Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 12: Making plans
"The Hyuuga are doomed."
Silence followed that statement.
Naruto was the one to break that silence. "There is nothing that can we do about that, can we?"
Hinata shook her head, still sitting in Youko's lap. "Short of brainwashing more than three-quarters of the clan I see absolutely no way for them to give up on their precious traditions. Even if they somehow could be convinced of the existence of the inbreeding problem most would rather see the clan vanish than sully the purity of the bloodline with non-Hyuuga blood. Should I or somebody else miraculously become clan head and try to make changes we would have either open warfare inside the clan or more likely a new leader via assassination in short order." She paused for a moment. "Does that mean I will be limited to the Gentle Fist style forever?" she asked with trepidation.
"Actually, you are perfectly capable of learning whatever shinobi technique you like." Youko answered.
"But you said…"
Daiki interrupted her. "What I said is true… for pureblood Hyuuga. Which you are not. Whoever your real maternal grandfather was, he was most definitely not a Hyuuga."
Hinata was floored and a bit scandalized by that revelation. Combined with Youko's embrace it was even enough to stop her shaking. "My grandmother cheated on her husband?"
Youko nodded. "It appears that way. You should be really thankful for that, otherwise you would be incapable of using elemental jutsu and many other things. You are both developing your elemental affinities. It will be some time until it will be detectable by chakra paper, but for us it is clear. That was what originally triggered our investigation because I noticed something a bit odd about how yours developed, Hinata."
Most shinobi developed an elemental affinity at some point in their life, usually in their teens. Their bodies began producing elemental chakra in very tiny amounts naturally, which could be detected by very good sensors or more commonly through the use of chakra paper. Producing elemental chakra congruent with one's affinity was vastly more efficient in chakra consumption and easier to control than elemental chakra of a different nature, meaning that one gravitated to a ninjutsu selection that reflected that affinity. It had no negative effect on the use of other elements; it was a perk without downsides. Affinities tended to run in families, but it was a very complex matter that wasn't fully understood.
Not to be confused with the elemental affinity was the elemental mastery. Mastery over an element had to be achieved by training oneself to consciously create and control elemental chakra of a specific nature outside of a jutsu. It was more of a sliding scale and often required years of difficult training for each element one wished to master. Typically one began the training in one's affine element first and added other elements as soon as one was ready, but even most jonin never went beyond three elements; the training was just too time-consuming and difficult. The benefits were much the same as an affinity, but much harder to achieve. Naturally, an affinity stacked with the corresponding elemental mastery was much stronger than a simple mastery. Another benefit of a mastery was the ability to deliberately create elemental chakra. It could be channeled through weapons to increase their lethality, among other things. The unknown shinobi Hinata had killed came to mind; he had been able to carve deep gouges into massive stone with his sword.
It was perfectly possible to use elemental jutsu without a corresponding elemental mastery or affinity, but in general techniques above C-rank became cost-prohibitive and too difficult to control without it. Naruto could simply power through the increasing chakra cost with his massive reserves, but the control issue would remain a problem.
"What are our affinities?" Naruto asked his father curiously while Youko was busy with calming Hinata down.
"Hinata is developing a water affinity, and it seems to be an extraordinary strong one." Daiki answered. "You have two of similar strength: Wind and lightning."
"Two, huh? That's rare."
"I suspect you originally inherited only the wind affinity, but somehow you acquired the lightning affinity through the manner of me entering the seal. There was a whole lot of lightning involved, and it probably had some impact on your developing chakra system." Daiki explained.
It was a common misconception that a person could only have a single elemental affinity outside of a bloodline, and that if they had two they would automatically be able to use fusion elements made up from their parts. That was actually false. It was perfectly possible for one person to have more than one elemental affinity, but it was very rare. The ability to easily fuse two basic elements into a new one was an additional, independent trait. Most stable, advanced bloodlines had these locked together, but it was not always the case. For example, the Shodaime Hokage had water and earth affinities as well as the ability to combine them into the wood element. His brother lacked at least the earth affinity, possibly even the combining trait, and was therefore incapable of using wood release. None of their descendants had been able to use wood release and precious few of their ancestors, so it was defined as an unstable bloodline.
"How do we go about it? Do we start elemental training now?"
"It would certainly be advisable to begin the training early, but I'm unsure about the best method. I and your mother can use all five basic elements pretty much on a whim." Daiki held out his hand to demonstrate. One after another the elements appeared and disappeared: a small flame shot out of his upturned palm, a miniature whirlwind formed, lightning crackled, a few pebbles appeared and finally water began to drip from his hand. "We have some ideas, but it would be better if you ask Mizuki about elemental training. He should know about it. After that we compare methods."
"Okay dad." Naruto watched silently while Hinata was regaining her composure. "Dad, if the Hyuuga have such problems while everyone sees them as the strongest clan what about the other clans? Or about the village in general?"
"I don't know, son. You are the one who walks around daily in the village, not me. We know the security situation is poor, but nothing about the general status. Perhaps you can lead an investigation when Hinata is better. It should be possible to enlist the help of your friends for that to a limited degree."
"To sum things up: The academy education was never exceptionally good, but the children from the great and minor clans with previous or additional training kept the level high. When the minor clans fell into insignificance there were fewer children with additional education and with the effective loss of three great clans and some of the others with reduced numbers the level fell further. At the same time the academy curriculum was slowly watered down. Combined with the loss of many qualified teachers in the third shinobi war and the Kyuubi attack it led to the current situation where after five years of education the overwhelming majority of new genin need several months of intensive training until they can be considered ready." Mizuki concluded his explanation.
Naruto nodded thoughtfully. "That explains the low level; it is a combination of several factors. Good work, you have proven your worth."
The academy was originally established under the Nidaime Hokage. Before that the education of new shinobi rested solely with the clans or apprenticeships, and even after the creation of the academy the clans continued to educate their children as they saw fit. They hadn't been required to attend the academy at first, but soon a mandatory graduation test to ensure 'comparable skills' had been introduced. Under the reign of the Sandaime Hokage attending the academy had become mandatory, and the cell system of jonin-sensei and three apprenticed genin for the best graduates had been introduced shortly after the first shinobi war. Before that groups of three genin and a jonin were common, but not formally predetermined. An experienced shinobi simply picked children he thought promising.
