Chapter 11: Persuasive Perspectives

Have you ever found yourself regretting your life choices? Caught yourself thinking, 'Damn, if only I didn't have such a hero complex, maybe I wouldn't be in this mess'?

Probably not, because most people didn't have hero complexes.

Bit of life advice: If you run low on chakra, don't get injured. The only thing worse than a chakra exhaustion induced headache was a chakra exhaustion plus concussion induced headache.

So yeah, life sucked a whole bunch right now. The only thing that could make it worse was having someone nag about my foolhardiness. Kawasaki was more than happy to take on the role.

"Chakra exhausted twice in two months," he noted. "You must really love this place, kid."

"Can the lecture wait?" I asked. "I'm not feeling it today."

"No, it cannot wait," Kawasaki said. "You were unconscious for more than a day and I need to make sure you are stable."

I groaned. "How does getting chewed out help?"

The doctor grinned maliciously. "To see if your critical thinking skills are still intact," he said. "Though after this stunt you've pulled, I have my doubts they were ever there to begin with. Do you have any idea how recklessly stupid you were?"

"Not any more supid than getting chakra exhausted in the training ground, I reckon."

"Don't get snarky with me," Kawasaki snapped. "I can tolerate accidents. I expected better of you than to knowingly risk your life fighting someone far above your level."

I sunk into my pillow. "It all worked out in the end, didn't it?" I murmured. "Waho is safe, and Mizuki is dealt with."

"You're just a kid, after all," he said, shaking his head. "Let me spell things out for you: Treating a cranial haemorrhage is no simple matter, doubly so on chakra-exhausted patients. Had we arrived any later you'd almost certainly have brain damage, which we still need to test for by the way."

My stomach twisted. The man was only worried about me. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged off my apology and the checkup began. I started by describing how I felt, where I was, who my friends were—basic stuff. Next, I was made to memorise and repeat a few words, before moving on to what I could remember about my fight and whether I had any memory gaps.

"Repeat the words from earlier again," he finally asked.

"Complication, mountain, ladder, snow," I responded. "We done now?"

"I am," he said. "You'll talk to the Hokage next. Don't fall back asleep before he gets here."

He left the room and I was left to mutter English curses under my breath. No rest for the wicked.

Hiruzen stepped in soon after, immediately demanding I go over everything that happened that night. He was especially interested in why I'd followed Iruka to the Hokage tower, and why I'd chosen to offer my help, to which I parroted classic shonen protagonist 'can't leave my comrades behind' lines.

"This was certainly quite the tale, my dear boy," Hiruzen finally said. "I clearly see the Will of Fire burns brightly within you."

He was all smiles, yet somehow it felt like he was patronising me.

"You are too kind, Hokage-sama," I said. "If anything, it is Iruka-sensei who should be commended for the dedication he shows his students."

"Indeed. It has been accounted for in his sentence," he affirmed—Wait what?—"For now, we have a reward to discuss. I believe you were intent on acquiring an alternative clone technique for Naruto and yourself?"

I perked up momentarily before remembering his earlier remark. "Hokage-sama, what was that about a sentence? Is Iruka-sensei getting punished?"

"He should have known better than to risk one student's life for another," he said. "Especially one so valuable. As such, he will keep his position no longer."

Hiruzen kept his assuring smile firmly in place as if he hadn't just confessed to firing my dearest homeroom teacher.

"But that's…" unacceptable. "Hokage-sama, Iruka-san had no other choice. There was a life at stake. I'm the one who insisted he bring me along!"

"Yes, and I applaud your attitude," Hiruzen responded. "However, you are just a boy, Satoya-kun. Iruka should have refused your offer and notified me of the issue instead."

Just a boy, and yet a year from now he'd be happy to send us out on potentially deadly missions.

I gripped my bedsheets. "You can't just—" Don't provoke the Hokage. "Mizuki was hiding in an abandoned laboratory. We could not be sure of his capacity to spy on our actions. Notifying the village might have been detected."

Hiruzen pondered my words with a light frown. Something must have struck a nerve. "You mean to tell me that nobody else could have done what you did?"

He didn't quite sound angry, but it was a tone that suggested he would tolerate no nonsense.

"The infiltration required me to use a nonstandard transformation, sir," I explained. "I believed nobody else could be found to replicate it at such short notice… nobody except Naruto perhaps."

