CH 5

With a week until the next inter-team event, I threw my students back into training and completing D-ranks. Having had several days to attempt tree walking, I introduced the idea of water walking. Not even Sakura managed that immediately, and I figured that between the two techniques and the jutsu I had given them, my three students would be kept busy for the foreseeable future.

Predictably Naruto had complained about the lack of destructive potential, but I had an easy response: "Let me get this straight, you don't want to walk on water? Have fun swimming then."

Meanwhile my intelligence web (ha!) was keeping an eye out for Tazuna, as well monitoring Kabuto. He was ridiculously good at maintaining cover, and if I wasn't already certain, I would have thought he was exactly as he pretended. What a goody-goody cover too! He worked at the hospital, volunteered for the poor and with orphanages, and even visited his sickly adopted grandmother.

It was disgusting how this was the same man who helped Orochimaru vivisect living 'specimens', warp dozens of individuals with biological and chakra experiments, and eventually go on to raise an entire undead army consisting of every single ninja who had died in the last century. How did he even know about some of them? Probably lazy writing on Kishimoto's part. I vowed Kabuto would never get the chance to perfect the impure resurrection technique in the first place.

At the moment though, we were putting a new roof on for a client, and Sakura was doing a great job of organizing things.

"All right! Naruto, get to work loading up the wood! Sasuke, start hammering! Go go go!" Sakura commanded, looking at the plans for the new roof our client had requested. I sat back, not wanting to distract my students. I sure as hell hated somebody looking over my shoulder all the time, and I imagined my students liked it no better.

Naruto set to work with his clones, but Sasuke was staring right at me. He walked away from the job and right up to me.

"Yes Sasuke?" I asked.

"We need to talk," Sasuke stated. I nodded, and looked at Sakura.

"Keep it going Sakura, we'll be right back," I said. Sakura nodded, and scowled when she saw a Naruto slacking off.

"HEY! Get going already! Just because Sasuke gets a break doesn't mean you do!"

"Right Sakura-chan," the clone sighed. Huh, he didn't respond as eagerly as he usually did. Maybe Hinata was rubbing off on him a little.

Sasuke twitched very, very slightly at Sakura's voice, to which I repressed a smirk. We moved out of sight of the house, and I crossed my arms across my chest to look at my student.

"What is it?"

He fixed me with a flat stare. "Why haven't you taught me anything?"

I raised my eyebrows. In all honesty, I should have expected something like this. Looking over my behavior, I had focused pretty heavily on Naruto, because, let's face it, he needed a lot of work.

Even so, I hadn't been horribly uneven.

"I've taught you many things. The ten basic camping jutsu-"

"You also taught Sakura and Naruto that."

"I taught you how to tree and water walk-"

"The other two."

I tried a new tactic. "Ah! I see. You don't want to know things, you want preferential treatment!"

"That's not it at all!" He glared.

"You came to me and said I hadn't taught you anything. I just gave you a list, and you complained that I taught those things to your teammates. Did you think Kakashi woke up one morning with a burning desire to help you with those fire jutsu? I asked him to help because I know our specialties don't overlap very well."

"Then why don't I go learn from him?"

"Be my guest. See how far you get with him. Kakashi is an excellent ninja, but he's kind of a rubbish human. He means well, but he can't be bothered to care about anything less than a B-rank mission. He was going to train your team, but it was decided I'd be better."

I admit that this was somewhat unfair to Kakashi. I've seen various defences of his teaching style, from 'how was he supposed to know the world would go batshit crazy in a few years' to 'he tried to teach the fundamentals early on' right up to 'Kakashi was the bestest teacher evar, you don't get his genus!1!'. Kakashi is human, and did a decent job with what he had available to him, but he is broken in some ways. Most of us ninja are. He couldn't really connect with kids, because he never got to be one.

There's probably a Michael Jackson joke in there somewhere, but even if I fished it out it would doubtless be in bad taste.

"I need to excel!"

"No, you want to excel, as does everyone." I sighed. "Sasuke, look... You have no shortage of jutsu, or skill in taijutsu," I told him. "You're not the rookie of the year for nothing. What you do need is practice in utilizing those skills, especially as part of a team."

