(10-06-23 Edit: Timeline around final scene semi-established to patch potential plot pothole.)
Hi.
So, thanks to the one guest reviewer that pointed out a few minor inconsistencies in the scaling (note: they're also the biggest reason I delayed the chapter update, because I had to do a little research to make a startlingly appropriate addition to this fic. But also because of the fucking network - can you believe I was actually stuck on 2G for an hour?!).
I made a few appropriate changes. Hana was scaled back to solid A (she can still give Kakashi and Gai a run for their money, if not straight-up kill them, but she doesn't win for the reason you seem to think or the way you seem to think. But yes, she is a better shinobi than Asuma overall, she was fighting alongside a specifically recon-built team of six (not combat) against a slightly upgraded version of Hidan AND a team of 12 Jonin-level Jashinists; more on that shortly), and Orochimaru was scaled back to solid S. Hiruzen stays S- because of his physical shortcomings, but like Onoki (who's solid S because he doesn't need to get in close at all, and his factory default settings come with literal atomic annihilation jutsu) he makes up for it with the sheer quality of his chakra, experience, and self-made collaboration ninjutsu.
Prime Hiruzen wouldn't have had to give Orochimaru and the undead Hokage a pyrrhic victory, he'd have stomped all three of their asses at the same time, that's a fact. He only lost because 1. he was old and outnumbered, and 2. he'd spent too much time in the office.
You may disagree at your leisure; start an account, we'll discuss it.
S+ would be, say, the minimum level of this fic's version of Konan, while Pain is straight-up solid SS.
Now, fun fact: in this fic, while there are characters getting de-nerfed (Yes, Tony McNucklz, that does indeed include Kakashi and Zabuza), three Akatsuki members are getting an upgrade or two from their canon abilities. One of them is Sasori; we've already seen that I gave him an insane poison already, and there'll be more to come from him. Number two is Hidan, I've already gone partway into it last chapter but due to a guest review, I've made the decision to really expand on what he'll be capable of at the end of this chapter. Hidan's the easiest S-Rank ninja to upgrade, tbh, and you'll love how I'm doing him. Or hate it. Or panic.
Either way, it'll be fun.
Number three will be Konan, I'll save her for the next chapter (for the purpose of breaking up the semi-monotony of six chapters of training montages and also setting up future arcs). Hmm...
Remember that one buddy cop movie with Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis? The one where Tracy Morgan's character just lost his shit at Sean William Scott's character, going "no, no, no, hell no" for several seconds? I believe that one ended up being a gif meme of its own, so it's easy to find if you don't know what that looks like.
That's how at least some of you will react to Hidan and Konan's upgrades.
Now, I'm putting in an official request that you read the A/N at the end. Not only do I answer an important question there, but there will be a scene that comes after, and when you read that scene, I would like you to review your answer to this question:
We happy?
Enjoy!
Part Seven
Pain and Gain - Part 4
Motherfucker!
My eyebrow twitched rampantly at the very sight of the man, and I had to force myself to get my shit under control and just head to my seat.
I waited patiently as Iruka's gentle voice talked us through the outline of the Second Exam. This time, it would be all practical, an all-out (for us) fight against him this time, where we would show off our bukijutsu, taijutsu and ninjutsu for three minutes, and our sessions would end in a 'survival' test, where the Academy teachers would take the students to various nearby training grounds and let us have at it for two days.
Our objective, he said, was to find and forage our own food, hunt if possible, and most importantly, find a Chūnin-sensei that would be assigned to us. To simulate the idea of being behind enemy lines, the teachers would force the students to be on the move every four hours, throwing blunted kunai at them from unpredictable spots.
I hummed quietly at the rules. So, limited cooking time, dynamic shelter discovery, short naps, short foraging sessions, I deduced. They're letting us have that much time because we're still new to this gig, but if this was the real world, we probably wouldn't have a second to waste. We never learned about any sort of track erasure techniques; those would actually come paired with the likes of tree walking and near-Shunshin level of movement speeds. Easy courses for everyone, I guess; so let's see if everything I learned on my notes comes in handy. Before that, though... time to test my mastery of Kawarimi so far. It's gonna form a massive foundation of my abilities in the future...
My eyebrows went up when they announced they'd be going in reverse alphabetical order this time, which meant I'd have to go first. Iruka was not an opponent I'd ever fought before, and I wouldn't be given the opportunity to analyze the way he fought. It'd definitely be tricky.
"Are you ready?" the scar-faced Chūnin asked as I stepped forward. I nodded; we both raised our arms in the Seal of Confrontation.
