photographic memory, Kaa-chan. I read something, I remember it. And combined with a load of Kage Bunshin's means it's massively sped up my Fūinjutsu learning," The sad look on her face only seemed to worsen, 'I didn't know something as simple as this?' her mind screamed.

Tri gently carried Rezano into the living room and placed him down on a sofa, re-entering the dining room he pushed his chair closer to Kushina's. "How much have I missed?" Tri sighed, he would have to be blunt, "A lot, Kaa-chan, a lot. But we need to have this conversation with Naruto and Tou-san present too." Her head was bowed, she couldn't bring herself to look at her 10-year-old son. Right now it felt like their roles were reversed, that she was the child and he the adult.

Tri sighed again as he stood, wrapping his arms around Kushina's shoulders he pulled her into a hug.

-The following day-

"Aww, why are you so much faster than me Nii-chan?" a glum Rezano asked. Tri placed a hand on his otouto's head, "Because I've been doing this for years, you dummy. You've only just started." Just as he said he would, Tri was watching Rezano throw shuriken. There back garden was a large open space so they'd turned a chunk of it into a training field. A pair of wooden sparing posts at one end, shuriken and kunai targets at the other.

Right now some of the targets were riddled with wooden shuriken, the ground around the targets bore just as many. "You're focusing too much on speed, speed comes in time. Work on your accuracy first then you can start learning to throw them accurately and quickly." To make his point, he threw six metal shuriken downrange, in an instant all six struck the bullseye. "See, Rezano-chan."

His blonde haired younger brother glumly nodded. "Practise with your wooden shuriken and when you can hit the bullseye every time, we'll talk to Tou-san and Kaa-chan about getting you a blunt metal set, Okay?" His enthusiasm suddenly returned as he rushed to retrieve his shuriken, "Don't touch my shuriken Rezano-kun, I don't want you cutting yourself on them," he shouted after him.

Rezano soon returned to his side, shuriken in hand. "Nii-chan? I know we all learn to throw shuriken and kunai, but do you even use them still?" Tri was slightly surprised by his brother's perceptive foresight. "We do on occasion Rezano-kun, they are most useful for distractions and for exploiting openings. They become very dangerous if your enemy isn't paying attention. Plus when you're really good with them you can bend them around objects," he explained.

He watched him practise for another fifteen minutes before he spoke again. "Unfortunately, I need to get going Rezano-kun. I've got plans this evening."

"Ok, thank you Nii-chan," he shouted back as Tri made his way back into the house.

-Later that evening at Yakiniku Q-[1]

"To the graduates of class 14!" Naruto cheered raising his glass. "Cheers!" the rest responded. They'd been gorging themselves on food enough to feed a small army and some of them were likely going to regret it tomorrow.

"To Genin teams 3, 5, and 6!" Tri cheered, another round of cheers went around the table. Earlier that day all nine had successfully passed the Genin Exams and would tomorrow start their lives as Genin proper. Some of them looked worse for wear, tired, haggard looks on their faces accompanied by scuffs, cuts and bruises.

"When do you three leave for Kumo?" Keiko asked after everyone had settled down. "Day after tomorrow," Itachi was forced to reply since Naruto was stuffing his face while Tri looked on in disgusted bewilderment. 'That much food should not be able to fit into such a small space'. "Are you nervous?" Izumi asked. The young Uchiha's self-confidence had come on leaps and bounds these last two years. "Not really, I'm confident in my abilities and the abilities of my teammates." Naruto gave him a thumbs up and a big smile, food nearly falling out of his mouth.

"Don't worry about them Izumi-chan," Saisu reassured her, "They are the 'Prodigal Three' after all," he boasted. "Do you know much about what the Exam entails?" Saki asked and this time Tri responded. "The Exam consists of three phases and to reach the next phase, you must pass the previous test. The first test is usually in the form of a written exam. The second is multi-day survival simulation, this is the most dangerous part of the exam. The third test is held a month later and comprises a public tournament, the tournament is usually attended by multiple Daimyos and Kage. Only the best will make it to the final test. The previous two tests are designed solely to weed out those who can't cut it," Tri finished.

Everyone was silent for a short while as they digested Tri's explanation. Naruto, after finally emptying his mouth decided to break the silence. "Don't worry you guys, They televise the matches back to Konoha. So you'll be watching us kick some serious ass in the tournament!" His loud boasts making Tri and Itachi feel a little awkward, neither thought much of boasting, preferring instead to let their actions do the talking for them.

-The following day – Uchiha Compound-

Itachi watched on as his Kaa-chan, Mikoto Uchiha sparred with his younger brother Sasuke. His brother had recently turned five, thus his training had begun. Taijutsu, Shurikenjutsu and chakra control; His Kaa-chan had begun to teach Sasuke all of them and that confused Itachi. When he was five, both his mother and father had trained him. But while Mikoto trained Sasuke, Fugaku did not and he didn't understand why.

He'd asked Kaa-chan, but she'd dodged his question and left him without an answer. There was no point asking his Tou-san, he was never around, always working at the Uchiha police station. In recent months his Tou-san had become distant, cold, even by his standards. He rarely interacted with him anymore and as for Sasuke, well.

But it went further than that, he could think of several clan members who'd been acting strangely. He'd discussed the matter with Shisui and he'd agreed with his assessments. The major figures of the Uchiha clan were up to something but he couldn't fathom what.

A voice pulled him out of musing. "Nii-chan! Can you help me with my Shurikenjutsu?" Standing right in front of him was Sasuke. He gave his younger sibling a slight smile, "Sorry Sasuke-kun, I need to do one last bit of training before I leave tomorrow. Maybe another time," he replied. Tapping his brother on the forehead with his index and middle fingers after which he shunshined away leaving Sasuke with a pout on his face.

-The following morning-

"Remember to be careful, since you're my sons I'm afraid the Iwa and Kumo teams are going to after you."
"Don't worry Tou-san, it's not your fault you're a better Shinobi than them," Naruto said dismissing his father's warning. On the outside he was anyway, inside he knew that his father's words were true. Especially from any teams from Iwagakure, they hated Minato after he single-handedly humiliated them during the third world war.

The yellow Flash had taken on a vast force of Iwa-nin and won, thus he became the nightmare Iwa-nin told their children, to fear his name and his greatest Jutsu, the Hiraishin.

"Don't worry Tou-san, I'll make sure he doesn't get too hurt," Tri's words putting a wide grin on Naruto's face but then instantly wiped it away. "And if he does get hurt, I'll make sure to keep him alive long enough for you to shout at him."

"Alright you three, we need to get going, the weather in the north-east of the world is rather temperamental this time of year, we don't want another blizzard," Genma shouted to them. Kushina quickly pulled her two eldest into a hug, "Good luck both of you, we'll see you in a few weeks, ok." Both brothers took turns giving Rezano a hug and bid farewell to Minusha and their Tou-san. Similarly, Itachi was saying goodbye to his family, his father even managing to turn up.

And with that, they joined the convoy that would be travelling with them and the other Genin teams and they departed. Their destination, Kumogakure and the Chūnin Exams.

End Chapter

[1] - Yakiniku Q is the name of the Korean barbecue restaurant that Choji loves so dearly.