The third day of exams kicked off before the sun had begun to rise. No one had the energy to so much as utter a word through breakfast, which I tore into with fervor. Chakra had mended our bodies somewhat overnight, but it could only do so much to reverse the strain we had subjected them to during the previous day's conditioning test.

Once I crammed as much food in my stomach as would fit, I used the time it took for everyone else to finish to get as far through my stretching routine as I could. My muscles felt tighter than they ever had been, and I needed to limber up to tackle the day.

"It's good to see such spirited and eager faces this morning," Yoshiro-sensei said sardonically as he entered the room. I hadn't seen much of him these last two days, for whatever that was worth. I knew he had a big role in deciding our final grades, so he must have been watching in some capacity, though I didn't know how since so few portions actually took place in the academy proper. But ninja had their ways, so I should just assume he had somehow seen it all.

No one had the energy to respond, and he snorted.

"Well, cheer up. You have an easy day ahead of you, so that you can enter the mission portion tomorrow relatively fresh."

Yeah, that was bullshit. I didn't believe for a second we'd have an easy day—less physically intensive, maybe. But while using chakra didn't make our bodies sore, it still burned energy.

"Ninjutsu?" Yamada Eiji—the older Eiji—asked.

"Yes," he answered drolly. "I know, I know. Very exciting."

This was the portion many of us were looking forward to the most. All but a few among us could use each of the Basic Five jutsu with moderate proficiency, so even the worst students had the potential to earn decent marks. Theoretically. If only that was all there was to it.

"We'll split into smaller groups for each test," Yoshiro-sensei announced. "I suggest you utilize the time this process takes to bring yourselves to alertness."

Said smaller groups were each made up of four students (mine consisted of Ashikaga Takeo, Go Yosuke, Usui Ichiro and myself, meaning that, like in all groups, there was a wide range of talent). Since our batch was down to twenty-four members (Chinen Satoshi, Ishii Masaru and Yasui Shiori had held themselves back over the last couple of semesters, while Kudo Seiji transferred in from Batch Sixty-Six), there were no odd ones out. Once we were all organized, we were introduced to our first challenge. For our group, it was the Henge.

Members of the genin corp were brought in for this test, and it was quite obvious that they all had mixed feelings about it. Some were resentful about being forced to be stooges in the exam they couldn't hack, a couple wanted us to pass and be spared their fate, and others simply wanted to fail us out of spite. All of them realized that being ordered to take part in this was a direct insult—their commanders were all but overtly saying they were dumb and unskilled enough to conceivably be fooled by prospective genin.

This is how it went: the group of genin were given a task, and we watched them for an extended period of time. Every half hour, they would be brought into separate rooms, where they would wait for five minutes before leaving and rejoining the others. During that time, they might be replaced with a member of Batch Sixty-Seven. We were given the choice of who we would replace and when.

Our biggest difficulty was that each genin in the squad knew one another. They were work associates at least, friends at best. They knew each others' idiosyncrasies, their speech patterns, the way they fucking walked. Our only allowance was that, to compensate for the fact that they knew they were about to be infiltrated, they were not allowed to ask each other about personal details (family, hobbies, anything that couldn't be known without a level of familiarity impossible to reach under these conditions) unless they were given probable cause. I assumed that was something that they would have to justify to the proctors if it became relevant.

I think I demonstrated my skill to an extent many of my classmates wouldn't reach. The proctors implied that we would have to fabricate our personalities solely based on observances, but I had an additional idea. When I decided it was my turn (after three hours of watching), I made use of the short window to search the genin I swapped with. Since he didn't put up a fight, I assumed it was an option the proctors had built into this test.

Long story short, the personal effects gave me additional information on my target, and acted as props that removed me from suspicion. Of course, unless the genin felt the need to do something overt like ask a personal question, they wouldn't call us out for bad performances, and would instead bring their suspicions to the proctors after the test's conclusion. So I couldn't be sure.

The Henge test took a long fucking time, but after it was done, my group was sent to take the Kawarimi test. It was about what I expected; the genin team engaged us with taijutsu, bukijutsu and even the occasional ninjutsu, and we had to evade without attacking. That didn't mean wantonly using the replacement technique; that wasn't always, or even often, the best choice. I was sure we would be graded on when we used the technique, what we replaced ourselves with and what position the replacement left us in.

While the Henge test was mentally draining, this one was physically draining. Thank god it didn't last nearly as long as the first—I only saw action for around twenty minutes before time was called. Neither Takeo or myself were tagged, while Ichiro was hit twice and poor Yosuke got beamed by three blunt kunai before suffering a much more debilitating impact of an earth bullet that ended the exercise.

Once he was healed by a medic, it was our turn on the Moguragakure course, AKA the ninjutsu test my batchmates were most likely to fail. Having it second to last was an advantage to those with smaller chakra reserves, though last would have been better. As the only C-rank justu in the Basic Five, Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu was the most chakra intensive. Depending on how long it would take, some might exhaust themselves, rendering them unable to perform to their best ability in any ninjutsu test afterward.

