Planning and Counting

Last time on Cloud Gamer

Izumi covered her torso before laughing loudly. "W-Whatever dude, alright, we'll meet here in like, a week? Same time, for training."

"Sure, that's fine." Itachi nodded. Izumi waved while laughing and started to walk away. Itachi started to feel slightly better, but the sorrow from before slowly creeped back into his mind when he saw Izumi finally disappear behind some brush.

'I-Sh-I wouldn't mind seeing her again.' A blush covered Itachi's face while he remembered the talk they had just shared. The darkness in his mind vanished as a bubbly feeling overwhelmed him while he walked home. For the first time in a while, Itachi was happy, actually, elated would be the right word.

Chapter 48

Shin gravitated towards his seat with Raido and Kakashi at his side. The Hokage and Raikage were discussing matters in the tower, while the 3 were meeting with another group of chunin to design the exams.

The boy sat down and placed a folder on the table, facing the Kumo shinobi with a calm expression, hidden by his mask. Straight across from Kakashi was Atsui, a blonde boy who happened to be Samui's brother that Shin had barely communicated with when he lived in Kumo. Across from Raido was Samui herself, a blonde haired girl wearing a gray mesh shirt under an ash gray tunic. Finally, Yugito sat across from Shin, staring daggers into him while he opened his folder and slid it over to Raido.

"Today we'll be discussing the portions of the chunin exams we have designed, including a written test and physical portion. Are there any questions before we begin?" Raido said professionally.

"Yeah, why the hell are we working with you?!" Atsui shouted, pounding his fist on the table.

'What a hot head.' Shin thought, drumming his fingers on the table trying to ignore Yugito's piercing gaze.

"It's under our leader's orders." Raido replied simply, keeping a cool front in the face of Atsui's temper. "Firstly–"

"Who said you were doing the written portion?" Samui stated.

Shin could tell Raido was starting to lose his temper. "Would you like us to be in charge of two physical portions then?" Raido replied.

"No–"

"Then please stay quiet." Raido interrupted, making Samui narrow her eyes. "Our written portion will contain 2 separate parts, the first, a written test on one side of the page, the other having a number between one and ten. The participants must communicate their numbers to the other members of the team to form a passcode. The order of where each number is placed is dictated by the number on top of their desk, one, two, or three."

"That's dumb, how're they supposed to figure that out?" Atsui with a smirk.

"That's up to them, though the proctor will be on the lookout for any cheating." Raido replied.

"What if they get the code wrong?" Atsui argued.

"Then they will fail. The participants are forced to register their chakra signatures upon entry to the village, correct?"

"So?"

"So we will have a 3 digit code determined by each team's chakra signatures."

Atsui still seemed to be agitated, but looked at Samui who nodded for Raido to continue. "And your physical portion?"

"A simple challenge, akin to capture the flag. Each team has a flag they must protect, while trying to steal another team's and bring it back to their podium. One hour rounds, teams of ninja from different villages. One hour of attack, and then 30 minutes of preparation or rest. For the first round, you need two flags to pass, the second requires three, until we have enough participants for your portions."

"That's… actually not bad." Atsui murmured before Samui put her own folder on the table.

"I assume then we are doing the 3rd and 4th portions. The 4th as always will be a 1 versus 1 tournament. The third this year can take place over the course of 3 weeks. It's a foot race to reach a location, specifically the location of the 4th exam. First, the participants will be exhausted from your portion, so we'll capitalize on that and give them another objective, to collect a scroll from around the land of lightning. The first 4 teams to return back will be a part of the tournament portion."

"The entire land of lightning?" Kakashi echoed.

"Partially." Samui corrected. "What I mean is that there is a specific location for each scroll, and there are hints associated to the location of each that can be given out by proctors or shinobi bearing a logo I have designed." She shifted the top pages of her folder to show a graphic with 2 circles interlocking, a cloud in one and a leaf in the other. "People bearing this logo will come from both villages, chunin or jonin, and will be able to give out hints or information pertaining to the location of the scrolls."

"So, it's like a scavenger hunt across the entire country?" Raido asked.

"You can assume that, yes." Samui replied.

"Is the playing field not a bit too large?" He asked again.

"No actually. From our information, and this is no joke, we have got 122 teams of genin that are able to apply. This is information from the Raikage, who sent out a letter the other day to all of the kage in the elemental nations pertaining to the number of eligible genin."

