(NOTE: BE SURE TO READ ALL ANs THIS CHAPTER!)

Hi.

Um.

Yeah, it's clearly been a while. Honestly, I got caught up in a kind of depressive funk. Just didn't want to do a damn thing. Caught me by surprise, I haven't had one of those since November 2020. Wasn't as bad as it used to be, no suicidal ideations this time thankfully, the last attempt remains 13 October 2020, but it did give me some level of apathy when I got home from work (which I literally had to force myself to do) and looked at the time I could've used to write this stuff down. We could've been further if it wasn't for... y'know. Me.

That's on me. I'm sorry.

So, to make up for that, we have an absolute slobberknocker of a penultimate arc chapter - this one. It's my biggest chapter so far, with some of the biggest revelations (again, so far) that I'm confident will surprise some of you, and things are only going to get better after graduation.

I wanted to make a double update, and I could have, but given the logical outcome of a certain revelation, I decided to hold off on it for another 36 hours at least, to (unnecessarily) build a tiny little bit of suspense. You'll see what I have in mind for that at the end of this chapter. For now, I will say that it all circles back to a little throwaway line I dropped in the Hana Interlude, pertaining to a certain protagonist... and that chapter's dropping this Sunday. Full up. No bullshit. I've practically finished it already.

...I honestly have no excuse for the first scene. I wanted to see if I could do any justice to their kind, you know, warm up a little. That is all. Plus it has the side benefit of giving you guys a little more information about certain things. I won't spoil what happens, you'll see it soon.

I've got a little bonus scene for you guys after the Character Stat Sheet and end-chapter AN, as promised from the previous chapter.

If you panicked when you saw the little boost I gave Hidan, this time, you will panic.

To kendoxia: No. Uh, hell no. Steady there, Crockett. Nobody marked him up for S-Rank. Hell, he's not walking out as Rookie of the Year despite all the work he put in. Hana has explicitly made it known, at least in her internal monologue and even to Minato, that while she intends to 'hold him up' to the standards of Academy Itachi and Kakashi, she knows the boy is nowhere near genius level. He's smart, he's resourceful, creative, very good chakra control and lateral thinking, and that's it. They mostly recognize that those traits will really benefit his skill and training, more than most, even, which is always something to be excited for - especially when he intends to use what he learns to help others meet their full potential in turn, an intention he has expressed to Hana.

This is something that'll start coming into play at some point between sooner and later.

Anyway, Minato's not going to be anywhere within the vagaries of S-Rank for a while, man. He's actually gonna earn that shit, and that shit will be hard to earn. He doesn't even know the technique that'll give him that kind of edge yet, and it won't be easy for him to learn/adapt. His current level, right now, overall, I would say is Wave Arc Sakura, with his chakra control edging her out. Post-Wave/Chūnin Exam Arc Naruto and Sasuke would beat Minato any day, though, even though he'd definitely make them bleed for it. Academy Neji could beat him any day as of this chapter.

One thing I absolutely intend to make clear in this fic is that there is a reason why S-Rank ninja are so rare, so distinguished, so legendary. I intend to make the appropriate shinobi live up to that edge of S/outright S-Rank hype, and therefore how difficult it'll be for Minato to reach that level, and therefore how desperately close Maito Gai and Kakashi Hatake are to that level, and therefore, no matter how old he is, Hiruzen Sarutobi was called the God of Shinobi for a reason, even when the likes of Onoki of the Twin Scales (who has access to literal subatomic annihilation techniques) and Hanzo of the Salamander alongside him, who needed a whole-ass Rinnegan user to actually defeat him.

To DragonField: Nah, it's definitely empathy. I did that intentionally; Hidan has a very twisted mind and I think it'd suit his character to take something as simple as 'empathy', the ability to understand and sympathize with the feelings of a person and why they feel that way, and twist it into 'Empathy', where pain and agony is shared, in a very, very literal sense.

Plus, y'know... I dunno, Jashin is so freaking simplistic. God of Evil? That's it? C'mon, Kishi. You create one of the best ninja worlds in human history and somehow you missed that good and evil have never been so black and white? Nah. I've never been with it.

To : Oh, I didn't see her that way, but your point does make sense. She doesn't seem to be the kind of person that's in her job to be liked, does she? In all honesty though, I'd rather have a raging and insanely scary but effective cunt for a teacher like her than none at all (especially effective). Honestly, if it wasn't for her guidance and ability to make Minato maintain his high standards (something he quite literally asked for more than once), I don't think he'd have gotten as far as he is now, and he has a very good foundation to improve massively as time goes.

I'm drawing from the experiences I had with my English teacher in high school (with obvious exaggerations since she couldn't, say, use sakki, though she did use corporal punishment a few times...). She was a bit demanding, she was, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. Hell, she's a good part of the reason I decided to really put some effort into taking up writing. Sadly, she passed away not too long ago, so some parts of Hana's character are an homage to our good old Mrs. Tembe. Miss her.

Enjoy!


Part Eight

Pain and Gain - Part 4


Irrelevant Interlude - Hana Hagane, Kakashi Hatake

Hana walked into Training Ground 7, normally occupied by one ever-irreverent Hatake Kakashi.

As predicted, he was indeed there, paying his respects to his team. She gave him time out of respect, and waited for him to notice her appearance.

He gave her a glance after a minute, and she joined him.

"Hatake-kōhai," she greeted.

"Hagane-kōhai," he japed back.

It was a minor inside joke. Hana technically had superiority between the both of them, having joined ANBU first, but Kakashi had shown much greater skill, blowing past the ranks faster than her. He'd become Captain of his own squad in no time, encouraging a competitive streak in her that encouraged him to, shall we say, follow in his footsteps a year later, winding up as the Lieutenant of Alpha Squad, currently (still) led by Operative Dragon. He liked throwing jabs at her about it all the time.

"You don't visit often," the scarecrow spoke up.

"Unlike you, I don't like being reminded of my uselessness," she shrugged, glancing down at the memorial. At the names of her teammates.

"You should try it," he shrugged. "It's nice for keeping a guy grounded."

"I'll pass," she said flatly.

"Pity."

A short silence passed between them, the natural result of a pair of introverts. "Up for a spar?"

That got him to look at her, full-on. "Mou, finally got tired of beating on kids?"

"Retirement is boring."

He considered it for a moment, then shrugged. "Eh, why not. Sparring with you was always interesting. Half-mast or full mast?"

She decided not to let the unnecessary phrasing get to her - that was just the way he was. "We'll just keep it simple. Neither of us use our aces."

"You sure?" he gave her a semi-concerned look. "I wouldn't want it to be so easy with you."

"If we're nothing without our best techniques, then we don't deserve them." Hana tilted her head up, kicked up a stone, and threw it at a tree branch, disturbing it in such a way that only one leaf fell out.

Show-off, the scarecrow thought.

"Besides, I hear you've been... lacking, these days. That you can't last for five minutes in a fight on your level, Sharingan or not. Was that you, or is it true, kōhai?"

"Maa, maa. People are always so nasty, you know how it is, kōhai." The Jōnin put his hands in his pockets, staring at the leaf drifting to the ground. "I don't know, I never actually timed myself either way. Could be five, could be two. Who knows?"

Hana snorted. Of course Kakashi was trolling fellow Jōnin everywhere for fun and profit again. "Never change, kōhai. Parameters?"

"Hmm, I guess we can go with a little Ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu. I'll ditch the Sharingan if you ditch Mujin Meisai and Kirigakure. Win by tapping forehead protector or successful fake lethal moves. Ten minutes; if neither win condition happens, it's a draw."

