I'm sorry about the delay (wanted to publish 2015-02-20), but my laptop was stolen on the 18th of feb and I lost the 7.5k words of the original chapter five, my notes, and omakes... including the fic-canon compliant ones that I couldn't find a place to fit in anywhere in the main story. Like Naruto visiting Iruka in the hospital. I hope to put in that omake next chapter, but no guarantees.
This chapter establishes a bit of background information and some of the rules concerning Kitsune illusions, in addition to establishing some of the background of Sasuke – which is different from canon like whoa – and introducing Team Seven to the mission system.
To those who PM'd me about Sasuke, it is not Sasuke who is OOC. It is Fugaku. Sasuke is in character for the setting.
Contrary to earlier promise, this chapter does not contain a D-rank, because Naruto and Kushina just wouldn't shut up. In return, you get a Codex entry :D
Updated 20150310 to correct an oversight. I took the opportunity to make several minor changes that will save some questions later, such as adding that the deal between the Daiyōkai extends to their clans, and what they got in return. Thanks, earendil18!
Child of the Fox
A grunt.
The ruffling sound of cloth rubbing against cloth. The creaking of a bed as the person using it was thrashing about. The deeper groans of the aforementioned bed as most of the weight it carried was displaced to an edge.
The soft thuds as two uncovered feet met the hard wooden floor. The equally soft pitter-patter of these very uncovered feet walking about on said floor.
The lethargy-inducing sound of a very prolonged yawn.
Uzumaki Naruto had awoken. He turned his head towards the alarm clock.
03:00
Four hours until the set alarm. Joy. The door creaked open, and Naruto turned bleary eyes towards the person who had opened it. "Why am I awake already, mom? It's hours before I was supposed to wake up!"
His mother nodded, and only now he noticed that she was still fully dressed. "Humans, for all their strength and flexibility in their power, have the biggest weakness in that they need the most rest of all sentient races and species on this planet of ours. Kitsune are in the upper half of rest requirements, but considering that fact that the upper half is essentially 'three hours per night or more', my only surprise is that your reduced need for sleep took two weeks to kick in."
"Perhaps because I'm only half-Kitsune?"
"Perhaps," she allowed. "C'mon, I'll get something to eat, and then we're going to find productive ways to fill the extra hours we've got."
"Like?" he asked, curious.
"I've got two things," his mother said. "The first is Kitsune illusions. The second is your first foray into actually drawing and activating seals." His ears perked up. He'd been practicing calligraphy and learning sealing theory for two weeks now in preparation for actually getting to draw them, and perhaps push some chakra into one as well while he was at it. "Theory is all fine and dandy, but actually drawing them is another matter entirely."
"Drawing seals?" he asked excitedly. "Really?"
"Oh yes," his mother said with a nod. "Assuming you pass the final calligraphic test, of course."
His ears slumped a little. "Of course," he parroted, a little sadness in his voice shining through.
"Relax, musuko-kun," she said. "Your work during the last session was well above-par for what I consider necessary for drawing seals, I just need it official for the files."
She turned to leave. "I'll have some food ready in the front garden in fifteen minutes or so."
"'Kay, kaa-chan."
Fifteen minutes saw Naruto showered, dressed, and downstairs. His mother, however, was nowhere in sight. He could smell some food wafting down from somewhere, but the smells of the flowers negated any chance he had of trying to locate his mother that way.
"Say, kaa-chan," Naruto said, as much to locate his mother as a prelude to an actual question.
"Yes, Naruto-kun?" his mother replied from ten metres away and slightly to his left.
"I was wondering about the Kage Bunshin. How is it that they can punch something as hard as they want, but can't take even a fraction of that damage?"
"That's because the Kage Bunshin is, essentially, a chakra matrix," his mother replied. "The Kage Bunshin is designed to 'subconsciously' reinforce itself whenever it almost hits something with a punch. Or, to put it more accurately, the Kage Bunshin chakra matrix reinforces itself upon making 'conscious' external contact to prevent destabilization of the matrix."
"Which is also why hitting it with a dull senbon pops it," Naruto hedged. "The matrix does not 'consciously' register the external contact and cannot counteract, thus destabilizing."
"Correct!" she beamed at him. 'We've come a long way with your intelligence in these short few weeks, Naruto-kun', she sent over the mental communication link.
"Yes, we have, haven't we?" he said rhetorically. "I can't believe it's only been two weeks."
"Time flies when you're having fun," she responded. "Or doing some long overdue mother-son bonding, as is the case."
"Indeed."
They ate the rest of the meal, some bread with cheese and sausages, in silence.
After they had finished and stowed the remnants somewhere off to the side, Kushina motioned for him to sit next to her, wrapping her tails around him when he acquiesced. Naruto leaned into his mother's side. There's that strange scent again…
"So, Kitsune illusions," his mother started We've not done all that much with them the past few weeks, because I find that they're best learned at night, and you've only had a few days where you were awake late enough to properly do so. Now that your reduced need for sleep has kicked in, we'll be able to hold nightly sessions, missions out of the village not included, of course.