At first children with a clan background had only needed to attend a supplemental class to make sure they knew all they should before they graduated, but around thirty-five years ago the practice had been discontinued in favor of a full four years of academy education for everyone, even if early graduation was still possible. The clans still provided additional training for the children, but the second shinobi war put a noticeable dent in their numbers. Over the years the difficulty of the tests and education was slowly but steadily lowered to make things easier for children with a civilian or non-clan background, creating the illusion that the average grades as well as the quality of the instruction were staying constant by keeping the lessons but changing what was actually taught in them. All of the changes to the specific lessons were more or less minor, but over the decades the effects added up. The enormous death toll of the third shinobi war and the Kyuubi attack made things even worse.
If Naruto was forced to give an estimate he would probably guess that an academy graduate from around forty years ago was as good as an experienced genin today. That didn't say good things for the overall quality of their forces. He couldn't believe that the village leadership had let matters deteriorate to this point. On the other hand, the changes as well as the decline in quality seemed to have been very slow and gradual. It was entirely possible the people in charge of the overall situation like the Hokage never realized what was truly happening because they didn't have that much contact with the average shinobi. There would always be some outstanding shinobi who would be the most visible to the leadership, obscuring the real status of the vast majority of Konoha's forces. The leaders mostly read reports from other people lower in the hierarchy, and if the people writing the reports didn't recognize the problems because they lacked the information for a comparison everything would seem just peachy. If some of the older shinobi noticed something it would probably written off as emotional glorification of the good old times. That meant things would continue to decline until everything came apart simultaneously, but by then it would be too late to do anything.
The clan heads were too busy with the daily business of politics to notice anything, and the civilians had no true standard of comparison. Additionally many of them had an interest in keeping the requirements of the academy low to ensure the success of their children. A child from a civilian family just didn't have the same innate strengths that a child from a shinobi clan had, even without touching on bloodlines. Clans drilled their children from an early age, and combined with the selective breeding to increase chakra-associated traits and general fitness it made them far better suited on average to the ninja life than the majority of civilian children. Naturally there would be some civilian children who were just as good, but they would be the exception. That explained the long duration of the academy despite there being only enough real material to be covered in three years; most civilian kids needed the full five years to increase their physical fitness to an acceptable level using only the academy training. This was another problem: the academy was treated pretty much like a normal school by everybody when becoming a shinobi was or rather should be a full-time time job.
"I wonder what the situation in the other villages is." Naruto thought aloud.
Mizuki shrugged. "Who knows? We don't even really know our own situation, and most what I told you is conjecture supported by circumstantial evidence. The details of the last war are indefinitely classified far above my own level of access, and the same goes for the foreign intelligence reports. Suna is far smaller than us, Iwa did take a lot of damage in the last war, Kiri is embroiled in some on and off civil war and no one really bothers with the minor villages. Kumo is probably in the best shape, but that is only guesswork."
Naruto grimaced. "Yeah, we have nothing that could serve as rock-solid proof. I don't think we can convince anyone that there is a real problem. It isn't like the academy is completely useless; the education is just not good enough and inefficient."
"What about the Hokage?"
"I could bring the matter to the Old Man's attention, but I don't think he would really take my advice. Back in my first year I had to create an enormous ruckus just to get one obviously criminally biased teacher sacked. He doesn't think me mature or intelligent enough to have worthwhile input and I don't want to disabuse him of that notion anytime soon. Additionally, all changes would only bring improvements long-term without helping me personally or my friends." Naruto nodded to himself. "We shelve that matter for now; perhaps we can do something about it later when we are in positions of power. You have proven yourself a capable researcher, Mizuki-sensei. I will look into giving you a suitable reward."
Mizuki smiled and made a half-bow. "Thank you. Is there anything else?"
"Yes, there is something. What jutsu do you know and which of them can you teach me without attracting attention? I know it is technically illegal to teach an academy student jutsu outside of clan jutsu, but I don't believe any of us cares about that."
This question seemed to make Mizuki uncomfortable. "Unfortunately, my jutsu repertoire is rather limited. I only have a few D-rank and even fewer C-rank jutsu and one complicated B-rank technique. Mainly fire and earth, but the B-rank relies on a giant shuriken and it is not entirely practical to lug something like that around."
"What about the shinobi library?"
The white-haired man shook his head. "They don't really store jutsu in the shinobi library. Most books I can access are rather about the theoretical underpinnings, training techniques, historical and military treatises or documents of a rather low security level. I believe there are some basic jutsu that jonin with pupils have access to, but jutsu knowledge is mostly taught on an individual basis for money and favors and never truly written down. There is a cache of recovered techniques under ANBU authority somewhere as well as the restricted library in the Hokage tower, but again I don't have access to that. If you don't have someone willing to teach you for free it is extremely expensive and difficult to learn jutsu. Why do you think I was so frustrated? At first I didn't have the money to pay anyone, and later there was nobody willing to teach me anything after the rumors sprung up. "
Naruto sighed. "Typical. Well, no matter. I am interested in knowledge about seals and jutsu crafting. If we can't get useful jutsu we have to make our own. Finding such knowledge will be your next task." He glanced at the position of the sun. There was still some time left they could spend at their meeting place in the park before they had to leave. "I have another question. What do you know about elemental training?"
Mizuki considered for a moment. "I know the exercises for each of the five elements, but I myself have only mastered my fire affinity to a sufficient degree. Several years ago I began training my earth element, but I haven't really made progress; my teaching job simply takes too much time. The first stage exercise is always related to a leaf. For example, fire training consists of burning a leaf with chakra alone, while wind would have to cut it. There are additional details that are important, like…"
Ino was devastated. She had asked her aunt for her opinion after she had finally gathered enough courage to do so. It had not been pleasant.
As expected aunt Masuya had been painfully honest. She had ripped into her dieting habits with relish. Stupid and shortsighted had been the nicest words she used, combined with a detailed and realistic genjutsu-aided illustration what dieting could and would do to her body. Ino didn't believe that she would ever diet again in her kunoichi career. The comments about her training routine had been hardly more generous. Yes, the training she did would be enough for her to become an adequate kunoichi. Of course, adequate was a quick and painful way to a premature death as soon as she encountered enemies with a higher skill level or when she was engaged without support from team members. Both of which happened depressingly often in the real world. Besides, Ino didn't want to be 'adequate'. She wanted to become great and admired.