That eliminated a not-insignificant amount of techniques and strategies they could use in conjunction with both their aces, and if it were anyone else, they'd probably wince at the very thought. That was just half the fun of it, though - a Jōnin with an arm behind their back was still a very deadly ninja.

Hana saw it his way, too. "That works for me."

The leaf finally touched ground, and Kakashi Shunshinned from his spot. Hana's image fell apart, the Academy Clone she'd placed over there losing its coherency with the moment she dismissed it.

"Scary, scary," Kakashi muttered as he cycled his chakra, dispelling any genjutsu she might have layered on him while they were talking. She hadn't shown any subtle or unsubtle medium for casting said genjutsu, and he hadn't even seen when she'd replaced herself with the Academy Clone - unlike most, she layered it with some minor application of Kokoni Arazu while creating the clone, seallessly giving it shadows and other lifelike features - those simple, small distractions always went a long way, especially for her, who could whip them up as quickly as the twitch of a muscle. Even he didn't have the fine control needed to do something like that, and instead preferred to work with slightly more solid clones (which would do more work anyway) or copy it and see what he could improve on it. She didn't know a lot of genjutsu, but the ones she could use were top-notch - the only standing Jōnin or Tokubetsu Jōnin that could beat Hana Hagane in a Genjutsu battle were (probably) Tokubetsu Jōnin Kurenai Yūhi and Operative Dragon.

Different preferences, different strengths.

"She always did make for one of our better spooks."

He flared his chakra again, producing a kunai and deflecting her thrown one, and Stepped into the area she was in, the area she'd thrown her kunai from. She'd made very good use of her impromptu camouflage - he hadn't quite spotted her for a second, then jumped away when an explosive tag appeared in front of him without any warning. Layered Kokoni Arazu, he realized. She's taking full advantage of my lack of Sharingan. I should've started close, but I guess that was the whole point of that Clone of hers. Sheesh.

He cut his arm in case her reappearance was to place yet another one on him, and Shunshinned for the nearby lake as the tag blew up - Grade Zero, minor explosive, perfect for spars. She came prepared. He had to zigzag, evading a series of more Grade Zeroes, and ducked under her sudden appearance and attempt at a leaping high kick, trying to stop him from reaching the lake. He ducked under the kick, pulled his arm away from her follow-up grab attempt, and used a spread of kunai to dissuade her from following.

Heh, looks like she read my mind - time to prepare back.

He reached the lake and sped through three hand seals, molding his chakra as needed to simulate the other six. Snake. Boar. Tiger. Horse. Dog.

[Suiton: Amearare!]

Water roared upwards from the lake, distributing itself into uncountable numbers of hardened constructs. With a flex of his chakra, Kakashi commanded it to rain, hard, then the ground rumbled and shook from the absolute battering the copious amounts of hail delivered on the ground. Kakashi was already moving on to the next jutsu to flush her out, throwing a spread of six kunai out.

[Ninpō: Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!]

Six became one hundred and sixty, a barrage of murder metal spreading out almost instantaneously at a wide angle. The combination of hard water and metal was effective, forcing the 'ex'-Jōnin to Shunshin away to avoid taking any damage. Her clone wasn't quite so effective, a puff of smoke and dissipation of chakra somewhere to his right signing that his job with what had to be her Plan C was done.

Kakashi took a portion of a second to consider his options. He could push on with that tack, pressing her to complete submission with even more wide-area ninjutsu and slip in a couple of the genjutsu he could do without his Sharingan. Nothing on level with the hypnosis illusions he had access to with his friend's eye, but it could work out. However, he didn't entirely have the true reserve size needed to pull that off - that style would be better suited to the likes of the Third Hokage and Hoshigaki Kisame.

While he could do it, not only would it be an absolute waste of his chakra for a simple spar, but it wouldn't do to tap himself out too much in the likelihood of being assigned another mission, whether or not the Hokage wanted him to slow way the fuck down on the suicide missions.

Ah, he knew he'd take another, anyway, surely within the week. Something had to be able to kill him eventually, right?

Anyway, she was already out of the area of effect. Good old Hana. Never direct, but deadly all the same.

He'd have to flush her out with other methods...

He ran through five hand seals. Boar. Dog. Bird. Monkey - his eyes widened and he leapt away, the explosion of yet another tag almost disrupting his concentration, but he managed to put down the last hand seal as he landed. Ram.

He leapt away from another explosive-wrapped kunai and another barrage of others - Kunai Kage Bunshin, he deduced, but damn, her version's more precise - chakra buzzing with the urge to complete the spacetime connection he'd made. Her interference was making it really difficult, and as long as he was trying to complete the summoning, he couldn't shift his chakra to be able to pull off anything else, which meant Shunshin, Shinju Zanshū and Kawarimi were both out. That was one of the biggest drawbacks of the technique - most others, he could use concurrently just fine.

C'mon! He grunted as his opponent threw another spread of explosive kunai from different angles to cover him and force him to leap higher. Another two seconds of this and the summoning fails and I get hit with the backlash!

He knew it, she knew it, and he knew she knew he knew it.

Ah, fuck it. Kakashi sealed Ram once more, disrupting his chakra and cancelling the technique. He ran through another seat of hand seals in mid-air, chained another, and stomped on the ground as soon as he landed.

Snake. Horse. Boar. Tiger.

Tiger. Hare. Boar. Horse.

[Doton: Tsuchi Damu no Jutsu!]

[Doton: Doryūheki no Jutsu!]

He grunted as the strain of chaining two heavily layered B-rank jutsu one after the other so quickly, especially the former, caused some minor protestation on the part of his coils, but weathered it anyway - it was effective, and definitely something he'd have to keep practicing. The earth around him turned into mud, and pulses of lethal waves much came away from their origin point like ripples on water, producing earthen spikes with the amplitude of each 'wave'. Meanwhile, he brought up four simplistic walls around him just in time to weather the exploding kunai. It was a good decision, resulting in giving him time to run through the five hand seals again, finally finishing the technique and fully establishing the spacetime connection by bleeding himself and slamming one palm on the ground.

Finally!

[Kuchiyose no Jutsu!]

Five of his partners appeared in multiple puffs of smoke. Bull, Shiba, Bisuke, Uuhei, and Pakkun.

"Hey, guys," Kakashi greeted, almost casually. "We're fighting Hana - Hagane, not Inuzuka. Plan H."

The ninken leapt away with only an eyebrow raised at him from Pakkun, leaping above the wall. Kakashi joined them, perching on top of the wall for a second and keeping his chakra at the ready. He felt a pulse of chakra and instinctively substituted with a log, eye twitching as he saw the log shred to pieces. Thankfully, his partners were long gone. Is that Kamaitachi? Much smaller than the usual versions, as usual with Hana, perfectly tailored for her assassination skill. Sheesh, is she trying to kill me?

"What did I do?" he pouted, dodging a Fūton-layered kunai. Yeesh! "You're already busting out your killer stuff."

"Nothing much," she replied, appearing a distance from him, on the other side of the pond. If it wasn't for the distinct way she would disappear or reappear in that case, he'd have suspected she was using her ace despite their agreement. As it was, she was in the process of going through her own set of hand seals...

Kakashi's eyes widened. Very familiar hand seals, and they were practically done. Oi, oi, oi! That's a little serious!

"Isn't that a little much?" he sighed as she finished up, already chaining his own seals in response. "Stop making me use so much chakra, dammit..."

Ox. Monkey. Bird. Dog. Boar. Bird.