"So, what can you remember about Kitsune illusions?"
"They're constructs made from almost entirely Yin, or Reiryoku depending on who you ask, and are thus entirely superior to all chakra and Yōki illusions. Inton wielders excepted, of course."
"Of course."
"The constructs have four sets of rules, roughly categorized as illusions on self, illusion on target, illusion on group, and illusion on world. The illusions on self, like the ones that hide my tails and ears whenever I go outside the cave, are essentially the biggest cousin of the Henge no Jutsu, with the additional options for invisibility and other things the Henge doesn't cover. Only a direct foreign Yin infusion or loss of concentration, such as sleep, can break these illusions."
"Very good, if rudimentary. Continue, please."
"The second, illusion on target, are single-target illusions directly affecting a single target's mind. They are practically identical to standard chakra illusions in their scope, able to manipulate, including obfuscation or enhancement, each of the five senses of the target. If the caster is a sensor, that sense can be altered as well. Kitsune illusions on a target can be broken with a pulse of standard chakra or yōki, but this takes a lot more than with chakra or yōki-fuelled illusions due to the fact that they're almost purely Yin."
"Excellent job so far, Naruto-kun. Please, continue."
"The third category, illusions on group, is essentially identical to the second, but the various illusions are linked together, reinforcing each other. However, if one fails all fail, but this does take approximately n times the amount of chakra, where n is the number of people whose illusions are linked. A perfectly synchronized burst of chakra from all targets allows for the dispelling of the illusion with no additional effort compared to the second category. This method is limited to a single illusion per group, as in, the individual linked members share the same illusion."
"And the last one?"
"Illusions upon the world. Area-of-effect illusions that are used almost exclusively to make people think something isn't there that is. The other way around can be done quite easily, but sees little use in practice. Casting it requires an anchor to hold the illusion in place. Dispelling the illusion requires an infusion of foreign chakra into the anchor, which is the only thing the illusion cannot alter and has to be of suitable size to accommodate it. For this reason, areas that are often targeted by world-class illusions have big boulders brought inside the affected area, often a structure that needs to be hidden."
She grinned a wide, vulpine grin. "Very good, musuko-kun. You remembered everything I told you and apparently even read ahead in the book I gave you."
Naruto blushed. "It was interesting reading." He paused. "I can't believe that phrase just left my mouth."
Kushina giggled. "Well, it just did."
"Right," she said firmly to get back on track. "Every Kitsune starts off their illusionary education by casting the three most rudimentary types of illusions on self. Camouflage, Transformation, and Conjuration, the latter of which is only technically an illusion."
"How so?"
"In a process similar to the mythical Banbutsu Sōzō, we Create things from our Yin. They lose consistency when they leave direct contact with the Yin source and we cannot Create life, which is why it is called Conjuration. For inanimate objects it is virtually identical to Creation, however."
"And its only technically an illusion because it doesn't last after it leaves the power source?"
"Yes," she answered simply. "Shall we get started?"
He simply nodded, far too nervous from excitement and tension to speak. All throughout the Academy he had tried the genjutsu they had taught, some E-rank stuff designed to be used in the Academy with little real-world applicability, and failed time and time again because of his enormous chakra reserves. Now he was having the chance to learn illusions he could actually cast, and was wondering if this would go the way his attempts at illusions always went.
"Right," his mother said, bringing him out of his thoughts. "First, tell me about Yin."
Naruto nodded and got into a comfortable position. "Yin, or Reiryoku depending on who you ask, is one of the two energies involved in the Dawn of Creation, when Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-Mikoto shaped everything, and everything was in balance. The material, energy without form or Yang, and the immaterial, form without energy or Yin, existed in balance."
Kushina nodded, and motioned for him to continue. "As the material world conjoined with the spiritual world, existence as we know it was formed. When the Kotoamatsukami gave birth to the first generation of Kami, Izanagi-no-Mikoto and Izanami-no-Mikoto, and they in turn spawned the generation of Kami that includes Amaterasu-Oomikami and Susano'o-no-Mikoto, and they in turn engendered Humanity and the various Demonic races, the latter modeled after animals and made far less flexible in capacity than Humanity in return for being stronger. For example, a Thunderbird will never wield anything other than lightning, much as a Firebird will never wield anything other than fire. All have, to varying degrees that depend on species, the ability to call upon Yin, though the demons call it Reiryoku."
"Some gaps, but overall not bad. And how exactly do we channel Yin?"
"Yin is channeled by focusing on the concept of form without energy. Alternatively, because I am a partial human with human chakra and yōki, I can take my normal chakra and attempt to separate it into its component Yin and Yang pieces."