Then the conversation had turned to Sasuke. It was obvious her aunt held strong reservations against the last Uchiha, but for once she had refrained from commenting. Instead she had pointed out how incredibly stupid and inconsiderate Ino was behaving. After having explained to her in great detail that a boy who preferred to be alone wouldn't appreciate to be smothered by his admirers Ino had to admit her efforts at winning Sasuke's affection might not be the most advisable way to go about things.
When she had brought up her experiences with Yakumo and Hinata her aunt had actually smiled and complimented them. Ino had goggled at her. Her aunt almost never said something nice. Masuya had advised her to follow their example before beginning to criticize Ino's choice in clothing. Fashion critique was a bit more than Ino could take after the preceding conversation, and she had taken her leave after thanking her aunt for her help. She hoped she would never have to talk to her again. While the conversation had given her the confirmation she needed, it was the single most unpleasant experience in her life.
'Well, there is no sense in wallowing in my misery. How can I fix things?'
The obvious thing was joining Hinata and Yakumo in their after-academy training and stop dieting. It would be painful at first, but Ino was determined to persevere. Both girls were pleasant company, and she might even find new friends in them. They came with three boys, though. Shino was a bit creepy with his bugs and silent behavior, but he had good grades. She knew Choji from when they were little kids and their fathers had let them play together. After the talk with her aunt Ino felt incredibly stupid for her constant attempts at getting him to diet. Akimichi used their body mass for jutsu; he needed that extra weight. Choji had just nodded and smiled whenever she berated him about it, but in retrospect he had probably only wanted to avoid arguing with her. Grade-wise he was a bit under average. The last member of their group was Naruto. He got mostly the same grades as Choji, but the one thing he had in spades was determination. A determined training partner was just what she needed. All in all, their company would probably be tolerable.
Sasuke and her hangers-on were a thornier matter. If she spent more time training she would most assuredly lose her leading position in the community of Sasuke's admirers. On the other hand, her past efforts hadn't worked. Perhaps he was looking more for a capable kunoichi as a future bride? If he did, she would leave all the other girls in the dust without them knowing. Yakumo and Hinata were the only ones who might fall in that category, and they were obviously not interested in Sasuke. Ino still didn't understand why but had accepted it as fact. Her hangers-on would largely gravitate towards Sasuke anyway if she didn't spend as much time on shopping and similar activities.
Ino nodded to herself; it seemed a viable plan of action.
Youko shook her head sadly after Naruto had informed her of Mizuki's account of elemental training. "That is how shinobi train their ability to produce and control elemental chakra? No wonder they have such difficulties with it."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"Well, if what you told me is correct shinobi begin the training with the most difficult endeavor, namely generating combat-grade elemental chakra. In fact, the entire training consists of that. That is just stupid. It's like a completely untrained person trying to run a marathon. Incredibly difficult and potentially damaging, and the training effect is in fact less than starting with easier tasks. We have planned something different. Please give me your hands."
Youko took Naruto's hands in her own and visibly concentrated. A barely visible glow began surrounding their hands, its color somewhere between white and light blue. It didn't feel unpleasant, just very strange. Like a steady wind with the occasional light cutting sensation.
"What are you doing?"
"This is low-grade wind chakra. It isn't really good for anything, but it helps you getting a feel for the properties wind chakra has. Try to match your own chakra to what you feel from it."
Naruto did just that for half an hour. After their session ended he didn't think he had made any progress. His mother chuckled when he voiced that opinion. "My, aren't you impatient? Even if this method is much safer and quicker than the shinobi way it will still take many months. It isn't the only exercise; I would recommend using your chakra to feel and try to control your element of choice as the next step. After you are comfortable with that we can proceed to more intermediary exercises until we finally arrive at producing elemental chakra that is usable in combat."
"That helps Hinata and me, but what of our friends? I don't think there is anybody we can easily approach who has the ability to create low-grade elemental chakra."
Youko tapped her finger against her lips. "Indeed, that is a problem. Perhaps your father has an idea; I heard him talking about something like 'enchanting' and 'combining chakra and magic', but I don't know the status of that project."
"How many projects do you have? Each time something comes up you have already some ideas." Naruto asked curiously.
That caused Youko to laugh. "Kit, we have dozens of different ideas and projects that we are constantly testing. Did you think we were lazing around? You know we can be in more than one place at the same time. For example, at this very moment I'm talking to you in my human form, one bijuu-shaped avatar is sparring against your father, over two dozen avatars of various shapes are tinkering with different kinds of chakra manipulation and techniques while about a dozen are doing the same with magic. Three others are constantly making plans and game scenarios, four are dedicated to learning more about my divine and demonic powers and a few are enjoying the pleasures a human body can provide."
Naruto chose to ignore the last part. "How many avatars can you make? Are you omnipresent?"
"No, not omnipresent. Multipresent would be a better word, and we are running close to the limit we can sustain in here. Outside it would probably be a lower number. The exact number of avatars is dependent on a lot of factors, but the main ones are attention capacity and power. We have a limited amount of attention and processing capacity, but we can split it up to different locations. Like multitasking, but better. Likewise, we have a limited pool of power we can distribute among the avatars. In the outside world our current setup would leave us wide open for attack by beings on a similar level, so we plan to stay concentrated and only form a few avatars if it becomes necessary when we get out of here."
"I really should learn more about what you can do."
"That's easier said than done. Even we aren't exactly sure of our capabilities, and the total control we have over this small world doesn't make things easier. A small, overlooked variable that is different in the outside world could make entire techniques developed here useless. Your father and I spend most of the time we gain when we possess your bodies to observe everything so we can build accurate models here. Still, if you want we can begin to teach you about the powers and limitations of divine beings."
A few weeks later Mizuki again proved his worth by gathering all the available texts on sealing. Unfortunately, they weren't exactly what Naruto had hoped for. On the next visit to his parents he vented his frustration.
"This stuff is more like painting via color by numbers than any useful, systematic introduction into the sealing arts. It describes what I have to do to create simple seals like storage seals or exploding tags with a few varieties, but not why or how it works. It's still useful, but for our goals it seems to be a dead end. Mizuki said there is some more advanced stuff accessible by higher ranks, but most seal-related things are a closely guarded secret. I would need a seal master to teach me the theory before I could create my own seals or unravel the damned Yondaime's seal."
"Wasn't there anything that would help us?" Daiki asked.