Dog. Rat. Horse. Snake. Dragon. Dog. Then he clapped his hands.

Dragon.

[Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!]

[Suiton: Suidanha no Jutsu!]

[Raiton: Denkō Noroshi no Jutsu!]

The lake roared and groaned with protest as massive amounts of chakra leaked into it and shaped it, splitting it nearly in half. On her side of the lake, a ludicrous shape came into being courtesy of forty-four hand seals, the head of a dragon the size of half a house - scaled down from its usual size, perhaps for the sake of the spar and the user's preferences - and wreathed in the liquid element loomed over the Copy Ninja, the roaring water excellently producing the illusion of a growl from the writhing, intent beast.

Not a second later, it surged forward, mouth open in a roar, aiming to strike a most debilitating blow. However, Kakashi had other plans, and out of his masked mouth spewed a stream of water, miniature in relation to the beast of legend, but arguably more fatal due to Kakashi focusing significantly more chakra into it. The jutsu collided with a tremendous clash, the smaller, more focused technique cutting into the dragon, but unable to progress much further.

That was where his second jutsu came in.

The Lightning Signal Fire streamed itself into the cutting jet, both techniques melding together for a more powerful result, finishing the job and completely cutting through the dragon. The Lightning-Enhanced, high-pressure Water Severing Wave sped out even further - or it would've if Kakashi did not flare his chakra, dispelling the technique. He Shunshinned away as the water exploded out with the disappearance of the pressure that kept it intact, throwing Hana off and forcing her to use a quick Kawarimi when she was about to strike a blow on him.

Let's see... Kakashi considered his options. Closing in for taijutsu or kenjutsu isn't viable, she'd lose and we both know it - so she'd never come in close without an escape plan, a Kage Bunshin substitution maybe? Mid to long range is also an advantage for her, because she can use our Ninjutsu as a smokescreen to get in close and 'kill' me, which is her usual MO, and neither of us are about to use any of the big ones - that'll waste my chakra and rack up a ridiculous bill. If we keep using Suiton ninjutsu, she might just find she'll have enough moisture in the air to use Kirisamegakure properly - that's why she opened with the Water Dragon - that's a huge advantage for her since it's a good alternative for Kirigakure. So, since I can't use Sharingan and therefore the jutsu needed to be balanced by that eye, the solutions are... I could use more Katon ninjutsu and a Kage Bunshin cover to keep her at bay and remove the moisture in the air, but that's a needless waste of chakra for nothing. Could also find the clone with a clone, kill the clone or keep it busy, then force a close-quarters fight. Yeah. I could do that, I might just do that...

Meh, that's too much work.

I've already wasted more chakra than I wanted as it is thanks to her. I still have to find a suitable mission...

He mentally shrugged, making a decision. Well, there's always Plan H... she's not going to enjoy it, especially since this version is as effective for her as the standard version is for Gai...

Hmph. Hana frowned. That close...I'm gonna need more moisture than this.

Her aim never was to match the man that knew a thousand jutsu - in a very literal sense - in a Ninjutsu match. It was foolish, futile even, with his reserves on a much higher level with his Sharingan closed away, and explosively flashy Ninjutsu were never her specialty. The whole point of the Dragon, thus, was a smokescreen, luring him into instinctively fighting fire with fire, as most shinobi were wont to counter Ninjutsu with Ninjutsu - from which she would use the cover to sneak in close and strike the 'killing' blow. It was a tactic she'd employed more than once during the course of her ANBU career, and one that had worked against most shinobi, even when they thought they had it figured out.

Kakashi, as it would turn out, was not most shinobi. Just as she thought.

It had nearly worked, though. That was fine, though, she was building an advantage. Having worked with her a few times, the Ninjutsu expert was probably guessing her strategy too.

Too bad. We'll have to prepare my backup plan. She prepared a Shunshin, seallessly created a Shadow Clone behind her, and put up one hand seal, chakra burning with the intensity of her chaining one technique after another in quick succession. The quality of Hiruzen Sarutobi's chakra was truly ridiculous for him to be able to do this with far less strain than her or Kakashi. Dog.

[Suiton: Teppōdama!]

She let the transportation take her as close as she could get to Kakashi, and they both spat out their own elements, water in her case, and fire in his. The techniques collided with a bang, and chakra-enhanced steam hissed between the both of them. She made to move herself when she heard soft pitter-patters coming from multiple angles behind her. The dogs! she realized, and she prepared a substitution. One of them had nearly gotten its jaws into her when she made the connection and poofed away, the dog biting into a log with a nasty crunch and almost immediately yelping at the taste of splinters in its maw.

Her clone, meanwhile, finished its own technique, running at the Copy Ninja. Kakashi saw her, made one seal, and pointed at her.

[Raiton: Gian!]

A flash of lightning erupted from his hand, tearing through her body almost instantly and interrupting her Clone's Water Blade. Hana jerked as the memories of that violent death filled her mind, and she fitfully shook off the memories.

I'd recognize that jutsu anywhere. Fucking Gian?! When'd he get that one?

She made to move once more, but she heard another series of soft steps from somewhere behind her and to her left. She Shunshinned out. How'd they find me so fast? Tch, this is why I didn't want Kakashi summoning them!

She instinctively raised her hands to use Mujin Meisai, then repressed her urge. Just a spar. Find another way. She glanced at the clearing where Kakashi had been as she leapt from branch to branch on the edge of the forest.

Kakashi was already gone. Of course.

She heard several puffs of smoke, and glanced back, only to double-take and nearly miss her next jump as she saw the dogs vanish, clearly getting dismissed.

She prepared another Shunshin, waiting for Kakashi to make his move. Her chakra buzzed with preparation, wondering what his plan was. He'd dismissed his dogs, meaning there was something he was about to do that didn't require partnering up with them... or he was preparing a large-scale, dangerous ninjutsu, one he would fire from an unexpected angle. Not fire - he wouldn't hit the forest she was in with it, and the Hokage would kill them both for the property damage. Not Water either, there was no one on the lake unless he was hiding under it, and anything large enough would get them both Hokage'd and his chakra wasted far more than he wanted, most likely, especially for a spar. Earth and Wind were out for the same reason.

So, lightning. Unusual choice, though perhaps one made because he had the faith she'd avoid it. One of his Chidori variants, maybe? Which one? -Senbon? -Gatana? -Yami? The actual assassination one? Or... would he actually use Chidoriarashi?

She Shunshinned out, chaining them in three before stopping at the lake. She wasn't feeling any significant movement of chakra that would signify the creation of any intensive jutsu, so what...? Where was he? Where had he gone?

A minute passed until Hana realized his plan.

He was gone. As in, he was gone gone.

The guy actually went and ditched her in the middle of the spar.

To make matters even worse, his small ninken - Pakkun, if she remembered correctly - had the nerve to walk out in front of her.

"Seriously?" her eyebrow twitched. There were still six whole minutes left!

"Yeah, I guess that was the plan," the pug said lazily. "Heh, guess that's Konoha's First Technician for you."

"It is, isn't it..." she clenched her fist. "Lazy bastard thinks I'm that green nut, does he?"

"Well, he did ask this old guy to tell you he really enjoyed the fight and the way you kept him on his toes, but his sharp ears heard that a cat was stuck in a tree, though it might be a black cat so he'll probably have to avoid it and take a circuitous route back here. My advice? Don't wait up. You're just going to waste even more of your time."

Then the dog poofed away, going back to where he came from.