"Whereas trueborn Kitsune usually have hardly any yōki, relatively speaking, so channeling Yin is something they're likely to do subconsciously," Kushina added before shrugging. "Eh, it'll do. Especially as you already can call upon Yin and have mastered the first of the Three Basics, Camouflage. Hiding your tails and ears and replacing them with those of another species, in your case human. Which brings us to the next of the Three Basics: Transformation. Do a Henge to, say, an owl."
Almost subconsciously, Naruto ran through the three handseals for the Henge and when the resultant poof of smoke had cleared, a snowy white owl stood in his place. Kushina poked him and he let out a baleful hoot in response. "That hurt, damnit!"
"So it is so," she said with a light frown. "You can change back now. And mind your language."
A poof later and her son stood, once again, before her. "What the hell was that for?"
"Inton: Henge," was her simple reply.
"Wu-?"
"You've been unconsciously using your Yin to fuel your Henge, Naruto-kun. Perhaps some of your instincts leaked out from the suppressing seal?" She shook her head a little. "It doesn't matter."
She smiled brightly. "What does matter is that that means that you have the second one down too, and for quite a number of years at that. Though, mind you, true mastery is only attained when you can weave Yin without the use of handseals, as they are a human invention even though they are useful."
"Right," he said with a nod. "Work on using Henge without handseals. How about the last one?"
"Not tonight, musuko-kun," she replied, and she could practically feel him start to shake with excitement at the implications. "Since I kind of didn't prepare the proper material to practice Conjuration, it requires a very unique trance to be initiated, which can only be done by a very specific herb. Which is two months away from maturity and harvesting."
"Aww, why so long?" Naruto whined, though he didn't put his best effort into making it sound convincing. With the herb out of commission for the foreseeable future, that meant only one thing: seals.
He salivated internally at the thought.
"Because giving form from Yin is not something any brain can simply handle," she replied. "Creation is the realm of the Gods or those with the Rinnegan, and while our Conjuration is not true Creation, it is sufficiently close to it for inanimate objects that our brains literally cannot compute. The trance fixes this, and once the first Conjuration is successful, a mental switch gets flipped that allows it even without the trance. Right now, however, this doesn't really matter, as the herb is not ready. As you have probably guessed that means that we're going to get started on drawing seals," she said, handing him a paper with some rather advanced calligraphy exercises. It wasn't at the level he had been practicing, so it should be a piece of cake. "You have a minute to complete this sheet, musuko-kun."
She unsealed ink and a brush from one of the many tattoos on her arms that were normally hidden and handed them to her son.
Exactly fifty-two seconds later, Naruto handed the completed sheet back.
Kushina nodded, and with but a glance deemed it sufficient. "So, let's get to work, shall we?"
The Land of Sound, formerly the Land of Rice, was host to a series of bunkers that together formed the conglomerate of 'Otogakure no Sato', with heavy air-quotes around the part where it is called a village. Otogakure, Oto for short, was nothing more than the attempt of a madman to attain his dream. Orochimaru, the self-proclaimed Otokage, had two dreams in particular; learning every jutsu and creating the perfect shinobi. The latter was a dying dream after the incorporation of multiple elemental bloodlines invariably tore the subject apart. He had six hundred recorded attempts and six hundred recorded catastrophic failures. The former…
Orochimaru was actually on the cusp of achieving his first dream. All he needed was a Sharingan. Fortunately, Kabuto reflected as he walked through the featureless grey mass that was the main bunker, I have news on that front.
Three turns, and several equally grey corridors later, he knocked on the third door on the right-hand side, a door that looked completely identical to every other door. Kabuto knew where, and more importantly how to look, however, and knew that behind this door lay the single-most dangerous man outside of Akatsuki.
"Enter," a voice near-hissed from the other side. "Aaah, Kabuto," Orochimaru said once Kabuto had opened the door. "What news do you bring?"
"Uchiha Sasuke is on Team Seven with Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto. Hatake Kakashi is his jōnin-sensei. Additionally, a chance eavesdrop on the apartment of your former apprentice as I was leaving for this C-rank revealed that Hatake-san has been ordered to 'step up his game', likely meaning that we'll be seeing a Godaime Kakashi after the next Chūnin Exams."
"Haruno… civilian," Orochimaru hissed. "Worthless. Uzumaki.. isn't he the Kyūbi brat?"
"He is, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto confirmed.
"Then he, too, is worthless. At least for the seal. I doubt my former colleagues would be pleased if I got my fangs on the Kyūbi brat, and as strong as I am, I am no match for Pain. Or Konan, for that matter." Orochimaru pierced Kabuto with a glare. "Inform Guren that she is to take over the training of the genin squad we're sending to the Chūnin exams. With a Godaime candidate as sensei Sasuke-kun is undoubtedly going to be strong enough to smash through everyone in the exams, bar the ringers, and I want my genin to at least be a good challenge to Sasuke-kun."
Kabuto nodded. "As you wish, so it shall be, Orochimaru-sama. By your leave?"