We were taken to the innocuous Training Ground Two near the Tsuchikage's Palace, which I happened to know was normally only available to be booked by jonin. It had approximately the same area as a football field, though circular, and there were no visible props or obstacles. Visible being the operative word.

"We have buried eight metal rings of varying sizes underground," the proctor announced. "In the center of each ring is a painted shuriken. Retrieve all eight shuriken, and you pass this portion. The amount of time you take will also play a role in your grade. Ashikaga-san will go first."

She did well, of course, completing the course in under fifteen minutes. There must have been more to it than what the proctor implied, because if it was as simple as finding rings underground it wouldn't have taken her more than five.

Ichiro was called to go next, and he took far longer. It took him almost half an hour, and he had to come up, gasping for air, four times. While using Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu, you could breathe underground, kind of. But how much oxygen you pulled was limited—it was akin to sucking in air through a straw. Skill and chakra expenditure played a role too. Still, though I was pretty sure he didn't get high marks, he finished the portion.

The same couldn't be said for Yosuke. Our civilian-born groupmate, after a good forty-five minutes (with multiple breaks) only succeeded in getting five out of the eight shuriken. At that point, we felt a blip of chakra underneath us, and the chunin sighed. He sunk into the earth himself, and followed the SOS to our trapped classmate.

Upon surfacing, Yosuke was unresponsive. He must have blacked out from lack of oxygen, chakra exhaustion or both. Just another reminder of how dangerous this jutsu could be. A medic was summoned, but there wasn't much he could do to rouse him.

"Last but not least," the chunin said blithely, after taking a couple minutes to reset the course.

I nodded and flipped through the hand signs. Under my feet, solid ground turned to oobleck as Doton chakra transformed dirt and rock into fine sand while simultaneously lubricating each grain. Quickly, I sank into the earth.

- - - { ワナビー } - - -

We were first taught the Moguragakure no Jutsu my ninth semester in the academy. It was, to this very date, the only jutsu that I hadn't looked forward to learning. Yes, its usefulness was indisputable, and the jutsu was the cornerstone of any Iwa shinobi's arsenal.

But fuck was it terrifying. Caves already made me nervous, but being completely submerged underground? Literally buried alive? Fuck that.

I wasn't nearly alone in thinking along those lines. Luckily, Yoshiro-sensei had a tried and true method of getting us to overcome our fears.

"Into the hole, Imai-san," he said, gesturing at a deep, perfectly circular hole that had been dug into the ground with ninjutsu. I did as directed with little hesitance—if there was an open channel that I could breathe through, I had little to fear. I could practice the jutsu by moving laterally, leaving me with an open space to retreat to if I unexpectedly ran out of air.

"Now, mold your signs," he said, and I did. The Moguragakure no Jutsu gave its user five minutes of swim time before it had to be reapplied. And you really needed to not fuck that up and wait too long; if you allowed the jutsu to run out, the soil would resist displacement, which made molding new hand signs to recast the jutsu impossible.

"Have you done so?" he asked, knowing I have a tendency to run through signs before actually casting the jutsu.

"Hai," I confirmed.

"Good. The exercise begins now. Brace yourself."

…brace myself?

A temporary chunin instructor who had been brought in today appeared next to Yoshiro-sensei and began to flip through signs.

"No, wait!" I started to cry, but then all I could see was dirt falling over me, like a bulldozer had come to refill the hole. The hole I was currently stuck in. Underground. Powerless.

I clamped down on the urge to hyperventilate. Not that I could—breathing, an ability I had only just started to take for granted again, was now almost impossible. As I tried to draw in air, it felt like I had a tightly woven sack over my head. My nostrils were filled with the cloying scent of earth, and I felt pressure on all sides, as if I was being lightly crushed.

This was just like the day I died. Almost. But when I drowned in the Baltic, I could at least see. See the lighted water above me, out of reach but most definitely present. Here, there was nothing but blackness.

I had a full-blown, PTSD-fuelled panic attack down there in the ground. I couldn't do anything. All my education, all my theoretical studies into the jutsu couldn't be drawn upon. My mind was blank. All I could do, fading into unconsciousness, was pulse my chakra like I had been instructed, in a desperate plea for help.

- - - { ワナビー } - - -

That was the first time I had utterly, shamefully failed in front of my class in anything that wasn't taijutsu. I distinctly remembered waking up in a panic, muddy tear tracks under both eyes, to find the entirety of Batch Sixty-Seven staring at me. I was prepared to be belittled, shamed, mocked. I was shocked to see, almost unanimously, the opposite.

People were friendlier to me after that. They had all undergone the same treatment, and many reacted in the same way. Even those that hadn't understood. It was a unifying experience, and I think it also humanized me in their eyes. I knew I had fostered this semi-untouchable persona, born from my academic and personal achievements. They couldn't know that my single-minded focus and intensity was born out of desperation to escape Gari's clutches. They just knew that I worked harder than anyone, so much so that I didn't have time to socialize or engage in anything age-appropriate.