Sasuke's frown deepened. I shrugged.

"Look, nobody can do everything, and quite frankly, loners don't do well as ninja."

"Yes they do," Sasuke growled. I stared at him.

"Sasuke... That's Itachi. Not you." I poked him in the forehead, which made him freeze.

Ninja cheat.

"In your quest for vengeance, do you want to become your brother? You saw my sensei, right? Well... At least he had the decency to show what he was on the outside." My gaze was grim. "That kind of power always comes with a price... And even if you succeed in what you want to do with that kind of power, trust me... It isn't worth it."

"You're wrong," Sasuke replied immediately, anger burning deep in those black eyes of his.

"Do you think your brother is happy? Always on the run? Unable to stay anywhere for any length of time? Unable to trust anyone, knowing they could turn on you in a heartbeat?" I shook my head, that approach wasn't going to work. "Sasuke... Have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe... He wanted you to think that way? Think about it. What do you gain if you become just as bad as he is? Nothing but vengeance. What does he gain?"

"So what should I do?" Sasuke growled. "Let Itachi get away with what he did to my clan?!

"I'm not saying you shouldn't get stronger," I said. "Nor that you shouldn't kill him." It would be nigh on impossible to explain to him about Madara and the other things right now, so I'd use the common perception. "What I am saying though is that it shouldn't be the only thing in your life... Or that you have to fight alone," I added. "Other than our four hokage, who are the most famous Konoha ninja?"

"The Sannin and Itachi," Sasuke said immediately.

I nodded. Sure, there were others who ought to be on that list, Madara, the White Fang, hell, my sensei had been well known before he went mad, but from the viewpoint of a fresh genin, he was right.

"Yes. The Sannin. The three ninja. Not 'the three lone wolves'. Not 'wow, they became S rank badasses overnight completely on their own without ever being in a team'. Itachi spent time on a team, then spent time on a team in ANBU."

Sasuke stared at me, and looked away, thinking it over. I then hit upon the perfect thing to say.

"Let me tell you about a man named... Bruce Wayne."

••••••••••

So I told him. All about Batman, how he was forged in the alley of a distant city, with the bodies of his parents lying before him. How he took the bat as his symbol and used it to bring fear to the criminal underbelly. How he seemed mad but was probably the sanest person alive. How he considered himself alone, but had actually built a family around himself.

Now, I may not be much of anything in our world, but one thing I'm pretty good at is storytelling. Especially when I had decades of the finest writers to crib off of. I was able to hold Sasuke's attention for at least an hour. That's tough to do with anyone, and if you haven't worked with kids… well, lucky you. After I was done, I gave him the rest of the day off and asked him to just think about what I'd said.

"Look, power for power's sake is stupid, but you know you can't fight him now, right?"

Sasuke just gave me a look, not even bothering to respond.

"Then for right now, just focus on training. Later you can figure out what to do with it. Your brother is strong enough that I doubt he's going to go down to some random schmuck. You have time. Go think on it, yeah?"

He gave a grudging nod, and left.

Did I think it would change him immediately? Of course not. I wasn't a miracle worker. Did I think it would plant the seeds of resistance to Orochimaru in his mind? Probably.

If I couldn't do better than Kakashi, while knowing what was going to happen... well! God help us.

I didn't think we were as good as we could be, but it was certainly better than canon... Even if Sakura did still beat Naruto up and Sasuke still sniped at the both of them, it was without true rancor.

••••••••••

I found myself (and Team 7) in one of the archive buildings the following day, organizing old, unclassified records. It was boring, but useful for them to learn, especially Naruto. Not that he couldn't read… but he could definitely improve, especially regarding speed.

Sakura felt right at home of course, quickly coming to grips with the organization system. Thankfully, since my understanding of it was limited, and I had forgotten some since the last time I had been sent down here.

"Ah, Andoryu-kun, it's been so long nephew!"

I turned to the voice, I knew it well. The juxtaposition of what I knew about this man, and what my Other knew though, was so severe, I felt like I had the bends.

Danzo Shimura. My father's good friend, and my 'uncle'.

This was awkward.