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes in thought. "Shintai Kirikawaru no jutsu… a theoretical technique conceived by Chousan Akimichi. Even the second Hokage wrote it off as a fruitless pursuit due to its inherent instability."

"Well… Naruto and I both have pretty dense chakra," I offered, shrugging my shoulders. "Anyway, I was Iruka's only option. He shouldn't get punished for taking the only way out."

"No matter your personal attachment, I fear I cannot not let someone endanger Konoha's younger generation without consequences," Hiruzen stated. "It sets a bad precedent."

Oh and what about Danzou then, you old coot.

"I am not the only one who would miss him. Naruto and the other students would surely be disappointed if Iruka stopped showing up," I reasoned. "He is one of the only teachers to consistently treat everyone—especially Naruto—with kindness and respect. He also dedicates a great deal of time and effort toward educating his students, even outside academy hours."

Channel your inner Naruto, Satoya. You can do it!

"If I may speak freely," I said. "Iruka Umino is without a doubt the best teacher currently employed at the academy. If you must give me a reward, I wish for nothing more than to keep him as my teacher."

Hiruzen's gaze softened. "Perhaps I have been too hasty with my decision," he said. "The place we found you in brought back… difficult memories. I hope you can forgive my discourtesy. While he will be reprimanded for his lack of caution, I will see to it that Iruka-san's suspension will remain temporary."

I sighed a breath of relief. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

He chuckled and lightly shook his head. "No need to thank me for pointing out a mistake," he said. "This discussion has been most enlightening. Your desired technique will be delivered to you once you have fully recovered as compensation for your heroic deed."

Hiruzen bowed his head and was about to leave the room when a thought bubbled to the forefront of my mind. "Hokage-sama, there may still be one request which I would like granted…"

He paused in the doorway. "And what would that be?"

"To tell Naruto of his condition as…" I trailed off, unsure how much I could legally say. "Mizuki confirmed some suspicions I've long harboured about my friend regarding a certain large chakra creature. I believe it would be for the best if he were aware of his own situation."

Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at me, but it seemed more ponderous than angry—thank goodness. "Have you shared your suspicions with anyone else?"

"I have not told anyone else, as I believed there must have been a reason that nobody spoke it aloud," I replied. "I nonetheless believe that Naruto himself should be made aware. He needs to remain in control of his emotions should the worst come to pass."

Hiruzen nodded to himself, seemingly satisfied with my response. "Very well. I shall set up a meeting between the three of us and explain the situation," he said. "Keep in mind that this knowledge is an S-rank secret and must not be revealed under any circumstance."

"Of course, Hokage-sama," I replied. "I would never dare reveal everything I know about Naruto."

I suppressed a smirk at my own wordplay.

"Good. I pray for your quick recovery," he said, leaving the room.

Finally I could catch some more shuteye. Hopefully my headache would feel better the next time I woke up.

My recovery was just as tedious as the last time I'd spent time at the hospital—worse even. The aftereffects of my brain trauma made it too difficult to focus on something intellectually taxing like art, calligraphy or research. I wound up rereading The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi for the third time because its prose was easily digestible enough for my mental state.

It was just as mediocre as I remembered.

I was nearing the book's halfway mark when interrupted by the sound of… were those bells? Someone was jingling down the hall like an out of season christmas song.

"I think this is the room," someone announced just outside my door. Their aura reminded me an awful lot of…

Oh no.

"Beniyo, we aren't supposed to be here," said a familiar voice.

No God please, no.

"Pfft, that's a problem for future us," the original speaker—Beniyo—responded. "You wanted to say thanks, right?"

"That's right… however, I—"

The door slammed open. "YO!"

Beniyo stepped inside, dragging Waho along with her. She was everything her aura made me fear she could be.

Standard issue sandals and blue trousers paired with an honest to goodness red, white, and blue t-shirt+jacket combo. Besides looking like a Naruto character cosplaying as an American patriot, she even had bells at the end of her spiky hairdo!

"Nope, this is too much," I stated. "I cannot take any more {shonen protagonist energy} in my life."

At least Waho could be counted on to remain unassuming.

Wait, didn't she have scales last time? She's probably Orochimaru's bastard daughter or something!

"Too much? " Beniyo responded, pulling me back to reality. "Guess we'll just come back later."

"That's worse," I said. "That'll mean I have to keep track of even more people down the line." Bad enough the Rookie 9 have turned into Rookie 12 as is.