Our trauma, however, meant nothing to Yoshiro-sensei. The whole throwing us in a pit and burying us alive became a daily thing for an entire semester, and eventually we got over our fears. We had no choice.

Once I was capable of muscling through the sheer panic, I began to realize that using the Moguragakure no Jutsu really wasn't much like drowning after all. I could breathe enough, so long as those breaths were measured and purposeful, and I had a great deal of control over myself and the environment around me. The jutsu created a bubble around my body that instantly crumbled rocks into sand. However, while the jutsu was built so that the chakra forming the bubble naturally emanated from every tenketsu, we could consciously limit the scope to create hand/footholds of unaffected ground to push off against. And the more strength we used to wade through our surroundings, the faster we could move. It beat futilely struggling against liquid by a mile.

Then there was the sensing aspect. True sensors, who could identify chakra presences from a long distance, had a great advantage, but a lesser skill could be cultivated by anyone. Trained ninja could sense chakra usage around us, though not any characteristics of said chakra usage. In other words, if someone expended chakra near me, I could tell that it was happening, and in which direction it was coming from relative to myself. I couldn't tell what it was meant to do, whether it was elemental in nature, or even whether it was ninjutsu, taijutsu or genjutsu (though genjutsu often messed with this sense or even blocked it outright).

Which meant that ability had to be supplemented in order to effectively use the Moguragakure no Jutsu. We were taught to feel the vibrations, which seemed amplified by the weird consistency the earth around us turned into. It helped us pinpoint the locations of people above us, but it could also be used to sense objects surrounding us that our Doton chakra couldn't break down.

Like metal. So, it was almost child's play to sense the rings the proctor spoke of once we got close enough.

If only it were that easy.

Our objectives weren't the only things buried with us. There were also nets pulled taut through the ground, and worse, networks of razor wire.

Both were a bitch to get around—I was just glad they left out the exploding tags, which were another commonly used obstacle our enemies supposedly employed against us. Those were hard to sense, and in times of conflict, Iwa could only deal with them by dispatching teams of "sweepers" to search beneath each battlefield (sometimes while the conflict was still ongoing).

None of the obstacles they placed could stop me. It took more time than I wanted, but I was able to collect all eight shuriken from inside the rings. Then, for the drama, I located the proctor (heavier than my classmates) and popped up in front of him to deliver my goods.

"The shuriken?" He prompted, unimpressed.

I held out the brace to him.

"The exam shuriken," he repeated, and it took a second to realize what he meant. But then I looked down at the shuriken for the first time and realized that the weapons I collected weren't painted red like those produced by my classmates.

"What the fuck?" I said, bewildered. "I just…these were the ones I collected! From inside the rings, all of them!"

"Those ones were red," he said impassively. "I should know—I placed them there myself."

I searched his face for some hidden meaning and came up empty. I then scoured my memory, thinking I had somehow misinterpreted the test. Maybe there was another step. Was there a fucking can of paint down there that I was supposed to put on the shuriken myself?

"Is my time still running?" I asked desperately.

"I suppose. Have you not given up?"

I dove into the ground as my answer. Fifteen minutes later, much too long, I still hadn't found anything. I resurfaced.

"You couldn't even find a single one?" the proctor said neutrally, and I could hear the steam figuratively whistling from my ears.

"I found all of them, actually," I said, trying to keep my cool. "Are you sure you didn't mistakenly set ordinary shuriken instead of the test ones?"

He was slouching before. At my semi-diplomatic question, he straightened and seemed to grow half a foot.

"Alright, I've had enough of this," he said dangerously, a flicker of killing intent searing the air. "Inadequacy is one thing. Attempted cheating, blatant and ridiculous as your attempt was, is another. But now you're accusing me of incompetence? No. You fail, Imai Kasaiki. Not even a single point—fainty over there outscored you."

He jerked a thumb at Yosuke, who still hadn't woken up. I burned in fury.

"And this embarrassing stunt you tried to pull will find its way back to the proctors."

I incredulously whirled back on my batchmates, the two conscious ones anyway. Both were frowning in confusion.

"Ashikaga-san," I called desperately. "If Ashikaga-san can find the shuriken that are supposedly still buried, then—"

"Kami, this is pathetic," the asshole said, pinching his brow. "And you call yourself a proud Iwa kunoichi? No, I will not allow you or your friend to delay this farce any longer. Other groups need to use this training ground. Get out."

I stood stock still, glaring at the proctor as my own killing intent broke through the shackles I kept it under. My entire body broke out in a cold sweat, and I could feel the pounding of my heart in my temples.

Thankfully, Takeo intervened before I could do something I would regret. She stepped in between me and the proctor I could vividly imagine myself murdering, and clapped a hand on my shoulder.