"Begin!" he commanded, settling into a tense stance, one I'd never seen in this world before. The left of his body faced me, hands raised into open palms, but not straight the way the Hyuuga would do it. His body was poised for reaction to any movement on my part, offering no openings, no signs of weakness or impatience, no specificity to any one fighting style.
It was simply perfect.
And I was not falling for it.
With a huff as I kicked my body into overdrive, enhancing every sense I had with chakra, I snatched a kunai out of my pouch, twirling it, and flung it at him. As he shifted to dodge them, I flared and folded my chakra twice over in a workable imitation of Boar, and flicked through two hand seals, focusing on the kunai now behind him. Ox - Dog -
[Kawarimi no Jutsu!]
I was before him one moment; the next, I appeared behind him in an intentionally crafted, wasteful puff of smoke. I felt the technique eat somewhere about an eleventh of my chakra as a result, and I flung another kunai through the smoke, where I heard his feet shift. I threw another in a different direction, Ox-Dog-gone, and I seallessly summoned three clones inside the smoke, sending them to immediately charge the Chūnin. He'd more than likely see past them, and that was okay. They were just a distraction. Every second his eye needed to look at the clones and gauge their details was a second I had to take advantage of it.
Distraction tactics were the name of the game.
The smokeshow was beginning to die down, enough for me to see an outline of his body. Keeping my senses keen in case that, too, was a clone, I flung the kunai at him, charging more chakra through my body, and rushed at him. The world blurred a little but I could keep up, just a bit, long enough for me to follow up on the attack path of my kunai. He deflected the weapon, eyes wide in some measure of surprise, and met my own attacks evenly. We fell into a rapid dance of blocked punches and kicks, clones dispelling with my diverted focus, none of my attacks meeting his stalwart defenses. Whether it was because even at my improved level I was still far below the speed of a shinobi of his stature or because that was simply the essence of his fighting style was beyond me. Either way, it was almost as infuriating as it was humbling.
This is the level I have to reach... no, this is the level I have to surpass!
I grunted and threw a leaping roundhouse kick at him, using his blocking arm as a springboard to retreat and throw a kunai in the process. My tenketsu burned with familiar strain as I chained two hand seals on my landing, substituted with a kunai next to him, quickly summoned a hazy clone in front of him to draw his eye, and tried to stab him with another. My eyes widened as I scored a scratch - and then a tremendous impact hit me out of nowhere.
My world was pain and a lack of room to breathe. I felt like a train hit me, throwing me onto the front of a speeding bus. My entire torso was on fire. I groaned in pain, and processed someone standing in front of me...
In front of me? No, above me. I could feel the ground on my back.
I moaned. "Did anyone... get the number of that... boulder that hit me?"
"I'm so sorry!" I heard the person say - it took me longer than I wanted to admit to process that it was Iruka-sensei. "I just felt that cut and acted on reflex...! No, there are no excuses for this. I hit you too hard! This is a deplorable mistake on my part! I am so sorry!"
I finally managed to regain three-quarters of my consciousness, enough for me to groan one more time and force myself to sit up and get up. He tried to get me to lie back down, but I waved him off. He helped me to my feet, and tried to help me back out of the ring, but I shook him off. I raised my hand, with a bit of effort, in the Seal of Reconciliation. His eyes widened for a moment - the man really wore his heart on his sleeve - and then they softened, lighting up with his smile.
"No hard feelings, Sensei," I told him as we interlocked our fingers.
"Thank you," he smiled gratefully. "I don't deserve it, but thank you."
"You're welcome," I nodded, checking on my chakra. I'd eaten up just over a third with my recent stunts - pathetic. "You owe me a passing mark."
He chuckled. "That's not up to me, but I'll see what I can do. You fought excellently, Yakushi-san."
"Well," I sighed, "I'm glad some of that training is starting to pay off. Still got a long way to go..."
"But you've come very far," he interrupted. "Don't regret that you haven't reached your destination yet, just enjoy the journey. You've had a very good journey this year. I'm sure Hana is proud to have someone like you as her student."
I ducked my head, blushing at the compliment. "Ah... thanks, Sensei."
"Anytime." He helped me sit down, and my world devolved to a chaotic noise of an annoyed school nurse and Lee's excited noise.
Later on, I stood in front of what anyone else would've declared a shrine to nature, a pack on my back and the sound of the forest in my ears and eyes.