Hana gained a tick mark, her sakki leaking out of her. "Hatake..." That... idiot! Wasting my time and chakra like this...

I'm gonna kill him!


Kakashi sneezed and paused on his way to the Hokage Tower, glancing back at his usual training grounds.

"...Yare yare daze. Looks like I should avoid her for a while..."

Well, he finally had a perfect excuse to at least get an A-rank mission. Preferably one that took him away from the Leaf for a long, long time.

Hell, maybe he could detour on the way...


Aaaand back to our regularly scheduled program:

It is now 2 September, by the way.

I'd been, uh... not doing some good work since the Exam.

As they said, all I really had to do was keep working on my technique, polish up with more practice and regular spars. Tenten and Lee were happy for me finally making top five - the latter made it clear by popping up and hugging me out of fucking nowhere, scaring the shit out of the both of us. He sustained another sucker punch from me, and I sustained a bruise to my ego and up my stealth training skills even further, because where I used to be able to somewhat detect him, I wasn't able to at all from that moment. Had to keep my guard up for real and everything.

Neji, on the other hand, was ambivalent, and we did spar about three days ago. Man told me it was almost impressive how much I was struggling against my fate, but not to get used to it because I'd never amount to anything, yadda yadda, standard stuff with the guy (I think there was that one kid as well who told me not to get comfortable or something, dunno, he seemed pretty angry about it. What was his name again, Heihachi?). We proceeded to spar, and while he had a massive advantage, I did land one dirty blow on him by using Chakra Adhesion to pull him off-balance and sucker punch him on the nose.

I shouldn'a done that.

Why, you ask? Because that was when he lost his shit and went full APAPAPAPAPAPAPA on my ass, complete with the Jūken beatdown package. I didn't get the space to sub out - I flunked it the first time, accidentally hitting Iruka with a log, and he got on me when I got three of the four seals down the second time. I managed to block a few of his hits, but not only did that not work due to the numbing effects of Jūken, but it also made him even more pissed off, which resulted in him hitting me even harder before Iruka managed to pull him off of me. Just remembering that beatdown made me wince.

Fucking short-tempered angsty brat.

If I had Naruto's ridiculous chakra reserves and access to Shadow Clones, I'd have beaten that Fate's Bitch bullshit out of him.

I won on a technicality due to the illegal nature of his victory, but that day really made me appreciate the school nurse, because holy shit was I a walking bruise.

I wasn't even too mad about that, but then the nurse and Hana just had to go and tell me to lay off anything more than light training (aka calisthenics and a little bit of slow jogging) for three days so the healing would have time to set in, so I was fuming.

(Sure, one of said three days was my rest day, but who fucking cared?)

Also made me determined to master Kawarimi for real - fucking the seals completely. It wouldn't matter how fast I could chain them, even if I could chain them very fast, it still wouldn't mean shit if whoever was tryna hit me was still too close for me to pull it off.

So I had Hana-sensei drilling me super intensely on Substitution after my warmups, and apparently she was finally allowed to throw kunai at me so she did exactly that.

It was horrible. I loved it.

I could feel that with another couple of weeks of practice at that, I could actually manage to faux-use it seallessly, where my chakra would mold the seals without anything more than my mental input. It wouldn't mean I'd have the jutsu mastered, not even close, but it would be a very good substitution for actual mastery, pun not intended.

I'd probably have to watch out for the peeps that would hit me too fast for me to sub, though.

Also that one kid, what's it... Heihachi? He seemed to have started picking up the pace on throwing insults at me, and I was becoming increasingly aware that he was pretty much the only one doing it. I wondered if his attempted putdowns were done out of jealousy, or I'd done something wrong before I even reincarnated. He was trying to be the teenage Flash Thompson to my teenage Peter Parker, but I was honestly having none of that.

He did try challenging me to a spar officially, but if I remember correctly, that was around the time when Jin Yuki gave me a bruise to the eye, so Hana-sensei turned him down.

Honestly, man was feeling really saucy, it was getting to the point that I actually took a look at him for a second, wondering just what the fuck I did to him.

Anyway...

"Good work," she nodded after I'd gone through my extra physical, Taijutsu and Ninjutsu drills over the past few hours. "You're on the level of a notable Genin now, but you need to supplement your skill level with more experience - and there are two ways to do that. Given that you're still an Academy student, you're not allowed to take on any sort of mission, but there's always the second method. That is what we're about to do now."

I nodded in understanding.

"If you're willing to do this, I'm going to stand over there, and you are going to walk to me. I won't throw a weapon at you, no one will try to harm you, and you won't face any physical obstacles - just walk to me when we begin. That's it. When you can do exactly that, that means you're ready for bigger, tougher steps."

I blinked in surprise, glancing at the swing set she was pointing to some few steps away from us. "Wait, really? That's it? How will that help me?"

"It'll help you deal with operating under pressure."

I blinked, wondering what she was thinking. Dealing with pressure, the exercise to deal with said pressure literally being just walking to her... hm, I don't think I've ever seen this in Naruto anime before. If the field exercise doesn't involve me doing a mission, but me just walking to her, that means...

Oh. Ohhh, shit.

My mind subconsciously recalled the feel and intensity of her KI, the pressure that had weighed down on me, trying to remember other situations where this exercise might've happened. My mind flickered to the imagery of Zabuza's KI, Orochimaru's... Oh, shit. Not just Orochimaru. Hisoka. Different characters, same vibe, same intense KI, but Orochimaru could make you hallucinate your own death, whereas with Hisoka... yeah, I remember now, Hunter X Hunter. It was very different situationally, but the beat is the exact same.

"R-really?" I gaped. "You're going to do... that thing? From before?"

"Only if you're willing, and I'll use an even smaller fraction so it won't be as bad as the other time. If you can't handle it, that's fine. We'll do other things - there are plenty of methods to train at the level I've been finally allowed to show you. However..." she folded her arms, "this method, if you manage to thrive in it, will help you immensely with your focus levels. It'll increase your levels of confidence and fast decision-making, sharpen your chakra movement and control, and most importantly, if you pay attention to how I do it, you can give it a try yourself, eventually. It'll make you more imposing to other shinobi around your level, giving you more options on the battlefield and a psychological edge and opening. Before you agree to anything, I need you to understand this."

She actually knelt down to my level, touching me on the shoulders and looking into my eyes with an intensity that kinda put me off.

"Listen. There is no shame in rejecting this training when you come to feel how intense it really can be. There are Chūnin in this school. They are older than you, more experienced than you, more than likely mostly far better at being a shinobi that you are at this moment... and they would reject this sort of training if they were asked to undergo it without a second of hesitation. You will not be judged by anyone, and I will make absolutely sure of that. Are you willing to do it?"

I considered it for a moment.

Hell, it was fucking scary. I would tell you at that moment that whatever anyone would throw at me - an angry Dwayne Johnson, a picture of C'thulhu, the Necronomicon in all its glory, drawings of H.R. Giger's scariest stuff, Myers, Voorhees, the clown from IT, Nemesis, the dinner scene from Resident Evil 7, the SCPs, anything from any horror production... none of it had terrified me as much as when Hana flared her sakki at me. Because while it was all terrifying when described appropriately, all of it had a detachment since I was seeing all that from a screen or a book page, so the fourth wall had me covered, even when the author broke it. None of them, like Hana, could see me. None of them were aiming their intent to kill at me, with the potential intention and ease of ability to wipe my life off the map of existence with the twitch of a few muscles. They were fictional characters or someone behind a screen.