"Ah, uncle, it's been too long! I've been busy with my new team." I waved my arm as if to show them off.

"Yes, I'd heard of that. Your very own team. I can remember when you were knee high," he said with a smile.

He always was good at playing the smiling politician in public.

"And I do believe you got the team. Uchiha, Uzumaki, and Haruno. I've heard good things. Tell me, how did you steal them away from Kakashi?"

My students had stopped for a moment, but I motioned for them to keep working.

"Well, the thing with Kakashi, he can't be bothered by anything less than a B-rank, can he? I think he didn't want the hassle of a team. How many has he failed now?" I asked.

"Too many. Having a team would do him good," Danzo observed. I nodded in agreement. "Oh well," he continued, "his loss is your gain."

I waved my team over now for introductions.

"This is Shimura-san, a family friend and advisor to the Hokage, as well as liaison to the army, and many other positions," I explained.

"You make me sound grand," he waved off my description.

They bowed and introduced themselves.

"Haruno Sakura, nice to meet you sir."

"Uchiha Sasuke, nice to meet you sir."

"Hi! Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet sensei's friends!"

Danzo nodded politely, his smile becoming fractionally warmer. Like all his actions, it was perfectly calculated and measured. Think of pouring a bit more warm water into the tea, balancing out the flavor and temperature. Except the warmth was a means to an end, only there long enough to do what it had to do, then gone.

"It is good to see the youth of the Leaf is so courteous. I'm sure you'll all do very well. Especially under Tsume. His father and I go back a long way. Pay attention to his advice," Danzo said. I smiled back, and we continued to make inane smalltalk. My expression was friendly enough, but my thoughts were racing as fast as my synapses could fire.

The sad thing is, he was absolutely right. Danzo and my father had worked together since well before the last Ninja War, helping to coordinate between the regular troops of Fire and the shinobi. My Other's memories were filled of this man visiting our home when I was a child, talking with my father and mother as cordially as you please, even receiving gifts and letters from him as I grew older. He'd been a supporter of mine ever since I started training to become a ninja: Not a full on sponsor but his word had opened doors normally closed to a first generation ninja. I had earned every bit though: I had worked hard to get where I was, taking and succeeding in many difficult missions, before and after I recovered from my year on the Spider Plane. Danzo had been part of that too: Visiting me in the hospital in person! I even still had a congratulatory letter from him on the day I became a jounin, filled with advice and warm wishes.

Ninja and the Fire army had a complicated, but crucial relationship, and the two men were the best liaisons between the two groups. My father was a proponent of soft strength, economic might backed up by enough military might to defend Fire country and its interests, with violence as a resort but always the last resort. Danzo was ever the war hawk, but they both respected each others views, for the most part. I believe that as my father was not a ninja, and therefore not a true threat, his was one of the few true friendships that Danzo had ever made. And so as far as my Other was concerned, 'Uncle' Danzo may have had strained relationships with people like the Third Hokage but he'd chalked it up to simple political tensions. That happened, even between the oldest of friends: The price of power and influence.

But knowing what I did now about Danzo, about everything he had done… Outside of Madara, there were few people I had canon knowledge of stirring up more shit in the elemental nations. Pain could be laid directly on his doorstep, just for starters. The Uchiha Clan massacre- He had a hand in that (and an arm, and three or six eyes). He'd tried to assassinate Sarutobi. Reading the manga, that last had been confusing: How had that not ended him right there? But now in the world, I had context: Those had been tests by Danzo to see if Sarutobi was still up to the task of Hokage, arranged and recognized as such. If he'd really wanted Sarutobi dead, he'd have done it himself, and both parties knew it. Sure, Danzo wanted to rule, but he wasn't going to just weaken Leaf without it being damn necessary.

Such conviction was impressive, and if he had better judgment, I'd be impressed. Perhaps I was biased, knowing the horrible outcomes from his unsanctioned antics made it easy to condemn them in retrospect, but I doubt I would have agreed with them in the moment as well.

The truth was, Danzo was alive because he had made himself so critically important to so many people, both in and outside of Konoha. Sarutobi ignored the attempted hit on him so that Danzo could keep the wheels turning. Hell… He was important to me. The me of this world, anyway.

