Context: "Ninja Ninja Tactics" is Quest-style story posted by Viva01 on Questionable Questing, a NSFW story forum. My handle on that forum is Stormfury. Quests work through having readers post and vote on different presented decisions that effect the story, such as through decisions a character chooses, or loot that is found. There is also often a randomness factor using dice rolls to determine the results of character actions/fights/etc. NNT is a Quest that is based on an OC who is Kakashi's twin brother, and follows his escapades as he is growing up. This has greatly changed the timeline of Naruto, and is an extremely long read that is still on-going. Omake in Quests usually earn "points" that can be turned in to positively effect dice rolls for a single chapter, and I have written several for this Quest.

The chapter follows one of the many OCs in the quest, due to it starting when Kakashi/Karasu (the OC twin) were born, and only currently in story is around age 12-13ish... 743 threadmarked updates from the author later. Also, being a Quest on a NSFW forum means a lot of... "relationship building" occurs, and most girls Karasu's age are into him. Shibue is an OC Aburame who is by far Best Girl in the quest, and the Chuunin lead of Team Shibue, originally her genin cell, who is one of the girls closest to Karasu. Kenichi and Mara are cousins who are OC Kuramas, Nemo is an OC Branch Hyuuga, Kaiya and Yuri are twin OC Uchihas, and Doomsday is Shibue's pet chakra-spider.

This Omake, unfortunately, ended up not being Canon, due to the author answering questions I had about upcoming events one way, only to turn out to have deliberately lied about it because he "didn't want to give spoilers". There are some moderately sized story spoilers in this chapter, but it does not ruin it.

Team Shibue: Licensed to Kill

'Even when life is boring,' Kenichi thought, 'its still good to be me.'

Life on the northern Iwa front wasn't so bad. After the last rotation left most of the more dangerous or annoying opposition in prison, his front had quieted down dramatically. Without the Steel or Explosion users, the only really dangerous forces they had to deal with were based more on their rank, and not any innate gift. Sure, he lost out on seeing the Ty sisters anymore, but that was a price he was willing to pay for safety. Still, he sighed; "They were a double win: they were a damn sight better looking than most of the Iwa forces, AND they riled up all my girls something fierce!'

Kenichi sighed again at that thought. Not HIS girls, no matter what he might wish - whatever he might... imagine... in the privacy of his own tent, he wasn't so delusional to actually believe it. He had spent a large amount of time in the past year or two with his team. No matter that he was the oldest, it wasn't Team Kenichi - Shibue was in charge, and she had no qualms enforcing it. He instinctively shuddered at the memories that thought dug up.

~Flashback~

"Mara, Kenichi, it is good you are on time to our first meeting. Why? Because there are teamwork drills we will go over, now that you are assigned to Team Shibue." While the base for the front was not the most ideal training location, there was space set aside for individual or team training work just for this purpose, and that is where Kenichi and Mara were directed to meet up with their newly assigned team.

"Woah, I don't remember being assigned to any 'Team Shibue.' - base command just said we're assigned to work with you. I think 'Team Kenichi' has a nice ring to it." While he didn't actually want command, as that would probably require paperwork or the like, he did have pride, and if he was going to be on a team with four younger girls, he was the natural choice for lead, right? Most of his academy class cohort had deferred to him if he decided to throw his weight around, due to his older age, bigger size, and more trained skill, but there were always exceptions, and the group that had clustered around the Hatake twins were all generally the exception. But Shibue and Nemo were quiet girls, and those types were usually shy, right? Kaiya definitely wasn't shy, but she wasn't the one asserting leadership here, so who cared? And Mara always had his back, didn't she?

'Huh, that's an ominous smile. Why are Kaiya and Nemo backing away from Shibue? Wait, why is Mara also backing away? Did her sunglasses just gleam?'

"Hmm. It seems to me that the first teamwork lesson you need is on the Team Shibue Pecking Order."

When Kaiya and Nemo outright fled, grabbing Mara along the way, Kenichi realized that maybe he was in way over his head.

Unfortunately for him, that was the first thing he was right about that day.

~Flashback~

'So many bugs. So many bugs. So many bugs. Why does she have so many? Why does she have so many different ones?'