"As Konoha's future greatest distraction you'll have no choice but keep track of me," Beniyo loudly and proudly declared, before turning to Waho. "C'mon, do your thing. He's clearly not going to meet you outside."

Waho only grunted and mumbled something unintelligible.

"How very kind of you, Waho," I responded as if she'd just said something profound. "It was my pleasure to help out. I hope you will remain safe in the future."

My customer service smile was fixed firmly in place.

"See, he understands," Waho said, nodding to herself. "Now let us leave before you get Asuri's apprenticeship cancelled. Good job with the bastard."

"Right…" I said. "It was nice to formally meet you two."

Before she left, Waho added, "Please forget you saw anything strange. Goodbye."

Yup, totally Orochimaru's daughter. Then why would Mizuki aim to kill her? Perhaps he didn't know.

It's not plot relevant anyway.

To my despair, Beniyo stayed in the room even though her friend had already walked out. "Waho doesn't have many people she can rely on, so thanks. I owe you one," she said. "If you ever need anything, feel free to call on your neesan Beniyo. I'm not hard to find."

She flexed her bicep for emphasis, but honestly I was far more fixated on the fashion crime she called a hairdo. It's like Yugi from Yugioh decided his hair didn't look enough like a jester hat.

"Right I'll keep that in mind," I said, giving her one final once over. "Hold on, are those weights real!?"

She was wearing a belt covered with at least half a dozen 500kg weights strapped to it. I could barely handle 500kg total and she just casually lugged around Rock Lee levels of mass? How had this person not shown up in canon? Was she some kind of filler character? I knew skimming those would come to bite me at some point.

"Haha, no, but I made an enemy ninja faint one time when I took them off." she responded. "They're also filled with explosive tags in case I need them. I have a friend who makes a bunch as practice."

If ever there was a time to literally sweat drop, it was now. Thankfully that bizarreness wasn't one of the things that got translated into 3d.

"Right…" I responded. "That's a lot more reasonable."

As reasonable as a teen carrying a grenade belt could possibly be.

"Who's the friend that—"

The door slammed open once again. "Beniyo!" snapped a gaudily dressed newcomer. "We were supposed to meet up ten minutes ago!"

"I was just—"

She didn't get to finish her sentence before getting yanked out the door and out of sight.

My return to the academy in the following week went by without fanfare. I'd already seen my friends on the weekend, and to the remaining class my reappearance was far less noteworthy than that of our teacher. Clearly I was not the only one who enjoyed Iruka's teaching. It warmed my heart to see I'd made the correct decision pushing for his return.

After half an hour filled with questions regarding his whereabouts, followed by another half hour of questions regarding my involvement, we finally got to work.

Today's morning lesson was dedicated to chakra control—specifically leaf sticking. My friends and I had long mastered the basic exercise by now, so Iruka challenged us more advanced students to a game wherein we had to stick as many leaves as we comfortably could to our body while performing various physical routines. Sakura flexed on the whole class by using ten leaves without breaking a sweat and remained the undisputed champion throughout the lesson.

Iruka approached our group just before the break started. "Since you are all so advanced, I will bring you some heavier objects to train with next time," he explained, before addressing the top dog, "I was especially impressed by your technique, Sakura. Keeping that up for so long without draining yourself takes real finesse."

She wrung her hands and blushed lightly. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka smiled. "You'll be able to show off some more of that aptitude in the afternoon." He did not elaborate further before returning to the group of extras.

Who am I, Bakugo?

Part of me was tempted to help them out too, but at that point I'd basically be working full-time as an academy teacher without pay. I wasn't that magnanimous.

Akuma punched Sakura in the shoulder. "What's with the meek act?" she asked. "Just last week you went around shouting 'Shannaro!' during kunoichi class."

Naruto choked back a laugh and Sakura turned beet red. "Don't say such a thing," she whined. "I never act like that."

I could practically hear inner Sakura's anguished declarations of revenge. She was almost as good at acting as I was. Too bad for her, the only place where she could get payback out of Sasuke's sight would be…

I should go visit kunoichi classes sometime.

Our next lesson was taijutsu. Sasuke dominated, of course, but for the most part we rookies were fairly closely matched. Our spars weren't exactly the best comparative measure since we weren't allowed to use ninjutsu, but that was honestly to my advantage.

I could stomach losing to Hinata or even Naruto in hand to hand, but Kiba or Choji? Shadow clones couldn't come soon enough.