"Let's go," she said simply. I didn't—couldn't—respond at first, but I eventually began to stop putting up a fight and let her lead me away.

- - - { ワナビー } - - -

I would have loved a moment or two to collect myself, but we were thrown straight into our final test: on Ninpo: Tōton no Jutsu. Before I was called to go first, we were directed back towards the front gate. I used that time to stew, and to consider.

What was going on? Did I genuinely fuck up and misunderstand the exam? I very nearly asked Takeo if I had missed something, but I kept quiet. I didn't know who I could trust.

But I looked. Really fucking hard. If I missed a surprise objective underground, I'd eat my future Hitai-ate.

No. The only possible option was that the proctor, or someone else, had switched the red shuriken for ordinary ones, intentionally framing me for cheating in the process. Maybe it wasn't malicious, maybe there was a lesson in there somewhere—who was I fucking kidding. Of course it was malicious.

Someone was trying to bring me down. Either it was the jonin parent of one of my competition—sorry, I meant my classmates. Or, far more likely, it was Gari.

That bastard would not have a peaceful death. I would make sure of it.

Unfortunately, plotting his demise would have to wait. I had another test, and I couldn't be sure it wouldn't be doctored as well. Luckily, it seemed as though there were far fewer ways to do so this time.

Ninpo: Tōton no Jutsu, or the Transparent Escape Technique, temporarily gave its user the properties of a chameleon, changing the colors of their exterior into something that matched whatever was behind them. It was a camouflage technique with little application close up, though it had significant use at a distance.

I was given three tokens, which were thankfully far more distinct than a mundane shuriken. In other words, it wouldn't be believable if they were replaced with false mission objectives. So at least I didn't have to worry about that.

But the task itself gave me some concern. I was to drop off each token at three separate buildings within the village, without being seen by the proctor standing watch in the tower above us. If there were other proctors on Gari's payroll, they could say that they spotted me when they didn't, or they could remove my tokens after I left each building, and claim that they hadn't been dropped.

Or this was all a bluff and he wasn't planning on using his influence at all this time around, so that I would act irrationally and fail on my own.

I hated this.

"Hajime," the proctor said, and I raced off.

With so little time to plan, I could only think of one way to ensure that my tokens wouldn't be removed. In each building, there was something made out of stone, and I used the Moguragakure no Jutsu to soften it, and subsequently embed the tokens into the surface so that only one of their faces was visible. I then covered that face with an explosive tag, which I armed with a touch-trigger.

Yeah. I wasn't fucking around. A crooked proctor would either have to get a specialist to diffuse it, or have me come back and do it myself, thereby proving that I had been able to reach the target building to begin with.

They could still mark me down for "being spotted," but there wasn't anything I could do about that. Just pray that the proctor on the watchtower wasn't working for Gari.

I finished the course quickly enough that I should be awarded a fantastic grade, and was tiredly asked by a proctor to disarm the bombs. I went back between the buildings to do what he asked, scooping out a fistfull of rock where the token was to leave a visible mark. Then, I returned to watch my classmates complete the exercise from up above with the proctor, trying to get a read on him in the process. He was a chunin, so my efforts were pointless.

The sun hung low in the sky by the time they were all done. Since we couldn't exactly be tested on the final jutsu in the basic five, it seemed like we might actually get an early night.

Until I was pulled aside by Yoshiro-sensei the moment my group reached the academy. I thought he was confronting me about the Moguragakure test, but he made no comment on that.

"Imai," he said shortly. "You have a specialization exam. Head to Training Ground Four."

I nodded stiffly, half annoyed and half relieved. I wanted to justify myself to sensei, but it was probably for the best that I didn't. A true ninja let their actions do the talking, and I didn't trust myself not to put my foot in my mouth.

Training Ground Four was only technically in the village, nestled between three mountains in the Sekitsui. It was big—over five times larger than Training Ground Two. Batch Sixty-Seven had taken a camping trip there once which lasted a whole school week as a part of our survival class in year three. It was eerie making the trek alone.

Waiting for me at the entrance though was one of my top ten favorite people in this life. Closer than a teacher, I would call him my mentor, Date Fumio.

"Shishō," I greeted, some of my ill will fleeing at the sight of a friendly face.

"Yo," he said with a small smile, leaning against a cliff face. "How's the exam coming?"

"Great," I lied. So far, only one of my test portions had overtly gone to shit, but I couldn't know my results for most of the other portions. I highly doubted the heiress of the Kamizuru clan and the Red Ogres could be bought off, but I hadn't seen the results for any of the other portions. I had no idea what Gari had been able to influence up to this point.

"Good. You're over halfway through. You just have to make it the rest of the way."

He pushed himself off the rock to stand up straight.

"That being said, you can't be thinking about what lies ahead just yet. I've devised this portion of the test. And don't think I'll go easy on you, just because you're my star pupil."