A forest stood before me, beauteous and ominous, an ode complete with resplendent sound. The wind whispered its path through the trees, birds, insects and various other critters added to the music of the glade. I listened closely, but the sounds of Konoha seemed so much further away than they actually were that it was a wonder - the forest was literally right outside the walls.
I had four hours to find and cook something to eat. First, I'd have to gather some brushwood and firewood, and keep my eyes out for anything to hunt or forage, or any signs of a nearby body of water. A spot to start a fire would probably have to be somewhat close to the river. I mentally inventoried my permitted/given equipment, deciding the tent would be ultimately useless so I'd have to sleep on a branch, and shift away from the fireplace.
I swung my backpack off and clipped it open, taking out a sealing scroll while running chakra through my sensory organs to ensure nothing would sneak up on me - though I was reasonably certain I had someone watching me, I couldn't quite hear them. That was where the firewood would go. I had another couple in place for when I needed some plants as well as meat. I also had a water container, empty sadly (it was an exam after all), but it did have this awesome storage seal built into it that would store another whole four hundred liters of water and filter both the water inside the seal and the water in the bottle to be clean enough to drink, no matter how dirty the sourced water was.
Fuinjutsu was still nonsense to me, but it was awesome fucking nonsense.
Other than that, we were given a small tent, a lighter, a smoke flare in case of emergencies strapped to the bag strap, a small first aid kit, a hachet with seals notched onto the head to facilitate chakra flow, a machete with some pretty cool seals, a trowel that was kind of a medium for a digging jutsu, a tanto, and a scroll with actual fresh food and water ready and waiting in it - though it was noted that using that particular scroll would be an automatic demerit, even in a desperate situation. I also carried some string, inspired by Tenten's pseudo-wire string method.
There was something of an easy mode with the situation, I thought, as I collected wood and sealed it into the scroll with small, quiet puffs of smoke, heading towards a water source I could hear with chakra-enhanced hearing - though I ensured to run through sealless genjutsu dispels every three seconds to ensure I wasn't getting fucked with. I found it a minute later - a river.
I looked around to ensure there wasn't some kind of dangerous animal or person, and threw a few stones at the river to ensure there was nothing in the water itself either. Nothing. I kept glancing around as I uncapped the container and dunked it in the water, flaring chakra into the seal and keeping my hand under for two minutes - not nearly long enough to fill the water in the seal, but enough for at least a couple of buckets and the container itself. I didn't have a lot of time - fifteen minutes had already been and I hadn't seen much in the way of animals despite the noise. I did see a few plants - some daisies and a hawthorn bushel - so there was something to eat anyway.
I heard small hopping steps - and my eyes widened. A short scan later, I found a rabbit.
Finally.
I readied a kunai, keeping focused on that it was a target and food. A chakra-enhanced flick of the wrist later, and the knife lodged itself on the rabbit's throat - it did detect the kunai, but didn't avoid it on time. I approached it as it died, blooded it, and skinned it on the spot with a tanto. It wasn't very difficult - the rabbit was light, and I had once helped skin a couple of goats and a cow in my previous life, we had gone over the basics of skinning animals the previous year, so I had at least that sort of experience to draw on. Cut rings around the rabbit's equivalents of wrists and heels, cut lines into the body, use the blade to separate the fur from the meat inside. It was still a bit sloppy, all told, but it wasn't a complete mess. I spread its skin out and placed the meat on top, then I shifted a bit next to it, keeping my eye out, and extracted my machete.
I stabbed the blade onto the ground, went through three hand seals - Snake, Hare, Boar, and while Ram would've been the last, I really didn't need it - and focused my chakra to my right hand, akin to Sasuke or Kakashi activating their Chidori. I tapped the handle of the machete and stepped back, then I grinned as the entire weapon vibrated and shifted a forty centimeter radius of earth around it with some kind of automated Earth jutsu, turning the grassy area into an actual fire pit, complete with stones forming a circle around said pit. I then removed and sheathed the machete, unsealed the branches and firestarters, put them together, and started a fire. It was a delicate process, a bit more challenging without paper and plastic to get it started, but it was getting on its way. I added some slightly bigger branches and then set up a spit using the branches I figured would make for perfect spit stands.
Before long, I had the rabbit's innards gutted, buried, and then got some of the pieces roasting over the spit, sealing the rest in one of the scrolls. It was a nice process, kind of broken by the fact that I had to keep my eyes up for any movement, enemy ninja, or animals.
It was ready about half an hour later, and it tasted... bland? Good-ish?
"Motherf..." I cursed. Spice! It needed spice! Of course it tasted okay and not good, there was no fucking spice and I couldn't see any herbs I could use to make some impromptu Aromat or some shit! "Argh."