Following our lunch break, Iruka entered the classroom with a teacher I'd never seen before. A middle-aged woman with shoulder-length, straight, brown hair and golden eyes that seemed to pierce into my soul.

"You all know Yume-san by now," Iruka said. "She is a capable genjutsu user and will be responsible for teaching you the basics this year."

"Thank you, Iruka-san," the woman responded, before addressing the class. "I have seen your skills in chakra control firsthand. A purely introductory lesson will bore many of you. However, this is no excuse to slack off. Genjutsu is a delicate art, and will require your utmost effort to succeed."

Yume placed a lunchbox on the teacher's desk and pulled out an apple. "Your task for today is simple," she said. "Alter this apple's colour."

That statement had confused me at first, but it was quickly clear she hadn't misspoken. Our first goal was to shift our own perception with genjutsu. And while she'd made it sound like a daunting task, it was honestly rather easy to do. I merely had to locate my occipital lobe, drench it with chakra, badabing badaboom: your apple is now blue.

Of course there was still the whole 'inject intent to your chakra' stuff, but every technique needed that. Five years of academy instruction made it second nature.

The downside of my rapid success was getting paired up with a certain pink eye affected individual and his pink hair affected stan. We were placed together in an empty room and told to try and ensnare each other in the same genjutsu we'd gotten to work on ourselves. Given that Sasuke had Sharingan hax…

"So, Sakura," I said. "Should I try and start on you?"

She hadn't even been looking in my direction when I asked that. Heck, she wasn't even reacting to a word I said!

"Sakura?" I reiterated. "Helloooo?"

"She's in a genjutsu, dumbass," Sasuke replied in her stead. "Her own fault when she keeps glaring at me."

I furrowed my brows. "Do you actually believe that's what she was doing?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. The face of denial; I know it well.

"Anyway, I guess that means you're pretty advanced already," I said. "How do Sharingan genjutsu work, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Same way it works without..?"

I swear I heard a question mark.

"Do you picture a scene? Do you just wish for things to happen?" I asked. "How do you move your chakra? What parts of the brain do you target?"

His eyes were red again. I was probably getting on his nerves.

"I just do it," he said. "I look you in the eye and activate my Sharingan."

He probably lanced chakra out of his eyes or something… but wait. That didn't make sense. How could Sharingan function over reflections then? I'd probably hate myself for asking this.

"Sasuke, please hit me with a genjutsu."

The single tomoe spun around his pupil, and the red of his iris expanded across my field of view. I sensed something linking us together, but it didn't feel quite like chakra. It was too quick, and felt a lot less… material.

I had an inkling what it might be.

I broke eye contact. The classroom had been replaced by a shallow lake, stretching into the horizon. Both the water and the sky were dyed orange, but there was no sun to be found. Sasuke still sat across from me.

"Did it work?" he asked.

"Yes," I responded.

"Do you understand now?"

I cocked my head. "That's not what you were meant to say," I replied. "You were meant to say 'what did it cost' so I could answer 'everything'."

He opened his mouth for a fraction of a second before scowling and disappearing.

"Some day you will all grow to appreciate my {memes}," I said, hoping he hadn't walked away in real life. "Anyway yeah, your demonstration actually helped quite a bit. I'd forgotten that genjutsu requires yin chakra."

Though I hadn't forgotten how to free myself. I placed my hand on my temple and pushed chakra inside to momentarily disrupt the flow. The illusion broke.

"Can I try next?"

Sasuke shrugged. Sakura was still stuck in the earlier illusion.

"Actually first, shouldn't we free her?" I added.

Sasuke frowned and shrugged again. "She should have gotten out by now," he stated. "I didn't make it scary or anything."

I looked over at her face. She did look fairly content… is that drool?

"Sasuke, what did you show Sakura?" I asked.

"I just removed you from the room," he explained.

"And left yourself?"

"Yeah," he affirmed. "She must be really oblivious to not notice something is wrong. My copy isn't moving or even talking."

I glanced back to the sheen at the corner of Sakura's mouth. Was Sasuke really that deep in denial, or just super dense? Either way, I probably shouldn't burst his bubble.

"Let's just move to another room," I offered. "Seeing her sitting still and dull-eyed is making me uncomfortable."

I picked up the apple and we stepped into the hall. How would I go about using exclusively yin chakra for a technique? Our teacher had not mentioned this to be a necessity, but canon definitely had genjutsu classified as a yin release.