"I'm your only pupil," I grumbled good-naturedly. Jutsucraft was the most desired out of every offered specialization, and was also the most difficult to get into by far. Most years, no one was selected for it. In Batch Sixty-Seven, I was the only one. And let me tell you, that was a bitch and a half to arrange.

But it was well worth it. One on one instruction with Date Fumio, one of the premier jutsu inventors in the village, listed as an A-Rank threat for his theoretical knowledge in every other major village's bingo books, was more than I could have ever hoped for.

What I didn't expect was to be shoved into a second specialization class, this one taught by Jin Toshiaki. I wasn't his only student, taking the class with Takeo and Ishimoto Eiji (my fellow early enrollee). Advanced Battle Strategy wasn't as exciting as Jutsucraft, but it was interesting nonetheless. Jin-sama was eccentric, but a good teacher once you got used to his personality.

I don't think I'll be tested separately on that material—there were several extended response questions on the written portion pertaining to what I learned, and several key actions I would make over the course of the entire exam likely had some bearing on the grade as well.

"Here's the situation," he told me. "In Training Ground Two, you'll find a full squad—three genin led by a chunin. They set up camp about half an hour ago, and they will remain here for the entire night. They have, in their possession, a storage scroll containing sensitive documents."

He used finger quotes.

"They have been told to protect that storage scroll. Obviously, due to the location and timing, they would have to be idiots not to put together that this is a part of the genin exam, but they've been given no additional information."

"You want me to get the scroll," I assumed.

"Unseen." He gave me a sly smile. "No jutsu that you have will fool even a single one of the genin, much less the chunin. They have trained for years to see through the transformation technique, the Transparent Escape technique, and they can sense when you're about to come up through use of Hiding like a Mole. I wouldn't try to get in quick with Kawarimi either—you'd be spotted."

"So I have to come up with something they won't expect."

"That's the test." He backed up a step. "There's no time limit. Take the entire night, if you have to."

"And be left exhausted tomorrow morning? Yeah, not likely."

He nodded. "Best get to it, then."

- - - { ワナビー } - - -

Date Fumio had climbed one of the surrounding mountains to gain a better view over the test site, and, by this point, had watched his student for over an hour. It wasn't particularly exciting theater, but he knew better than anyone that jutsucraft rarely was.

His specialization had been glamorized ever since the words invention and ninjutsu had first been crammed together, but what all the kids chomping at the bit to learn under him didn't realize was that most of his day was spent hunched under a lamp, scribbling away on notebook after notebook after notebook. Where most people saw the hand seals and effects of each jutsu he created, all Fumio saw were the stacks of research material and recorded findings that went into the process. All of which were now either destroyed or kept under lock and key in a secure location.

There was a soft pop and puff of smoke next to him as a Red Ogre appeared, holding Yoshiro by the bicep. Fumio, privately, held much respect for the man; he couldn't imagine himself mustering the will to keep living, much less remain a crucial asset of Iwagakure, after losing his ability to mold chakra. Yes, all ninja relied on the ability, but none had the same relationship with the energy as Fumio did. And after personally creating several shunshin variants, he would have been mortified to be reduced to relying on others to take him side-along.

"Yoshiro-san," he said, keeping those thoughts to himself. "How might I be of service to our esteemed Head Proctor?"

"I'm just here to spectate," he said, ignoring the teasing grin.

"What, don't you have more important things to do than watch a single student's exam?" Fumio prodded, voice drenched with irony.

"Not currently," he said, blandly. "There are a handful of specialization tests ongoing, but nothing that requires my undivided attention. The other proctors can handle things while I'm gone."

Fumio hummed in thought, the smile still on his face. He knew the real reason Batch Sixty-Seven's sensei was here.

"How's she doing, overall?" he asked.

"As expected," was the simple reply. "With one exception. She failed one of her ninjutsu tests today. The Moguragakure."

Fumio raised an eyebrow. "But she knows the Moguragakure. Quite well, in fact. She's even had some experience with modifying it."

"I'm aware," he replied. "But not only did she allegedly fail to recover any of the test objects, but she was also caught cheating."

"Allegedly," Fumio noted the word choice.

"I, of course, also know of Imai's proficiency in the technique. It outshines nearly all of her classmates. If Hirose Daigo and Asa Hifume both passed with flying colors, it's inconceivable that she wouldn't as well." He sighed. "I know the proctor. He's upstanding and competent. He would judge each of the students fairly, regardless of bias. However, if I misjudged him, and if any of that wasn't true, he wouldn't give Imai Kasaiki a zero. He would have given her a low but believable score."

"You think he was pressured by someone to fail her, and wanted to perform his duty as proctor whilst outwardly doing as ordered," Fumio finished. "What will you do about it? Give her a retest, supervised by yourself?"

"No. I don't have all the pieces. Something as overt as that could open us up for retaliation. She will keep her zero—it's recoverable. Reviewing her other scores, it doesn't seem like any other portion was tampered."