"Dismissed," Orochimaru confirmed. With a soft click, far softer than the steel of the door would suggest possible, Kabuto vanished from view behind the once-again closed door.
Orochimaru allowed a pleased smile to show on his face. Things were going far better than planned.
"Dobe," Sasuke said as a way of greeting when a heavily singed Naruto appeared on Training Ground Seven ten minutes before training was supposed to start. "What happened to you?"
Naruto coughed. It was a dry, rasping sound that reminded him of his mother shortly after that night. Despite this, he looked on curiously, and barely registered Hatake-sensei arriving and looking at the blond with surprise, realization, and dawning horror. A small part of him wondered why his sensei, a jōnin and thus one of the village's elite, would look at the genin, who was only addressed as 'dobe' because to actually call Naruto 'friend' would happen only at the ending of the world but was still a genin, with such an expression.
"Kaa-chan graduated me from learning about seals to actually drawing and activating them myself," Naruto got out between coughs. "But learning about seals and actually drawing them are two entirely different beasts, so when I tried to create a flash tag I kind of messed up and produced a smoke tag. A tar smoke tag."
Sasuke winced. Tar smoke was a relatively recent invention, only about twenty years old or so, but he had been on the receiving end of one during that night from one of his fellow clansmen that threw it and detonated it too close to him. The tar smoke had stuck to his lungs – its intended function – and had taken the better part of four months, with near-daily medical assistance, to be removed from his lungs entirely.
"Fortunately," the half-blond continued, "I have something of a superb healing factor, so I should be fine a week from now."
"How did you manage that?" Sakura asked with no trace of her usual disdain for Naruto present, and Sasuke raised an eyebrow. That girl's multiple-personality disorder was really freaking him out at times.
On the other hand, the combat potential... complete immunity to genjutsu, with the possible exception of Tsukuyomi, because each personality has its own command over the chakra network so if the main personality gets caught in an illusion, the 'back-up' personality can break it out.
"As you may or may not know, seals use specialized kanji, katakana, hiragana, and romaji combined to create the tag," Naruto said, drawing a nod from the other two genin. "Seals are generally divided into five sections, more or less depending on the specific seal, and each section has a purpose. For example, the top-most section, named North, is generally about power regulation. The center, also called the root, is the one that covers that actual effect produced, and for this reason tends to be far larger than usual so that identification of an explosive tag and a storage scroll is easy on first glance. With me so far?"
Sasuke and Sakura nodded.
"Well, flash tags, smoke tags, exploding tags, and all their variants are essentially identical, excluding those with non-standard time delays. Insert chakra to ignite a fuse, tag activates and produces the effect. As a result, only the root specialized kanji, the ones that govern that what the tag produces is an explosion, or smoke, or whatever is different. With me so far?"
"Storage scrolls too?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto shook his head. "No, teme, storage scrolls include a component that preserves whatever is stored inside, so you can't accidentally create a storage scroll when trying to create an explosive tag. The tags I was discussing use the chakra fed into it to create the effect on the spot. It's why you don't need to seal tar smoke into a tar smoke tag prior to use."
"I see," Sasuke said, and he did see. Naruto actually managed to explain it in terms that he could understand, which meant that he had studied and understood the sealing theory he was discussing thoroughly. Which could prove interesting and useful on missions. "I take it, then, that the root kanji for the tar smoke tag and the flash tag are similar?"
Naruto nodded. "Two strokes difference out of twenty, yes, one of which is only different in the length of the stroke."
Sasuke nodded, and was about to ask further when a clap interrupted him.
"As fascinating as that is, we've got training to do," Hatake-sensei said and all three genin focused on him.
"Today we're entering the routine that we will be in until the time comes that the Teams Eight and Ten are ready for C-ranks. Breakfast, training, lunch, a D-rank or two, and then some more training until dinner," Hatake-sensei said, and even Sasuke was hard-pressed to hide the excited glimmer in his eyes at the prospect of their first mission.
"As funny as it would be to see your reactions to the usual fare of D-ranks, which are essentially glorified chores," Hatake-sensei began, something of distaste in his voice which piqued his curiosity. Chores? "Think things like weeding a garden, walking the Inuzuka dogs, et cetera," Hatake-sensei clarified, "We will-
What in the Nine Realms? "How are those ninja-appropriate missions?" Sasuke interrupted.
"They're supposed to build teamwork," Hatake-sensei said simply, and Naruto and Sasuke snorted at the same time.
"Teamwork from shared humiliation, perhaps," Naruto said, articulating what was on his own mind as well. Hatake-sensei gave them an eyesmile.
"Can anyone guess why we won't be taking those types of D-rank missions?"