"Well, there was one book Mizuki managed to pilfer from a restricted section. It deals mostly with checking the status of existing seals, like verifying if they are still working. It doesn't tell you what their purpose is, just if they are still functioning." Naruto answered.
"Better than nothing I suppose. It will come in handy with your big investigation project. Speaking of projects, I have good news concerning the elemental training project. It will take me a few months, but now I'm confident I will be able to create one affinity tester and some elemental chakra generators. I think seals would work better for that purpose, but I found a way to achieve the desired results with magic. The objects will look like they are seal-based, but you should keep them away from any seal master just to be sure."
"Thanks dad." Suddenly Naruto remembered something. "What is Hinata doing? I seldom see her anymore after the first day on each visit."
"She is learning the first stages of magic and requires a quiet environment for that. Her education should be much quicker because thanks to you we discovered what works and what not, but she will lack your in-depth understanding of magic at first. Still, Hinata will be able to learn the completed spells relatively quickly."
"I don't understand why you didn't teach me more spells anyway. It has been a long time since the last one." Naruto complained.
Daiki sighed. "Because most what we can develop isn't useful in your situation. You can only use magic in the vicinity of Konoha, and the more powerful stuff only inside of the sanctuary. Even then most magic has a long ramp-up time measured in minutes. At the moment there are no really pressing issues, so we would rather invest the time for fundamental research in the hopes of it becoming more useful later." Seeing Naruto's rebellious look he relented. "But if you are so dead-set on learning a new spell, what would be your preference?"
Naruto brightened up immediately. "Well, I have some ideas…"
It had taken a lot of convincing and passing the entire thing off as a training exercise in information gathering, but finally Naruto's friends had agreed to collect as much information about Konoha as they could with Naruto acting as the coordinator. Now, several months later they were finally finished. Naruto and Hinata presented the collected information first to Youko and Daiki; their circle of friends would be informed in the following days.
They began the overview with great clans. The erstwhile premier clan of Konoha, the Senju, was for all practical purposes extinct. The sole surviving member Tsunade of the Sannin had left the village years ago to begin a new career as alcoholic and gambling addict, earning her the nickname 'the legendary sucker'. Her child-bearing years were over anyway, so even if she would return she would be unable to continue the clan. It was often said that the Senju married into other clans and families, making the whole of Konoha their legacy. While that statement was factually correct, it merely obscured the true facts. At the present day, there existed no living person with a blood relation to the Senju clan in Konoha. All families the Senju married into were either completely extinct, or at least the branch originating from the Senju member had died out. They were unsure if that came to pass only due to chance or if there was someone who helped the process along. Currently the group was leaning more towards chance, as the majority of the intermarried relations as well as almost the entire remaining core clan died during the great plague after the first shinobi war. Additionally, that event probably pushed Tsunade into becoming a medic. The closest living relation to the Senju was probably Naruto through the Uzumaki line, but the degree of kinship was very distant and as far as his parents could tell he had no actual Senju blood in his veins.
Hiruzen Sarutobi currently held the voting rights of the Senju in the council. They had been transferred to him upon the death of the last adult clan head of the Senju, Sho Senju. He had been married to Hiruzen's older sister, but the marriage had been childless. Tsunade had refrained from claiming clan leadership and was obviously content in letting her teacher represent her clan in the council to this day. The Senju otherwise played no role in the current political landscape and never would again.
The Uchiha were in similar dire straits as only a single member of them remained in Konoha. Before the massacre they tied with the Hyuuga in a bitter rivalry for the most populous and powerful clan. They controlled and manned the Konoha police force as hereditary right since Konoha's founding. The police force wasn't rebuilt because it would be a violation of their rights and the council was unable to muster the necessary two-thirds vote to revoke this privilege. Because the former clan heir Itachi Uchiha was condemned as guilty party of the massacre and a nuke-nin, Sasuke Uchiha was the heir apparent to all the rights and physical possessions of the clan, making him the most eligible bachelor of the village. That led to all sorts of favoritism because everybody wanted a shot at either marrying into the Uchiha clan or currying favor with the clan heir. Their council seat was currently empty until Sasuke was either old enough to claim it or he made special jonin. Other then the hereditary rights, a whole lot of valuable properties, loads of money as well as shinobi knowledge and the ingratiating behavior of the villagers nothing remained of the power of the Uchiha clan. It would probably be generations before they recovered, if ever.
The Hyuuga were currently the biggest and most powerful of the great clans of Konoha and often treated as nobility. Superficially all seemed well with the clan, but thanks to Hinata's efforts they now knew they were well on their way to ruin. The practice of marrying exclusively inside the clan had led to a dangerous degree of inbreeding. The number of failed pregnancies, stillbirths and birth defects was already sky-high and still rising, but nobody inside the clan seemed aware of the true extent of the problem. It was probably more a case of willful blindness though, especially considering the entire clans' obsession with purity, tradition and their narrow focus on the byakugan. Naruto's parents predicted a population collapse within three or four generations at the latest that could only be prevented by forcing all current members to marry outside the clan. Considering the personality of the clan elders and the majority of clan members, the chance for this were effectively non-existent, thereby dooming the clan. The tensions between main and branch house were almost insignificant in light of this fact.
Current clan head was Hiashi Hyuuga, who despite being an utter failure at parenting was probably the most progressive clan head the Hyuuga had in centuries, not that that was saying much. He focused mainly on the divide between main and branch house, though he didn't seem to have made any progress. Regrettably he was often occupied with power struggles inside the clan and it was uncertain how long he would be able to retain the position of clan head. Politically, the Hyuuga were one of the main pillars of Konoha, but due to their somewhat isolationistic attitude they seldom interfered in the daily running of the village.
The Akimichi, Nara and Yamanaka were all clans of medium size that were closely allied. They suffered some losses during the third shinobi war and the Kyuubi attack but had already recovered and were slowly growing in size. Since they all followed the practice of regularly introducing fresh blood into their clans to avoid inbreeding the prospects for further growth seemed good. They were all deeply involved in the day-to-day workings of the village in short-lived alliances alternating with antagonism with the civilian councilors. The Yamanaka seemed to have some internal problems, but since they hadn't brought Ino completely into the fold yet they were unable to determine the exact situation.
The Inuzaka had lost an excessive number of members in the Kyuubi attack, thereby falling from large to medium-to-small size. It would take them quite some time to recover fully, but the trend pointed upwards. They had experienced somewhat of a baby boom in the last years after they stopped mourning, which should help them enormously. They insisted on retaining the privileges of the shinobi and were often at odds with the civilians.