"Are you saying that for my reassurance, or your own?" Fumio needled. "I know how much you have riding on this."

"You shouldn't."

"Yet I do." Fumio handed him a spare set of binoculars. Night had fallen, so it was difficult to see even with them, but he pointed out their student all the same. "If it puts your mind at ease, she's been hard at work ever since I gave her the assignment. Looks like a variation of the Henge. Though it's turned into a Bunshin."

The Bunshin, Henge and Tōton were all derived from the same concept, which involved creating a bubble of chakra that conformed to the shape of a person (or, in regards to the transformation technique, the shape of whatever the user wanted to transform into). The main difference between the Bunshin and the other two was that the bubble didn't wrap around the user—it appeared somewhere else, directed by a point-and-shoot chakra projectile similar to the replacement technique's tether.

"As impressive as it is that Imai, despite likely never witnessing the technique, is recreating it using the transformation technique as a template, the Bunshin won't help her in this test," Yoshiro pointed out.

Some other villages viewed the Bunshin as a staple, and made all their budding ninja learn it even though it was practically useless. The fragile chakra constructs could be seen as fakes even from a distance by any shinobi worth their salt, and in combat they were often more of a hindrance than a help, as they blocked the user's line of sight even more so than they did the enemy's. Its true value was for educational purposes. The jutsu's model of usage was found in many other, more useful techniques they would learn later down the line.

Iwa's academy didn't view that as a good enough reason to spend time teaching it to their students—they had far more important and immediately helpful things to work on.

"Yes," Fumio agreed. "But I think there's more to it than that. Kasaiki-chan's external chakra control is poor. If she uses the technique, they should stand still, or at least follow a predictable pattern if she built one into the technique. But the clones she makes are moving after they are created, and strangely at that. It's almost as if they are drifting in the wind."

"And not only that," Yoshiro said. "But it must be uncommonly chakra intensive. On the ground, she has a storage scroll. She's taking food out of it, and eating."

It was something they'd noticed but never commented on. Whenever Imai Kasaiki was low on chakra, she ate. A lot. It was common knowledge that food turned into physical energy, which turned into chakra. But the human body had limits. It couldn't simply refill its chakra reserves so quickly.

Imai Kasaiki's body didn't seem to get that message.

They continued watching in silence. She seemed to rest, spending some time observing the team again rather than focussing on her technique. She had done so before, immediately after receiving her assignment, but now it seemed as though she was looking for something. The mission objective, perhaps? It was out of view, but from his own observations prior to his student's arrival, Fumio knew that it was held by the chunin himself, on the inside pocket of his flak vest. A doppelganger peaked out of his thigh pocket.

After another long while, she began to act, molding a much longer string of hand seals than what were typically used to cast the Bunshin no Jutsu. Nothing seemed to appear, from Fumio and Yoshiro's perspective, but the same apparently couldn't be said for the chunin.

By the light of the fire that sat in the center of their camp, Fumio saw a frown cross the man's face. He began to look around in confusion.

What's wrong? Fumio read off the lips of one of the genin, a man in his early thirties.

I sense something, the team leader replied. From all directions. Perhaps multiple sources. Form a perimeter.

"All directions?" Yoshiro parrotted, also reading the man's lips. Fumio didn't yet have an explanation, as Kasaiki had only performed the one jutsu. She seemed to be waiting.

The team was on alert, and the minutes stretched.

I don't sense anything, another genin, a younger kunoichi in her late teens, said. I never did.

Me neither, said the other.

I still sense it, the chunin snapped. It's close.

The kunoichi looked back over her shoulder at her superior, and Fumio saw her eyes widen. Then, she barked out a laugh.

You had me going for a second, she said, fully turning around and dropping into the ready stance of the Stone Fist.

What are you doing? The chunin barked. We might be in the village, but we were still given a mission. And our adversary is near.

I'm quite aware, she said as the other genin shared a look of confusion.

Emiko? One question.

Look closely at our so-called leader, she said, and they did. Fumio could tell the second they realized what was going on. Or, at least, the second they thought they realized what was going on.

The scroll, the oldest said, sinking into his own mirrored ready stance. Hand it over.

At the aggression directed towards him, the chunin frowned but remained upright.

Check yourself for genjutsu, he ordered.

We did, Emiko said, and with that the fight was apparently on. The three genin charged their superior officer and engaged him in taijutsu. Unsure of what was happening, the chunin only evaded, ordering them to stop.

"I don't understand," Yoshiro said. "What did she do?"

"I'm not sure," Fumio said, thoroughly entertained. "But Kasaiki-chan is on the move."

The chunin had enough of dodging. Quickly, he attempted to subdue the older man, yanking him into a sleeper hold and holding him as a human shield. But it seemed as if he underestimated his subordinate, or at least the lengths to which his subordinate was willing to go. The man flipped through hand signs and used a low-level Raiton jutsu to shock his superior into releasing him. The kunoichi was there in a second, ignoring the scroll at his side and yanking down the zipper of his flak vest. Obviously, she knew where the real target was.