I was tempted to put him on the same list as Kabuto. The other me recoiled at the thought. Most of his damage had already been wrought, some before I was born.

"Andoryuu?" I started and noticed the old warhawk was staring at me in concern. "Are you all right?"

… I didn't have to do anything for now.

"Sorry, reminiscing. I still have your letter from when I made jonin," I replied.

He grinned. "I was proud. You proved yourself, and continue to do so. Ah, but have you read Rei's new book?"

I nodded. "Yes. I've leant it to Sakura in fact, she's a fan of my fathers."

Sakura blushed prettily, and beamed up at Danzo. "Y-Yes! It's nice to read something about how ninjas and the regular world work together. Most other things I've read have just been about ninja abilities and powers, but not the larger implications of their use."

Naruto's eyes were glazing over. Sasuke, who had been raised with better manners, was only doing slightly better at hiding his boredom.

"Ho! Maybe you'll take over for me when I retire!" Danzo complimented her. She beamed, wriggling a bit at the praise. She hadn't gotten a lot of that in canon, it was no wonder she soaked it up like a sponge.

I could sense Naruto was going to break soon, his foot was tapping up a storm. "Back to work, I want to do another mission after this. I'm sure you can listen to us chat about things again soon."

Naruto bounced off immediately. "Yes sir!" The relief was palpable. Sasuke went too, better at hiding it, but he was glad to be going back to work.

Sakura had to drag herself back, but managed. Danzo shook his head in understanding.

"That's fine, Andoryu, I have things to attend to as well. We must have lunch some time."

"We should," I said with a nod. I gave him a wry look. A suspicion of my Other had arisen, helping to center me and disguise my misgivings. He read that part of me immediately, and thankfully, leaped to the wrong conclusion.

"And no… I had nothing to do with your assignment to Team 7," he stated unequivocally. I shrugged, though inside I felt very relieved I wasn't just Anakin Skywalker to his Palpatine.

So far.

"Getting one over Copy Cat Kakashi does make one question things," I admitted. Danzo chuckled softly, like brown leaves rustling in the breeze.

"I will admit, I am far more confident in you to handle this team than in him," he intimated. "And it was nice to see one of Sarutobi's favorites not get another unearned accolade."

"Who doesn't like to see their friends fail, every now and again?" I asked dryly. "It makes things interesting."

"That it does. Go on now, teach. I have gears to grease."

"When don't you? Lunch, for sure."

He walked off, his cane creaking on the wooden floorboards, and I turned back to my students. I was glad they could handle this on their own, I had a lot of thinking to do.

A lot of thinking indeed...

••••••••••

The week having ended, our second joint training session occurred. Teams 7, 8 and, as I had predicted, 10, were gathered at a local training field, with the three instructors stood in front of them.

"Today, Andoryuu-sensei will be running a few training exercises with you," Kurenai explained. "Asuma-sensei and I have to take care of a few things."

Asuma smiled at me. "Think you can handle them by yourself?"

It didn't take a ninja to figure out what they were really up to, so I shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

"Sure. I'll try and keep the grievous injuries and arson to a minimum, and have them in bed by nine," I quipped. "You two have fun on that mission," I said dryly.

Kurenai flushed a bit, but smiled back before the two hurried off. I watched them go, amused, and then looked back at my students.

"That mission being sex, I take it?" Shikamaru asked.

"Like rabbits on cocaine," I nodded, over the scandalized gasps of Sakura and Ino.

"Dummy! Don't just say it like that!" Ino hissed at him, before glaring at me.

Somehow, and you'll find this hard to believe, but I wasn't intimidated. I wondered if Asuma actually let her boss him around.

"Yeah!" Sakura added. Shikamaru sighed, muttering his trademark phrase.

Team 10, physically, was about what you'd expect: Shikamaru was very Asian, with tanned skin and dark brown, almost black hair. Chouji too, was very Asian around the eyes, though he was paler than Shikamaru. The show was unfair to his whole clan. Yes, they were heavy, yes they had fat, but more like a football player who'd recently retired than a chubby kid who sat in front of a TV or computer all day. You could see the muscles underneath the fat.