Working with Shibue was... interesting... for Kenichi. He wasn't ever really interested with her, despite the fact he could acknowledge she was cute. It was the bugs; he had been on some missions with other Aburame, and watching Kikaichu crawl out of them was pretty freaky. 'Remember, Kenichi, vore is a trash fetish. All of my porn books agree!' Even though Shibue wasn't as focused on Kikaichu as a lot of field Aburame he had dealt with were, he knew she did have a hive, or whatever they called it, of them inside her. She diversified out a lot more, though, and had all sorts of other bugs all over her pretty much all the time, and he had no idea how many were just in her clothes or hair, and how many were inside her. Also, that goddamn spider did NOT like him. And Kenichi didn't care what other people might think of him if they knew, he wasn't going to argue with that goddamn spider, not after the last time he tried and lost.

He had tried one attempt at peeking at the girls while they were bathing on a protracted scouting mission, but before he could even get close Doomsday had shown up, and hissed at him. He had tried to quiet the spider down, but it actually shook its head no at him! When he tried to walk around it, the enormous-ass spider not only moved to stay in front of him, but also started growling! He even tried pleading with Doomsday, but then the spider actually drew a goddamn line in the dirt, as if to say "you will not go any further!" He had considered arguing the point, but decided discretion was the better part of valor, and that he didn't want any more goddamn bug bites, especially not from one as dangerous as that fucking spider. Goddamnit.

So yeah, Shibue was always a non-starter for him, but Nemo and Kaiya were both cuties! He could work with both of them, too, despite both of them openly not respecting him as much as he felt he deserved. He knew they cared, though. He had pierced Nemo's tsun-tsun exterior a time or two, but her dere-dere core was not his. He had heard the girls gossiping before, and he knew that she was already openly dating Karasu, 'or whatever you called joining a harem. Lucky bastard'. Kaiya was the better option to him, anyway - the fact that she didn't seem anywhere near as attached to the Lucky Bastard notwithstanding, their personalities just meshed a lot better. And she was hot. 'I wonder how pissed off she would get if I start making puns about her being as hot as her jutsu?' Masochism, he hoped, was not a trash fetish.

It was rather nice, Kenichi noted, that shinobi matured quite a bit earlier and faster than civilians, due to training or chakra or something like that - its not like he paid attention in the academy where they explained the why of it. All he knew was that even though he was only 12 now, he could walk into a bookstore and buy porn and no one would stop him. He even got a copy of that book that Mara had tried to hide from him, even though she did keep him from stealing hers. He had leafed through his own copy of that Uzumaki sex book, but outside of some nice training techniques (that he did actually work on, because Kenichi had priorities, damnit), he wasn't so dumb not to catch on to why all the girls clustered around Karasu had copies, and why they were all probably reading it. He also wasn't so dumb, not anymore at least, not after seeing him in action, to really argue with the girls about why they all were going after the same kid.

And of course, Mara was there too. While she was nice, Kenichi tried not to respond too much or be too nice back to her. Not because he didn't like her, or anything, but... he wanted options, damnit. His clan, if they thought he and his cousin would be a good match... 'I love being me, but I wish my clan wasn't one of those kind of clans'. The Kurama bloodlimit could be pretty scary, but something about marrying your cousins turned him off quite a bit. Incest, it seemed, was not a fetish for him.

Kenichi continued to muse to himself as he relaxed near the "training grounds" where Team Shibue would meet up. He trained! He really did, no matter what other people thought! Just... probably not as much as he should. Maybe. Either way, Shibue had sent out her bugs around camp, using her 'emergency meet up now' preplanned message. She had a bunch of those, and Kenichi had to memorize all of them - failure lead to punishment, and he was 'punished' far more than was probably legally allowable for a commander to do to their subordinates, especially in the field. He would probably complain, if, you know, it bothered him more. It helped that he had already been napping by the training grounds anyway.

Shibue arrived then, with Nemo in tow and Kaiya and Mara also incoming. 'It's probably nothing important, though - sure she used the "this is super important, meet now its an emergency" code, but Shibue usually had weird priorities.'