She was not. I did not have that protection with her. She was someone that could literally weaponize her intent to kill without so much effort. That was how deadly she was. She was a ninja. She was death, straight-up.

Still, though, it could be helpful, and I could see why she'd use. If someone could focus and even act under that kind of literal killing pressure, that was the mark of a focused shinobi, one of a significant quality at that. I wasn't stupid enough to think that that time was the full force of her killing intent, or that I could even handle that much, but baby steps. If I could get into this sooner rather than later, it would definitely go a long way into improving my level of focus, skill, and self-control.

It was easier said than done. Far, far easier said than done.

"Let's go for it," I decided, nodding resolutely. I knew on an intellectual level that it would be very difficult, but the benefits were probably undeniable.

"This will be intense for you," Hana warned, one more time. The fact that she was warning me this much in advance honestly made me a little nervous, but it was the life I signed up for just by existing. "The first step will be me showing you how it feels, but differently from the last time. Then I will show you how you can withstand that pressure - it'll help you notice sakki more acutely and prepare your mindset to be able to deal with the effects. Are you ready?"

Yes or no did not matter. "Let's do it."

We tried it.

It was easily the most fucking difficult exercise I had ever done.

This was coming off the back of eight months of physical training, chakra training, jutsu training, and even tree walking. I'd done all those, I'd gotten used to all those. I was excellent with Leaf Concentration, taking it to a whole other level that even Tenten took after, incorporating it into her own training. I was getting better at the Academy Three, being able to use Clones and Henge 100% seallessly, at combat level perfection, and Substitution was still something I was coming very close to mastering, even if I wasn't quite there yet with it. I hadn't tried Grand Fireball since the first time, but I'd probably do something a bit more than smoke if I did try it as I was today. I was pretty decent with my Taijutsu, not in the top 10 percentile and Neji still could stomp me with (slightly less) ridiculous ease, but I could hold my own against most. I'd come a long way, so much further with my training regime than I ever had in anything else, and my chakra training probably had a part to play in that.

But withstanding sakki?

How to describe it...

Ever had a dangerous wild animal give you threatening looks? The way your body stilled in anticipation, nerves tensing in a nasty shiver down every pore of the body, the way you watched it for its next move, trying not to look it in the eye (or making the mistake of looking it in the eye), also really trying to repress the urge to turn and run because, ultimately, it was useless and you'd be caught in seconds?

No, that wasn't how it felt. It was very different.

Hana pressed down a similar, primal pressure on me, triggering a flight (not fight, flight) instinct, but she was on an entirely different level from that. She had a different mindset. She wasn't scared, she wasn't pissed, she wasn't trying to warn me off, it was nothing that black and white with her. It was simply that she expressed that she was very well aware that she could kill me without more effort than needed to breathe, and she expressed that I needed to know that.

I knew. And she knew I knew.

Even then, she didn't even want to kill me, didn't see the point in bothering, even - and it was the sheer impersonal nature of her killing intent that made it even more terrifying for me. That I was so unimportant, so meaningless that I could be swept away like paper in a tornado, never to be seen again, that no one would ever think to miss me.

I thought I'd known what it meant to be meaningless, to be insignificant. That was what would've killed me if not for the second chance at life that I ultimately let my family convince me to allow myself to have. Hana, though, made it clear that I knew nothing.

She wasn't even looking at me, and I felt myself bending and warping under the pressure of her sakki. I wasn't sure if I'd pissed my pants again, and I wouldn't know until she let up. I wasn't even bombarded by thoughts of dying, only that I only needed to breathe in order to die, and that such was simply the natural order of things, with no care for how I felt about that, because it didn't matter, because I didn't matter, because I couldn't say otherwise or make it stick if I could. The way it robbed me of any sense of power I ever thought I had before the first time Hana blasted me with what she said was a twentieth of her sakki, not because she wanted to kill me or to make a point, only because she said it would help me.

My mind was filled with doubt. What did it help me with, to be told of my uselessness? Did it help me know my place? Did it show the futility of my effort? Did it show, really, that I was never going to be worth anything in this cruel world, again?

Then she cut it off and my body just dropped like Geppetto discarded me. I forgot to breathe for a few seconds there. I hadn't even seen her coming, and she was trying to be loud, at least for my sake. Her movements were overt and she kept herself fully in my line of sight.

"I'm sorry," Hana apologized, again and again, rubbing my shoulder and pushing a bit of chakra into me, somehow much warmer, much gentler than before. As a kind of impromptu massage or whatever... it didn't work.

Then it kinda did.

Then it did.

I really hadn't realized how ridiculously fast my heart was beating until I could feel it slow down to something resembling normality. I hadn't realized that I was sweating like a chicken in KFC until I felt my absolutely drenched shirt clinging to my body. I felt clammy, wrinkled, wrung out like a towel, tenser than piano wire, and just generally horrible.

"... Well that was intense," I gasped out.

"Do you wish to continue?" she asked after a few minutes.

I shuddered at the very thought, instinctively trying to get away from her, but I forced myself to stop moving. Stop, stop, stop, stop. I clenched my shaking hands into fists with more difficulty than I wanted, and I raised my arms so I could look at them. My mind was a void, just looking at my hands, not a thought passing through my head.

Is this it? Something finally filtered through. Is this... is this it? Really? I knew I was weak, objectively, but... is this really what that meant? Is that the reality? Is this... is this how pathetic I am?

"Minato?" For the first time in... probably the whole year so far, Hana finally said my name, unprompted.

Do you understand how much work you have to do?! I yelled at myself. Do you - you know! You know the danger! You know the enemies! You know at least enough of the fucking story! You can't chance that Hagoromo would just give the kids the key to saving the day like they did again, because you don't fucking know the fucking specifics of that Deus ex Machina bullshit or that it'd happen here! They should've lost! They were fucked the moment Madara got his hands on the Jubi, but Kishi wanted to tell some story and you have no fucking idea what that means here, where his input means shit! You exist! You... you exist! You have a teacher that's probably the most ridiculous, insanely strong woman you've ever met! Or maybe that's just the fucking standard for Chūnin level ninja, but... you exist. That's already a disruption to the timeline. Whether that even means anything... I don't know, but you said you wanted to put your hand in, didn't you? Maybe, if not save the world, to at least help the real saviors along. This isn't the world where you Gary Stu your way into things. You know this. And you're lucky, you're blessed. You have a solid foundation, an excellent sensei, you have an opportunity to really make something of yourself.

Take it. You need every inch you can get, everything.

I'm not gonna save the world, but I sure as hell am gonna make sure the ones who do don't luck into that shit. And if I wanna do that, then I gotta Milner it.

I gotta be the standard those kids will surpass. All of them. Maybe I'm asking too much, aiming too high, biting off more than I can ever hope to chew, but I gotta do it. If I'm to pass on that mentality, I have to be that mentality.

This is where your real training starts, Minato Yakushi. Strength always starts with weakness.

I hadn't even realized when I'd closed my eyes, but I snapped them open.

I reached for my chakra, feeling it cycle through my body, and I used that extraordinary feeling to center myself. I guided my chakra through my pathways, through my coils, through my skin, through my body. Strength starts with weakness; weakness and the will to change it. I came to realize I'd closed my eyes again - when the hell did I close them? - so I opened my eyes again.

Build your foundation. Be better, dammit.

Hana was there.

"Better?"

