Something was different when I arrived at training the morning after we'd all eaten at Kenji's house. Hiroshi normally didn't arrive until the exact time he'd said to meet. Whether he hid and appeared or used the shunshin to rapidly transport himself I had yet to figure out, but that wasn't the case today. When I arrived over an hour early, Hiroshi was already there waiting. He had a worried frown on his face, and he was missing his sunglasses. In the brief time he'd been my teacher, he'd never gone anywhere without those things.

I flooded my system with chakra and whispered, "Kai." Nothing changed. I wasn't under a genjutsu, and sensei didn't appear to be in a henge.

"Sensei? Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Wait until Kenji and Misaki are here. I would rather explain this once." he said, sounding tense.

I nodded in acceptance. "Should I warm up?"

"Yes."

I busied myself with some light exercise to take my mind off things until my teammates arrived. Misaki was the first to arrive. She looked just as puzzled about Hiroshi's abnormal behavior as I was, but she joined me in my exercises without voicing any concerns.

When Kenji arrived, Hiroshi allowed for a little time for Kenji to warm up before gathering us together in a small circle. A flash of fury passed across his face moments before he started speaking, but he schooled himself almost immediately.

"The three of you will be taking the Chunin Exams in Iwagakure nine months from now." Hiroshi announced like an executioner calling forth the condemned.

Kenji's eyes lit up. "Really, sensei? That's great!"

"No. It's bad." I said, reading the grave expression on Hiroshi's face. I'd expected to have at least two years as a genin learning under him, but that plan had just gone out the window. Now I'd be fighting through the Chunin Exams filled with adult genin willing and able to kill me as a child with no actual combat experience. As if that weren't bad enough, the war ended somewhere around three years ago. That meant the villages would be sending ninja that they hoped would prove to their enemies that they were still strong. Judging by how Hiroshi was acting, this wasn't a voluntary decision on his part. "Did Shikaku-sama arrange this? I can…" I trailed off as Hiroshi shot me a look that said, 'Shut up right now.'

"Konoha has recognized the three of you have great talent and are sending you early as a result, but you are not ready." Hiroshi slowly explained, directing his words mainly at Kenji. "Our training schedule will change. You will be with me for twelve hours every day with one day off per week for you to rest and recover. I will be pushing you all very hard to prepare you."

"Will we be taking missions during this time, sensei?" Misaki asked calmly, having accepted the news easily.

"No. Any missions we take would infringe on what little time I have to prepare you. The most we will do is a single C-rank near the time the Chunin Exams begin, but I do not know if we will have the time." Hiroshi answered her question.

"Will I be able to work with Shikaku-sama on shadow techniques and my Boil release?" I asked, having accepted that I didn't get a say in this. Someone made this decision without consulting us. That meant one of two things in my head. Either Danzo wanted us dead, or Danzo wanted to turn Misaki and I into two more Itachis. There wasn't much in between.

Hiroshi's eyebrows furrowed. "I will have a discussion with Nara-sama to arrange a day every week where he can train you. Misaki, I will arrange the same with your clan."

"What about me?" Kenji said, sounding a little dejected.

Hiroshi turned to him and said, "On those days, you will have private lessons with me. This will allow me to help you close the gap between yourself and your teammates."

Kenji looked around us nervously. "What will you teach me? I can use two chakra strings at a time now, but I can't make them invisible yet, and I don't have the chakra capacity for ninjutsu."

"Sensei, do you know how to make explosive tags?" I asked.

Hiroshi turned to me, a light of understanding dawning in his eyes. "I do."

"Misaki, would you like to explain your idea to Kenji?" I asked, not wanting to step on her toes lest she thought I was taking credit for her suggestion.

Misaki smiled at Kenji and said, "If you learn how to make explosive tags, you could prepare all of your chakra intensive materials early and use your chakra strings to throw kunai with tags on them. You'd be able to support us from the rear while I attacked from the front and Shinto controlled the battlefield from mid-range."

Kenji's face lit up. "That sounds awesome!" He rounded on Hiroshi. "Can you teach me to make explosive tags, sensei!"

I raised my hand. "I would like to learn as well. The more of us that know how to make tags, the more of us can supply Kenji with them." That and, of course, I wanted to be able to make them for myself if the need arose.

"Misaki, would you like to learn as well?" Hiroshi asked. When Misaki nodded, he said, "Alright, little genin. I'll teach you all how to make and use explosive tags this week, then we'll start our intensive training regimen when everyone can create the tags."

He pulled a seal out of his pouch and it popped into a quill, ink and a large helping of paper. "Let's get started!"

X

Our new training regimen was hard. I'd expected as much, but it was one thing to know something intellectually and another to experience it first hand.

In the morning, we ran laps around all of Konoha while Hiroshi threw practice kunai, shuriken and senbon at us. The speed we ran at increased daily. Hiroshi had said we were too slow and needed to increase our speed and reflexes. His training was working, but it was hard.

After we were all exhausted from running, Hiroshi had us fight him as a team, utilizing everything at our disposal. As time wore on, he started calling in other people for us to spar. The masks these individuals wore clued me in to the fact that they were black ops of some kind. Given the suspicious nature and rudeness of the announcement we would be attending the Chunin Exams in Iwa, I guessed that the 'ANBU' we were sparring were actually ROOT, and that Hiroshi had them on loan from Danzo. I didn't know if Hiroshi was a former ROOT agent himself or if Danzo just wanted to help him train us, but I grew far more cautious of Hiroshi after the first 'ANBU' came to train with us.

As time wore on, the number of 'ANBU' we faced increased. They had to be holding back, because there were times when the three of us would fight ten of them at once. We still lost, but we didn't lose immediately, so they had to be holding back.