"This is important. Reason, word has reached command, and has now filtered down to us, that the prison containing all captured Iwa nin on this front has been destroyed, and those Iwa nin then went on a raid that has effectively destroyed the village of Takigaure."

Kaiya was different. Lots of kids growing up wanted to conform - they wanted to be like the cool kids, or be like what other people thought they should be. Fuck that, Kaiya had always said to her twin. Maybe its because she was a twin that she liked being different - no one who spent more than a few minutes around her and Yuri would get them confused, not the way people still do with Karasu and Kakashi. It's not that she didn't like Yuri or something - she loved her sister.

No, its that Kaiya wanted to be herself, and screw anyone who said she didn't act the way "she was supposed to".

Perhaps it was her clan she was pissed at. She loved being an Uchiha, don't get her wrong - fire is great, her eyes are great, and her sister is great. Even Mikoto is great! But the expectations of her parents, or maybe its more accurate to say the expectations of the clan elders... those were not great.

As far as she can tell, the Elders want every Uchiha clansmen to treat every non-Uchiha clansmen, and also every Uchiha clansman of lower rank then yourself, with poorly hidden disdain, as if they are all lesser creatures then you. You have to have a stick up your ass, you shouldn't have friends, and the only thing that should be important to you is the clan and making the clan better. You want to do something that the clan doesn't approve of? Nope, not allowed!

Even if you do what they want, like say become a ninja, and do it well... you still have to do it their way, not yours! The amount of shit her sister got for wanting to be a medic... it was disgusting. Sure, Kaiya had no desire to be a medic herself, don't get her wrong, but medic ninja are fucking important, she's found after having been in a war now. But because "medic ninja don't bring glory to our clan by showing the rest of the world how well we kill all of our enemies" or whatever nonsense the Elders lecture the clan kids about (Kaiya would usually fall asleep during those growing up), the clan as a whole put a lot of pressure on you not to be one.

And while Kaiya was no medic, she refused to "restrain her behavior as a proper young Uchiha lady should" and continued being the same brash tomboy she always was.

Kaiya, unlike some others should could mention, also loved to train. And one of the reasons that she loved to train, was because she was an Uchiha. Apparently, it was considered completely normal and acceptable behavior for Uchihas to just set stuff on fire, if they could also reasonably claim they were training. The first time she realized that, when she had accidentally started a small grass fire near the academy and completely got away with only a wag of a finger and a admonition to use a proper training ground rather then an empty lot, was life changing. Fire was great, and being an Uchiha was great. Being Kaiya is great.

So she turned her fire into training, and her training into fire. Most Uchiha breathe fire - it was part of becoming an Uchiha adult. Kaiya learned that one fast. She can spit big fireballs, little fireballs, she even figured out how to turn spitballs into fireballs one time in the academy, and she only got in trouble for that one because it set some girls hair on fire. Whatever. The point is, Kaiya lived and breathed fire.

More than that, she fought with fire. You punch with your fists? That's cute, my fists are fucking fire! Oh, your'e trying to kick me? Well excuse me as I block with my leg - its on fire, just so you know. You have a jutsu that lets you throw a jet of flame? Well, I'm working on one that lets me not only punch you in the face with a flaming fist, but than have flame shoot out at the jerk behind you if you dodge!

Its one of the things that annoyed Kaiya about the Uchiha, though - for all that they were a clan of fire users, and often pyromaniacs, the Elders always acted like passion was bad. Despite fire and passion always being linked together by every poet who writes a bad metaphor about passion, ever. Well screw that! Kaiya wouldn't restrain her own fiery nature for the sake of some stuck up clan Elder who was trying to run her life and pick out some loser for her to marry, even though she was only 10!

But she could be serious, too. When something was important, she knew how to slow down, pay attention, and do what needed to be done. And along with her sister, the most important reason she's found to do that is for her Team. She loved her Team. They were sisters to her, almost as much as her own twin was. Someone messed with any of them, they messed with her too. Even Mara and Kenichi, when he wasn't being a jerk or a perv. She cared about them, and she would help and protect them all.