Still, it was edible and necessary, so I ate as much as I reasonably could and went foraging. I got the plants I spotted earlier, and a few more, then came back to the fire.
How many hours now, maybe two? Not too sure, but... let me get moving, just in case...
I hung around for a few moments longer, keeping my head on a swivel and my chakra spooling gently, ready to go into action at a moment's notice - or, at least, what amounted to a moment's notice on my level. I put the fire out, clearing a spot in the middle of the fire pit to stab my machete there. I went through the same three seals again, and the pit swirled into itself, leaving a disgustingly obvious, warm patch of earth in the grassy field. There was nothing I could do about it, though, so I packed up and moved on. I jogged deeper into the forest, trying to keep my path parallel with the river, and made sure to run through sealless genjutsu dispels every three seconds.
I blinked as I came across a spot very similar to what I'd left behind - the round patch of earth. "Hm," I grunted, kneeling next to the patch, running the blade of my trowel through the patch and stabbing it to make sure it was safe for me to feel with my hand. "Sandier texture than the rest of the ground, deeper than it looks... definitely used to be a fireplace... someone using the same techniques I did. Fellow student? No, this is older than mine. Completely cold. At least six hours - if it was from a previous test, there'd have been grass growing over this. Teacher, then. Guess it's a clue."
I channeled more chakra to my senses, everything becoming so acute it almost hurt. I kept my eyes narrowed as I scanned the area, even looking around at the trees. I didn't see anyone, didn't hear any -
Wait.
Hm. I could swear I heard someone breathe somewhere southbound... my eyes showed me nothing, same with smell, but I heard human breathing, and it wasn't mine. I eased the throttle on my senses and dispelled again.
The problem with heading there was that it'd take me further into the forest, away from the river. I didn't like it - in any other situation, it'd smell like a trap. Going the classic Roman way and yelling 'Who's there?!' wouldn't help, either.
Dammit, but this was what Shadow Clones existed for. And while it was said that one would only take half my reserves, I didn't want to test if I could actually do it. I hadn't tested whether I could do the Grand Fireball yet, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out about that one, either. Not yet.
(Besides, it'd be massively fucking suspicious.)
I disturbed my chakra flow again, and decided to venture deeper into the forest. I stuck a kunai onto a tree, tied it up in string, and moved out, keeping my eye on the river.
I ventured out, keeping the string wound tight as I could make it, and made it to the general area where I'd heard the noise. I looked around, seeing nothing, then my interest spiked when I looked up.
A shuriken was loosely stuck to a branch. A shuriken with some kind of note.
I looked around again, finding no one. Hm, whoever was out there was definitely beyond my ability to sense. Had to be high Genin, low Chūnin minimum.
I threw a kunai at the shuriken, dislodging it. Throwing another three at its landing area to check for traps, I found nothing, and approached it. I tied the string to another kunai and lodged it to the tree the shuriken fell off of.
'The eyes,' it read, 'are the window to a thousand souls. Those souls are everywhere. Up, down, left, right, over your head, beneath your feet, it makes little difference. But they all see you, and you see them but can't percieve them.'
"Who the fuck wrote this shit?" I whispered with disdain, losing my respect for whoever wrote it. It reeked of edgelord boy thinking he was the next Edgar Allan Poe.
Anyway, bad My Chemical Romance poetry aside, it was a clear indication that I was being watched. I sighed and rolled my eyes, taking my machete out. Wouldn't do shit against them, but it was nice to have a familiar tool in my hands, even if it was the first time I'd use it to cut humans instead of trees. I had a kunai in my other hands, and focused chakra to my sensories.
"Okay, but your stealth skills are way beyond my detection skills," I said out loud. "How about we just get this over with, you come down here and we finish this test?"
Silence.
"No?" I looked around, and tapped the ground with my feet, flaring an excess of chakra down on it. Nothing remotely close enough to crack the ground Orochimaru and Hiruzen style, but hopefully enough to disturb whoever was down there, if there was someone down there.
Nothing.
"Okay, then." My head turned up on reflex when I heard unnatural rustling in the branches, raised my eyebrow at the sight of a squirrel descending the tree, and threw a kunai in the area of where it came from anyway. The critter ran down faster, got down off the tree, and ran for it. I threw a kunai at it to make sure it wasn't a transformed ninja, intentionally missing it, but that didn't bear any results, either.
Hm, that could've been the ninja, but I didn't want to risk killing an animal I wasn't going to eat for that possibility.
But I should've, a niggling voice in the back of my head argued.