"1-122?" Shin gasped. There was no way there were over 300 genin that would be participating, that was far, far, far more than he was expecting. What he thought would be 50 teams at most, had just doubled in size!

"Mm, so we need larger portions to thin out the numbers. This larger size means more danger, and more space needed. An entire country for 300 genin to scour isn't so bad, right?"

"It'll be fun for sure." Shin chuckled, letting his cool facade slip for a moment. Samui and Atsui gave him a weird look before continuing.

"I think that's all we need to discuss for now on our end, please give the Raikage your printed exam for him to make photocopies at a later date. Also, enjoy the rest of your stay at Kumogakure, and don't cause trouble."

The Kumo group stood up while the Konoha group left the room.

Konoha - Under the Hokage mountain, ROOT Base.

"You said 5 years." Danzo growled, looking into the man sitting across from him. The green haired man had a cheshire like grin on his face while sipping on a mug of coffee.

"It will be 5 years, just calm down."

"I am incredibly calm, but I'm also starting to doubt my trust in you."

"Or lack thereof." The man chuckled, sipping his drink before standing up. "My little test subject started working of his own accord, I'll reel him in soon. But first, he needs to gain their trust and favor, so when he talks about downtime, they stay ready." He explained, slowly reaching into a pouch on his right thigh and throwing a blood bag towards Danzo.

"I've already done my research on this, so you can have it." He spoke.

Danzo flipped the bag over in his hand and read the label out loud, "Fugaku Uchiha… So how often do you harvest?"

"Once every few weeks, and it'll continue like that until my little project starts to have a noticeable effect."

Danzo heaved out a sigh before holding his hand out, a pale folder appearing which he unclipped and laid on his lap. "So. Care to explain this?" He gestured to the first document on the pile.

'Lab results one - Goro Chinoike.'

The man's eyes widened before he had a smile reappear on his face. "That was just a little practice…"

"Practice huh, you should have told me you had this much experience in this field." He flicked through the pages, hundreds of lab results until it stopped on one newspaper from the land of lightning.

'Traitors within our midst, the Chinoike have gone mad!'

"Your own people?" Danzo mocked with a smile. The chinoike across from him immediately dropped his happy facade.

"I thought we agreed the past was the past."

"Uh uh, I said the past made the present, but was irrelevant."

"I see…"

"So. Maka Chinoike, how much experience do you have in this field?"

Maka closed his eyes and put up his palm, sending two chakra strings towards Danzo, who quickly dodged his head to the side as several ROOT shinobi entered the room. "Shimura. Do not go digging up the past, or you might end up in the hole you create."

"Do not lecture me boy. I know my priorities, this was out of… the best interest of our partnership you see." Danzo smirked as he stood up and grabbed his cane, putting a hand on Maka's shoulder. "But last time you missed one."

Maka grit his teeth as his eyes transitioned into a blood red form. "Don't remind me." He growled, vanishing in a cloud of blood coloured smoke. Danzo put his hand back by his side as he left the room, his soldiers following in an orderly fashion behind him.

'So close. I'm so close to having a genius such as him in the palm of my hand. Old monkey, keep that chair warm for me.'

Kumogakure - Shin POV

"Ha!" I swung my sword forward, knocking away Kakashi's kunai before his body exploded into a ball of lightning, jumping up my blade and into my body. I grit my teeth before dropping my sword and whipping my right forearm up to block Kakashi's leg. It still pushed me back slightly but I pivoted on my back foot and slammed a roundhouse kick into his leg, sending him sailing through the air until he planted his hand on the ground and recovered.

"Shin, we have some spectators." He spoke softly, his voice barely penetrating the air into my ears before I nodded.

"Let them watch. We're just sparring." Kakashi bounded towards me right as I finished my last word, launching a kick from his right leg. I put up my hand to block before my instincts told me to jump. Kakashi swung his left leg low and I leapt above it, hooking my hand onto his headband before staring straight into his eyes, putting him under a genjutsu.

Kakashi blinked to break it while I landed on the ground on the opposite side of him, putting my hands together before thrusting my palms forward. "Wind style: Gale palm!" I shouted, knocking Kakashi backwards into a tree across the field. He grunted as his back made an indent in the bark before he stood up again, shifting his headband to cover his left eye.

"Why did you uncover it?" He asked.

I smirked and held out a kunai, flicking it towards him. "To show you that I could!" I answered, putting my hands into 3 hand seals before the kunai multiplied into 2 dozen metal instruments.