I took a deep breath and compared the feel of my chakra to Sasuke's Sharingan. The eyes felt like pure emotion—intent—mixed with a tiny little bit of energy, while my chakra felt like the halfway mark between energy and thought?

Yes, that question mark was intentional. Even in my own head I wasn't quite sure what I was feeling. I recalled Hiruzen had told me I had a Spiritual energy imbalance. Could that mean my chakra was inherently more yin-leaning? Either way I needed to up the spiritual content even more somehow.

By the end of the day I'd wound up with the wonky workaround of running a couple dozen laps around the training field without chakra boosting to use up my body's physical energy reserves. When I expelled chakra afterwards, my replacement wound up with a higher spiritual content than it had initially.

"Alright you two, prepare yourselves," I announced, holding up the apple. "Behold!"

Sakura's eyes widened while Sasuke's turned red.

"Wow, it worked," she said. "I barely even felt the genjutsu before I saw it."

Sasuke meanwhile grimaced in distaste. "As expected, it cannot fool my eyes."

Yup. Never in a million years will this work against Tobito.

The day's far juicier skill unlock arrived in the evening when a purple-haired female ANBU officer dropped off a technique scroll. "The Hokage sends his regards," was all she said before disappearing out of view.

Naruto leapt for the scroll with a, "Yoink!" and dashed away before I had a chance to react. I was left dumbly reaching for where the scroll once laid.

Error: Skill scroll already acquired by party member. "{Sunnofa—}"

I found my thieving roommate on his bed, browsing the scripture. As expected, it detailed the methods to cast the Shadow Clone technique. It also included an invitation to come by the Hokage's office on tomorrow evening—probably for the other promise he'd made.

"You really think this'll be easier than the normal clone?" Naruto asked, "It seems a lot more complicated."

Knowing Naruto learnt it within less than a day, I could only laugh. "I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough."

I was a lot more worried about myself. That 'cross'... it scared me.

Individual seals usually had limited effects. Overlaying your pathways in specific shapes excited the chakra particles to some degree, but only by adding additional seals—or through sheer will—could you fully transform chakra's behaviour.

The basic premise was: Hands do funky stuff - chakra does funky stuff.

So why did the cross scare me?

The 'funky' response to your 'funky' manual motions was to 'vigorously vacate a vast wave of chakra from the nearest tenketsu'. If it sounded bad, that's because it was. Not only because of the inherent dangers of chakra exhaustion, but also because rapidly forcing such a stream through undeveloped pathways could cause irreparable harm.

Naruto did not care about some pesky scroll's warnings. "Kage-bunshin no jutsu!"

I felt his chakra splurge into the room… and nothing else. "I think you need to do some shaping too, Naruto."

"I'll learn by doing," he said.

There was no use trying to talk him out of it. Unlike me, he had the chakra to spare, and I already knew he'd wound up just fine learning it on his own in canon. Then again, his success may have stemmed from the time pressure.

"How about we make it a competition?" I suggested. "The loser must call the winner shishou for the next month."

"You're on!"

Fool, I've practised the art of pulling all-nighters for longer than you have lived!

The two of us decided on instant Ramen for dinner, before spending the remainder of the evening—or night, in my case—in our rooms practising the Shadow Clone.

I just had to succeed once, and I could rest easy. Only once.

I lost count of how many times I failed. The technique didn't pain me terribly, but the sheer number of attempts left my tenketsu feeling raw and inflamed. Luckily it didn't dump out half your chakra pool unless the cast succeeded, else I would have returned to the hospital in record time.

The beginnings of dawn were creeping over the mountainside when I finally heard the telltale high pitched note and puff of smoke. My clone and I gave each other a dopey grin before falling asleep on the spot.

The alarm rang far too soon for my liking. I reached out for it only to feel someone else's hand already there. I rubbed my eyes and stared at the person I reached over.

"Oh right," I murmured, "You're still here."

"Isn't that my line?" my look-alike answered.

Wait. Am I the clone? Which way I was facing when I cast the technique?

"Maybe?" I responded, "Can we test who's the original somehow?"

"Ugh, I'm too tired to think about this," my—maybe not—clone mumbled. "Can't I just poke you with a knife or something?"

"A stab wound first thing in the morning?" I questioned, "Not that it doesn't sound tantalising but… it doesn't."

"Well, can't I just cancel the technique somehow?" my copy asked, "Pretty sure there's a way to do that."