Dammit.
I sighed, keeping my senses peeled, collected my kunai, and moved on.
I'd find similarly terrible clues every now and then between short bouts of camping and napping, drinking and eating, carving outlines of paths with kunai and string, and memorizing specific landmarks to ensure I wasn't lured all that much deeper. They helped build a picture of where the guy might be - and he was in some cave due soutwest - too fucking far from the river for my liking, but I'd have to get to him if I wanted to pass.
I decided to stop for the night, finding a nice, big tree and climbing up it, finding a comfortable spot to nap for a bit. It was cold, but the Tiger seal helped with that, a little bit. I woke up another three hours later, got off the tree, and moved around, generally trying to find another tree or get back to that big one.
I stiffened and jumped back as I heard a familiar whistle through the air, seeing a kunai land in front of me with a note on it. I looked around, machete and kunai on the ready, as I used my feet to pick and flick it up to my hands. I grunted in annoyance as soon as I realized my mistake, knowing I'd probably be demerited for it - what if it was going to be a soundless exploding tag? - and read the note anyway.
"Keep moving, never stop grooving," I read. "Someone really wrote this? What next, are they gonna tal about being hip and cool like the kids or something? Goddammit, get over here!"
I reached the cave two hours later after a rather circuitous path, and inspected the mouth of the cave from a perch up on a tree branch.
I frowned. "Really?"
There was a fucking sign over the mouth of the cave written, 'I'm here! Get me before I die!'
If there was anything that just reeked of a trap, that was it. On the other hand, they wouldn't go super-lethal with it, it was a test, but on the other hand...
Nope, nope. I am not gonna loop myself here. Screw that. Screw this guy.
I rolled my eyes, made my way back down, and made my way in. Just a little.
I heard some growls further down the cave, and my eyes widened. I threw a kunai behind me, readying something to substitute with when needed, and threw another as far as I could into the cave. The growls deepened and I leaped back, hearing footsteps going towards me. I prepared myself as I could feel a primal pressure rising from the marrows of my bones, folding my chakra and running through two hand seals and preparing to lock onto the kunai...
Here it comes...
I breathed, and forced myself to breathe evenly as the creature made it to the cave, growls deepening in warning...
And a man came out. I popped away before I could stop my chakra from completing the substitution, irritably feeling an ounce of chakra I wouldn't be getting back go away.
It was an Inuzuka. It was a fucking Inuzuka.
How did I know that? Well, I could've been mistaken, maybe the fang-like tattoos on his cheeks could've been the fucking Akimichi mark.
On sheer principle, I growled and flung a kunai at him.
"Hey!" he yelled, catching it. "Take it easy, man!"
"Why didn't you just come out hours ago?!" I yelled. "I knew you were following me, dammit! I even called you out!"
"Y-you did?" he blinked obtusely.
"Of course I did!" I raged. "Who else would be throwing all those clues at me?!"
"Jeez, really?" he tilted his head up, then his eyes widened. "Oh shit. I really did."
I stared at him, supremely unimpressed.
"Well!" he clapped cheerfully. "Um. Ahem. Looks like you passed, I guess. Congrats, you did it early, too! So, how did you like the clues, huh?"
I held the gaze long enough for him to sweatdrop.
"Jeez, you're killing me here," he muttered. "Alright look, how about this? We'll say it took you this long to find me, you get a pass since you did it early anyway. It's like, past midnight. Deal?"
I kept quiet.
"... Okay, maybe 10 p.m."
"..."
"... 8?"
"...Deal."
We got back to the village in short order, and I went to my apartment since I was sure everyone was gone anyway.
A couple of days and extensive analysis later, our results came in. Rather than giving us result papers or some shit, each of us was called in to another room for the proctors to give us personal assessments. Since we were, once again, going in alphabetical order, I, Yakushi Minato, was last.
I wouldn't have been nervous if it wasn't for that old fart. I tried to keep it cool, but there was a subtle psychological pressure in seeing more dejected students trudge back into class than actual satisfied or happy one striding or skipping in as the minutes ticked past. Some had particularly long assessments, like Tenchi, Tenten, and Lee. The most devastated ones, I noticed, tended to have significantly shorter assessments than most, and I betted it came down to everything written on the papers they walked in with that they didn't walk out with.
After some waiting and going over a couple of songs in my head and watching everyone, I finally got my name called out.
I left to the adjacent room, and there was the classic three judges setup across a chair I assumed I was meant to sit on.