The Aburame were a clan of small size after suffering heavy losses in the third shinobi war. Their bitter feud with the rival insect-using Kamizuru clan from Iwa had left both clans severely damaged, although the true amount of damage they suffered was not widely known and the Kamizuru came out of the conflict far worse off than their Konoha counterparts. Due to the peculiarities of their bloodline they were often shunned to a degree by the villagers because their kikaichu and appearance were seen as creepy. Not that anyone would say that to the face of an Aburame, but the sentiment lingered in the population. It seemed difficult for them to find acceptable external candidates for marriage, making their recovery slow and difficult. Politically they stayed neutral most of the time and occasionally aligned themselves with whoever presented the most reasonable proposals.
The Kurama were almost in the exact same position as the Uchicha in that they had only a single surviving member, their friend Yakumo. Her situation was arguably worse because all clan holdings had been destroyed in the enormous fire that wiped out their clan. Even before that catastrophe their numbers dwindled and their bloodline was faltering, making them slowly disappear into obscurity. The Kurama seat was currently voted by a civilian who was closely allied with the Hokage.
"Of the nine original founding clans three are effectively destroyed, one is strong but steering towards collapse, three are doing okay and two are weak, with one of them on the way to recovery while the other one is at least stable." Naruto summed up. "In other words, the shinobi manpower provided by the great clans has practically been cut in half. Things only continue as they are because of political reasons and inertia. The situation of the minor clans is even worse."
In general the minor clans had borne the brunt of the damage of the second and third shinobi wars as well as the Kyuubi attack. Many were completely destroyed or had only a few surviving members and were unlikely to continue as formal shinobi clans. Since well before the Kyuubi attack no family had managed to be recognized as new minor clan. A careful analysis of the gathered information showed a disturbing trend. It seemed that the Sandaime had actively discouraged the formation and continued existence of minor clans for a long time, all in the name of his goal of a unified Konoha. The privileges originally only granted to the minor clans were increasingly given to civilian clans, families not following the organizational structure of a clan or outright discontinued. Apparently the man considered the existence of the clans divisive and preferred for his shinobi to only see themselves as belonging to Konoha as a whole, not to another source of identity. He was very subtle in his approach; hardly anyone seemed aware of his leanings. Perhaps even the Sandaime himself was unaware of the consequences of his policies; he often seemed to see only the good and unity of Konoha and not the unintended consequences. All in all, their available manpower and influence was constantly waning. That left the shinobi without a clan.
"While many of them are good shinobi individually they aren't doing much good for the future of the village. Jutsu knowledge is often confined to a single person, and without the support structure of a clan it isn't properly preserved because there is nothing in place to cover that eventuality. Take the famous Kakashi Hatake for example. He is the last living member of the Hatake clan and is rumored to have learned more than a thousand jutsu, but he isn't teaching them anybody. He routinely fails his genin teams and I don't think he has written anything down. Though considering our extra knowledge about the man he would probably fail to do so even if he got a team. Anyway, only a small percentage of all shinobi are jonin, and not all of them take pupils. That means with each death irreplaceable knowledge is permanently lost, weakening the village further."
After concluding the part of their report regarding shinobi they proceeded to the security situation of the village.
Much information was based on the contents of the forbidden scroll of seals and some writings they found in the archives. Against external threats Konoha was once protected via several seal-based wide-area genjutsu barriers that made even finding the village extremely difficult. During Naruto's forays into the woods he had visited all seal stones listed in the scroll. The entire array had been purposefully deactivated sometime in the past, probably after Konoha gave up the policy of hiding from the external world. The majority of the seals broke down long ago due to neglect, and he wouldn't take any bets on the reliability of the remaining ones. Not that it mattered, with that many parts missing it was impossible to raise the genjutsu again, and Naruto had found clues in the historical texts that the central control chamber had been dismantled during the rebuilding of the Hokage Tower after the second war.
Aside from the fixed seal-based defenses there should have been a number of ninjutsu, genjutsu and mundane traps at irregularly changed locations scattered through the countryside. They couldn't find any of them, and the woodsman Naruto asked didn't even know that something like that existed. ANBU and some other shinobi occasionally patrolled the woods, but frankly even an untrained city-dwelling civilian could stumble directly into Konoha without anyone noticing. There had been plans for the construction of a great outer wall during the reign of the Nidaime Hokage, but the work had stopped unfinished.
The inner great wall was the only remaining still partly-functioning part of the original defenses, and even that thing wasn't in good shape. Some damaged parts had been fixed rather sloppily, and many seals that should have made the wall nearly indestructible and non-climbable had broken down due to lack of maintenance. None of the stored offensive or defensive seals were still functional. The inner detection barrier connected to the wall still stood, but it had more holes than a Rock Country cheese. Only the main gates were still guarded, the secondary gates were totally unsupervised. Nobody knew how many backdoors and secret entrances had been built, they had found twenty-five of them and they weren't looking very hard.
Hinata had remotely scanned the barrier chamber and at first glance all seemed in order, even if the guys in there were more interested in card games than supervising the barrier. They took a closer look during shift change via a hidden entrance and called up the detailed status report of the seal matrix with the master key. Apparently nobody had bothered to check it since before the time of the third war. The barrier team seemed totally unaware that there were entire sections where a breach would go unnoticed, and judging from a training manual lying around they didn't know that there should have been a second detection zone several kilometers out.
Internal security in the village was on an all-times low since the Uchiha massacre. Because of the destruction of the police ANBU was forced to take care of some of their tasks, stretching their personnel dangerously thin. In short, the village was wide open for infiltration and even direct attack because of the absence of external defenses, while the internal security was severely lacking.
"It's perfectly possible for some enemy shinobi to execute some large-area jutsu from outside the barrier or even inside the village and wreak catastrophic damage before the shinobi belonging to village security can react. This village is a death trap waiting to happen." Hinata elaborated.
Morale in general was excellent, the shinobi as well as the civilians believed Konoha to be the strongest of the hidden villages. The painful losses of the Kyuubi attack were still somewhat present and generated some resentment against Naruto, while the third shinobi war was more and more fading into a distant memory. The decay of the alien technology was only cause for concern for some of the leaders; most people were more troubled by the slowly drying up supply of cheap clothing and luxury goods. Because that process had started years ago business was largely unaffected as new suppliers took over.