So when she got the emergency signal from Shibue, she came running. Getting "emergency" signals from Shibue wasn't that unusual - she called Team meetings a lot more often than most Teams, and that was something Kaiya liked. It always gave her an excuse to leave if she was being lectured on being ladylike by some family member, for one. For another, she just liked hanging out with her friends. Also, a good half to a two-thirds of their meetings were "operational planning sessions" with hilarious code names and bizarre strategies that were all about helping them "ensnare Karasu in their webs". Watching Nemo blush and bluster everytime Shibue said that used to be hilarious, until she almost suddenly stopped - turns out a tsundere who becomes self aware has a better shot of getting their man then one who isn't, and, in Shibue's words, "Operation: Dog Tamer was a resounding success, despite you not following any of its steps". Shibue used to include Kaiya in those plans, too - Mission: Banking The Coals and Operation: Dousing His Flames were both a hoot.

But then Kaiya and Yuri had found out that the Elders were maybe possibly looking for husbands for them, and Kaiya had commiserated with her team about it. Shibue pondered it gravely, and then the next day presented her last and currently ongoing plan. "Operation Forest Fire will be a long-term one. Why? Because its goal is to give you a choice, and its a choice you will not be able to make yourself for years, despite your clan being able to make it for you earlier. The goal of Operation Forest Fire is to make yourself not be chosen by your clan to marry a much older clansmen. Reason, because that would be gross. How? By ensuring your behavior would not match what a man 10 years older than you would want in a much younger wife. How? Making sure you keep on acting the way you do now. Be Kaiya. Don't let your clan change your behavior. Further reason, because you can easily scare all the possible young male Uchiha around our age with threats of fire, castration, or castration using fire. Until you find someone you want to marry, be the Forest Fire that burns up all your clan's proposed marriage contracts. We will aide you in any way we can, to see your operation through successfully."

Sometimes Shibue was just silly, but it was comforting. That was basically her way of saying 'We've got your back' and 'Keep on being you'. It had been sweet, and had been completely and totally Shibue in a way that someone outside of Team Shibue would probably just not get.

Of course, another benefit of the Team Shibue operations that unfortunately no longer occurred was all the "distracting" of Shibue's mom she used to be assigned - her mom had been an excellent baker, and would readily bribe Kaiya with all manner of baked goods to keep up with the gossip of what was going on in Shibue's life.

This emergency signal was concerning, though - she knew which one it was, even though Shibue had never actually used it yet. It was the "this time it's seriously serious girls I mean it" one.

"As of now, command is unsure of the number of survivors from the attack itself - they are working under the assumption that the only remaining Taki ninja are those that were not in the village at the time of the attack until proven otherwise. We are also unsure of the number of the surviving attackers, as well as who exactly aided in the attack. Why? Because someone who knew where the village itself was involved, and jutsu forensic evidence showed attacks that would not have matched those used by the prisoners, and on a scale that likely indicated an A to S rank threat. Moreover, some sort of artifact was stolen from the village that can dramatically increase a Shinobi's strength."

Shibue took a deep breath. Kenichi had already been sitting down, but Mara's legs had collapsed out under her. Kaiya had also sat down heavily, mood completely plummeting from her typical happy-go-lucky to more shocked serious. Nemo had been with her when she was called in to the command tent, and thus already knew.

"Our front has had it easy this rotation. We have had scouting and patrols, and have not had the Ty sisters, or the Explosion or Steel clans to deal with. This is about to change. I had not pushed our team training as hard as I should during the relative ease prior. Reason, I had relied on your individual training sessions to do that, as you all assured me you were, in fact, training. This changes now. Why? Because enemies that we had locked up in prison are on their way back to fight us. Reason, they more likely hate us even more than they used to. Team Shibue stands together, and I will now be ensuring all of us train and push as hard as we can. Our lives have always depended on it, that is not new. But if we want to be sure we survive, we must change and grow and become more."

Shibue paused and looked over her team. Everyone, even Kenichi, was taking this seriously. Good. That means she doesn't need to single him out. But Shibue would need to be honest with them, and herself.