"Greetings, everyone," I bowed. They greeted back and bade me to take a seat. The judges were the old guy, Iruka-sensei, and Hana-sensei.
"Now is your turn for the assessment, Yakushi Minato," the old man started. "To begin with, your spar against Umino-kun." He steepled his fingers. "It was significantly shorter than it should have been, and ended in your loss."
Yeap. Go figure.
That wasn't in the script too, if Iruka and even Hana's surprised glances at him were anything to go by.
"However," he continued before Iruka could raise a protest, "despite that I would have failed you for that alone, I have since been made aware that the only reason the fight ended that quickly was because you triggered a battle reflex on a Chuunin - one, at that, that has not seen such fights in years. You managed to land a scratch on a Chūnin-level shinobi with extensive use of chakra smokescreens and other distraction tactics. Even if it was a miserably small scratch, I will admit that it is indeed the first time since the likes of Itachi Uchiha that such an achievement has been witnessed in this Academy." His eyes bore down on mine. "Well done."
I blinked. I blinked again, and did a double-take.
D...D-did he just... praise me?
"It is also to be noted that you seemed to create multiple Clones, unaided, completely without hand seals. Your taijutsu remains your weak point, and that you still need hand seals to use Substitution is a dire case of ineptitude, but you have shown significant steps in both your movement and combat speed, as well as your combat strength." He paused. "Remind me, Iruka-kun... what level of strength did you bear against him?"
"Genin, Shimura-sama," Iruka responded immediately.
Oh Jesus baby fuck. I knew he was holding back, but that much? Have I improved so little?
"Did he react to your reflexive strike?"
"Not fast enough to do anything about it, no."
"Hmph." The old man turned to me. "So you still have a long way to go. You did well, however, and failing to reward you would simply be remiss. What mark would you reward him?"
"Ninety-three percent," Iruka proposed. "Your fighting style is excellent and you have a very good grasp on your basics, but your taijutsu needs improvement, or at least to be covered with better movement."
"Ninety-one percent," Hana decided. "His strong points and weak points are exactly as Umino-san pointed out. You must work on mastering your current abilities - you are nearly there, and more control will reap excellent benefits for your fighting style."
"I will award him ninety percent," the old man said. "Simply because his efforts deserve at least that much acknowledgement. You still have a long way to go, boy."
He let that sink in.
"As there is a wider variety of marks between us, I suggest we assign him the median mark, and round it appropriately. Your overall combat ability will now be rated at 92. I expect at least this much effort over the next set of Aptitude Tests. Anything less is a failure, and I will be disappointed should there be more than one. I do not enjoy disappointment, and neither will you. Am I understood?"
I nodded.
"Good work," Iruka piped up, trying to smooth the wrinkles in the situation over. "You did very well in this, Yakushi-san."
"For your next evaluation, Basic Survival." The Shimura - any relation to Danzo? - shuffled some papers. "You were said to track and find Chūnin Inuzuka Yasei within the space of six hours. You displayed good observational skills, reaction times, and even displayed good exercise of protocol for someone of your skill level. That you are also able to climb trees with your chakra is a notable, praiseworthy achievement as well. However," Yeah, there it is, "the one black mark that stands against you is your willingness to pick up the tools containing notes, not knowing for certain that they weren't armed with explosive tags rather than simple notes. Why?"
"Because I knew it wasn't going to blow up. Completely unnecessary. If he wanted to kill me, he could just throw a kunai at my head."
"You evaded it, did you not?"
"He wasn't throwing it with everything he had."
"How would you know?"
"If that's really his throwing arm, whoever allowed him to be Chūnin probably wore their pants backwards that morning."
Hana cracked a smile and looked away. Iruka chuckled, and cleared his throat sheepishly when the old man didn't laugh.
"It is no less of a demerit," the old man decided. "Your resourcefulness, hunting and foraging skill is also of note, though we are not allowed to test you intensely on this front, you at least have a solid foundation to work with. What mark would you give him?"
"Ninety-two percent," Iruka said immediately. "Picking up those tools was not a wise move, even if it worked out, and shows a surprising lack of regard for subtler potential traps. Otherwise, he did well on everything."
Hana looked me in the eye. "Ninety percent. The what-ifs of an explosive kunai trap are irrelevant to me, but you'd have been faster if you stuck with traveling through the treetops."
"I've not had the opportunity to practise that," I pointed out.
"Then do so."
"I understand."
"Eighty-five percent," the old man decided, sealing my fate. "Your mark, therefore, is 89. You need to improve on your field work, Yakushi."
"Overall, as it stands, you have been moved up to position five," Hana told me. "Good work."