Kakashi lifted his headband, looking around wildly at all of the kunai before he brought out one of his own, deflecting the first kunai, which bounced into two more, knocking a majority of the barrage off track before I disappeared from his view.

Kakashi looked around for me quickly, only to find a sword to his throat. I was standing on the opposite side of the tree, having substituted with one of the kunai he deflected.

I placed the blade back into my inventory and fetched the other that was on the ground, grabbing out two bottles of water and throwing one to Kakashi. "Shin, you mentioned you could combine chakra natures, and that's how you got your swift chakra. Have you tried with any others?"

"No." I answered truthfully, having forgotten I revealed the origin of my swift release to him a while back.

"Why not?"

"There wasn't really a need, and I don't have the control, especially now."

"With the nine tails?"

"Ku, yeah."

"Well, what if you trained?"

"I don't have the… oh for fucks sake."

"What's wrong?"

I put my hands into a cross, "multi shadow clone jutsu!" I called out, spawning one hundred clones around me. "Go train your chakra control, and you ten, go train water release." The clones nodded and dispersed in groups, as they knew to.

"Wait, you haven't been abusing that?" Kakashi gasped.

"Yeah, not really."

I heard him grumble to himself about his own training before his head snapped back to me. "Let's head back to the inn."

"Sure, are we heading back to Konoha tonight?"

"No, still one more day. But I wish we could leave sooner." He peered over to where our spectators were, two pairs of beady eyes staring at his own. One pair with black eyes, and the other with caramel brown ones. A tuft of red hair surrounded the brown eyed one's eyes while some white hair could barely be seen as a fringe over the black pair. They quickly ran away before Kakashi and I left towards the inn.

Scene Break

"How many teams are we sending?"

"18 teams, Lord Mizukage."

"18… What about him?"

"Are you referring to Zabuza, my lord?"

"Of course I am."

"He will be a part of those teams, as will Yagura."

"We're sending 2 one man teams?"

"Of course, they're too volatile to put with other members…"

"Zabuza maybe, but Yagura needs a chain. Put him with Mei Terumi and Ao."

"Mm, an excellent idea Lord Mizukage, since their last teammate was killed, they have not been on many missions outside of the village."

"Don't repeat what is already known, you're wasting air Komoki."

"Yes, my lord."

SB

"Lord Tsuchikage, the jonin sensei have all approved of their team's requirements for the chunin exams being held in Kumo. The number we're currently looking at is 39 teams."

The Tsuchikage seemed to have a tick form on his head as his pen snapped. "So much paperwork! They're just piling it on me!" He yelled, snatching the stack of paper from his blonde assistant. "Have the rest of the day off for your son. He has an art competition this afternoon, correct?"

"Yes sir, thank you." She bowed deeply before leaving the room.

Ohnoki smiled briefly before looking down at the paperwork on his desk, having half the mind to vaporize it with his particle style before he picked up a replacement pen and began to work again.

"Those Akafura are too fiery." he sighed, thinking of the woman's passion in art that had seemed to flow as thick as blood into her son, Deidara. He often thought he was too lenient with his treatment of his secretary, but he could see something in the young boy.

SB

"Lord Kazekage, have you decided on how many teams will be attending from our village?"

"Of course I have Baki, we will have 12 teams attending, including Pakura's student, Maki."

"Are you sure she's–"

"That does not matter, we simply need to make a good showing. They knew what they were getting into when they chose this career path."

"I-I see." Baki felt a bead of sweat drop at how dismissive the Kazekage was of his own shinobi, treating them as expendable tools rather than people. "I shall leave, my lord."

"Good, you aren't needed for now." He waved a single hand towards Baki and looked down at his desk, continuing to write.

SB

"Lord Hisen, are we sending any teams towards the chunin exams this year?"

"Just one, Hagu's team."

"Sir, are you sure?"

"We cannot hide him forever, even with the thing trapped inside of him. It might do him some good to get some sunlight anyway."

"Yes sir."

SB

1 week later, Konohagakure

Shin walked side by side with Kakashi as they entered their apartment, hearing a small clang inside before they unlocked the door. Kakashi looked at Shin, who nodded and whipped out a kunai.

"Who's here?!" Shin shoved the door open and flickered into the living room, his kunai poised to kill any intruder.