Hellish as the training was, you couldn't argue with the results it produced. All three of us were far faster and more reactive than we had been at the start. Kenji was still the slowest of us, but his stamina had improved to the point where he could keep up with Misaki and I if we slowed our pace a bit. Kenji had also gotten better with chakra strings and thrown weapons in general. He could pinpoint a moving target while he was moving at top speed, delivering his explosive tag wherever he wanted. During days where he trained alone with Hiroshi, Kenji also began branching out into more esoteric branches of fuinjutsu. He was proficient enough now to use basic suppression seals and barriers in spars, but they were low-level and easily dealt with. As he got better, they'd be a more viable way to fight, but for now, he was focusing on explosive tags and traps.

Misaki had been working with her lightning jutsu. I wasn't sure of the name of the technique, but she had this trick where she could create a ball of electrical energy and throw kunai through it. The lightning stuck to the kunai and increased its speed and killing power.

Most of my improvement came in the form of the fundamentals – speed, taijutsu, reaction time – but I did learn some new tricks from Shikaku on the days I trained with him. He opened up the Nara library, letting me learn every shadow technique we had. I had some ideas for new ones to make, but I didn't have the time to dedicate to research with our rigorous training schedule. In fact, during the nine month period we trained for the exam, I only had one day off that wasn't a mandated rest day. It came one week before we were scheduled to leave, and it wasn't a pleasant break.

X

I inhaled a shaky breath and pushed open the wooden door in front of me. The first thing I noticed was the beeping – a rhythmic, digital sound that came every few seconds. The next thing I noticed were all the tubes and cords. Various machines standing at different heights were set around the head of the bed, tubes and wires stretching from them to the body laying atop the bed itself.

Aika's lips slowly pulled up into a small smile as she saw me come in. The motion seemed to be difficult for her. The tube wrapped around her face to deliver oxygen directly into her nostrils added to the wrinkles on her face where it was cinched just above her cheeks. "Hey, Shinto. Nice of you to come." Her voice sounded weak.

I should have put it together. If I wasn't so focused on training, I could have put it together. I didn't remember a woman named Aika from the anime, and the only relatives Shikamaru had that I remembered were his mother and father. That was enough for me to know that something happened to Aika between my birth and the start of the canon story. Her constant back pain should have been my second clue.

Aika had collapsed earlier in the day. Luckily she'd been with Yoshino, Shikamaru's mother, at the time, so she was quickly rushed to the hospital. The med nin had looked her over and delivered their diagnosis.

Spinal cancer. Aika had spinal cancer. From what the med nin were able to determine, she'd had it for a long time now. It was too widespread for them to do anything about it other than make her comfortable now. Had they caught it early they may have been able to help her, but it was a moot point due to how long it went undiagnosed. By the estimates of the med nin, she would pass sometime in the next month. I'd be in Iwa when she died.

Konoha was in a strange technological bubble. The village was advanced enough in matters of biology to recognize the disease and determine its effects, but nearly every treatment method available to them relied on chakra. They didn't have any form of chemo. I didn't know if it would be of much use to Aika at this stage, but it would have been better than the certainty of no treatment.

Shikaku had been sitting on a chair in the corner when I entered. He stood and walked up to me. "I'll give you two a minute." He stepped outside, softly closing the door behind him.

"Come here, kid." Aika said, lifting up her hand.

I walked to the side of the bed and took her hand. "How… How are you feeling?" I said dumbly. That felt like a really stupid question, but it was all I could say right now. I was still partly in shock at the sudden news, but mostly I was sad. Aika had been good to me. She'd helped me for years, and even when they were still alive, Aika had been around more than my parents were. This…it sucked.

Aika chuckled softly. "About how you'd expect, but that's not such a bad thing. I hear you're off to the Chunin Exams soon."

I swallowed heavily. "Aika-san, we don't need to talk about me."

She shot me an unimpressed look. "Would you rather we talk about cancer? Humor me, Shinto. Tell me how your team is doing."

"We… We're all training hard. We've improved a lot, and Hayashi-sensei says he feels confident we'll be able to make it through." I said, forcing the words past a lump in my throat. I was blinking rapidly, trying to clear the moisture from my vision.

"Mmm, that's good." Aika said, laying back into her bed of pillows. "I'm sorry I won't be there to watch you in the finals."

I shook my head. "You don't need to apologize. I…" I turned away, squeezing my eyes shut tight to fight back the stinging in them.

"It's gonna be alright, Shinto." Aika said warmly, reaching over to pat the top of my hand with her free one. "You're a bright kid, and I know you're gonna do great things. But I need you to make me a promise, okay?"

I turned to look at her and nodded, ignoring the moisture on my cheeks. "Anything, Aika-san."

"Don't let this life consume you. I've seen it happen to too many people I love, and I don't want it to happen to you. Achieve your dreams, then find something else to fight towards. I don't care what it is or where you have to go. Just don't run yourself dry until you drop. Okay?"

I nodded, squeezing her hand tight. "I won't."

She reached up and ruffled my hair. "Good boy. I'm gonna get some sleep now. You should head on back to your team and get ready for the Exams. I know you're going to do great."

I released her hand and took a step back. I was half-way to the door when I was overcome with a sudden urge. I turned around and kissed Aika on the forehead. "Thank you for everything. I love you, obaa-san." I turned around and left the room.

Shikaku was standing outside the door leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

As I moved to walk past him, he said, "She really enjoyed living with you, Shinto. Thank you for making her last years happy."

I couldn't say anything, so I just nodded and hurried past. I needed to be alone for the night.