Ino was rather like Sakura in that she had more European features than Asian, but her hair was so pale I nearly expected it to be bleached. Her bust and hips were also more developed than the anime or manga would have you believe, and was slightly taller than Sakura. Probably all part of their rivalry.

I looked over my students, thinking about what to do. I then smiled.

"All right! The first exercise is fairly simple," I said. I formed a ball about the size of someone's head out of silk, and inflated it with air. "Defense can be just as important to a ninja as offense. We frequently are called upon to protect rich or politically important people."

I pointed at a nearby tree. "One team will defend that tree. The other two teams will try to hit the tree with the ball. The only rules are, the attackers cannot use their hands or any jutsu, just their bodies. The defenders? Anything goes. When a ball gets past, you switch with the team."

Ringumo's eyes got big and sparkly at this. Being a shapeshifter, she had adjusted her appearance for maximum cuteness. "Ooh! Ooh! Can I kick the ball too, Ando-kun?"

"Of course you can, Gumo-chan," I said with a smile.

"So it's like soccer then?" Shikamaru sighed. "What a drag..."

"There is a catch though," I said. "Whichever team spends the least time defending- that is, let the balls get past them the quickest- will be hung upside-down from said tree for the rest of the day, while Ringumo here bounces the ball off your faces."

My familiar smiled happily. "YAY!"

The Rookies all looked nervous. Even, no, especially Shino. Well, spiders weren't really his thing, after all. Or any Aburame's.

"First up... Team 10," I said. I saw Naruto and Kiba smirk. Shikamaru looked irritated, but I figured he wouldn't go down easily. Chouji looked determined. Ino opened her mouth to protest, but a Look at her shut her up.

"Begin... Now," I said, tossing the ball up into the air. Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino moved to cover the tree, while the other Rookies scrambled for the ball. The first shot came from Kiba, and Shikamaru got smacked in the head. I wasn't sure if he was blocking with it either.

"GAH!"

"HAHA!"

"YAY!" Ringumo cheered, and she began to chase the ball around, attempting to kick it. However, every time she got close, one of the Rookies kicked it at the tree. Which led to the comical sight of her rushing about frantically, trying to get a shot in. Heck, it was downright adorable.

Naturally, the game was more to keep them busy and develop teamwork than have a real winner. I didn't even put in a time limit. You wanted a winner from this exercise, you just had to look at me, heheh.

I settled in to watch the carnage, when I felt something tugging on my ear.

"Ando-kun, Ando-kun!" Fangumo hissed. "Mom wants to see you! She says it's urgent!"

I grimaced. "I see..." I was dreading this, to be honest. Sure, it's the job of the Spider Sage to be a liaison between this world and the Spider Plane but... Well, come on. Would you want to return to a nightmarish world filled with giant, sentient monsters?

Granted, I was on first name terms with many of them, but all the same...

"Right then," I sighed. I produced the Spider Scroll, and laid it down on the ground. I spread it open, and began making the handseals for the Reverse Summon. Hopefully I would have this wrapped up before lunch.

"Kuchiyose no-"

"BALL!" Ringumo screamed, and I looked up. My summon was running right for me, ball held triumphantly over her head, as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all ran after her.

"HEY! Bring it back Ringumo-!"

"We need that-"

"It's for-!"

"-jutsu?!"

POOF!

My chakra surged as the jutsu completed, and an explosion of smoke later, I was suddenly elsewhere.

... And so was Team 7.

"Huh?!" Naruto shouted. "What the hell?!"

Sakura paled, and Sasuke froze like a statue. It wasn't exactly hard to figure out why.

We were in a large chamber, built out of golden spider silk and carved wood. It was spherical, with tree branches artistically grown to provide decoration. In the light of the sun, the room was truly beautiful.

It was also filled to the brim with giant spiders of every description and kind. The eyes of every single one of those spiders were locked right onto us.

Ringumo broke the sudden, terrible silence.

"I can't wait to show Mom my new ball!"

I very slowly nodded, as my students looked on in growing horror. "Yes Gumo-chan... That's very nice."

Crap.