"Just me." A voice called out, closing the door to the bathroom behind Shin, who quickly snapped around before putting his kunai away.

"Itachi? What are you doing here?"

"Having a shower." Itachi brushed by the other boy before grabbing a glass from the kitchen cabinet while Kakashi parked his shoes at the front.

"I know I invited you to stay here anytime, but why now?"

"My father. He's changed recently." Itachi put his hand up to his sleeve, where Shin noticed there was no longer an Uchiha clan logo, instead a large hole showing Itachi's pale skin underneath.

Shin hummed in interest before walking towards his room and peeking through the door, which was slightly ajar. "Did you bring Naruto back with you?" He called out.

"No? Is something wrong?" Itachi responded while Kakashi hovered behind Shin and opened the door wider, enough for Itachi to also see from under Shin's armpit.

"Then what's the wriggling bundle of blankets on my bed?"

Kakashi sighed and opened the door, unwrapping the mound to reveal a familiar inferno coloured fox. "Vix?!" Shin shouted, startling the fox who immediately leapt onto Kakashi's face.

Itachi burst out laughing while Kakashi tried to pry the anxious fox off of his face. Shin hopped over and soothed his summon, taking it into his arms. "What's wrong? Where have you been?"

Vix's breathing calmed and she looked up at her partner. "I… I got it." A mound began to crawl up her throat and Shin cringed, watching as a glowing red ball fell into the open palm of his hand, immediately charing his skin before it was absorbed with Kurama's help.

The fox shivered before sighing and falling asleep, leaving the three humans in the room with more questions than cells in their bodies. "I think I can explain this." Kurama voiced while Shin laid Vix on the bed.

Shin put his hands together in a seal before a clone popped into existence next to him, with horrifying, slit pupils and red irises. "I'm here to explain." Kurama's temporary body gestured to a seat for stunned humans in the room to sit down. "Now if you remember correctly Shin, during my attack I was damaged."

"Well that's obvious, but what does… Oh!" The boy quickly realized, slapping his fist into his palm.

"As a being made of pure chakra, when I was damaged, chakra would spread out into the open air, a minuscule amount, but still enough to be toxic to humans. Fourth's seal gathered most of it during the sealing process, but there were so many tiny specks that some were missed. That ball being one of them."

"So why did she have it, or go looking for it?" Kakashi asked.

"As the progenitor of her clan, she felt a duty to keep me 'whole', and sensed a piece flying away during the attack, so she made chase. It seems even my own are affected by my poisonous chakra though."

Shin looked at his doppelganger before turning back to Vix. "No, I don't think so."

Kurama raised an eyebrow and Shin held his hands over the fox's torso, his hands glowing a slight blue hue. "Diagnosis says it's a form of pneumonia, nothing to do with your chakra. Though that doesn't discount the theory your chakra did a number on her immune system." The doppelganger nodded before sighing and turning back to the other two shinobi.

"You two, out of the room." He growled before Shin slapped him upside the head.

"I think he has something he wants to say, sorry guys." Shin apologized, holding up one hand. Kakashi and Itachi quickly vacated the room before Kurama uppercut Shin into the roof.

"Watch your actions brat." Kurama snorted.

Shin massaged his chin while laughing before his expression stilled. "So what is it?"

"I need your blood." The clone held up a palm laced with demonic chakra shaped into a claw as Shin sighed, letting his arm out towards his doppelganger. "Good boy." Shin flipped him off as the fox drew some blood from the boy's arm and splashed it over Vix, smearing it in an odd pattern over her chest.

"What are you doing?"

Kurama didn't reply, pulling Shin's hand closer and dragging her finger across his arm, pulling out a familiar red orb. "Are you actually going to try and–?"

"Yes. Now shut up and let me focus." Kurama inserted the orb into Vix, watching it sink in before a rush of killing intent flooded the room, enough to even trigger Kurama's natural instincts.

"What… was that?" Shin's palms were drenched in sweat, the outburst having awakened a primal fear within him, like prey standing before an apex predator he looked at his summon's unconscious body.

*ZZZZT*

A blue bolt of lightning zipped across Shin's vision and he suddenly fell unconscious.

"This has been a long time coming, little doll."

*Ahem* Here is your chapter people, sorry for the long wait, like how I'm graduating soon! Year 12 is almost over, and I wanted to get 1 more chapter out before shit hits the fan with tests.

Question, what do you think happened at the end of the chapter? Let me hear your theories!