They had been unable to spy on the village leadership as much as they wanted, but from what they had gathered no one connected all the dots. They were aware that this clan or that clan had lost a lot of people, but simply didn't draw the logical conclusion. Everyone had bought into their own propaganda that they were the strongest of the hidden villages and everything was fine.
Compared to earlier generations the skill level of the shinobi forces was waning, and had been dwindling for a long time. The academy taught less relevant knowledge in a longer timeframe, and the selection process for the academy admission as well as the placement on the teams had been thoroughly politicized. Fortunately the extended education of the non-apprenticed students was still fairly useful, but what a jonin-sensei taught was hit-and-miss. In the past the clans had compensated such shortcomings, but were now unable to fill that hole due to their loss in members and importance.
As a rule, apprenticed genin were promoted far too early. Many were thrown into the chunin exams after only a year of service and promoted before they got a good grip on their duties and capabilities. They currently had only one S-rank shinobi permanently residing in the village, and that was the Hokage himself. Of the three Sannin only Jiraiya was still completely loyal to the village, but was busy with his spy network and… other activities and visited only every few months. Tsunade had abandoned the village and indulged in her vices. Orochimaru had turned traitor and was now one of the bitterest enemies of the Leaf. Itachi Uchiha, the slayer of the Uchiha clan, was likewise classified as S-rank. No other currently active leaf shinobi came even close to them. The next powerful were probably Kakashi Hatake and Maito Gai, but they were only listed as A-rank.
"Summing things up, this pathetic village is well on its way to the trash heap of history, but nobody does anything about it or even recognizes the danger. Now, what do you two intend to do about it?" Youko asked.
"I don't think we can do anything anytime soon. Nobody would believe us children, and I don't want to show my hand." Naruto replied.
"I experience it daily with my clan, the problems are there for all to see, but everyone chooses to ignore them. Most people don't have access to the knowledge to really realize the scale of the problems, and it seems that those who do close their eyes to reality." Hinata added.
Naruto nodded. "It isn't like Konoha will collapse tomorrow, but the long-term outlook is bleak. I wish we could just abandon the village and start anew somewhere else, but we need it for the years to come. The looming threats are just too big for us to deal with them alone, and we need the knowledge we can learn here. Other villages probably won't simply take us in, or if they do they will take measures to ensure our loyalty that will interfere with our plans. That means we have to make sure that Konoha doesn't fall in the foreseeable future."
"You and your friends are in a relatively good position. Counting Ino you have the heirs of four great clans on your side. It will be years before you can exercise any sort of policy-changing influence, but if you six become strong enough you might personally blunt some of the dangers and make a difference." Youko counseled.
"Yes, we have two years until we graduate. We have to make the most of the time and train what we can." Naruto agreed.
Now it was his father's turn to voice his opinion. "You can't skip academy classes, which severely hampers your free time and the amount of advanced training you can do. I recommend that you concentrate on things that will give you an advantage in the long run or that make you stronger in general like mastering an element or two and learning the theoretical basis of ninjutsu and genjutsu in general, enabling you to craft them yourself later. I don't think you will be able to learn much secret knowledge like the sealing arts, but at least exploding tags and basic storage scrolls should be possible to learn. Later on you might not have the time for uninterrupted training, but if you already know the theoretical basis you should be able to learn jutsu much faster."
Choji made his way through the village, occasionally nodding and greeting people he knew. It was a week before the start of their fourth academy year, and he got to know a lot of people in the past months. The reason for that was an idea of Naruto; the blond boy had started what was probably one of the most ambitious information gathering exercises ever envisioned by an academy student.
In its wake Choji had discovered that he was a natural at information gathering. Not the secret spying stuff, no, but people liked to talk to him. It seemed that he instantly appeared trustworthy even to much older people, and they talked about things that they would normally keep from a kid of his age. With a bit of coaching he was able to steer conversations easily, and by now he had created the beginnings of a genuine information network. Ino had similar talents and was busy building her own network, but she had started much later due to her joining them only last semester. It had taken her quite some time to get used to their training methods and become fully integrated, but she had developed a deep friendship with Hinata and Yakumo.
He stopped walking for a moment when his bag of chips was empty and he had to extract a new one from his pockets. The bags of special chips with a high nutritional value had become his constant companions since he started training in his clan's techniques in earnest. Until he got a better grip on the techniques he lost a lot of weight in each training session, which he had to regain in the meantime. He was really lucky that he liked eating, but the crumbs sticking to him were annoying.
Soon he arrived at Yakumo's house. When he entered he noticed Yakumo, Naruto and Ino missing while Hinata and Shino sat in the living room. Both were going through some notes. "Where are the others?
"N-Naruto-kun decided it is time to reveal his s-secrets to Ino. Yakumo w-went along with them."
Nodding his thanks to Hinata, Choji sat down. In the last months Ino had proven to be a trustworthy friend. Despite her tendency to gossip she kept her involvement with them largely out of her conversations in class and in public. Choji was glad that Naruto had decided to trust her, he always found it difficult to keep things from people he considered his friends. In spite of her nagging Choji had always liked Ino, he still remembered the time when they played together as small children.
His thoughts drifted to the impending conversation. Naruto had collected all they had discovered, and today he would present his conclusions. Choji was concerned about what they would learn. In the course of his own efforts he had found troubling signs that not everything was as it should be. Nothing definite, but whenever he talked with the others and the subject of their investigation came up they all seemed worried; especially Naruto and Hinata. It wasn't a good sign when both the boy who was best at sneaking around as well as collecting all their individual findings and the girl who could see through walls were worried about what they discovered.
After a few minutes of waiting his three missing friends entered the room. After greeting them Naruto started a whispered conversation with Hinata about which notes to use. Yakumo disappeared into the kitchen to get some refreshments while a pale Ino sat down beside him.
"Are you alright?"
Ino waved him off. "I'm okay, but thanks for asking. The discovery that Naruto has… that in his belly and the identity of his father was just very shocking." She shook her head. "I can't believe they still keep it secret from him. No wonder so many people don't like him." A determined look entered her eyes. "I will help him prove all those idiots wrong."