Sensei mentioned that we're supposed to be a heavy combat team. Iruka-sensei said that heavy combat teams are the most likely teams to be called for backing up other, less combat oriented teams. Like the heavily tracking-focused Team Eight and the capture-interrogation focused Team Ten. Ergo, we need to be ready for such a task when Team Eight and Team Ten start C-ranks. If I remember Umino-sensei correctly, a team is only allowed to back up another if they have three or more of the same ranked mission under their belt, unless no other option is open.
Sasuke liked where his reasoning was taking him. If it took Teams Eight and Ten a month to start C-ranks – hadn't Hatake-sensei mentioned something to that effect? Sasuke wasn't sure – then they would have had to do three C-ranks before the month was out. Which meant that they had to use practically every spare moment training. Which included D-ranks.
"Because we're supposed to be back-up for Teams Eight and Ten," Sasuke said succintly. "If we're going to be strong enough to be able to back them up and not make the situation worse, we'll need to train practically every waking moment in something."
Sakura nodded, apparently having reached the same conclusion as he had while Naruto looked at him with dawning realization. Despite himself, Sasuke was impressed. He had to thoroughly re-evaluate the pinkette, especially if she still retained a logical capacity for thought while in his presence after more than a few days, something she failed to display the entire time in the Academy in the classes they shared.
"Exactly," Hatake-sensei said. "I have a deal with Kurenai and Asuma that they won't bring up C-ranks of their own until two months from now. If their genin ask, however, they will not deny if they think their genin are ready, which was about as good a promise as I could get. So we have two months in which we have to get three completed C-ranks under Team Seven's collective belt. Given the fact that a team is not eligible for a C-rank until they have completed twenty-five D-ranks, we have our work cut out for us, though thankfully we don't need twenty-five D-ranks for each C-rank."
All three genin sighed in relief, and Hatake-sensei motioned for them to follow. Scrambling to their feet, Sasuke and Sakura joined Naruto in following their sensei to... obstacle courses. There were two parallel obstacle courses, both featuring monkey bars, vertical walls, rope bridges, and more. The one on the right, however, looked to be far more difficult, featuring more advanced combinations of the various obstacles, such as a vertical wall that connected to monkey bars at its top, leading directly into a rope bridge before transforming into a slanted monkey bar rack. From the distance he was at, Sasuke could see markings on both sets of monkey bars that he assumed were seals of some kind.
Sasuke didn't know how to feel about this, truth be told. It was obvious that he needed to use chakra to stick to the various surfaces, but he hadn't gotten tree-climbing down yet. Somewhere he felt white-hot rage at not getting the same level of training others did, but another part of him was extremely glad he wasn't going to suffer torture like that for a while.
"For the next hour, we will be doing training similar to what we did yesterday. Broody, as you're yet to complete the tree-walking exercise, you're going to be doing that. Here's a kunai to mark your progress," Hatake-sensei said, flinging a kunai his direction with a flick of the wrist. Sasuke gave a curt 'hn' as he picked up the kunai.
"As Naruto and Sakura already can tree-walk, they get to do something a little different. You two see the obstacle course on the left?" he asked, receiving two nods from the genin in question.
"Monkey bars are usually traversed by grasping them with your hands and swinging, like a monkey. Obviously, with tree-walking in mind, you will do no such thing. In fact, if your hands touch any obstacle on the course for even so much as a single millisecond... you can start over. Naturally," he added pointedly when he felt Sakura begin to channel chakra to her back, "the resistance seals stay on."
Sakura groaned, but otherwise remained silent.
With a modified Ox seal and a poof of smoke, Hatake-sensei willed a Kage Bunshin into existence. "Aid Sasuke," he ordered himself. The clone nodded, and took Sasuke to a nearby tree before whipping out the near ever-present orange book. The original guided Naruto and Sakura to the obstacle course, and soon loud shrieks and curses filled the air.
"Hmm," Hatake-sensei mused. "Perhaps I should have mentioned the obstacle course is covered in seals that make sticking to the course harder?"
Despite himself, Sasuke grinned.
He was so glad he didn't have to do that yet. He got distracted for a moment watching his sensei work on his own obstacle course. Like the man had promised, he trained in everything they did but took it one step further. He was putting a solid pace through the obstacle course, but Sasuke could see the kanji for the resistance seal reading 'four', instead of their 'one'.
And the way Hatake-sensei moved through the obstacle course was like watching poetry in motion.
"Broody," the clone next to him said with a hint of impatience and warning. Sasuke nodded.
It was time to get to work.
Ten minutes and a half-traversed tree bark later, Sasuke had an idea when he remembered a half-forgotten conversation over dinner one night, a year or two before that night.
"Damn that Hatake bastard! He's desecrating everything the Uchiha ever stood for by not giving up that eye!" his father yelled.
His mother gave his father a Look. "The eye transplant to Hatake Kakashi was the last request of Uchiha Obito, Fugaku-koi. Would you dishonor the last request of an Uchiha?"
His father paled. "N-N-No, of course not," he stammered. It was obvious that, despite being the Clan Head, within the house it was Uchiha Mikoto that reigned.