She was batted aside, but she had done her job. Her last teammate was there, snatching the scroll and throwing it to the reeling kunoichi.

"There!" Fumio said excitedly as something happened so quickly that even most shinobi would have missed. The team below certainly did.

"Was that the replacement technique?" Yoshiro asked, frowning.

"A detached replacement technique," Fumio explained. "Switching an object with another object."

In this case, a storage scroll with another storage scroll. SInce both were standard issue, they outwardly looked the same. Only their contents would be different.

"Extremely difficult. I didn't teach her that, and she wasn't practicing it just now. She must have cracked it on her own time. And…it's back."

The scrolls had been switched again just before the kunoichi picked it up, placing it in her own pocket. A necessary precaution, in case it had been marked in some unobtrusive way. Doubtlessly, its contents had been removed. Meanwhile, the battle had stopped, for some reason. No one was physically fighting any more, but they were arguing. All were confused.

"They thought the chunin was an imposter," Yoshiro gathered from each of their accusations. "Something about a missing scar. The chunin is still insisting they were under a genjutsu of some kind."

"That doesn't make sense," Fumio said. "Kasaiki has an extensive knowledge base in the art of genjutsu, but her external chakra control isn't nearly good enough to cast them with the fluidity or finesse required for anything convincing. Besides, a chunin's senses can't be fooled so easily. He sensed Kasaiki's chakra around him. And she never visibly displayed the jutsu she's been working on this whole time."

Yoshiro was silent for a moment. "She didn't…put the chunin in a henge, did she? A henge of himself, with a slight but noticeable deviation to make his subordinates think he was an imposter?"

"You can't put another person in a henge," Fumio stated. "It violates the Subjugation Principle."

You couldn't mold another person's chakra. Period. It didn't matter how strong you are or how weak they were; as long as chakra possessed an identity that was not your own, you couldn't do anything with it.

"But you can put a clone overtop their physical body," he mused. "Of course, that would come with its own challenges."

"Like Kao Kōkan no Jutsu," Yoshiro realized. It was one of the Jonin Twenty—techniques whose mastery was required by anyone seeking a promotion to jonin rank. It was useful for bodyguard and abduction missions.

"Exactly. I bet that, if she spent a couple more days making her jutsu more universally practical, she'd end up with the exact same set of hand seals we both already know."

"But the Kao Kōkan no Jutsu works differently," Yoshiro noted. "It taps into the target's chakra system, unawakened as it normally is on those who are on the receiving end." Which made prolonged use dangerous to civilians. "That's how the technique sustains itself, and how it continues to perfectly conform to the target's body."

For such a jutsu to be convincing, the target's body would have to be perfectly contained within the clone's image at all times. If not, the real body could be seen peeking out, which would no doubt look quite alarming to anyone who bore witness. Possibly, it would even split the chakra shell and cause the clone to fail altogether.

"I'm going to assume that Imai's jutsu skips this crucial step," Yoshiro continued. "Otherwise, the chunin would have understood what was going on immediately. But if the technique doesn't tie itself to the target's chakra system, then how does the chakra shell so perfectly encapsulate the physical body inside of it? Even if she had the absurd external chakra control necessary to change the orientation and position of the shell millisecond to millisecond, she doesn't have the ability to predict the movements the chunin would make, which she would instantly have to conform her chakra construct into. It's ridiculous to even think about."

"You're thinking too narrowly," Fumio chided. "Jutsu and simpler chakra manipulation follow the same basic principles. Once you gain a firm understanding of those principles, you can learn how to incorporate them into jutsu."

He shifted his gaze back on the bickering shinobi.

"Here's what I think happened," he said. "Kasaiki-chan created a variant of the Henge technique that allowed the chakra shell to appear outside of her body. In essence, recreating the Bunshin technique, altered to wear a different skin than her own. However, she created it with a special characteristic. Along every joint of the body, she created a chakra node—think of them as tenketsu without the accompanying organs. The points where the bulk of the chakra funneled into technique emanates. Each of those nodes were crafted to use chakra in a specific way, employing the principles of chakra sticking. The new Bunshin was formed around the chunin, who could feel Kasaiki's chakra enveloping him but didn't know to disrupt the sticking."

The team was checking the scroll, but they didn't know what documents had been placed inside to begin with. It was implied in the terms of missions such as these that the couriers shouldn't look at the documents they were tasked with transporting. Many storage scrolls even included anti-tampering seals, which could either notify the recipient that the matrix was activated, not allow anyone without a physical key to open it in the first place, or in extreme cases, destroy the contents along with everything else in a small to large radius.