My eyes widened, and I grinned when I took the news in. I stood up and bowed before them. "Thank you so much!"
"Keep working harder, and you shall be faced with the appropriate rewards," Shimura advised. "I expect greater of you, Yakushi. You may go."
I bowed again, and left the room with a skip in my step.
I did it. I made top five. Holy fuck, I made top fucking five!
I'd never make Rookie of the Year, obviously, but that was a massive fucking step up!
"Yes!" I fist pumped, unable to help myself.
The rest of the year wasn't going to be smooth sailing - I still had a long way to go - but my current win was definitely going to give me something even bigger to strive for.
I was going to train like even more of a motherfucker. After all, I had only three months to master the Academy Three.
I couldn't wait, for once, to get started.
After the boy and Iruka left the room, young Hana glanced expectantly at Tomioka.
"You have the approval of Hokage-sama," the elder nodded. "You may intensify his training routine, beginning from tomorrow. Genin-level. Low weights."
"Thank you, Shimura-sama."
"Hmph. It is up to you now." the elder Shimura gathered his papers. "The Tree must remain upright, and the time has long come to hand the reins to your generation. Perhaps your protege can step up where the likes of Hatake refused to. If not Hokage, then it is possible that we can help along his ambition. After all, he wants what we all want."
"Yes, Shimura-sama. He does."
"Good. Prepare his routine today. You may begin tomorrow."
Author's notes:
Okay, so here we are. Next chapter on, perhaps, Monday or Tuesday. Depends. Wednesday at most. Gonna be a busy weekend.
Well, I'm gonna throw a couple of review responses here that I feel everyone should see:
Barbaric Bob asked how Senjutsu factors into the idea of the YY Ratio system. (That was a great question, I love questions like those. For the record, I WANT questions like those. Any excuse for a little world building, yanno?)
Alright, so here's how it works:
As seen with Jiraiya, his YY ratio is 52:48, but he can use Sage Mode (albeit an imperfect version). Combine that with Orochimaru's Juinjutsu, I came to the logical conclusion that to get the best out of Senjutsu, you need a very close balance, if not a perfect one. The minimal expected ratio is 53:47 or 47:53, and the recommended ratio is 50:50.
Sage Mode Shippuden has the recommended ratio, which gives him access to Perfect Sage Mode and a significant boost in his Chakra Quality and control. Let it be noted, however, that the higher Naruto's own Chakra Quality, the better and more powerful his Sage Mode becomes. We see this when Naruto mixes Senjutsu with his Kyuubi Chakra Mode, and again when Hagoromo Otsutsuki gives him a power up, and thus access to Six Paths Sage Chakra Mode. So if, say, Kakashi found a way to use Sage Chakra, he wouldn't get all that much out of it compared to Naruto, but it'd be a massive boost, enough for him to go toe-to-toe with almost any S-rank ninja. If the likes of Minato or Hashirama would use Sage Chakra, on the other hand, their gains, as you could see and have seen in the latter's case, are much bigger.
Now, for how it works with Curse Seal subjects, let's go with Jugo as starters. Jugo is a naturally inclined sage, he's easily able to attract and connect with easily startled animals, he feels a lot like a sage would be when he's not going full Broly. His balance is 49:51, and achieving 50:50 is a matter of only two months of training in my book - or it would be, if it wasn't for Orochimaru. Despite his inclination, he's simply too unstable to become a full Sage. Same goes for other Cursed Seal users. Due to Orochimaru's seal, they can bypass the balance requirements and access Senjutsu almost directly, giving themselves a significant boost in power. However, due to the imperfect, unnatural and downright idiotic and dangerous nature of their access, they lose their physical (and mental) faculties when using the full power of their Cursed Seals, hence the appearance of their Stage 2 (and 3 on rare occasions) forms. Orochimaru managed to divert the possibility of the subjects turning into stone, but in exchange, the mental faculties of the users/subjects undergoes degeneration... which coincidentally makes it easier for him to take over their bodies! How lucky! ;)
Kimimaro, Sasuke and the Sound Four are the best known people to remain (relatively) stable when using the Seal, but Kimimaro is a special case in which is YY ratio is near-perfect - 49:51 - and thus, through both that and his unyielding mentality, he can preserve his state of mind completely when accessing the full power of his Cursed Seal.
Sasuke, well... honestly, he becomes even more of an even more powerful idiot, but that's a whole other can of beans...