He debated with himself on the best way to approach this. If it was a last request, and it did appear to if it could stop his father, then the memory associated with the name would bring up really unpleasant memories. Simply demanding would therefore not work, even if it had been his inclination.
"We are Uchiha, and as such demand respect simply by existing. There are those outside these walls that do not care for our privileged status, or even outright despise us for it. You, Sasuke, will have to talk to people with this mindset, you will have to negotiate, barter, and otherwise trade words with these people. You will have to bear their misguided barbs with impeccable poise and countenance, for to do otherwise is to give your opponents weapons to attack your character with. This is what I will be teaching you, since you will obviously never equal your brother when it comes to the Shinobi Arts.
"The first rule of the Uchiha is simple. Uchiha win. Whatever the conflict, whatever the arena, be it words or steel or chakra, Uchiha do not come second-place. Itachi will ensure that the arenas of steel and chakra will remain conquered. You will ensure that the arena of words, the combat of politics, continues to be firmly in Uchiha control. The mind to Itachi's body. The hilt to Itachi's blade. The politician to Itachi's warrior."
Every lesson after that started with the words; 'Image is everything, Sasuke'.
He hadn't received more than a year or two of tutelage in politics, but one of the golden rules of politics, according to his father, was knowing when to be polite, and when not. Knowing how to demand just as much as when to demand, and when asking got you more results than demanding.
He was feeling pretty confident in saying that this was one of those times.
"Sensei," he said to get his attention. When Hatake-sensei looked up from his book with an unreadable expression on his face – though calling it a 'facial expression' when his face was hidden with the exception of a single eye seemed wrong somehow –, he asked, "do you still have the Sharingan that father once ranted about you having?"
Hatake-sensei remained silent, and Sasuke feared he had massively screwed up.
"I do, and it is a three-tomoe eye," Hatake-sensei said after a few moments of silence. Sasuke breathed an internal sigh of relief.
"Then can you use it to read the amount of chakra I put into the tree-climbing exercise and tell me if or when I use too much or too little?"
The sole visible eye of Hatake-sensei curled up into an eyesmile. "Of course," he said while reaching up to expose his covered eye.
Sasuke stared in fascination at the red sclera, the tiny black iris orbited by three black tomoe. One day, I, too, will have that. He shook his head to clear it of distracting thoughts and returned to the tree.
"Go ahead," Hatake-sensei said once Sasuke had placed one foot on the bark, and Sasuke channelled chakra into his feet.
"Use about half," Hatake-sensei commented, and Sasuke adjusted. "Slightly less. Just a bit more. That's just about right."
Sasuke nodded, and stayed that way for a minute or two to get the feel of the level of chakra he was sending into his feet. After said minute, he nodded to himself and backed up.
His next attempt reached three-quarters of the way up, far better than the slightly less than half he was at previously. He grinned viciously.
It would put him through the obstacle course torture much earlier, but such immediate progress was a very good feeling indeed.
You just wait, Itachi. I will come to claim justice.
Despite the earlier words of their sensei, they spent more than an hour at the obstacle course, though it probably would be more accurate to say that they spent an hour and a half at the course after Sasuke 'graduated' from tree-walking to the course.
Which, despite his initial twenty-five percent point progress, still took him a solid hour.
Eventually, it was time for lunch. Sasuke inhaled the scent of the bento greedily, and felt spittle form in his mouth from the aroma, and his eyes locked onto the great crimson globe that he felt confident saying were the surest sign humanity had the favour of the Gods.
His unworthy digits closed around the Divine Fruit, brought forth into existence by Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-Mikoto himself, and brought it closer to his teeth, readying to let his undeserving taste buds feel the slightly acidic divinity. To feel the crunch of the heavenly gift as his worthless jaws crushed it within his mouth.
Uchiha Sasuke bit into the tomato and experienced Nirvana.
His expression of pure bliss thoroughly unsettled both his teammates. They'd just gotten used to a less-than-broody Uchiha Sasuke, and they had never seen him eat a tomato. His mother had never allowed him to bring tomatoes to the Academy, and so his little pleasure was hidden from the knowledge of others. Until now.
Naruto looked at him with an expression that screamed 'I'm-freaked-out-but-determined-not-to-show-it'. "Teme," he began.
"Hn?" he replied. He would have just said a questioning 'yes', but, you know, there was a tomato in his mouth.
"That expression looks wrong on you," Naruto finished, and Sakura nodded fervently. He suspected her agreement was because the look wasn't a result of anything she did, or aimed at her, rather than any personal disgust she felt.
"With this highly disturbing scene behind us," Hatake-sensei said in an effort to change the subject, "let's focus on our activities after the lunch. Specifically, the D-ranks."