"Kenichi. I have allowed you to get away with slacking. I do not mean you have not trained at all. You have, I have observed it -" "You spy on me when I'm training? Voyeur!" "- I have OBSERVED your training, as is my duty as your commander. You practice your older skills, but you do not seek new ones. That will change. Mara... it is the same for you. Reason, I have also observed your training, and while you do spend more time on your routine, it is exactly that: a routine. I have not seen you do anything except the same flexibility, taijutsu conditioning, and meditation routine. That will also change. You are both Kurama. Mara, you will write to your clan, to be sent with the next mail-Summons, requesting more advanced techniques for you and Kenichi to learn. Why? Because I am sure that, like everyone else, your clan likes you more than Kenichi, and will be more likely to send more advanced techniques if it is you asking."

Shibue ignored Kenichi's indignant squawk, eyes locked with Mara until Mara slowly nodded. Shibue nodded back, satisfied that Mara was taking this seriously, too. While not an "original" member of Team Shibue, Mara was now hers, and Shibue took care of what was hers. It was difficult to be a Dark Lady without minions, and she guarded hers fiercely. But more than that, Mara, and Kenichi... they were friends. "Moreover, we will also work on integrating using your less complicated genjutsu into your taijutsu. This will involve more taijutsu conditioning, something both of you, and all of us in fact, can use, and all of us will do it. Clarification, the two of you just need it more."

"Nemo. I would like you to commit more time to training medical jutsu. Reason, you have a much greater understanding of medical issues than the rest of us given your research. But more importantly, having a team medic is crucial for survival, and i know you know that. How? Because of anyone we know, you are most likely to have actually read Lady Tsunade's extremely boring statistical report on the importance of having a team medic. I know you have done the training, and I know you train yourself. I would ask that you increase that training and push it further. Also, I would ask of you to work on your doujutsu vision range - pushing it further gives us more information. If you think its possible, send a letter to Orihime about potential training options there, but..."

Shibue left unsaid Nemo's position as a branch family member, and the likelihood of the clan allowing any advanced training being sent her way, especially when she wasn't in the village. Nemo nodded, and replied, "I will think on the best path forward here and let you know what I do decide on, Shibue."

Shibue then turned to Kaiya. "Kaiya, I know your goals, and I know your training. You will like what we are going to do for you. Why? It will involve fire. We are going to get you doing your fire jutsu seal-less. It doesn't need to be a complicated one - the Fire-Flower jutsu would work. Reason, I remember our last talk about your training. You have been working on your Fire-Fist. Now, you are going to work on, as you put it, "punching fireballs at Iwa jerks", and you will get it or burn down the training grounds trying."

It was a testament to the seriousness of the moment that Kaiya only grimly nodded, not even smiling, at her proposed training.

"As for myself, I too will greatly increase my taijutsu conditioning. Reason, I, like Mara and Kenichi, have trained more as a support or ranged attacker than Nemo or Kaiya. This will change. I have been currently focusing on strengthening my current swarm - I will continue to do this, because that is important. Fortunately, I received good news - a scouting mission near where we observed Mu killing the Explosion jutsu clansman revealed that the explosion testing itself had opened up access into what reports had believed was solid ground. It needs to be investigated. Reason, we have observed Iwa ninja in the area, and it is believed that one of the reasons they were there was looking for Chakra water. Why? One of my clansmen detected an insect chakra source he was completely unfamiliar with inside the cavern, but was unable to investigate it himself yet due to mission parameters. However, he felt it unlikely that an insect would naturally develop chakra as potent as he felt without the presence of chakra water or a similar font of natural chakra. Clarification, we are unsure if they found any, or even why they were looking, but the manner in which they did so was suspicious. Why? Because normal Iwa operational planning would call for a mission of that sort to be carried about by at least a team of 6, but there were only 2 Iwa ninja observed entering and leaving, and both were ANBU, and not regular forces. This needs to be investigated, and I have obtained permission for Team Shibue to investigate the cavern itself, as part of a larger mission to secure that area in case there still remains any chakra water."

Shibue could see some of the serious mood beginning to crack at that - she would have to pay Kaiya back for rolling her eyes and muttering something about "super bugs of doom". Kaiya knows darn well the importance of Doom Bugs, and that they are not to be mocked.

"That mission is soon. Until then... we train."