As for Orochimaru, he's never getting Sage Mode. He's literally existentially unstable. God knows where his original body is, and his soul is literally in pieces. He can mess around with Natural energy, but Sage Mode itself is beyond him. (At least Kabuto learned from that and only heavily modified his own body.)
If you guys have any further questions, please ask. If there was some way the lore around Natural Chakra changed over the course of the Boruto era, hit me up. Odds are I might ignore it, but maybe I might come across something useful. I'm honestly not sure what to do with that whole mess, but that's a problem for Future me.
And with that, I'm gonna do a bit of the good old Project Arachas and present to you a post-AN scene - the scene none of you knew you were waiting for.
Enjoy, brothers and sisters. Glory shall come to the Elemental Nations.
Unknown time. Unknown place. Unknown date.
Hidan sat still in the cave, the world quiet but for his breaths and the shifting of his remaining team.
Not a single word did they speak, and all three of the latter waited with bated breaths for the result of their risky venture, staring at Yugakure's first S-Rank ninja with tense stances. Power thrummed beneath his being, ebony tendrils the size of a baby's hands seeping out of random parts of his body, only for the ninja to suck them back in with relentless willpower.
They were right to be tense, and any chance that none of them would be was rendered meaningless by the subtle pressure emanating from the Head Priest.
Success had been, but now was not the time for lassitude.
Two days ago, they'd taken on an entire hidden village that no one had known about until their first attack some uncounted years ago. They were most fortuitous, finally, six years after their biggest failure by the hands of Konoha - for not only had the Old Village been caught unawares, they were in the middle of a particularly delicate preparation for some operation that Hidan cared nothing about, but took full advantage of. They had many powerful, advanced weapons and tools, but Hidan had different plans - he did not give a whit about any of them.
Their loss to the Leaf was agonizing. Head Priest Hidan and twelve Jashinists, a match for any Jonin, yet outmaneuvered and routed by a team of only six ANBU. It was a humiliating defeat, one Hidan had taken to heart above everything else. With Jashin's guidance, he and his three surviving disciples had gone to ground, licking their wounds and honing their craft.
Hidan had learned skills that even he admitted he wished he'd learned earlier.
With a particularly powerful fervor and all Eight Gates wide open, he killed many of the Old Hidden Village's shinobi - Gates that would, indeed, have been a vital ace against those tree-huggers. He slaughtered their leader, took their most powerful weapon for himself, and, with Kamada's assistance, had it sealed into his body. Due to the unique circumstance presented to them, they all retreated into the cave, rather than their usual routine of capturing and torturing every single inhabitant to connect more closely to Jashin. Hidan needed to assimilate that power, to, in his words, 'Show it the ways of Jashin, the Glorious'.
It had been 43 hours. He needed 43 hours to recover from the incredible strain of the Eight Gates and that power, and to convince the beast of his ways. Of the ways of the One True God.
He did not eat, nor drink, nor sleep, fully immersed in conversation with his Destined Companion.
Then, the subtle pressure ended without warning. Hidan opened his eye, and his mouth widened in the rictus of a massive, fervent grin.
"He will know," the former Yugakure shinobi cheered darkly. "You will know the ways of Jashin-sama now, Reibi!"
The Jashinists roared in celebration. A new and most powerful addition to their ranks - surely none would be able to stop them now!
The once Land of the Sky called it their ultimate weapon. Jashin called it Hidan's Destined Companion.
Before any of them could react, those tendrils, bigger than ever before, shot out of Hidan's facial orifices, latching onto them and draining their chakra. The sound of incessant agonized, desperate screams filled the cave, outsounded only by the maniacal laughter of the Worshipper. He drained them mercilessly, spurred on by their despair and their cruelty. Jashin told him, whispered the Truth to his ear - he did not need them any longer. Their protection was completed, and His guidance fulfilling. They would be granted bounteous rewards when they came before Lord Jashin.
It was, if anything, a mercy, and a reward for their services.
Jashin, new Jinchūriki of the Tailless Noh Leech, would be the greatest Priest the Religion of Jashin would ever know. He would bring forth an endless Glory to the Nations - and beyond that, he would bring it to the world whole.
"Your guidance led us here, Glorious Jashin-sama," he prayed, "and from here, the world! Praise be to Your Name!"
Power burst forth from the Priest, shaking the cave, and soon, the world.
"Praise the Holy Name of Jashin, the King of Chaos! Suffering is power! Death is freedom! Empathy is glory! The world today and the world beyond will bow to the majesty of Jashin-sama! THEY WILL KNOW YOUR NAME!"
And all of it would know His name forever to come.
His Time Will Come.
Prepare.