"What about them, sensei?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Since we're going to have to train practically every moment we're together, we're going to do things in a different manner than most," Hatake-sensei said. "In particular, we're going to blend chakra control training with the D-ranks. On that note, I am pleased that you had both the insight and knowledge to ask for use of my Sharingan to find out how much chakra you were using, broody. Keep that up and you may yet earn your name."
"Wait," Naruto said. "You have a Sharingan?"
Hatake-sensei nodded, his sole visible eye reflecting sorrow. "Yes. It was a gift from a friend."
Naruto nodded and remained silent. Sasuke raised an internal eyebrow. The Academy Naruto would never have left it at that. He really had improved in the two weeks between graduation and team assignment. Sakura displayed unusual wisdom by not speaking up as well.
Sasuke made a note that he really had to re-evaluate his team-mates. Neither of them reacted in any way close to what they were at the Academy. Sakura he could understand. Sort of. He'd asked his mother about Anko, and she had nothing bad to say about the woman except for one, big thing.
She was bat-shit insane. Whether it was an act, as the former apprentice to Orochimaru, or not didn't matter.
"Anko-san is quite possibly the deadliest Kunoichi in Konoha. Not the most powerful, for that honour goes to the ANBU known as Neko, but without doubt the deadliest," his mother said.
"How so, kaa-san?"
"She is unpredictable, flexible, and uses her body to great effect to distract the – usually male – opposition. Neko does the first two, but not the third, and it is this that gives Anko the advantage. And then there's the charitable description of her mental state as 'bat-shit insane'."
Perhaps Anko had, in her insanity, forced Sakura to re-evaluate herself, or put the other personality, who appeared somewhat calmer, in front? The latter explained the drastic change nicely, but he would have to see if it lasted. If it did it would be very nice, and then he ought to seek out Anko and find a way to thank her properly.
"Regardless," Hatake-sensei said after a few uncomfortable moments of silence, "training is our name, training is our game. In that sense, everything we do will contain some form of training. At the end of every day, I will ask you what you think the purpose of the D-ranks we did that day were. If you are wrong, I will say so. If you are correct, I will say so. Understood?"
"Yes, sensei," the three genin replied as one.
Hatake-sensei gave a pleased nod.
"By the way, what jutsu do you three already know?" Hatake-sensei asked. "Taijutsu excluded. Pinky, you first."
Sakura nodded. "I know the Academy Three, and the Magen: Narakumi no jutsu."
Hatake-sensei nodded. "Broody."
"I know the Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu, Katon: Hōsenka no jutsu, and Katon: Hinotama."
Hatake-sensei nodded again. "Blondy."
"I know the Kawarimi, Henge, Suiton: Teppodama, Fuuton: Daitoppa, Kage Bunshin no jutsu, Tajū Kage Bunshin no jutsu, Bunshin Daibakuha, and the Suiton: Chō Uzu Tatsumaki. I am working on the camping jutsu and the Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku."
Sasuke almost spit out the food in his mouth, before turning to Naruto. "How in the Nine Realms do you know the Bunshin Daibakuha and the Gōka Mekkyaku?"
Naruto coughed an obviously fake cough, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head afterward. "It has to do with my graduation. Mizuki-sensei was after the Forbidden Scroll and wanted to use me as bait. I went to the Hokage and we set a trap, but we had to use the real scroll in case Mizuki-teme had a way to detect fakes. Long story short, I learned the Kage Bunshin and copied two jutsu from the scroll, the Chō Uzu Tatsumaki and the Gōka Mekkyaku. I was taught the Bunshin Daibakuha by my mother."
"Hn," Sasuke grunted. "The Gōka Mekkyaku was a supposed favourite of Uchiha Madara and the Bunshin Daibakuha was invented by my brother," he said bluntly, and frowned a little in confusion as Naruto seemed to space out.
After a minute, his eye returned their focus to the group. "Turns out that mother first discussed the Bunshin Daibakuha with a five-year old Itachi shortly before the Kyūbi Attack, so that fits with Mutual independent completion of the idea."
"How did you talk with your mother without leaving the training ground?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Mental communication seal," Naruto answered readily. "Mom drew them for me and they work like a charm."
Sakura nodded. "Can we get some too? Seals that allow you to talk mentally with each other..." she drifted off and covertly – or at least she thought it was covertly – looked at Sasuke.
"No," Sasuke immediately vetoed, his mind jumping to the obvious conclusion. "No.
"Hell no."
Naruto sniggered.
"Shut up dobe."
"Make me, teme."
"If you want to fight, do it on your own time," Hatake-sensei intervened, and the two genin reluctantly settled down. "I'll run you through the general information again.
"As you likely know, missions come in five flavours, classed D, C, B, A, or S. Each is progressively more dangerous, but not necessarily more difficult. There have been A-ranked scroll deliveries outside of Konoha that earned their rank simply because of the content of the scroll. Normal scroll deliveries are C-ranks.