"Yeah." I swallowed, unable to look her in the eye - there was that lingering fear and I didn't like it. It was nonsense. She didn't need anything fancy to kill me, but that didn't mean I had to treat her like some kind of ticking time bomb. It's okay. It's okay to face her. It's okay to look her in the eye and talk to her. It's okay to look her in the eye and talk to her like she's a normal human being. Don't treat her like a monster, you literally live in a world where you said the people who did that to the children that didn't ask for it are fucking morons. You wanna be a moron, Nat? Look at her. "Better. Let's do this."

She looked at me for a moment. "No."

I paused. "What?"

"We'll do something else, for now." She gave me an almost pitying look. "You... you have very good mental fortitude, Yakushi, and it will be useful, but you are still a child. A child grown in peacetime. Listen - you have the potential to be a very good shinobi, but if we push you too hard, too fast, too soon, you will break. I don't want to see how you can handle that. You're not ready for that specific method of training, not yet. Not for a long time."

"Does this mean...?"

"No." She shook her head. "Don't worry, we'll still do this - the fact that you recovered enough to put yourself together so quickly means that dropping this would hurt you more than it would help you in the long run. The more exposure you have to sakki, the better your concentration will be despite it, and the better your focus will be without it. But we have to regulate it strictly. 30 seconds to two minutes per training session until you can be used to it and you can do other activities while feeling my sakki. For now, practise and master your techniques more. Remember: there is no shame in this. None. I was scared to death too when they did this to me as a Genin. You're lucky. You didn't actually shit yourself."

She took a moment to let those words sink into my head.

... I didn't want to ask about that story or imagine it happening.

No, brain, don't do this to me, don't you fucking do this, stupid pink elephants!

Aaaaand I was already imagining it anyway. Fuck my brain. Thankfully, Hana didn't know it, but she was on the ball with distracting those images from my head.

"We will do this one more time after I show you how you can stand up to it, then again on Wednesday, to give you time to recover and prepare. If you can handle it, we can do it more regularly."

That was two days away.

I didn't like the decision, but she had a point. She did - I didn't want to know the outcome of if she really tried to make me break. It probably wouldn't be particularly hard, either, but I didn't want to know. I didn't want to find out.

So if she felt playing it safe was the best way to go about it, then playing it safe was the best way to go about it. It was really that simple.

But I would catch up. I would push, and push, and push. I had to be better.

I needed to be better.

Be that mentality.

Hana seemed to see something she liked in my eyes, because she nodded. "For now, now that you have an idea of how it feels to be caught completely vulnerable, I want you to try to practise this exercise with your chakra on how you can counter my sakki enough to force yourself to move, maybe even enough to completely negate or counter the effects later down the line..."


Here I was, four weeks later, and I could only still handle maybe a fifteenth of her KI.

I had a long way to go, and she even told me when I asked that with the right technique, she could double or even triple the potency of her sakki, therefore, from what I could see, that put me somewhere at low Genin level in terms of the focus I could bring under pressure. Her sakki, from what I could scale, could, in theory, make a Kage-level shinobi raise an eyebrow and go 'Oh, okay, somebody's feeling saucy today'.

It was... pathetic.

It took me three days to take one step under Hana's KI. One. Just one. Nothing fancy, just putting one foot forward in front of my other, yanno, the way I mastered over literally two lifetimes like most people. One step. It took - I couldn't believe - it took three fucking days to take one fucking step. That was so fucking pathetic and an absolute waste of my time by my own stupid ass that even thinking about it pissed me off.

For perspective, Hana was literally only five steps away.

It was so fucking hard fighting against my instinct to freeze. Every time, I had to fight myself, to force myself to use my chakra to center myself so I could act in some insignificant way. I went from forcing myself to channel chakra the easy way (with the Ram seal) to taking one step, to taking two steps, to taking all five. From ten seconds, to fifteen seconds, to thirty, to forty-five, to almost a minute of sakki exposure. That took nine days - as in the actual two hundred and sixteen hours, not the nine days of extra training I was up to.

Then Hana decided to do two things at the same time - she would ramp up the intensity to somewhere close to a tenth, and I would only focus on molding my chakra internally, no Ram seal to help the process.

That was why it was even heavier than usual from the get-go, those four weeks later.

Is it me... I wondered, or is Hagane-sensei... even angrier... than usual... today?! How the... fuck... did I... piss her off... today?!

I shook under the weight, trying to force myself to take another step forward. I wasn't even carrying anything - the weight bearing down on me like an eight hundred pound legendary grizzly bear was all Hana.

I surprised myself in that I could at least think that much.

I forced myself to flare my chakra, ignoring my instinct with some difficulty, and took another step forward. No, instinct, you'll find that I don't give a shit that SHE is there and SHE will kill us if we move or breathe.

I shuddered and took another. Then another. I took a moment to force my breathing rates to something a bit calmer because hyperventilating would ruin things for me, and moved on again. My body screamed in warning.

I don't... care! It's... metaphorical!

I flared my chakra again, and managed to take two more. Off in the distance, Hana looked at me and made the Horse seal and let it go, puzzling me. I grunted at the weight on me while trying to wonder why she did that.

She made the seal again. I frowned. It's not a technique. I think I can feel something in the air, but it's just her sakki. What's she... is she telling me to make the Horse seal? Why?

I decided to do it. I flared my chakra, executing the Horse seal. I felt my chakra ebb and flow, stacking itself on top of itself and somehow doubling in its intensity, in this way I never quite understood. But I could feel its result - somehow, the pressure of Hana's sakki wavered a little, allowing me to step forward more confidently.

Eight steps left.

I grunted when I felt Hana's KI thicken a little, and I started feeling genuinely nervous, because now her attention was directed at me, and with it, more of her KI. I shuddered, but forced myself to take another. I forced myself to breathe deeply, because they were becoming too short, too fast for my liking. Then I took another step. C'mon! Then another. Then another. Four. Three. Two. One. Zero.

I gasped and collapsed in relief when her KI dissipated into nothingness, just barely remembering to cycle my chakra to dissipate the effects of the Horse seal.

"Very good," Hana nodded. "You can handle a tenth of my sakki now - and you've also learned a very important step - thickening your chakra, which can have significant results for you down the line. You've already mastered Ram, and you are making excellent progress with Monkey, Tiger, and Snake. I want you to keep practising those, but there are also two hand seals that I want you to work on from this moment on - Horse and Boar. If you learn to layer and thicken your chakra without needing hand seals, that'll vastly increase the quality of your chakra, and it'll be one of many factors that help increase the size of your reserves even faster. In addition, there's a new, more advanced chakra exercise I will teach you later on, once you've managed to practise rooftop running more. You are going to learn how to walk on water."

My jaw dropped - she thought I was almost ready for that!? "We can walk on water?!"

"Yes, we can. It's entirely up to you to be ready for that, though, so I expect you to keep working hard. Understand?"

I nodded gleefully. Now that would be a huge step up.

And boy, was it ever.

I was gonna graduate with a fucking bang.


Non-canon Jutsu Compendium:

Doton: Tsuchi Damu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Mud Dam Technique)

Type: Offensive, Defensive

Rank: B-Rank

Hand Seals: Ram, Snake, Horse, Boar, Tiger, stomp on ground

Range: Short (0-5m), Mid (5-15m), Long-range version (16-20+m) is A-Rank, requires substantial chakra and strong Earth Affinity

Users: Sarutobi Hiruzen (inventor), Hatake Kakashi, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Tenzo, Teen Uzumaki Naruto, Adult Sarutobi Konohamaru

A finalized combination of Earth Wave and Earth Flow Spears, the user manipulates a radius of earth or mud around them, sending out waves of mud tinged with hardened spikes to either kill the opposition quickly or force them to retreat and consider long-range options. Due to the considerable amount of chakra needed to forge such a complicated technique so quickly, most users would prefer other, simpler options to force cover in the middle of heated combat, such as, in Jiraiya's case, Swamp of the Underworld, or in Kakashi's case, simple misdirection, Clones and Substitution. It is also very useful as a crowd control technique that also happens to whittle the size of the crowd down some.