Smiling, Choji leaned back and prepared to listen to Naruto's summary of their findings. Yakumo returned, and they all sat down. After that Naruto began talking. Choji lost his smile in the first few minutes after the revelation of the Hyuuga situation. Blow followed after blow, and Choji began to wonder if he was trapped in a nightmare. The worst part was that many things were corroborated by his own findings; he just hadn't known many additional pieces of information to get the whole devastating picture. From what he saw on the faces of his friends they entertained similar thoughts. When Naruto finally finished everyone had a bleak expression on their faces.
Choji was the first to voice a question. "Is the situation really this bad?"
Naruto's expression became even bleaker. "This is only the tip of the iceberg, there's probably a whole lot of stuff going on that we never learned about. Even what we know we can't prove beyond a doubt. Do any of you think that the adults would believe us and make genuine changes?"
Hinata was the first to answer. "My f-father never listens to anything I h-have to say. I could s-say to his face that our c-clan is dying and he w-wouldn't believe me."
Yakumo was the next. "My uncle would probably have believed parts of it, but not the entire extent of our discoveries. Now I have no adult that would trust me."
Choji sighed before he answered. "I don't think my family would believe me, or not enough to matter. Our clan is in good shape, and my father admires the Hokage and his philosophy. He just won't believe that the situation is this bad."
A visibly shaken Ino spoke up next. "Daddy would hear me out, but like Choji's dad he believes in the wisdom of the Hokage. I think he would shrug it off as an over-dramatization of a young girl. Perhaps he would bring it up in a few meetings, but he wouldn't really press the issue to make changes."
"The Hokage talks with me one or two times per month, but he doesn't truly listen to what I have to say. Additionally, I don't trust him fully. He keeps things from me that I have a right to know, like about my tenant or the identity of my parents. Furthermore, he is directly and indirectly responsible for a lot of the problems we discovered. I don't think he would reverse his whole stand on policy just because I tell him some facts which he doesn't want to see." Naruto said.
Shino was the last one to give his opinion. "You are correct in your assessment that my clan is not in a good shape. I will reveal more because Hinata has trusted us with secrets of her clan, but it is never to leave our circle." Each of them gave their agreement before Shino continued. "Our numbers have fallen far. Currently there are less than one hundred Aburame left in Konoha, and only sixteen of us are active shinobi including me. We sustained heavy losses in the last war." That caused several sharply indrawn breaths. The Aburame had once been one of the great founding clans with several hundred members. Now they were only the size of one of the original minor clans. "Our discoveries are mainly logical conclusion from circumstantial evidence, but in time I would be able to convince my clan of our findings. Unfortunately, our political power is diminished, and my clan's voice alone won't be enough."
In the following silence each of them dwelled on his own thoughts.
Naruto broke the silence. "Hinata and I already talked about it, and we think there is only one thing we can do. We must become as powerful as we can as quickly as possible and acquire support of both political and personal nature along the way until we can make the necessary changes ourselves. There is still time; it isn't as if the village will cease to exist tomorrow. Konoha could probably still weather the assault of one enemy village in the near future. It's the long-term outlook that is the problem. We don't think enemy spies have discovered the village's true situation, the self-delusion of the populace and leadership makes it difficult for someone not intimately familiar with the local situation to recognize the extent of the many problems. The propaganda that Konoha is the strongest village was very successful, meaning we should have at least several years of relative peace."
Shino nodded in agreement. "You are correct. At the moment we are already much better than virtually all our fellow academy students, and we have two years left to improve before we graduate. Extrapolating our past progress, we should be able to reach the level of highly capable genin on the verge to chunin in average skill level."
Yakumo took over. "Until we are genin we can't make many useful connections, most people just see us as kids. Even after we graduate we will need some years to build a reputation. We all are virtually certain to wind up with a jonin-sensei; I think it should be possible to bring most of them slowly around to our view. With our estimated skill level we should be on the fast track to chunin, either through the exams or regular promotion. We will need some time to become familiar with the job, but I think the timeframe two years after our graduation should see the first of us promoted. Two or three years more for special jonin, or even full jonin if we are lucky. Give it an additional year to settle properly in, and we are looking at around eight years before we can begin to push for real changes. Perhaps earlier if we can find sufficiently highly placed allies."
"Thanks to N-Naruto-kun's chakra training t-techniques we should all reach jonin-level reserves and control around the t-time we graduate. Chakra t-training is one of the m-more time consuming things in a shinobi career, but w-we can get it out of the w-way early. That w-will give us more free t-time later to learn j-jutsu and other skills." Hinata voiced her opinion.
Suddenly a very shaken looking Ino began speaking. "Stop! Just stop it. How can you talk about such things? We are just children; there is nothing we can do about such things. You are talking about taking over the village. That's madness; I can't believe…"
She was interrupted by Yakumo. "Ino, listen. You are right; currently we are children, but that doesn't mean we are stupid. When we graduate in two short years we will be formally declared adults. Our profession is one of the most dangerous there is, and we must prepare as good as we can. I wish we could leave the problems to the establishment, but they are part of the problem in the first place. Who is there other than us? Someday in the future you will take over leadership of the Yamanaka clan from your father. It may very well be that Konoha will be disintegrating by this point, or that a new war happens that threatens to destroy the village. Imagine if you are in this position without making the preparations we are discussing. Don't you think you will blame yourself when you realize that you could have done something earlier?"
Ino stared at her for a moment before erupting into tears. Sitting closest to her, Choji took her into her arms in the hopes of calming her down. Today's revelations obviously had been too much for Ino, she still wasn't used to their more mature mindset.
"Ino-chan, please calm down. You and I share much the same problem: our parents don't think us ready and shield us from too much of the politics and the reality of shinobi life. Yakumo, Hinata and Shino have all been tutored in politics for years, and Naruto had to fend for himself for a long time. You can't really stay ignorant if you sneak around as much as he does. I didn't want to believe much of what we found out earlier myself, like how politicized the team assignments are. But now I can't keep my eyes closes to the truth any longer."
Finally Ino seemed to calm down. "Sorry for my outburst; all this was just too much for me." she said sniffling while wiping away her tears.
"It's ok, we are all friends here."
After Ino had regained her composure they continued planning.
"I think it best if we learn all fields equally before we specialize. That means each of us should be familiar with the basics of medicine, poisons, taijutsu, seals, ninjutsu, genjutsu, traps, wilderness survival and all that other stuff. If we learn the basics and the theory now we will have a much easier time later. Those of us with clans should learn as much of their clan techniques as possible. Hinata has too much problems with her clan's techniques to really specialize in them, she wants to study advanced medicine instead. I'm already a very good ranger; I think I will concentrate on jutsu creation. Additionally, I recently acquired something very interesting."