"Of course, chakra shells are fragile; that's why they are disrupted if hit. Same with the Tōton and the Bunshin as well. So, when the genin subjected the chunin to that Raiton jutsu, it was disrupted. But that matters little at the end of the day. She already completed her objective. Truthfully, I'm not sure I would be able to produce such an effect without extensive research. On the chakra side of things I wouldn't have much trouble, but this would also require a grasp of anatomy that I, frankly, do not possess."

Yoshiro took a minute to absorb that.

"I'm not sure how much theoretical work would go into a project like this," he said slowly. "But only a couple hours…isn't that really quick?"

"Oh, extremely," Fumio confirmed. "I'm beyond impressed. Sure, she'd probably done a great deal of intellectual legwork already on her own time, but still. This wasn't actually a test that she was supposed to pass. I would have been happy with a failed but well thought out attempt at her coup de grâce, the detached replacement. The fact that she was able to successfully execute two techniques of that caliber…I can't help but wonder if I've been underestimating her this whole time. Which is remarkable, because I've been singing her praises ever since our first lesson. If certain arrangements hadn't already been made, I would have gone to the Tsuchikage himself and asked for her to be placed as my apprentice."

"She wouldn't have liked that anyway," Yoshiro remarked.

"No, she would not have." He clapped his hands. "In any case. If it bears stating out loud, she gets perfect marks on this exam. I'll speak with her, and make sure she gets back promptly. Anything else you need?"

"No, thank you."

The Red Ogre, patiently melding into the shadows behind them, took that as their cue and stepped forward, clapping Yoshiro on the shoulder. A moment later, they were gone.

- - - { ワナビー } - - -

AN: So. Gari's finally made his first play. What else does he have in store for Kasaiki?

Couple things I wanted to address. According to the Naruto fandom wiki (still unclear if its fanon or canon) Jiraya invented the Tōton jutsu (to peep on women in the hot springs). In this universe, he stole it from Iwa. I think it better belongs to Iwa because the overwhelming majority of shinobi with invisibility powers are from there, likely inspired by the second Tsuchikage's techniques. Tōton is a rudimentary version that's barely a half step away from the Henge, but there are better versions known to the elites.

Also, on the topic of rewriting what may or may not be canon. The Subjugation Principle I came up with will be referenced a lot. It's an incredibly important rule in the context of the power system of this fic. I'm sure y'all can point out a bunch of examples of characters in canon violating this principle. I do not care. As far as I'm concerned, either they're not possible in this universe, or they work in a different way than how they've been explained in the source material. Chakra abilities in Naruto don't make sense, and I'm trying to make some order in this chaos.

Like the Henge. Honestly, I'm kinda stumped on coming up with an explanation for how the technique has been shown to be used in select circumstances. Obviously, it can't be an actual physical transformation, that would be way too OP (yes, I'm aware that Naruto's transformations actually change his body physically—I'm saying fuck it, he doesn't actually use the same transformation technique as everyone else, it's a Jinchūriki thing). So I hope the chakra shell thing I've come up with is satisfactory, though I'm fully aware that that will cause its own share of confusion. I'll address the additional restrictions I'm adding to the technique regarding size alteration in text, but it will be a couple chapters so please bear with me.

In other news, I'm still catching flack for the external chakra control thing. I don't like spoiling future plot points at all, but in light of the million comments I've been receiving on the topic, I feel forced to say this. There's a reason, both for why it's affecting Kasaiki, and for why I'm including it as a limitation currently. It's not an arbitrary thing I've come up with just for the heck of it. And while there isn't anything Kasaiki can do about it for now, or even in the next I'm not sure how many chapters, the problem won't last forever. I have an entire arc about overcoming it. But also, a whole lot sooner, the problem is going to feature a lot more prominently than it has so far. And I know that's going to piss off a lot of people, which is why I'm including this in the author's note right now.

All I'm asking for is a little bit of faith and patience. I have an arc planned out that I'm really proud of, but certain things need to happen first. Probably, between this author's note and the specifics I delve into in Chapters forty/forty-one (if things go according to plan), a good chunk of people will be able to guess exactly what the problem is. Which is why I've deleted and added back in this paragraph a million times. Consider me sufficiently taken aback by the…passion of the responses, enough for me to swallow my pride and write this much.

Additionally, not completely unrelated. I think there is some confusion about perspective? I'm not sure about the origin, possibly its bias from reading a bunch of other fics like this one. This story is not a self-insert. It is an OC, one that is written in first person. As such, the perspective is limited to what Kasaiki—the protagonist—understands. What she thinks isn't necessarily always fact, and shouldn't be treated as such. If there are any specific moments in what I've written that contribute to this misunderstanding, please let me know. My PMs are open.

Last thing, not related to the story itself. Clearly, the weekday upload schedule isn't working for me. But things have calmed down at work, so I'm just going to go back to Sunday uploads. Sorry to anyone who was expecting a chapter on Tuesday, but hopefully this longer one makes up for it. I know you bitches love chakra theory, so that's an added treat.

See you next Sunday!