Author's Notes:

Any jutsu that hasn't been depicted on the Compendium of each chapter is canon, and you may view it on Narutopedia at your own leisure if my mid-battle descriptions didn't work out. Note that I did change the hand seal functions of some of them in order to line up better with how I explained their functions - hand seals in Naruto are a great idea, but sadly with no real foundation to explain how they work. Probably because they have visual flair and there needed to be no more explanation. Did you know the reason I decided some of the seals would be Refinement seals was partly because of Sakura's non-standard execution of the Academy Clone jutsu? She uses different hand seals. I ended up figuring it'd make sense that maybe she had to layer her chakra to make them appear more solid due to her relatively small reserves. Then from there, I went on to study others, figured it made sense, and built the lore.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, time to make you nearly crap your pants. Again.


A long, long time ago:

Hasai checked the area once more.

The sensor-nin was the sole living witness of what he definitively thought the most terrifying event to happen in the Third Shinobi War. One man, a single shinobi, slaughtered an entire platoon of various ranked shinobi to the last man, leaving an empty battlefield that would soon be overrun with Konoha shinobi looking to secure the area. He could not entirely comprehend what sort of technique he'd used, but he'd started by throwing a fussilade of kunai over the platoon, somehow appearing with those kunai in his hand, in a way that suggested that it was far more than simple Kawarimi. His kills happened instantaneously and relentlessly, killing one before they could realize they were dead, and moving on to the next and the next with a golden flash and ruthless efficiency. Hasai could scarcely follow the movements, secured in his hiding place, where Hanzo had sent him to study the movements of both platoons to better understand what the next step for Amegakure would be in the fight to better protect themselves from the foreigners.

Such a technique would certainly change the face of war if that clearly Kage-level shinobi could teach his comrades how to use it, and especially if any of them could learn how to use it, too. For kunai to advance from being simple tools to actual mediums through which a shinobi could summon themselves depending on how far it was thrown and possibly even where in the world it was positioned...

It was too much of a useful tool to avoid finding the opportunity to steal. It was unfortunate - and amazing - that a vast majority of those kunai were cloned, if their puffs of smoke were anything to judge by, but he could find one he could use.

He could find one he could take back to Lord Hanzo.

He created three Water Clones, and gave them three scrolls minutes after the Konoha Shinobi departed the area.

It would be his only opportunity.

He waited for some tense minutes as his clones combed over the area, and finally one signalled that he found the kunai, picking it up from the ground and sealing it into a scroll. The clone quickly made its way over to the original, giving him the scroll as the others buried the other scrolls and destroyed them while they were underground, dispelling in other areas to distract and fool any investigators finding them. Hasai ran out of the area with the utmost urgency, his heart filled with the dread of that yellow flash appearing next to him and securing his secret.

There has to be some way to study this jutsu, he thought. There has to be. Our people must find it.

Hasai did not know, at that time, that despite making it home safe, it would be an exercise in frustration due to the unfortunate circumstance of Minato Namikaze being very much alive, and that eight years later, he would be one of many Loyalists that would die in the Akatsuki Insurrection.

He did not know that he would accidentally be the one to give one of its most dangerous members the key to being even worse an opponent to fight.


Eight Years Later, still a bit of a long time ago.

"Nagato-sama, Konan-sama," a shinobi bowed as he approached them both in Hanzo's - now Nagato's - main office. "We have gone through the Cryptologist department's files, and we found something that could be of much interest to you."

Konan accepted the scroll he handed her. "If I may make a suggestion," he added, "I think it would be for the best that this scroll remains unopened for now."

The bluenette and redhead regarded him with a curious gaze. "Why?" she asked.

"Inside that scroll is the kunai of Minato Namikaze, one that allows him to execute his Hiraishin no Jutsu." Both Akatsuki perked up at that information. "And while we found it necessary that the scroll come to your hands as you are our premier Fuinjutsu expert, Konan-sama, it may still be too dangerous to open the scroll until there is certainty that he cannot summon himself to that kunai."

"I see." Konan hummed, the weight of the scroll on her hand seemingly having more weight to it with the knowledge of what it was. "Thank you for your good work, Junichi. Pass our regards to your team."

"It is a pleasure to be of service, Konan-sama, Nagato-sama." Junichi bowed deeply, and departed the room.

Nagato's ringed eyes were on her, and she could feel them as she studied the sealing inscriptions on the scroll. Hanzo's Cryptologists were clearly on the ball - a double-locked stasis storage array with blood encryption, but the design of the seal was simplistic enough to suggest it was a Journeyman's work - knowing Hanzo, that was the level at which they would have stayed. According to secret protocols found in the dead dictator's office, also blood locked, there was only one shinobi that would be the key to blood locks on anything stored in the Cryptologists' department - Hanzo himself.

Konan almost smiled. That would make unlocking it very simple, then.

"You wish to learn that technique," he deducted, not asking. They knew each other too well for it to be any other way. The Fuinjutsu scrolls passed on to him from his parents had served her so much better than they had him since Jiraiya's teachings.

"I would think this is something every Fuinjutsu user would want to have," she said, not even bothering to deny it. "Junichi does have a point, though. As long as Namikaze lives, the prospect that he could detect the technique is far too much to risk to study this technique. If it really is a seal that allows him to tap into the power of space and time, then the distance from here to Konoha is completely irrelevant. I think Hanzo's department came to the same conclusion, and stored it away."

"A shame we cannot ask him," Nagato admitted. "Even with the both of us sharing the commonality of being Jiraiya-sensei's students, I don't think he'd be open to a foreigner learning his most treasured secret."

There was a possibility of Ame forming some kind of alliance or treaty with Konoha, as their relationship was not completely soured - the fact that Hanzo had been desperate enough to ask for the help of the Devil of the Leaf, Danzo Shimura, and that Danzo actually refused - had somewhat blunted Nagato's dislike of the village. Still, it was not enough to extend a bare hand to the Leaf. Not yet. Not to anyone.

They needed a different way, and every day, Nagato began to think perhaps there was some substance to Tobi's offer. That learning to control the Gedo Mazo was truly the key to peace.

Eternal, lasting peace.

"True." Konan tilted her head briefly, her equivalent of a shrug. "It isn't useful at this moment. Still, it would not hurt to hold on to it. Just in case. Shinobi die all the time..."

And so he would.

Konan wrapped her paper around the seal, allowing a slip of her flesh which she cut with paper, concentrating and writing a seal purely with her blood and chakra, then covering the cut with a healing seal. She slipped the stored kunai onto her seal, then the kunai puffed away, stored safely away in her storage vault eighty feet underground, in a place only she and Nagato knew of.

"If I may," Konan said, "I have one more argument for your last candidate of your Six Paths technique."

Nagato stood from his seat, intending to leave the office. It was nearly time to bury Yahiko's body.

"Go on," he said.

"Hanzo's body will become useful at some point in the future."

He paused, regarding her with a thoughtful look. Then he blinked as he understood her intention. "That's fine."

The pair retrieved their sugegasa, draped on simple black cloaks without the Akatsuki clouds,and walked out of the office.


If you're still wondering, the short answer is...