Naruto disappeared for a moment into another room but returned immediately with a bag. After he sat back down he opened it and put six metallic objects on the table: One small pyramid and five goblets, all made from the same grey metal and covered all over with seals. Engraved at the bottom of each goblet was a different elemental symbol.
"I explored much of Konoha's underground in the past, and a short time ago I got these together with an explanation what they do. This," he tapped the pyramid, "is an advanced detector for determining your elemental affinity, while the goblets are training tools for developing your elemental masteries."
"Such things exist?" Yakumo asked disbelievingly. "I always thought elemental training takes many years to complete and is very difficult and dangerous."
"Normally yes, but these were apparently created by someone who thought of a better method. If you channel chakra into these things they produce very low-grade elemental chakra to give you a better feel for what you have to do. Here, let me demonstrate." Naruto gripped the stem of the goblet with the lightning symbol. A few seconds later an insubstantial glow appeared inside of the goblet, and Naruto put his other hand directly into the glow. "It's harmless, but in the long-term it should help enormously. Unfortunately we don't really have enough time for concentrating solely on elemental training, but by the time we graduate each of us should be nearing mastery in his chosen element. Let's see what our elemental affinities are. Hinata-chan, if you would do the honors?"
Hinata took the pyramid in her hands and channeled chakra into it. The seals began glowing, and from the tip of the pyramid a small fountain of water erupted. The drops disappeared into nothingness before they could hit anything.
Yakumo was next, but in her case a flame appeared.
Shino's efforts created a small ball of crackling lightning.
When it was Choji's turn another flame appeared.
Sand and small pebbles began to trickle from the top of the pyramid when Ino channeled chakra into it.
Finally it was Naruto's turn. Choji was surprised like all the others when a miniature whirlwind permeated with lightning appeared.
"Hey, how comes we all get only one affinity and Naruto gets two?" Ino asked.
Naruto gave her the overeager smile he often displayed to the world at large. "I'm just that awesome!" Before Ino could explode he became serious again. "I suppose it is luck. We have a good representation of each element here, but Yakumo and Choji will have to share the goblet of fire. Shino, you can have the lightning goblet for now; I will begin with training my wind affinity."
After everyone had taken their respective goblets and tested its functionality their planning session resumed.
"In my opinion we should keep our true skills under wraps until we graduate. We can't win anything if we show our hand at the academy. If we are seen as prodigies it only calls unwanted attention to us, and I don't want to deal with hordes of hangers-on. In contrast, if we appear to improve massively as genin it will give our jonin-sensei more fame and influence as a superb teacher. That could be very beneficial for our long-term goals if we can convince them of our views. Although we should keep our worries about the village to ourselves for the foreseeable future, it isn't like it would do much good if we voice our findings now." Yakumo proposed.
Shino nodded in agreement. "I agree. We have to avoid being seen as alarmists or crackpots. Only after we have attained a sufficiently secure position we can begin to implement our reforms."
Choji had a question. "How can we keep everything secret? We will need books and the help of a qualified teacher for many things; we can't learn everything on our own."
Naruto cleared his throat. "I have already secured the assistance of our teacher Mizuki. After searching in the academy regulations I found something that can help us. Next year we will found a formal study group. According to regulations it needs an adult teacher supervising our activities, and Shino has used his father to pull the necessary strings to get Mizuki appointed. You can trust Mizuki; Hinata-chan and I have acquired… things that ensure his permanent cooperation and silence."
Yakumo raised one eyebrow. "Blackmail or bribery? No, it has to be blackmail, bribery is not secure enough."
"It is b-better you don't know. A-Aside from the chakra exercises y-you can show him everything." Hinata answered.
"Does anyone want to add something or wants to back out?" Naruto asked. When nobody said anything he continued. "Good, that concludes our planning session. We are the Circle of Six, and we will change the future."
Kenji slowly made his way through the woods to the neighboring village. It was an arduous journey, but in the end it would be worth it. Amaya had such a sweet bum, and her husband had passed through his own village this morning on his way to the trading post. He was often away on business, and Amaya hated being lonely. Kenji was only to happy to correct that problem. He would have to hunt some animals on the way back to explain his absence, but it wasn't anything new. The more often he could get away from his own wife the better.
It was growing dark when he arrived at the village, but something was wrong. There were a lot more people on the village square than usual, and a massive fire was burning. Three solid wooden tables stood around the fire, and a human was bound to each one. Kenji carefully crept closer, making sure he stayed hidden. Some of the people standing around had painted a triangle inside a circle on their foreheads, while others were wearing skull masks. A short, fat person in robes was standing close to the fire and making a speech, but Kenji wasn't close enough to understand the words. When he shortened the distance he recognized the man as the local innkeeper, normally one of the friendliest people he knew.
"…descend from the darkness and grace us with your presence! Let the sacrifice begin to anoint our Lord's newest disciple!"
All the people standing around began chanting at once. "Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Sacrifice!"
The innkeeper approached the first table, and suddenly he held a long knife in his hands. He held it up for all to see before he plunged the knife into the bare chest of the woman lying on the table. The woman began to scream loudly, but the man didn't seem disturbed in the slightest. Instead he began to saw. It didn't take him long to create a hole, and with his free hand he ripped the still beating heart out of the body. The crowd rejoiced when he held the heart into the air before throwing it into the big fire. It broke Kenji's heart when he recognized one of the ecstatic faces as belonging to Amaya.
The air assumed an oily quality, and all light seemed to be sucked somewhere else. Kenji knew he should leave, but his eyes were riveted on the scene while he couldn't move a single muscle. When the third sacrifice died the flames became black, sending out rays of not-light. Kenji would wish for the rest of his life to be able to forget what happened next, but the memories would haunt him for all his remaining days. When he was finally able to get help from the nearest imperial garrison he looked like he had aged twenty years and his formerly black hair had turned completely white.
In distant Konoha a set of golden glowing orbs along with a set of black ones snapped to the northwestern horizon at the exact moment the third heart touched the fire.
A male voice spoke. "We have a problem."
A female voice spat out a single word. "Jashin"
Author's notes: Once again I want to thank my reviewers.
For those of you interested in the pacing of the story: The chapter after next should see Naruto's graduation.