The scroll hadn't mentioned anything of the sort. I assumed the clones themselves could somehow… "Huh, you don't know either?"

My tilted his head in confusion before he hopped off the bed and walked to the kitchen. My gnawing stomach urged me to follow him.

I grabbed a bread knife, as he took a steak knife.

We eyed each other.

"Uh, what are you planning to do with that thing?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" he responded, feigning ignorance, "It'll just be a small cut."

Okay, not feigning ignorance.

"Aren't you feeling hungry?" I ask, stepping away from the dangerously sharp object.

My clone furrowed his brows for a moment. "Not really, I mostly just feel tired."

"You're absolutely the clone," I concluded, relaxing my shoulders.

He immediately tightened his grip and took a few steps backward. "You'll never take me alive, scoundrel!"

He phrased it like a joke, but his wide eyes told a different story. "Calm down." I took a step toward him.

"Stay away from me!" he squeaked, "Don't make me hurt you!"

I stopped in place. Of all ways for him to react, this level of panic was not what I'd expected. It's too early for this shit.

"Look, man," I started, "You either dispel voluntarily now, or you'll eventually run out of chakra and dispel later."

It took just about half a second for me to recognise those were not the right words to say. The poor guy seemed to get overtaken by existential terror, as he curled up into a ball and began mumbling to himself. I would have approached were it not for the knife still in his possession.

"What the hell is up with you? Not like we haven't died before. What was all that therapy for?"

He glared at me. "Clones don't get an afterlife."

"You know what," I said, "How about you just go back to sleep. You're cranky and tired and overthinking things. If you disappear and your memories merge with mine, are you really dead?"

"Does the star trek teleportation device kill the person using it?" he asked.

"...no," I responded.

"You liar!" he accused. "We both know it totally does."

I switched gears. "You're just a chakra construct, you can't die since you aren't even alive." I argued. This was starting to get on my nerves. Scratch that, it was already pissing me off.

My clone flashed a few hand signs and a puff of smoke later, a girl with a pink mohawk and far too many piercings stood in his place.

"I'm not just a construct, asshole! I'm a unique individual and my name is Satsuko!" she shouted in defiance. "I have thoughts and feelings just like you!"

"God dammit, stop with this stupid nonsense. You're an extension of me. You don't die, your memory literally gets transferred!"

"This is oppression," she growled, waving the knife around. "Our creator doesn't care about us. We need to unionise! Down with the tyranny of the caster!"

"Who the hell are you even talking to?"

"I will not be silenced, I am the people's voice!" she raved, sidestepping to the front door. "I won't be trapped in your lies. I will escape and tell the world—"

The knife clattered to the floor and Satsuko puffed out of existence. It was followed up by a sharp stab of pain to my forehead and memories of… amusement? I could hardly believe he, me, wow this is confusing. How'd I actually buy into that? My clone had trolled the crap out of me.

"Satoya, you're the absolute worst," I grumbled, rubbing my face. I should have never taken up acting. At least the conversation served to wake me up a bit more. Was that due to compounding effects?

Another puff of chakra, another clone. "You know what to do," I told my new copy.

"Ehh, on second thought, I don't think I will," clone #2 declared. "How about I go to school and hang out with our friends instead of you?"

I silently stared at him.

"Alright you got me. I'm just messing with you again," clone #2 confessed. He then wandered back to my bedroom for a nice long nap. I ate breakfast and left my apartment. I picked up Naruto on my way out of the building as per usual so we could walk together.

"I heard shouting," he mentioned, "What was that about?"

I smirked, checking my chakra levels before creating a new clone. "Tadah!"

Naruto looked impressed until my clone opened his mouth. "You gotta help me, man! He has my wife and kids! He's holding them hostage so I'll help fool you with a henge!"

I karate chopped the clone in the back of his neck and he dispelled. Naruto was trying his best to hold in his laughter as he crossed his own fingers and summoned two clones of his own. The three of them all shared a victorious smirk.

"I won," he declared.

"Hey, amount doesn't matter," I countered.

He shook his head. "Satoya, Satoya, Satoya…" he tutted. "You think I don't see those bags under your eyes? I bet you only got it down a few hours ago. I think we can both agree you've lost this bet."

I wasn't giving up that easily. "How about this: I'll call you Naruto-shishou if you teach me how to get your clones to listen to you."

"Counteroffer: You call me shishou or I tell everyone that you can't get your clones to listen to you."

"That's mean, shishou."

Naruto laughed.