Yes. She knows more than simple explosive tag creation - she is a Fuinjutsu expert (this is a path I've wondered for entire years why nobody ever explored) and has her own version of Hiraishin. (Hold on to the last bit of this sentence, this will be a very important distinction later on...)

Yes. Nagato can walk and fight with his original body. (I lied when I said three Akatsuki were getting upgrades. But I figured it'd make sense since Danzo's fuckup regarding Nagato didn't happen, which would make Hanzo's little ambush turn out a little differently...)

You may panic.

But wait! There's more...

You remember the Hana Interlude, back in Part Six? There is - and always has been - a throwaway line where she noted a concern about a certain knucklehead's level of education and her intention to report that. Now, given the level and style of world building I've done for this fic, I decided for that to have actual, tangible consequences.

You'll find that this all circles back to being one of the many effects of a decision so simple as adding a shade of actual nuance to Danzo Shimura's character, one of the bigger results of that good old butterfly effect.

Our old boy's been pulling some strings, to say the least.

This all started from the day you met Maki Hyūga. That man's already done a shitload for Konoha in a good chunk of the events depicted in this fic up to this point, used so much of his power and influence to make sure his ultimate goal is met, and going past over 40 000 words, doesn't even have a single line of spoken dialogue in this fic.

Honestly speaking, this version of Danzo Shimura is well within the top five of the characters I like best in this fic. That says all you need to know.

See, Canon Danzo? This is exactly the kind of power you'd have had if you weren't so stupid. Seriously, Hokage Candidate? Who needs that shit?

You thought the bad guys were the only ones getting upgrades?

(Wait, did I say that? Well, if I did, I lied.)

(I am a lying bastard of a liar. Enjoy this last scene!)


Relevant Interlude: Sarutobi Hiruzen

April 17

Sarutobi's knuckles almost whitened as he read Operative Hagane's report.

Her report was crisp, well written and detailed, as expected and usual of the 'retired' ANBU lieutenant. Her detail on the movement of Target Touji was impeccable, and truly worthy of someone of her status and level of skill. Even with her unfortunate encounter with the Jashin Cultists, something the Fire Daimyo had been sure to have words with the Daimyo of Hot Springs Nation about, Hagane still found ways to be of service to the Great Tree.

An Elite Jounin she was not, not yet, but she certainly had their mindset.

There was a dictum attached to the report that the ANBU Commander and Danzo underlined for him, however, that attracted his attention, shock, and ire.

"Student Uzumaki Naruto (SUN)," she noted, "is currently the unfortunate result of neglected teaching methodology. While it must be noted that his Sensei Umino Iruka is beginning to warm up to the boy, Target Mizuki Touji maintains a steadfast, burning hatred for Uzumaki. As such, he has undertaken the task to sabotage SUN's education in several crucial ways. His Taijutsu has openings he would not know of or realize until he is killed on the battlefield, notarization on his reserve-to-control ratio has gone completely unattended, and he has not accessed or been show any more advanced chakra exercises to supplement his unusual reserve size. Completely ill-advised for a Jinchūriki to remain stunted in his basic foundation; body too undeveloped to handle Kyūbi Chakra, and will still be beaten by any High A or S-Rank shinobi in the event that SUN can access Kyūbi Chakra anyway.

"Recommendation (Priority A-, Code FF394E): insert tutor to clean up SUN's basics. Investigate possibility of tutoring in Kage Bunshin to accelerate learning process. Accelerate learning process. By estimate of CHH, he is currently projected to fail or graduate as Dead Last in his final Academy Year."

With the report in mind, Hiruzen franctically combed over the monthly of report marking Naruto's progress, folders he'd put aside for later because he trusted the Academy to see Naruto's potential and to act on it.

"Uzumaki has shown progress in the creation of Academy Clones. However, his discipline remains untouchable, and he is unwilling to progress much further than he already has."

"Uzumaki's Taijutsu remains his biggest hindrance, however, he has shown signs of potential and improvement..."

"Uzumaki's Ninjutsu overall has shown an increasing level of aptitude..."

"Uzumaki's taijutsu has shown excellent improvement in all areas of his repetoire over the last three months..."

All of the reports were written by Touji Mizuki.

What have I done?

It was treason. There was nothing that could define treason better than intentionally sabotaging the development of a potential premier shinobi.

He had to act.

"Ferret."

His ANBU assistant appeared in front of him without delay. "Hokage-sama."

"Get me Operative Dragon, post-haste."

"Hai." Ferret Shunshinned out of the office.

Hiruzen waited, watching over the village, the life thriving in it. Even through the mistakes he'd made for so many years, they still believed in him. He didn't feel himself worthy of that kind of love.

I failed you, Minato, Kushina, Biwako. I'm so sorry.

Not a minute later, Operatives Dragon and Ferret appeared in the Hokage's office.

"Hm?" Sarutobi twitched, apparently broken from his train of thoughts, then gained a tick mark and flung two paperweights at the heads of his ANBU, bonking them both on the head before they could react.

Heh. Still got it.

"Idiots!" he yelled. "Learn to knock before you enter my office!"

"You said post-haste, you old fart!" Ferret yelled back, a tick mark throbbing on his head too. "It's literally protocol not to knock on post-haste, that's what you said! And stop hitting my face!"

"There's nothing special about your face - in fact, you should be grateful I'm rearranging it for you! Maybe you'll finally look like an actual man!"

Operative Dragon didn't say a word, but he did sigh and give the Hokage a sad look.

"Anyway!" The Hokage cleared his throat, calming himself down. "Anyway, you can get back on your perch, Ferret. And don't roll your eyes at me, I can see through your mask you disrespectful little shit!"

The irritated ANBU sighed softly and vanished to his station. Dragon sweatdropped at the whole scene, but ultimately sucked it up.

"You summoned me, Hokage-sama?" Dragon knelt before his Kage, ready for his orders.

"I have a new assignment for you. B-Rank mission, duration of six months."

"Hai."

"Tell me, what do you know about Naruto Uzumaki? Speak freely."

Dragon blinked. "Hm, Kushina-obachan's kid? Sasuke's rival? I haven't seen him in a while, how's the squirt, sir?"

"That'll be up to you."

Dragon's eyes widened as he took in the implications of the Hokage's statement. "That bad?" he asked after a moment.

"As per Operative Chameleon's report, I fear we may have to change our plans for the little rat in the Academy." The wizened Kage thought on it for another moment. "Although... we can use that to our advantage and see the end result of your assignment. Hm..."

Dragon remained dutifully silent and ready to listen as Hiruzen thought on the matter.

Then the Sarutobi made his decision.

"Very well. Dragon, this is what I want you to do..."


Hope you enjoyed the LiKA cameo, sadly not the real Ferret for obvious reasons, but man, I miss that fic. It was some top tier stuff. Life in Konoha's ANBU, for those of you who might not be familiar. Sadly dead, but it is one of my favorites ever. The world building in that stuff, man. So good. So good.

And yeah, Hana's ANBU handle is Operative Chameleon. Slight double-layered joke there, lol.

I wanted to reveal Dragon's identity, but I decided nah, it's too early. I'll just drop hints here and there, then once it's time he comes fully into the picture, I'll drop his fully identity (if you haven't guessed by then). Hell, I'm not sure if I've dropped enough hints to let you take a shot at guessing who Dragon is, but he's 100% canon to the Narutoverse. Arguably also one of the shinobi with the most immense potential in the village if done right. Hopefully, I'll do him right here, but we'll see what happens.

Mister Nine's introduction will happen next time, watch out for him this Sunday!