"As mentioned, D-ranks are essentially glorified chores, but that does not mean that they are unimportant. D-ranks are the ninja-civilian interface most of the time. D-ranks are responsible for 30% of the village's income, despite how little they pay, relatively.
"C-ranks are, for the most part, D-ranks outside the village, but with some added danger because the ninja in question does leave the safety of the village. However, C-ranks also include the possibility of combat against civilian criminals, ronin, or camps of bandits.
"B-ranks, for the most part, are C-ranks with possibility of combat against opposing ninja. Like C-ranks are to D-ranks, the consequences of failing the mission are simply larger. Assassination missions are B-rank and up, for example.
"You don't have to worry about A-ranks and S-ranks until you get years of experience under your belt, and by then you know what missions are worth which rank. Understood?"
"Yes, sensei," the three responded dutifully. They already knew this from the Academy.
"There are two ways to get a mission. The first is to walk up to the mission desk and request a mission, as all genin teams do, and most chūnin and jōnin as well. The second is to be assigned a mission from the Hokage, which is reserved for A-rank missions and above. Written reports are only required for C-ranks and up, though I will require a written report from each of you about some of the D-ranks we do, to get you all used to writing one. Verbal reports are, once again, required only for C-ranks and up, but the same thing for the written reports goes for the verbal ones as well. Copy?"
"We copy, sensei," the three said in unison, and Sasuke felt a bit like a soldier. That was probably the point of this, he mused. The distinction between soldier and ninja had all but vanished since the Hidden Villages were established. The only separation that still existed was whether the soldier used chakra or not, and even that got blurry when one considered the samurai of Tetsu no Kuni.
"Then let's go get us a mission," he said.
Despite the earlier words of his sensei, Sasuke could not help himself from feeling a bit excited as they neared the mission office.
Never mind the fact that they were likely to be assigned what amounted to a glorified chore.
This was the first real step on his road to killing Itachi.
After today, he would be one step closer to claiming justice for his clan.
CODEX: A Short History of the World
By: Sirius, Scholar of the Dogs.
Looking at a map of the planet's continents, it is hard to believe that they were once one. Yet, this was so. The Great Continent was a time of plenty: enough land for everyone, enough food for all, and many more demon clans than there are today.
And then, some four thousand years ago, came the Ten-Tailed Wolf, also called the One-Eyed Ten-Tailed God. The Ame no Hitotsu no Kami, the Jūbi no Ookami. The Jūbi was a demon with power unlike anything seen before or since. The Nine Daiyoukai come closest, but even they do not reach as much as halfway.
Think about that for a moment, if you will. The Kyūbi no Kitsune, the most powerful entity known to the Five Continents with the power to smash the Gates that separate the Northern Lands from the rest of us - not that it needs to, mind -, does not reach half of the Jūbi's power.
This is because the Daiyōkai lack the one thing that made the Jūbi so powerful.
The Jūbi was a Daihanyō. How might this be, given that there are only nine Daiyōkai, and a wolf is not one of them?
In the times before the Jūbi, collectively called pre-Sundering, or Before Sundering on calendars, there were far more Daiyōkai than there are now. For some reason that is lost to the mists of Time, the Jūbi went on a rampage at BS20. Likely, he had found a mate and someone decided to kill that mate out of fear what offspring from the Jūbi could become.
What records survive from that time period indicate that 80% of all demons died and entire Clans, such as the Dragons and Phoenixes, were wiped out. It was after that that the Jūbi set his sights on what is now the Northern Continent. It was then, as is now, the home of the Humans, the only non-demonic species on this planet.
Many had looked down upon the Humans, and even saw them as food. For good reason, humans are tasty.
That changed that day. The Jūbi descended upon the Human lands with a rage not seen before or since, and was stopped.
Nine Demon Lords and two humans defeated the Jūbi. And before the dust had even settled, one of the two Humans split the Jūbi into nine portions and imbued these portions into the Demon Lords that aided the two Humans in their fight. Thus were the current Nine Daiyōkai born.
As payment for their power boost, the Nine erected the World Gates that stopped Demonkind from taking further advantage of the Humans. The only ones allowed through were the Nine, as they had erected the Gates and doors constructed from yōki always allow the person that made them through.
Pacts were made between the Daiyōkai, the clans of the Daiyōkai, and the Humans to never harm Humanity except for self-defence in return for free travel across the Gates because of this.
And so came to be the Five Continents as we know them today, named after the four cardinal directions where they lie.
Special mention should be given to the Southern and Outer Lands. The Outer Lands, located at the very center between the other four, are shrouded in mystery. Not even the very rare demons with True Sight can see past the mists that cloud it.
The Southern Lands have recently adopted the moniker 'Sanctuary', after the Kitsune Clan conquered it less than four hundred years ago. The Southern Lands are a safe haven to all, regardless of criminal past – or lack of such –, as long as the demon in question does not break the laws set forth by Tamamo-no-Mae, Queen of the Foxes.